Page 2 of Lycan Prince's Secret Baby

Resolution seared through me. I knew I was on the east side of the hill. I’d found the Devil’s Club and the Wormweed. With my step surer, I continued my hunt. I seemed to remember that there was a patch of pomenta growing higher and to the east.

I scrambled forward, and then my hands froze. A minty scent filled my nose. The pads of my fingers fell softly over the plant in front of me, and my heart climbed into my throat. This time, it was for joy. After what had felt like an eternity, the herb was right here. Its silky, diamond-shaped leaves and unmistakable spearmint freshness told me I’d found it.

Pomenta.

“Thank you, Igaluk,” I offered up a hushed prayer to our moon goddess. Mary was going to be all right. I knew this herb would fight the infection that her body hadn’t been able to.

With elation coursing through my veins, I removed the sequesters from my pouch, checking three times that I had the base of the stem before carefully cutting the herb. Tucking it and the sequesters into the pouch at my waist, I hurried back down the hill.

I was already running through the preparation of the herb and thinking of the makeshift things I might use to make a DIY poultice when I stole past the shadows of the trees near our quarters. It felt blissful to see the few lights illuminating the shanty-like huts of my people through the trunks of the trees after the complete darkness that had blanketed the hillside.

As I darted between the shabby, run-down wooden huts of the Blood Moon cabins—the slave quarters—a sound suddenly reached my ear.

Gravel beneath hurrying feet.

“Hey, you!”

My blood curdled. Fear climbed up my throat, and I knew I’d been spotted by the Moonlight Pack. Suddenly, two Moonlight soldiers appeared from out of the night. Two burly men, whose features I couldn’t decipher in the shadows, grabbed me.

One man seized me, and the other soldier came up in front of me, glowering as he demanded, “What are you doing outside?”

My heart drummed, ricocheting through me, and I knew I had to distract them from the precious herb at my waist. Maybe this would be okay if they didn’t notice it.

Hastily, I stammered, “I couldn’t sleep. So, I was taking a walk.” Desperate, I gestured behind me, praying they would go there. “But I heard a strange noise back there, so I hurried back.”

The soldier’s stare raked me with distrust. My stomach clenched as his eyes zeroed in on the pouch. In an instant, his big, clumsy hands were rifling through it.

Anger flushed through me, heating my face. Desperation churned in my gut when his hands stilled on the sequesters and the precious leaves.

In a moment, the soldier’s voice dripped with mockery. “You wanted a walk, eh? How about we take one now?”

My pulse spiked as he grasped my other arm. Both soldiers hauled me away from my pack’s quarters. I hurried to keep up with their steps, knowing they’d drag me if I didn’t keep moving.

In a blur, we passed the outer concrete buildings of the Moonlight Pack. Ordinarily, I didn’t go farther than the kitchen building on the fringes of this area. But now, the soldiers marched me past more sturdy, well-kept structures, with trim lawns, hedges, and trees surrounding them. The areas were well-lit, too. While we Blood Moons made do with firelight in our quarters, the Moonlights had electricity, run from generators. The bright light made the grand stone buildings seem even more intimidating. A couple of other Moonlights stood outside one of the buildings. One of the soldiers restraining me called over to them, “Fetch Elder Sam. Tell him we’ve caught a Blood Moon stealing.”

My heart crashed against my chest, and nausea threatened. The Moonlights ran on ahead. The soldiers’ cruel fingers bit farther into my arms, propelling me toward the center of the well-lit compound.

I barely noticed anything until we arrived before the grandest stone building.

I knew this building from whispered rumors: the Moonlights’ Council Chambers.

One of the soldiers wrenched back the double doors, and the other one marshaled me through. The breeze was shut out as the heavy door thudded behind us. A long corridor, gilded with bronzed runes, sprawled before me. Even as panic tore through me, the opulence of this building was a slap in the face—a reminder of the wealth the Moonlights held while we lacked basic medicine.

Sam, one of the elders of the Moonlight pack, sat behind a long table. His black hair, streaked with silver, was disheveled as if he’d just gotten up. Otherwise, the fine tunic, embellished with rune-marks, gave him an air of authority. The shiny table in front of him bore their pack’s symbol, a circle denoting Igaluk as the full moon with two crescent moons on either side of her.

Igaluk was the moon goddess that both packs revered. But the Moonlight Pack viewed themselves as her chosen people, exalted above all others.

Elitist bullshit.

Our pack’s belief had always been that Igaluk’s moon shone down upon all shifters. We believed it was our responsibility to use her light to help us work together. With determination, Itried to hold faith that the goddess would help me find a way to get back to my pack and to Mary.

Mary.

Sam’s forehead was furrowed with disdain, creating more lines as he scowled at me. My gut twisted at the sight of Emily, his daughter, seated beside him. Her hair was tugged back in a tight braid, accentuating her sharp features. Dark lashes framed the malicious glint in her eyes. She was the same age as my friends and I, and she enjoyed making our lives miserable in the kitchens. While “supervising” us, she generally wore jeans and a T-shirt. Tonight, she was dressed in a burgundy dress, and my dislike for her simmered beneath my skin as I took in how polished she looked.

“We found these on her,” the Moonlight patrol soldier announced, his tone grave as he handed over the sequesters and the herbs he had removed from my pouch.

Sam’s expression darkened as if I’d been caught committing a most heinous crime. I wanted to scoff at him. Surely, they knew that if I wanted to do any harm, my wolf had teeth and claws far more dangerous than a gardening tool.

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