Page 10 of Luna's Forgotten Vow

It isn't to hurt her feelings, but because it is soon to become reality. Three days ago, as I watched them stitch her up, a planformulated. All that is left is to bring it to fruition, and for that, I need Seraphina's unwitting approval.

Rayne's face crumples and I leave, because it is not my place to wipe her tears anymore.

Rapid chatter teases my ears as I reach the ward and Eric pushes off the wall he had been leaning against. He rubs a hand down his face. "She's panicking. Has been demanding to see you. She thinks you're her husband."

My brows quirk up at that. "Alert Gunnar. We head out in thirty minutes."

There are questions in his eyes, but he doesn't ask them. I informed him at the night of the engagement of my plans to use Seraphina against Ronan to get Tova back, though, it wasn't a sordid plan, yet. It still isn'tsordid, but I need to get her back to the pack first.

Everything, however, changes drastically the moment I step into the ward. The Goddess must really have quite the sense of humor and I imagine that wherever she is, she must be cackling at the turn of events.

Because the moment my eyes meet Seraphina's, I jerk at the force of something familiar snapping into place. I felt it on the night of the engagement when I touched her. Now, it is stronger, like an unbreakable force tugging me forward.

I cuss under my breath as Kaelin yowls excitedly inside me.Mate.

A shoe hits the door beside my head as I wrestle for control and when Fiona and Seraphina sight me, they both stiffen.

The hospital gown hangs awkwardly on Seraphina's small frame, tightening on her wide hips and flowing further down to cover her feet. Her hair, partly shaved off for surgery, sticks up in different places, half covering most of her face. That coupled with her rather pale complexion, she could pass off as a ghost.

I scowl.

She frowns, eyes narrowing skeptically. "That is he? My husband?"

Fiona nods, pulling the other shoe from Seraphina's grasp. "He never left your side."

That only makes her eyes darken with suspicion and she takes me in, inch by fucking inch, oblivious to the turmoil growing inside me or the bond that urges me to take a step forward.Feel her. Smell her. Touch her.

As if hearing my thoughts, she takes a step back and there is something solid and unyielding behind her blazing blue gaze. Like reinforced steel. "This can't be real."

CHAPTER 4

SERAPHINA

Everyone had to be lying.

And even if they weren't...none of these could be true.

Me? Pregnant? Married? I don't even associate with those terms. What happened after I spread Mom's ashes across the rivers yesterday? Didn't I pack up at the house? Did I maybe have an accident on the way to the Red Moon Pack? Or was it the landlord? He had been growing particularly violent since I kept refusing to sleep with him to complete the rent. Last time, he left bruises on my forearm from trying to cage me in at the corridor. And I had rewarded him with a knee to his groin?—

Movement in front of me startles me and I remember the man in front of me—the man the female doctor claimed to be my husband. "Are you trying to kidnap me? I'm not interested in playing house with you, or whatever form of sick joke this is."

The man smiles and something gnaws on my subconscious as I watch his shock of green eyes lighten with humor. But I can't place my finger on it.

He slips his hands into tailored black pants and his embroidered jacket that must have cost five arms and ten feet flutters as he takes a few steps forward. "Maybe I am. Would it be so bad?"

When I place a hand in front of me defensively, ready to punch the man if he so much as takes another step towards me, he laughs a little. "Relax, Miss Everly. If I wanted you abducted, trust me, you would have little say in the matter."

I blink. "Miss Everly? I kept my surname?" I muse out loud. That's the first thing anyone has said that sounds remotely like me.

"No. Fiona must've made an assumption based on the fact that I brought you in and looked after you. We aren't married and neither am I the father of your child. I found you bleeding out by the roadside and saved your life." He pauses and says more to himself than me, "I admit, I wasn't thinking at the time. Had I known I'd be accused of abduction, I might've taken a different approach."

He speaks like a lunatic. I shake my head, dismissing what could only be interpreted as he would have left me there to die. "Where did you find me? How far from the Greyhound are we?" I look around the sterile room. "Have you seen my bag?"

"The Greyhound?" he repeats with incredulity.

"Yes," I mutter absentmindedly. "Alpha Nolan's Pack." If I can trace my steps back... Frustration bites at me. Yesterday...what did I do yesterday? Right. I packed up our belongings in boxes and sold them off. Got swindled by Jeff who claimed little could be salvaged and they were all too old to be repurchased.

Where did I go next? What did I do next?

---