Page 46 of Marked By Moonlight
“I can’t trust you, either.”
He shakes his head. “Then you leave me no choice.”
Before I can open my mouth to ask what he’s talking about, I’m moved. My feet are lifted off the ground, and I’m set roughly down a few feet away. Then I hear the quick clanking of metal doors.
“Do not leave this cell,” Ambrose roars, the alpha command washing over me in an unbreakable order.
Ambrose locked me in a cell in his basement and used an alpha command on me to ensure I stayed put, all for trying to save his friend’s life. Ambrose can’t be my mate. We are never going to recover from this.
And yet, even as I think the words, they aren’t true. I know with every part of my being that Ambrose is my mate. Only the two of us can break the curse. But first, I want to break a few of Ambrose’s bones for locking me in this cage. Then I’ll figure out how to fall in love with the bastard.
Chapter 18
Ambrose
Ifling my back door open and grin—the vampires and witches haven’t left yet. I roll my shoulders back, a thrill zipping through me at the impending fight. I need this so I can stop thinking about what I just did.
Without a word of warning, I leap off my deck, shifting mid-jump. The second my paws hit the ground, I’m flying through the air again at Draven.
He squats down and hisses in my direction as he prepares to launch his own attack, ignoring my warning to leave.
As I’m about to land on him, he launches his body up, and we collide in the air.
My claws dig into his back while his teeth scrape against my neck. It’s the only time I’ll let him get this close to my blood.
The impact of the ground forces us to release each other as we land. Back on our respective feet, we circle each other and prepare for our next moves. Draven smirks at me as he licks the single drop of my blood off his lip. He thinks he’s already won. Most shifters fall completely under a vampire’s control as soon as they get a taste of our blood, but I’m not most shifters.
“Tell me the truth about yourmate. She can’t shift, can she?” Draven commands.
I don’t have to answer. I’m not under his control, but I can feel the eyes of the others on me. And I know if I don’t handle this perfectly the rumors are going to spread throughout the communities and they’ll keep attacking until they get her to shift or kill her. I shift back into my human form.
“For the last time, my mate can shift. But if you don’t leave my territory until the next full moon, I’ll make sure you shift into a million little pieces.”
“He fought your mind control, Draven,” Vespera says.
Draven’s face turns whiter than it already is, and now it’s my turn to smirk. I see the third vampire standing next to Emeric, but I know that he doesn’t have control over him either. Still, he’s going to need to see a healer to address the wound the vampires caused.
“If your mate could shift, then why didn’t she? Why didn’t you mark her? Why isn’t the shifter curse already broken?” Vespera asks.
I snap my head in her direction. “Nyx—he fucked with her before he brought her to the offering. But she’s mine now, and she’ll be ready by the next full moon.”
“She better be,” Draven says.
“She will, not that you’ll be alive to witness it.” I attack without another word. My muscles contract and release at the thrill of a fight as I set my wolf free on these bastards.
But of course, they are cowards and flee the second they see that I’m a worthy opponent. The vampires and two of the witches I don’t recognize vanish instantly.
But Serenity lingers behind, her blue eyes locked open as if she’s watching a movie that none of the rest of us can see. I look to Emeric, who shifts into his human form as we wait for Serenity to return to us.
When she finally blinks, I ask, “What did you see?”
Most seer witches don’t like sharing their visions or prophecies. But I hope she will if she thinks it will help me break the curse.
“Tell me,” I snap at her.
She doesn’t jump at my outburst. She calmly turns her head, her long white hair blowing gently in the breeze.
She’s not going to tell me. I’m going to have to attack her, bring her near death, and then…
