Page 82 of Marked By Moonlight
My mate.
Ambrose.
“Stop!” I yell as everything floods back into my head. The uncontrollable desire I have to fuck every man in sight sputters into nothing. The desire instantly cools in my belly, and I realize in horror what I almost willingly did. I wasn’t even fighting it. I was letting it control me.
I don’t expect the man to stop. They are all under the same spell I was. They won’t stop. They can’t stop.
But suddenly, I’m being lowered to the ground until my boots hit the earth below me. The hands leave my body, and a path is made between the men and Ambrose.
Suddenly, I’m very aware that I’m naked. I wrap my arms around my body. My cheeks pinken in embarrassment, but I don’t let myself tear my eyes from Ambrose. I’m terrified he’ll reject me after what he just witnessed.
I open my mouth to try to explain, but he moves to me in an instant and takes my hand in his, brushing a soft kiss against my palm.
“Welcome to the Moonlight Pack.”
Chapter 35
Lumi
“What?” I ask, staring at Ambrose in disbelief. My head is still clouded and fuzzy. My heart is still beating so fast and loudly that I’m sure it’s the only thing anyone can hear.
Ambrose smiles at me softly, as if he knows the hell I just went through and he’s sorry.
“That was the Moonlight pack initiation,” he says.
I blink, trying to process the words leaving his mouth. I must still be dreaming. I must still be held captive while one of the pack members fucks me, and this is how I’m coping with it—inventing this fantasy.
Ambrose’s smile turns to concern as he watches my reaction. “You passed. It was just a test to see if you are worthy of being part of the Moonlight pack.”
“It was all a test? Initiation?” I say the words back like they are a foreign language.
He tucks me under his shoulder, pulling me tight to his body as the rest of the pack hoops and hollers in celebration. But my brain still can’t process what happened or why.
The male pack members that seemed under a spell before are smiling at me like I’m their sister, not like they just tried to fuck me. None of them are clothed, though, and some have shifted into their wolf forms as they jog and dance around us, howling into the night sky.
“It was all just an act? They were never spelled?” I ask.
“No, Isolde spelled everyone. The initiation has to be real,” Ambrose replies.
“So if I hadn’t broken free of her spell…” I can’t say the next words out loud, so I use our bond instead.“They would have all taken turns fucking me. And then what?”
“Yes, and you wouldn’t be able to join the Moonlight pack. At least, not until you proved yourself worthy in a different way.”
I chew on my bottom lip, realizing how close I was to that happening.“And you wouldn’t have accepted me as your mate…”
Ambrose halts, lifting my chin to stare into my watering eyes.“You will always be my mate. Nothing you do will ever change that. But I had complete faith in you that you would be able to break through Isolde’s spell.”
“How? How did you know I could? What if I wasn’t strong enough?”
He smiles sweetly, his glowing eyes softening once again.“Because you’re my queen. My mate. You’re mine in every way. My equal. I knew you’d be strong enough. I knew you’d break free of her spell. I was never worried.”
I shiver and wrap my arms around myself, still very aware of how naked I am.
“Emeric,” Ambrose shouts.
I look over my shoulder to see Emeric jogging up, his large, bright smile on his face.“Here you go.” He hands Ambrose my clothes. Ambrose takes my leather jacket from him and wraps itaround my shoulders, which I expect is supposed to help with my chill, but it does little to cover my nakedness.
Emeric looks at me but avoids looking anywhere but my eyes. “I’m sorry. I really—”
