Page 9 of Bitten By Bloodmoon
I don’t know where we are, but based on the oversized sweatshirt and sweatpants I’m in, I’m guessing north.
I swallow at that thought.
But I can shift now. I just need to find my way out of this house, then I can shift and run until I find Ambrose and the rest of the Moonlight pack. Killing Nyx will have to wait.
I open the door, surprised to find no guards posted outside. But I can hear soft voices echoing through the hallways—the house is far from empty. There is no way that their wolf or vampire hearing could have missed me opening the door.
I have to try. I can’t hide in this room, crying for a month until Nyx drags me to the next marking ceremony under the full moon and uses his compulsion to force me into mating with him.
Energy surges through my body, roaring with a single determination: I kill Nyx tonight.
I like the idea even though I know it’s not possible.
I don’t have a plan—not really. Still, I keep walking down the maze of hallways in this house that feels more like a castle. I walk toward the voices instead of running away from them. Running never gets me anywhere. I’m not going to make that mistake again. I’m going to face them head-on.
I stop as the voices grow closer and listen.
“What are you doing with the girl, Nyx?”
“Lumi’s the key to breaking the curse.”
“I know that—but she’s Ambrose’s mate. Holding her hostage doesn’t seem like the best way to break the curse.”
“If I had let Ambrose mark her, she’d be dead, and the curse would never be broken,” Nyx answers before pausing. “Are you going to join us or just hide behind the wall all night, Lumi?”
My heart jumps in my throat, but I step around the corner of the wall. I inhale sharply at the sight of five pairs of eyes in what appears to be the living room, all with a different drink in their hand and all staring at me like they want to kill me.
Vampires—all of them.
Shift.
I’m not powerless, not this time. I can shift.
I let the feelings flood my body as I tell my wolf to come out. But nothing happens. No claws form. No canines lengthen. No fur or thick muscles appear.
Nyx cocks his head at me as if he knows I’m trying to shift but can’t.
Did he fuck with me? Compel me to not be able to shift? What’s going on?
But if I can’t shift, then I’m defenseless against them. Any one of them could kill me with a single bite, and there is nothing I could do to defend myself.
Fear overtakes me in a way I haven’t felt before. It wraps around me, suffocating me under its merciless weight.
I’m not afraid I won’t survive the night—I will. Nyx has made it clear that he doesn’t want me dead—at least not yet.
No, I’m petrified that I’m irrevocably broken, and I won’t ever be able to break the curse. Even if I escape Nyx and return to Ambrose, the same situation will repeat itself.
I won’t be able to shift when it matters most during the marking ceremony. Ambrose won’t be able to mark me as his mate. He’ll never be able to love me without risking killing me.
We’ll never be able to break the curse.
Nyx opens his mouth to speak to me, but I don’t hear him. Nothing matters if I can’t shift when I need to, nothing.
“Lumi? Are you okay? What’s wrong? Your fear is overwhelming me. What’s wrong?”the voice is clear and sharp in my head, but it’s not the man in front of me speaking into my head. It’s Ambrose.
I blink, once, twice, unsure if I imagined his voice or if it’s really him.
“Lumi? Talk to me,”Ambrose says again.
