Page 55 of Moon Cursed
The female made mefeel… and not just the twinge of pain I managed to inflict upon myself.
She made me feel true grief.
Regret.
And perhaps she was capable of making me feel even more…
I held out my arms to Althea. “If you want me to inspect the scene, I need these removed.”
Althea frowned, but a growl from Kane had her moving forward.
She placed her finger on the chain wrapped around my neck and a jolt of energy had it opening.
She did the same to the chains on my wrists, then she freed the others.
We all stood in a circle around the broken pit, the scene reminiscent of when we stood at the ends of the Moondial to awaken the Goddess.
Except this time the Goddess had been taken from us… and we were going to find her.
SHADOW
My perusal of the scene told me three things.
One: The Moon Pack had horrendous taste in decor.
Two: The Hunter had used magic I’d never seen before.
Three: My mate was alive… but I couldn’t feel her.
Which meant she wasn’t in this realm and the Hunter had friends in high places.
Once I had said as much, Kane had ordered us all into confinement.
A month later, we still hadn’t had so much as a “how do you do?” Kane gave us the rare meal, but he still hadn’t allowed us to bathe or speak to our packs. Instead we had to talk through a wolf named Julian who conveyed our wishes to our pack.
All the while demanding any information we might have to our mate’s whereabouts. My pack was the only one with a library of other realm documentation.
The one day I’d been taken out of this drab room was to briefly talk with Kane. He’d shown me a map and I confirmed it was from the Hell Realms, as well as the red orb my pack had given him.
Two extremely rare items they had traded in exchange for a single cart of Moon Blossoms.
It showed how little my pack cared about me if they intended to keep the Outcast Alpha distracted with some of our most prized possessions.
And with the next High Moon due tonight, I suspected someone was going to make a move one way or another.
I knew Kane was just using us to keep the other wolves from attacking. No doubt he had threatened to kill us all if they so much as showed their teeth.
I had my guesses that there were a few of my pack that was taking full advantage of my predicament. Bjorn or Freas were likely vying for the role of alpha the moment my head left my body.
“You shouldn’t have told him that his taste in decor sucked in front of his entire pack,” Dash lamented.
I grunted in response as I nibbled on a Moon Blossom. “I was just telling him like it was.” There weren’t any chairs in the room, likely thanks to my candor, so I opted for one of the four corners.
Ryker took the adjacent corner and continued to growl at me. “Who cares about the Outcast. We have enough on our plate without further disgracing our Goddess.” He waved to the blooms in my fist. “How do you intend on rescuing her if you can’t even honor her?”
I rolled my eyes and flicked the remains of the petals at him. He caught them and brought them to his chest. “What does honor matter if she dies because we were too weak to find her? Plus, did you not see how many Moon Blossoms there were? Fuck. Don’t be so old-fashioned. She can spare a few.”
Ryker took one of the petals in between his fingers and smoothed it. “Their number doesn’t change their meaning. You might as well be eating her flesh.”
