Page 71 of Unbreakable Bond
Epilogue
Luna
Something was wrong.The door slamming hard enough to rattle the frame of the small house was the first clue. The sound of scattering footsteps above her was the second. Everyone in the Crescent pack knew to run when their new Alpha was in amood.
Luna DeLuca knew better than anyone but she couldn’t run. He’d made sure of that when he locked her in this damp, musty basement. When he’d chained her with silver. As if her wolf needed to be furtherweakened.
She wassubmissive.
One hard word from her Alpha and her wolf cringed and curled up in a ball in defeat. One order and she bent her neck to obey. Her wolf had long since accepted that they were doomed to this sad, pitiful existence and she’d given up trying to fightit.
Even if Lunahadn’t.
Her mind wasn’t as sharp as it usually was. Being confined, being constrained, it was as good as lodging a dagger in the side of a shifter. It weakened her wolf and that weakened her. She couldn’t even remember the last time he let her out to run. She could barely remember what freedom feltlike.
Joy. Happiness. Independence. They were long lost memories, faded and dingy at the edges. Some days she wasn’t even sure they were memories at all. Some days she thought they weredreams.
This basement was her life now. It had been for weeks, possibly even months. She didn’t know because when he’d dragged her here and chained her she hadn’t been coherent. She’d been drowning in her grief and her pain. In the loss of her family. He’d forced her to watch while he murdered her father. He’d ripped her family from her and with it a part of hersanity.
She hadn’t tried counting the days and nights she’d spent down here. There was no use. Nobody was coming for her. If anyone had cared enough to try and reach her, they’d have done it by now. Either that, or if they had, they’d been stopped. Been put down, murdered and killed just like herfather.
LikeLeo.
She whimpered at the memory of her brother but shook the awful thought away. Her brother wasn’t dead. He wasn’t. If he were, she would have known. Somehow, she would have felt it. Because he wasn’t just her brother he was her twin, her littermate. Leo was alive. He had to be. But he hadn’t come forher.
She’d played through all of the scenarios in her time alone. Leo getting away, running away and starting a new life. But that wasn’t her brother. He loved his sisters. He loved this pack. So, was he caught? Captured? Stuck in some other musty basement, chained and weakened by silver? Or was she simply so far gone that her delusions had kept her from accepting the truth, that her brother had been caught and just as brutally murdered as her father hadbeen.
She didn’t know. Couldn’t be sure. Not about anything. Notanymore.
The lock on the door at the top of the stairs clicked loudly and Luna scuttled back into the dark corner of the room like a frightened mouse. She knew what was coming, or more specifically who. Her tormenter, her captor, the man that had murdered her father and kidnapped her sisters, that had named himself the new Crescent pack Alpha, tread heavy steps as he sauntered down towardsher.
He came into view slowly through the dim light. First those thick hiking boots, then dark denim encasing long powerful legs. She closed her eyes at the sight of the deep crimson that could only be blood staining his hands. By the time she worked up the nerve to reopen them, he was on the ground, standing just in front of her and he looked just as angry as she’d imagined he was when she heard him come thundering into thehouse.
His handsome face, and wasn’t it absolutely revolting that she still thought of him as handsome, was twisted into a scowl. His eyes, those intense green eyes that were rimmed in the dark blue of midnight, were cold and mean. She wished she’d noticed that earlier, instead of just their mesmerizing color. Maybe then she could have stopped all of this. His dark beard and hair were both streaked with blood too, as if he’d been running his hands through it. But the most terrifying part of it all was when hesmiled.
He had the kind of smile the devil himself must havedesigned.
Her wolf whimpered and clawed at Luna’s insides. She didn’t want out. Didn’t want to confront the man that had hurt them and the people they loved. She was too scared, too terrified for that. No, her wolf was clawing to get deeper, to hide. She wanted as far away from this man as possible and Luna didn’t even blameher.
But she refused tocower.
Luna tilted her chin up to meet his cold eyes head on. She refused to show him her fear. He liked it too much. Fed on it. She’d learned that about him early on and she refused to feed this monster. She purposefully held herself still when he grabbed a stool and propped it in front of her, casually climbing atop it as if they were going to share a beer at a bar. She kept her face blank even if she had to knot her fingers together to stop her hands fromshaking.
“Hello, my love.” He smirked, “How are you feeling thisevening?”
Luna narrowed her eyes but didn’t respond. He didn’t actually care how she was feeling. She knew that. If he did, he wouldn’t have kept her chained up on a full moon, bound by silver and unable to turn. If he cared about her at all he wouldn’t have murdered and kidnapped her family, held her here in the basement as some sort of toy to play with so long as she amusedhim.
He was up to something. She knew that much. He had a plan for her. She was nowhere close to giving in to it so she didn’t understand the smile on his face, the one that said he’dwon.
What had he donenow?
“Are you feeling a little pained perhaps?” He tilted his head curiously, “Maybe feel like you’ve been gutted? They say mates can feel that sort of thing but I’ve always wondered if it happens even before a bond is forged. When he dies, do you think you’ll feel thattoo?”
Luna fought a flinch of shock and horror. Her mate? Gutted? Dying? Was that why the pain tonight was so much worse? She’d thought it was the full moon. She bit her lip and refused to give anything away when he smirked as if he already knew theanswer.
This. This was why she was so certain her brother was still alive. Because if he wasn’t, if this homicidal, delusional, narcissistic psychopath had killed Leo he wouldn’t have kept her in the dark about it. He would have been down here bragging. He’d have dragged Leo’s lifeless, headless body down the steps and tossed it at her feet while he laughed. So yes, Leo was stillalive.
And, from the foul mood permeating the air, so was her mate… whoever hewas.
