Page 52 of Unbelievable Faith
Chapter 23
Luna had feltthe full moon coming on all day. She’d experienced this kind of torture before. Only last month, Maddox had left her locked in that basement, chained with silver and unable to shift. Her wolf had clawed at her, wanting out, wanting to shift and run as was her right by nature on the full moon, but the silver had kept her at bay and kept her weak. Whether Sasha wasn’t as smart as Maddox or whether her own pain, grief and anger had gotten in the way, she’d made a mistake in tying Luna up and leaving her that way allday.
She’d used zip ties. Hard, impractical and plastic they cut into her wrists and were a pain in the ass, making her arms sore where her shoulders were twisted up behind her. But they weren’t silver and they hadn’t weakened her or herwolf.
That had been Sasha’s first mistake but it hadn’t been herlast.
After the phone call with Michael, Luna had been irate. She’d screamed and yelled. She’d tried to half shift and cut the ties on her wrist. All she’d succeeded in doing was getting knocked in the head again so hard that she lostconsciousness.
She wasn’t sure how much time had passed when she came to this time but she’d known the sun was setting and the moon was rising. She’d also known that she was alone in the cabin. She could hear Sasha just outside the door pacing and muttering to herself again but from the other sounds it was clear she was doing more than just that. She was also cleaning the crossbow she’d stolen from the Crescent pack armory, preparing to kill Darius if they sent him out like she’d asked and then, no doubt, everyone else that Lunaloved.
She couldn’t let that happen. She wouldn’t. She was done being a victim. She was no longer the princess of the Crescent pack, a DeLuca in name only, meant to be protected as though she were made of porcelain. She was the motherfucking Queen of the Moirae pack. She was the fated mate of Michael Hudson, Pack Alpha. She was strong and fierce and nobody was going to fuck with her family anymore. Not so long as she had blood running through her heart that loved all of them somuch.
Luna took a deep breath and let it out, trying to calm her wolf who was chomping at the bit to get out and rip apart the female that dared try to keep her from her mate. It was a new feeling and one she didn’t fully understand. In the past, whenever she’d face confrontation her wolf had cowered and hidden due to hersubmissiveness.
Notnow.
Maybe it was simply the trust she’d put into Michael. Maybe it was the faith that he had helped her to cultivate in herself and in her wolf over the past few weeks. Whatever it was, being with him, being mated to him, it made herstronger.
She could feel the power pulsing in her veins. She’d gotten hits of it over the past few weeks but she’d assumed it was some sort of side effect of the bond. She’d thought that she was somehow syphoning from Michael’s great well of Pack Alpha power. That had been known to happen when the bond between two mates was so strong it was like a living electrical line between them. But in all of her history lessons and research, Luna had only heard of syphoning happening once the mates had been together foryears.
Four weeks seemed like a bit of astretch.
More than that though she should only be able to syphon from Michael if he was in her vicinity. She would have needed to feel him, feel his power, in order to pull it out of him and into herself through the bond. Plus, he would have had to knowingly allow it to happen. None of that was possible considering she hadn’t seen her mate in over twenty-four hoursnow.
Still, her wolf didn’t back down. She was snarling and hissing to be let free. She wanted a shot at taking down the female that had hurt them, the same female that had injured them before and watched as her parents were murdered. The female that would continue Maddox’s reign of terror by wiping out her entire family if Luna didn’t stopher.
Finally it seemed her wolf was as fed up as she was and ready to do something to not only save herself but the people sheloved.
Luna had kept her wolf from breaking free all day. She’d told her wolf to wait. She wanted to be sure that when she did launch her offensive that she had a shot in hell of actually winning. Sasha was a born Alpha wolf. She was weak because she was injured. She was hurting because her mate had died. But she was still an Alpha and Luna still wasn’t. One mistake, one misstep and all the training in the world wouldn’t be able to keep her from succumbing to an order if Sasha issued it in the rightvoice.
She needed to be sure that when she broke free her first move was to silence the other female. That was her best hope. Her only hope because hand to hand she knew she could take her but if Sasha tried to use her Alpha powers against Luna, she would bescrewed.
The door slammed and Luna jerked her head around to watch Sasha stomp back into the cabin. The female didn’t even look at her. She was that certain that Luna wasn’t a threat. She would have taken offense in any other situation but right now, she was thankful Sasha was underestimating her. It was heradvantage.
“Shouldn’t we be heading to the river?” She asked when it became clear Sasha was patching the bandages on her side that had bled throughagain.
The female curled her lip, “Mad was always so sure you were too stupid to realize his ultimate plan. Me? I worried you’d figure it out but turns out, he was right. You’re an idiot too dumb to realize what’s actuallyhappening.”
Luna frowned and rethought through everything she knew. Sasha was injured. They were in a cabin in the woods not on Moirae land or on Crescent land from what her wolf could tell. They were near the river but not on it and despite the fact Sasha had demanded Darius meet her there, they weren’t trekking through the forest for her to deliver the ultimatepunishment.
Why?
Sasha snorted, “That’s it, think hard pretty, pretty princess. I’m sure it’ll come toyou.”
Luna’s wolf growled but her head hurt so bad it was hard to think at all. That was what ultimately triggered her realization. Sasha had knocked her unconscious again. She’d been unconscious all afternoon. She had no idea what Sasha had been up to while she’d been lying on the floor in total darkness, unaware of her surroundings let alone the other female’s comings and goings. Luna swallowed hard as her heart sped up and anxiety made her wolfbristle.
“We’re not going to meetDarius.”
“Congratulations, Captain Obvious.” Sasha rolled hereyes.
“What did you do?” She hissed, “What did you do while I was unconscious? Where did you go? What are you waitingon?”
“So, many, questions. If I tell you the answers, it won’t change anything. They’re all still going todie.”
A knot formed in her throat and Luna felt her hands shake, was thankful they were behind her as she forced her voice to remain steady, “You set traps. Not just for Darius. You knew they wouldn’t send him alone. You plan to take them all out and what… make me watch as you kill myfamily?”
Sasha winced a little as she applied pressure to the new bandage and then stood up again, “Something likethat.”
