LUNA ASTERBELLE’S POV
The wolf that was supposed to be the dominant one ended up dead in my hands. Right after firing my gun, which he believed I wouldn’t do, all of his blood that came out of his head splashed through my entire face. A sticky sensation of fluid continuously dripped from the temple of my head down to my chin.
My hands literally shook, not due to fear but because of the overflowing excitement that I received from successfully taking the life of that wolf. I didn’t expect that I’d actually be able to shoot; I thought I was only bluffing.
I had that much self-doubt, and yet I did it.
The rest of the wolves inside the basement growled when they saw their leader’s body quickly falling to the ground with both of his hands still raised in the same position. They ganged up on me one at a time, so it wasn’t that difficult for me to keep on shooting them until almost half of them were piled up on the floor.
"M-Miss Asterbelle…" I heard the faint voice of a woman who desperately tried to call me. "S-stop…" she added.
"Lizzy? Is that you, Lizzy?" I asked, unsure whether it was her since she was already dead the last time I saw her.
However, I shouldn’t have thought that way, as I didn’t really verify it myself. I couldn’t go near Lizzy. My eyesight was getting blurred with all of the blood around me. With all of the wolves’ bodies scattered in the same area, I can’t even detect where she was.
"Are you alright? Can you stand up?" I mumbled as I proceeded to annihilate them.
Unlike what I expected, they were still endlessly spawning. As if the basement wasn’t their real hideout.
"No…"
I hissed in frustration. There’s absolutely no other way to end them unless I can get some type of explosive just like the ones that occurred at their academy.
‘Use your own strength, Luna. Don’t depend on any equipment anymore; you can finish them off with your abilities,’ uttered the voices in my head.
I hurriedly moved backwards, locking the door of the basement and then leaning with the back of my head touching the wall. Wondering of a perfect plan to execute, there was only one thing that came to mind: summon the flame from my palms.
I raised my left hand, then focused the center of my attention on my palm. "Please work," I mumbled with a straight face.
However, I got disappointed as soon as I failed. It usually takes seconds for me to get my flame out of my palm, but now that it hasn’t shown itself for more than a minute, I knew that it wouldn’t do so even if I waited for five more minutes.
Running out of options, I chose to resume my fight with only my gun. If ever I run out of ammos, then that would be the end of me.
Would I really die without letting Jerome acknowledge me as his mate? Will he mourn for me once I taste my own defeat here? Will he end up blaming himself for not being right by my side to help me?
Would Jerome even care that he lost me?
‘Blood. Consume blood, and you’ll be unstoppable,’ the voice commanded me.
My chest tightened at the same time that my legs got wobbly because of how much I got thirsty for blood. I didn’t even lose that much blood, so why am I craving it now?
I let my tongue lick my lips as much as it could reach, and it unexpectedly made all of my body aches disappear. Hungry for more power, I knelt on the ground to get one of the wolves’ bodies that I had pulled away from the rest of the dead ones.
They were the werewolves, but I was the one who enjoyed such a feast of blood.
I couldn’t restrain myself any longer. Both of my wolf and vampire genes were acting up; one wanted me to devour pure flesh, and another wanted me to savor their blood. It was suffocating for me to the point that I almost choked myself just from munching on their meat and organs.
They were all lifeless already; I didn’t know that even wolves could be this tasty and juicy.
My clothes were drenched with their blood. If someone were to see me right now, they would probably think that I was a living dead—someone who shouldn’t be breathing and moving around.
"L-Luna?" Just as if my thoughts came true, a man stuttered as he called my name, which terribly made my heart jump a beat. "I-is that you, Luna? Answer me or I’ll shoot you," he added.
My grip tightened on the leg of the wolf that I was eating before I decided to intentionally drop it as I firmly stood up, facing whoever spoke.
"D-Dawn? How’d you get in here? I’m pretty sure that I locked the door…" I couldn’t speak straight as this was the first time that I saw Dawn’s dark aura last longer than what I always witnessed before.
"Set that aside—what happened to you?" he gently asked before he took a look around the basement. "Were you the one who killed them all?"
I shook my head. "They aren’t totally dead yet. They’re still summoning from another place…"
The King walked towards me, then threw the gun he carried to the corner of the room so he could trap me in his embrace. I insisted on pushing him away, but he wouldn’t budge. My whole body was filled with their blood, and I didn’t want him to be stained with it.
Dawn let his fingers roam around my head while tenderly tapping it, which somehow finally made me feel at ease. "It’s all over, Luna. Yuki is already taking care of the other hideout; I’m sure they wouldn’t summon anymore. Don’t you realize that there weren’t any other werewolves coming here?" Dawn said with a soft voice.
He’s trying so hard to be cautious in his tone, but what he said made me anxious.
"Why did you leave Yuki by herself?"
Simply dying wouldn’t be enough of a consequence of letting Yuki face those wolves by herself; Alpha Shin would definitely be furious once he found out about this. Worse, if Yuki were the one in danger instead of me or the King himself.