Chapter 28 28
Lena’s POV
The news came shortly after breakfast from a breathless scout, the urgency of the information knotting my stomach with worry.
"Border skirmish in the eastern lands," Lucien replied, loading his weapons. “Three packs are at play, and it’s moving fast. If I stand aside now, it could be open warfare.”
"How long will you be gone?" I replied, making an effort to sound untroubled.
"Two days, maybe three." He stopped mid-pack, reached out and cupped my face in his hands. “I don’t like leaving you, especially lately.”
I nuzzled into the warmth of his touch. His thumb brushed against my cheekbone as he held me close. I was three months pregnant, beginning to show, my body altering in ways that made us both protective and anxious.
“I will be O.K.,” I said. “The pack house is protected and I won’t be stupid.’
Yet as I said the words, I saw in his old eyes the reluctance. “Marcus is staying with a guard detail. ”Don’t be without them and don’t leave without them, you got that?”
"I understand."
He kissed me hard when he left, as though he could shield me through mouthfuls of his aftertaste. I observed as he left with the bulk of our strongest warriors, their silhouettes fading into the trees.
But by afternoon the restlessness building in me all day was unbearable. The pack house was stuffy and stale with the smells of this morning’s dramatics. I'd told Lucien that I would be careful, and besides, a stroll in the gardens couldn't hurt anyone.
“I’m going to get some air,” I said to Marcus outside our bedroom door.
“I’ll go with you, Luna,” he answered at once.
"That's not necessary. I shall keep within sight of the house.”
Marcus frowned. “The Alpha was particular—”
“The Alpha fusses too much,” I cut him off gently. "I'm not an invalid, Marcus. A walk through my own gardens I can manage myself.”
Reluctantly, he nodded. "Keep by the windows where I can see you. And holler if anything feels weird.”
The gardens were quiet beneath the afternoon sun that was only broken by the sound of birds and the soft rustle of leaves in a breeze. I discovered my most beloved spot on one of the benches next to the rose bushes and sat down basking in the warmth on my face.
But as I sat there, it didn’t feel right. But the air brought with it scents that didn’t belong—of the musky stink of strange wolves and bitter tang of weapons and sharpness of fear-sweat.
Pregnancy had heightened my senses such that I was extremely perceptive of any subtle changes around me. But of course I was simply being paranoid. I was getting infected with Lucien’s paranoia, and it made me jumpy.
And that's when I heard the first twig snap behind me.
I began to twist around, when dark shapes crashed out of the trees before I'd even got to my feet. Silent predators in face-masks crept toward me and circled my bench.
“Don’t scream,” one of them whispered. "Don't fight. It will be easier for all of us if you don’t make a fuss.”
My hand flew to my belly automatically as adrenaline poured through me. "Who are you? What do you want?"
“We’re here to take you home,” another voice answered. "To your real family."
Real family. The tone of the words sent all my blood rushing to freeze in horror as I realized what they would mean. These were not kidnappers at random—they belonged to Godric’s area.
I went to scream for Marcus, but one of the muggers was already moving, a hand flying out toward my mouth to stifle me.
And then something remarkable happened.
Power exploded form somewhere deep within my chest, a force I had never experienced, but one that seemed to be inherently mine. The ground at our feet shook, and the rosebushes near my bench grew explosively suddenly thrust toward us as if a hand were stretching out to grab.
“What the fuck —” one of the attackers wheezed, tripping back as a root as thick as a tree trunk erupted from the ground at our feet.
I remained standing in wide-eyed amazement as the garden around me changed. Flowers burst into bloom with impossible speed and vibrancy, their colors so bright they hurt to look at. The grass beneath my feet became heavy and lush as the trees overhead reached out, seemingly to protect me.
"She's a shifter," another voice whispered, awe and terror mixed in the words. "She has to be. I just busted my broomstick, man, ain't no werewolf can play Ultra like that.”
Shifter. The word smacked me like a punch. It couldn't be true. I'm Godric's little girl, born of a fierce line of werewolves. I wasn't... I couldn't be...
But the more I struggled against it, the more power poured through me, twisting nature itself to do my bidding without me having to think about what I wanted.
“Outstanding,” a dulcet voice called from behind me.
Turning, I saw Ash stepping out of the trees without a mask on anymore. His silver eyes burned with something that might have been hunger as he scanned the altered garden around us.
"I always knew you were different, Lena. However, now this… This is beyond even my wildest dreams.
"Ash?" I could not conceal the taste of betrayal. "You're behind this?"
"I'm trying to help you," he said, taking a step forward even as my power erected the thorny wall. "Do you think the Lycan will still desire you once he uncovers what it is you actually are? "When he finds out you're not pure werewolf blood?"
The inquiry stabbed deeper than any physical weapon could have. Lucien had mated with me thinking I was Godric's daughter, a werewolf princess from the oldest of bloodlines. And what would become of him when he found out that I was something completely different?
"No, you're not," I said, though my voice had lost its conviction. "He loves me. The species doesn't matter."
"Doesn't it?" Ash's smile was cruel. “Have you heard him talk about shifters? The disdain in his voice when he talks about their people? They're beneath him, Lena. Lowly mutts who defile the sanctity of werewolfkind.”
They were slow puncture wounds, each word carefully inserted to lay open insecure patches I’d attempted to pave over. I’d heard the way long-lived things spoke of shifters—as though they were somehow less, tainted because their magic was tied to the wild.
"Even so, I won't go with you," I said through clenched teeth. I belong here, with my mate and my child.”
"His son," Ash corrected, his face hardening. "You're pregnant with another man's seed whilst your one true mate stands before you."
“You aren’t my mate,” I said, harder. "You're my stepbrother. You’re an obsession monger, and what you have is not love but sickness.”
She could see the words struck him as if they were blows, his face contorting with fury and pain.
"Sickness?" Ash's voice dipped to a lethal hush. “I have loved you since childhood. Saved you from Godric's basest instincts. When no one else gave a shit, I was there for you. And you call it sickness?"
“That’s what it is,” I said, standing there even as his own power threatened to push me over. “Because love that is healthy is not about kidnapping and manipulation.”
“And you know about healthy love how?” He stalked closer, the force of his True Alpha power causing the air to shimmer with barely leashed violence. You’ve been handed from one political deal to the next your entire existence. The twins and then the Lycan. “You never made a single decision for yourself.”
"I picked Lucien," I said softly. “When he gave me the choice between going back to Godric or finishing our mating, I chose him. That was my decision."
"A decision made under duress. All the while, being influenced by mate bonds that you didn't know about.” Ash’s eyes burned with insane conviction. "Come with me willingly, Lena. Let me show you what true dedication is. What it means to be adored rather than owned.”
"And if I refuse?"
His smile changed, and he looked cold and resolved all of a sudden, causing my blood to run cold. "Then I'll take you anyway. For your own good."
The attack came without warning. One second we were chatting, the next I was tackled out of nowhere by a force of inhuman speed that seized me by the neck and knocked me out.
My power acted reflexively, a wall of spiky bramble shot up between us. But Ash was a True Alpha, and his power was a force with which I’d never had to reckon. And he shredded through my nature defenses like they were built of tissue paper, his claws out and his eyes flashing a predator warning.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” he continued moving forward, “but I will if I have to.”
I hurled everything I had at him — earthquakes that opened chasms in the ground under his feet, trees that doubled over sideways to slap him, flowers that blanketed him in clouds of blinding pollen. But nothing appeared to deter him.
As his hand finally wrapped around my wrist, I felt the power of a True Alpha surge through him like electricity. It was total, all-encompassing, meant to rule from the will down of every wolf it brushed.
“Cease resisting me.” He demanded, his voice reverberating with harmonics that caused my bones to atrophy. "Submit to your Alpha."
But however wolf I was, I wasn’t all the way wolf. What with the shifter blood in my veins, connected to wild magic that could make me twist nature to my will—it separated me from the worst of his compulsion.
"No!" I growled, and found that for the first time in my career as a drag I had canines to flash back.
Ash’s eyes flared in shock, and for a split second that was all I needed—I broke free of his grasp by ramming my knee into his stomach.
But as I staggered backwards, trying to get some space from him, I knew the truth. My power was strong, but it was crude and unrefined. I was no match for a True Alpha armed with years of fighting experience.
"No more games," Ash said, the corner of his mouth twitching against my back where I'd slapped him. “If you’re not coming on your own, then we do this the hard way.”
He stepped forward again, and this time there was no pity in his gait. He was out of the asking-permission business, at that point.
And as his werewolf strength finally overcame my futile attempt at self-defense, all I could think was whether Lucien would come to rescue me... and if he’d still want to once he knew what I really was.