Chapter 19 I found my Luna
Aurora:
The first thing I felt was the bite of the cold. It wasn't the polished marble of the palace or the soft silk of the King’s bed. It was the rough, splintered wood of a floor in a broken-down hut. The air was thick with the smell of damp earth and rotting leaves.
My head throbbed with a dull, heavy pain. I realized I wasn't in a carriage anymore. I was in the heart of a forest so dense that the trees seemed to swallow the morning light before it could reach the ground. I looked down at myself. I was covered only by a scratchy, thin wool cloth that made my skin itch. My wrists and ankles were bound tightly with thick hemp rope that dug into my flesh every time I moved.
"What did I do to you?" I asked. My voice cracked, but I forced it to stay steady. I looked around the dim, stinking space, my eyes landing on a figure in the corner. "Did my father send you to kill me? Is this his final price for whatever he owes?"
The door creaked open, complaining on its rusted hinges, and a man stepped into the small circle of light. My breath hitched in my throat. It was him. It was the stranger I had seen through the spyglass at the palace gates. He was the man whose very presence had triggered something inside me—the man who made my fangs snap out and my eyes turn blue for the first time in twenty-four years.
He looked at me with a mixture of pure hatred and a dark, twisted fascination. To him, I wasn't a human being with a soul. I was just a prize he had snatched away from the King.
"Is she the one you wanted?" the masked guard at the door asked, his voice muffled.
The man in the light nodded slowly. His eyes raked over my body, lingering on the curves the wool cloth failed to hide. He moved closer, and the air around him felt heavy, like a storm was about to break. He smelled of bitter revenge. He looked like a man possessed by a single, burning goal: to destroy Deacon.
He reached out, his hand hovering near my neck. As he moved, I saw a raw, red mark on his own chest—a jagged wound that looked like it refused to heal. It was a mark left by the King.
"Do you think the King will spare you when he finds out you took me?" I challenged. I narrowed my eyes, trying to hide the tremble in my hands. "He is the Hollow King. If you don't let me go, he will turn this entire forest into a graveyard just to find your head."
The man chuckled, a dry, hollow sound. "Shhhhh, don't say a word," he purred. He leaned down until his face was inches from mine. I could smell old blood and pine needles on his breath. "You are not allowed to speak, remember? You’re just a toy. A pretty little thing my rival thinks he owns. He killed my parents and stole my birthright. It’s only fair that I take his most precious possession in return."
He stood up straight and looked at the masked guard. "Lock her in. I have a trap to set. If the King wants his Luna, he’ll have to walk through hell to get her. And I plan to make sure he stays there."
He stepped out into the shadows of the trees, leaving me alone with the guard. As the door slammed shut, the fear in my gut changed. It didn't go away, but it sharpened into something lethal.
I wasn't just a victim. I was a girl who had survived the Moonstone pack’s worst pits. I had spent years as a stripper, learning how to handle men who thought they were stronger than me. I knew how to use the only weapons I had: my body and their own disgusting desire.
I looked up at the guard, my eyes softening. "Untie me," I whispered. I opened my legs slightly I let my voice drop into a low, seductive silk that made the man freeze in his tracks.
I leaned back against the rotting wood wall, moving just enough so the wool cloth slipped down, exposing the pale line of my shoulder. "Please... these ropes... they hurt so much. They're cutting into me."
The guard hesitated. I could hear his breath hitching behind his mask. He had probably never been this close to a woman like me—someone the King himself had claimed.
"I shouldn't," he muttered, his voice shaking.
"I’m not going anywhere," I promised, looking at him through my lashes. "Just loosen them. Don't you want to see what's underneath this itchy wool?, don't you want to know how the Luna pussy feel like, come on untie me and I will fuck you good"
His resolve broke. His hands were trembling as he reached for the knots, driven by a primal curiosity he couldn't control. As the ropes fell away and hit the floor, I didn't run for the door. I stood up slowly, letting the cloth drape loosely around my curves, barely hanging on.
I began to move. It was a slow, rhythmic dance I had performed a thousand times for the drunken, hungry wolves of my father’s pack. I stepped toward him, my movements deliberate. I climbed his body, my skin brushing against his rough clothes. I could feel the heat of his erection pressing against my thigh. His hands reached out to touch me, his mind completely lost in the sight of the girl with the sunset hair.
I leaned in, my lips just inches from his. I pretended to offer him a kiss, a sign of surrender. His eyes fluttered shut, his guard completely dropped. He thought he had won.
Clack.
I struck him at the base of his skull with the precision of an assassin. I didn't have a weapon, but I knew exactly where to hit to shut a man’s lights out. He crumpled to the floor like a sack of stones, unconscious before he even hit the wood.
I didn't feel a lick of shame as I looked down at his body. Shame was a luxury I had lost a long time ago. I quickly stripped the heavy black coat from his body and wrapped it around myself, buttoning it up to cover my nakedness. It was big on me, but it was warm.
I moved toward the door, my heart hammering against my ribs. But before my hand could touch the latch, the forest outside erupted in chaos.
I heard the loud snapping of heavy branches and the thud of boots that sounded like a heartbeat against the earth. Then, a voice echoed through the walls—a voice that turned the very marrow of my bones to ice.
"Do you think you can take my Luna and still hide in my territory? Did you really think I wouldn't find her?"
It was Deacon. The Hollow King was here.
I pressed my back against the wall, trapped. I was caught between the vengeful man who had stolen me and the King who looked ready to tear the
world apart to get me back.