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“Why? Why would you do that? It was justice! Now… Now I may have killed the first to bear a child in a decade!”
I thrash against the hands holding me, not caring who it is, and cry my own tears when Ruby looks at me and smiles sadly. She tried to give her life to protect me, to save me from a punishment we both know I didn’t deserve. The packs separate from each other as everyone shifts, faces varying from dismay and horror to savage anger.
Ryder steps forward, features a mask of rage, shoving Silver Dawn pack members like he’s waving away flies. He comes face to face with me, glaring over my shoulder. “You will let my Tracker go, Cole, or I will decimate your entire pack for the atrocities committed here today.” His voice is low, only just above a whisper, but the order carries over the wind like a shout.
Cole stands over me, his body vibrating. “He’s a murderer, whether you want to admit to it or not, and now my sister is gravely injured because of his deceit and manipulation!” he screams, and his pack surrounds us ready to rip Ryder and I both to shreds.
“I have to get her back to the house!” Killian screams. “She needs her mother’s healing if she has any chance of surviving what…what I’ve done.”
Cole wavers, his body swaying above me as he looks at his sister in desperation. “I will take him prisoner!” he declares. “And if my sister dies? I’ll take his head myself!”
Ryder lunges, snarling, starting to shift in midair, but Moira collides with his chest and knocks him off kilter. “He’s a killer! He must die! Our pack law is the same as yours, you cannot stand in the way of justice!”
“This is not justice!” Ryder screams as countless Silver Dawn wolves push him back away from Cole and me, away from Ruby.
“Ryder, let them take me!” I plead, my body a mass of agony. “Don't let Ruby die because of me! I go willingly as their prisoner, if only to save my mate!”
His shoulders drop in defeat. Soundlessly, he agrees, his mind touching mine so he can feel the devastation and mourning I already have for my mate who tried so hard to save me. He knows I’ll die with her if she dies, by Cole’s hand or by my own, and he backs away. Slowly, soundlessly, my pack dwindles into the shadows, leaving me to my chosen fate.
I hang my head to my chest, tears streaming down my face as Ruby is carried away from my line of sight. Rope is gathered from inside the cave, the same rope that was used to bind the poor boy, and they tie my arms and legs together. Moira watches with an evil glee in her eyes, snapping at my face with her jaws as wolves take the rope in their mouth and begin to drag me back to the mansion. I thank the moon for the soft wet ground, but even with the slush of melting snow, my body is cut and ripped as I’m dragged at breakneck pace towards my destination.
Moira takes every chance she can to bite me as we run, digging her teeth into any flesh she reaches, and filling my mind with manic laughter. She thinks she’s right, she thinks this is karmic justice, and for letting the Princess get hurt? She has to stop herself from taking my life so I can face the proper justice and the long tormenting death that she knows will be waiting for me. She lets me know all this, dropping her barriers and letting me into her innermost thoughts. There’s no light in her mind, no love, just my death and destruction.
By the time the roof of the mansion comes into view, I’m bleeding from every inch of my body. My eyes are rolled back in my head as I writhe in pain, trying to find any position at all to lay that doesn’t inflict stabbing and burning sensations. Ruby is already in the house, I can hear her mother chanting, and I breathe a sigh of relief.
Cole looms over me with a mask of malice, materializing like a shadow in the night. He grabs me cruelly and throws me over his shoulder. All I can do is scream as I watch my own blood drip down his back. Every step he takes jostles my entire body, his cruel hands dig into my back, and when we finally get to the basement, he throws me bodily against a brick wall and almost knocks me unconscious.
“I’m going to enjoy torturing the truth out of you…” He laughs, his voice rougher than usual, and kicks me hard in the ribs before he chains me to the wall by my outstretched arms. His excited grin fades as he leaves me, taking a lantern on the table with him, plunging me in complete darkness.
All I can feel is the searing pain all over my body, and all I can hear are the footsteps of panicked people on the floors above me as they try to save my woman and child. I rest my chin on my chest, too tired to scream for Ruby, in too much pain to keep my eyes open. I fall asleep even as I fight it, torn into a nightmare about being hunted for a murder I didn’t commit.
I’m hanging, choking, looking at the wall of the cave I made love to Ruby in with dimming vision. There's someone in the darkness, a shadow. Is it a wolf? Is it a man?
My lungs are burning, I can feel my own nails digging into my neck as I try to get the rope off and take a breath. All I can hear is my own gurgling struggle and the man in the shadows laughing maniacally.
“You think you deserve ‘happily ever after’, dog?” the man asks, voice masked in shadow as much as his face. “No one deserves it… Not if I don’t… I’ll take every piece of happiness from both these packs. There will be nothing left, nothing but darkness and misery. Nothing but what I’ve lived in.”
He raises his arm and a whip cracks, peeling my skin from my ribs, wrenching a scream out of me. I look down, my body is not my own. I’m small, small as a child… I’m not Chase anymore at all…
I snap out of the nightmare with a violent jerk as the room is flooded with blinding light. Blinking to clear my vision I see a woman in white kneeling in front of me. Cool hands touch my face, and as my vision clears I think for a moment that I’m looking at Ruby and my heart fills with joy. Buy loose gray hair falls around an aged face and I realize it’s Evelyn, her mother.
“Luna…” I croak, the bite marks in my neck tearing open as I speak and seeping fresh blood.
“Shh…shh…I will not let you suffer like this.” Evelyn’s voice is filled with sorrow, her large eyes brimming with tears.
As she chants in Latin, I feel the searing heat of healing that I feel when Rachel lays her hands over me. My whole body starts to itch and burn all at once, and I open my mouth to scream but her hand slaps over my face and muffles the sound almost completely. I stare at her, horrified, and she gives me a pitying smile.
“I don’t believe you did this, my son,” she whispers, her eyes downcast. “But the evidence…”
“My…son…” I groan against her fingers and she presses her forehead to mine.
“That is who you would have been to me, after the wedding.”
“No…” I cough up blood. “Ruby…my son…”
Evelyn’s eyes light up with understanding and she kisses my forehead. “They live, they’re stronger than any of us knew. Killian has not left her side and I don’t imagine he will anytime soon.” She sighs and stands slowly, her bones creaking as she goes. “I’ll speak to Cole, try and make him see reason, but I cannot promise you your life…”
Most of the agony has left my body as she slowly walks away and leaves me in complete darkness once more. The relief from pain is extreme, but more so the relief of knowing my love and my child are alive and well.
