Chapter 114

Elroy POV

My heart felt torn in two as I left Denis’s abandoned camp with my only semi-rested troops. On the one hand, I felt an enormous sense of relief in having let myself feel what I wanted to feel about Sam, of acknowledging him as a friend and brother-in-arms. On the other, I could hardly breathe with my fear for Olivia.

As I strode in my fur to lead thousands of pack mates, showing all the strength and confidence I needed to as Alpha, I forced myself not to run as fast as I could because I did not really know where I needed to go, trusting as best I could in the Goddess to guide us to our Luna. Besides, it would do little good to run so far ahead of the carriages and wagons.

The moon wasn’t up yet, but it had rained recently, and the petrichor from the ground lifted my spirits even as it made my mouth water. I felt completely united with my wolf, both of us intent only on finding our mate and killing our rival.

I thought again of Sam’s surprised, delighted face as I spoke to him like a friend instead of an Alpha, but my thoughts dragged me back to Olivia’s face instead.

Odd, I thought. There was a connection to be made there. I felt so good about speaking my truth to Sam. How much would I feel if I did the same to Olivia?

Why was I holding myself back from her? I trusted her. I loved her. Why had I not committed myself fully to her?

I trembled inside at thoughts of what Denis might be doing to Olivia, and in desperation I thought of Polly. She was accompanying Sam back to the Palace, and I had written her a letter for Iris to take her as an apprentice. She’d be a valuable—

I halted on my paws. What was that strange sound? I looked around, confusing the wolves near me. I shook my head as though flinging water from my fur.

There was nothing to see, but then I heard it again.

Then, in amazement, I located the source of the sound.

Olivia POV

As I stood over a panting, moaning Denis in triumph, I was again thrown back into the memories of the white room with its reek of suffering. I knew it was a memory, not a fantasy, and I knew I had almost died in that room surrounded by the betas who saw me as a specimen in their research.

“Louisa was right,” I said. “I did save her.”

Denis didn’t seem to notice I was talking.

“I shifted when I was only fourteen. We had slipped into the garden one night to play, and Rogue wolves took us. I held on until they separated us, and then my urge to save her overrode everything else. My wolf awoke, and I was filled with the Goddess’s power.

“I killed two of Louisa’s captors, and she was able to escape. I tried to follow her, but they attacked me from all sides, and my power dwindled. They drugged me, and when I awoke I was in an underground lab where they kept other young wolves, some of them only pups, and even human children, for their fucking experiments.

“I heard the others howling, whimpering, pleading to be set free. I heard the alchemists talk about us as though we were nothing, just something to observe as they tormented us. I couldn’t sleep at night for the sounds of the injured and dying, and I dared not sleep during the day because they would do as they wanted with me.”

Denis finally looked up at me, his eyes filled with pain but also, oddly, with hope.

“One day, while I was strapped to that accursed table, one of them turned away to fetch some instrument without tying me down properly. I was able to free myself and killed him. I tasted his blood on my tongue. I confess, nothing had ever been sweeter.

“I ran from the lab and down the corridors to the cages. I opened them all whether they had wolves or humans in them or not, and in one cell I found two wolves.”

For the first time, my narrative fumbled. I could clearly see the face of one; he was Denis. The other was vague, rippling like the face of the moon in a fast-flowing river.

“I had heard them that morning resisting the alchemists and being beaten for their rebellion. I saw they were covered in blood and near death, and I called down the silver balm of the moon to heal them.”

“Yes,” Denis groaned as he got unsteadily to his feet. “You saved me.”

“I saved you both,” I said. “And I got you out of there. But then the guards saw me and came after me. They didn’t seem to notice you. I don’t know why.”

My eyes cleared from those memories, and I was looking at Denis and nothing else. “I was taken yet again, and it was days before I could escape successfully.”

“I tried to return for you,” Denis said. “I couldn’t rescue you by myself, and I could convince no one of what had happened. No one would believe Ravencrest Pack would condone such things, especially not to alphas.”

His last words brought a well of sharp disgust up my throat. “What? It would have been fine if we’d all been—”

Then all his words fully registered.

“It was Ravencrest?” I demanded. “The same pack you work with now?”

Denis shrugged, and I could tell the effects of my earlier attack were wearing off fast. “Politics make strange pack mates.”

“How dare you?” I whispered. “How fucking dare you?”

He seemed taken aback. “I needed resources to—”

“I save you from that hellhole, and in thanks you attack me?! Threaten my life? Threaten the life of my pup?”

He held up his hands between us. “I realize I should never have made such a threat, Luna. But the packs need us.”

“That’s right, I’m a Luna! I’m your Luna, and you can’t understand that when I say no to you I mean it?”

I felt my eyes narrow. “You should be grateful to me for saving your life. You should kiss my paws in the fervor of your gratitude, and instead you lay your hands on me?”

“We’re fated mates,” he said as casually as thought discussing the phase of the moon. “Your own actions made that so when you saved me.” He smiled, and he had the fucking nerve to make it tender.

“Once I have killed Elroy and become the Alpha of Lunaris, you will take your rightful place at my side as Luna, and together we will bring a new era to the packs.”

I just had to stop listening to him. How could someone be so deaf? How could my words mean nothing to him?

I closed my eyes, reaching out with the power of my wolf to someone, anyone who would listen to me, who would take in my words and know their meaning.

And then there was someone there.

Elroy? I asked.

There was no response.

Elroy, please hear me!

And then came a rustling in my mind and then a single astonished, hopeful word: Olivia?