Luna's Shadow

001 

Alpha Kenziel shoved the door open, his boots thudding hard against the floor in the silence. There was Rebecca, laying limp on the bed, her breaths so shallow you could barely see her chest move. He ran to her side, gut twisting at the pain etched on his mate's face.

"Rebecca!" Kenziel's voice cracked as tears streamed down his face, rough and raw from the terror gripping him. "What the hell happened to you?" He choked out, barely holding it together.

Rebecca's lips quivered with pain, lost and confusion in her eyes. "P—poison..." she rasped out, her ragged voice was barely above a whisper. "Gorgon's Tears."

Her words came out all muddled and weak, but they hit Kenziel like ice water in his veins. It took him a couple seconds to shake off the shock, his face twisting from fear to straight-up rage in an instant.

"Who the hell did this to you?" he growled with blazing eyes. "I'll track them down and make them regret it… big time!"

Rebecca's fingers moved weakly as her nails dig into the sheets like she was clinging for dear life. "No... I... can't..." she gasped, the words choking out between ragged breaths. Her eyes fluttered back, rolling up as her whole body jerked into these awful, violent seizures.

Kenziel stared in pure horror, frozen for a split second as she thrashed feebly against the bed. "Rebecca!" he yelled as his voice broke with raw panic. "Hang on, love! I'm getting the pack doc—you're gonna pull through this!"

He bolted out the door with his boots pounding down the hall like thunder — but it was already too late.

Just as he hit the corner, a last, gut-wrenching gasp echoed back, then nothing but dead silence. Rebecca went still, her spirit fading into the dark.

•• •• ••

"Rebecca... Rebecca..."

She heard a familiar faint voice as she slowly open her eyes. "—are you awake now, Becca...?" A sharp snap of fingers jolted her out of that hazy, trance-like state.

In an instant, her eyes locked onto the guy standing before her, everything snapping into sharp focus. Her head throbbed like a drum and she had to pry her heavy eyelids open but the shock still hit her face hard.

Reluctantly, though filled with curiosity, she stared raked her surrounding, her brows slightly creased.

"Why am I here?" Her voice cackled, still staring at the man before her. It was her pack's Alpha — no, her mate and the man she was married to. "Is this how the underworld look? Exactly like my pack's abode?"

To the man, everything she was saying made no sense whatsoever. It was his turn to look confused. "What are you saying, Becca?" He asked, lines visible on his forehead. "What underworld are you talking about?"

Realization struck her like lightening, forcing her heavy eyelids opened — wider, sitting up abruptly. "Are you dead too, Alpha Kenziel?" Her voice was filled with horror, as she stretched her hand to touch his face — a glint of pity and sadness in her eyes. "Were you poisoned as well? Did you die too?"

"You're saying strange things, Rebecca. You’re not dead — and I wasn't poison either." Kenziel enunciated, his voice laced with concern. "You’re in our pack’s abode, don't you remember what happened?"

Rebecca's mind spun wildly, her head still throbbing like a bad hangover. It was like she was stuck between two worlds, each one pulling her in opposite directions and she couldn't get her footing.

She shook her head, trying to clear the fog. "No, I don't remember." She said, her voice shaky as hell with her eyes still glued to her mate's face. "I remember... poison... I thought I was dead. And now, I don't understand why I'm lying here — with my head banging seriously."

"I promise you, you're alive." Kenziel said, the concern in his voice growing more evident. "I don't understand what happened but the moment you accepted our mate bond, you slumped down. You've been unconscious for more than three hours."

“Oh! Is that why my head hurts so much?” She thought within herself as she rubbed her throbbing forehead. Then she recalled Kenziel's words. “Wait...! Did he made mention of accepting of mate bond?”

"Mate bond, you say...?" She asked the question, and he gave a quick, sharp nod in response. Rebecca's heart hammered in her chest as she tried to wrap her head around what he'd just said — it clashed hard with the memories burning in her brain, all that betrayal and poison she couldn't shake.

One of her subjects had betrayed her, they had poisoned her favourite drink, lemon juice, with Gorgon's Tears — this must have been the reason why she couldn't detect it smell.

She couldn't tell who was it and how the person must have managed to hide it, carrying out a perfect job; but she remembered the pain she felt in her heart — how her whole body convulsed and reacted strongly to it, and her chest tightening in pains.

She had died from suffocation. Or was that all a dream...?

"But..." She trailed off, her eyes wide with fear. "I remember... I remember being poisoned. I remember..."

"I know, Becca. But it wasn't real." Kenziel whispered, his eyes pleading for her to believe him. ""The only thing that's real here is that you've just woken up," he said, his voice steady but soft.

Rebecca's eyes dropped, her brain scrambling to make sense of it all — his words rang true but damn it. She could feel his hand on hers, that solid warmth seeping in, how the hell could this be some dream? And still, the agony stuck with her, that brutal poison burning through her like fire.

"B-but...the pain." She stammered out the words, her lips trembling like she was still reeling from that gut-wrenching pain. "It felt so real, how can this be?"

She was utterly confused. That moment, memories were starting to flood in bit-by-bit, and each was getting clearer. Are they premonitions? Or is this truly the underworld, maybe Kenziel couldn't recall how he died?

Kenziel’s face fell as he struggled to find the right words. This was getting hard than he thought. The fear in her eyes make it even more uncomfortable for him — as well as pain.

"Becca, I know it's confusing." Kenziel murmured, his voice cracking just a bit under the strain of his own doubts. He was grasping for the right words, anything to ease her fear and cut through the confusion.

But Rebecca was miles away in her head, ripped between the raw memory of dying in agony and the solid truth of him right there beside her. She could practically feel that venom slithering through her veins again, cold and burning all at once.

"But.. I saw it." She insisted, her voice a mere whisper. "I felt it. It was real, Ken. I..."

Right then, the door creak open, cutting her off mid-sentence. It was her mom and sister stepping in and Rebecca froze in shock, rubbing at her eyes to make sure she wasn't hallucinating the whole thing.

“Why are they here? Did they die too? What has happened to everyone?” She questioned within herself, her face etched with fear and worry. “Is this truly a dream, the underworld? Or is the universe trying to play tricks on me...?”