I can feel the wetness of the wall-stones in my bones. I had not been out of the corner of the cell in hours. I was in pain because my limbs ached, my back screeched in pain and my head was hurting due to the cold. My body was returned to a tight circle, I was enshrouded in arms and knees with open eyes just staring at the wall of the cell . I was not even able to cry. I had lost all the things- tears, dignity, hope.I overheard them at the open bars. The guards. Whispering. Laughing.One of them, with a sneering voice, said “so it had always been true, she was trouble. The beauty and style--all a pose. Guess she flattered him with her sugary eyes to get the man to sleep with her.”“And the way she was found…” another “snickered–Indecently and naked!. A real whore in the robes of Luna.”The laughter between them followed and rebounded off the stone walls and pierced my stomach. My fingers clenched tighter around my arms. I chewed on my lower lip very hard and tasted blood and tried n
Larissa POV**The sun was already high, striking gold rays of light, in my room. I was in front of the full length mirror, straightening up the fabric of the emerald gown that I was supposed to put on during the Moonlight Harmony Ceremony. It was now almost a month since I had been received as a Luna, and, in spite of the shades of the past still remaining, the atmosphere between Xavier and me had become quite gloriously harmonious--even sweet. He was more than my friend.I never saw him smile so much as he did in the last weeks. And he would gaze at me as though all the light his world ever needed had come to me. That was enough to make me feel that all those pains endured by me were worth it.This was a special ceremony tonight. It was a solemn ceremony in which the Alpha and Luna came into the full moon to bless the pack. I had heard it referred to by the old ones as the night when destinies are matched. I was in awe of whether or not I was always destined to be here, but now I fel
Larissa POV Warmth.The first thing I experienced upon waking up was that. My face was lying against something solid but soft. The steady rhythm of a heartbeat against my ear supported me in telling it that I was in Xavier chest. My arm had an exported ownership around me and even in sleep; he held me as an anchor.His smell, wild pine, fresh earth, something darker, trickled into my skin as it was a part of me.I did not want to move away. Not now. Not when he was breathing steadily, his lips closed saving a little, an unusual softness on his normally closed face. I indulged a self indulgent moment and cremated him in silence.Then his hand walked slowly over my naked back. “how long you are going to pretend to be asleep?”, he said in a husky voice.A blush came into my cheeks. “You must have known?”“You had a circle drawn on my chest,” he smirked and still kept his eyes closed.I give a gentle laugh. “You're warm.” “You are warm also, he turned and drew me beside him. And mine.”
Larissa POV The moonlight hard and light, pallid against the stone of the balcony, moved shadows of ghosts behind me. I was sitting in my room alone, in the silence, and the ceremonial dress was yet upon me, like a clot of blood. I was still the same. I had not talked. I had not cried.I merely basically… existed.The things that happened during the binding ceremony were whirling in my head as jagged pieces- the incompleted bond, arrival of Kai, the words of Selene, fury of Xavier.But above it all the gnawing emptiness of not knowing who to trust. Or what I felt even anyhow.There was a light knock.I made no reply.The door opened creaking nevertheless.There was no reason for me to turn because it was him.His fragrance covered me first--pine and storm. Always him. And it is ever still the same.Slowly Xavier took a step, heavily as I had not remembered him. Or it was perhaps because I heard them in a different way now.At first he made no reply. He simply stood behind me with the
The hall was a bomb about to go off--still, but with the promise of eruption in it. Motion was still. Selene held us in a queen of thorns, with curled lips. It was a cool shot, on her part, her red dress--which equalled in ceremonial crimson my own, only that hers was self-chosen. Owned. It was like a burial-cloth to mine. Beside her Alpha Kai was a statue of motionlessness. He had not stirred, but he sank perfume of his presence into the room in the manner of smoke, visited the hearts of all the doers there. A short, shallow breathe burst out of me. My hand was lying in that of Xavier but felt as well as it was tied to a stone. His hand did not tremble, but I caught the vibration through the flesh. Xavier with his growl “Kai,” his voice was husky enough to make the pavement of marble beneath our feet vibrate. “You’re trespassing. This not your pack. This is not where you belong to.” “I was invited, said Kai calmly, Dangerously by someone with greater right than you.” He looked
Larissa’s POVThe air was heavy—so heavy it pressed against my lungs, thick enough to choke on.I stood before the mirror, barely recognizing the reflection staring back at me. The ceremonial dress clung to my body like it had been sewn from my own skin. Deep crimson silk shimmered over my curves, a golden sash knotted tight at my waist, the emblem of the Nightfang Pack gleaming like a wound. My hair was pinned up, too neat, too delicate, with traitorous strands curling around my temples as if mocking me.Behind me, my mother hovered like a ghost.“You look beautiful,” she whispered, her voice scratchy with emotion. “I never imagined it would be like this.”I didn’t turn. Didn’t blink. Just stared into the glass as though I could unmake it all by sheer will.“Neither did I.”A silence settled—uneasy, heavy—until she broke it.“I failed you.”The words stung more than I expected. I almost flinched.“You left me,” I said quietly. The mirror didn’t reflect tears. Only steel. “When I need