2. Freya

Over the past few weeks I’ve learned an awful lot. None of it good. My mind continues to whirl with a sickening combination of regret mixed with bitterness. Beta Zeka is still tearing through the countryside whilst I cling onto the back trying to remember the last time I ate a meal.

My back-from-the-dead brother Nikolai and Alpha Cillian have combined forces to attack Phillipe and Ruth. The only blessing has been that she is trapped in the north. Who knows what Phillipe has been up to every time he left me to go visit her there. Since I came home with his one-eyed henchman Beta Patrick with the declaration of war ringing loud he has been stuck at the Rising Star castle with me. 

Forced to be with the mate he doesn’t want.

“Why won’t you just reject me?” I screamed at him one evening. The ridiculousness of sitting across a dining table with my so-called mate burned me. Knowing war was ongoing left me bubbling with resentment and unable to hold back my tongue.

“Because I can provide for both of you. You can be Luna of Rising Star. That is the place you want. It is what I want for you too.”

“What about her?”

His iris flashed purple, his jawline tensing at my hostility. Placing his jewel-handled cutlery down, slowly and deliberately he kept his voice eerily flat. “She has her own throne to claim.”

“Whose side will you be seated at though? You can’t split yourself in two!”

“No, But I think in time Freya, you will drop this hysterical attitude to progress. Embrace the future. You may have your own second wolf if you wish?”

“What? Palm me off with another wolf so I have a second mate? You think I want someone to fuck while you’re not around? You think I’m that kind of person!”

Coldly, barely moved by my outrage he had replied. “I don’t think you have a clue what you want.”

I left my meal to storm out of the large, echoing dining hall in a flourish of crimson velvet and gold. Only to weep against the wall, sliding down a pale marble column like the heartbroken, helpless fool I am around him. 

/We shouldn’t row with him. It is not Asgard’s fault/ Livi cooed. /Maybe Ruth will reject him, he can be all ours again one day./ Then she offered a darker thought. /If we are lucky, the war will mean she gets killed anyway. We win./

Those were lonely, confusing weeks as my family warnings and truths were only confirmed by the actions I saw from my mate. I love him so much, that has never changed for a second yet it feels he has been replaced in my sleep. An imposter of the man who once filled an entire room full of lilies for me because I mentioned I loved their scent.

White Forest and Shadowlands against Rising Star. Seeking justice for the murders and devastation my mate and his wolfsbane-wielding assassins have inflicted. The odds should be completely against him.

But Phillipe and his sneaky little witch-bitch have a plan. There is devious reasoning behind his assassin's targets.

Rising Star has been gifting shifters second wolves. Weak, powerless, bitter men who agree to fight for Phillipe and…her. That loyalty gains them a second wolf. 

Beta Patrick proudly proclaimed to me how their first experiment was an elderly Beta. Intruding into my gilded, cream and gold dressing room whilst I sorted through various pointless trinkets he was boastful, proud of his involvement. His dark hair trimmed close to the scalp reminded me of a sneaking weasel.

Now sporting a grey eyepatch, his remaining eye flickered with green, orange and grey. Having gained my attention he proceeded to mock my stupidity. Another lethally loyal stooge to the Hybrid King. A title I saw practised on ashy remains of paper in the large dining room fire. Too good to even call himself Alpha now. King was the title he desired. Which should make me his Queen.

I’m barely even his wife right now. Our vows formed on a bed of lies.

Beta Patrick had boasted of a Shadowlands veteran up in the north, a Beta who could barely walk. Given Alpha Cillian’s stolen wolf spirit he rejuvenated almost overnight, overwhelmed by youthful strength and energy. He betrayed his own pack, pledged himself to Rising Star for the chance to not live in pain. A powerful, dangerous weapon to wield. 

It is why the massacre at our ceremony took even his own pack's finest Warriors. Those golden eyed heroes were the fittest, deadliest fighters. He knew those men wouldn’t stand for betraying the principles of his parents, so he just took their wolves instead.

The more I discovered the more I was consumed by my sorrow. I was humiliated at my own naivete. Planning a gorgeous, flower-filled ceremony for everyone to dance at while my mate planned death and betrayal with his other love. 

It was too much. Over the past couple of weeks I vomited from anguish more times than I could count. I smashed vases, paced the floors, went to the top of the castle turrets and screamed into the wind. Rising Stars and its towering grey walls had become a prison.

Then I saw the amulet. I knew it mattered, Phillipe was never without it. Despite the rain battering the windows and wind howling my mind finally stilled into some kind of sense. Livi whispered, her voice rife with pain /Take some power back. Take this jewel and run. Make him want us back/

Make him chase me? Images flashed of Phillipe on his knees, his white hair wild from not sleeping, eyes red-rimmed. I want him to beg me to look past his failings, to reject the witch and let his blue wolf back to the fore. 

I'm sick of his purple-eyed wolf being part of our life. I want his devotion. I want Ruth gone. 

"Fucking stop that!" Zeke cries, the motorbike veering sharply and I realise my claws are really digging in now. "Do it again and I'll drop you right here!"

"Sorry, sorry," I mumble, my blushing face stinging against the slap of the rain. "How far is it?" I shouted over the roar of the engine.

"Another twelve hours or so!"

"What the hell? What about Cragstone?"

In a barely audible grunt he replied. "That's not where Cillian chose to put you."

"Well I don't want to go anywhere else!"

"Shut the fuck up!" letting out a growl that told me he really would dump me in the middle of nowhere. So I nursed my aching soul, leaning my head into his shoulders and held on. 

The further south we drove the more the fog and rain gave way to bright sunshine and lush greenery. It only meant that tears flew off my cheek as fast as I could make them, vanishing into the dusty road behind us.

There were no road signs, just fleeting visions of the occasional buildings. We didn’t stop at a single miserable village. Zeke refuelled at the side of the road, an extra fuel can in the motorcycle storage instead of something sensible like food or water. 

I felt faint, weak and miserable but I had to keep up the act. I must appear capable. I cannot regret this decision whatsoever. If anyone asks, my wolf isn’t tearing into me with guilt and reprimands for hurting our mate.

Even so when Zeke finally pulled up in a town square and murmured “this is it,” I couldn’t help, “thank the Goddess for that,” escaping my lips. Struggling to swing my numbed leg over the bike seat I almost fell straight over. 

“So where are we then?” I snap, trying to hide my clumsy idiocy.

“Doesn’t matter, you don’t need to know,” Zeke grumbled, leaning against a pillar and stretching one leg out after another. Livi immediately riled, another secret decided for me by another man.

“I want to know where I am! Don’t I have a right to know just that?”

“It’s some tiny village that’s not even on the maps. It’s called Wodness Brook, happy now? All you need to know if you’re staying here.”

I stepped forward and prodded his solid chest with a finger. “I am still a Luna and if I want to know something, I want to be told,” aware my irises would probably be flashing with ruby-tinged irritation.

“You’re not a Luna here,” he growled, flicking my hand away from him. Striding quickly he left the town square and entered a patch of dense woodland. /Not more adventures in the middle of the woods/ Livi groaned.

I followed suit, my joints aching and clicking after being on that bike for so long. He stalked forward, emotionless and cold.

“What’s your problem Zeke?” I snapped, running my hands through my curls as I chased after him. Dried from the rain earlier they had now expanded into an uncontrollably wild chocolate-coloured mess of curls. He stopped by a large oak tree, resting his hand against the stump as if waiting for a clue.

Looking around the forest, then remembering the dusty cobbled square my heart dropped. I am in some basic backwater village in the middle of nowhere. So this was Alpha Cillian’s grand plan? Hide me away like some miserable outcast. 

“I can’t stay around here.”

“Why what’s wrong with it?” he smirked.

“I am a Luna! I don’t belong here! This place is poor, it’s run-down, this isn’t a place for people like me-”

“Well then you can just get the fuck out of here then,” came a thunderous, low voice. I spun round and saw two of the biggest men I have ever seen. 

With a flash of horror, I realised I was looking straight up. Huge and muscular men towered over me. Dwarfing Beta Zeke, even Alpha Cillian and Alpha Phillipe would be small compared to these men. My father, the biggest, most impressive man I knew, was no physical match. Their shoulders were easily twice as wide as me, thick torsos rippling with strength down to legs the size of tree trunks.

They must be part of Phillipe’s hybrids surely? Or Lycan? They cannot be regular shifters. The oldest one, presumably the father has three faded silver scars along the side of his neck. His green eyes stare straight at me, unimpressed. 

His brown curls were peppered with flecks of grey. Both men shared the same perfectly straight nose and furrowed brow, laced with suspicion.

“Who are you?” the older man asked, his voice rougher, more worn than the first voice. His eyes kept flicking to Zeke. /They know each other/ Livi hisses in the back of my mind. I bristle at realising once again I am the last person in a conversation to know what’s going on.

“I think I’d like to know who you are first and where the hell I am,” I answer sharply, folding my arms in an effort to appear unafraid of these savage men.

The younger one stepped forward and I couldn’t disguise a gulp. Whereas the older radiated composure, almost resembling a huge brown bear, this other huge beast was edgy. Grey eyes with short ash brown hair scowled down at me. Equal in size and around my age he oozed frustration and energy. A coiled spring with a frown. 

Built just like his father except his arms and chest had visible veins where his tension pulsed. Both wore thick black dungarees with white shirts underneath, the scent of sawdust hitting me. Staring into his fearsomely stern face I realised just how thick and chunky his shoulder and neck muscles were. This man was lethal, there was no doubt about it.

His voice, the initial deep growl I had heard before rumbled with annoyance only making my arms clench tighter across my chest.

“I don’t think you get to ask the questions right now. Seeing as you’re here begging for our help.”

They’re labourers, they’re not warriors or helpers to Alpha Cillian. Why am I being dumped with nobodies when I carry this precious amulet!

“Why the hell would I want your help?” I snap. “I can go wherever I need to.”

“No you can’t. This family is who Alpha Cillian asked me to place you with,” Zeke announced from behind. Strolling with a smug grin plastered all over his olive-skinned face he gestured with a nod. “Apologies gentlemen but this is Luna Freya, from Rising Star. She needs your help and Shadowlands has to request this service from you. This is Lucien,” towards the older gentleman.

“And this is-”

“Doesn’t matter,” the grey-eyed man shrugged before walking between Beta Zeke and myself. I had to totter backwards in order to avoid being knocked over by his huge swinging arms. He vanished from sight leaving me with Lucien and Zeke.

/He is so rude!/ Livi cried. This rundown dust bowl isn’t going to work. I am not hiding out living on a farm and smelling of cow shit. This isn’t me. Nobody took any notice of the horror on my face, Zeke just continued with his arrangements.

“I’m going to stay until I get word from Alpha Cillian if that is acceptable?”

Lucien, shrugged his huge shoulders and rubbed his hand across the three silvery scars on his neck. “I guess if it’s a direct order from the Alpha there isn’t much we can say about the matter.”

Once again I found myself at the back of a conversation. Beta Zeke and Lucien talked about the war, positions gained and lost, the fear of the hybrid power. They didn’t involve me once. I trailed at the back like a sulking child. 

So much so that by the time we emerged through the dense forest towards a cottage on the riverbank I was completely unable to admire its potential charm.

“She can have the barn space.”

/Barn! It gets worse!/ Livi squeaked and I couldn’t help my eyes widening in disbelief.

“Cillian was very specific. With these assassins and their wolfsbane, she cannot be alone for a second. Literally. Especially when asleep.”

“Come on that’s a bit much-” Lucien replied, his tiredness and irritation matching his asshole son.

“I’ll help cover shifts while I’m here,” Beta Zeke said, his chest puffed out, trying to match the natural dominant force of his huge companion. “Sleep is when the assassins had most success. The Ceremony after all-” shooting a look at me with utter contempt, “that is where they slit the throats of so many men. They had nobody watching over them.”

/Shit/ Livi whispers, matching my own sinking stomach. Of course Phillipe is going to want to hurt me. If he can kill his parents, why would his mate be any different?

Numbly absorbing the reality that I had stupidly written my own death warrant I vaguely heard Lucien reply.  “Okay. Alpha Cillian’s orders. I’ll get Finn told too.”