Bound by Moon & Blood (Book 1)
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Liv slowly woke up as knives pierced her entire body. At least that’s what it felt like. A groan left her mouth as she pushed herself up on her elbows and allowed her vision to adjust to the dark room. A room she didn’t recognize, until she saw her folded clothes on the bed and the mirror. It was the room she had changed in, which means that she was in Caden’s house. Another groan left her mouth as she pushed herself further up into a sitting position. Her gaze snagged on the dress she was still wearing. She closed her eyes as regret took ahold of her body. She hadn’t meant to use her power on Caden. It forced itself out of her and she had been controlled by it and her emotions. She ran a hand over her forehead as she recalled everything that had happened.

The intense emerald green eyes were the first thing that came back to her. Caden’s eyes. She had never seen any Lycanthrope’s eyes change into another color than amber. So, how come that his do?

Is it because he is the son of a Moonblood?

She had never heard of a son born from a Moonblood. Her mother had actually told her that there never has been one before, and yet here he is. Liv looked around the empty room again.

You don’t even know who you are.

The words were branded in her mind. Liv had always known that there was more out there, and that she didn’t know everything, but she had always been sure about who she was. Yet, she couldn’t erase the dead certain look of Caden’s unusual eyes when he spoke those words. How could he know more about her than she did?

She had asked for answers and in return she only got more questions.

Liv swallowed and couched immediately thanks to her dry throat. With a grimace, she got up from the bed and had to keep herself steady unless she wanted to fall on her face. Her muscles strained as she moved and she had to bite her lip to not cry at the pain. The power did a number on her body. It’ll get better, she knew that, but she had to go through it and that was always the hardest part. When she was sure that she wouldn’t lose the strength in her legs, she slowly started to move to the door. A little sigh of relieve left her as she grabbed the doorknob and opened the door.

The hallway was empty and it was eerie quiet. Liv walked out of the room and held the wall as she navigated the house in the dark. There was no sound the whole way and it made goosebumps from over her body. Thanks to the darkness, she almost bumped into a side table she hadn’t noticed. Given that she was a wolf, she should be able to see in the dark. The realization that she barely could right now, made dread fill her being. The only reason why she would have trouble with it is that her wolf was becoming too weak and is starting to dethatch from her human side.

Not allowing her to dwell on it right now, she looked at the side table and saw two frames. She picked one up and saw a male with short dark hair, a female with long light hair and a small boy with also black hair on it. On the other frame depicted a sitting female with a large round belly and the same male who sat on his knees and rested his head on her belly. A lump formed in her throat as she realized who she was looking at and she immediately knew why Caden avoided this house. She gently placed the frames back and took a deep breath before she started moving again. It was so quiet that she was almost sure that she was alone. She would have proven herself right if it hadn’t been for the faint orange glow she saw at the bottom of the stairs. Slowly, she walked down. The glow became more apparent and soon she saw the source. Liv stopped at the bottom and looked at Caden who sat in front of a lit fire. She swallowed again as he looked over his shoulder and met her gaze.

Not being able to take the silence, Liv took a step forward and spoke, “I’m sorry I used my powers on you.” Her voice sounded like gravel. She reached for her throat and dropped her head as she swallowed some more. “I lost control.” She added with a little clearer voice as she looked back up.

“I know.” Caden said, before he looked back at the fire.

Slowly, she walked towards the couch as she looked around her. The whole house looked like it hasn’t been touched or lived in for years and she assumed that’s exactly the case.

“This was your father’s house, wasn’t it?” Caden didn’t react, and yet it was the only reaction she needed to know that she was right. Liv looked at him and saw that his muscles were still taught. He had shared his story with her, the reason why he wanted King dead, and he was still feeling the effects of it.

Liv moved around the couch and sat down next to him.

“King came to my pack when I was at the lake.” She felt him move and knew that he was looking at her, yet she didn’t look at him. She kept her gaze on her hands as she continued, “I didn’t know what was happening until the screams started, I ran back, but before I could even reach the pack, I was captured by Dwight. I tried to fight, but Dwight held on and just chuckled as he dragged me through the pack. I saw the warriors getting ripped apart like they were nothing and the elders decapitated.” She released a shaking breath, before she wiped a tear away and looked at the fire. There was more she saw that day. She could go into heavy detail, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to get through the story if she did.

“Unlike your pack we had no children or woman, which is still a blessing as I don’t want to know what King would have done to them.” She added softly.

Caden didn’t react to her, just like she hadn’t when he had told her his story.

“Everyone I knew and loved from my pack was killed in front of my eyes. I remember everything I saw that day, like it happened yesterday. I can still smell the blood and hear their screams.” Her lip trembled as she dropped her head again. Liv took a deep breath before she continued. “Dwight brought me to the packhouse where a group was gathered outside. The first thing I saw was my crying mother covered in blood as she was held by two wolves I didn’t know. I wanted to fight to get free, but Dwight released me before I could. I ran to my mother, but before I could reach her, James grabbed me. I screamed out for her, but she didn’t react to me. I kept on screaming for her, until I saw what she was looking at.” She closed her eyes as the images filled her mind again. “It was my father, covered in blood with his heart ripped out of his chest.” She took another deep breath and wiped more tears from her cheeks. “I was numb to everything around me as I looked at him. Until King appeared in my vision and lifted my head with his blood-soaked hands. King knew who I was from the moment he saw my eyes. He asked for my name and when I didn’t give it, he ordered one of his wolves to rip off my mother’s arm.” The screams still echoed in her mind. “He told me that I did it to her, because I disobeyed him. If I behaved and obeyed, she wouldn’t get hurt anymore, and I did.” She looked up at the fire again. “After he had made sure that every member of my pack was killed, he took my mother and me and brought us here. He started torturing, using and raping my mother as soon as we got here. I was forced to live with Gerard and Andrew and I wasn’t allowed to see my mother. Gerard and Andrew took me in and treated me kindly whenever King or his goons weren’t around. They had always been the anomaly in this pack, along with Brandon, and they always took care of me. They helped me clean my wounds of the training King forced me to go through and comforted me when I cried my eyes out every night as my mother screamed in terror. Months passed and soon my mother became a shell of the person she used to be, just like your dad.” It was the first time she looked at him. The tenseness in his body had lessened a little bit, but his eyes were that emerald green color once more. She swallowed as she looked back at her hands.

“About a year later, I couldn’t take to stand by the sidelines and do nothing anymore. King came to me to train me again and I refused. He immediately started threatening me. I’ve never been so scared in my life. I had been moments away to pee myself, but something had to change. I told him that I will obey him if he stopped hurting my mother. That was the first time he slapped me himself. He told me that I had no right to demand anything and that he was going to remind me. He was going after my mother again. I followed him, begging to not hurt her. Telling him that I would do anything. He only smiled at me as I begged on my knees while holding his legs.” She had hated herself for that moment more, than she had ever hated herself for anything else. Not because she was begging for her mother to stay unharmed, but because it had been an act of weakness and even though she did it for her mother, she still couldn’t hate the fact that King had made her weak enough for her to beg like that.

“My mother came out of the packhouse when I was still waiting for him to say anything. He kicked me away from him the moment the slight urine smell filled our noses. My mother had gotten pregnant with Dawn.”

“Congratulations, King.” The woman said with as much venom in her words as she could. “You are going to be a father.”

“She hated her entire pregnancy and when Dawn was born, she even hated her own daughter. She hated Dawn so much that my mother tried to kill her, but before she could, King intervened and stopped her. He threw her out of the packhouse, raging on about how she could dare to kill his daughter. I ran out of Gerards and Andrews house when I heard him scream and found my mother on the ground, while King was holding a knife and looked like he was going to murder her. I panicked and ran towards them. I didn’t know what I was doing, I just needed to reach her. But king grabbed me and placed the knife against my throat.”

“You try to kill my daughter? Then I will kill yours.”

“NO!”

More tears rolled down her cheeks as she closed her eyes again as she heard her mother scream.

“And he slashed your throat.” Caden said.

She nodded. “My mother transferred her power to me and with it she gave me her life force, killing herself in the process. King was outraged, he took her body before I could do anything; before I could even comprehend what had happened. He ripped her open, before he threw her to the wolves and ordered her to be ripped apart. I begged him not to do it, but he was beyond listening. I screamed at them to stop. None of them did. Not until there was barely anything left of her. Gerard, Andrew and Brandon helped me to gather whatever remained and bury her.”

“Why bury her and not burn her like the usual way?” She looked at Caden, his emerald green eyes sending shivers down her spine, but they weren’t all bad. She couldn’t deny how beautiful his eyes were.

“My mother had said that she wanted to be buried so she would return to the earth she came from.” She answered. “It was the only wish she had.” Liv answered with a whisper. Caden nodded in understanding. “What happened afterward?”

“King left me alone for the most part after that as Dawn was the one he was focused on. His own Moonblood daughter.” No matter how hard she tried to keep the venom from her voice for Dawn’s sake, she couldn’t. She couldn’t not feel hatred towards King for raping her mother and getting her pregnant. Liv never hated Dawn for it as she isn’t the one responsible for being born. Dawn even hated her own father for it.

“Ilene, Dwight’s daughter, was the one who suddenly started to take care of me as well. She had always been distant and never talked to me and she still didn’t really talk to me when she chose to become a more active part of my life, but she was the one who made sure that most of the wolves left me alone after my mother died and kept tabs on me through Gerard and Andrew. She became a sort of a silent protector up until the moment I ran. King still tried to train me every once in a while, but it would always end up in a beating instead of training.” She rubbed her hands together and looked at the movement. Needing her focus somewhere else for only a while.

“What made you wait to run when your mother died?”

Liv dried her cheeks as she looked at the fire again. “I was twelve when I ran. I was a child who had been beaten and orphaned in a place I didn’t know. I was terrified out of my mind.” She met his gaze once more. “I didn’t run sooner because I didn’t know where I would even go and, even if I did, I couldn’t get away from King on my own.”

“What changed?”

“The situation did.” She answered truthfully. “Days before I ran, King had bled Ilene up to the point where she couldn’t lose one more drop or she would die. I had just turned twelve during that time and in King’s eyes I was mature enough to be used and bled. He was experimenting with humans to create Lycanthropes and he planned to use me for it.” Liv got up from the couch and ran her hands through her hair as she willed the memory of the human screams away. She walked a little towards the fire, before she turned back to Caden and wrapped her arms around waist. “Gerard and Andrew found out about it and that’s when they did everything in their power to help me escape. They gave me some kind of potion that cloaked my scent and the number of Emil and pushed me into the woods. I ran until I reached a gas station where I called Emil. He came and picked me up and I was finally free.”

Caden got up from the couch and walked towards her. Stopping only a couple of inches away from her, he brushed a lock of hair behind her ear. “You weren’t free, just alone. Emil may have helped you, but I know the look in your eyes. The one you always have even though you don’t realize it.” He brushed a thumb under her eye. “The look of someone who is scarred by their past and refuses to let anyone in because of it.” She gulped as she tried very hard to ignore the feeling his touch gave her.

“Emil may have given you a sense of freedom, but you and I both know that you were never free, but always hunted and alone. Alone because there was no one in that human world who truly understood what it’s like to be a wolf; because you never truly had anyone who you could turn to when things got too hard.”

Liv slapped his hand away and walked past him further into the room. “Don’t talk to me about being alone.” She snarled as she turned back to face him. “You have no idea what it’s like, so, don’t pretend that you do.”

“I was seventeen when my mother was killed. My dad had never been the same and barely spoke a word to me. I had no one in the pack I could turn to with my grief. No one understood except him and he shut me out. I was alone. It wasn’t until I met Ben that I finally had someone who understood my pain and helped me. When my dad died, I fell back into that hell hole and I couldn’t even process it like I should as I had a baby brother, I needed to take care off.” He said as he walked closer again. The defensive feeling disappeared as she took in his words.

“There are more versions than one of being alone, Moonblood, and we both went through a different one.”

“My version isn’t done.” She whispered as she wrapped her arms around her waist again. Caden walked closer, placed his thumb and index finger on her chin and lifted her head. “It won’t until you allow yourself to let someone in.” She searched his eyes, not really knowing what to look for. His words woke up the twelve-year-old girl inside of her who was experiencing the human world on her own and was forced to block her wolf all by herself. He was right, she was alone; she has always been. But being alone didn’t mean that she was weak.

Liv swallowed and recollected herself. “I may be alone, but at least it’s my choice.” A crooked smile appeared on his face as he slightly shook his head.

“I can see through the mask you put on just now, Moonblood. It’s not by choice. You don’t trust anyone.” Right on point there. She grabbed his wrist and removed his fingers from her skin. “I trust no one, because there is no one in this world who can be trusted. Everyone has their hidden agenda.”

Caden didn’t react to her. She turned and walked a little further into the room to create some much-needed distance.

“I may be alone, but I’ll gladly have no one than having my trust broken over and over; than having my broken heart being shattered into pieces again and again.” She said as she turned back around and leaned against the dining table.

“The only thing that will await you is a lonely death this way.”

“And yet it’s the one I’ll choose rather than trusting those who cannot be trusted.”

Caden advanced towards her again, he walked around the couch and leaned against the back. “What happened to you to become like this?”

“I just told you.”

“No, you didn’t. You trusted Gerard and Andrew when you ran. You trusted Emil when you called him.” He pointed out. “So, what happened?”

“I was born into a world designed to tear me apart.” Pain laced her words. “I don’t trust anyone because the ones I did trust either betrayed me or were ripped away from me.”

The only sound filling the air was the soft sound coming from the fireplace as they held each other’s gaze and let the words she spoke sink in.

“Liv...”

She immediately shook her head and cut off whatever he was going to say. “There is only so much hurt and pain a person can take, before they decide to never let anyone hurt them again.” She added softly.

“And there is only so much loneliness and agony a person can take, before they realize that they need a shoulder to cry on, to lean on.” Caden added as he walked towards her again. Another tear rolled down her cheek as his words hit their mark. She did need someone. Someone she could trust and who will always be there for her. Liv had begged the gods to give her someone over the years, to not be so alone in the human world she didn’t belong in, but they never answered.

“There is no one I can trust.” Caden lifted his hand and wiped the tear from her cheek.

“There is, you just need to open yourself up.”

“Who? You?” A small smile splayed on his face as he rested his hand against her cheek. “No.” A small ache spread through her chest at his confession that she couldn’t trust him. She didn’t know why, but she had truly hoped that he was someone she could have learned to trust. If only he would be honest with her.

“Andrew was tortured by King.” Caden said as he removed his hand. A cold shiver ran down her spine as she gulped. “After Ilene died and Dawn got affected, he ordered Andrew and Gerard to tell him where you were. They refused to tell him anything and told him that they didn’t know. King didn’t accept it and grabbed Andrew. He tore his clothes from his body and told Gerard to tell him where you were or he would make Andrew the “female” gay of the two.” Another cold shiver ran down her spine. Liv took a step back as the realization of what King meant with that came to her. “He didn’t...”

“Andrew yelled at Gerard not to answer. Gerard listened to his partner and King ripped Andrew’s dick off.” Liv immediately slapped her hand over her mouth. “The two of them kept your location secret for three months. Andrew was tortured every day by King and the wolves who were starting to lose their minds because of the urge to mate.” She slouched against the dining table. He was raped.

“I’m going to kill that monster.” She snarled.

“Brandon couldn’t take it anymore as he saw Gerard slipping further away and heard the screams of Andrew every day and told King where to replace you. Andrew was given back to Gerard and King started to form a plan to get you back.”

Another tear rolled down her cheek as she stared at the fire. She had a feeling that King had somehow forced to them to tell her where she was, but she never imagined that this is what happened. Shame came over her as she dropped her head and ran her hands over her face. She treated them horribly when they had gone through hell to try and keep her safe. There was no blame on Brandon either, if she had been in his shoes, she would’ve done the same thing.

“They didn’t betray you because they wanted to, Moonblood.” She closed her eyes and nodded. “They were ordered to never speak of it to you or they would be forced to watch Brandon get tortured before he’ll killed.”

“By the gods...” She breathed as she looked back up and met Caden’s eyes.

“As I said, there are people who you can trust, and they are three of those people.” Caden said before he placed his hands in his pockets and turned to walk away.

“Thank you.” He looked over his shoulder at her. “For telling me.” She added. He gave her a small nod before he walked up the stairs.