The Lunas Second Chance Mate
(Book 2) Chapter 15

Alyson

I watch this Alpha work, much like how I've grown to enjoy watching Ryan work at his desk. Olivera is tedious, mulling through paperwork, several records and file cabinet drawers, and I be sure to keep quiet as he goes through his typical day. He looks over at me every now and again, as though wandering in thought before meeting my glare and snapping back into the moment. When he looks away, I feel unsafe. I feel safer with him watching me, protecting me, and even if he had been the one to steal me from my mate and my home, I can't deny that at least he is willing to ignore the heinous suggestions of his pack.

I hold back a sniffling cry, wondering if the healer was the only one interested in that horrid plan to abuse me, use me for their own pleasure, and I twitch a few times recoiling in the ache of the thoughts that flood my mind.

He notices, leaning back in his desk chair while I replace myself curled up in the corner of his vast office, leaning on the side of the bookshelf next to me and trying to stay awake.

"Speak, sweetheart," Olivera says, not willing to elaborate more what he wants me to say.

Swallowing hard, I feel the pit in my stomach grow. "I'm sorry if I seem anxious." I brush my hair aside, my fingers visibly rattling. "I'm just thinking about what he said. About what he would do to me and I just-"

"You're not going to endure that under my watch," Olivera growls. "I would never let a woman be taken advantage of like that, not as a friend or foe."

"I don't want us to be foes," I admit. "I want to go home. We can solve this other ways, you know? Ryan is a really smart, and kind, Alpha and he could help talk to the elders about-"

"There is no room for discussions," Olivera cuts me off. "Only actions."

"What have you accused them of doing, again?"

I think to what he told the healer. He mentioned not being like the board of elders, including using rogues as lab rats and demeaning them and killing them. I know the elders better than to know they wouldn't do what he suggests. They officiated our mating ceremony. I should know them well enough to speak on their behalf.

"What if it wasn't them?" I ask. "What if someone else killed all those rogues?"

He glares at me through his long, wavey, tangled black hair and pouts, obviously fed up with this conversation with me. "I know a lot of things, sweetheart. I know better than take your word for how well the elders treat you, meanwhile they capture rogues like me, like-"

He stops there, unwilling to continue, and looks at the papers on his desk.

Before I can bite my tongue, I add, "Like Beth?"

His head snaps upright so fast I can see his whiplash in real-time. Through his gritted teeth, he asks, "How the hell do you know that name?"

I am petrified now, tripped up on my own stupid outburst to reply.

He slowly rises from his seat, the daunting sight of him now rattling, begging to shift. I close my eyes, holding my head between my knees and hearing his steps cross the room. He grabs for my arm, yanking me upright so hard, so fast, that I release a scream on impulse. "TELL ME!"

I shake my head, sobbing through my heavy, frightened gasps for air.

"You say her name again, and you're dead," he growls into my ear.

He practically throws me across the room, shoving me towards the door of his office. I push out of the room as fast as I can, hurrying away from the room where I hear his office being torn apart, items smashed against impact to the walls, and the horrible screams of a furious, seething Alpha.

I aim to replace his bedroom, lost in this damn packhouse, instead barging into new hallway of sorts, seeing a set of stairs carry upward, almost as though leading to the world above this place. I am curious, a simple, fresh breeze catching my attention from the hallway. I'm running now, my legs limp but pumping faster, pushing me further, until I can't seem to feel my feet hit the steps anymore. I climb the entire set, seeing a loosely held tree stump cover half of the hole above my head, moss and sunshine creping into the space. I'm too short to move the stump and have to jump a few times to even feel it graze my fingertips. I know I'm running thin on time, on this window of opportunity, but feeling it at my fingertips is promising enough to keep me fighting to be free. Something pulls at my hair suddenly, another hand grabbing for the top of my shirt and ripping it right off my chest, using it as leverage to shove me right down the stairs. When I stop tumbling, I'm ill, the world still spinning and my body covered in wounds and newly forming bruises, a cut on my temple catching my attention with a simple sting of pain.

I cough a breath, peering up to see Olivera, but confused when the wolf standing over me isn't the Alpha at all.

It's the healer.

He is stained with blood on his chest, toying with a vial in his palms at looks far too familiar for me not to understand what he has done. He healed himself with my blood. I inch back, my leg mangled out of place, forcing me to scoot on my back instead of jump upright and sprint away from this sadistic maniac.

He stands over me, creeping forward with every lunge I take backwards.

"I've got to say, for a grimy little Luna, your blood is especially useful," he hums.

I stop scooting, not seeing it as helping and more so watching it piss this monster off more than before. His fists unclench when I stop, though the vial still weighs heavy on his fingertips, taunting me.

"Please, don't touch me-"

He swipes a kick up towards my face, landing it perfectly against my jaw.

I lay back, dazed and dizzy. His weight cradles my hips, his fingers ripping into whatever fabric is left covering my breasts, his hands then working to replace the hem of my shorts and break them like a plastic seal, ripping it straight down over my thighs until I am utterly, uselessly, exposed to his beady eyes.

Crying, I close my eyes and retreat into the embrace of my mate, my memories of him and I rather comforting in this extremely unpleasant onslaught of assault. Ryan, please, replace me right now.