The Lunas Second Chance Mate
(Book 2) Chapter 24

Alyson

I aim to push away from Olivera, my wolf coming forward finally to try and break us from his hold, but he doesn't budge. He keeps me pinned against his body, against his pleasuring noise of approval, kissing me wholly. I squirm slightly, not wanting to enjoy this affectionate moment, no matter how much I dare to sink into his arms more. "No," I pant, breathless and frustrated. "No, no, no..."

"No is right," a new voice says suddenly, somewhere in the dark.

Olivera yanks me into his side, a single arm hooped around my back and pinning me to his body. "Show yourself!"

The darkness is snatched away instantly, pouring in light from all around, showing us a vast room, almost like a dining hall or ballroom for a kingdom palace. Instead it's flooded with rogues, a number of enemies too much to count that I can't even take in the sight of them all. "Looks like no one can keep their hands off the little Luna," one of the rouges taunts.

Olivera looks less that surprised. "Mattox? What is going on here?" The rogue Alpha looks around the room, his hand on my arm squeezing far too tight for comfort. He growls a noise under his breath. "What the hell is this? This is my pack!"

I notice a few familiar faces now, recognizing them from my stent of being Olivera's hostage, his captive, and seeing the same wolves now turned onto their own Alpha. I step back slightly, yanking my arm back from his grasp. He gives me a puzzled look but I can't imagine a pack throwing their own Alpha into the barracks. He had to know this was his pack behind our taking from the healers hut.

Mattox grins, his teeth clenched shut in pride, his chin higher than the sun at noon. "I just thought you needed some help replaceing your way home, Alpha. Seeing as we caught wind you were hanging out with the Alexander clan Alpha and cozying up to his Luna. We just wanted to be sure you were staying focused on the task at hand."

"I don't need you to remind me anything, Beta," Olivera snarls.

Mattox shrugs, staring me down as his eyes drop down the sight of my bare body. "Are you sure? You seemed pretty distracted in that cell with her? I was scared you cared for her enough to kill Cryon but to watch you kill the others, too? For the likes of a Luna? I think we can all say, respectfully, you have been distracted long enough."

"I am well aware of our mission, Mattox, I am not giving up my goal! I am not ignoring the elders and the board and their mistakes that got our kind killed!"

"Her kind is at fault!" Mattox screams, flinging an accusatory finger in my direction. "Her kind has done this to us rogues for long enough and when the problem is solved and the authority falls, we can all go back to our free-roaming lives!"

Olivera lets his head fall, something about the notion making my stomach cramp. Someone knocks into me from behind, forcing me onto my knees, curled up on the ground under the hateful looks of the other rogues. I know I am the hated brand here; I am the outcast in a room full of wolves who have never learned that authority is more about stability, not about command and regulations.

They want to feel safe; I know the feeling well. "Please, let me help," I say, begging in a sense.

A rogue nearby slams a kick into my side and Mattox chuckles lightly. Olivera doesn't turn to face me, only looking to his temporary beta, staring at him while something passes between the two of them. Whatever it is, I don't like it already. "Olivera," I whimper. He flinches slightly.

I move toward him, stopped by another brutal kick to my ribs. I fall again, useless and crying. I reach for the Alpha, praying to the moon goddess herself that we can fix this, that he will trust me, but I can see the moment pass between him and his beta, and then the needle that exchanges between them, the sight making my skin crawl.

Olivera turns toward me, the syringe tightly wound into his fist.

"Please, let me let me help-" I beg. "Olivera, don't-don't do this-"

He kneels before me, his eyes sad and dark in shade. I swallow hard, my heart aching as he pulls the syringe toward me, his other hand locked in around my wrist. I blink back rapid tears. I open my mouth to speak, to ask him to reconsider, but he doesn't give me the chance.

"I do not have time to negotiate anymore, I have to act," he whispers.

The needle replaces my vein instantly, plunging the liquid into my arm and stunting my wolf even more. The affects from the wolfsbane haven't worn off yet and this new dose makes it worse, forcing me onto my side, limp and useless and sobbing. "You said you protect me," I weep.

The rogue Alpha looks discant, as though in another world in his head, untouched by the sympathetic Luna who sent her mate away in hopes of making things right. I shouldn't have helped him at all. I should have let Ryan fight him, kill him, and take me home so I'd be safe and in bed with my mate again.

Instead I lay naked and exhausted at the hands of a pissed off Alpha hungry for war.