Page 62 of Forever My Siren Luna (The Hidden Cove #2)

“Another attempt and I will end you,” I hissed in his ear, tightening my grip to hear him choke. “WHERE ARE THEY?!” I demanded.

He was flailing in my chokehold. His nails were digging into my arm, struggling for freedom and to suck in a breath of air. I loosened my hold just enough so he could speak.

“Lord Tenebris,” he choked. “The north.”

I had no clue who this lord was. If he was the one in charge of demons, I can only guess how monstrous of a Lord he might be.

“Are they alive?” I seethed. “Tell me the truth. Are my Beta and friend alive?”

“YES!” he gasped, drool gathering and foaming at the corners of his mouth.

I squeezed tighter, just for the thrill of cutting off his airway and watching him struggle. He didn’t mention any of the other men that accompanied Beretta and Nilo. That must mean that they are all dead. And he not only knew of those events, he had to have had a hand in them.

“That attack. Did you orchestrate that to get my mate to leave with his army for the border?” I asked, putting the pieces together. “Why?!”

“TO GET YOU!” Spit flew from his lips. “We need you.”

“For what?!”

“For his surrender!” My uncle was shaking with violence, still unable to free himself from my grasp.

His hands were now reaching behind his body, trying to claw at me weakly.

Annoyed with his constant struggling and angered by his answer, I quickly picked up a long, narrow branch from the ground and plunged it into the shoulder of the arm that had been reaching back.

His screams were satisfying, but I wanted more answers.

“His surrender?! Our pack will never surrender. Not to the likes of you or the demons of the north. What were you planning on doing with me?!”

“YOU BITCH!” my uncle wailed. “YOU FUCKING BITCH!”

“Answer me!” I pushed my aura out over his, my voice in a command, though I didn’t think it was possible to command an Alpha. His whole demeanor changed. He shrunk in on himself, the fight leaving him and his eyes dilating in fear.

“Lord Tenebris was going to trade your life for his.” My uncle’s body convulsed violently, the command ripping his will to shreds and forcing the truth out of him.

“The Beta and that woman were our first plan, but then we heard tellings of that Alpha pup’s love and sickly devotion for you.

If I don’t bring you to Lord Tenbris, he will kill me and use the Beta and the woman instead.

Then, he would defile my pack, all that I have worked to build throughout the years.

He will take it all from me if I do not bring you to him. ”

All this evil, all this destruction, it is all for the sake of greed. What is he trying to compensate for? Why was his pack never enough for him? Why couldn’t being a feared Alpha in his own right not be enough for him? He had to ruin so many other lives, and for what?

“You’re sick,” I spat out. “There is special hell for people like you, and I look forward to leading you there soon. Get up,” I shoved him away, standing to my feet.

I used my fury and rage to expel my aura like I did before, recognising my father’s magic tinged in its outlines.

“You want to take me to this Lord Tenebris. Fine. Go retrieve the collar you tried to restrict me with and we shall be on our way.”

I watched the same struggle ensue on his face as he fought my words. His dilated pupils and trembling body evidence that even though he wants to, he can’t go against my command. He can not refuse me.

He stumbled the entire hundred feet or so, the thin branch still lodged in his shoulder, to where I had dropped the collar. I watched him drop to his knees and pick it up, then wait for my next command.

A snarl ripped from Val as we stood over him. He cowered at her malice. I bent and yanked the branch from his shoulder, tossing it away. He screamed, calling me every name imaginable, many he reserved for my mom when I was young, but he is now gracing me with.

I snarled, then kicked the collar still gripped in his hands.

“Put it on,” I commanded him, “and do not take it off until I say.”

He growled, the strain again on his face fighting the command, but the collar was around his neck moments later and the growling was cut off.

I crouched down, flicking my fingers to use the magic again, only this time to seal the collar shut.

He watched my magic with confusion but never asked why I had it.

He was probably too scared to now. He was stranded without his beast. He could only hope for my mercy.

He would never get it.

As I was walking him to wait by the felled tree, I saw something glittering on the ground.

I picked it up to find it was my necklace.

It must have fallen off when Val shifted so quickly.

After examining it and seeing it no longer had any magic left, I didn’t put it on.

I was planning to leave it, along with a message for the warriors when they arrived.

My uncle was forced to watch as I used the limbs of his warriors to write my message on a cropping of large rocks and boulders.

‘FOUND NILO + BERETTA. SAVING THEM. DO NOT FOLLOW. GO TO BORDER. NO SURRENDER’

I was running out of surface space, so I dragged a few torsos over to use. Using severed fingers, I write:

‘TRUST ME. I WILL BE OKAY. SAVE OUR PACK AND NO SURRENDER NO MATTER WHAT’

On another torso I write:

‘TELL LACHLAN I LOVE HIM’

It may seem silly, but I wanted to leave something behind for him. Some message to let him know that even though I am leaving him again of my own free will, this time I will be back, because he holds my heart.

I wiped my hands on the ground, but accidentally cut my palm on a jagged and sharp broken stick hidden in the grass.

I hissed, watching my blood drip on the torso and the ground around me until Val healed me and it closed up.

I got a bit of blood on the necklace, but it will be okay.

At least they will know that it was really me who wrote those messages.

I kissed the necklace and then set it beside my writing. Cherum will make sure he gets it. I know he will. It has protected me at the worst of times. I pray that it protects him now, or at least offers him a bit of comfort, since I am now choosing to go into enemy territory to save our friends.

Just then, Percy’s voice resounded through my head. The warriors must be close. It was a pack mind link, but I was now fully their Luna and could listen in.

“ Percy,” I cut him off as he was growling something about making sure a scout was dead. I guess that scout didn’t escape his death either.

Percy and everyone else’s voices stopped at the sound of mine, and then Percy yelled, “ Luna? Are you hurt? What…what happened? Where are-”

“ I’m fine. I dealt with the…the issue.”

“You saved yourself?”

I laughed at Percy’s skeptical question. It’s a bit misogynistic of him, but I let it slide.

“ I saved myself." I confirmed , "But listen,” I breathed, bracing myself for their reaction after what I was about to say. “ I am now going to save the others. I left something here for you to find. Make sure you pass along the message.”

As I suspected they would, Percy and the other warriors started to demand I explain myself and not leave until they got there.

They were desperate and frightened by what I could mean, so before they could cause me to change my mind, I closed the mind link, blocking them out, then strode over to my uncle, who had been watching me with a look of disgust.

“Filthy disgusting bitch,” he spat.

“Yeah, well, this bitch just killed all your men and kicked your pathetic ass, so I would watch my mouth if I was you.” To emphasize my statement, Val snarled through me. “Get up and let’s go, before I decide to find this Lord Tenebris by myself.”

~

Wayne

This fucking whore. I should have killed this stupid fucking bitch while I had the chance. She's as defiant as her mother once was. I should have forced her to watch those two boys die before just killing her.

She’s sick. Just as sick as that miserable Alpha I forced her on. It seems she has learned a few tricks from him during the time of their marriage.

This bitch. She thinks she is marching me to my demise, all to save those two pathetic saps. That Beta and that woman are both probably dead by now. If they are not, they are probably wishing they were. I saw the vile way the demons were eying the woman, and I know how they treat their prisoners.

Yes, Elelira’s little friends are as good as dead, and so is she once we cross into Lord Tenebris’s territory. She may think she has bested me, but she could never best him. Not on her own. No one can.

When I was young, my father told me that an alliance with the demons and the leader of the north would never be possible.

When he threatened to take the pack from me and give it to my sister after I made contact with Lord Tenebris behind his back, Lord Tenebris gave me the strength I needed to overthrow my father and trap my sister to be a slave to my will for as long as one of us lived.

Lord Tenebris did not fail to save me from ruin then, and he won’t fail me now.

If she thinks she is using me, that she has bested me, I am going to let the bitch continue to think that. She is using me to save two corpses. No one crosses the dark lord and survives.

~

Beretta

This is stupid. It's like we are all just waiting around in the lobby of some demon inn to die after working so hard to escape. We didn't work so hard to get here for nothing. I'm not turning back now.

What the hell is going on?

“Who is that girl?” Irrita stared up at Nilo’s Lycan. He just shakes his head, not knowing.