Page 14 of Howling Love (Hunter’s Moon Ritual #1)

Gracie

The bleak dawn light had me squinting in pain as I was pulled from the armored SUV and thrown onto the cold, hard ground of the compound.

When Alpha Ivan had dragged me away from Basir and Thornar, the last thing I’d expected was a pinprick of pain that made the world go black.

They’d drugged me, and when I woke up in a vehicle—bound with rope around my torso, my arms pinned against me, and chains on my ankles—it was clear that the facade of civility was gone.

Even Velina gave me a long glance filled with what I could almost construe as worry.

Apparently, she’d been the one to keep my unconscious form company throughout the plane ride home. I was thankful for that, especially considering how Marek had stared at me once I’d come to.

“Follow.” Alpha Ivan’s command echoed across the cold, empty yard of the compound, and I managed to roll to my knees before being yanked up by the back of my neck.

One of his men pushed me forward, forcing me to follow him toward one of the buildings closest to the gates—a fortress made of rusted metal.

Every step I took was painful— past painful.

My body throbbed and my head pulsed with exhaustion, my vision turning black on the edges.

My fingers were bruised, and my neck and jaw ached from the pressure Alpha Ivan had administered—almost as hard as his boot planted in the center of my chest. My blood-soaked dress stuck to me, and in the icy air sprinkled with rain, trembles wrecked my dirt-covered frame.

I couldn’t help but see the irony that I was still wearing the very dress that I’d been so self-conscious in before because of my scars.

I had no doubt that this recent beating would leave new marks on my body, permanent ones.

I only felt moderate relief when I walked into the four walls of the building that contained our holding cells. It was where new “pack” members were brought, and I didn’t even bother fighting the soldier that guided me to my new metal cage. I wanted a wall between Alpha Ivan and myself.

I stumbled to the floor as the soldier shoved me forward, and the concrete rose up to bruise my body on landing. The sound of the doors slamming shut had me turning on my knees to face Ivan, who stood in a shadow outside of my prison, staring at me with pure contempt.

Ice coated his venomous tone as he spoke in a clipped, hard voice. “You failed. You embarrassed me. We went for one singular purpose, and you served no purpose.”

My wolf let out a low rumble in my chest, but I didn’t rise to my own defense. Alpha Ivan may have been embarrassed, but I knew the truth. There had been nothing I could’ve done that would have convinced Alpha Waylon to take me.

“Because of your failure ,” he bit out, “you will now serve the gods.”

My eyes widened as he crouched down and spoke softly to me through the bars of my cell.

“You will die tonight, Gracie Holloway.”

My wolf snapped to attention as he stood and strode out of the prison, the metal door clanging as he slammed it behind him. For the first time, in longer than I could remember, my wolf howled in my ears at his blunt words. Die? We would die tonight?

I’d been beaten within an inch of my life before. I’d even wished for death before. But something about Alpha Ivan’s threat was unbelievable. I couldn’t die. I had just found… What had I just found? Three distinct faces stood out to me in the shadowy depths of my prison.

What was I even thinking? Why was I thinking of them?

Closing my eyes, I wondered how much blood I had lost and why my breathing was still so labored.

I should have been healing—most shifters did so efficiently—but my health was so poor that I couldn’t even do that properly.

The weight of my injuries, of my existence right now, felt almost too much to bear.

Still, there was the anger . A kernel of anger was growing inside of me, kindling a flame of rebellion against the notion that Alpha Ivan could just decide to end my life.

I’d done everything right. I’d silently endured every second of his abuse, and I was being rewarded with death?

With being sacrificed to one of The Eight?

My hand curled around the bars of my jail as tears heated my eyes.

Alpha Ivan would?—

I stopped myself. I wouldn’t call him Alpha Ivan anymore. I had no reason to show him that respect. He didn’t deserve it. From now on, even though it would only be in my own head, he would just be Ivan.

Moving back from the bars of my prison, I curled into myself and put my head against my knees. Exhaustion and fear were two sides of the same coin for me right now, and there was no escaping it.

So instead of fighting it, I let my mind wander as I was lulled into a fitful sleep.

“Why?” I asked my mom as we stood in the thick crowd of compound members gathered in the arena, the altar before us visible in the torchlight.

Nyxarra’s statue stood prominently in the center, surrounded by flowers and fruit.

The full moon cast a glow on the wooden altar that was already stained a deep red.

“Because we don’t have a choice,” my mom said softly, reaching out to take my hand. “Don’t watch.”

Of course, her suggestion wasn’t possible—not when horror unfolded in front of me. A teenage girl, maybe fifteen, was dragged before the rest of us and forced to lay on an altar as a priestess spoke through the speakers in the courtyard.

“Tonight we honor the Buck Moon, sacrificing blood on the altar of our goddess to bring blessings to our land.”

A gurgle sounded as one of the soldiers slit the girl’s throat without any warning, her body going completely limp. No one made a move to help her as she stared up at the sky with dead eyes, blood soaking the altar beneath her.

We’d never worshipped The Eight consistently on our farm.

There had been mentions of the gods in passing, but never like this.

There could be no light, no blessing that came from this.

The priestess continued to speak on it being a holy cleansing, but all it felt like was poison soaking into the land.

Then the shift happened.

A wicked wind moved through our compound, and I watched as Ivan’s men shifted violently into their wolves, fur flashing under the moonlight.

Curling against my mother, she tried to soothe me, but the snarls and barks clued me into the erupting violence.

It wasn’t just the one girl who was being sacrificed; they were pulling people from the crowd.

Screams of terror and cries of pain painted the night air.

I couldn’t even pray to The Eight for it to stop, because the gods were why Alpha Ivan had done this.

There had never been any blessings or miracles that had come from those rituals, and the same would be the case tonight.

The rituals only existed to express violence and rage.

Ivan enjoyed killing his own people. Ivan loved working them to death, only to sacrifice their loved ones to a god I wasn’t sure he even believed in.

Tears leaked down my face as I opened my eyes, finding that I’d slipped onto the floor so that I was lying on my side.

My body was still constrained, my ankles heavy with chains.

All I could do was lay in the damp, cold jail until Ivan came for me.

There were no soldiers in the building, and a singular light hung over a desk across the room.

In the dim circle of light it shed, a mouse sprinted from outside the cell to the far corner, as if trying to hide from me.

What could I possibly do to a mouse?

In a different life, I could have been scarier.

I could have had a feral edge like some other wolves have, formed through years of battle.

I could have commanded dominance. All of that had been drained from me, submerged under years of pain and suffering.

Something I’d forgotten about in the light of meeting… them.

There was no denying it, they’d left an impact on me. Squeezing my eyes shut, I imagined the sensation of Thornar’s warm, muscular arms. I could practically feel Basir’s inferno stare and Ravik’s intense, protective dominance. It almost felt unreal. Like maybe it had all been a dream.

Had they realized yet that I’d been taken? Had they felt the connection that I had? I couldn’t have been alone in the intensity of my reaction. There was something there. Something important.

The door of the building opened with a quiet creak.

“Gracie?” Ravina’s face appeared at the bars of my cell. I tried to sit up as she looked over me.

“You look like shit, three-one-four.”

I let out a pained laugh before sighing. “I…I didn’t accomplish what Ivan expected me to. I failed.”

Ravina was dressed in our standard cotton dark dress, her hair pulled away from her face with a scarf as she motioned for me to move toward the bars. I breathed a sigh of relief as she began to untie the ropes on my torso.

“I don’t want you to get in trouble,” I murmured, rubbing my wrists.

“They sent me in here to prepare you before the high priestess arrives—someone from a different compound. They’re dressing the altar…I think they plan to sacrifice you.”

“Ivan said as much. Waylon refused me. I’m not valuable anymore.”

“I don’t understand.” She frowned, rubbing her head. “I mean, I find you annoying, but didn’t they present you to him? That dress you’re wearing is expensive…”

Ravina was struggling to put the pieces together, and I figured there was no harm in telling her—especially since Ivan would probably try to do this again with someone else.

“It wasn’t me,” I breathed out. “He called Ivan out on trafficking shifters. He insulted him publicly. I wasn’t even allowed to say anything.”

Ravina shook her head sadly. “I really thought you were getting out of here… I guess in some way, you are.”

Through death.

Reaching to her bag, sneaking a look at the door, she spoke in a murmur. “They made me search through your belongings, to sort them and give them to others…but I found the pouch from Thalira.”

The poison.

Ravina slipped it through the bars and into my hands as I clasped it.

“I can’t stay; I know they will come and check on us. But if he’s truly going to sacrifice you, beat him to it. Don’t let him have that victory. If everything you say is true, he won’t let this be a simple offering. He’s going to torture you publicly.”

The door slammed open, and a guard shouted for her to leave. As quickly as I could, I clasped the pouch and hid it under my legs. I offered Ravina a long look of thanks before she disappeared out of the door, leaving me once again in silence.

Not just silence, but with the weight of decision hanging over me.

Was Ravina right? Would it be better to… I couldn’t even finish that thought without my wolf snarling in vicious disagreement. No. It wouldn’t be better, would it?

If not me…then someone else.

Maybe I couldn’t stop death tonight. But I could decide how it happened.