Luna of Mine (28 page)

She could feel his anger
rising, the fury in him causing his grip to tighten around her
wrist as his body pressed her harder into the wall. “GET OFF OF
ME!” she screamed.

“You were
supposed to be mine,” his whispered words against her ear chilled
her even more than a roar would have.

“
I could
never love you. A man who would put his hands violently on a female
does not deserve a treasure such as a true mate.” Mistake number
three—she poked an already enraged wolf. She felt him tense even
further before he struck. His teeth sunk deep into her flesh
ripping a gut wrenching shriek from her. She bucked wildly, trying
frantically to get him off, to get his vile mouth from her flesh.
He took what was not his and it nauseated her to feel him
swallowing her blood. He kept drinking and when she fought harder
his teeth sank deeper. The blood seemed to flow quicker and she
knew he had pierced her jugular. The huge vein connecting directly
with her heart pumped her blood fast and hard into his mouth. She
was growing weaker by the second. As he continued to drain her, she
realized his intent was not to mark her but to kill her. If he
could not have her, then no one would.

She heard another deep
voice and vaguely recognized it but her mind was foggy with blood
loss and she could not place it. Suddenly his teeth were gone and
she was collapsing to the ground. Sounds of violence filled her
ears, snarls, flesh tearing, howls of pain rang into the air. And
yet she could not help, she could not move, her limbs would not
listen to her no matter how she yelled at them to. The last thing
she remembered before the darkness swallowed her was the blood
soaked ground around her, too much blood to only be
hers.

“
S
omething has happened,” Vasile bit
out as he stepped away from the group of males he had been training
with.

“What is it?” Ion
asked.

“
Alina,
all I know is that she is in pain. She shut the damn bond down
enough that I cannot hear her thoughts. We have to go now.”

“We were not planning to
infiltrate for another two days,” Nicu pointed out.

“
Plans
change,” Vasile snarled as he turned in the direction of his mate’s
village. He did not care if any of the warriors followed him. He
did not care if anyone saw him. All he cared about was getting to
his mate and finding out what or who was causing her pain and then
killing it.

He ran in his human form,
borrowing his wolf’s speed. Trees whipped past him and his feet
moved so fast that they barely disturbed the ground beneath them.
His wolf urged him to go faster. He obviously was picking up
something through the bond that Vasile was not. He pushed his legs
even harder, somehow knowing that if he did not get to her very,
very soon he would lose her.

The village came into view
and he could hear shouts and growls. He passed the meeting hall,
ignoring the gasps and the stares, as he headed straight for
Alina’s house. The smell hit him before he could even see the small
cottage—blood, and a lot of it. As he rounded the corner he saw a
large crowd gathered in the yard shielding the door from his sight.
He pushed forward and snarled, “Get out of the way!”

The crowd parted instantly
as his power filled the air and as one they all fell to their
knees. But his attention was not on the pack, it was on the
gruesome scene before him as he entered the small home where his
mate had grown up. The wood floor was slick with blood, so much
blood. Petre’s body laid just to the right of the door, his head
twisted at on odd angle and his throat ripped out. Georgeta’s body
was directly across from her mate’s. She was lying in a pool of
blood that still poured from the huge hole in her abdomen where her
intestines had spilled out. Then his eyes found her. In one step he
was across the cottage and kneeling by her side. There was so much
blood and she looked so fragile that he did not know where to touch
that would not cause her to fall apart. He leaned down close to her
mouth and heard a wheezing breath; it was weak but she was
alive.

She was lying on her side,
her eyes closed as though she was simply asleep. Her neck had a
huge bite mark that was slowly beginning to heal. But that would
not be enough. She needed blood and not just anyone’s. She needed
the healing power that was contained within the blood of her mate
if she was going to have any chance to survive. Vasile tore his
wrist open with his sharp canines without even wincing at the pain.
He gently rolled her onto her back, and then lifted her head while
at the same time pressing the bleeding wrist to her lips. Blood
poured into her mouth but she was not attempting to suck on the
wound. He leaned down close to her ear and kissed her gently.
“Please, Mina, drink. You cannot leave me. I cannot do this without
you.” He reached through their bond, calling to her wolf to fight
for her human half, to give her the strength she needed to take his
blood so that her body would begin to heal and replace what she had
lost. After several gut wrenching moments, he felt her lips latch
on.

She pulled greedily from
him and his wolf, which had now, after so many years of
restlessness, begun to settle just a bit because it was being
allowed to provide for its mate. The wolf was caring for its other
half, which is what it was created to do. “Take what you need,
beloved, it is freely given,” he told her as he gently brushed the
hair from her neck. He should wait, he should make it special and
treat her as the precious jewel that she was, but he was not taking
any chances of her leaving this world without him. He bit into her
just below her ear and only deep enough to get a swallow of blood
and leave his mark. He pulled away quickly and licked the wound
clean. She had not even noticed as she continued to drink from him.
He felt himself growing weak but he would not deny her. He could
hear voices telling him to stop her, that she was taking too much.
When he was sure she just might bleed him dry, she stopped and
licked his wrist just before passing out again.

He sat there holding her
head in his lap, staring down at his beautiful mate. Her neck was
torn savagely. Her dress had been ripped, and he could feel the
skin on her back beneath the arm that held her. She smelled of
blood, anger, and fear. But there was one smell that trumped them
all, one that he had known from the first time he had smelled it
and he would never forget it—Serghei. The cottage wreaked of him,
of his rage and jealousy. He had attacked Alina. Vasile did not
know if he had been trying to rape her or if he simply wanted to
see the marks. The bite was done out of pure malice; no male who
was simply wanting to mark his female would ever do so with such
brutality. Her parents must have caught him in the act and
attempted to intervene, but they would have been no match for a
feral wolf, and that was exactly what Serghei had
become.

“
Alpha,
please,” a gentle voice spoke from just beside him. She was smart
not to be at his back, taking an angry wolf by surprise was not a
wise maneuver. “She does not need to wake here. Please bring her to
my home and allow me to help you care for her.”

Vasile turned to look at
the small woman who knelt beside him, her head bowed slightly to
the side baring her neck. “Your name?” he growled.

“
I am
Auriel. My parents died in the werewolf wars and I am an unmated
female. I live in their home just two cottages over.” She motioned
with her hand in the direction she was speaking of.

“Are you loyal to Emilian?
Do not lie.” His eyes narrowed dangerously.

“
Your
parents were my Alphas, and when they perished, you became my Alpha
and that has not changed.” Her shoulders squared and her back was
straight as she spoke with true conviction.

Vasile picked his mate up
in his arms and stood. “Then lead the way.” He made eye contact
with his top three and motioned towards the inside of the house.
They knew what he was asking without the use of words. They would
clean up the cottage and have the bodies cleaned and prepared for
burial so that Alina could say a proper goodbye.

Auriel pushed the door
open to her small home and entered not waiting to see if he
followed. He had to duck his head as he walked through the front
door and turn just slightly to get his wide shoulders
in.

“
You can
lay her in there,” the female said as she motioned to a small
bedroom.

Vasile laid her on the
small bed. He brushed her long hair from her face and ran a finger
softly down her pale cheek. He mentally begged her to open her
eyes, to smile at him, or to snarl, anything just to show him she
would be alright. But the only movement was the shallow rise and
fall of her chest.

Auriel walked in and
reached for Alina’s shoe on the foot closest to her but her hand
never made contact. Vasile had grabbed her wrist as soon as he saw
her intent. “No one will touch her but me,” he said
firmly.

“
But,
you are not yet completed the bonding ceremony; it would not be
right,” she stumbled over her words as her body shook with
fear.

“My mate
was violated by a male in her pack, was that right? Was that
proper?” His voice was cold and harsh.

A tear slid down the
female’s cheek as she shook her head. “I am only trying to protect
her.”

Vasile shook his head. “I
am the one she will never need protecting from.” He released her
and stepped back. “Please get me the things I will need to clean
her and clothe her. I will not trust anyone to touch her, not when
there are so many traitors in this pack.”

Auriel did not argue this
time. She simply scurried from the room and did not return until
she had everything Vasile had asked for. She shut the door behind
her after having laid everything on the small dresser across from
the bed. She had even brought him a warm basin of water.

Vasile took the blanket at
the end of the bed and pulled it up to Alina’s chin. He would
protect her modesty as much as possible. He removed her shoes and
stockings. Then with the blanket still covering her, he reached
beneath it and beneath her to undo the button on the back of her
skirt. He pulled it off of her without ever removing the blanket
and tossed it on the floor. He would have it burned because he
would never smell another male on his mate’s clothes if he could
help it. Next he began to raise her shift but then after a moment’s
thought decided it would just be easier to tear it. He was careful
to go slow and keep her covered. Finally, she was fully undressed
and he began to wash her. He wiped her arms and legs and then
gently cleaned her face and then her neck. He growled low as he
wiped the blood from the now healed wound where Serghei had pierced
her beautiful skin. He wanted to roll her over so he could wash her
back and get that male’s smell off of her, but he decided to wait
until she woke.

He tucked the blanket in
around her to keep her warm and then pulled the only chair in the
room up next to the bed. He sat and leaned forward until his head
was by hers, and he closed his eyes as he breathed in her scent. It
calmed him like nothing else could. He reached up, without opening
his eyes, and took her hand in his intertwining their fingers. He
knew he needed to check on his warriors and figure out if anyone
had run off to tell Emilian of his arrival, but he could not bring
himself to leave her side. He needed to hear her voice, needed to
see her eyes open and full of life. So he sat with his head next to
hers, breathing her in, allowing his wolf to take solace in the
feel of her skin on his. He pushed away the rage for now and simply
focused on her.

“
Luna,
come back to me,”
he whispered into her
mind through the bond that had grown stronger since he had
completed the Blood Rites.
“We have so
much living to do, beloved, and so many things to see and
experience. I have yet to even taste your lips and you are finally
of an appropriate age for me to do so. You have to come back to me;
I need you. You have to come back so we can build a life together,
heal our pack, and see what adventures the Great Luna has in store
for us. Please, Mina, hear my voice and obey me. Come.
Back.”
He could feel her spirit slipping
away not to death but to a place where there was no pain, no fear.
Her mind and body were trying to protect her by keeping her
unconscious, and he could not allow that. He gathered his power,
called on his pack―those loyal to him―to share their power with
him, and then he pushed it into his mate. She would hear him and
answer him because any other outcome was not acceptable. She would
not leave him while he had to watch her body whither as her mind
stayed shut away from him. She was his and just as he would give
her every bit of himself, he would demand the same of
her.