Moon Bound (Glorious Darkness Book 1) (12 page)

(21) On His Knees

|Regan's POV|

The recordings came once every few days. His calls have been as prompt as his so-called incentive. I kept watching them again and again, hungry for more of her, pausing the footage just to stare at her face. It haunts me in my dreams. How happy she looks, how different than the girl I've broken. She's healed or as near to healed as she could ever be. 

I didn't do this. I had no part in her recovery and this is the hardest thing to accept.

About a week ago, as soon as he let me know of her whereabouts I set on the road, taking a few of my men along for the trip. He warned me I may need all the backup I could get and, like his obedient dog, I have well heeded the warning.

I don't know the details of his plans, not yet. He only tells me what I need to know. He doesn't give me any opportunity to ruin his chance but, for once, I don't care about what the vampire motives are.

She is the one occupying my every thought. Awake or not.

Today is the day.

We've been staying in the hotel for a week. So close to her yet so far away, I've barely been able to breathe with the climbing in levels anticipation running through my veins. The beast is shaking under the restraint as I keep evading what he needs to do.

Knowing how close she is to me, it's more than self-control I need to keep the distance between us still. But even that control has been slipping through my fingertips... like sand.

Pausing the footage, I look out, towards the lightening skies, waiting for the sun to drag itself higher into the horizon, hope burning inside me for the first time in months.

I haven't been able to sleep last night, my mind stirring with so many thoughts, all of her. The beast inside me is so hectic now that only really seeing her can calm him down. This - staring at the monitor displaying her frame, isn't enough.

Closing the laptop, I turn towards the full-length mirror and, taking one final look at my reflection, I deem myself suitably groomed for meeting her for the first time in more than six months. Having waited for so long, I grab the car keys from the table and rush out.

It's a strain to keep a moderate pace and not bolt through the long hallways of the place. The few minutes it takes me to reach the outside parking lot feel like hours, too long for the beast to keep himself content inside me.

The engine roaring with the first flick of the keys, a madman sat behind the steering wheel, I speed down the road towards the place I know she waits for me. 

I've given them all the warning they needed. After hearing her faint voice in the background, the beast has been clawing at me, raging inside me, just like the need for her did.

That need for her... it's still present, even more tangible than before. I can't wait a minute longer.

I take the last few miles speeding over the limits, feeling every bump on the dark road even in the expensive vehicle. Neither the man nor the beast cares about that as my heart hammers against my chest with the urge to be closer to her after being deprived of her presence for so long.

Will it really be enough for me? Will I be able to stop myself from taking what's mine?

On the verge of breaking, I park the car in front of the house. It's a big, two storeys high, white building. A suitable choice for a big family to live in and, in a way, it's a family that resides inside. My family, so much more than that.

I exit the car, making myself loud enough to be heard from inside the house even if I suspect they are already aware of my arrival. Then, I knock.

During the few minutes I wait outside, I listen to them quietly talking behind the closed door. My mate's voice sounds like music to my ears, a sound nearly forgotten yet painfully familiar.

The front door is flung open by a tall, dark-haired guy, younger than me but carrying himself like an Alpha would. With power in him, even if the boy tries to suppress it, the beast finds challenge in his every move.

"You must be Alpha Greene. Please, come in," he invites me, holding the door open for me.

Compelled to look at her, my eyes skip to the figure standing a few feet behind him. Dressed in a leather jacket and tight fitted jeans, the months spent away from me have turned her into a woman, her curves coming out underneath the clothing, her cheeks lost their hollowness as her body has filled out.

Her face is still the same - innocent, her skin having a healthier colour but still translucent in the early morning light, her wild hair falling over her shoulders in a waterfall of ringlets I wish I could hold between my fingers. 

My hands are burning with the need to touch her, trace her slender body, trail my regrets over the curves that escaped my notice before.

Her distinctive scent coming with the next breath stuck inside my lungs, I fight the natural responses of my starved for her body. I want to keep it in - as much of her as I can take, as much as she'd allow me to take.

The beast inside me stands as frozen as the man. The urgency to reach her is now gone, replaced by something I have yet to name. He's so still it's almost like he's dormant now, waiting for her to call him to herself, to reach out to him and take what he's offering... on his knees.

Tentatively, I unglue my rooted to the floor feet, the simple movement requiring more effort than I ever imagined it will, and take a step in.

Her stormy eyes full of caution never leave me, pinning me underneath as if I am a prey she wants to hunt and devour.

A torture to be staring back at those eyes, is this how she felt before? Like my prey?

The door behind me clicks closed, the man, Cole as he has introduced himself earlier on the phone, bypassing me.

"This way, alpha Greene," he says, motioning for me to follow him inside.

I do as I'm told, wondering if she's going with us or staying until, at last, she falls in step behind me.

I can almost feel her breath on my neck... giving me shivers.

(22) Ring Any Bells?

|Regan's POV|

The man motions for me to take a seat and silently I follow his instruction.

"Would you like something to drink, Alpha Greene?" he offers. "Coffee, tea or maybe juice?"

Face flickering between mockery and disgust, "Arsenic will be better, Cole. Just give him that," she sneers at me. "It suits his tastes better than coffee or tea."

The beast flails, roaring inside me with the need to put her in her place, make her respect her mate but the man knows better than to try that. If she's that rankled by my very presence here, I can only imagine what her reaction will be if I try to get some sense into her stubborn pretty head.

Patience, Alpha
, a male voice sounds inside my head, causing me to nearly jump off my spot. Glancing at him, I know he shouldn't be able to mind-talk to me but somehow he's doing it against all odds.

A gift I was born with
, Cole explains mentally, turning towards Scarlet as if nothing at all is happening and we are not indeed having a fucking bond-independent mental conversation. Alpha against Alpha. I know that now.

"That's no way to treat a guest, Scar," he interjects out loud, shaking his head at her.

Fifteen minutes, Alpha Greene
, Cole mind-whispers, his voice as much a threat as it is a promise for all things bad to come. Clenching my jaw, my nerves stretching like strings on a well-tuned violin, I tilt my head downwards in agreement to his terms.

"A guest is someone you invite into your home and no one invited him," she says, staying oblivious to us.

I'll let you know when your time's up
, Cole goes on silently. "Be nice, Scar," - aloud.

Alright
, I respond, suppressing the urging me to attack beast. 
Why are you setting a time limit anyway?

"At least, be civil then," he responds to her arched in challenge brow and to me he says, 
My turf, my rules, Regan. Or have you already forgotten how this works? Besides, there's something you need to do.

"If I must," she sighs, not looking happy to be told what to do. Not happy at all.

What do I need to do? 
I say back to him.

"Pineapple juice for me, Cole," she requests as I watch her. She doesn't have the slightest idea what and who she's dealing with. Whatever, whoever those people are, they've tricked her into trusting them and she's fallen for their lies.

We know what you and the vampire are planning
, he tells me. 
And it's not gonna work.

Who the hell are you?
 I growl into the mind-link the other man has created just for our small private conversation, eyes engaged in a silent staredown, he's the first to avert his.

"If I must," he says aloud, looking at her but taunting me, like a cat playing with a mouse about to be killed and devoured.

Collen Paine... Ring any bells?

Blood running cold by the very mention of that name, I should have recognized him and now, as I look at him I can see the resemblance. However, Collen is no longer the little boy I knew but a full-grown man. His face features, even similar to what they've once been are no longer of a child's, only the eyes are the same. Filled, containing the darkness inside.

The eyes of someone who, just like me, has been raised to be a monster but, unlike me, never had any regrets about it. A leader, born and bred, he had always had his own agenda to follow and, if I'm right, it's not what the vampire thinks it is now.

Does Michael know?

Scarlet hits his shoulder. "Ouch, that hurt, you know." 

I watch her give him a mean grin before coming to sit opposite me.

Turning towards me, the man says, 
What do you think, Regan?

The beast raging inside me, my hands clench into fists. 
Take her away from this place and this man. Take her away,
 the beast pleads, the man knows better.

There's only one way for you to take her away from me, Regan, 
truth rings in his words inside my mind. 
Dead.

"Alpha Greene?" Collen, or Cole now, prompts out loud. 
The drink
, he snarls at my confusion.

"I'll have the same as my mate," I grind out, unable to contain the anger inside me. Glancing at Scarlet, I notice a smug expression on her face. What does she think is the reason for my boiling under the surface rage?

I know she can feel it - the beast's annoyance that I've let this happen, but can she guess what this is really about, that this has nothing to do with her?

What do you want from me?
 I say this time only for him to hear.

You need to meet my Beta, Regan, or did you expect to come into my territory without a proper rendezvous with my brother? You know how fond of you is he. I couldn't deny him meeting an old friend like yourself and I can promise you he will be just thrilled to see you. As thrilled as I am. 
He flashes me a grin, the knowledge of what his statement is doing to me just beneath the glazed surface of his hungry for pain eyes. Even as a boy, he was someone my father respected, told me to look up to. The perfect example of how one, even one so young as him, should lead.

 
"Coming right up," Collen chirps then, his real voice so very different from his mental voice that carries so much threat that it's nearly impossible to believe they belong to the same person.

Then again, he's not a person. He's a monster.

With Collen out of the picture, I'm left alone with my mate. Her attention slipping right at me, capturing and holding me in her storms-filled gaze, she looks like she's made a decision, one she's finally ready to share with me.

"Long time no see, Alpha," she says coldly, eyes as arctic as her voice on my skin feels. "I wish I could say I'm pleased to have you here but that would be a lie."

Ironically, this won't be the only lie in this house. All along, she's been fed lies by him, made to trust someone who isn't to be trusted. She will never believe me if I tell her. Why believe the one person who has caused all her pain? Why see the truth when it's so much easier to live the lie?

"I hate you, Alpha. I want you to hurt. I want you dead. Is this why you came here? To bleed for me, Alpha? To break down and weep your sorrows like a juvenile pup?" she inquires, mindless of my pain, cruel in her words toward me.

"I'm a different man now, Scarlet. I've changed from the last time you saw me. I know this is hard to believe but I did change. I came to show you this. I needed to come. I need you." It's not the whole truth but it's as much as I can say to her now. Try. It's all I can do now to gain her trust but it's going to take some time.

Perhaps more than we have.

"People don't change, Regan," she whispers, saying my name for the first time ever. So sweet and yet so bitter rolling off her tongue, the sound is filled with pain.

Any objection I may have had stays unspoken. 

"People pretend that they do. Just like you are pretending now. You think you've changed for me but have you really? Have you stopped to think about what I want, what 
I need
, the girl you abused from the first moment of notice, and not what your 
mate
 needs?"  

I open my mouth to tell her how wrong she is, to tell her she is the only one I'm thinking of now, have been thinking of for the last six months, but she stops me. Unwilling to hear me out.

Collen is the monster from my past. I am hers.

"I know you haven't. You are an Alpha, one of the strongest I've ever met. You can't change that since it's who you are and were raised to be. Just like I can't change who I am." 

My eyes watering, her face blurring with the layer of moisture covering my vision, a tear trails down my cheek. "You're not going to give me a chance, are you?" I ask, brushing it off, holding the rest of the waterworks back.

Alphas do not cry.

"No," she chokes out. "Even if I wanted to I don't think I can."

Silence descending in between us, the words that needed to be spoken already said, there's nothing more for me to say to her and nothing else for her to share with me. We might be mates but, in reality, we are just two strangers with no chance of melting the distance separating us from each other.

The bond is there - a tiny, fragile even cord that links us together, however, there's nothing else between us but that distance. A result of my own mistakes.

"Drinks are ready," Collen chimes in from the doorstep. To me he says, 
Time's up, Alpha. Make some excuse and go to your meeting. I'll text you the address in a few minutes.

"I'm sorry, Cole," I play along. "I just remembered I have some matters to attend to so we need to postpone our conversation. No need to see me off. I'll find my way out."

I stand up, scurrying to leave before he can offer to show me out.

Turning around, my eyes lingering on her for a moment longer, it's the truth that I tell her, "I'm not giving up on you, love. See you tomorrow."

And no matter what comes my way, I intend to keep that promise even if, today, I'm fleeing like a coward, scared by my opponent.

Returning to the safer grounds of my hotel there's no peace to be found here. I know I should have expected that much. I should have known it won't be that easy to go against the wildlings as Michael thought, even having the Council's support on my side.

I should be breaking off the deal and giving up on her after what she said to me, my hopes squashed by her honest words, truth about past hurts that cannot be forgiven. 

I just can't do that. What I am about to do, guided towards my own destruction by the vampire's apt hand... there will be no coming back once it's all set in motion, no way for me to return. I'm doing the wrong thing for the right reasons, hoping beyond any hope for a miracle that could save both my mate and my pack.

Wishing to keep both when the odds are I'll lose either.

Hopping up from one of the leather couches in the lobby, Jason meets me as soon as I step inside. He's been waiting for me to come back from meeting her, his concern evident on his scarred by years and years of battles face. Amongst all the males in the pack, he is my only friend, once assigned to me by my father he's now more than an errand boy for me. A confidante, if you wish.

"How did it go?" he cuts straight to the point.

I just shake my head. He's sorely mistaken if he expected me to tell him it went well.

"Couldn't be worse, huh." What should have been a question is instead voiced like a statement.

Placing my hand on his shoulder and squeezing, I contemplate telling him the truth. "The worse is still to come, Jase." 

The beast is disappointed in me. The man in front of me will be soon as well.

Turning on a heel, the only signal for the wolf - my slight nod towards the hotel entrance, I make my way out on yet another errand that needs to be done.

Stopping in front of the still warm machine, I glance over my shoulder, making sure he's followed me.

"Let's do this, third-in-command. Let's find out the rules of the game we're going to play."