Moon Bound (Glorious Darkness Book 1) (25 page)

(49) Brand Me Yours

|Regan's POV|

Her hand is shaking with exhaustion. The skin on her palm is now blistered and bleeding from the heat of the device she's been holding, branding the females with. She never turns her eyes aside, never speaks a word of apology or concern towards them. She knows better than to let them see that this is affecting her.

This wasn't supposed to be her punishment but I find out that it is her punishment too. She doesn't want to do what I've bestowed upon her, nevertheless, she keeps pressing the hot metal to their bared shoulders. Skin is burning, hissing under the heat, the device retracts with a flick of her wrist. She places it back into the burning fire to heat up, then dips her fingertips into the oil mixed with silver powder, applying the substance over the raw, branded flesh so the letter will stay instead of heal within hours.

There will be a letter on each female's shoulder, a small X to mark them for as long as they live. Nothing will ever cover that mark. Their luna has been doing her task with the utmost care, carving the letter to the bone as per her females' request while their cowardly mates, brothers, fathers, lovers and friends watched. They accept the mark, welcome it on their flesh as if it's their luna's sign branded upon their flesh and not a punishment I have bestowed for her to carry out and for them to wear. A chance to prove themselves worthy of a female they now see as a savior and protector and they use it. They know it.

Their eyes burn with this knowledge, just like the debris of our old glory is dying with the flickering fire, heating the tool of their suffering.

Only a few to go before it's time for me to honor my word and join new blood to the pack. It's the last thing I wish to do tonight, but do it I shall.

The hybrids are watching the show silently. Collen is protectively standing in front of the others, a stance I never expected to see him in again but, I guess, even he – a man lost honor and values, still holds a pride within himself to not let himself be seen for the monster he truly is, unlike me who no longer has a person in front of which to hide his disgrace.

My first command after the challenge has been to use my own Luna as a tool, a tool for me to punish the insolence without getting blood on my hands and stirring up more of my pack's animosity towards my person. Some of them see right through it. Some of them will still flee from the pack but most will take their chance and stay, believing that I am the monster they should fear and trust their lives on their new hero, their luna.

Now that they've seen her strength, they'll raise their web of whispers to her ears, make her listen to words she should never have been forced to hear. Words of betrayal. Words of challenge against me. The moon children may be beasts at nature but they are survivors at heart.

There's just one of them left to take the mark now. A female who did as much wrong to her as I. The female who was her friend when I came here but turned against her at the first chance that presented itself.

Sasha steps forth towards my mate. Her head is bent down, eyes downcast as she treks towards her luna. I've laid with the girl more times than I can count – a regret I'd bear in my chest for as long as I live, yet, in this moment I don't really recognize that girl. She doesn't look like herself. She's holding back in a way I've never seen her do in front of someone else but me. Making me wonder if she's now apprehensive of her Luna as she has been of me.

The female stops in front of my mate. Slowly, her knees bend until she's kneeling in front of Scarlet, her body shaking but her eyes hard and unwavering as she raises them to meet the gray ones.

"Brand me as yours, Luna," she grits out, her lips parting in a snarl, slipping out despite her carefully built poise of outward wariness.

Her crystal eyes skip to me, just for a moment, as if to tell me, 'I'm doing this for you. It's all for your sake,' without her actually saying the words aloud. And then she averts her gaze back to my mate, mindless of the shame that lifts up to my skin.

Scarlet straightens her spine, her own awareness of what has just passed between the other female and me evident in the way she carries herself now. She never turns towards me, never questions me with her eyes. They stay trained on the female kneeling in front of her, her nod directed at Sasha as she grips the device tightly with her hand, raising it to the barren in invitation flesh above the torn cloth.

The hiss of flesh is accompanied by the hiss of the female, suppressing her scream as she embraces the touch of hot metal on her skin, tears leaking from her eyes but never notes of pain. The stench of burned flesh lifts to my nostrils once again, carrying the unique scent of the female now bearing the mark.

As disgusted as I am by her, I can't help but admire that strength. A male would have shouted to the skies, cursed under the Moon, but females are different. Just like the rest of the pack bitches, this one is keeping her pain behind her teeth but unlike the rest, she's doing it for my sake and not for her Luna's.

The act may be flattering and from anyone else it would have been taken with the gratitude it deserves, but it's her and that makes it mind-numbingly twisted. Wrong.

The metal retreats from the skin, tearing small chunks of flesh as it goes. Scarlet drops it on the ground, as far from her as she can throw it without hurting any of the bystanders.

"Stand up," her voice rings loud in the post-branding quiet.

Picking up the bowl of oil from the ground, Sasha rises to her feet, offering it to her Luna. Scarlet douses her fingers into the liquid and applies it on the newly burned mark before the other female places it back on the ground.

Standing on her feet once again, the bitch stares at her Luna for a few minutes, measuring her up and down and then leans closer to whisper something in her ear. Words spoken so softly that I don't catch.

Sasha retracts a step, gives a curt nod, then swirls back, retreating into the crowd of wolves as my mate looks motionlessly after her.

I want to go to her, ask her what the other female said but there are things I must do before I can act on my curiosity.

I take a sweep of the place, noting each one of my wolves is waiting in place, except that now Sasha is standing next to Jason, clinging to his arm, his face blank as hers is smug with satisfaction. Knowledge.

What is this about? Since when are they close to each other?

In the twirl of recent events, I've missed this one development. I've never considered that he might betray me like the others did but perhaps I should have. He didn't join my side when I called. He stayed idle.

Regan.
 Scarlet's call comes like a gunshot, dispersing my thoughts. 
My family. It's time, 
she reminds.

I step back into the middle of the circle, wishing to take my place next to her but knowing that this won't happen for a while.

"There is one more reason for our gathering here tonight," I announce in front of the pack, feeling her gaze stuck on me as she awaits the announcement just like the rest of them.

I've known that it will eventually come to this but it's still hard for me to do what has been requested of me. By him and now by her – the one person who should let me have my freedom to choose but doesn't.

Instead, in her blindness, she's pushing me further on the downward spiral, letting me fall deeper and deeper with all her conditions.

Turning toward the hybrids, I give Collen a nod and shout out, "I call forth those of you who want to join this pack."

He is the first to make the first step, a ghostly smile tweaking in the corners of his lips, letting me know that they will answer my call. 

A call marking my submission to his terms.

(50) Exile

|Regan's POV|

I can barely look at them as they kneel in front of me, ready to accept my claim over their lives, to accept me as their Alpha.

What is that sick game Collen is playing with me? Will tonight be my biggest mistake since becoming the leader of this pack or will I finally gain control over something I never believed I can control - the hybrids, the wildlings, their leader?

It all comes to this moment of truth. What will I find in this moment of revelation?

My heart is trembling in my chest. The hand holding the silver dagger is shaking. The tension is rolling off of me. I can feel it in the silence pregnant with their expectation.

The faces of my wolves look sullen as if they've been defeated under my iron fist only mere seconds before its palm starts bleeding.

I raise my left hand, the one that's empty and will my flesh to mold into the shape I wish it to be. It's a skill the wolves of my lines have. A skill I inherited from my bastard of a father and he - from his father.

It's a skill which fed his delusions that our line comes from the first wolf. The original wolf. A proof that made me believe it too. At least, until Scarlet came along. I no longer know if it's true or if it's a tale one crazy ruler passed to another.

All that I know is that I can feel the claws growing, the talons piercing the tips of my fingers, elongating in order to do what they are supposed to do.

Those claws will draw blood and blood will be drawn from the flesh they grow on. It's how this is done.

The blonde - Micah I think, will be the first I will mark as mine. I'll leave Collen for last.

I step towards her, my clawed hand reaching for the place on her body, just between her shoulders and neck, where the mark will be placed. One swift motion and a deep gash forms at the crook of her neck, red seeping through her broken skin. It will heal in minutes but these minutes are all I'll need to mark her as one of mine.

Sour, rancid scent drifts to my nostrils, like the one of a once fresh meat that's been left to rot for days. The last thing on my mind is how I will place my palm over the wound and mix my blood with hers but now is not the time for such thoughts.

I slash the inside of my hand with the blade, feeling the silver burn on my skin, and hold it in front of her. The wound won't close for a while since it's silver that inflicted it but, hopefully, it will stay open for long enough to place a mark on them all.

"I, Regan Conrad Greene, first of his name, Alpha of ShadowFang, offer thee the gift of my pack mark upon thy fresh," I recite the words I've heard my father utter so many times they are now engraved in my memory. "Doth thee accept my offering and pledge thy life to serve and protect this pack and its Alpha?"

"I do," the girl whispers softly, the Moon's magic already upon her skin as small shivers rake her body.

"By the Moon's will and mine, hereby, I claim thy body and soul as mine by placing this mark upon thy skin," I finish pressing my bleeding hand over her wound.

The bond stays quiet. Motionless and then, like an audible sizzle in the whispering wind, the connection forms with a snap, stretching over the female and pulling her into the pack-link until I can feel her - a caustic, empty shell when she should be burning from the Moon's magical touch.

She isn't and that gives me a brief pause.

The girl' sudden inhale makes me snap out of my observation, brushing it off as another oddity, probably a fluke born out of her different nature. Gathering back my bearings, I move on to the next in line, repeating the process.

They are all the same. The words coming out of my mouth, the promises they give me back, the connection that forms between us. Even the feeling of cold emptiness. They are all hollow. Minds wiped blank as if they've been asleep for too long. No emotions exist in their world.

I stop in front of Collen. Once a false ally. Now - my enemy.

He has his usual blank expression on his face, his eyes not looking at me but certainly gleaming with satisfaction. He's finally going to get what he wanted. And I'm going to give it to him. No fight. No objection. No more stalling.

His mental voice is silent. He's been avoiding talking to me this way lately, the reason for his silence more concerning than his anger has ever been.

I flick my talons over his flesh. The gash is deeper than the rest I've made tonight, bleeding profusely as soon as my claws retreat.

The smell of corruption is also stronger. The same one I've caught from the rest of his hybrids but thicker as it wafts to me. Scarlet never smelt like this. Not before I found she was mine and not now when I've already claimed her as mine.

Hastily, I repeat the ceremonial words. Accept his affirmation of my claim and press my palm to his flesh, disgusted by the act but helpless to reverse it now that it's nearly over.

"By the Moon's will and mine, hereby, I claim thy body and soul as mine by placing this mark upon thy skin," I bellow, my hand withdrawing as the pack-link sizzles and snaps, instantly awake unlike its slow reaction with the others.

As soon as the link is formed, I can feel him. A powerful presence inside the bond, casting darkness and weighing the scales of balance further away from me as if he's gathering clouds in his hands.

I can hear the thundering approach of his mind, intent guiding it closer to me until it reaches the destination, reaches me. I take a step back from him, desperate in my hope that physical distance will hinder his progress.

What is happening? Why is no one reacting? Do they not feel it?

My pack is watching but I don't see awareness in their eyes. When I glance at my mate I don't see either. She's happy, her expression one of relief.

'What the fuck are you doing, Collen?' I try to scream into the bond but nothing comes out. Only the thought in my head remains. Not even a sound escapes out of it. Like screaming in the desert, only the desert is my own mind.

I meet his eyes, coals from a fire I've somehow missed in my mirth of finding a moment of peace with my mate. Those eyes are looking at me now, capturing me within their darkness.

You can scream all you want, Regan. They can't hear you. No one but I will hear you now. 
He smiles at me from his place on the ground. Still kneeling in front of his Alpha and portraying the submission expected of him but, nonetheless, triumphant on the inside.

Ghostly limbs are clamping over me. Extensions of his mind, their grasp is an iron hold I can't escape. It's striking deeper and deeper through my walls until there are no walls, until there are just the two of us.

I'm going to make the best of this meanwhile...

The world is fading in darkness. I'm looking through a hole the size of the tip of a needle. I can no longer feel my body.

No! You can't do this, Col--

Enjoy your exile, Regan. I certainly will, 
he cuts the connection off.

"ShadowFang, let us welcome our new members..." My voice turns into a distant echo, staying in a world that's no longer where I am.

Am I ever going see her again, ever going to hold her in my arms...

Numb. Empty. Everything.

It's gone. I am.