Chapter 79

Alyson

I don't know if this large, bulging man with a wolf dark as night thought this would be an easy experience for him, but I don't dare let him get off without a fight. He is already sick of me, binding my wrists and ankles in heavy metal chains. I consider shifting, breaking out of them and bolting back toward my pack, but I'm far too outnumbered to consider such a plan.

Instead I drag my feet, trying to slow down this march as we go deeper into the thick woods. I plan myself into the ground, unmoving like a metal structure welded to the ground, and some frustrated warrior that smells like a filthy, roaming rogue yanks me forward and tries to drag me to walk again. I fight them all with every step, eventually plopping down onto the ground to force an exasperated gruff of a noise to travel through the odd group.

"Get up!" one of the warriors snap, kicking my shoulder to incite me to stand but I refuse. "Dammit, girl, get up!"

I force myself to remain seated, frightened but unwilling to show it. "I am not going to cooperate so if you're going to hurt me, get it over with. I can make this walk last a long, long time." I tilt my head back, the rain drizzling down my face and neck, soaking me. Ryan, hurry!

I'm looking, sweetheart, I am! I have the whole pack running through the woods!

"Stubborn blood pet."

I glance aside, that nickname too personal, too painful, that I feel the pain of old memories spiking through my body in a burning, ebbing ache. I look up to the man that orchestrated the attack on me and the warriors outside the pack lands. He is too tall to distinguish from the towering pines, his bruting features outline in dark, hazy shadows of the full moon behind him. He is shameless, fierce, and overwhelms me with panic.

"If you want to live, you'll learn your place, blood pet," he grumbles.

I lock myself into place, forcing myself to stay right here, no matter what this brawny wolf tries to do to make me cooperate. "I am not a blood pet! I am a Luna!"

"Not anymore," he growls, reaching down and managing to swipe me upright by my arm, his strength so prevailing that he could easily throw me a thousand feet forward with minimal effort. But like the other wolves around us, giggling as I am dragged step by step by this monster, he smells heavily of a rogue. "You will behave," he snarls under his breath.

"You'll be killed by my mate; my Alpha," I spit back in response.

"Something tells me he will have trouble finding you first." He shoots me a look, his red eyes lined with silver flecks. "And if you think mind linking him is going to help the mighty Alpha save his precious Luna, you're in for a terrible surprise."

I swallow hard, fearful but too scared to let him know that. "he will find me and he will kill you for taking me. I don't intend on making it an easy fight for you either. I am not a pawn. I am a Luna. I am not just a perfect blood pet for you to use."

His brow furrows, halting our fast-paced walk, and turning so quickly that I don't have time to dodge his flying fist. It connects with my cheek, spiking a pain in my upper lip where I feel the blood before I taste it. Warmth travels down my chin and lines my throat, the blood warped with the rain water as it drenches me.

He swipes a finger over my busted lip, smearing the blood down his tongue so obnoxiously that I hope it's raining hard enough to cover the trickling tears on my cheeks. I hate crying, I hate being weak, but I'm too overwhelmed in anxiety to even consider fighting this new foe. Instead I look aside in defeat. He hums a noise, pleased with the effects my blood has, but it only works for Alphas. He can't be. He stinks like a rogue—

"You really are a useful blood pet," he hums, purring against me as I'm yanked over to his chest, his body burning hot even in this cold downpour from above. "I didn't think what she said would be true but I feel younger already, more powerful, and all it took was one slap."

My wolf whimpers at his words but I'm too distracted by what he just said. "She?"

He glances lazily at me, uninterested in answering my question and focused instead on dragging me through the forest full of winding bends ands endless turns. "If you're smart, you'll shut up and make this ordeal end quicker by giving me what I want."

"What do you want?"

"I told you to shut up, first," he grumbles.

I fight to pull my arm free of his bruising grasp. He refuses to budge. "Why did you take me, dammit? You're going to start a war with my pack, with my mate, and he will kill anyone who hurts me. Rogue, or Alpha, doesn't matter. Ryan will kill you all and—"

"Shut up!"

I mange to dodge this hit, only falling to the muddy ground where he lands a surprise kick straight into my side. My bones shiver, cracking under his sheer strength, and I cough on the very blood he dares to taste in front of me, a sign of my fate if there ever was to be one.

Laying on the ground, I steady my emotions as they crash over me in painful, heavy waves. I will not break under this sadistic freak. I will return to my mate, safe and filing back into our perfect, happy lives once again. We had just started our lives together as mates, not dealing with Ryan's horrid brother, Jacob, and forgetting that I was ever betrayed by Jennifer.

This has my sister's name written all over it.

"What did she tell you?" I breathe, trebling in a damp chill. "What did Jennifer do now?"

"She has done nothing," he says simply, daring to grab for me but I flinch out of his reach. "I am in charge of this world now, in charge of this war, and if the Alpha who claims to love you has any semblance of sense, he will reject the elders and their authoritative power trip and listen to me when I say I will wipe them out tenfold for every needless death they have caused against rogues for the last century!"

"I have nothing to do with the board of elders," I say, pleading for freedom. "I am not anything but a lowly pack Luna, I am not going to be influential to the elders. You can't use me to hurt them!"

"I can use you anyway I please," he growls, his voice so dark, so deep and throaty, that I can't subdue the shiver that travels through my bones.

He kneels beside me, his eyes another color completely, gold and pink swirled into one unpredictable rogue Alpha. He stares through me now, his hand brushing under my throat, toying with my guttural panic. I fear this man, this beast, and yet I am so lost in his glare that I have no doubt that whatever he wants from me, he will do anything to get it.

"Sweet blood pet, I will have what I want."

The rogues around us both all snicker in unison. I blush deeply.

"That means I will use you; I will rule you; and you better behave yourself."