Chapter 5 The Choice

Luna POV

I took Ethan's hand. It was thick and hot, and when I touched its surface, chilly as my skin was, there was a spark in the inside of my chest. It was like returning and abandoning it altogether. I did not know what was going on, but I would not want to release it.

"Run with me," Ethan said. He drew me farther into the alley, out of the cafe as well as out of the cars just drawn up outside the cafe. At the back of us I heard shouting. I was able to hear the cafe door opening. They were coming.

We ran all around the city streets going through cross streets. I did not have any idea where we were heading to. I only took the lead of Ethan and hoped that he had the knowledge. I smelled the night air and felt it chilled my face. The lungs ached at my speeding up and down. I could hear footsteps somewhere behind us. They were closing, and they were coming nearer.

Ethan dragged me into a parking garage that was very old. It was deserted and black and reeking of oil and concrete. We ascended the stairs, and up up up the stair we went. I could hear my legs screaming to me to quit, but I did not. I kept climbing. I still ran in the direction of something I did not know and sought to flee in the direction I was afraid of.

Ethan eventually halted on the roof of the garage. We had an elevated view of the city, with its lights and high structures and the sound of traffic going beneath us. Up here it was a strong wind and was tugging at my hair. I drew the breath so stern that I felt like falling.

"Why did you come to the cafe?" I asked between breaths. "How did you find me?"

I have been searching around since you ran out of the wedding, Ethan said. He was hard breathing, too, but not as hard as me. "I searched everywhere. I pursued all the leads I got. Sarah at last accepted to inform me where you were.

"Who is Sarah?" I demanded. "What is she?"

Ethan was someone who hunted my kind, as he explained. but she grew weary of the violence. Instead, she chose to assist human beings. When you went to administer to her she knew you were. She called me and said that she had heard I was all right, but she told me that Kieran would sooner or later figure out what was going on.

I heard the door to the roof bursting behind us. The hand of Ethan squeezed mine. At least a dozen men were coming through that door, stretching out over the roof. Big and strong and dangerous looking, they all were. Kieran was in the centre of them.

He was not on the same look as he had been on the wedding. His countenance was writhing with wrath and something. Something that resembled pain. Luna, he said, and sounding ice. You have given me a lot of trouble.

"Stay back," Ethan said. He came in front of me between me and his brother. "She's my mate. You lose all title to her now.

Kieran laughed; and his laughter did not contain humor. "Your mate? That is a lot of you little brother. The pack does not select mates out of fairy tale connection. Luna belongs to me I said she belongs to me. The wedding made it official."

The marriage was not to take place, I said. I had a tiny frightened voice, which I made to speak. "I ran. I refused the ceremony. There is no bond between us."

Kieran's eyes locked on mine. "There is every bond. The ceremony began. The ritual started. You are mine whether you want it or not.

Ethan shook his head. It does not work that way anymore. Well, that is not my way as a Baron. We're not living in the past. We are living in a society where there are female options.

"Choices?" Kieran came forward and his warriors followed him. "She has a choice. Go back to Pine Ridge and take her position, or the whole world of this city will be given the victory. We may burn it off to get her, you see.

Terror flooded through me. He wasn't joking. I could see it in his eyes. He would really do it. To achieve whatever he desires he would harm innocent people. And it would be my fault. It would be my fault that caused all those deaths as I tried to be free.

Stop thy ears to him, Ethan said to himself. He squeezed my hand. "He's bluffing. He would never do such an action of hurting humans. The council could never permit it.

But I wasn't sure. I had such a look at the face of Kieran and I saw the face of someone who could do terrible things. I encountered someone who felt he was justified to do them. I encountered a person who was conditioned to think that he could get what he wanted since he was an Alpha.

Luna," Kieran replied, his voice less rough. "Come with me. Stop this foolishness. I can give you everything. Power. Protection. A place in the pack."

She does not want those things of you, Ethan said.

Something was happening when I was about to answer. The air felt different. It was dense and electric, as though the storm is about to come. The warriors of Kieran gazed over their shoulders. They could feel it too.

"What's happening?" I whispered.

"I don't know," Ethan said. But his voice was afraid.

Another side of the roof started to shine. Initially, I believed that it was merely light in the city, but then I noticed that the light was coming off another source. From someone else. One of them was increasing beyond the building border. When they drew still nearer I could make out that it was a man. One of the men, with gray hair, and cold gray eyes, which I knew more than my own mirror.

Marcus. My stepfather. But he wasn't alone. His body was changing. His skin was rippling like water. Hair was sprouting from his arms. His teeth were getting longer. His fingernails were turning into claws.

"What have you done?" I breathed.

"What I've always planned to do," Marcus said, and his voice wasn't human anymore. It was something darker. Something wrong. "I've become what I needed to become to keep you, daughter. I've become one of them."

Ethan pulled me close. "That's impossible," he said. "He's human. Humans can't just become werewolves. The transformation requires--"

"Requires what?" Marcus finished, laughing. It was a sound that made my skin crawl. "A bite? A ritual? I had both, little boy. I've been planning this for years. And now that I'm one of them, there's nothing stopping me from taking back what's mine."

Marcus's transformation continued. He grew bigger and stronger. His eyes turned yellow and angry. He looked like a monster made of rage and control and all the years of abuse he'd given me.

"Luna is coming home," Marcus growled. "And if either of you tries to stop me, I'll teach you what real pain looks like."

The warriors between us started to back away. They were afraid. I could see it in their faces. Even Kieran looked uncertain, and uncertainty in an Alpha was dangerous.

Ethan's hand found mine again. "Run," he whispered. "When I say so, you run to the edge of the roof and jump."

"What?" I said. "Are you insane?"

"Trust me," he said. And before I could respond, he let go of my hand and walked toward Marcus, his body beginning to change just like my stepfather's had. His clothes tore away as fur covered his skin. His face extended into a snout. His green eyes turned amber.

Ethan the human was gone. In his place stood a massive wolf, beautiful and terrible and ready to fight.

And in that moment, I understood that I wasn't just running from my past anymore. I was running into a world of monsters and magic and danger that I could never escape.