Chapter 68

Helen POV

It was the first morning I didn’t wake up in agonizing pain.

Justin was brushing my hair back, untying my wrists, all while I had shifted in and out of my dreadful sleep. His lips lightly pressed into my temple.

“How can you be sure it’s over?” Randy asked.

Justin hummed a noise, running his palm down my cheek. “I can smell it. Her arousal has dissipated and she’s not whimpering in her sleep anymore. She’s better now.”

“I don’t want anything like that to ever happened again,” Randy admitted in heavy exhale. “I couldn’t watch you two have so much tension. It was painful to witness.”

I grumbled slightly, aware of my mistakes when in heat.

“She couldn’t resist, and I couldn’t either,” Justin huffed. “I made a mistake and pushed her away too hard but my Lycan—I’ve never felt like that before. He was furious.”

“It was hard to talk you down, Alpha.”

“I know, Randy. I appreciate you doing it, though. I don’t know how my Lycan would mate her in that state, in that form, but he was ready and willing to try it. I could have killed her. I have to be more careful.”

I inhaled sharp, both of them going silent as I blinked awake in front of their eyes. I looked at Justin sitting in bed beside me, my eyes welled with tears almost instantaneously.

“Hey, Helen. Relax. It’s okay, mate. You’re better now.”

“I shouldn’t have taunted you like I had,” I coughed. “I’m sorry, Justin, I couldn’t fight the urge and—”

“I know, I know,” he cut in. “It’s going to be okay. You were under heat and I know you just wanted the pain to go away. It’s not your fault.”

I tried to sit up, failing the first time. My arms are so overworked that I fall sideways. I hissed, lousily pathetic as Justin pets at my shoulder.

“Stay still, you’re still healing from it.”

“I want to go,” I said, unsure of where I would even go or what I would do. “We have to make Scott pay for what he did and the new intakes—I want to help them settle in and—”

“We have that all arranged already,” Justin snapped. “You need rest.”

“I’ll go hunting then,” I growled. “I need the run.”

Justin tried to stop me but I batted his hands away. He finally gave in and helped me to my feet, holding me into his side so he could kiss my cheek. I sunk into his arms and felt like I had been floating.

My mate’s love is so strong, it was the only reason I survived the curse Scott put on my stab wound.

“I guess we’re going hunting,” Justin said to Randy.

The kind Beta nodded, smirking slightly. “Of course. You two be careful.”

“Always are,” I said, a natural lie.

When we made it out of the cave, It was finally enough room for me to shift. Joy hopped around in glee, happy to be free to run and stretch. She had felt the same amount of angst as I had while we suffered throughout my week-long heat.

I pranced up the mountainside, Justin in his Lycan form, chasing after me. I felt free for the first time in so long that it finally embraced me back. Justin and I have a pack, we have wolves to look after, I can’t focus on vengeance with Scott.

I sprinted toward the woods below, rolling in the grass and scratching against the trees.

Justin shifted back, smiling and laughing at my movements. I fell into his lap, shifting in my mortal form like he had, while we held each other naked and pleased in the woods.

This moment of bliss was just the beginning in my mind. We would live like this forever.

It’s all I’ve ever wanted, after all.

“Okay, little wolf, we should get you back to bed,” Justin purred. “You did just heal.”

“I know,” I groaned. His legs were warm and my back sizzled in the sunlight. I wanted to stay like this forever and ever. “I just wanted to get out, Justin.”

“We turn up empty handed from this hunt and Randy will be upset. Why don’t you head back and I’ll kill a little pheasant for lunch.”

I was resistant to leave him but I agreed. He shifted, off to start his hunt, and I walked through the quiet woods, leisure in pace, strolling toward the cave in no hurry at all.

Little voices in the distance caught my focus and I hid behind a wall of rocks that had slid off the mountainside. I peered over the natural fence of boulders, spying a group of wolves ripping into a mortal. I thought they were killing her at first.

It was clear they had other intentions.

The human female screamed for help, wolfen forms pacing around her while one in mortal form tried to pin her into the grass.

I couldn’t call for Justin without raising suspicions. I had to handle this myself.

Before that monster of a man could hurt the innocent human, I shifted and launched myself toward them. My teeth found his neck and the woman screamed more, his blood spitting all over the ground.

The other wolves tried to charge me but I took them on one at a time, ripping flesh and clawing at their faces and biting into their throats. I’ve never seen so much blood in my life, managing to level a group of fully grown male wolves all alone.

I shifted and fell to my knees, the human female still panting in absolute horror at what just happened. She tried to settle her appearance but my exhaustion had long exceeded my level of healing.

“How did you do that?” she screeched. “That was insane.”

“I couldn’t let them hurt you—I had to kill them—them or they’d do it to us—us both.”

“You’re so strong,” she huffed. “Are you a Luna?”

Her line of questioning was so specific, it’s clear she knows more about our world than the average human. Most of them fear us, for good reason, but she’s very brazen in her line of questioning.

“I am,” I gasped at last.

Her eyes widened. “That’s so cool! I’ve never met a Luna before. My brother is a warrior in a pack nearby. He tells me all the time about Lunas and Alphas and—am I talking too much?”

I bed down the need to agree with her. She’s young, a little younger than me, and a little starstruck, no matter the horrid situation she almost just went through.

I held onto my side, wounded with a scratch from the burly fight we just had. She crawled forward to look at it, pulling my hand back so she could see the mark.

“That’s not good. I should get you to a healer, Luna,” she exhaled. “There’s one in my brother’s pack. I’ll take you to the healer there!”

My mind flickered elsewhere for a minute. “Wait, what pack did you say your brother was in?”

“He is in the—"

I hit the ground and ultimately passed out from my wounds.