Bound by Moon & Blood (Book 1)
020

By the time the moon had risen to its peak and the teens had long finished their training, Liv was drenched in sweat and her breathing was like fire in her lungs. But for the first time in a while, she felt like herself again. She rested her bloody hands against the punching back, which she had been imagining had King’s face on it, and leaned her forehead against it as well as she focused on her controlled breathing. Her muscles were aching, but it was an ache she was used to and had missed too much. Back at Headquarters she used to train every day. Always pushing herself to her limit and making sure that she would always try to be better than before, stronger than before. Maybe it was her time living here shining through. Seeing the training routines and the Survival Fights made her realize what it takes for her to be able to beat King. And that meant that she needed to push herself harder every time she put on her workout clothes. Even when she was free, she never lost the drive to be better than she was before. She pushed herself off the bag and walked towards Rev who was sitting on the fence, leaning with his forearms on his knees.

“You look surprised.” She commented as she reached him. “I’m not. I’m curious.” He said.

“Curious about what?” He dropped himself from the fence and took a few steps towards her. He reached out to the edge of her sports bra and lifted it a little to reveal the scar on her ribs even more than it already was.

“Where did you get that?” Her gaze shifted back to his as he retracted his hand. “You are curious about my scar?” He crossed his arms over his chest. “Yes, especially because we can’t scar unless it’s a wound by another Lycanthrope.” She released a long breath as she looked back at the diagonal scar that ran from her side up until it ended between her breasts. He couldn’t see it all, so he couldn’t know that the claw that made it had almost ripped her heart out if she hadn’t moved away when she had.

Liv had a few scars. The one Rev was asking about, the “K” scar that King had carved in her skin, five horizontal scars on her lower back, including her tailbone, the bite mark and the claw marks which Stefan had left behind on her shoulder and thigh and then the bitemarks on her ankle. All received when she was in this godforsaken pack and all carved her into the female she is now. She tried not to think too much about who had given her the scars or how, but she had never been weaker because of it. The scars were proof of every horrible thing she had gone through at the hands of King. They were proof that she had survived King. She never has been ashamed of them and she is never going to be. Her scars make her who she is and she is going to own up to them, even if the thought about receiving them still made a shiver run down her spine and rage fill her chest.

“When I was nine, King ordered me to train my power until I could take control over someone. Not like I did with you, but actually controlling them. Making them do anything I wanted with just a thought. It’s one of the harder things for a Moonblood to do, even for a Moonblood who had mastered all the skills. When I didn’t succeed after four hours, he got angry and started threatening me to get a reaction. I was exhausted and my power was burned out. I couldn’t go on any longer, but he didn’t care. He made me try to take control from someone until I would.”

“Did you succeed?” Liv snorted and shook her head. “What did you expect? I was nine. Merely turning blood into water was a strain for me.” She answered truthfully. “No, I didn’t succeed, and King was enraged by it. He told me that he would give me some motivation and ordered one of his wolves to attack Brandon who had been there with me. Brandon was ten at that time and he still hadn’t fully controlled the shift between skins. The wolf attacked him and kept attacking him. I tried to stop him, but King held me back and told me to take control of the wolf before he would kill Brandon. I desperately tried, until I suddenly saw through his eyes. I had control, at least I thought. I didn’t have complete control and the wolf flipped and turned on me. Even before King could comprehend what happened the wolf had his claw inside of me. If I hadn’t pulled back my power in time and jumped backwards, he would have torn my heart out. King didn’t do anything but laugh and told me that I had done well before he turned and walked away.” Rev’s gaze was hard as his jaw was, as he was grinding his molars. “Gerard and Andrew had come running and brought both me and Brandon to the infirmary.” She finished her story.

Liv had saved Brandon’s life that day and he had taken away hers in the end.

“How come you only have one scar if he had his claws inside of you.” Rev asked, his voice darker than it had been before. Was he really taking the story of her scar that badly? Why would he even care?

“Claw, not claws. The wolf had only one claw on his right hand left as the others had been cut off by King as a punishment for “not cleaning up his loose ends at the locations of his nightly escapades”.” That was another way of saying that he was busted fucking a human female he had just killed. King hadn’t cared about the fact that the wolf had killed a woman, only that he was more than once busted by someone else who then needed to be tracked down and killed so there was no one to identify him as the killer. Even though King hated humans, he still didn’t want too many to suddenly end up dead. So, as punishment, King cut off his fingers one by one until he had only one finger left on his right hand and two on his left.

“Rico.” Rev said with venom in his voice. At least it was good to know that the beta hated the right hand of Dwight as well.

“Rico.” She said in confirmation. “Thanks to him I have the scar to remember my time here.”

“Why does it sound like you have more, besides the three I know about now?”

“Because I do.” She said not elaborating further. Rev didn’t push though, instead he gave her a small nod.

Liv walked past him to a bucket with water in it. She crouched down and started to clean her hands.

Even though he hadn’t asked further she knew that he was thinking what other scars she could have. She was glad that the leggings were high waisted and covered the scars on her back and the ‘K’ scar. Not because she didn’t want him to see them, but because she just didn’t feel like talking about the reason for the one on her back.

“He really did torture you when you were living here, didn’t he?” She met his gaze over her shoulder. “Did you doubt that he did? I chose to kill and torture people all because it was the only way for me to stay out of Kings grasp. I tried to kill your Alpha all because I was trying to get as far away from King as I could.” Drying her hands on her leggings she got back up and turned towards him. “I didn’t doubt that he tortured you, I just never expected it to be in the literal sense. You were a child when you lived here, I expected him to only torture you through torturing your mother, not actually harming you and allowing harm to you as well.” Rev’s voice had become a little gentler. He actually looked like he was struggling with the idea of a child getting hurt. Liv sighed as she crossed her arms over her chest. “King would torture a baby if it meant he got what he wanted. He doesn’t care what he does to others. He never has.” It was the truth, even if it sends shivers down her spine at the thought. King really didn’t care who he had to hurt to get what he wants. That’s what makes him so dangerous. He didn’t care for anything and so he didn’t care what means he had to use.

Rev opened his mouth to say something, before his eyes shifted to amber. She raised her eyebrows at him. “Something wrong?” He didn’t answer her. His eyes became normal after a few moments and she immediately understood what happened. “The meeting is done I presume.” Rev nodded, but the tenseness in his body had become more apparent again. “I need to take you back to your room.” Her gaze turned hard towards him. “Why?”

“Because I need to be at the pack and not with you.” That was something she didn’t expect. “What’s wrong with your pack?”

“That’s none of your concern.” He said with a stern voice, telling her that it was the exact opposite. Something was up with their pack, especially if Caden is linking his beta about it shortly after the meeting with King.

“Go, I’ll walk back to my room on my own.” Rev looked at her as if he was debating to argue or not. Liv rolled her eyes, “Just go, Rev. Nothing can happen to me here and if I would have been affected by whatever happened to me and Dawn a few days ago, we would already know. Go.”

“Don’t make me regret this, girl.” Rev pointed a finger at her before he turned, shifted and took off in a run. This was going to be a little harder than she had anticipated, but at least she was going to work on her stamina. Waiting until he was at a safe distance, she pushed herself off the ground and ran after him.

By the time Rev slowed down, Liv was winded. She had quite literally run to the furthest corner of the pack in one go. She had trouble controlling her breathing, but she did her best as she stayed close to the edge of the village and forest. Staying unseen. Something was up with their pack and she was going to find out what. Not only was Caden not who she thought he was, but the fact that their pack was located on the edge of the territory, bordering the lake on one side, the village on the other two and the same forest that bordered Gerard’s and Andrew’s house on the last side, was also something that was unusual. For as far as she knew, King always housed the pack he gained in the middle of the territory and had his own pack surrounding them as a precaution should the pack he gained need to be eliminated. So, why did he grant Caden’s pack room at the furthest corner of the territory?

Liv stayed close to the tree line as she ventured further into the pack village. Following Rev with her eyes as he walked through it like he was a force to be reckoned with. In his defense, his pack members clearly didn’t mind as most bowed their heads with a smile on their face as he walked past them. He was respected and it was noticeable.

Rev walked up to the largest house in this part of the village where Caden was sitting on the stairs with Devon. Liv froze in her footsteps as she saw the scene in front of her. Caden smiled at the child that was sitting on Devon’s lap, while three more kids, all different ages, sat around them. It was always a surprise to see children in any pack, but there was only one Lycanthrope among them. It was the child on Devon’s lap. The other three were human.

Human...

Devon was Caden’s brother so it was explainable why he was in the pack, but the three kids?

“Papa!” One of the kids on the ground, the girl with bright red hair, and ran to Rev who shifted into his human skin, just in time to catch the girl in his arm. He chuckled and placed a kiss on her head. It was his daughter. Rev had a human daughter.

Barely being able to comprehend the fact that they had mixed the race more times than she had ever seen before, Liv had to hold onto the tree next to her to keep standing.

It wasn’t forbidden to mix the Lycanthrope and human race; it was just something that was almost never done. Most Lycanthropes despised the human race and saw them as nothing more but slaves and empty shells, useable like King believed Liv was. That was the reason why it was rare to see a human among Lycanthropes, so seeing three as kids is even more unbelievable. Yet here she was, seeing them with her own eyes.

“How’s Livana?” Devon asked as Rev got closer to them with his daughter in his arms. “Still the irritating and not-to-be-underestimated Moonblood.” Rev said.

A small smile splayed on her lips as she heard his words.

“She has been sparring with a punching bag for the same hours as Cay was in a meeting with King.” He said as he placed his daughter with the other kids again. “She’s been training?” Devon asked surprised. Rev nodded. “Wasn’t she too weak to even keep her eyes open about twelve hours ago?”

“She was.” Rev answered. “There is more to her than we realized.”

“What do you mean?” Caden spoke up for the first time.

“Because I saw three of her scars from her time here and there are more that were hidden by her clothes. She wasn’t only mentally tortured when she lived here as a kid, she was actually hurt by King and his wolves.” Caden didn’t say anything. The only reaction she saw from him was clenching his fists and that’s it. Why were they even talking about her in this way? Hadn’t Caden and Reve made it clear to her that she was just an object to be used and nothing more?

Why were they interested?

Before she could hear any more, a hand was suddenly placed over her mouth. Her breath caught in her throat as she was pulled into the forest. Liv grabbed his arm and released her power. Her assailant groaned as he pulled his arm back. Liv turned with him and punched him in his throat. Sending him to his knees, gasping for air.

“Are you out of your fucking mind!?” Liv all but yelled at the guy in front of her. “What are you doing here, Brandon?” Brandon finally got his breathing under control and looked back up at her. “Looking for you.” His voice was hoarse, thanks to the throat punch. Liv crossed her arms over her chest and waited for him to explain further. “Gerard and Andrew want to talk to you.”

“And that gives you and excuse to grab me from behind and drag me into the woods?” Brandon sighed as he got up from the ground.

“What were you even doing here? This is Caden’s pack.”

“Thank you, captain obvious.” Liv said sarcastically. “You followed me here, so you know that I was following the beta. That’s why I’m here.”

“But why?”

“None of your damn business.” Liv immediately answered. “What makes Gerard and Andrew think that I will go talk to them by sending you to me?” She already knew why they had sent Brandon, but if he knew more than he should, she was going to kill one of them for opening their mouth. “I don’t know, all they said was that you would sooner listen to me than you would to them.”

“Yeah, they were wrong.” Liv said before she turned and walked away, leaving him and the pack behind her.

“Where are you going?” Brandon asked, but didn’t follow.

“To get a shower and wash your disgusting scent from my body.” She answered without looking at him. She was going to do that, but first she was going to make a detour to the lake.

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