Bound by Moon & Blood (Book 1)
024

Dressed in an oversized T-shirt and some sweats, that smelled like Devon, her hair still wet and barefooted, she walked down the stairs. The four guys were still the only ones in the house. Apart from Erik who laid in a room upstairs.

“Feeling better?” Devon asked as he saw her.

“No.” She said as she looked from Caden to Ben and back. “I’ll be feeling better when I’m dead.” She said as she leaned with her shoulder against the wall and met Devon’s gaze. Who gave her a pained expression before he pulled his eyes away and took a sip of his beer.

“Here, maybe this will make you feel better.” Ben said as he got up, walked towards her and held out a beer bottle for her to grab. She looked at it before she took it from him, twisted the cap off and took a large gulp, cringing when the bitter aftertaste filled her mouth. Beer had never been something she enjoyed to drink, but now she just needed the alcohol. Ben snorted as he saw her face, before his eyes shifted to her collar. “Does it still hurt?” She looked at him and saw his eyes on her collar. “Why do you care?” His eyes snapped up to meet hers. “Learn not to be so defensive all the time, Píka.” Her eyebrows shot up at the unfamiliar word, but she decided not to dwell on it. It’s not like she hasn’t been called many different names before already.

“Last time I let my defensive attitude down, a needle was jammed in my neck and was almost bled dry. My apologies if I will not allow that to happen again.” Her voice was hard. A muscle ticked in Ben’s jaw. “Even with your guard up, King still would have gotten your blood and you know it.” His words were true and that irritated her more than anything. “I know.” She said through gritted teeth. “I’ve seen it happening more times than you can count.” His eyebrows scrunched as he gave her a confused look.

“What do you mean?” Devon asked, pulling her attention to him. She sighed before she took another big gulp from the beer. Her tastebuds screaming at her to stop drinking it and give them a break. Yet, she still didn’t answer. All because she knew that if she would start talking about her mother, she’d feel everything she had pushed away a long time ago. So, she kept her eyes on the bottle in her hands and kept her mouth shut.

“Your mother.” Caden suddenly said. She closed her eyes. Of course, he had connected the dots.

“What do you mean?” Rev asked.

“Dawn is her half-sister, which means her mother must have been here at the same time she was.” Caden explained. His eyes were on her, she could practically feel them, yet she didn’t look up. She didn’t react to him. She couldn’t show the tears that were filling her eyes. The memory of her mother would always hurt, but talking about her was even worse. “It was her mother; King had used as a blood bag.” The tone in his voice made her heart clench and forced her mouth open, “He used her as more than his personal blood bag.” She spoke before she could stop herself. No one said a thing. Liv took a deep breath before she finally looked up. “She endured a torture worse than anything you can imagine and, in the end, she...” Liv couldn’t finish her sentence as a tear rolled down her cheek and her throat closed up. Taking another big gulp, she forced the lump out of her throat and wiped the tear away. “There was a reason why I ran, why I went to extremes to stay out of his grasp.” She looked at Devon before she met Caden’s gaze. “You may believe that I always had a choice, but I didn’t.” She knew she had to tell them. No, she wanted to tell them. She wanted them to know why she fights against them so badly, why she will do anything to get away from King again. “I didn’t because King took that choice away the moment he slid my throat and my mother gave up her life to save mine.” Her voice broke in the end. Another tear rolled down her cheek. No one said a thing. Their facial expressions were the only reaction she got to what she had told them.

Ben looked like he was going to rip apart everyone in this room as rage filled his face.

Rev was rigid as his teeth almost broke in his mouth from the way he was clenching his jaw.

Devon looked at her with pure shock and his mouth agape.

It was Caden’s expression that unnerved her though. He was the one who held her gaze, but while the emotions of the others were visible, his were hidden. Nothing gave away how he felt with what she just told him. Nothing, besides his white knuckles as he clenched his beer bottle. His silver eyes were filled with a void that she didn’t recognize and it made a shiver of fear run down her spine. The silence continued and she couldn’t take it. She couldn’t take the feeling coming from Caden.

“You asked me why I keep fighting.” She spoke up as she pulled her eyes away from Caden and met Ben’s. “It’s because of her. She sacrificed her own life when she transferred her power to me to safe mine. I’m still fighting because I cannot throw away that gift.” Another tear rolled down her cheek, which she quickly wiped away with the back of her hand. Ben gulped as he took in her words.

“Fucking hell...” Rev breathed. Her eyes snapped to him. He leaned with his elbows on his knees as he looked out of the window.

“King actually tried to kill you?” Devon asked with a small voice. She met his gaze as she nodded. Devon ran his hand over his face as she also looked away. Liv looked at the beer bottle again, before she took another gulp. A weird feeling settled over her. It was something combined with anger, grief, and confusion. Confusion for the fact that this was actually news for them. She figured that Ben and Caden would have known about this, them being Alphas and all. They couldn’t be this good of actors, so why didn’t they know about this? Why didn’t king tell them?

“Why didn’t you know this? Two of you are his Alphas. He usually tells them everything.” She met both gazes of the Alphas. Ben clenched his jaw as he looked away from her and met Caden’s gaze. Neither of them answered her, which means that they didn’t know why King kept them in the dark. What the hell did that mean though?

Ben moved to the table and set down his beer. “I’m gonna go have a word with Luke. Maybe he will be able to tell me more about the things I don’t know.” His voice was filled with venom.

“Why would Luke tell you anything? He was here before you were.” Ben turned back to her. “Because I’m one step higher in the rank.” He said with a wink before he turned back to Caden. “I’ll let you know what he has to say.” Caden said nothing. He only gave one single nod, before Ben walked out of the house. Leaving her with the three.

“Is there actually a rank order among the Alphas?” She asked to no one in particular. “There is.” Rev answered. She looked at him, before her eyes snapped to Caden. “How high in the rank are you?” He gave her a crooked smile. “High enough to expect King to tell me what you just told us.” He was pissed. Rightfully so. If she was in his shoes, she would have been pissed as well. Hell, if she was in his shoes, she would never have given over the pack to King in the first place. He got up from the couch and placed his beer on the table as well. “You can use the room Devon showed you. I’ll send Rev to grab some of your clothes for you to change into.” She nodded before she comprehended what he just said. Liv pushed herself off the wall. “Wait, what?” Caden turned back towards her. “You want me to stay here?” Even Devon and Rev looked at him with a surprised look.

“After what you told me? Yes.” Caden said before he crossed his arms over his chest. “I may have to serve King, but I’m not like him. You and I both know that he will come with questions as soon as you walk like that into the Packhouse. You want to be forced into a situation where you need to tell him what happened today?” He concealed his statement well, she had to give him that, but she still heard what he said and committed it to memory.

I may serve King, but I’m not like him.

Maybe he wasn’t, but he doesn’t have to be like him to be an evil motherfucker. Evil knows a lot of faces and after everything she has been through with him, she already knew he was a villain. What kind was something that still needed to be determined.

He was right though. She already knew that King will attack her with questions as soon as she steps into the Packhouse, and she has no idea how she will answer them. “Fine.”

Caden gave her a small nod before he turned and walked out of the Livingroom and into another room.

§

Liv sat on the back porch, looking out over the piece of lake that was inside of the pack borders, the one she wanted to use to clean herself.

After sitting in the guest room and constantly being drawn to Erik, she couldn’t take it anymore and came out here. The feeling she had from the moment she stepped into the pack hadn’t left her. It actually felt like she was in a whole other place. One she actually enjoyed. One that somehow reminded her of the feeling of home. A weight settled on her chest at the feeling.

“Where are we going?” Liv asked as her father kept his hands in front of her eyes and kept walking. “So impatient.” Her father joked. A female chuckle sounded. “She is your daughter after all.” Her mother said.

They walked on before her father suddenly stopped and placed her on the ground.

“Okay, you can look, my Moon.” He whispered in her ear as he removed his hand from her eyes. Liv blinked against the sudden light that entered her eyes. It took a little while before her eyes adjusted, thanks to the sun that shone on the snow-covered land. She gasped as she looked down towards the pack. They were standing on a cliff that looked out over the valley that housed their home, the pack. She walked a little closer to the edge as she looked down in wonder. It was absolutely beautiful. The snow made it look like the valley was covered in millions of diamonds. The waterfall shone like liquid aquamarine in the sun, which continued in the river that ran straight through the middle of the pack village. Some green poked through the snow that covered the leaves of the trees, and behind the pack, between the gap of the two mountains was the lake and her island. A tear rolled down her cheek as she beheld the beauty. “It’s so pretty.” She breathed. Two soft chuckles came from behind her, before her parents walked to where she was standing. Her mother crouched down next to her. “It’s our home.” Liv looked at her mother and smiled. “Do you want to know a secret?” Her mother whispered. Liv quickly nodded.

Her mother chuckled. “Our home is more special than you think, my love.”

“It is?”

“Oh, it is.” Her mother leaned in a little more and whispered, “And so are you.” Liv chuckled at the breath that tickled her ear. “I am?” Her mother briefly glanced at her father behind her, before she met Liv’s eyes again. “You are, in more ways than one. You have the luxury to choose who you want to be. Where you want to belong.” Her mother brushed Liv’s hair behind her ear. “How will I choose?” Liv asked as she looked at the valley before she met her mother’s gaze once again. “When the time comes, you will know.”

A breeze made her now dry hair dance in the wind. Her eyes caught the color of her strands and her heart squeezed as she thought about her father again. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. As she exhaled, she caught a familiar scent that made her open her eyes.

“What are you doing out here?” Caden’s voice travelled towards where she sat on the lounge chair with her legs pulled up. “I wasn’t aware that I restricted to move outside of the room.” She said as she kept her eyes forward. Caden sat down on the chair next to hers. His scent filled her nose again and the curling sensation came back in her abdomen. Not wanting to give any thought to it, she pushed the feeling away.

“You’re not, although I think you should be.” Caden answered. She looked at him and saw that his eyes were on the lake. She rolled her eyes before she saw something white in his hands. It was a piece of paper.

I’ll send Rev to grab some of your clothes for you to change into.

Dread filled her entire being as she kept her eyes on the piece of paper. It couldn’t be...

She had hidden Finnegans message inside the case of her pillow. There was no way Rev could have found it unless he was actually looking for it. She didn’t have a tail last night. He couldn’t have known about the message.

“Nice work keeping your heartbeat at bay, but the look on your face tells me enough.” Her eyes snapped to his. “How the fuck did you know?” Caden smirked as he opened the paper and read the words of Finnegan.

“You heard the conversation between King and Dwight on the road about Finnegan. After that you tried to run to them for help, and now you have confirmed that you won’t stop fighting or go to extremes to get out of Kings grasp, I knew that you were up to something. I just never figured that you would have already succeeded in sending a message to him.” He said as he folded the paper again. Her breathing was rapid now, but she was more focused than she was before. This guy was only one step behind her. Somehow, he always knew what she was doing or what she was planning and she hated it. Maybe she has been underestimating him, but she hadn’t figured that he would actually be this good at finding out stuff. Something occurred to her then. There is only one reason why he would pick up about all of this so fast. He was trained. Just like she was trained in being observant and notice the things others don’t want you to notice.

“Who helped you?” He asked as he held her gaze. She gave him a small smile. “If you know about the message, you already know who helped me.” He nodded in agreement. “Gerard and Andrew.” He huffed as he moved his legs to either side of the lounge chair and leaned with his elbows on his knees as he looked at her again. “What did you do to make them help you?”

“Why the fuck should I tell you?”

“For the same reason why I’m still holding the message and not reported it to King or any of his lapdogs.” He answered with the same venom in his voice as she had. Why was he even confronting her with it and not dragging her ass to King to report it? Surprise washed over her.

“There it is.” Cader commented as he saw the slight surprise cross her face.

“What the fuck do you want?” Her voice darkened even more. A crooked smirk appeared on his face. “The only thing I ever wanted.” He said as he placed the message in her hand, before he leaned towards her, his voice in a whisper, “To bring King crumbling down to his knees before I rip his head off his body.”

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