Page 62 of Taunted By Fate

“Yes, and no. There were others in the forest, in cages. There are others on that pack’s land. Nessa admitted that they sold me into the trades, what do you think they will do to the others? They all think they get to work off their pack debts.”

“Colton, assign someone to these two and then you’re in charge. I will be gathering our best warriors and we will be flying out before the night is over.”

Colton didn’t need to say anything. I watched as one of our older experienced warriors came up behind him.

“Come. We will head to the Cripple Creek lands. So much for a celebration of our mating. We will introduce you once things settle.”

Her palm rested on my cheek and made me pause stepping out of my role.

“Thank you,” she said and stood on tiptoe. I met her halfway, allowing her to kiss me in front of anyone who was there to see.

She was my luna. My other half. Anything was possible, this is what any alpha would dream.

CHAPTER20

Kiara

I sat in his room.It was too quiet, and I didn’t exactly know what to do. I didn’t have much to pack. I’d actually just grabbed the bag Sarah had packed me and pretended I wasn’t already ready to go.

He’d called me his luna. He’s offered I come meet with the elders of the pack, but I wasn’t so sure. Not yet. Luna. I’d gone from pack-less and alone to mated and luna in days. I should have gone with, but I’d asked to just take a moment.

Why? My skin was itching with unease. My wolf paced inside me. It couldn’t all be worry for the girls back in my former prison. There was something else. I’d put on a dress that Sarah had given me and paced around the room.

I was a luna. I was a mate. I belonged. Where had my confidence come from out there? I’d been so angry that everything else inside me had been overshadowed. Logic, reason. Everything.

I hated her so much that I wanted to rip out her throat. Why hadn’t I let him kill her? Because I wasn’t that person. Or maybe I was. I was pretty sure that Nessa would suffer being rejected from her own pack. It would destroy her.

I watched out the window where wolves were down on their knees in lines. There were far more Cripple Creek wolves here than I’d realized. I winced as I watched someone slit the throat of one of them. I assumed he wouldn’t agree to the new the alpha. I should have felt sad or a loss, but maybe this was karma. I don’t think the Black Creek pack needed that kind of toxic negativity.

Too late now.

There was a knock at the door. I still wasn’t clear on how pack connections worked. I could feel everyone in the pack like a spiderweb of invisible nerves reaching out across the fields and through the pack house.

“Come in,” I said without thought and without realizing that whoever was on the other side of the door was not pack.

I turned at the click of the door shutting.

“What you doing here?” my old beta moved too fast for me to adjust. My wolf reacted quickly, but not before we felt a sharp pain down my arm.

“What did you do to me?” I asked. I swung at him and got him in the head. He faltered back and then the door opened again.

“What part of be quiet did you not get?”

I whipped around at the sound of a familiar voice.

“What the hell?” I asked.

She sauntered in like she hadn’t just been tossed out on her ass.

“You think that you can just take my mate and my pack? I worked too hard to get here for you to steal him from me,” Nessa explained as I reached for her.

Everything was feeling heavy, my wolf still fought against it. This wasn’t wolfsbane, that was the only thing I knew.

“What did you do to me?” I asked.

She reached for me and I ducked finding my way closer to the door, except the beta was there to stop me.

“Sleeping drugs. I didn’t come prepared for this, so you’ll just have to deal with what I could get my hands on.”