242 The Blood Moon Breaks
+4 Points >
Mara
DEEP IN THE NIGHT
“All non-fighting house members and staff to the bunker! We are under attack!”
Alpha Vander’s voice rang through the mind-link, snapping me out of sleep like a slap to the face. My heart was racing before I’d even opened my eyes. Disoriented, breathless, but awake.
I didn’t understand how I could hear Vander’s call directly. But I didn’t have time to question it.
I turned and shook Tiffany, hard. She groaned, confused, but I kept shaking her until her eyes fluttered open.
“We’re under attack,” I said, already on my feet. “Get Emma and get to the estate bunker. Now.”
Panic shot across her face.
“Do you know where it is?” I asked.
She nodded, shaky but clear. Thank the goddess.
I threw on clothes as fast as I could, heart pounding like a war drum in my chest.
Tiffany clutched Emma to her chest, fumbling with her bottle and pacifier. “Where are you going, Mara?”
I turned to her, already fastening my boots. “I’m Luna. Lucian’s not here. That makes me the one in charge.”
Her eyes dropped to my belly. “Lucian will lose it if he finds out.”
“Well,” I said, “he’s not here, is he?”
She didn’t argue. She knew better.
“Come on,” I told her. “You’re not going to the bunker. Too risky to be seen out in the open. I’ll hide you somewhere closer.
She followed without a word.
We stepped into the hallway, dimly lit, air heavy with tension. A man, a staff member, stood near our door. Too alert. Too
still. I slowed.
“Where are you going?” he asked, tone off. There was no respect in it. Just a thin layer of malice.
I didn’t answer. He wasn’t someone I recognized.
I moved forward.
He lunged.
Tiffany ducked as I linked her: Take cover.
I moved fast, caught his wrist mid-strike and twisted hard. Bone cracked. He let out a sharp cry.
I didn’t stop.
I drove my knee into his groin with every ounce of fury I had. He folded.
Then I finished it, slashing his throat repeatedly with my claws, fast and deep. I didn’t stop until the blood was pouring, pooling, unstoppable. He wouldn’t heal from that.
He died at my feet.
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< 242 The Blood Moon Breaks
+8 Points
Tiffany stood trembling, Emma clutched tightly to her chest, too stunned to speak.
“This is from the inside,” I said coldly. “They know Lucian and Darian aren’t here. They think we’re vulnerable.”
I looked down at the corpse.
“They think I’m insignificant.”
I secured Tiffany and Emma inside a hidden chamber, deep within a narrow crawl space behind one of the older servant corridors. It had no scent trails. They’d be safe there.
“You stay quiet,” I said. “No matter what you hear.”
Tiffany nodded, tears brimming but silent. She was brave. Brave for her daughter.
I stepped out and slid the door shut behind me.
Then I turned toward the exit, claws already forming, eyes already shifting.
He chose the wrong night to underestimate me.
And now I was going to make him regret it.
OUTSIDE
The moment I stepped out, I was swallowed by chaos.
Claws. Fangs. Screams. Blood.
It was a full-on battle. Wolves clashed in the courtyard under the fractured moonlight, and the air reeked of blood and betrayal. I spotted Austin and Jason’s wolves tearing through enemies with precision, they were ours.
“Luna, some of the staff are moles,” Austin linked me.
I clenched my jaw. I know.
Lucian had wanted them gone. He should’ve trusted his gut. Now I was fighting traitors in my own home, probably planted in the right-wing to keep eyes on Martha. Alaric’s fingerprints were all over this.
“Get back inside, Mara!” Alpha Vander’s wolf growled through the link. I found him, his massive form tearing through two
enemy wolves at once.
I linked him back, voice sharp. “I’m Luna. You don’t give me orders. This is my duty.”
His wolf froze, eyes locking with mine. Fear flickered in them, not of me, but for me.
“Please, Mara. Think of Lucian. Think of your baby.”
But I was already shifting.
The pain nearly brought me to my knees.
I hadn’t expected that. My bones cracked slower. The fire in my veins dragged. Every tendon felt like it was being torn and re-knitted with razors. Shifting while pregnant wasn’t like shifting before, it hurt like hell.
But I embraced it.
Once the shift completed, I stood still for a moment, panting, grounding myself in the feel of paws on soil, the scent of blood in the air. The rage that had been coiled inside me for weeks uncurled.
I launched into the fight.
I wasn’t built to sit in silk sheets and wait for men to come home. I was a warrior. This was where I belonged.
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5242 The Blood Moon Breaks
I caught the hindleg of an enemy wolf and crushed it between my jaws. He collapsed. I pounced, sank my teeth into his neck, and tore a chunk of it out like it was meat off a bone. Blood sprayed across my muzzle, and I didn’t care.
This wasn’t just war, it was release.
Another wolf blindsided me, slamming into my ribs hard. I hit the ground, snarling.
He smelled like the mansion.
One of ours.
A staff mole. He aimed for my belly, he knew. He thought that would make me hesitate. That I’d back down.
He was dead wrong.
I rose with a snarl so vicious it made his body falter. He saw it, the fury of a mother defending her unborn child, a Luna defending her house, a woman who had bled too much and loved too fiercely to be afraid anymore.
He should’ve run.
He didn’t.
Bad choice.
I tore into him with no mercy.
If I lost this baby, I would grieve. But first, I would make damn sure the bastard responsible never saw another sunrise.
He had touched me the wrong way.
Now he would die for it.
