Bound by Moon & Blood (Book 1)

Liv didn’t know how long she sat there holding her knees. The storm inside of her had started to calm down, and the tears shed, had now dried on her cheeks. Yet, she hasn’t looked up. She knew she had to eventually, but she didn’t trust herself just yet. She didn’t trust herself to keep the control she finally got back now. The only relieve was the fact that the wolf inside of her hadn’t fought her way out, and forced her shift. Something was truly wrong with her if she thought of that as a relieve. It was, in fact, something that was worrisome. It shouldn’t be possible for the wolf to be just as weak as the human side is. It was against every primal instinct that had to do with protecting and surviving, yet that was how she saw it. As a relieve.

Everything in her body hurt.

Everything that was her entire being hurt.

Whatever it was that happened with Dawn had to be linked to whatever it is that’s killing the Moonbloods. Liv had never felt anything like that before. It was like Dawn was sucking the power out of her and with it, her entire life essence.

King had called it a curse.

Dawn had called it a sickness.

It was clear to her that it is probably both. A curse that calls forth a sickness that weakens and kills them. It was the only explanation for what had happened, because a sickness would for sure as hell not affect her like this. Affect them both like this.

Lycaon is more acquainted with the Mageía of the gods than anyone, but casting a curse is not something he is known for. In fact, Lycaon is known for refraining the use of Mageía, because of the curse Zeus had bestowed on him. He hates it, so why would he use it to curse his daughter’s race? Everything inside of her told her that she was indeed right about it not being Lycaon who was doing this to the Moonbloods, but if he didn’t, who did?

A soft knock pulled her out of her thoughts. Yet, she didn’t answer. She didn’t want to talk to any one of them. But of course, they were here to make her life a living hell even more than it already was.

Right on cue with her thoughts, the door opened and one pair of footsteps walked in, before the door was closed again. She heard, whomever it was, sigh. Footsteps approached her. The scent of her tormentor filled her nose, one she had never smelled before. Her instincts pushed her into fight-mode and before she even could stop herself, her head shot up and met the eyes of the new wolf. One she actually had seen before, but just hadn't acknowledged.

It was her guard, the wolf of Caden’s pack who had been here when she had broken down into nothing.

“If you truly are the badass, dangerous and lethal mercenary everyone is talking about, they are seriously misinformed and overexaggerating.”

Liv truly wondered how much hate she can carry to be able to hand it out to so many people.

“Wolves are always overexaggerating. Especially when it comes to their dick size so that’s nothing new.” Her words were right on point. Her voice on the other hand... Let’s just say it was like she hadn’t talked in weeks and her vocal cords weren’t used to the strain. A small smile appeared on the wolf’s face as he looked down on her. “Even after humiliating yourself, you still act though, even though we both know that you are nothing more than a girl who plays an act.”

“Believe whatever you want to believe, dude. I’m not here to prove myself to anyone.”

“No, just to sire wolves for King.”

Liv scoffed and shook her head. “He’s an idiot if he thinks I will ever do anything for him.” The wolf crouched down in front of her. “I think you and I both know that you will not have a lot of choices.” How right he was... “King breaks whomever he wants, or he just takes the easy road and injects you with his special little serum. He always succeeds.” The wolf added. A muscle ticked in her jaw as she held his gaze. “He won’t succeed with me.” The wolf tilted his head to the side and gave her a crooked smile. “Right, that’s why he knew you would not be able to take the hit of you being forced to stay in the room your mother stayed in.” Her chest constricted and she couldn’t help the tear that rolled down her cheek. Liv immediately cleared her throat and wiped her tear away as she averted her gaze, forcing herself to take in the room again. She still felt the pain, but she knew she could handle it now.

“King will break you, Kerra.” Her gaze shifted back to the wolf. “You won’t be able to withstand him.”

“Just because he knew I would break down once I was brought here, doesn’t mean that he will succeed in breaking me.”

“How can you be so sure you will be able to withstand him when so many Alphas, who were stronger than you ever hope to be, have not been able to.” She clenched her jaw as her gaze turned hard towards him. “You don’t know how strong I am, so don’t presume anything about me.” The twitching of the corners of his mouth, made her want to kick his ass through the window. “I will be able to withstand him. How I will do that, is my reason to know.” The wolf gave her an impressed look before he stood back upright. “I guess we will see.”

“I guess you will.”

The wolf snickered, before he shook his head.

They will see, because if there is one thing, she has learned from her time living here, it was that once broken by King, you can never be broken again. His methods were always the same. Forcing her to stay in her mother’s room was indeed something he knew would be too much for her to handle, but after everything, who would be able to handle that?! He broke her once and she will never be broken by him again. She was going to make damn sure about that. Liv was going to fight him every step of the way and before the end, he will pay for everything he has done.

“I’m Rev, I will be your guard so don’t try anything, because I don’t care about the rule to not hurt female’s.”

“As does everyone in this gods forsaken pack.” Rev looked back at her. “And Rev? Seriously? What kind of a name is that? Did your parents hate you or something?” He snorted.

“Says the Moonblood girl who her mother named after darkness instead of light.” Liv shrugged, causing her body to scream out in pain and tears to fill her eyes. She cleared her throat to make sure her emotions didn’t shine through her words. “At least I know for sure my mother loved me. How sure are you about that, now that you’re serving a monster? Your mommy and daddy can’t be too glad about that.” The amusement faded instantly from his face as his gaze turned hard. “You don’t know anything, girl.” Liv couldn’t help the satisfied smirk on her face, knowing she just got under his skin. “Just looking at you, tells me enough.” She forced her body to move. Slowly and, very, painfully she pushed herself in a standing position, using the wall as an anchor. Another tear rolled down her cheek at the pain, but she didn’t care as she looked at him. “I don’t give a crap that you’re my guard. Just stay out of my sight and you and I won’t have a problem.”

“Then we are going to have a lot of problems coming our way.”

She snorted as she gave him a toothy grin. “Looking forward to it, Rev.”

§

Somehow, she had managed to ignore Rev, make it to the bed and leave her consciousness for a couple of hours before she woke up with a grumbling stomach. She groaned as she opened her eyes and blinked against the sunlight in the room. Liv threw her arm over her eyes as she turned on her back. Barely shifting her arm, she looked at the door and saw Rev standing in front of it, watching her. She groaned again. “Of course, you are still here.” Rev smirked at her. “I would say that I had left about ten hours ago and returned eight hours later, but you wouldn’t know anything about it as you were snoring your way through the day and night.” Liv removed her arm completely as she looked at him. “How long have I slept?”

“You fell asleep around noon yesterday and it’s now nine in the morning, so you do the math.” Almost a day. She had slept for about twenty-one hours. Liv pushed herself in a sitting position and noticed that the pain in her body was completely gone and her energy replenished. Which is normal since she slept longer than she ever had before. It wasn't unusual though. Lycanthropes and Moonbloods could go in a state of hibernation to replenish their energy and sleep for a long time. Actual hibernation was not possible though. The longest a Lycanthrope had ever slept was about forty hours. It was so long that the pack doctor thought he was in a coma. The deep sleep, as it was called, happened without the knowledge of the Lycanthrope or Moonblood, they would only know when they wake up. Like Liv had now.

“King actually allowed me to stay in the deep sleep?” Rev’s eyebrows shot up at her question. “You do know that King wants to keep you alive and healthy for as long as possible since you are now his only source of Moonblood power.” Now it was her turn to raise her eyebrows. “Healthy? Seriously?” Rev rolled his eyes at her. “Pain doesn’t infect your health, weakness does.”

“Are you stupid?” She asked as she got off the bed and stretched her limbs, relieved to feel the tightness of her muscles disappear. “Pain affects your health just as much as weakness does, besides, weakness is caused by pain, so that’s also where you are wrong.” A small smile appeared on Rev’s face. “What are you smiling about?” Liv asked as she dropped her arms.

“Pain is weakness?” Rev asked, before he shrugged. “For some it might be, for others it makes them stronger.” He gave her a slightly pointed look. “Is that look supposed to mean something?” Rev chuckled a little. “It might or it might not.” Sure, let’s keep it normal and not vague. What the fuck did he mean with that? An icky feeling came over her and she didn’t really know why, but she didn’t trust him or the look he gave her.

“Like what you see?”

Liv realized that she was indeed staring at the guard and quickly collected herself. Yet, she did notice his features. He had long dark red hair bound together in a low ponytail and green eyes, his muscles were on point and if she had to admit it, he was truly handsome. As were all the freaking Lycanthropes. Seriously, there weren’t any bad looking Lycanthropes out there, it was like the genes for formidable looks was always present in their bodies and makes them look like a wannabe Adonis.

“Have seen better.” Rev snorted and shook his head.

She looked at where he stood and the door behind him. King had told her that she was allowed to roam freely, but what did that actually mean and what was going to happen next? She hated not knowing her fate.

“You look like you have a question.” Rev said as he saw her look. “What is going to happen now?” She asked, not elaborating further as Rev already got what she meant. “King is busy right now, so I would say enjoy the peace and quiet before he comes for you.” Liv frowned as she met his gaze. “What do you mean ‘he is bust right now’?”

“That he is busy.” Rev stated as a matter of fact. Yet, she didn’t understand any of it. “You mean to say that he dragged me all the way here to not use me immediately? Why? Why would he wait?” Rev gave her an arched look. “Are you so eager to be used as an object?”

“No, of course not, but...”

“Then don’t whine and enjoy the time of semi-freedom.”

She knew she should listen to him, because he was actually right, but she didn’t understand it. Why would King wait? It’s not like he needed her consent to sire wolves, he just needed to inject the mixture of aconite and poppy milk in the base of her neck and she would obey him without objecting. Not that she will ever allow him to inject her with it, but still. There was no normal reason. So, what the hell is more important than his precious wolves? Besides the fact of the curse... Her throat went dry as she took a step towards Rev. “Dawn is she...?”

“Still alive and breathing for now.” The tension in her body immediately disappeared. “She’s busy irritating the Alphas during their training right now.” An involuntary snort left her. Dawn irritating the Alphas? That was something she definitely wanted to see happening. “You are going to follow me around, aren’t you?” Liv asked as she took a few more steps towards him. “Oh, come now, Kerra, don’t think for one second that you are ever going to be allowed to be out of my sight the coming days.” She threw a glare at him. “What? They don’t think that this,” Liv grabbed the collar around her neck. “Is enough?” The pins in her neck moved as she released the collar. Clenching her teeth, she breathed through the brief pain. Rev sighed through his nose as his eyes shifted to the collar and back to her eyes. “That will do nothing to help you when something happens to you. So, no, it’s not enough.” There was a truth in that, but that didn’t mean she was going to like it one bit. The fact that he was here when she slept was already something that didn’t sit right with her. As very many things didn't right now. “I can argue with you, but it won’t do anything, will it?” Rev chuckled as he shook his head at her. “Finally starting to understand how things work here, huh?” Liv rolled her eyes as she walked towards him and he moved out of the way before he opened the door for her. “I have known how things work here for longer than you.” Rev snorted and shook his head as he met her gaze before she walked out of the door. “Think again, girl.” She looked over her shoulder at him as he closed the door and decided not to comment on it.

Liv walked through the halls and down the stairs. As soon as she entered the living room growls filled the air. She rolled her eyes as she looked at the wolves on the couch and gave them a wiggle with her fingers. The fact that she wasn’t exactly loved around here, was something she was already familiar with. The fact that she didn’t care about any of it, was something they will soon be familiar with. She walked to the kitchen and entered. The glares she got from the servant slid from her skin like they were waterdrops. Grabbing an apple, she walked out of the backdoor into the cool air. A shiver went down her spine at the cold air, but she breathed in the freshness as she walked to the training grounds behind the Packhouse.

King had always made sure that his pack was the best trained one out there, even if it meant putting his wolves through a lot of pain and broken bones. It’s not like they feel much of the pain, right? They are after all Lycanthropes which means they heal a lot faster, so they can take it. At least that’s what King had always told her when she was forced to watch the harsh training routines of the wolves and the even more brutal ones of the Alphas. The fact that King wanted his wolves to be the best trained ones out there also applied to the Alphas, if not even more. Alphas have to be the best warriors of the pack, and given the fact that their packs are all combined here, they have to be the best warriors of all of the wolves here. Which is almost impossible as the wolves here were trained to be better than the Alphas. True, the Alphas have more power, strength and speed, but that didn’t mean that they were superior over the wolves in this pack when it usually does. It was another difference between a normal pack where the Alpha was always the superior and King's pack where he is the only superior one while there were nine other Alphas here. They need to work for it and King never made it easy for anyone. If anything, he made it even harder if he saw the chance. Liv walked over the grounds, ignoring the looks she got from basically everyone. Soon the training grounds came into view and so did the training Alphas. Dawn on the side with her legs crossed over each other and shouting one remark after another. Liv snorted as she heard the insults Dawn threw at them, and shook her head before she finished her apple and threw the leftovers in the grass for the animals.

“Seriously, you call that a punch, James? My dead grandmother can even hit harder than you can.” Dawn said, earning a growl and irritated look from James. “Oh, I’m so scared right now, like oh my gods, I can’t even.” Dawn said in a monotone voice, earning another growl from James, who flipped her off.

“I thought I was going to be the one who pisses everyone off in this pack.” Dawn’s face brightened as she looked at Liv who stopped and stood next to her. “Oh, believe me, that has been my job since I turned ten. You’re welcome to join though.” Liv looked at Dawn and chuckled. She sat down next to her sister. Pulling her knees up she wrapped her arms around them and saw Luke delivering a brutal kick to the side of Ben. A normal person would grimace seeing a kick like that, like Dawn did, but not Liv. It was nothing new and besides, when it came to fighting, she went into her mercenary mode. Nothing phased her when that happened.

“How are you feeling?” Liv looked back at Dawn. “I haven’t seen you since yesterday.”

“I’m fine, just have been in the deep sleep.” Liv said before she heard one of the Alphas scream and saw that Caden had pinned Jackson on the grass and broken his arm. “I heard you yell, Kerra. We all did. I’m so...”

“Don’t apologize.” She interjected as she looked back at her sister. “You weren’t the one who put me there.” Her words were harsher than she intended, but then again, she didn’t want her sister to think she needed to apologize for something her father had done. Dawn gulped and nodded. “I’m fine, Dawn, truly. Don’t worry about me.” Her sister gave her a small smile and nodded again. “Okay.” Liv gave her a small smile as well before she looked back at the Alphas. Jackson was standing and fighting again. Her eyes were drawn to Dwight and Stefan, who were trying to figure out who’s legs were going to be tangled up faster as they kept kicking them out, over and over again. When their kicks did meet flesh it gave a sickening crunching sound, which earned a scream from the males and nothing, absolutely nothing from her.

“Um, Kerra?” Liv looked at Dawn who gave her a worried gaze. “What?”

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Liv scrunched her eyebrows at her. “Yeah, why?”

“Because you are so unphased by the Alphas that it actually scares me.” Dawn said. Liv’s eyebrows shot up. Dawn was scared because she didn’t react to the brutal training of the Alphas? Wow, she really doesn’t know what Liv has done to get paid then. “I am okay, I...” She sighed as she looked back at the Alphas and saw Daniel being thrown on the ground as Edward used his knee to break Daniel’s ribs. A scream left his mouth before they both were panting. “I just have had a life that involved a lot of fighting.” She finished.

“So, you really were a mercenary?” Dawn asked, drawing Liv’s gaze back to her. “You killed and tortured people just because someone else wanted you to.”

Liv has never been ashamed for being a mercenary, but seeing the look on Dawn’s face did her more than she was going to admit. A soft sigh left her mouth as she nodded. Dawn gulped as she looked at the Alphas, Daniel and Edward were panting on the ground and it looked like Dwight and Stefan was about done as well.

“Why would you do that?” The judgement was clear in Dawn’s voice. It even caused Luke and Ben to look their way. “Why would you willingly do that?” Liv swallowed as she looked back at Dawn. “It wasn’t like I didn’t try to do, to be, anything else, but every time King found me. No matter where I went, every job I had was a lifeline for King to follow directly to me. The only way I could get away from him was to disappear and being a mercenary gave me that option. It was the only job where I didn’t need to tell anyone my name or anything about myself. It was the only way for me to survive, so in the end I gladly did all the shit I had to do to get paid.” It was the honest truth. A truth that Dawn clearly didn’t understand even though she knew what her father was capable of.

“How old were you when you started?” Dawn asked silently.

“Not much older than you are right now.”

Dawn swallowed visibly as she looked away from her and focused on the grass. She knew that not everyone would understand why she chose to be a mercenary, but it didn’t matter. She didn’t regret making the choice and, in the end, it had kept her safe for eleven years. Her sister didn’t need to understand, she just needed to know what Liv’s reasons had been.

“If it had kept you safe for so long, how can it be that you are back here?” Dawn asked as she looked back at Liv. “How did King find you?”

“You should ask Gerard or Andrew that question since they know more about that.” Dawn paled at her words. “You are not serious.”

“Deadly.” Liv said with a darker voice. “They sold me out, King laid a trap for me to fall in and now I am here.”

“What kind of trap?”

“We made a contract to have her kill a wolf of Finnegan’s pack who had been following us.” Dwight said as he walked towards the girls with a water bottle. “We knew that it was no certainty that she would actually take it, so we made a phone call to her boss and Emil made sure she took it. We laid waiting for her to kill the bastard and when she tried so hard to hide her scent, we already had a lock on her. After that, all we had to do was wait for her to feel pretty confident that she had gotten away and make our move.” He explained with a smirk as he held her gaze. Liv looked at him with a passive expression. She had already figured that everything he told her had happened and she had enough time to be angry about it. Right now, she was just annoyed by his entire being as she always was.

“Done being proud of yourself?” He snorted before he took another drink. “Never.”

“How many have you killed?” A little taken aback, Liv met Dawn’s gaze. “Pardon?”

Dawn shrugged. “How many have you killed during your time as a mercenary?” Too many.

“Do you really want to know if I’m an even worse person than you think I am?”

“You are not a bad person, Kerra.” Liv gave her a pointed look. “Okay, I would have liked to hear that my big sister wasn’t an actual killer for hire, but I also know that you indeed didn’t really have any other choice, so I'm curious.” Dawn said with a small smile as she shrugged again. “It’s not like killing is something that is weird or not done in our way of life.” That it wasn’t. Lycanthropes had a habit of killing those who were a threat to them or their pack. “So, how many did you kill?” Dawn asked again. Liv sighed as she knew that the reaction to the number was going to be fun. Notice the sarcasm... She looked back at Dawn. “Thirty-three.” Dawn’s eyes went wide and her mouth fell open. “You killed thirty-three humans?!”

“No, thirty-two humans. One wolf.” She said as she looked back at Dwight, who smirked again. “Damn... I knew you were a badass, just didn’t know you were that deadly as well.” Dawn murmured, but Liv still heard her little sister.

“She might be deadly, but if she would have to fight any of us, she would lose.” Jackson said as he walked towards them as well. Liv’s eyes shifted to Caden who also looked at her. “You sure about that? Last time I checked I almost killed one of you twice.” Caden snorted as he rolled his eyes at her. “You wish you almost killed me, Moonblood.” Her eyebrows shot up. “I shot you with a silver bullet filled with aconite,”

“Yes, that did hurt, by the way.” Caden cut in, but Liv continued anyway. “And if Gerard hadn’t shown up you would have lost your head in the motel room. So, yes, I did almost kill you twice.”

“Both of those times didn’t kill me and it wouldn’t have either way, so, no, you didn’t almost kill me.” Caden said as he crossed his arms over his, drenched with sweat, T-shirt. His workout pants hung low on his hips and it was hard not to look at him. “Well, my apologies then, next time I’ll make sure that I’ll cut out that ego of yours before I try to kill you.” Caden got an amused look on his face as he held her gaze. “Looking forward to see you try, Moonblood.” Liv flipped him off which earned a chuckle from Dawn. Liv looked over her shoulder at her sister who had an amused look as well.

“Well, how about we put it to the test?” Liv looked at Stefan who took a step towards her. “You say you almost killed Caden, but I want to see if you truly have the skill to actually take one of us on.” Her eyebrows shot up. “Just ask him.” She said as she motioned to Caden. “Why would I need to prove anything to you?” Stefan walked forward and bend at the waist so he was closer to her. “You do remember how things works in the pack, right?” Her eyebrows shot down as a muscle ticked in her jaw. Stefan smirked as he also saw that she got it.

One of the things King had always implemented in the pack was the Survival of the Fittest. Every three months there was a full-on fight between all the warriors of the pack and those who end up beaten within the, by King determined, time limit they will get punished for being weak and their training would even be more brutal. The Survival of the Fittest was a way for King to make life so much worse for his warriors and to feed the urge to survive the wolves. If they were too weak, they wouldn’t survive long in this pack and so they push themselves to become better and stronger, resulting in the fact that there are too many pompous wolves with way too big ego’s living in the pack. In her time here, she had witnessed a few of the fights, and every time multiple wolves would end up in the infirmary with too severe wounds for their body to heal properly.

Liv balled her fists as she glared at Stefan. “Since when does the Survival apply to a Moonblood?”

“Since one of them decided to become a mercenary.” Stefan said with a smirk. “So, you do have something to prove, Kerra. Are you going to back down and admit you’re as weak as we know you are or are you going to end up in the infirmary for that ego of yours?”

“You’re sure that last one applies to me?’ Liv countered. Stefan’s eyes turned amber as he stood back up straight. “Prove if the last part applies to me then.”

She knew she shouldn’t. Even though she was strong, quick on her feet and an excellent fighter, Stefan was an Alpha who had a large pack before he joined King. A powerful one. Besides that, he also had his full support of his wolf, where she had none. Liv knew that she would be able to hold her own against him for a while, but, thanks to his wolf, his stamina wouldn’t run out like hers will. Yet, she knew that walking away wouldn’t be an option. She moved to get up, but Stefan immediately pushed her back to the ground. Dawn yelped a she quickly moved out of the way. Liv threw up her legs, bound them around his shoulders, and pushed her legs down with all the strength she had. Stefan grunted as he lost his grip and fell back. Liv instantly moved to her feet. Stefan smirked at her as he also got up.

“Oh, this is going to be fun.”