Bound by Moon & Blood (Book 1)

“What abilities have you mastered?” Not knowing that she had closed her eyes, she forced them open, which was harder to do than she realized, and looked at Ben who had completely calmed down after his rage fit when he saw her scar. She blinked weakly as she wet her dry lips. “I can briefly take control over a wolf which also gives me brief control over their shift, make their blood flow the other way...” She released a long sigh. “And turn blood into water.” She added before she closed her eyes again. Exhaustion slowly getting the better of her. A warm hand was felt against her cheek. Liv opened her eyes again. “You need to keep your eyes open, miss.” Doc said softly. “Falling asleep will push your body to heal faster and that will maim your body if I don’t take out every splinter.”

“I’m so tired.” She said, but her voice came out as a whisper as her eyes closed out of their own account again. Doc pinched her cheek to make her open her eyes again. “I know you are, but you have to stay awake.” He said as he went to work on the last splinters in her side. “How come your wolf hasn’t gone feral yet?” That brought her back to the present a little more. “What?”

“Your wolf side ages like you do, the Moonblood gene is in both your human and wolf skin, but it manifests differently. In your human skin you will learn how to control the blood and all the abilities that come with it. In your wolf skin the Moonblood gene will manifest in your dominance, which you can increase and lessen on command.” What the actual fuck!? She never knew that! Why didn’t she know that!?

Doc continued on, “In their wolf skins, Moonbloods need to learn how to increase and lessen their power, their dominance properly and in time they will learn how to push commands to wolves without even needing any form of communication. The power of a Moonblood comes from blood no less, which gives them the ability to connect with the wolves around them in their wolf skin. They just need to learn how.” Doc finally looked at her and saw her shocked face and wide eyes. He stopped working as he raised his eyebrows. “You did know that right?”

“By looking at her face, I’m guessing: hell no.” Ben interjected as he leaned backwards in his chair and crossed his arms.

“How can you not know!?” Accusation, was clear in Doc’s voice. “This is basic Moonblood knowledge, everyone who knows about Moonbloods know this!”

“How the fuck should I know!? No one ever told me that I needed to learn how to control my power in my wolf skin as well!” Chills ran over her skin as she realized something else. Not caring about ripping her wound open more she bolted upright. “What the fuck will happen to a Moonblood if she doesn’t learn how to control her power in her wolf skin? What makes the wolf go feral?”

“You need to lay back down, miss.” Doc laid a hand on her good shoulder to push her back down, but she stopped him as she grabbed his wrist. “Tell me, Doc.”

“The building power inside of their body will become more of a curse than a gift.” Ben said, which made her look at him. “It becomes a force of its own and it will drive you insane in your wolf skin as you won’t recognize the feeling of it in that body and if that feeling becomes too strong, it will make you feral and unhinged. You will basically be stuck in your wolf skin and be controlled by your power.”

“I thought that forcing the shift back was the only thing that could make a wolf feral.” Ben huffed at her whisper. “Stopping yourself from shifting won’t make a wolf go feral, no matter how long you force to stay in your human skin. Lycanthropes can’t go feral without an illness of the mind.” Liv actually felt the blood drain from her face. All this time she thought that the wolf could go feral just because of her forcing herself to stay human. No one had told her this before, not even her parents. What the fuck were they thinking?

“You don’t have to worry about anything, miss. If you have shifted skins recently and the wolf hasn’t gone feral yet, you still have time.”

“Well then, it’s a good thing that Cay drove you to force your shift, huh?” She gulped as she looked at Ben and nodded, knowing that if she opened her mouth, he would know for sure that she and Devon had been lying their asses off about her shift.

“It really is, if the wolf inside of you had gone feral, it would be a problem for all of us and not just because of whatever is happening to your kind, but a feral Moonblood is basically one of the most dangerous wolves that will ever exist. The last one had killed almost half of the Lycanthrope population, including three of the King’s sons, before Lycaon finally killed her.”

“She killed three Lycans!?” Liv couldn’t believe her ears. No wolf was strong enough to kill a Lycan and yet a Moonblood feral had killed three! Her heart started to constrict in her chest. This wasn’t good and she knew what it meant. Including the fate that awaited her if she indeed becomes feral when she shifts.

“Lycaon killed her?” Her voice couldn’t get smaller.

“He did.”

“Well, more like he had to.” Ben interjected. “He was the only one who could. Since a feral Moonblood is raw power, no other could kill her, but the king of the Lycanthropes himself. It was even a hard battle for him as she matched his power range and it was literally a fifty-fifty battle. No one was sure who would win, until Lycaon succeeded by distracting her first.” This was getting worse and worse...

“How did he distract her?”

“Why they did not tell you this about your history is beyond me.” Doc mumbled, before Ben answered her question. “Lycaon had sent his sons to find the one thing that will affect her even if she was feral.” Realization dawned on her. “Her mate.” Ben nodded. “Long story short, Lycaon found him and as revenge for killing her three sons, he killed her mate in front of her eyes, crippling her with grief and pain as she could only focus on her mate and not Lycaon who used the distraction to rip her spine out of her back.” Liv flinched at the words and it was like she could feel the wolf inside of her curl into herself to hide from them. This was so bad... All this time and she never once wondered what would happen if she, if a Moonblood, goes feral. If the last one killed three Lycans and could only be killed by Lycaon himself, what will she be able to do if her wolf turns out to be feral?

She didn’t want to find out, but she knew she was going to have to. This was what both Emil and Devon warned her about and she didn’t even stop to think why they were so worried about it in the first place. She had never been this stupid in her life and she knew that whatever was going to happen is her own fault. No matter if no one told her about any of this, she was the one who made the decision to suppress the wolf inside of her and she doomed herself with it.

§

Liv watched out over the lake from the back porch again. Doc had cleaned her wounds completely and they were already healing faster. She could even move her again. After he was done, she had taken a shower and dressed herself in a black nightgown which exposed her entire back, except for two thin straps that crossed over her back. The front was straight and the silky material fell to the floor. There was a split on her right side which ran up until it ended just beneath her hip. She would have never worn something like this if Doc hadn’t insisted to give her wounds as much rest as possible. Liv had argued as he had bandaged her wounds after her shower, but he was relentless and, in the end, she just went with it. Her hair danced in the cool breeze as goosebumps formed on her skin. Her mind had shut down after the information she had gotten from Doc and Ben. She just couldn’t think about it without her own emotions forcing to shift so she could find out if her wolf would indeed go all powerful, killing machine, feral Moonblood. A weight had formed on her chest and she knew that it wasn’t going to go away anytime soon. She pulled her legs up the chair and wrapped her arms around them as she rested her head on her knees.

She could hear voices coming from inside the house. Nessa was ordering someone to take out the dirty water and get clean water for her. When she came into the house Liv understood why Rev had been so upset with the state of the house. Nessa explained why after she had calmed down and wiped away her tears. The cabinet, that Luke had broken when he threw her into it, had been one of the very few things Nessa had from her parents who had been killed when she was a child. Liv hated Luke even more because of it and she couldn’t blame Rev for being so irritated about it. Liv had apologized to them both, but Nessa had given her a weak smile and told her that it wasn’t her fault and that she wasn’t angry with Liv. That may be, but Liv was still angry with herself because of it. She was the reason why they came into their house in the first place and that makes her responsible.

Children’s laughter filled her ears and pulled her out her own isolation. Three kids and a small wolf ran into the backyard. She recognized them as she looked at them play with the little wolf. Bo and Dustin lifted Rev’s daughter as the pup bolted underneath her. A small smile crept over her face as she looked at the carefree kids. Her mind wondered to the pup that laid upstairs. Erik. His life wasn’t carefree, he was barely even alive...

The contrast between them made the situation she was in brutally known. They may play, but they aren’t carefree. They may be alive and walking right now, but one word of the Prime Alpha and their lives will be forfeit. Just like hers will be. This world wasn’t designed to be peaceful and a haven. Every day is a fight for survival, just like Zeus wanted when he cursed Lycaon and his sons. Artemis might have made the Lycanthropes and Moonbloods to help Lycaon and his sons, but all she did was making a brutal race that have no other purpose but to kill and gain power. Their race has no purpose on this planet and maybe that is why the Moonbloods are dying. Maybe the gods themselves saw that it was a failed experiment and decided to end it. And maybe, Liv agreed with them...

“Why a-e u c-ng?”

She was pulled out of her thoughts by a girl’s voice and looked at Rev’s daughter who was standing in front of her.

“Sorry?” Liv asked as she wasn’t sure what the girl had asked her. The girl climbed on top of the lounge chair, where Liv’s legs were supposed to be, and wiped a tear from Liv’s cheek. “Why are you crying?” She asked as she held out her wet finger for Liv to see. Liv didn’t even know she had been crying. Sitting a little straighter, she wiped the other tears from her cheek. “Are you okay?” The girl asked. Liv gave her a weak smile and nodded. “I’m okay.” The girl’s eyes slipped from her own to the bandage of her shoulder before they went to the collar on her neck.

“Why did those bad wolves hurt you?” The girl asked as she met Liv’s gaze again. Liv saw the innocence in her eyes and her heart constricted. She didn’t know how to answer.

“Frida!” Bo called. Frida looked behind her and nodded, before she looked back at Liv and wrapped her arms around her. Liv sat a little shocked as the little arms squeezed her shoulders. Frida pulled away and gave her a small smile before she jumped off the lounge chair and ran back to the others. Liv followed her with her eyes and sucked in a breath as she saw the bruises on both Bo’s and Dustin’s faces. The memory of Rev calling Caden away because the two were in trouble resurfaced. Before she could even decide if it was a good idea she got up from the chair and walked quickly towards the four. The pup growled as he saw her approach, but she didn’t care. She fell on her knees in front of Dustin who had a nasty black eye and a split lip. Bo had a large bruise with a cut on his forehead. She gently took his chin and turned his head a little to reveal that his ear was also bloody and had a few cuts.

“What happened to you two?!” She asked shocked as she dropped her hand. Bo and Dustin looked at each other before they looked back at her. “We are okay, Alpha helped us.” Bo answered.

“That is not what I asked. What happened?” As she asked the question a feeling came over her. Her power. She looked down and took Dustin’s hand in hers before she lifted it. “Don’t!” Dustin tried to cover it up with his sleeve but she still saw the bandage, the blood that was starting to seep through, and the shape they took.

Claw marks.

“Alpha said you couldn’t see that!” The pup exclaimed as he pulled Dustin by his shoulders away from her. “Why? Who did this?” She asked, barely containing her anger. “You don’t need to know.” The pup said with a snarl.

“Why not?”

“Because...”

“They wanted to help you.” Frida interjected from next to her.

“Frida, no!” Bo said as he came up next to her. Her heart was slowly picking up pace as she started to realize what Frida just said. “What happened?” No one answered. She released a long sigh as she dropped her head. “Please, just tell me.” She practically begged as she looked back up.

“Two wolves were laughing when you screamed.” Dustin said with a small voice. Oh gods, please no...

“They said that you deserved the pain. Bo said you didn’t and they did and they started to beat us.” Liv fell on her ass as she looked at the boys who took a beating for standing up for someone they don’t even know. For her. “Alpha came and helped us. The wolves are in the infirmary.” Flashbacks of her getting beat up for trying to help her mother resurfaced and it forced tears out of her eyes.

“We’re sorry.” Dustin said as he saw her tears. Liv shook her head as she reached out and gently cupped his cheek. “No, I am.” Her voice trembled. “You didn’t deserve to get beaten up for defending me.” Dustin gave her a small smile, before he grimaced at the pain from his split lip.

The boys were human. They won’t heal like a Lycanthrope will and they will have the wounds for weeks. Her chest started to ache. They didn’t deserve the pain they were feeling. The pain they got because of her. The pressure in her chest intensified and her power woke up with it. She wanted to take their pain away and as if her power agreed, it started to hum inside of her. Liv gasped at the new sensation that came with it. Without any training she knew what she had to do; her power told her how to. She focused on it and willed her power to heal Dustin, to take away his pain. Pain flared in her abdomen. It was a pain she knew all too well, but she held on. Dustin gasped as well before the bruises started to slowly disappear. Another tear rolled out of her eye as she dropped her hand and reached out of Bo to take it. He did with wide eyes and a small gasp came out of him as her power worked its way through his body and healed him as far as her newfound powers could. She felt herself getting weaker by the second and when she couldn’t hold on anymore, she released Bo’s hand and the breath she was holding. Liv doubled over as she grabbed for her abdomen and breathed through the excruciating pain. “Are you okay?” Dustin asked as he fell on his knees in front of her. Liv willed herself to sit up. A small smile appeared on her face as she saw the, now barely visible, bruise and smooth lip where the cut had been. She looked at Bo and saw that his bruise had almost disappeared as well and that the cuts had almost healed. “Wow!” Her head snapped back to Dustin who looked at the claw marks that were now nothing more than five angry red scars. That explains why she had no power left to heal the other small wounds completely. “Thank you!” Bo said as he attacked her with a hug. Dustin quickly joined him and Frida and the pup soon followed. Her lip trembled as a sob and chuckle left her.

She had actually used her power for something new without having the guidance of her mother!

She had actually healed them.

“Bo, Dustin, Sven, Frida!” Nessa’s voice sounded from behind them. They let Liv go and gave her bright smiles before they ran towards the house. She looked over her shoulder and saw Nessa’s face drain from blood as she looked at the happy boys who were rambling on about how Liv healed them. Nessa’s eyes snapped to her. Liv smiled and gave her a nod. Nessa looked at her with a calculating look before she formed the words ‘thank you’ with her mouth and ushered the boys into the house.