His Rogue Luna

Artemis

POV

I realised way too late why it was so easy to escape. The dungeons only had one or two guards patrolling and they had been too easy to take out. At first I thought it was a trap, a way for McConor to t*****e me by giving me false hope and crushing it, but it wasn't. I fought all of three guards on my way out of the dungeons and I was free. However, I soon realised two things.

1. I had been kept in the dungeons of the old Silverclaw Guardians.

2. All of the hunters had left to attack the Phantom Pack.

McConor has promised to attack my pack and had taken all his men to do just that.

That jolted me into immediate action. I burst into my wolf form and began running as fast as I could. My feet barely touched the ground as I pushed myself to an impossible speed, my heart pounding loudly in my ears.

I let the anger and pain I had pent up drive me faster and faster. The wind blew hard, as if trying to push me forward and help me, while the stormy clouds above rumbled worriedly.

"You won't know until that precious mate bond of yours breaks and I'll come back to your cell with you dead from the pain."

This overwhelming feeling of dread threatened to break my step, but I used my fear to push me faster.

Without breaking my pace, I tried to mindlink Kieran again, hoping that the stupid witch's curse would have faded, but it didn't.

That familiar throbbing pain hit me, that thick wall in my mind still present, even as I had long left the old territory.

I growled lowly to myself, hoping I would get to the pack lands faster than McConor could.

I had no idea how fast him and his men would be travelling or if they even went to the packs themselves. It would take me a few hours to run all the way back to the north, even if I ran at this speed with no breaks. All I could do was just run and pray.

And that's what I did.

I ran and ran and ran, never breaking my stride. My anger and anxiety prohibited me from resting and the adrenaline never ceased.

My whole life was on the line.

As selfish as it was, if Kieran died, I would follow. Duties be damned.

Soon enough, the climate had changed from the warm and wet air of the south, to the cool and crisp air of the north. The crunching of leaves and branches under my paws turned into the soft padding of snow.

I was getting closer and closer, my senses on high alert for any enemies and trespassers. The forests were deadly silent and I took small comfort in that. The mate bond hummed warmly in my chest as I got closer to the Phantom territory and I smiled to myself, relived that I would be back with Kieran soon.

That warmth quickly faded as I suddenly heard yelling and fighting.

The quiet of the forest was broken by the sounds of a brutal battle, animals and beasts snarling and growling.

Entering my pack lands, I quickly spotted some possessed wolves and vampires running ahead of me, further into the lands. I growled loudly and jumped onto the back of one wolf.

He fell and I landed on top, quickly ripping out his exposed throat. Jumping off him, I chased down the other beasts running away from me and I noticed that they weren't even paying me any mind.

They were hellbent on getting into the territory. I suppose that was McConor's plan. He wanted to attack the helpless citizens of the packs to wipe them out.

With that in mind, I attacked the vampire before me, clawing at his chest while I bit out his throat. When I dug deep enough and tore his heart, he stopped moving and I continued running.

I shifted back, grabbing the nearest clothes I could find and followed the sounds of fighting. However, I faltered in my steps at what I saw.

I spotted Genevieve first. She was fighting in her wolf form, her smaller body making her agile. She was quickly being surrounded by vampires but she managed to throw one off her. While she fought the first vampire, a second one quickly ran at her while she was distracted.

"Gen! Watch out!" I yelled.

I wasn't sure if she heard me or not but it didn't matter.

It was too late.

I watched as the second vampire jumped on Gen, ripping out her throat from behind her. The vampire let her go and ran, but my eyes were fixed on the dark wolf.

Her body was limp and unmoving. I could tell from the disturbing amount of blood pooling underneath her that she was gone.

Gen was dead.

My chest squeezed and tears blurred my vision, threatening to fall. My first friend in this pack and the woman I had grown so close to was gone, just like that, before my very eyes. Gen was dead.

But I couldn't mourn yet. This was a war and I had to fight, to avenge her and the many lives these hunters had wrongly ended.

Hearing a yell, I snapped out of my frozen state and looked around, spotting an angry Apollo. As he fought in his human form, I could see the grief and sadness in his eyes when he glanced over at Gen's lifeless body.

I quickly jumped into action, joining the fight as I tried to look around for Kieran. There was too much chaos around me. I tried making my way towards the center of the battlefield, but it was difficult. There was so many of them.

Spitting out the bitter blood in my mouth, I searched around for familiar faces. I spotted Zayn this time, fighting three wolves in his human form with two swords.

He was handling it well but I could tell he was quickly being outnumbered too. I ran towards him, but I was too far to reach him in time.

Two more wolves jumped on him, knocking him over and I was quickly horrified at how those rabid dogs attacked him.

I heard a loud sickening crunch as I neared and Zayn stopped fighting. The wolves ran off as I finally reached him and the pain in my chest only grew worse.

His neck had been twisted at a horrible angle and I knew instantly he was gone.

I pushed the tears away, and searched once again for my mate. Looking around the battlefield, I finally spotted Kieran who was fighting in his human form too. He managed to doge the snapping jaws of a wolf, stabbing it in the heart with a silver sword, pulling it out just to impale another wolf.

He looked up just as he did that and his face broke out into the tiniest smile, his eyes showing his relief which mine undoubtedly reflected.

The mate bond hummed to life, momentarily distracting me from the pain and I just knew everything would be okay.

Something moving caught my eye and I looked over his shoulder, my face dropping. I watched as a hunter aimed an arrow at Kieran and I screamed.

"Kieran behind you!"

I watched as his face scrunched up before turning slack with surprise. His eyes dropped to his chest just as mine did.

I could see the tip of the arrowhead poking through his shirt. The light fabric stained a bright red, the colour slowly spreading outwards.

I looked back up into the beautiful blue eyes of my mate, all the way across the battlefield. He looked back up at me, his lips quivering, as if trying to say something, before he collapsed onto the floor. "Keiran," My voice came out barely as a whisper.

I couldn't believe what was happening. I couldn't believe what I was witnessing.

The bond in my chest snapped, the pain suddenly washing away every emotion and every sense, leaving me numb and frozen.

First it was Genevieve.

Then it was Zayn.

And now it was my mate?

My everything?

My whole world?

No.

No.

No!

This wasn't fair.

My ears were ringing and my head was pounding. I felt this pressure and this heat build up within me, consume me, until it was all I could feel.

My throat hurt and it wasn't until my ears stopped ringing did I realise I had been screaming. I stopped, opening my eyes back up. I looked at the frozen world around me, my body filled with a darkness I never knew I was capable of. This world was cruel, but I'd be crueler.

I didn't think, I just did.

I slay everything in my path, every monster and beast standing in my way, until I stood over my mate. The world around me resumed its chaos, as the anger in my chest gave way to what was really eating me up inside. Grief, sadness.

I took the arrow protruding from his back out first. The wretched weapon looked exactly like the one that had impaled me not so long ago. Chucking it aside, I lay Kieran carefully on his back, laying him in my lap as I sat on the ground. His face looked almost peaceful. His head was tilted to the sky, as if to gaze at the blue expanse his eyes reminded me so much of.

I stroked his face, the tears and sobs finally coming out as I held his unmoving body close to me.

"You can't leave me Kieran, not now and not ever," I sobbed, cradling his head. "There's so much we haven't done yet. How can I go on without you?"

I sobbed into his blood stained shirt, my face wet with his blood and my tears. I held him as close as I could, inhaling his scent with each breath.

There was a hole in my chest, from where the mate bond used to be, fluttering with love and warmth.

I used to think of the day where that mate bond in my chest would grow and a new bond would form as I brought new life to the world, a child born of our love.

But now I knew that could never be.

I weeped into his neck, mourning the loss of my mate, of our future and the loss of my life.