Moon Bound

Judah

Having to walk away from Marisol as she laid in that hospital bed was the hardest thing that I have ever had to do.

My beautiful mate who had once again sacrificed herself for everyone was left to be hooked up to machines to let everyone know if her vitals were stable or not.

All I wanted to do is hold her hand, thank her and tell her how much I love her. Instead I had to rush to the South pack to help them deal with the aftermath of the attack.

I had to watch as women cried for their fallen mates, mothers and fathers grieved their pups and Atlas hang his head in shame over losing pack members.

The fact that the witches have gone so low in an attempt to completely get rid of us is frustrating. We have never done anything to provoke this.

“Alpha Judah.”

Cole’s voice snaps me out of my thoughts.

I turn to him and give him my attention. “Yes.”

“I believe that it is all clear here and that you should return to our Luna Queen. Atlas and I have come up with some solutions, one of them being that all of the packs have a curfew. When the sun comes down it is mandatory for everyone to be in one of the safe rooms. It will be for the best, no magic can penetrate inside.”

I nod. “That will be for the best, the South pack defended itself the best that it could, it is a good thing that some of the warriors that you trained were here. Without them this could have looked like Alpha Wren’s pack again.”

Cole solemnly shook his head. “A complete disaster.” He stated before he looked over his shoulder before turning to look at me again. “I would like to gain your permission to stay here. I am not sure if the witches will perceive them as weak and attempt to strike again.”

“I doubt that the witches will come back, but if you think that it is for the best then you will stay. Make sure you return by tomorrow.”

He nods, bows and then quickly walks off.

I can’t stop the frown from forming on my face as he walks away. His behavior has been completely strange, he has never wanted to willingly spend time away from my pack and training the warriors and now he volunteers?

I shrug off my thoughts.

Everything that has happened has put us all on edge, if staying here for a few more hours will help ease his mind then that is what he will do.

“Marisol has just woken up.” Artemis’ voice rings through my head.

That is immediately enough to make me start running towards my pack. My wolf takes over immediately and forces a shift. It shouldn’t take long for me to get to her.

I will mind link them all later, the most important thing to me now is getting to Marisol.

I hear Marisol’s voice get louder and louder as I walk through the hallway that holds all of the safe rooms.

She is usually soft spoken, her voice never really going higher than a whispers but this? This is new and completely different.

I get to the door of the room that she is in when I hear her say. “If this does happen what does this mean for me?”

I grab the knob and throw open the door before anyone answers her question.

“Marisol.” I state before rushing towards her, wrapping her into my embrace. Our bodies couldn’t be any closer together as she hugged me back.

I closed my eyes as I breathed in her scent. She smells the same, but yet a little different. I am unsure how to describe it.

I opened my eyes and began to stroke her hair and that is when I realized that there was some brown mixed into her hair.

“Did Benjamin do this to you as some sort of prank while you were unconscious?” I ask.

Now is not the time for his stupid pranks.

She lets out a little giggle before squeezing me tighter. “No, Benjamin is never mean to me. He saves that for people who aren’t Izumi and I.”

Izumi joined in on her laughter. “He doesn’t prank you because he doesn’t want to hurt you. He doesn’t prank me because he doesn’t want me to hurt him.” Izumi rolls her eyes. “And I will hurt him.”

I ignore their banter and pull away from the hug. “Than tell me what ha-”

My words are cut off as I look into her eyes. Their were random splashes of blue in both of her irises.

I grip Marisol’s shoulders, attempting not to let my panic show I breathe in her scent, attempting to calm myself. “Please tell me what is going on right now.”

“I am fine. There is nothing that you need to worry about.” She states before biting her lip. That immediately lets me know that she is lying.

“Tell me what is going on right now.” I demand. “I don’t take being lied to lightly, especially if it from my soul mate.”

Even though I still noticed her blush, I realized that it wasn’t turning her face as red as usual because her skin had a slight tan to it.

“I think I may be losing my connection to the moon goddess.” She stated before biting her lip.

I pull her into another hug. I look over her shoulder and see the mournful look on Ben’s face as he holds and equally upset looking Izumi. Their sadness confirms my fears.

That if Marisol completely loses her connection to the moon goddess she may die.

I squeeze her tighter to me, I know that there isn’t anything that I can do.

Marisol begans to embrace me back. “I am sure that everything will be fine. It is probably just temporary and my looks and everything else will go back to normal.”

“I will figure something out, there has to be something Scarlet can do to help.”

She nods. “I am sure and even if she can’t everything will be fine. I will survive this. As long as you are by my side I can survive anything.”

As we continue to embrace one another I can’t help but notice how different she seems. Not just her looks, her attitude. As much as I loved how submissive and quiet Marisol was, I find myself attracted to this new bold and confident persona. It made me wonder if she would be different in other areas.

She pulls away from our hug. “I was told by Artemis that I have to be confined to the safe rooms at all times?” She asked. While she was asking me a question I could sense that she did not like this new rule.

“This will be only temporary.”

Marisol huffs before crossing her arms. Her eyes narrow on me. “I don’t want to be stuck here.”

Immediately after she did that Ben cleared his throat. “I think I am gonna just leave.” He mumbled out quickly before turning to leave and Izumi followed him out of the room.

Artemis covered her mouth while she laughed as she slowly followed them.

I know that they will all be eavesdropping, but I couldn’t care less. I am too busy mesmerized by my mate putting her foot down when it comes to what she wants.

“I am not willing to negotiate with your safety. You will stay down here until the witches have been dealt with.” I say firmly.

“No.” She states before she goes to sit on her bed. “I will be safe because I have Artemis, Benjamin, Izumi and you protecting me. I have to help the moon goddess with pairing wolves with their mates now more than ever. I need to be able to feel that connection with her Judah.”

I follow her and sit next to her on the bed. “You will just have to wait on doing that.”

She sighs, before reaching up to run her fingers through my hair that was slightly too long. “Judah.” She whispers in my ear before kissing right underneath it. “We will protect each other I know we can.” She said before pressing another kiss to it. She nips at my ear. “Please.” she pleads.

I melt under her affection. I encircle her waist before pulling me closer. “I know we can, but you shouldn’t have to protect anyone. The only thing that you need to worry about is staying healthy.”

She grasps her face into my hands and leans her forehead against mine. “I am perfectly healthy!”

I can’t help but stare at the new areas of blue in her iris. Even though she now looked a little strange, with her dark brown and blue eyes she was still nonetheless beautiful.

I leaned in and placed a small peck on her nose, causing her to scrunch her face a bit.

I feel my resolve slowly gnaw away as I watched her beautiful face. She titled her head down, looking at me through her eyelashes.

How could I not give my mate all of the things that she desires?

“You will only be permitted to leave the safe rooms if I or any of the alphas are accompanying you.” I compromise.

She beams at me. “Thanks!” She says before jumping off of the bed. Probably to go jump in the shower before going outside to get some fresh air.

I stand up and grab her arm. “First you need to promise me that when it comes to this you will not use your authority to disobey me. When they tell you that it is time to go back into the safe room you will listen.” I state firmly. “They will not tell you that unless it is to protect you.”

I am aware of her using her position over Alpha Lucian in order to help us. I was nothing short of elated when Lucian recounted the moment where she stood up to him and he had no choice but to submit to her will. That she accepted that she was truly my mate and a queen to our people.

She nods. “I understand.” She wraps her arms around my neck and pulls me in for a small peck on the lips. “Tell me about what happened in the South pack.”

“I will tell you after you shower.” I lean in and give her a small kiss on the lips as well. “We can go take a walk outside for you to meet a few of the pack members. They all witnessed what you did and they are all very grateful for you.” I nuzzled my face into her neck and brushed my fingers against my mark on her throat.

She nods slightly as a giggle escaped her mouth. “Alright.” She pulls away and rushes to the shower.

I hear the door open to the room and I turn to see Benjamin standing by the door. “When you are done talking to Marisol later we will need to talk to about her.” He pauses and I know he is trying to come up with a nice way to put what is happening to her. “Her changes.”

I nodded. “It would be best for her to not overhear what we are going to talk about.”

He nods. “I am going to have Sofia help me find Scarlet and look into some things while you talk to Marisol. Just mind link Sofia when the two of you stop speaking and we will meet up outside the pack house.

I nod and watch as he exits the room.

I immediately collapse onto the bed, engulfing myself in the sweet scent of my beautiful mate.

She may not realize what could potentially happen, but the rest of us were aware of the repercussions from her dealing with the aftermath of the witch.

All of us are willing to do anything in our power to stop it.