Once Betrayed Never Forgotten

Chapter 44: A Silent Conversation

A few minutes later, I’m hurrying down through the dark tunnels behind Mircea and the nameless little boy, while Luka leads the way in front. The only source of light is Mircea’s magical ball of flames floating in the air overhead. Every now and then tree roots hanging from the ceiling brush against my face, or I startle myself and let out a little shriek as 1 step into gauzy cobwebs.

I’m so hungry that I feel like my stomach’s

‘s beginning to eat itself, and a dull headache throbs

os at my temples.

The sooner I’m out of these tunnels, the better. I’m still not really sure where we’ll go next, but anywhere’s better than the village. Luka’s clothes are totally modern – the jeans, the leather jacket, the combat boots- so maybe he knows a bit about the wider world. Maybe he can take me back to civilization. To a normal, present day, twenty first century city.

Luka,

This whole thing with me being “mated to him is really starting to freak me out. It was useful having him rescue me earlier, but I don’t know the guy from a bar of soap. Literally all that I know about him is his name, and the fact that he’s a wolf shifter with some connection to the Vasiliev family…. and the fact that he’s really, really, REALLY hot.

But as undeniably gorgeous as he is, there’s something about him that doesn’t make my blood boil with desire the way that Aleksandr’s presence does. Luka is dangerous, deadly even. I bet he could rip out my bare throat in a split second if he wanted to. But I trust him – I can already sense that he’d never hurt me, never want to hurt me.

And that’s the problem with me, if I’m telling the truth.

I actually want to be hurt. I want to experience that spine tingling, hair raising, edge of your seat fear, the arousal of being helpless, at the mercy of of a sexy killing machine whose instinct to kill me is only overridden by his stranger instinct to f*ck me. To master me. To dominate me.

It’s wrong, and I feel like a freak for thinking this way, but I can’t help being like this. Or maybe, I can. Maybe when I get back to California and I start at college in the fall, I’ll see the school counsellor, or a therapist or something. I need to dig deep to figure out why I’m like this, and I need to fix it so I can move on with my life.

“There’s nothing wrong with you,” Luka’s voice intrudes into my thoughts, speaking without words directly into my mind. “You’re perfect as you are.”

“You were

were eavesdropping on me?!” I shout the accusation silently and telepathically back at him, peering ahead without pausing, trying to see his distant form in the tunnel up ahead.

“It was difficult not to, Arianna, your thoughts were so damn loud,” he explains. Even though I can’t see him, it sounds like he’s smirking.

“I could sense your anxiety,” he continues. “Our thoughts and emotions are connected now that we’re mates.”

“But we’re not even” – I stop myself just in time, forcing my mind to go blank before I can even think the next thought. I was going to say something like, “we’re not even mates- it was a spell that Mircea cast, the band is artificial, it’s not real, she’s just using you, we both are” – but thank god I caught myself in the nick of time. There’s no telling how Laka would react if he found out the truth.

“You should give up on Aleksandr.” Luka says, his voice calm but heavy. “He doesn’t know how to love. He only knows how to destroy”

“But didn’t he save you, when he found you bleeding out in the snow?” I ask, and there’s a long pause.

The memory of the dream from last night flashes through my mind – how the younger, teenaged version of Luka had confronted his pack’s Alpha to y mountain protect his sister’s honour. How he’d clearly been exiled or banished to the wilderness, only to be found bleeding to death on some snowy peak – which is how Aleksandr found him. Part of me knew, even while I was dreaming it, that it was more than just a dream it was a vision, or a

memory.

“Aleksandr must have some good in him, if he chose to help you,” I say, but Luka remains silent, and I wonder if the telepathic connection between us had been broken somehow. “Aren’t vampires and werewolves natural enemies?”

The silence seems to go on forever, and finally, Luka says “I didn’t ask to be saved. I didn’t choose it. How did you know about that, anyway?”

“I dreamt it, last night actually,” I answer, feeling my ch*eks turn red admitting that I dreamt about him. Luckily he’s far away further down the tunnel and he can’t see my face. “You looked different in the dream though your hair was brunette, not silver, and your eyes were brown. Even as a wolf, you had brown fur. What happened?”

“Aleksandr happened,” Luka replies, and it’s hard to read any emotion in the voice, but I think I pick up a hint of defeat, or sadness. “I was on the brink of death, and the only way to save me, was to turn me. It’s different with werewolves though – I was reborn, neither wolf nor vampire, but something

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Chapter 44 A Silent Conversation.

new. A whole new kind of monster.”

“But he gave you a second chance at life,” I insist. To be honest, I’m not really sure tricked me into having potentially deadly sexual intercourse with him.

e why I

I’m defending Aleksandr – the bloodsucking jerk who almost

“He didn’t choose to spare me out of the goodness of his heart, Arianna,” Luka says flatly. “It wasn’t an act of kindness. Aleksandr just thought it would be fun to have a pet wolf. I’m like a toy for him, or a servant. A henchman he can use when he needs things done that his human or vampire lackeys aren’t fit to perform.”

“Like guiding me to safely through the haunted forest,” I murmur, remembering how Luka came to my aid. “Aleksandr sent you to try and convince

to return to the castle.”

“Yes,” Luka replies, “I must obey his every command, even when I don’t agree with it. When he turned me into his familiar, I lost all my free will. That is, until I felt my mate bond with you click into place. The mate bond is the most powerful magic in the world, even stronger than the bond between vampire master and his servant thrall. That’s how I was able to overcome the protective wards the villagers put around their village to keep supernatural beings out, and it’s how I was able to act of my own accord and come to claim you without Aleksandr knowing or stopping me. He’d be furious if he knew you’re my mate. Finally, I have something someone of my own. But the Moon Goddess has blessed us both. I have a reason to live

I feel a rush of emotion flow down the mental bond–elation, warmth, and the purest love imaginable.

No. This is wrong – I can’t do this anymore. Luka has been betrayed, then used, for so many years, by everyone. And that’s what Mircea and I are doing to him now – using him for our own ends. He needs to know that this wasn’t the Moon Goddesses doing, but rather, a spell cast to bind us together. A spell neither of us consented to. He needs to know the truth.

“Luka, there’s something you need to know about the mate bond-“I begin, but then I’m stopped dead in my tracks.

глаг

There’s a deep, groaning roar and shuddering from under the earth, like some ancient monster awakening. I hear the nameless little boy and Mircea scream, a shriek of terror. The entire tunnel trembles in a wild cacophony as Luka sends a single message down the bond.

“DON’T MOVET

Chapter Comments

EJ

That was truly sad about Luke. Damnit! I want her to be with Luka now. Watch the earth shaking be something like the warms from Tremors

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