Rejected His Miracle Luna Fated Her Second Chance Alpha by Paprika

Chapter 61

-Dorothy-

After Rita had left, Ignatius and I took a walk through the woods. My head was still spinning from everything I had learned from the older woman. From my aunt. It was still odd to think about. I had a living relative and she was right down the road, she had been by my side all along.

The forest was quiet and cool. Sunlight shone through the branches and left dappled spots of light over the ground. I walked with Ignatius hand in mine, swinging our arms loosely as we trod the overgrown pathway.

“How do you feel about all of this? Ignathus asked after a while. I could sense his hesitation, his unease. He wasn’t sure how to approach the topic but he wanted to be there to support me nonetheless.

I tipped my shoulders. “Confused. Relieved. There’s quite a vast concoction of emotions running through my head right

now

Ignatius sucked in his bottom l*p and nodded. “It’s a lot to take in I knew Rita hadn’t always been a part of the Bielke Pack. But it had never occurred to me to ask where she had come from before she joined us

1 gingerly stepped over a large tree root that protruded from the dirt over the path. I had gotten substantially better at making my way through the woods now that my shifter abilities were finally coming into play.

I no longer tripped over every rough surface and I didn’t bump into as many sharp corners when making my way to the bathroom at night. Training definitely helped, even with the little things.

“I can understand why she wouldn’t have wanted to tell me the truth. I don’t hold anything against her.”

“Then what’s got you so stuck inside your own head right now?

I smiled slightly. My mate knew me too well. He could read the littlest details in my movements that alluded to my me ntal state like it was a second language. From the slightest tension in my shoulders to the way tugged at my hair.

It was something we had learned over time, being so intertwined as we were. We moved around each other effortlessly like the cogs of some delicately intricate machine. We could converse without opening our minds or our mouths. We were two entities that revolved around each other in our own personal solar system.

“It’s what she said about my parents. About how my father died, how my mother gave me the last of her life,” I said softly. “And the reason my pack was targetted.”

“Your mother did what she did to keep you alive. Don’t tarnish that gift by feeling guilty for it.

We entered a clearing in the forest. It was a spot that Ignatius and I visited often grass had sprung from the small circle of ground that was exposed to the sky. The trees bowed and swayed around as we sat down.

“It just feels like everywhere I go, disaster follows. My pack, my original pack, was wiped out entirely because of me and my supposed gift. How can I just forget that? My mother gave the last of her life to prolong mine. How many people have had to

die for me?”

Ignatius put a hand on my shoulder as I lay my head down on his lap. “There’s nothing you could have done to prevent any of that You were a kid.

“You didn’t cause any of the carnage that happened around you by choice, your father fulfilled his duty to protect you and your mother dad what any mother would do. Don’t tell me you wouldn’t do the same for our kid if it came to that”

My hand instinctively went to my stomach as he spoke. It was true. I knew that Our child was barely even formed yet and already I was determined to protect them with my life. All the same, I couldn’t swallow the guilt I felt be my parent’s sacrifice, for the hardships Itata had endured, and for the fate of my pack

It killed ane to think that I was helpless na change the circumstatices of my own existence. Even by living a somewhat quiet life as an invisible usiividual, trouble seemed to fall on anyone who walked beside me.

!

J

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Chapter 61

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“What do I do now! What do I do with everything that I’ve learned? My pack is still gone, my parents are still dead. Why am I alone all over agguin?”

Ignatius leaned down to k*ss me and I melted in his arms, letting his soft caress carry me away. “You’re not alone, Dorothy. Not even close.”

Ignatius stroked my hair, his low voice in my ear as we huddled in the clearing. “Don’t let the guilt of your past stop you from forging your own future. Use the sacrifice of your parents and what happened to your pack to fuel you. Build a better life for your own family, and a better fate for your new pack. We aren’t here to repeat history, we’re going to rewrite it”

“That’s not a bad way to look at it. I guess.”

Ignatius muzzled my n*eck, nipping at my skin and I couldn’t help but laugh. He put both forefingers in each corner of my mouth and pulled it into a smile. “It’s a great way to look at it.”

I groaned in exasperation and turned my head away, but his words had comforted me slightly. I lay in his lap and looked off into the woods, trying to suppress the giggles Ignatius had got bubbling up inside of me.

Suddenly my b*dy stiffened and I gripped his hand. “Ignatius What is that?”

I had been so distracted by my mate I hadn’t even picked up its scent until right then. A putrid odor of rot and decay. In the shadows of the trees in front of us, there were two glassy eyes gazing back at me.

“What’s what?” Ignatius asked, still in the mood to be playful, but his tone changed to one of immediate alert as the scent made it to his nose too. His head snapped up to glare into the woods and a low warning growl started to rumble from his throat, “Dorothy, don’t move.”

The creature stepped closer, the shape of it was almost disconcerted in the dark of the forest beyond the small clearing. Aside from what looked to be antlers, only its eyes could be made out, glassy and black where the dappled sunlight glanced

off of them

The eyes dropped to a lower level and I heard the distinct thump of hooves hitting the dirt as if the creature had been walking on two legs and had then dropped down to four

“Ignatius.” I tried to keep my voice lower than a whisper but terror was strangling my throat and straining my vocals. “Ignatius, what is that thing?”

Every nerve in my b*dy screamed for me to get out of there, to run as fast as my legs could carry me. My hand went back to my belly and Ignatius hissed a warning when my b*dy itched to get up and flee.

“Don’t move, Dorothy!” It was a whispered command, the Alpha in him was talking and even he sounded mortified. “They love a moving target.”

Shivers wracked through my b*dy as the forest around the creature began to rustle. Thousands of crawling insects rushed into the clearing, fleeing from the eyes in the forest,

Black beetles and roaches, centipedes, and other oddities I couldn’t name all slithered and scuttled past us and dispersed into the foliage at our backs. The creature had stepped closer and then paused, unnaturally still as those blank eyes watched us from the shadows.

Ignatius slowly edged me off of his lap, taking care to keep my head from hitting the ground. He began moving in tiny increments to get to his knees, keeping a hand on my shoulder to still me as I propped myself up on my elbow.

“Dorothy, he spoke through our mind-link, and the opened curtain allowed me to feel his overwhelming panic and fear. He had seen something like this before.

He was fighting a nightmare that he had long since left behind. “I’m going to shift and meet it head-on. As soon as I do I want you to run back to the house as fast as you can. Can you do that?”

Im not going to leave you behind!”

My arguing was interrupted by a sound from the creature, goosebumps broke out on my skin and every hair on my b*dy.

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Chapter 61

stood at full attention. My heart thumped loudly in my chest and my throat ached to release the scream that began to build the second I heard that unnatural sound.

“Oroce.” A sound like nails on a chalkboard. Like a parrot copying a new word. A spine-chilling failure at imitation, “D-d- orace Don-L. Mo-ove.”

The sound of it clicked in my ears and my b*dy was shaking in anticipation, desperately waiting for the command to run.

Ignatius’ nails dug into my shoulder as he willed me to stay where I was. To be still. But I couldn’t be still. This creature was mimicking my mate, and my deepest of natural instincts was urging me to run for my life and the life of my child.

“Dorothy, Ignatius hissed again when he sensed what I was about to do. “Don’t move. Not yet.”

“We have to let it get closer, Ignatius whispered in my mind. “I can’t afford for it to lock onto get its attention completely. You’ll never outrun it if it comes after you. You have to trust me.”

I stared into those dark orbs that floated behind the tree line like ghostly globes. “I trust you.”

you

first if you run. I have to

I steeled my nerves and waited, forcing the grating sound out of my head when the creature once again attempted to lure me closer with its ghastly pantomime impersonations. “D-d-corp-thee. Dor-ro-thee

When the creature came to understand that it would not draw us any closer, it began to move towards us, Ignatius crouched over me. preparing his b*dy to shift and lurch forwards at the same time.

I could hear the heavy padding of hooves as the monster approached. When its head cut through the shadows and into the sunlight I sucked in a sharp breath, all of my muscles tensing at once as my own b*dy prepared itself to shift

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