"No! Take me instead," I cried out. My body was battered and brushed. It hurt that I was all alone, no one was near. Even my wolf was silenced. The feeling of the world no longer having meaning suddenly rushed through me. It had to be the worst feeling in the air.

My knees fell down onto the ground as the man dropped a body. His Fortsblade was in hand and before another swoosh of wind echoed my eardrums, it sliced through my skin. I didn't bother to do so much as flinch. My eyes remained on the body. It was covered up with a sheet, so I couldn't see who exactly it was.

"How does that feel, Queen?" he mocked, clamping the blade against my skin with as much power as he could muster. My eyes were burning just ready to get vengeance, but I didn't do anything. Every hope that my pack had for me seemed to vanish. I could feel their pain and it brought me to weaken.

Suddenly, the body began to move. The soft murmurs caused my eyes to move over to the body. The familiar red hair caught my eyes. "Queen, queen," she whispered.

"Don't let this happen." Her voice called out from within my head.

My eyes snapped open to look into complete darkness. I could feel something wet on my cheeks leaving me to bring my hand up to touch it. When I looked down, there was blood gracing my fingertips. Panic was flowing through me and causing my heart to beat faster from within my chest.

As hurriedly as I could, I jumped out of bed and ran to the restroom. I caught sight of the blood that was falling from my eyes. This had to be the first that this happened to a wolf. My eyebrows came together as I stared at my reflection. None of this was making sense.

Then, my mind drifted back to the dream I had. Although, it felt nothing like a dream. What happened a few moments ago seemed more real than reality.

Grabbing tissue, I wiped away the blood from under my eyes before exiting the bathroom. I found myself leaving my bedroom and wandering the hallways. There was something that I was searching for, I am sure of it.

Suddenly, I found double doors that had the most beautiful gold decor surrounding it. I twisted the doorknob and was happy to find it unlocked. As I entered the room, a smile made its way onto my face. This was the place I loved to be.

The amount of books seemed to reach the taller heights. There were so many more books here than the other place I had been. I quickly closed the door behind me and searched the books for something that could be useful to my research.

I had to remind myself where I had learned so much about lunabounds to begin with. Without the library, I would be clueless. So, it would only make sense to find out more by returning to that useful source.

My eyes made contact with the many books that spoke of the history behind wolves. What shocked me was the originality of them. Not only that, but there was so much more to choose from. The books here looked like they held more truth than rumors.

I grabbed onto a book that I had never taken my time out to explore: boundhunters. The minute I pulled open the cover, my heart immediately sank to the bottom of my feet. Their stories were horrific.

Boundhunters first splurged two generations ago. It took a man by the name of Bates Novak. He was a beta of his pack, but one day he decided to kill his luna. At first no one knew the type of power luna's held. It wasn't until her blood granted him immortality that he realized how powerful he could become.

With the omegas he picked off from packs, he formed a new group. This group was called the boundhunters. Omegas were always the weakest of the pack which is what made boundhunters so weak.

As my eyes continued to skim the pages, I caught sight of the queen at the time. The beautiful woman who tried with all of her power to fight off the boundhunters. They weren't aware of the weapons they created due to the power of a luna. Their technology was so advanced that it took the werewolf community by surprise.

She died trying to protect her family.

"What are you doing?" A voice asked as I looked up in the direction of the sound of it. When I realized it was no one other than the king, I continued to read through my book.

"We aren't on the phone, Alpha King sir. You can obviously see what I am doing," I spoke sarcastically while my eyes never left the book. He snatched it from my hands leaving me to glare at him. It was a mistake to look at him, it brought this feeling throughout me that I seemed to hate.

I watched as he threw the book far away from me before grabbing onto the top of my arm and dragging me towards his chest. My eyes never left him, all I could was get lost into his beautiful eyes.

"There is a pack meeting tomorrow in the morning at nine. You are especially expected," he said. All I could do was nod my head. He let go of my arm and began to fully retreat to where he came from.

Suddenly, it was like my body had a mind of its own as I grabbed onto his arm. He stopped momentarily before turning towards me with a raised brow. I bit down on my lip trying to come up with something to say. I shouldn't even need an excuse just to be in the company of my mate. I'm sure he felt the pull too which is why he came here.

"I just wanted to say that you look really sexy in that shirt," I said with an innocent smile playing out on my lips.

It probably wasn't the best thing I could've said, but it was the first thing that popped into my head. He glanced down at the shirt he was wearing and gave me a confused look. "A v-neck?"

"You're right. You look so much better bare."

I really need to find a filter. I've never had one, but as a queen it was slowly becoming inappropriate. He didn't say any other word as he turned back around and began to exit the room.

"Goodnight!" I called out, but the door had slammed shut. My idiocy slowly dawned on me when my shoulders sagged in defeat. With him around, I forget that he doesn't want anything to do with me.

"That was hilarious to watch," Onyxia muttered out, barking with laughter. I deserved her teasing seeing as I treated her poorly. All I could do was roll my eyes and accept defeat.

"I am done trying. All I want is to my moon goddess proud and be a mate to my mate, but it's clear that is not his goal," I told her.

"Maybe you're right about laying off for a while. Elliot was right about everything we have to do. I hate to say this, Xena, but with all that is to come—being away from him might hurt him less," Onyxia explained. My eyebrows came together as I processed her words.

"Why do you say that?" I asked.

"Think about it. The entire race is dependent on you. The chances of you surviving are so slim. I believe you will do it, Xena, but I don't know if you'll make it," She answered. I stared off into space thinking about everything that was approaching. For some reason I could just feel trouble.

"Did you see that dream I had?"

"I don't think that was a dream," Onyxia said. My eyes shut, leaving a lone tear to fall from my face. It was a tear that had no emotion attached to it. It was just a simple tear that managed to escape the confinements of my eyelids.

"This isn't fair, okay? Lunabounds deserve to live just like everyone else. We're all just watching as they fight so hard. I don't care if I do it on my own, Onyxia. If I die then I die. I'm going to fix this if it's the last thing I do," I whispered. It was meant to be said in my head, but I was sure that she still heard me.

My eyes shut as I leaned back on the chair. Sleep overcame me along with the darkness.

"The King announced the keeping of a lunabound. She's the last one we need—the Queen," Bates growled out to his second-in-command. They both had a mischievous smirk on their face.

"How do you know this isn't another trick?" The man asked, his eyebrow raised. Bates leaned back in his chair, the smirk never leaving his face.

"You do remember Jasper, don't you?"

"The King's friend?" The man questioned.

"Yes, he's been trying to join us for a while now. Let's just say he sold out his Luna in exchange to show us where his loyalty lies," Bates laughed out.

"When do we attack?"

"Let's give them time to believe that they are protecting what is ours. So, I say in a week. Then, we will be complete. I will have all of the power in the world. Witches, Vampires, Wolves, Humans, no one would be able to stop me," Bates called out with his arms in the air.

"Xena, wake up!"

The voice of Elliot shouted out of me, pulling me away from another dream. My eyes opened slowly to see that I was back in my room. I remembered falling asleep in the library. It was a mystery how I had returned to my room.

"Your eyes are bleeding," Elliot spoke. I felt underneath my eyes to see that he was right. Something was wrong with me, and I couldn't figure out what it was. Quickly wiping them away, I stared at my only friend.

"I hope this isn't like some eyeball period or something," I whispered.

"I'll see about getting that checked out. We're having a pack meeting in about thirty minutes. You're expected," he explained. I got up from the bed with my eyes narrowed at the particular man.

"You're telling me that you woke me up thirty minutes prior to meeting the pack?" I questioned. He handed me a dress with a small shrug. I watched as he walked out of the room, leaving me to myself.

-

I looked at myself in the mirror. The dress was a long golden gown that revealed a great deal of cleavage. I had left my raven-colored hair down and my face bare of makeup. I really didn't try at all with my appearance, but it wasn't like I looked terrible.

When I opened the door, Elliot The Celibate was waiting right beside it. He held out his arm for me to take which I gladly did. We walked side-by-side down the stairs and I had never felt so royal.

No one had told me that almost the entire pack would be gathered in the castle. Everyone had their eye on us, but the eyes that I couldn't ignore were my mates. I glanced over at him to see him looking as emotionless as ever. Ignoring him, I kept my head held high as Elliot walked me down.

"As I was saying, many of you know of the lunabound we are keeping on our boundaries as a way to protect her. This requires the highest amount of security meaning that your mates, the best warriors, and anyone who isn't under the age of sixteen and pregnant—will be doing everything they can to keep her safe," he stated. Elliot walked me right beside him before disappearing into the crowd. I was forced to smell his sweet scent and not stare at him.

I could hear my wolf whimpering at not being acknowledged as anything other than a lunabound. We were his mate, and that could never change no matter how much he wanted it to.

"I thought she was a boundhunter. What if she's disguising herself?"

"Is she the kings mate?"

"Why would the King not claim her if she was his?"

"Does this mean we have another alpha's Luna?"

"Does she have powers?"

"Will she save us?"

Once again, all I could hear were their whispers. What the King was saying didn't even register in my brain. It was the words of the pack members that claimed my attention.

"I want to speak to them," I whispered. What I failed to remember was the social anxiety I seemed to get when speaking to big crowds. When the King looked over at me before walking away, I knew I messed up. He gave up way too easily.

The entire pack was looking at me. Thousands of them just waiting for me to speak. "I know what you're thinking, just hurry up and say 'I need thy cocks of thy alphas'."

Even I cringed from my words. When I caught sight of a she-wolf covering her child's ears, I knew that I messed up. Some were looking at me with wide eyes while others looked absolutely terrified.

"I'm sorry for that. I don't really have a filter," I said quietly as I chewed down on my lip.

"My name is Xena Astor. I didn't realize I was lunabound until you all tried to kill me," I laughed. I should've learned from my mistakes the last time when I had tried to tell that joke. Everyone just stared at me blankly.

"I know that you all expect someone with more class. You want someone who will promise you change and justice. I would be lying to you all if I said that I had everything figured out. The truth is, I'm angry. Actually, I'm more than angry. I am f*cking—excuse my language—I am livid.  Every time I think back to how many times people have tried to put a stop to boundhunters, I come up empty. All we have done is sit back and hope that everything will be restored. Well, hope only gets you so far. It takes action, it takes a voice, but most of all, it takes a pack," I spoke. Suddenly people began to yell out, letting their motivated phrases escape their mouths.

"It's time we stop sitting back and just hoping. We have to try. I can't promise you any change, but I promise that I will give up my life in order to make a difference—no matter how big or small," I finished. Everyone began to shout out, raising their arms up.

"Luna! Luna! Luna!"

A proud smile made its way onto my face as Elliot walked up to me. "You sound like a true Queen."

He grabbed onto my hand and guided me through the crowd. Pack members were calling out to me as we walked. Suddenly, I was met with a pair of yellow eyes.

"I am Jasper. It's nice to finally meet you, Luna."

Holy sh-

𝕝𝕖𝕖 𝕙𝕒𝕤 𝕥𝕠 𝕤𝕒𝕪. . .
So, I have read all of your encouraging words and decided to continue the story. There are great things that I hope for with this book. Thanks to every single one of you, I am not losing hope yet. With that being said, I hope you continue to support me and this book. I promise my updates will become more frequent now. See you all next update
— a. marie

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