Luna’s Soul

A Strange Place

When Lily started to wake up, when her consciousness started to grasp at her surroundings— she instantly became alarmed.

She didn’t dare move. She was laying in a very soft bed— a blanket was tucked around her shoulders, and her head was on a pillow that felt like a cloud. Despite this, though, her head was throbbing, the painful pressure in her temple sending her whirling back into her memories.

The man from her job. He’d attacked her. He’d taken her away.

She tried to keep her breathing calm as she strained her ears to listen to what was around her. Don’t scream, don’t scream, she told herself.

She heard nothing at first. The gentle whirring noise of the air conditioning. The tick of the hands of a clock. It wasn’t until she noticed the clock that she noticed the soft breathing of a man in the room with her. And then she heard him shuffle around.

Lily’s heart landed in her stomach. This man was going to hurt her or even worse, kill her.

Get your s**t together, Lily. Look for an exit.

Lily creaked her eyes open just enough to hazily see around the room.

The man wasn’t looking at her. He was sitting in an arm chair at the foot of the bed, staring at a bunch of papers in his lap. It was the same man from her job— the man that sniffed her.

Behind him and to the right was a door. She only hoped it led to a hallway, that would lead to an exit.

She knew her chances weren’t good. She would have to run past him to get to the door, and he had much less distance to travel to stop her than she did to get away.

But she had to try. She had to fight.

Lily closed her eyes shut tight for a moment, and slowly pulled in a deep breath, trying not to draw obvious attention to her change in breathing.

And then, with her blood hammering through her veins and adrenaline sending her heart rate to the sky, Lily’s eyes flew open as she jumped from the bed.

She ran for the door, her hand out to reach for the doorknob. She felt the cool metal in her hand, and then—

She was slammed flat against it.

Lily stood, her face pressed against the wall, her breathing borderline hyperventilating. The man’s hands had her wrists pinned behind her back, and one of his hands were wrapped around both of her wrists— while the other hand was between her face and the door, cushioning her head when he slammed her into the door.

Lily went into full-blown panic mode.

Her knees shook, her eyes went wide, and her chest seized in fear. And before she knew it, she started begging.

Tears rolled down her face. “Please, let me go. Please—“

His breath was right against her ear. “I’m not going to hurt you, Lily. Please calm down.”

She trashed her arms, her breathing becoming even more ragged. “You have to let me go. Please. Please—“

The strange man behind her wrapped an arm around her waist, twirling her around and pinning her arms back down at her sides. Lily was stunned at his strength— he didn’t seem as if he felt her attempts to free herself at all.

Her face and neck were soaked in tears as she stared at the face of her kidnapper. It was hard to see a man with such soft brown eyes and imagine him as a murderer or r****t.

His eyes were desperate. “Listen to me, please. I am not going to hurt you.”

“You drugged me—“

“I had no choice,” he snapped. “You wouldn’t have come with me any other way.”

“Who are you?” She cried out between sobs. “What do you want from me?”

He didn’t break eye contact with her. His grip on her wrists, while stern, wasn’t painful at all.

“My name is Gabriel Heoruwulf. Let’s start with that,” the man said gently.

The man’s eyes traveled down to Lily’s mouth, and then flitted back up to her eyes. His gaze was dark with emotion. “It’s an honor to meet you, Lily Dawson.”

For reasons Lily didn’t understand, the feel of this stranger’s hands on her wrists was calming. Where his skin touched hers, she felt tingles of electricity. Her heart rate slowed, despite the gut wrenching panic she was feeling.

“H-how do you know my name? And where am I?” She demanded.

Gabriel sighed. “I know your name because I saw it on your license. You are with me, in my pack land, just outside of Bozeman. You are safe.”

“Pack land? What do you want with me? I don’t have any money, or any family that will pay you any ransom—“

Gabriel eyed her carefully, as if she were worried she might faint.

“I know this is all very confusing to you, but if you’ll let me explain, I think all of this will make much more sense.”

“What do you know of werewolves?”

Lily stared at the man, stunned speechless. Was this man crazy? Psychotic? He didn’t look like it. He looked well kept and put together.

“Are you insane?”

His eyes went dark. “If you’d put your fears to the side, you’ll notice that you aren’t fighting me. My touch is calming you. I would know, I can hear your heart beating. Do you want to know why that is?”

Lily couldn’t deny it. The warmth of his hand on her wrist was comforting. And it sent a heat trashing through her veins at the same time. She couldn’t say he was wrong.

“It’s because you are my mate. I’m your mate. Do you know what that means?”

Lily just shook her head, too stunned to speak.

“Let me go into a little more depth. My name is Gabriel, but most people here know me as Alpha Gabriel. I am the leader and Alpha of the Snow Moon Pack. I am a werewolf.”

Lily couldn’t help it, she started sobbing again. “Okay, so you’re insane. Certifiably insane and I’m going to die. Oh God, you’re going to kill me—“

Anger flashed in his brown eyes. “I would rather cut off my own hands than ever harm you, Lily.”

“Okay, so you’re just a psychothic—“

“Stop.”

Lily’s mouth instantly snapped shut. The commanding tone of his voice didn’t scare her, but her mouth closed on reflex, almost like she couldn’t help it and it wasn’t her own. Her eyes widened. She wanted to speak, but she couldn’t make her mouth open.

“I didn’t want to do this. But I have to make you believe me if you’re going to listen to me.”

Lily stared in horror, unable to speak or scream, as the pretty brown eyes on Gabriel’s face flashed yellow and animalistic. Not human.

She stopped breathing.

This man wasn’t human.

“Breathe, Lily. Talk to me.”

She sucked in a deep breath, gasping for air. Words started pouring out of her mouth like vomit. “Oh God, oh God, you’re not—“

“I’m not like you,” he finished for her. “I’m a wolf. Well, part man, part wolf.”

Lily’s vision was starting to go black around the edges. Her vision blurred and her speech came out slurred. “You’re not human..”

Gabriel grabbed both sides of her face, his left hand gently tapping her cheek to keep her alert. It worked, as much as Lily wanted to black out, wanted to forget what she just saw— his persistent and gentle slaps on her cheek brought her back to reality.

“What do you want with me?” She sobbed.

“I told you.. you’re my mate. You are this pack’s Luna. That makes you a target, and I had to keep you safe.”

Lily’s head span, but she noticed now that she wasn’t fighting to get away from Gabriel. Her hands were clenched into fists at her sides, and she resisted the urge to grab her stomach because of the nausea she had rolling in it.

“What does that mean? How do you know it’s me? You have to be mistaken. I’m not a werewolf.”

Gabriel’s eyes drifted down to her mouth again, his brown eyes black with the largeness of his pupils. “I know you can’t understand, but there’s no mistaking it when you find your mate.. not for my kind. Everything tells me who you are. Your smell. The wolf inside me screamed it at me the moment I caught your scent on the street outside of your job.”

“You may not feel it to the magnitude I do,” he told her, reaching up to carefully grasp her chin. “But I know you feel something, or else you’d still be fighting me.”

He tilted her face up so that she was level with his face. “As wolves, we believe in the Moon Goddess. She gives us life, she breathes our wolves into us, and allows us to transform. She gifts all of us with a chosen mate that we can smell and sense when we reach adulthood, if we are lucky enough to be in close proximity with them. Your mate is the one destined to be with you, to carry on your lineage, to be your partner and closest friend. Because of this, the mate bond is undeniable— the moon goddess wants us to draw each other close, so she makes your smell, your body, your touch— she makes all of those things absolutely irresistible to me.

“I never thought you’d be human,” Gabriel leaned his forehead against Lily’s, and her eyes widened as shock shook her, but she felt trapped, unable to move her legs or arms. “You know nothing of me or my kind. You probably think we’re monsters. But we aren’t. Wolves are loyal, strong, protective and fierce. We look out for the human population. There are bad apples, but we do our best to fight them and subdue them.”

“You don’t have to fear me,” he breathed the words, and the delicious smell of his breath soothed Lily, and she found herself swooning as warmth bubbled up in her stomach. “I won’t hurt you. My biological make up wouldn’t allow me to hurt my mate.”

He leaned back to look at her again. “I know this was a lot for you to hear. But I’m an Alpha. Things aren’t simple. I have a pack to run, a pack that is currently at war. I’ve had to do ruthless things to protect them, and others are constantly looking for a weakness of mine, which I haven’t had until now.”

“And now,” he concluded. “I have the ultimate weakness.”