Luna Isabella

XII. A Higher Warning (Part 2)

Isabella's POV:

I laugh, bitter laughter. “You cannot imagine how many times I’ve heard that line.” I step towards him, my body hit him, “Do not cast your dark past over me,” I ground my teeth. “Because I didn’t cast mine over you.”

Damien grabs the bracelet and a quick heat to rush over my flesh, then my wrist. I try pulling back, but he wraps the bracelet around it. “What are you-”

He crashes his lips onto mine, and I stumble back, falling on top of the dress. When I was about to bite him, he detaches our mouths. “Get ready for the party,” his melodic voice rang inside my beating ear.

He stands up and walks out of the room. The door slam right when I threw a lamp at it. Running the long sleeve across my lips, I scream: “What is wrong with you!”

Soon, someone came to escort me downstairs for the party. There’s an overlap of individuals speaking and music. I hid behind the group of guys surrounding, eyes cast on the group, not once wanting to make contact. There were little whispers around me, but even without looking, I know they would refuse to make eye contact.

Taking a seat on the couch, they uncomfortably shifted around. “Luna Isabella, would you like something to drink?” one of them asks.

I nod.

“What would you like?”

“Anything,” I reply.

He nods and walks towards the drink section.

Suddenly, the room went quiet.

Everyone snaps their heads in a single direction.

My head followed theirs, seeing Aria proceeding down the steps. She was wearing a purple long sleeve dress with lilies draped at the end, hair tied upward into half a bun. Aria stands there, wearing a duck looking face as everyone - including me - stared at her.

Nathaniel walks from the other side of the room, almost as if he hide there until she made her appearance. He was in a plain white shirt and pantsuit; hair slicked back into a perfect motion. He held her hand, and my chest tightens, seeing them walk gracefully. I look down at my lap, feeling a slight bitterness raging inside of me.

What is this feeling?

The guy came back, placing the drink in front of me, and I smiled grimly as he steps back into line.

There’s a steady pounding in the room, and I glance up eyes meeting Damien. Quickly, he adverted his eyes and made his way towards Nathaniel and Aria, who was embracing - choking - each other. Really, they were choking each other with their tongues.

I reverted my attention to the glass in my hand, watching it fizzle as everyone paid attention to the scene unfolding on the other side of the room. The mummers in the background increase violently as my eyes began twitching. I held onto the glass tighter, hearing the slight cracking sensation. Inhaling a deep breath to settle the uncomfortable feeling lurking inside my body, many different scents entered my nostrils.

“Ow!” someone said.

My eyes snap up, seeing the slight drop of blood oozing down his fingertips. Traces of red etched off his skin, slowly crashing towards the wooden floor. The single drip hit with a noise that seems louder than the music or unsettling chattering. The walls began closing inward as my hands tighten, wanting to punch right through them. I know my mind was playing tricks on me. I know that the walls aren’t moving. My stomach lurches, adrenaline pumps, and I want to scream, but I bit my tongue.

I closed my eyes and stood up, placing the glass down. “I’m going out for some fresh air,” I mumbled. They nod and made room for me. Hanging my head down low, I shift out of the room.

I continue walking mindlessly, hearing the footsteps behind me. “Luna Isabella, there is a nice balcony out there if you wish to clear your mind,” a guy said. I nod, “Let me show you,” he said, and I follow him.

Stepping outside the place, the fresh, crisp air consumed me. I closed my eyes, feeling the light breeze tracing against my skin. The leaves began washing above my hair as I look upward, seeing the sky shining eerily above me.

Rheumatic heels snap my attention back to reality, as I gazed at the dark forest in front of me. Aria stands beside me with a piece of cake in her hands, a smile on her face showing a single dimple, innocent but deadly. “Hello, Isabella.” She leans against the balcony as her dark brown hair scurried across her tan features.

Living in a life of darkness at such a young age, I learned how to see the worse in everyone, even when they don’t see it. No one is born good or bad, but some people are birth into light and darkness. Some people are splattered with red, and soon they paint themselves with the single color granted to them by the injustice—a hand on ours leading us to blind ourselves.

I know, I’m living a world filled with darkness.

I know what I am.

If heroes do exist in this world - there is no cape for me.

I grew up surrounded by blood and bitter hatred.

It was the only thing I knew, but I didn’t want it.

Why?

Because I was taught what love was. What kindness was. In fact, before my town was burnt into ashes, as a child - I smiled happily.

However, now, I was trained to be the perfect killer—battle axes, daggers, swords, guns, bows, and arrows. Put a weapon in my hand, and chances are I would use it to bludgeon anyone to death.

For as long as I remember, I held my head down low, spoken only when spoke towards, learning ever more imaginative ways to torture and kill.

I don’t enjoy it.

My eyes met hers, and she smiles.

- but, she does.

How can I tell?

Because monsters surround me just like her, I can feel it, her thirst for blood ever since she entered this territory, or perhaps it was there since the beginning.

“Hello Luna Aria,” I reply in a formal tone, feeling the sweats forming inside my body.

She lifts her fork, taking a single bite from the cake and hum in delight. “Call me Aria,” her tone was overly sweet, but I can tell that wasn’t suggestive of courtesy but command.

I open my mouth, wanting to excuse myself, but I never feel so cornered. My whole life, I had been fighting against predators, survivors, but tonight I feel like a prey. “Okay, Aria.”

Aria ran her tongue across her cheek as she smacks her lips together. “So you and Damien, huh.”

“Yes.”

She placed a heel on the railing, eyes gazing out at the distance as she continued munching on the cake. “How long have you two been together?”

I smiled, a cold, tasteless one. “Just recently.”

“You’re not here on your own will, am I right?” she asks.

My heart pumps at an uncontrollable speed as my eyes search the premises realizing all the guards are gone. Aria stands there swaying back and forth as she continued consuming the cake at a slow, steady speed. I gave her a single nod, wondering what is lurking inside her mind.

“Why are you still here?”

I open my mouth, but nothing exit.

I don’t know why I am still here.

Silently, I lift my hand, showing her the bracelet hoping she will be distracted. Her eyes narrow, “That is a cuffed, he cuffed you?” she said, and I nod.

“If I leave his territory, I’ll get electrocuted, and he will kill my friends,” I mumbled, feeling quite pathetic. I could’ve left a long time ago, but something was holding me back, and I don’t know what.

She stands there and stares at me as the water form in my eyes. I pull down the sleeve and turn my sight away from her. I didn’t know what is going on with me; something is very wrong. She lifts a hand, reaching for my neck, and my body involuntarily flinches as she revealed the black pet collar. She releases the metal, and I pull the turtleneck back up.

“Can I ask you something, Isabella?”

I held onto the top tightly. “Yes, Aria.”

“Do you think a supposed werewolf can hold a lingering scent of a hybrid?” she asks.

My heart skips a beat, and my hands shake uncontrollably. I tell it to stop, but it doesn’t listen to my command. “I’m not quite sure,” I whisper, wondering what went wrong. Trenton’s potion should cover my scent, but how did she pick it up when no one else did?

She releases a low humming sound as she set her empty plate down. “There are only two reasons. One the werewolf has been hanging out with hybrids. Two, the werewolf is a hybrid herself.”

I remain silent.

“Your friends, would you like me to release them?” she asks, the corners of her lips tilting upward.

My brows furrows, wondering if she met the other subjects while she was imprisoned, but how can she released them. “Y-You c-cant D-Da-”

She held a hand up. “I’m going to ask you one more time, would you like me to release them?”

I bit my tongue and nodded, not wanting them to stay there any longer. I know they want it, freedom.

Leaning towards her, her eyes flashed a deep color of black. “So, Isabella, what are you going to give me in return for releasing your friends?”

“What do you want?” I ask, trying not to stumble on my words.

She points a finger toward me. “You.”

A guard came up and bowed at us. “Luna Aria, Alpha Nathaniel is looking for you,” he said. She nods and waves him away.

She looks at me before she grabs a pen and piece of paper from her slim bag. Her hand motions and something scribbles on the paper. “Call me anytime. I’ll see you around.” She slides the paper in front of me.

Raising a hand, I take it, not realizing how shakey my fingers were.

She follows the guy.

Once she left, I turn around and stare at the number.

“Well, aren’t you a little bucket of sunshine,” a voice said.

I turn my body, stumbling back slightly when I saw a woman with long white hair. “Who are you?”

Her red lips twisted into a smile, “I’m the Moon Goddess.”

I clench my fist and punch her across the face.

It feels good.

She laughs, flipping her hair back into place as she leaps off the railing. “Well...if I said that was a first, then I would be lying,” she chuckles, covering her mouth with her hand. “I know you’re mad,” she places both hands in the air, “But, even Goddess mess up.”

“What do you mean?”

“Now, I’m not supposed to be revealing any information, but-” she shrugs, “I have a lot on my plate-” she look towards the empty hallway. “So, forgive me for mismatching things,” she grumbles a very half-heart humble apology or what I expected as an apology.

“What are you talking about?” I ask.

“You were supposed to be Damien’s first mate, and I mess up okay? I’m trying to apologize,” she grumbles.

At that moment, I decided not to feel sorry about punching a stranger. I scoff, “Are you expecting me to accept all of this? This crazy mating thing and Damien. Just accept all of this? Where were you when I was chained up in a cellar or fighting for my life or when I’m praying for help?”

Her face was emotionless. “Look, kid, you haven’t been alive for very long, so let me slap a little more reality into you. Suffrage occurred every day, and as you stand here right now. Remember that you are luckier than those who are chained in other facilities, those who are beaten by their loved ones, those who raped in broad daylight in the middle of the street. Yes, you suffered, probably more than others, but there will always be others who suffer more than you.”

“And yet you still stand above us merely watching?”

“That’s what we do; we watch not intervene. We allow the world to take its course because that’s how it’s meant to be, and it will stay that way.”

“That’s cruel.”

She shakes her head. “That’s reality.”

I dig my nails into the palm of my hand. “Why me? Why choose me to be his mate because from what I remember in my very blurred memories of so-called childhood, werewolves are mated mainly to other werewolves. You guys don’t swoop into other creatures.”

She leans back, “Why not you?” she looks down at her nails, “-and yes, the majority of the times I link werewolves with other werewolves, but times have changed. This world is changing Isabella, and those who are watching from above can only change with it.”

Her glassy blue eyes linked towards mine. “I understand the world is being unfair to you, taking everything you once held dear away, and I apologize deeply for that, but we all got our darkness.”

“I don’t want my darkness. Can you take it away?”

“Sweetheart, light cannot shine without darkness, and I wish for you to be Damien’s light, and he can be yours.”

“And if I don’t want to?”

“Then, both of you can suffer in the darkness.”

“Is that a threat?”

She smiles a devious provocation. “No, a warning.”