The Blood Moon

The mind link

Raine

I turn around as I’m walking away and see Jasper talking to Jared. Alpha Pierce was awake and staring coldly at me. He opens a link with me.

-“You know I love you right?” His voice is cold and sends a shiver through my body. I stop walking and look back at him.

-“I know.”

I feel an itch in my head and hear a small tearing sound. I shake my head trying to get rid of the sensation.

-“You can’t do better than me. Jasper? Jasper won’t want you long. He won’t want to put up with you like I do. He can’t love you like I do.”

I feel a cloud of doubt settle in my mind as he continues talking.

-“He’s already sending you away. He’s sending you back to that hospital instead of home with him. Is that love? At least I cared enough to come get you. To take you somewhere safe and comfortable.”

The rational side of my mind is trying to convince me that Jasper just wants me to be safe and to be certain I am ok to go home. But the dark, twisted, and broken side of my mind is whispering that Alpha Pierce is right. The rational brain can fight all it wants, my darkness is stronger. I was hoping that Alpha Jasper would be able to break through my darkness and help guide me away from that place. I know no there’s no use. The darkness is bound to consume me.

Why fight it anymore?

-“Alpha Pierce, if I get you out, do you promise to stop hurting me?”

-“Oh of course baby. I only get upset because you make me. But I’ll work on it. We can be better than we were.”

I can feel Jared’s eyes on me. He can tell I’m in a link. It doesn’t take long for him to figure out who it is with.

I hear Jared snarl as he whips around to look at Alpha Pierce.

“I told you to leave her alone!”

“I command you to step down Gamma Jared!” Alpha Pierce yells at him. “Undo these cuffs at once!”

But Jared doesn’t move. He just glares at Alpha pierce.

“Jared has agreed to join my pack, pierce. To serve as Raine’s personal guard,” Jasper says lightly, almost with a bored tone. “Your commands have no effect on him anymore.”

“You traitor!” Alpha Pierce screams at Jared.

“Oh calm down Pierce. Surely you didn’t think he’d stay with you after the fight you just had with him?” Jasper is almost laughing at Alpha Pierce now.

He’s in my head again.

-“Tell them you want me. Tell them you chose me. Tell them Kyle lied. I promise I won’t hurt you again.”

“Alpha Regent Jasper, please let Alpha Pierce go.”

“What?!” Jared scoffs at me. “Do you not remember what he did to you?!”

“Kyle lied. Alpha Pierce never hurt me. He was only correcting me, and it only happened a few times. He loves me. He won’t do it again.”

Jasper is just staring at me calmly.

-“Keep talking to him, Raine. You’re wearing him down. You’re the only one that can talk him out of this.”

I’m shaking as Jasper stares at me. My body is yearning for him.

-“Come on you stupid b***h. Get me out of these cuffs.”

I don’t answer him. I’m lost in Jasper’s eyes.

-“Raine, I swear on my life if you do not get me out of this right now, you’re finished. I will find you. You are mine. He can’t have you.”

“Pierce!” Jasper growls at him. “I will remind you that Raine Alder is my mate. Do you need to be reminded what the punishment is for anyone who threatens a Luna Regent?”

Alpha Pierce’s mouth is hanging open. Jasper laughs at him coldly.

“It seems you didn’t pay attention in our alpha leadership seminar did you?” He shakes his head still laughing. “An Alpha Regent can intercept and join any private mind link conversation if at least one member is within my region. It’s not something I often partake in. I find it to be rude. But I figured you would pull something stupid like this.”

So that’s what the itch was. It was Alpha Jasper tearing his way into my mind.

Alpha Jasper is walking in a slow, tight circle around Alpha Pierce. As if he is circling his prey.

Alpha Pierce is looking back at me now, ignoring Alpha Jasper’s words.

“Tell him, Raine,” Alpha Pierce commands me.

I flinch as I feel his command wash over me like a wave. I shudder against its pull. I’m gritting my teeth as my eyes water and I am forced to my knees.

“ENOUGH.”

The wave subsides suddenly and I fall to the ground. Before I can face plant, I catch my body weight with my hands. My breathing is heavy and I see black spots forming on the edge of my vision. My arms weaken and I fall face first onto the ground.

The darkness takes me once again.

Jasper

*content warning: domestic violence*

I’m seething.

I could hear the way Pierce spoke to my mate through their link. I’m not upset that he wants her. That much is obvious. It's the subtle ways he breaks her apart. The gas lighting and the emotional abuse are clearly ways that he has been tearing her down over time.

I'm pacing back and forth in front of her hospital room. She collapsed from the force of Pierce’s command. He pushed too hard.

Very few things scare me. When I was younger and I learned that I was to be the next Alpha Regent, my father would teach me about our world. He shared the wars our people had fought against each other before the regency was thought up. He shared the way we tortured each other. I was ten years old when I learned how half of our race died. It left me with nightmares, dark movies that played on the back of my eyelids. It helped shape me into a leader with morals.

Pierce’s behavior that I have seen him display over the last two days has scared me more than all of those images and stories combined. The way he obsesses over Raine makes me queasy. He is insane. He has to be. I curse myself for not taking psychology in school, but make a mental note to have him evaluated while he is in custody. I do not believe he is fit to lead his pack.

The doctor and nurses come out of Raine’s room and let me know I can join her.

She is asleep on the bed, her heart monitor is beeping slowly. I sit down in the chair by her bed and take her hand. I close my eyes and pray to the moon goddess for guidance.

“Moon goddess, I humbly ask for your guidance. Help me understand what Raine has been through. Help me so that I can help her. Show me...”

My eyes snap open as I feel her violently toss towards me. Her eyes are glowing silver. There is no emotion on her face. She takes her other hand and places her palm on my forehead.

“See then.”

Suddenly I am on the ground in a house I do not recognize. Pierce is standing above me, his dark eyes filled with anger and hate.

He kicks me roughly. A cry escapes from my lips.

“Did you really think you could run away from me you stuipd b***h?” He’s yelling at me and kicks me again.

“Alpha-- pl-please.” it comes from my lips but it is Raine’s voice, not mine.

His face softens and he crouches in front of me.

“Why do you make me punish you, Raine? Why can’t you just listen to me?”

He strokes my face and then slaps me hard across the cheeks making my head violently snap to the right. He grabs my chin and forces me to look him in the eyes as tears stream down my flaming cheeks.

“Why won’t you give me what I want?” He whispers to me, his lips mere centimeters from mine. He breathes down my neck and kisses me on the nape of my neck, right where my mark would go.

“Stop, Alpha. Please I do not want to ---”

He grabs me by the neck and slams my head against the wall and slowly drags me to my feet. I can’t breathe. I am scratching at his arms fiercely but he doesn’t budge. His eyes are almost black as his wolf surfaces.

My world goes black.

I am awake again, this time in bed. Alpha Pierce is on top of me, kissing my neck down to my chest. I am pushing him, trying to make him stop. He finds my n****e and begins to suck and chew on it roughly. I gasp as I feel his teeth break the skin followed by searing pain.

I knee him as hard as I can in the abdomen and he grunts. He laughs at me, and rubs his hard c**k on my c**t through our clothes. It makes my stomach churn.

“Some day you will submit to me, b***h,” he whispers, then pulls me out of bed by my hair and drags me to the patio.

He glares at me through the door.

“I will take you soon, Raine. Why force this on yourself?”

He closes the blinds and I hear him walk away.

More and more of these images play through my mind. I know I am not there, but the pain from his beatings feels so real. His words are almost as painful.

I am snapped back to the hospital room. Her heart monitors are going wild and her eyes are rolled back in her head.

“Raine?” I try to shake her but she doesn’t respond.

“RAINE?!” I’m shaking her harder.

Nurses flood into the room and begin working on her. A doctor follows shortly after. They are bouncing ideas off of each other.

The monitors begin to settle down as her heart rate subsides but she still doesn’t open her eyes.

A doctor approaches me and holds his hand up to me in a dismissive manner.

“Alpha Regent, I know you have questions but I don’t have answers for you at this time.”

I nod at him.

“What happened?” He asks me.

I look around.

“I think we should talk privately.”

He nods and addresses the staff in the room to leave. Once everyone but the doctor remains I tell him what I saw.

“Her eyes were silver?”

He thinks for a moment.

“I need to do research. I’ll be ordering some blood tests as well. I have a theory but until I am certain I’d rather not hypothesize. I’d like to share what I saw with one of the professors here too.”

“I understand, doc. Please keep me updated though.”

“I will. She seems stable for now.”

I nod at him and he leaves the room.

I look back to my Raine. My beautiful Raine. Her eyes are still closed and she looks so peaceful. If I hadn’t seen her life before me with my own eyes, I wouldn’t imagine it was possible.

I crawl into her bed with her and lie her on my chest. The mate bond can truly do some incredible things. One of those things is healing. While it is strongest when the mating and marking process is complete, its effects are still helpful.

I feel her move closer to me and the warmth spreads through my entire body. I rub my hand on her back gently and kiss her forehead.

Knowing what I know now, I’m not sure what to expect for us as mates. All I can hope for is time with her to show her how a she-wolf should be treated by her mate: with love, adoration, and respect.