Luna Athalia

15. Found and Lost

Remy Samuel Bell

Remy had found himself in a similar position as he had been just weeks before, spying on Athalia and Vince in her bedroom window. But this time, the view was far more heinous. Standing in her bedroom, clad in dark clothes and a smirk on his face, stood the rogue who called himself Alpha. He was dominating in stature and presence and Remy found himself fearing more deeply than ever that harm had befallen his mate.

He did not see Athalia, but Sebastian appeared to be talking. As Sebastian turned away from the window, his demeanor turning more hostile, Remy bristled, fighting every urge to burst into her room the same way he had when he saw her with Vince. But the rogues who roamed the packhouse grounds were far less receptive than the Omegas who he had sauntered past that time.

Remy opened his mindlink, hoping fervently that Athalia would respond and give him some indication that she was okay. But he was met with an odd mixture of emotion, one of panic and anxiety melded with confusion and something else that gave him pause.

Finally, after gruelingly long minutes, the link opened fully and he felt the wash of comfort that came with his fate bond to Athalia.

Remy! Her voice practically screamed in his head, the desperation and fear in her voice almost making him run into the house just to hold her.

But he knew he couldn't and he responded in as calm a manner as he could muster, Athalia, are you okay? He felt her trembling, the feeling of damp, bare skin and the heaviness of shower steam already making him assume the worst.

I'm...okay. The burn of tears in her eyes sparking in Remy's own, He's planning something. He said he's going to burn the pack to the ground while I watch. He wants me to beg him for death.

He felt like a heart attack was ready to claim his body, panic rising like bile in his throat, It's okay. We're going to get you out. We're arranging a meeting with him and while he's distracted, we're going to get you out.

At least, that was the plan. Vince was on the verge of recovering fully, just as Remy did the day prior from his broken foot, the only reason why he had been given the opportunity to deliver a message to the rogues instead of the Vince. They offered a meeting to see Sebastian's demands, one the rogue seemed intent on pursuing. It was meant for that very night, likely the reason why Sebastian was readying Athalia. He wanted her visible, palpable, just out of reach.

The meeting was to be in the packhouse, an obvious trap that Remy was reluctant in falling for. If they captured Vince and their other valued packmembers, there would be no one left to fight for Roaming Ember. But they were in no position to make demands.

Vince is coming with the Elders. Sebastian insisted I come as well... Remy regretfully informed her, Julian is heading our rescue efforts.

He didn't want to leave Athalia's rescue to the young Beta, but there was little choice in the matter. Remy tirelessly explained the plan to get her out through the servants quarters, the pathways of which were practically unknown to the Beta. But he hoped Athalia would know better, that she would be able to take the reigns of her escape in her own hands once given the chance.

Athalia moved to the window now, the sight of her making Remy's heart fall to his feet. She looked frail and exhausted, dressed in a t-shirt and baggy sleeping shorts. She leaned heavily to one side and Remy could barely make out the shape of the dark swollen ankle that she was nursing.

He moved out of view just enough to catch her eye, relishing in the expression on her face as she did. Her bottom lip trembled as she held a hand up to the glass, her mindlink full of longing and doubt, Thank you...

Sebastian Rafael Bellevue

Seb was no i***t, he had kept his ear close to the ground his entire time plotting against the Sylas family and even more so when the rogues were kept in apartments on their land. It was a stupid move for them, one that he had actually laughed at when the decision was announced two years ago. After he had snapped Aaron's and Wynn's necks, he had torn the packhouse apart trying to find the daughter borne of their artificial bond. It wasn't until after he had surrendered that he learned she was hiding in some panic room within the house's walls. The rogues he had recruited to attack the pack were, unfortunately, scraps from the bottom of the barrel and his numbers had dwindled significantly while he was busy tearing into the Alpha.

But it became easier to formulate the rest of his plot to kill Athalia from her own backyard. In the two years he had been housed there, he watched as the teenage Luna prioritized her position over finding a mate. He heard the rumor of an ultimatum for her to choose one, saw her parade her convenient Beta to the rogue apartments when she declared him her mate, and watched with amusement as the head fighter of the pack challenged him for the title. He had assumed it all a struggle for power, the Fighter's claim to a fated bond just a political move to sway more supporters.

But when Remy Bell appeared at his doorstep with demands for a meeting for his kidnapped Luna, Sebastian saw the desperation, the fight, the achingly familiar expression of someone whose mate was stolen away.

It was like looking into a mirror of his past self.

It was then that he made the decision to take Athalia off wolfsbane. He knew Remy was there, hiding in the bushes. And he knew that their mindlink conversation was just enough hope to give Athalia the impression that she could be rescued. But Sebastian simply wanted her to suffer more, to realize that just as soon as she was found, she was lost again. He wanted them both to sink into the safety net of their bond, ignoring the realities of tomorrow, just as he and Wynn had, so he could rip it away. He wanted to strip away everyone she loved, take away the dependable, sturdy walls of duty she built and the fluffy clouds of fate she was beginning to lay on. And only then would he kill her.

Something that Sebastian hadn't accounted for was Athalia herself. She was always a pawn, a side character, a leftover thought he was ready to use and throw away. Originally, he had planned to kill her first in front of her parents, before killing Aaron and then Wynn. He wanted them to see that their devotion to their roles, to the Sylas bloodline, was all for naught as their only daughter bled

out in front of them. But the night of the raid, he had run into Wynn first and before she could clog his brain with memories and excuses, his blind need for revenge drove his jaws into her neck. His calculated plan had once again been thrown off because of the magic she held over him and he regretfully killed Aaron in the same manner.

When he finally reorganized his plan to attack Athalia and finally snuff out the Sylas family, it just happened to coincide with the anniversary of her parents' deaths. And when he first caught sight of her wolf in the clearing when they did attack, he was just feral enough to ignore the similarities she shared with her mother.

But when they took her in, his wolves ready to dump her in the basement dungeons, he took one look at her and abruptly told them to put her in her room. He didn't take the order back, in fact he doubled down and allowed one of other prisoners to tend to her and keep her stable when his original plan was to simply leave her there until he was ready to dispose of her in a very public

manner.

Before she regained consciousness, Sebastian had stood in the doorway of her room, staring at the eerily cloned copy of his fated mate. They shared the same hair and complexion, the same features right down to her pristine sloped figure. Suddenly, he was 15 again, staring at Wynn for the first time. And he instantly berated himself for the memory.

When she awoke on the second day of her capture, he barely spoke a word to her, watched as she glared at him with big brown eyes and kept her dry lips shut in defiance when he did try to goad her into speaking. A sick part of him wondered if she sounded like Wynn too. In the next days, he continued to visit her, but her regular IV of wolfsbane always prevented her from doing much more than listen to him rant.

It wasn't until the day after her IV was taken out that she spoke a word to him. He had walked in not knowing she was strong enough to shower on her own. It was interesting to say the least that her strong will overcame the heavy drug dosage in mere hours. When she emerged from the steam of the bathroom, he could almost taste her dark chocolate scent, spiced with something hot like cayenne. It was different from Wynn's from what he remembered, but equally enticing. He couldn't help his gaze from wandering when he finally deigned to look at her and certainly couldn't help himself from noting the softness of her skin when he grasped her face.

When she retorted at him, her words sharp and defiant, he began to realize that this was not Wynn at all. Wynn was quiet and curious, observant and driven holistically by logic. Sebastian had spent years prying her walls down, prodding at the emotionally unavailable woman beyond the honeyed words she let him hear. It took him even longer after to realize that her conflict had never been whether or not she would marry Aaron and take up her Luna role, it was when she would break off her mating with Sebastian to do it.

He had stared down at the Luna, threatening her with his promise of death. It was not until he left her in her room that he realized he could read her every emotion, swirling there in the depths of her eyes, something the guarded expression Wynn kept never allowed him to. And for the first time since Wynn had left him did he consider even the idea that he was wrong.