Luna Athalia

13. Captured

*WARNING: This chapter contains scenes of graphic violence.*

Vincent John Reyes

Vince awoke to the blinding white lights of an examination room. His first instinct was to move, but pain radiated throughout his stiff body the moment he tried. He opened his mouth, but found his cracked lips circling a breathing tube that was shoved down his throat. Panic began to set in, hearing the monitor beside him beginning to beep rapidly in response. Suddenly, noise rustled at his side as a nurse rushed in and began fussing over him.

"Alpha Vincent, it's okay, you're okay." The male moved the light out of his eyes, looking down and attempting to soothe his still-frantic movements. Vince struggled still, trying to look around despite the tube that held him in place. He tried to gulp, but to no avail.

"Alpha," the nurse urged him once more, "I can take the tube out but I need you to relax."

After several long, grueling moments as the plastic snaked through his mouth, Vince sputtered as he struggled to find his voice.

"You'll need to give that some time, Alpha." The nurse cautioned, raising his hospital bed into a sitting position, "Though your injuries are healing, you've been gone for a bit of time and this was the only way to get you your nutrients."

The panicked look in his eye drew further explanation, "You were injured in the second rogue attack, Alpha. Your ribs were crushed, you had a concussion that really had the doctors scared. You've been in a coma for 10 days now."

10 days?? Vince thought frantically, struggling to look around the room. Where is everyone? Julian? Athalia?

The nurse had a grim look on his face as he continued, "The rogues killed many of those present at the challenge... including Gamma Wilder and Elder Renee."

"They captured Athalia." Another voice rumbled from the door. Vincent strained turn his head, seeing the fuzzy form of Remy leaning gingerly on crutches in the doorframe. The opposing male looked pale and sickly, his cheeks hollowed and dark circles under his eyes that made him look skeletal. One leg was wrapped in a bulky cast, the other barely supporting him as he hobbled into the room.

He dragged a chair to Vince's bedside, collapsing into it and propping the crutches against the bed's railing, "We haven't heard any demands. I think they were waiting to see if you were alive or not."

W-who? Who did this? Vince thought feebly, his mindlink barely sparking to life. He felt his wolf heavily in his mind, a pressure that felt like a bruise inside his brain.

"The rogues." Remy replied plainly, "They're led by a wolf they call Alpha Sebastian. We managed to take a few rogues back to the apartments where they're being held and questioned but most are squatting in the packhouse."

The nurse fiddled with medical instruments while Remy explained, not wanting to leave the two alone in the room considering their fight just over a week before. But there were clearly more pressing matters than their rivalry.

Remy continued, "Since you've been taking your sweet time waking up, we've been sitting ducks."

"Most of the pack who survived are healed or in stable condition." The nurse chimed in hastily, seeing the rising anger in Vince's eyes, "We didn't suffer as many casualties as the first rogue attack, though our fighting force took the biggest hit... We're in no position to fight."

"The rogues didn't have many to begin with but we didn't dwindle their numbers by any means." Remy leaned back with a bit of a wince, "I suggest you hurry up and think of a plan."

"Oh so now you look to me as an Alpha for guidance?" Vince croaked, coughing dryly before taking a cup of water from the nurse and choking down what he could.

"I didn't beat you in the challenge, Vincent." Remy narrowed his eyes, "Technically, you're still Roaming Ember's Alpha and our Luna is imprisoned by rogues in her own home. She may be my mate and I still believe I am the true Alpha of this pack, but in this moment, I suggest we shelve our disagreement until we get her back."

Athalia Marie Sylas

Sebastian had been so kind in letting her stay prisoner in her own room. But she was certainly still just a prisoner in a comfy cell. It had been almost two weeks since the second rogue attack, she had been dragged away and minimally treated just to keep her conscious and alive but not much else. She still felt weak and hazy, wolfsbane continually pumped into the IV by her bed that made her blood burn and her wolf subdued. The wolf that checked in on her was one of her own, another prisoner of the attack kept specifically for her medical needs. She was not allowed to talk to Athalia but the look of grief and sympathy in her eyes each time she poisoned the Luna was enough to tell that she was not a willing participant.

Sebastian - Seb - as he so insistently told her to call him, came nearly every day, glowering at her from the foot of her bed. The rogue mark of her pack angrily blistering on his forehead was telling that he was one of the first to go through the rogue exile. He ranted about her leadership, detailed every gory bit of suffering his people went through under her hand. It was especially painful when he described the branding of his daughters.

"My elder daughter, Eliza, she's got these little hands, could barely wrap around a tangerine. She had them all balled up and teeth grit when she was branded." Seb grumbled, his large palm gripping Athalia's ankle so tightly she was worried it would snap, "And Mina, she was born here you know, not even three years old yet. Got this big ugly mark on her little forehead, seared in part right into her eyelids. I suppose no one thought long enough to make smaller branding irons for smaller heads."

A sickly crack as he crushed the bone of her ankle, her cry of pain and the instant onslaught of bruising making him smile.

"She sounded a bit like that too." He growled, twisting her broken appendage until it hung awkwardly and pointed towards her, "I would know, they made me sit there and watch in the living room you forced us into while my two little girls cried and screamed while I sat there with wolfsbane in my blood. Couldn't even grant me the solace of holding them while your Gamma packed up and left. Couldn't move to comfort them even after they passed out from the shock and exhaustion. It was heaven killing him."

That was almost four days ago. Her ankle had been set and was still healing, the swollen purple and yellow bruise making her leg pulse with pain so powerful she barely slept. Though even if he hadn't done that, the nightmares of branded children would have kept her awake regardless. Athalia knew the terrors of the rogue branding. She was no stranger to the pain of seeing your loved ones tortured and killed. But it made her no less guilty of issuing the command that only prolonged and deepened the pain that Roaming Ember had felt for the past two years.

Her mindlink didn't work, though it never stopped her from trying to open the static channel to reach someone, anyone outside the packhouse walls. She flickered between trying to contact Vince to Remy to Julian and back, even opening the one to Eloise that wouldn't have reached even if the wolfsbane didn't paralyze her. But she was desperate, even in the brief time when she was close enough to Wilder and only felt the nauseating pain that came from his torture before he died.

She felt the mildest timber of hope every morning when she opened those channels and felt the empty static of the mindlink. It was confirmation that they were still alive somewhere. She dreaded the idea that the next time she tried, it would be silent and still.

On the 12th day of her imprisonment, the rogue Alpha burst into her room, bringing in the sounds of the clambering household that was blocked out by her soundproofed walls. It was almost comforting to hear the patters of footsteps and the clinking of silverware, the rustle of snack bags being opened and the peals of conversation despite the fact that they came from the rogues who were invading her home.

Alpha Sebastian was tall and burly, with wavy, shoulder-length black hair that he usually kept tied back. He had thick black eyebrows and a beard that he kept proper despite its length. And a set of dark brown eyes that melded into his equally tanned skin. Tribal tattoos wrapped around his arms, the ends of which curled at the base of his neck and chest. Athalia was certain he was covered in them. Roaming Ember's rogue mark that tarnished his forehead was angry and red, the deep wrinkles that were accentuated by his ever-glaring expression seemingly preventing it from ever calming down.

Upon entering, he pushed forward the nurse who was tending to Athalia, his deep voice commanding and gruff, "Tell her."

The nurse, Valeria was her name, stuttered as she quickly rushed to Athalia's side, bowing her head as she squeaked through terrified tears, "L-Luna Athalia, we have received news from the Alpha."

Athalia's spine stiffened, ignoring the pain of the bedsore she surely had festering underneath her. She nodded weakly, encouraging the girl to continue.

"Alpha Vincent has awakened from his coma. H-he said he is coming to... rescue you."

Sebastian bellowed a laugh, stalking over and shoving Valeria aside. The girl squeaked and crumbled to the floor, curling against a wall as she shielded her head. But Sebastian did not pay her any more attention before leaning down over the Luna. His hot breath curled against her face and she winced, trying to turn away. His large, dirty hand moved to grip her chin, fingers circling her cheeks as he forced her to look at him, "You hear that, pretty princess? He's coming to rescue you." He sneered the last bit, his grip tightening against her jaw. She wondered in a moment of cowardice if he would be so merciful as to just snap her neck there and be over with it.

But he released her, whipping her face with the back of his hand as her head blurred with whiplash. The pain of it felt like someone was pouring molten lava into her skull, the pain consuming her head until she felt it locking her throat. She struggled to catch her breath, swallowing until the feeling dissipated into hot tendrils down the base of her neck. She felt no elation or hope at her prospective rescue, only mild relief that Vince was okay. But she was taken aback at her dismissal of the news, realizing with guilty conscience that she was hoping to hear from her mate instead. Sebastian had talked of him very little, not knowing the intricacy of their relationship and therefore ignorant of the full extent of her worries.

Sebastian straightened, looking down at her before ripping the IV from her arm with one swift movement. The injection site oozed blood, staining her skin and her sheets with dark puddles in mere moments. He kicked at Valeria until she stood, moving to bandage up the Luna with shaky hands, "Get her fixed up. Can't have a corpse dangle as a proper prize."

With that, he disappeared, closing the door behind him and surprising Athalia with the first instance of unsupervised time with Valeria. It was likely a tactic to get her more relaxed and pliant before he paraded her around the land.

Valeria was quiet for a few moments as she held a torn piece of the sheet against Athalia's arm, waiting for it to clot. But the wolfsbane was still wild in her system and it was clear that her healing would not kick in for a while longer - another reason why Sebastian likely left her there without a second thought.

"Luna," she whispered, her pretty green eyes bloodshot with worry and tears, "the Alpha sent word through Mr. Bell... He was so mad, so worried."

Hope flared in Athalia's chest and she instantly opened her mindlink to try and reach her mate. Though it was faint, she felt the tendrils of emotion and wisps of thought coming back, the strength of their destiny bond overcoming the lingering haze of the drug. But it was there and the sense of relief that washed over her nearly knocked the breath from her lungs.

Athalia only nodded weakly, waiting for her wolf to shake the fog from her fur and get to healing her. Whatever strength she was able to muster in this time was going to be important. She refused to be rescued; she would raise her head high and reclaim her pack, no matter what it took.