The Luna Queen Awakens

Prologue

Dear Reader,

Please note that the complete version of this book can be found on sss. Unfortunately, my contract was not approved on this site. So I signed a non-exclusive contract somewhere elsewhere. The downfall is they very rarely advertise books non-exclusive, so I had to think hard about how to give my readers a chance to see it.

Soooooo, you can give it a try here and if you like it please visit www.readautumnmarie.com to finish it. The book is available on k****e ($4.99), k****e Unlimited, Paperback ($14.99) and Hardcover ($25.99).

Thank you,

Autumn Marie

Content Warning:

This book is rated 18+

Contains explicit s****l content, grief, violence, and talks of infertility,

PAST

Malinda

The full moon sits high in the sky tonight. Without a cloud to be seen, the field in front of us is practically glowing. I fear if we don’t win tonight, this war will drag on forever. Our warriors can’t keep going on like this. It always seems that it takes twice as many people to defeat evil, and I’ll be damned if we f*****g give up. We’ve been fighting for the last couple of years, and I can tell many are getting tired, but they refuse to quit.

This s**t is devastating all of the supernatural world. You see, dark witches, rogues, and some vampires want to rule the world of the supernatural.

To them, they have been controlled for too long by the rules that keep this world running in harmony. Now, they seek the control. Not only of our world but of the human world as well. They have made their goals clear—destroy the light.

We refuse to give into them though. Light witches, werewolves, fae, and those vampires who love the world as it is, will keep fighting for what is right. We must maintain the balance of the worlds. What kills me the most is to see so many sacrificing everything, but even with everything on the line they keep fighting. Their strength to keep going seems to be kindled from the rogue blood, my mate Alpha Jared continues to spill across the battlefield. His skills are unmatched, our warriors push harder because our alpha leads by example.

Suddenly the energy shifts, you can almost feel how unstable the air has become. As time passes the evil surrounding us seems to be getting stronger. Tonight, the pit in my stomach grows. This has absolutely been the toughest battle we’ve been in and damnit, I just want to come out of it in one piece. I’m almost twenty years old and this is not how I pictured life was going to be. I need this to end, our world needs this turmoil to end— now.

I’m currently fighting in wolf form, my heavy paws push through the dirt with precision and accuracy as I zone in on my next rogue. My wolf, Sahara, looks majestic in the moonlight; her fur is a mix of blonde and red. Even through the chaos of battle, she doesn’t stumble. Her movements are strong and graceful. The adrenaline pumping through my veins is just enough to get me into the air and straight at my target.

Gaining the upper hand on this rogue, I lean in, clamping my jaw around his throat. My teeth pierce his skin and as I jerk my head from side to side. I have every intention of ripping this scum apart, but I lose all the breath in my lungs when I’m slammed hard in the side. With my mouth empty, I fall to the dirt as someone jumps on my back. I’m pissed the fucker got away, but the bastard who crashed into me has gotta be three hundred and fifty pounds of pure muscle. Normally this would be no problem, but I’m pretty sure I just broke a few ribs. Thank god for our ability to heal quickly, cause I need to dish out some f*****g pay back for that blow.

Suddenly, I howl in pain when the sting of an injection hits my neck. A cold liquid pierces my insides, but then immediately the sensation turns to fire as it spreads through my body, attacking every muscle. This means only one thing, "f*****g wolfsbane." Sahara growls in my head, the damn concoction forcing me to immediately shift back to my human form. I can’t stop the blood curdling scream that comes straight from my soul. A forced shift like this is excruciating, my body is shutting down fast.

Wait, what the hell is going on?

Wolfsbane doesn’t force a shift like this. s**t, this is no ordinary wolfsbane. It’s gotta be laced with something. I try to wrack my brain with what it could be, but the pain I’m currently experiencing is indescribable. I’ve been injected with wolfsbane several times before, and whatever is currently coursing through my veins is a little bit of wolfsbane and a whole lot of something else. I try to call out to Sahara, begging her to help speed up the healing process, but she is quiet. The rapid healing abilities all werewolves experience have not kicked in. My panic goes from zero to sixty in the blink of an eye as someone glides their dirty hand down my leg.

The rogue that tackled me reaches down, grabbing me by my ankles. Roughly, he pulls at the joint, dragging me a few feet in the dirt. Then as if I weighed nothing, he spins around with such force heaving me across the small clearing into a large tree trunk. I knew the second I made contact with the tree, everything changed, and just like a crack of a whip my spine breaks.

With immense glee on his face the rogue stalks over to me. Rearing his foot back, kicking my legs–I feel nothing.

This can’t be happening. This can’t be f*****g happening. Tears stream down my face as I’m hit hard with the realization–I can no longer move the lower half of my body. And now I’m at the mercy of this evil man?

The rogue kneels down to straddle my broken, naked body. He reeks of rotting flesh and disease. Fear sets in as I try to struggle to get him off, but it’s no use. Bringing his arm back he punches me relentlessly in the face. My eyes start to swell, and black spots cloud my vision. I taste the blood trickling from my split lip and I’m fighting unconsciousness. The bastard slaps me again, hard. He grips my face with one hand, digging his nails into my flesh.

“I want you to watch b***h,” he growls as he violently forces my head to the side. My eyes land on Jared rushing in my direction. I can tell he’s frantic… s**t, he felt me through our bond. Ugh, this stupid bond. I try to call out to him, to tell him to stay away, but the bastard holding me down covers my mouth, silencing me.

As if in slow motion, Jared’s wolf gets closer and closer to finding me. He pushes off the ground hard to leap over two wolves fighting, but is tackled midair. They crash to the ground, in a fury of teeth and claws. Suddenly Jared’s howl pierces the night air right before his body goes limp. The rogue that was fighting him jumps up and disappears into the chaos. I see a nearby man toss a knife covered in blood to the ground. A tilt of his head to my captor then vanishes right before my eyes.

The asshole releases my face, and his menacing laugh echoes off the trees. Slowly he backs away, never taking his yellow eyes off my discarded form. An evil smirk creeps on his face just before he turns and runs back into battle.

I slowly roll my broken body over onto my belly as I attempt to crawl toward Jared. I need to get to him. Putting one arm in front of the other. I pull my useless limbs closer to my best friend. Any pain I have as a result of my wounds doesn’t come close to the torment slashing away at my heart. An eternity later, I’m close enough to assess. I take my hand, caked with blood and mud and try to stop the bleeding, but all of my efforts are failing fast.

“Mal–stop. It’s no use.” Jared’s command is no more than a whisper. The moon glints off of a crimson covered blade laying discarded on the ground. The blade that was used to take the life of my best friend. I reach for it and smell the wolfsbane it’s been dipped in. There is no coming back from this.

He’s not coming back from this.

I reach over, running my fingers through his hair. My heart shatters when I see a tear run down his face. A war is raging around us and for the first time since it started I couldn’t care less. My best friend is dying. I drag myself as close as possible so I can lay next to him as he struggles to breathe.

“Mal, listen to me,” he whispers. “I need you to do something for me.” My chest tightens as his tears start to spill over. He pulls in a ragged breath. “I need you to live, okay? I... I need you to find someone who will love you in a way— I couldn’t.”

“Shhh, don’t worry about me,” I choke out. The lump in my throat is making it difficult to breathe.

“I don’t regret anything we had and would not want… want to fight next to anyone else.” He struggles as he leans in to kiss my forehead. His head falls back to the ground with a thud and slowly his eyes meet mine. He tries to smile but starts to cough up blood. I grab his hand and squeeze, resting my other upon his forehead. Desperation must be written all over my face.

"Stop talking and just focus on breathing, focus on staying here…with me.” I say, choking on my words. “Please keep breathing. Don’t give up on me yet." I grip his hand tighter. His labored breathing begins slow, as a peaceful aura washes over him. He has accepted his fate but I haven’t. “Don’t you fuckin die on me, do you hear me.” With his eyes still on mine, he lets out one last breath. And just like that–he’s gone.

My best friend since I was two years old is dead. I kiss his forehead, close his eyes, just as the pain from our mate bond dying rips through my body. It’s so intense that I can’t help but scream out in pain. The ground beneath me begins to literally shake. The sound of my scream radiating out of my body is coming from both me and my wolf. The sound is of pure, tortured pain. Even though we weren’t in love with our mate, we did love him.

Pressure in my head begins to build and I feel like I’m losing control. My sadness begins to quickly grow to anger, my scream grows to a roar, my roar becomes a heartbreaking howl that is loud and vicious. Out of nowhere, a light— huge, white, and blinding appears over the battlefield. Just like a dying star exploding. A rumbling sound echoes across the battlefield as a deafening boom shakes the ground. A consuming high powered wind engulfs the battlefield, the magical energy swirling inside of it wipes out our enemy. Killing most and injuring even more. Victory may have been claimed tonight, but there's no joy for me as darkness comes for me.