Rebirth of the Luna Queen

CHAPTER TWO

~FLORA~

I WOKE UP gasping, my hand flying to my chest. It had been a dream, but it felt so real. I touched my lips at where I had tasted the sea salt in the air.

The dream. The stake. Edwig's face. it had all felt so real. I could still feel the splintered wood piercing my side, the warmth of my own blood pooling beneath me.

I closed my eyes and tried to regulate my breathing, I was drenched in cold sweat.

A banging at my door made me jolt upright.

"What are you still doing in bed, girl?" The familiar voice of my stepmother snarled. Her eyes washed over me in contempt before she spat, "Get up from bed this instant!"

I scurried out of bed immediately.

"Have your bathe and prepare to meet your future husband," she snarled. "It is what you deserve it. To be married to an old man and used as a s*x slave by the barbaric Wolves of Scotland."

Was that going to be my life? I averted my gaze. Was that my punishment for being a half-orphan and not having a wold spirit?

"And you should be grateful you even get the chance at that life," my stepmother, Edwig said. "Because if it were up to me, you would remain here in north london as an omega. You would be nothing but a servant to wash and clean the stables, but your father still likes you... for now."

She said the last two words with a mocking sneer as she walked away, banging my door behind her.

I sank onto the bed, my head falling into my hands. The dream clung to me like cobwebs; sticky and impossible to shake. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Edwig's face, heard the crack of the stair railing breaking, and i could still feel the cold stone floor against my cheek.

It had felt so real.

The door opened tentatively, and a small mousey looking girl with freckles and dirty hair came in. She had been my mother's maid once. Now she was mine. She was carrying a large bucket of water. "I warmed up the water, my lady." She said, keeping her head down.

I smiled at her. She was the only one who treated me well in the pack. "What day is it, Maggie?"

She looked up, searching my face with her eyes. "Are you alright, my lady?" She asked. "You look pale."

"I'm fine," I replied. "What day is it?"

"It's the twelfth day, today," she said slowly.

The twelfth day. That was yesterday. I was getting more confused by the second.

"It is the day you will be introduced to your mate. Everyone in the pack is waiting..."

As if on cue, the noise of men and horses came rushing through my window.

"They are here," Maggie said hurriedly. "Have a quick bathe, lady. I will come back to check up on you." She looked at me with concern before leaving my room.

A few minutes later, I was standing in front of my mirror. If I were a respected member as my bloodline, I would have had many servants to help me prepare, but that was not the case. Since my mother died 5 years ago, i had been alone, discarded, and worthless. It almost felt like -

A deep frown creased my forehead as I noticed something on my normally flawless pale skin. I leaned closer to the mirror to see the mark. It looked like a bruise on my chest.

I was gripped with a sudden feeling of apprehension as I remembered my dream. The mark was on the exact spot where I had been impaled with a stair railing... by my stepmother. I touched it gingerly, expecting to feel something, but nothing.

I was still examining it. The loud voices of men in their Scottish accent alerted me that the discussion was already underway. I threw on a robe and rushed to my door, hoping I would catch a glimpse of the barbaric savage who was going to be my mate. i was met with a surprise as my door suddenly opened.

I had never met the alpha of the Scotland mountains, but the man that came in was the exact copy of the man I saw in my "dream" last night.

He was tall. Taller than the door to my room, he had to bend to come in. His hair was long and fell down in waves to his shoulders, and his eyes were icey blue and cold. His face was hard and weathered, but there was no denying that he was a very handsome man.

He looked at me with a raised eyebrow and asked in the same voice I knew, "You are the Lady Flora?" His voice held a bit of amusement in it.

I opened my mouth to talk, but words failed me, so I simply nodded.

He chuffed and took off the wooly shawl from around his neck. "I would expect you are not in support of this union... I know what your people think of mine. I thought you might want to jump into the sea." He smirked.

His words took me back to my dream again. His first words to me had been to step away from the window.

I was still stunned as he draped his cape on my bed and walked past me. He looked out the window at the back of my room and shook his head. "It would have been a bad idea. Do not be deceived by the calm look of the water. The tides change very quickly here, and you would be smashed against the rocks. Dead."

The same words he told me last night.

My head was spinning. What was happening? Am I a seer now? Did I see the future? Was the moon goddess compensating me for not having a wolf spirit by giving me the ability to see the future?

My mind raced. Could I see the future? Was the Moon Goddess compensating me for my wolflessness with visions? Or was I simply going mad?

I studied Cameron as he moved across the room, trying to find some flaw in the man from my nightmare. He was exactly the same. Down to the way he shook out his hair when he removed his crown

"We're to be married," He said, picking his words slowly. "I wonder why your father wants you gone so badly..."

I knew the answer, but for some reason, I was not filled with the same conviction as I was yesterday.

My father had warned me very severely, not to mention it to Alpha Cameron until the whole deal was finalized. If Cameron knew that I was wolfless, he would kill me.

"I can not place it," Alpha Cameron said, walking back to me. "Have you ever shifted before?"

I swallowed and began to lie in response, but he shut me up with the raise of a finger.

"I do not care either way," he said, standing up. "We're going to be married, but I do not love you." Hearing them for the second time did nothing to soften the blow. My chest tightened at his brutal honesty. "And I fear I will never love you because I love another."

"But she is dead..." I whispered, the words slipping out before I could stop them.

Cameron froze. His eyes snapped to mine, sharp and searching. "How did you know that?"

I cursed myself inwardly. Fool. Stupid, reckless fool. "I—" My mind scrambled for an excuse. "I overheard the servants. They talk."

He studied me for a long moment, his blue eyes unreadable. I could feel him weighing my words, testing them for truth. I held my breath.

"The servants," he repeated flatly.

I nodded even though it was not a question, forcing my face into a mask of innocence.

He didn't believe me. I could see it in the slight narrowing of his eyes, the tightening of his jaw. But he let it go.

He looked away and gazed out the window at the sea. There was no need to point out that this was one of the coldest rooms in the castle, and it was where my stepmother put me.

"I will take you with me to my pack, and I will form an alliance with your alpha. You will have any castle you want in my territory. I will visit you once in a while. You will have my protection and my titles. But I will never love you."

I had heard these words before, but they still hurt

"You will have a good life..." He continued. "So, what do you say, Lady Flora? Will you choose me as your mate?" He extended his hand.

I nodded. "I accept." As i placed my hand in his, I felt a jolt run up my arm and settle in a warm pool inside my belly. It was a sensation I had never felt before, not even in my "dream."

"Come," he said in a hoarse voice. He cleared his theater and then added, "Let us tell your father, i am sure he would be very pleased."

I followed him out of the room, but my mind was elsewhere. I touched the bruise on my chest beneath my dress. It throbbed in time with my heartbeat.

Whatever was happening to me; visions, memories, prophecy... it was real. The bruise proved it.

And if Edwig had killed me once, in my past life, or in the future, she would try again. And i am not going to allow myself to be killed again.