Loving His Broken Luna

Chapter 44

It wasn’t exactly like Kris’ alpha acted apart from himself. They were one, in one form and the next. Going into full alpha mode is an experience though. It removed the elements of fear and all of the emotions associated with it. His detachment to his hindbrain was next.

Losing that rendered alphas as reckless. It made it absolutely impossible to talk himself out of decisions he’d execute.

It was a spindle unwinding past relevant thought. He could feel the thread to his balance slipping. His alpha willingly reigning supreme.

And he was off in thought, devising a plan.

Renee’s sweet scent lingered, sure. It angered his alpha to be apart from her. Adrenaline built under his skin. He breathed her in intentionally, committing her to memory. Kris stored her away in a place he couldn’t question.

His little mate would understand.

Kris began searching around his place, the spot he stood in, while Renee spoke to him. Kris fell to his knees, still in his burly werewolf form. It was off-putting, seizing up into a ball of himself.

“Don’t question it…” his alpha spoke. “I need our thumbs…”

Kris splayed his thick digits beside him at his feet. His fingers lightly tapped across the smooth sandstone underfoot as if he hadn’t walked over it on his way there.

Once satisfied that he was on safe ground, Kris continued the process, moving away tiny pieces of gravel.

Kris pulled in his fingers, grinding his sharp claws through the stone below. The gruff anthem pained his inner ears immensely, but cutting into it would prove to be a good mapping tool.

Their starting place began with an x, then he rubbed his scent into it by way of his wrist.

Kris’ alpha pushed on leaving no surface untouched. He palmed all he could find, there in the dark. He worked his claws into the cavern floor while he roved over it.

“Found something,” he muttered to himself. “It’s a wall.”

He marked it the way he marked the floor, this time with an arrow pointing upward both on the floor and against the craggy surface on the wall. Condensation slipped briefly against his fingertips.

“Water?” Kris leaned forward to inspect its scent. “Earthy.”

Kris frowned, his head jerked over to the left, taking drags of the new scent. He rolled his tongue, expectantly, as if his pallet would render out what position in the world he was. His alpha, the overconfident wolf, clawed at the wall, digging diligently at the space he’d found.

Debris tumbled and clacked as the substance fell.

Kris paid no mind.

“Unconsumable,” he ground out, irritated, as he dug faster.

The soft spot would speak up. It would show them a new way out. His alpha expected it.

Before long there was a pile ankle deep of acidic mud, moss, limestone and sulfur. The smell is unpleasant but still more than there was before.

“No telling how deep it goes,” he hummed to himself as he began reaching deeper into the mass, removing the waste.

Kris kicked the pile over, moving it out of the way as he retracted his reach back into the cavern. He flicked the remainder of the sludge off of him, then reached around the opening.

“A light would be great right now,” he grunted as he realized the shape he’d dug out.

It was only about the size of his neck and shoulder combined.

“Gotta be a better way,” he frowned, forcing his arms back into the hole.

He swatted around, scraping wildly at the substances that he could until he’d cleared what felt like a ledge. Kris removed himself again, then exhaled. Again he slopped the excess mud and grime onto the ground around him.

Once satisfied, he lowered his chin to his chest and breathed. Deeply. He breathed with purpose. His entire rose and fell with each terrible pass. Kris’ upper lip sneered, flashing his incisors first. His exhale ripped out of him with a growl. The next pass his muscles tensed, bulking him up past his natural form.

The focus gave him strength.

It gave him power.

Kris reached out for the stone’s lip before him with practiced easy, latched on and lunged forward. He pulled down on the sandstone mix with a less than momentous thud.

The palm sized stone chipped away, then rattled against the ground below.

“You have got to be kidding me!” he snarled, closing his fist around the next part of the ledge.

He ripped the next chunk down with the same force, breaking away a similar size.

“This cannot be my luck!” his alpha roared, swinging back both of his arms.

He clasped his hands together then slammed his fist into the stone before him.

It smarted, shocking him slightly. Only enough to know he’d broken the skin.

“What is on this wall?” he demanded as if the wall could speak.

Again he ripped at the opening.

“Move!” he growled at the cavern blocking his way out.

Not even the exposed earth slid out to meet him as he plucked pieces of stone out from the hole above him.

“Move!” Kris shouted once more as his claws slipped through the earth and caught onto something new.

It didn’t seem to move. He couldn’t use his hind legs to dismantle it or apparently rip the curved wall from its sediment. Kris’ breathing intensified. He licked his nose, then forced his way up into the opening, taking his anger with him.

The cavern would fall, and he would be the one to make it crumble.