The Kidnapped Soul of Luna

Chapter 3 - Face in the Mirror

Alexander stared at Paxi. His mate’s wolf was a beautiful grey with one white paw and a blaze of white on her forehead. As much as Kylara riled him up, Paxi calmed him down.

“Paxi, darling… slow down. What are you talking about?” said Alexander gently as he took the key from Linda to open the door so he could get close to her.

The Alpha put out a hand and she pushed her head into his palm, eager for any contact. Then, stripping down, Alex shifted into his midnight black wolf then moved forward again, Anton nuzzling Paxi and trilling with contentment. Oh Goddess, they, both man and wolf, missed their mate so much… well, they missed Paxi and the Bond between them.

He circled her, then lay down, inviting her to snuggle up against him, which she did.

“Now tell me, love,” said the Alpha, “Where is Kylara? Who is with you now? And How?”

“I don’t know. I think Kylara ate some wolf’s bane on purpose. I don’t remember anything except for a black floating feeling for a long time and then, suddenly, I woke up this morning with this girl screaming for help. I tried to talk to her, but that made her freak out even more. She thinks she’s hallucinating. She wouldn’t listen to me at all.” Paxi put her head down on her paws, “What are going to do?”

Alex and Anton conferred privately for a moment, then came to a decision, “I think we need to talk to the doctor, Paxi. Have him check out your human and find out who she is. We are going to have move you to the hospital ward… but if you sense Kylara coming back or coming out, you have to take control. Can you do that?”

She lifted her head to give his snout a lick before saying, “Of course, love. Anything to protect you and Logan.”

“Come on then,” he said, trotting to the door and commanding Gamma Linda via link to open it again so he didn’t have to shift. “...And we can see Logan on the way.”

Paxi followed him timidly out of the cell. This prison had become her little den. She ached for her mate, but she knew that she was keeping him and their son safe by staying there. It felt a little odd to be walking out under her own power. She had long ago accepted that she would spend the rest of her life in there. As long as she could see her mate and child every once and a while, it was worth it.

At the top of the stairs came the mad reunion of wolf mama and pup. Logan was not able to shift yet, of course. But they could link and pass the time by playing together a little. It was a short reunion as Alex wanted to get Paxi to the medical wing before the human woke up and found herself inexplicably stuck in a wolf’s body. That couldn’t end well…

Once the medical team settled them into their own room, Alex shifted back and changed into the clothes that he had linked a pack member to bring him. Paxi jumped up onto the hospital bed, waiting for Alex to give her the command to shift. Shifting was a cooperative act, usually, between a person and their wolf. Without Kylara, or the new human's cooperation, only the Alpha could change her back.

“SHIFT,” Alexander said in his Alpha tone. He looked adoringly at his mate's wolf before she began to shift back into the human form that he had come to abhor.

The nurses manipulated Kylara's comatose body to lay her down on the bed as she transformed back into her human shape. She looked so harmless when she was sleeping. They put her in a hospital gown and, out of extreme caution, strapped her arms and legs down to the bed.                   

He looked down at her now with hatred in his eyes. “Call me when she’s awake,” he said coldly to the staff and he turned and walked out of the room. Before he left, Anton linked Paxi, “See you soon, my love.”    

Carmel felt… different. The air was fresher, cooler even. Maybe it had all been a dream, she thought with her eyes still closed. She tried to roll over onto her side and her eyes opened wide when she realized that she was tied down. She was about to start screaming again, when she realized that she was in a hospital of sorts. Maybe I had a mental breakdown, she thought. But that didn’t seem right. She may not have been exactly loving her life, but she had been excited some of her about classes. Oh crap… classes!

“Hello” she called, “Hellloooo, anybody?”

A little old man with a bushy head of hair and tiny glasses appeared by her bedside as if by magic. “Ah, my dear, you are awake at last. I am Dr. Killian. How are you feeling?”

“Not good, Doctor. I think someone kidnapped me. Was I rescued? Why am I restrained? Where am I? What day is it? I was supposed to start college and I’m missing my classes!” She started crying when she noticed that he was just walking around her room, checking charts and machines and not answering her questions. Carmel noticed a young nurse by the door, arranging the linens. “Please help me!” she wailed. The nurse gave her a nasty look that frightened her even more, before ignoring her once again and turning back to her linen pile.

The doctor walked back over to her and patted her shoulder absently with one hand as he held a chart in the other. “Don’t worry, my dear. I am here to help you,” he said. “But the Alpha will be the one to answer your questions. He has a few for you too.”

“The who?”

He stopped talking again and looked directly in her eyes. “See, I said too much already. Don’t you worry. He is right down the hall.”

Carmel heard footsteps a moment later and looked up expectantly. Her expression changed from hope to horror as the man from the prison walked into the room as if he owned it. She started pulling at her restraints reflexively, wanting to run away from the “Alpha man" who was looking down at her with such venom in his icy blue eyes. She sucked in a breath as her gaze seemed to be stuck to his. As scary as he was, he was also devastatingly handsome. Inexplicably, she felt butterflies in her stomach. He stopped at the foot of the bed and glared at her.

“Who are you?” he demanded.

“I’m… I’m…” Carmel paused, going from flustered to perplexed in a heartbeat. “Wait! Why did you kidnap me if you don’t know who I am?”

“You have not been kidnapped. At least not by me. I am trying to find out what has happened and I need to know who you are to help me figure it out,” he said stoically.

“What, do you live under a rock?” she asked, half snarky. “I mean, come on, I must look a little familiar,” she said haughtily. She turned her head a little to the right and back to the left to give him a good look. This was so annoying. She was recognized everywhere she went, no matter how hard she tried to disguise herself. If he was claiming not to know who she was then he was either lying or stupid.

The man sighed and turned to the doctor. “Hasn’t she had a chance to look at herself yet?”

“Alpha, I linked you as soon as she awaked, as requested. She has had neither freedom, nor the time to get up and look at herself,” he said, indicating the bindings connecting her to the bed.

A brooding thoughtful look came over the Alpha’s face. “Hmmm… get me a mirror please, nurse,” he said to the woman in the corner.

Carmel watched with confused awe as the nasty nurse happily leapt in to action at this man’s small request. She opened a drawer quickly, pulled something out and half ran across the room to bring him the mirror. Carmel would have found it to be comical if she wasn’t so frightened.

The man walked up to the side of her bed and told her, “I recognize you all too well. Let’s see if you recognize yourself!”

He held the mirror up to her and Carmel looked at it without thinking. She blinked… and blinked again. Her hands itched to hold the mirror herself to see what kind of trick this was. Then someone started screaming. It was a horrible sound. It wasn’t until the doctor administered a sedative that she realized that she was the one who was screaming. Before her eyes closed she heard “that woman’s voice” in her head once again, clear as a bell, “Don’t worry, I am here for you.” And somehow, she felt a little better.