The Luna's Conquest

Battle With The Enemies

"What's going on, father?" I deflected. "Who's advancing?"

"Nothing you need to worry about," my dad dismissed with a wave of his hand. He was trying to sound unbothered and lighthearted, but I could see the fear etched on his face. "Where is your mother, and your brothers?" he asked.

"My mother left my room some minutes ago. My brothers are in the woods," I replied, then grabbed his hand and pulled him back. "Dad, what's going on?"

"The boys are in the forest," my father whispered almost to himself, then turned to his beta. "Get a man and go into the forest. Find my sons."

"On it, alpha." The beta bowed and left the corridor. My father moved to follow him, but I held on tight to his hand.

"Dad!" I urged. "What is going on?"

"Find your

mother—" He started, then stopped short as he saw my mother running towards us. "Ah, there she is."

"Jacob," my mother panted as she reached us. "Jacob, there are strange wolves everywhere."

"I know, Lily." He said and cupped my mother's face with his hands. There was a fervent look in his eyes now. "We'll be fine, I promise. But for now, take Sekinah and leave the pack house. Go to one of the bunkers and stay there. My beta will join you with the boys."

"Jacob," my mother called, her voice trembling with fear. "Be safe."

But my father let go of her face. He was walking down the corridor, away from us and towards the battle raging outside.

I grabbed my mother's hand and ran down the other end of the corridor with her in tow. The corridor took us to the kitchens, and I opened the door, stepping out into the melee outside.

The strange wolves had reached the pack house now. They were nothing like I'd seen before: five-feet tall beasts with pitch-black fur and glowing amber eyes. There were two horizontal white paint marks on their cheeks, and they were howling and chattering as they attacked my father's men.

At their head was a man on a black horse. I couldn't see his face in the pandemonium going on, but something within me told me he was the leader of the attackers. All I could make of him was his long black hair held up in a ponytail, and the fact that he was shirtless.

The only way towards the nearest bunker was across the field, where wolves and men alike were in battle. I gritted my teeth and bravely ran across the grassy field, my mother closely behind me. Soon the battle reached us, and I was surrounded by fighting men and wolves. I skidded to a stop and turned back, but my mother had disappeared.

"Mom? Mom!" I yelled, but my voice was lost in the roar of the battle. My eyes darted this way and that, but she was lost in the crowd.

"Mom!" I sobbed and felt my knees weaken with despair. Then I turned and continued running across the field. The battle around me had lessened, and from what I could see, almost all my father's men were either dead or injured. My father and mother were nowhere to be found.

I collapsed right in the middle of the field, too weak to do more. I couldn't run to hide anymore—what was the use? I would be found and killed anyway.

I could hear the hooves of a horse as it approached me, but I was too weakened by despair to stand up. The horse stopped before me, and as though being forced by something greater than me, I raised my head—

And looked straight into the eyes of the enemy.

Immediately my eyes met his, my body reacted with a jerk. A flash of connection moved through my body, awakening something inside me that I couldn't control. I found myself drawn to the man on the horse, and suddenly something in my head clicked into place, as though I'd been waiting for this moment all my life. His eyes were blue: a bright, almost silvery-blue, but they seemed to shine with an intimate light that made me gasp in realization. I knew this well enough from all my mother had told me about this moment.

I had found my mate.

The man looked away, and the connection between us was broken. I gasped and sat up, my head reeling from what had just happened. Then suddenly, some men approached me and pulled me up by the arms.

I gathered enough strength to fight them off. "Get your hands off of me," I shrieked, but they pulled me closer to the black horse.

"Should we kill her, Alpha?" one of the men asked.

The man on the horse was staring into the distance, almost as though he didn't want to look into my eyes again. "No," he said at last. "Touch a hair on her head, and you'll lose your heads."

The men bowed and dragged me off to a corner of the field. "You bastard!" I yelled as I was carted off. "You slimy son of a b***h!"

"Be quiet, girl!" he yelled back at me, still not meeting my eyes. I could see the rage in his face, and I knew the only reason I wasn't dead yet was that I was his mate.

The men dragged me to where the women and children were being led out of the bunkers. "Thank your stars the alpha seems to like you." One of the men said, then dropped me unceremoniously on the ground.

I immediately stood up and looked around among the women and children for my mother and my brothers, but they were nowhere to be found. If they weren't there, then I knew they must have been lost in the battle somehow. Not killed, no. I couldn't bring myself to think of that word just yet.

I sank back to the ground, leaning against a tree, then wrapped my arms around my legs, feeling the hopelessness spread in my chest like a virus. Then I began to sob hot tears.