Hannah: The Red Moon

Chapter Three - Beef Stew

My eyes flicked open, but I couldn’t open them all the way because it was so bright. I squinted and allowed my eyes adjust to the brightness. I realized I was in a bright white room with bright LED lights. I tried to get up, but I was bound to the bed. I looked down and saw that I was strapped to the bed around my waist. My ankles and wrists were bound. I heard a “beep, beep, beep” and noticed that I was hooked up to machines and monitors. I started freaking out and thrashed about in the bed I was literally chained to.  

“Let me go! Get me out of here!’ I screamed. Suddenly the bed started to rise into a sitting position and I was facing a window, or rather, a two-way mirror. I glared at whoever was on the other side. I thrashed around again, but it was no use. I was bound to this bed whether I liked it or not.  

“I know you’re over there! Let me go!” I screamed again. “I hate you! I hate you Evan! I’ll hate you forever if you don’t let me out of these chains!” Thrash, thrash, thrash! It was no use and I didn’t even know why I was trying.  

“Hannah, please stop,” my wolf Bella begged me.  

“No! I won’t stop. I want to go home!” I screamed out loud.  

“You have to stop. I can’t heal us if you keep on thrashing around,” Bella said. 

“I don’t care! I want to die!” I screamed out loud again. “Why didn’t you just let me die!? Why!? Why!? Why!?”  

***** 

I couldn’t watch this anymore. The more she thrashed about the more my heart ached. I watched my mate become psycho in front of me and as much as I wanted to go in there and tear her away from those chains, I couldn’t. She was a harm to herself and who knows if she was a harm to my pack.  

“Evan dude,” Harry said putting a hand on my shoulder, “can I address you not so formally?” 

“Yeah man, it’s cool,” I said to Harry. He sighed and sat down in the chair next to me.  

“Dude, what are you doing? She’s clearly not your mate. She doesn’t want to be your mate. Why don’t we just do as she says and end it?” Harry asked.  

I turned and glared at him, growled and bared my teeth, “You want me to kill my mate!? Are you insane!?”  

“Then what are we going to do with her!?” Harry yelled. “I'm f*****g frustrated chasing after your so-called ‘mate’. A Luna would never act this way.”  

“She not a Luna. She’s the daughter of an Alpha. They are stronger willed and thick headed than a regular Luna. She’s also more powerful and just doesn’t know it yet.”  

“Powerful? How?” Harry asked.  

“I don’t know yet. I can just feel it whenever I touch her. It’s like... her skin is on fire and she’s burning from the inside out. That’s what I felt before she jumped out the f*****g window.” 

Harry sighed and face palmed himself, “Dude... I just don’t know man. It literally hasn’t been 24 hours since we’ve been back. The only one who has gotten any decent amount of sleep is Alex who’s been f*****g his mate like clockwork. I’m just so sick of it. I need sleep man.”  

“Then go and sleep. No one is making you stay here with me Harry,” I told him. “You’re free to go as you please. And about Alex... tell him to tone it down. I’ve already received some ‘noise’ complaints.”  

Harry laughed and clapped me on the back as he stood up and made his way out of the room.  

“I’ll link you if I need you,” I told Harry. He opened the door, turned around with a small bow, and left with the door swinging close behind him. I turned back to face the two-way mirror to watch what Hannah was going to do next. She was just sitting there glaring at the mirror on her side. Her eyes were glowing red and this red aura was emanating off her skin. What the fuck.....? 

She started shaking and convulsing. She sat straight up and stared at the mirror/window and her eyes turned a deep red crimson color. Hannah started foaming at the mouth and that was it. I bolted out of the room and into her room.  

“Hannah!” I screamed her name. She didn’t turn to look at me. She was staring straight ahead and then fell back into the bed with a “thud!” Her body relaxed and I felt her neck for a pulse. It was there. I looked around the room for a towel to clean her mouth and there was none in sight. I opened up the cabinets in her room and found one then walked over to the sink and ran it under some cold water. When I walked back over to Hannah her eyes were open and they returned back to their natural brown color.  

“What happened?” she said barely above a whisper.  

“You were convulsing and foaming out of your mouth,” I answered as I pulled up a chair on her right side and gently cleaned up around her mouth. She didn’t flinch or move so I continued and walked over to the sink to dampen the towel again. This time when I came back her eyes were closed and she was asleep. I gently cleaned the sweat from her forehead and moved her hair out of the way. Then I took the damp towel and cleaned around her cheeks and her neck. I stopped just right above her right clavicle and swallowed. This would be the spot where I marked her as mine and if I were selfish enough I would’ve done it right then and there, but I stopped myself and kept on cleaning her. When I made it down to the top of her breasts, I had to swallow down another gulp. Remembering how her n****e tasted in mouth caused a stir in my pant. Get it together man. She was just convulsing like she had a seizure.  

I gently cleaned the top of her bosom and brought the towel back to the sink. Rinsed it off and draped it over the faucet. Then I placed both hands on the counter and hung my head down. I let out a deep sigh and walked back over to the chair on the side of the bed and sat down. I held Hannah’s hand in mine and stared at her.  

When I finally found her underneath that tree all battered and broken I blamed myself. Maybe I had gone too far, but she told me to kiss her and she kissed me back. She invited me to her body. But when I think about it, the little I know about her, it wasn’t her inviting me. Her body was giving in to lust, but not her mind.  

I'm such an i***t! 

We’re idiots.  

No we’re not Malcolm. I’m the i***t, not you. We are one and the same, but you were just doing what I was doing.  

No Evan, I wanted her too. I couldn’t help myself and look at what happened. We literally broke her.  

I shook my head. No, we didn’t break her. She launched herself off five stories onto the ground below and she tried to run away still even though she was already in pain and had a broken leg and dislocated shoulder. She didn’t care about herself. She just wanted to get as far away as she can from me and my pack. She wanted to die.  

I shook my head some more and laid my head down on the bed next to her arm. I put the bed from a sitting position back down so Hannah was laying down. What am I going to do with you Hannah? You're my mate, but you don’t want me the way I want you. I closed my eyes and before I knew I had drifted off to sleep from mere exhaustion of all the events and happened today and tonight. I was so exhausted so I just went to sleep because at this moment I didn’t know what I should or would’ve done.  

***** 

“Dad?” I saw my father standing in front of me burning. “Dad... what’s wrong? What’s going on?”  

“I’m sorry Hannah. I never meant for you to get hurt. This is all my fault,” my father said.  

“What did you do? What’s happening?” I asked scared.  

“I betrayed them. The Three Wolves Pack... I went back on my word,” he said.  

“What word? What did you promise them?”  

“You.”  

I opened my mouth but no words came out. I ran to him, but he started to turn to ash and dissipated in front of me. The ash swirled around in front of me and then he was gone. I could see my village burning in the back and I ran towards it. People and wolves were running around crazy; some on fire and burning in front of my eyes. I could see Evan giving orders to Alex and Harry who were delegating to the other wolves from their pack. Some of them had torches in their hands and they were lighting more houses on fire. Some of them were corralling the women and children to one side of the tree line, the young men to another side, and the older men they were taking to the goat enclosure. Some of the Three Wolves’ masked men had some of the older men from my village on their knees with their hands behind their backs.  

“Where is she!?” they demanded. The men all shook their heads. As I walked past them one of the men looked at me with tears in his eyes. Then one of the Three Wolves’ men pulled a gun out and pointed it at the back of his head.  

“Where is she!?” he demanded again.  

“I don’t know,” he answered looking straight at me.  

“Do you know what’s going to happen to you if you don’t tell us where the Alpha Jackson’s daughter is?” he asked as the gun clicked.  

“I don’t care. She doesn’t belong to you,” he said still staring straight at me. The man with the gun looked over at Evan and he slightly nodded. Then the man with the gun pulled the trigger and shot the man in the back of the head. I was so startled that I jumped when the gun went off. The man fell in the mud face first and more of the Three Wolves’ men dragged out his lifeless body.  

“Who’s next!?” the man with the gun barked. They dragged another man forward who was already on his knees and hands behind his head. He also looked straight at me. “Run,” he mouthed to me. So I started running, but not away from them, I ran towards them.  

“Stop!” I yelled. “I’m the Alpha’s daughter. Stop it right now! Stop killing them. They don’t know anything. They’re just trying to protect me.” As I got closed to the goat enclosure I saw more bodies. There were five dead men in total all face down in the mud and heaped on top of one another. Their clothes soaked in each other's blood and dirty from the mud and ash. I looked over at Alpha Evan and he smirked that cocky grin of his. I started rushing towards him, but instead of toppling him over I ran into his arms like they were waiting for me. What the hell? 

I opened my eyes and I was still in the white room with the bright white lights. It was just a dream. I had dreamed it. It wasn’t real... was it?  

“It was real. All of it was real,” I heard Bella whimper. I couldn’t control my tears and bit down on my bottom lip that was trembling. I was so upset and sad. I couldn’t hold it in anymore and let out a howl that shook the room.  

“What? What’s wrong?” I looked over to my right and saw someone with their head down. He looked up and it was Alpha Evan. I felt so disgusted, but I couldn’t turn my head the other way as far as I wanted. I couldn’t just throw my face into the pillow to stop my sobs if I wanted to being chained up like this. I noticed he was holding my hand and I wiggled it out of his hand.  

“Go away,” I said through sobs. “What are you doing here? I don’t want to see or be near you. You’re a murderer. What do you want with me anyway? You have me now. Isn’t that enough? Why did you have to kill them. They were all innocent. They didn’t know anything that my dad did.”  

“What are you talking about?” Evan asked sitting up and rubbing his eyes.  

“The men you ordered to be killed who wouldn’t give me up,” I said. “I dreamed of them. Five of them were shot in the back of the head for not telling you who I was.” Evan stared at me and blinked his eyes like he was thinking. Then it dawned on him and his face relaxed. He then got really stern.  

“It had to be done. You were promised to my pack,” he said sitting back and crossing his arms.  

“Promised?” I whispered. “Why would I be promised to your pack? I thought the old ways were dead. The Red Moon pack didn’t practice the old ways of promising daughters to other packs anymore.”  

“That’s where you’re wrong,” Evan said sighing.  

“Then tell me why I’m wrong,” I said. “I want to know. All of it. Now.”  

“You’re not ready for the truth,” Evan said.  

“What have I got to lose?” I asked him. “I’ve lost everything.”  

“You have me!” Evan said angrily. “Why can’t you just accept me? We were promised to one another.”  

I stared at him in disbelief. “How did you even know that we were mates? Just because we were promised to one another doesn’t mean s**t. That doesn’t mean we’re mates. Just go.” I turned and stared at the ceiling with tear rolling out of my eyes. “Please... leave me alone.”  

“You really want me to leave you alone?” Evan asked angrily. I nodded as I blinked and more tears fell. “Fine, I’ll leave!” Evan stormed out of the room and slammed the door shut behind him. I heard some beeping and realized he was locking me in the room. I didn’t care. At least he was away from me.  

I just kept staring at the ceiling and thinking about the dream I had. The one person I could’ve asked was dead: my dad. Why did my dad promise me to the Three Wolves Pack? I thought that tradition was dead and done. All I could think was why. Why me? Why my pack? Just..... why? 

I head the keypad beeping and someone walked in. 

“Hannah? It’s me, Allie. I brought dinner,” she said walking over and placed what I think was a tray on the counter. “I’m going to untie you, but you have to promise me you won’t do anything stupid.”  

I nodded and Allie walked over. She untied my wrists first and helped me sit up. I still was too weak to really do anything on my own. Then she untied my ankles. She took the tray from the counter and put on a rolling tray and rolled it over to the bed. I looked at the food and although it looked good I was just too disgusted to touch it.  

“Do you need me to feed it to you?” Allie asked. “I can help you eat if you need me to.” I shook my head and just stared at the food. Then I started crying again. I laid down on my side and curled up into the fetal position. I just laid there and cried and then I heard Allie crying.  

“Why are you crying?” I asked her. “You looked pretty happy in the car with Alex all over your leg. I’m sure you two have been all over one another and mated already. So why are you crying?”  

“You think I’m happy that my pack and home were destroyed?” Allie asked defensively. “You’re not the only one who lost something Hannah. Stop being so selfish.”  

“Your parents aren’t dead Allie,” I said. “You have a mate you actually want to be with. I don’t want to be with Evan.”  

“Even if you don’t want to be with Evan, you don’t really have a choice. Alex told me everything and you were promised to this pack,” Allie said. 

“Why? If you know then please tell me,” I said sitting up. I took both Allie’s hands in mine and pleaded with her. “If I knew why I was promised to this pack then maybe I won’t be so bitter.”  

“it’s not my place to tell you. Our Alpha forbid anyone to tell you other than himself,” Allie said looking down at her hands in mine.  

“Then get out of here,” I said and dropped her hands. “Just leave me alone.”  

“Hannah, please,” Allie pleaded, “I miss you. I miss my best friend. It’s weird here and although I have Alex... he just doesn’t understand.” I laid back down in the bed and turned my back to her. “Really? You’re going to be childish like this?”  

“What do you want from me?” I asked sullenly. 

“I just want my best friend back. We only have each other here. There’s no other Red Moon wolves here. They spared everyone else to rebuild,” Allie said. “I.... I just want my friend back. I don’t have anyone else to talk to. I feel lonely.”  

“Again, you have your mate. Go and be with him,” I said coldly. “Get out of my room.”  

“Fine! If you just want to sulk and be alone then... then... then be alone you selfish b***h. All you ever do is think about yourself. That’s how you’ve always been. It’s all about me, me, me. So what if you lost your parents. Your mom ran out on you and your dad was killed because he was traitor.”  

I shot up, turned, and glared at her. “What the f**k did you just say?”  

Allie looked down and was silent.  

“What the f**k did you just say? Say it again,” I challenged her. “Say it again Allie. Who is a prisoner and who isn’t? Who jumped out of a window wanting to die with her pack? Who is being locked up? Tell me Allie. Please tell me because all your life you tried to please everyone. Even the popular wolves you tried to please and they didn’t give a s**t about you. I gave a s**t about you. I was your only friend. Your only goddamn friend.”  

“You know what Hannah, if you want to be alone then fine. I’ll leave you alone. That’s what you do best any way. You push people out of your life. Your mom left because she wanted to protect you and she got killed for doing so,” Allie said.  

“What?” I said. “She died protecting me?”  

“I... I’m sorry Hannah. I shouldn’t have said that,” Allie said. “I”ll leave you alone. Eat your dinner before it gets cold.” With that Allie turned around, she didn’t tie me up or bind me back on to the bed, opened the door and shut it. Beeping again as she locked me in the room.  

Bella? 

Yes, I heard that too.  

What was Allie talking about? My mom... protecting me? That doesn’t make sense. Dad said she left and never came back. He didn’t say anything about her dying. 

I don’t know Hannah. We need to sleep... and eat. Try to eat something. It will give me some strength to heal us and then we can break out of his hell hole.  

You don’t want to stay?  

I want to stay, but I want more than anything to find out what happened to mom and why we were promised to this filthy pack.  

Thank you Bella.  

For what? 

For coming back.  

I smiled a little knowing that my wolf was back on my side and picked up the spoon and looked at the food again. It was a beef stew with chunks of potatoes, sliced carrots, and chopped up celery. I took a spoonful and put it in my mouth. I wasn’t eating because I was hungry nor did I enjoy it. I was eating because I was going to find out the truth one way or another and I had to have the strength to get the hell out of here.