Bound by Moon & Blood (Book 1)

Ben led her back to her spot and she sat down right across from Caden, whose eyes raked over the neckline and pushed together breasts before he met her gaze.

“Having fun?” He asked before he took a sip from his wooden cup.

“I am as a matter of fact. Why? Am I not supposed to even be here?” She asked as she rested her arms on the table and held her hands.

“Moonblood, you’re here because I wanted you here. If I hadn’t wanted you here, you wouldn’t be.” A little stunned she sat a little straighter. “You wanted me here?” He nodded before taking another sip. “Why?”

“Because tonight will be the only night for you to get the answers you want.” That was something she hadn’t expected. “You’re actually accepting my deal?”

“Only for tonight and there are some questions I won’t be answering, so don’t expect me to spill everything.” Well, that was all she could really ask for right now. She just had to pick the questions she wanted answered, and thankfully she didn’t have to think about it.

“Why do you want King dead?”

“Straight to the point, huh?” Rev commented. She threw a glare at him before she focused back on Caden. “Because he is the reason why my parents are dead.”

“What?”

Caden released a long sigh. “King came to our pack a couple of years back, demanding what he demands from every pack he invades, to join him or die. He had absolutely no authority to even cross the country borders, but that didn’t matter to him as you can tell already.” Given what happened to her own pack and that their pack was in the US right now, she could. “We all had heard of the Blood Alpha, so when he came to our doorstep, my dad told him where he could stick his demand. And, just like every other pack that had refused him, his pack attacked ours, but we weren’t some weak pack, we were the pack of our country. We beat King and forced them out of our territory.” She looked at him with wide eyes. There has never been a pack that had beaten King. Finnegan had always resisted King, but he had never been attacked thanks to the fact that Finnegan had a Lycan at his side. Even King knew that he couldn’t win from a Lycan’s power. To hear that Caden’s pack had actually succeeded made her respect him and his pack to the max. She still hated the Alpha’s guts, but she couldn’t deny the strength his pack must have had. “King was outraged by it, but he didn’t show his face for three days.” Caden’s eyes shifted from her own to his cup. Her stomach clenched as she knew that whatever was coming was going to be bad. “As foolish as we were, we thought we had won and were safe. My father had allowed the women to move freely again, and it was on the third day that my mother was walking through the village when she, all of the sudden, started to scream and collapsed. My dad and I raced to get to her, when we were close, we started to smell blood. A lot of blood. As soon as we reached her, we knew why. Deep cuts had appeared all over her body out of nowhere. No one could do a thing as she kept begging for it to stop. My dad held his mate in his arms as he was forced to watch helplessly as she bled out.” Liv slapped one of her hands over her mouth as silent tears streamed down her face. The music had stopped and no one said a thing. She knew that they all could feel the pain of what had happened to their pack. Caden took a long breath, before he continued, “Her body wasn’t even cold when King and his pack surrounded ours. The wolves grabbed the women and held them with their claws on their throats. King demanded my father to merge the pack with his and take the oath or he would kill every woman. There had been four women who were carrying a child. My dad didn’t want to lose anyone else, so he agreed. The oath was taken right then and there, while my dad was still covered in my mother’s blood.” She could hear the venom and rage in his voice. She slowly dropped her hand from her mouth as she looked back at him. His knuckles were white around his cup. He was holding himself back.

“King laughed as my father demanded the women to be released and the wolves ripped out their throats anyway.” Liv immediately got up from the bench and walked away from the group as her power flared to life in an instant and her emotions started to become too much.

Liv knew what kind of tyrant King was, she had experienced it first hand, but that didn’t mean it would ever get easy to hear what kind of pain he caused to others. He killed woman who didn’t ever do anything wrong. Even four that were with child!

A whimper left her as she wrapped her arms around her waist. She dropped her head and closed her eyes as she took a deep breath to calm herself.

“King barely gave us the time to properly say goodbye, before he forced us to relocate here.” Caden continued. She knew she was the one who asked the question and she needed the complete answer. So, Liv turned around and looked at Caden who was looking at her now as well. “My dad has never been the same after the death of my mom and as days, weeks and months passed, I saw him starting to become a shell of the person he used to be.” A painful stab went through her chest at the memory of her mother going through the exact same thing.

“Sounds familiar?” Ben asked quietly as he saw her hand on her chest. Liv nodded briefly.

“He was ready to give everything up, until he met Devon’s mother.” Her eyes shifted to Devon who was very intently looking at his cup with a locked jaw. “She was the one who pulled my father back and started to piece him back together. They fell in love in the human way, even though she knew that his heart and soul still belonged to my mother. She accepted him as who he was and soon after she came to live in the pack. Deadly afraid of the same thing happening to her as my mother, he kept her secret. For two years, she was kept inside and could only go outside at night when the pack was asleep. Only I, Rev and Ben knew about her and when she got pregnant, my dad got only worse. Yet, she didn’t mind. She understood why he wanted to protect her like he did and she accepted it, but the changes that happened to my father didn’t go unnoticed by King and the other Alphas.” Of course, they didn’t... “King ordered a tail on my father, but he didn’t find anything, we made sure of that. We succeeded, until she went into labor.” Liv closed her eyes as more tears rolled down her cheeks. “The tail ran and told King about what was happening.” Devon got up from the bench and threw his cup against the wall before he walked away. Everyone looked at him as he disappeared into the house.

“Devon was barely ten minutes old when King and the Alphas barged in and killed his mom.” Her lip trembled as she slapped her hand in front of her mouth again and whimpered as she felt the flare of her power in her chest. “My dad became the runt and King made sure he knew that. He plummeted right back down into that pit of despair and no matter how hard I tried, there were no pieces back to put him back together.” Caden took a large gulp of his mead, before he met her gaze again. “About six months later I woke up with a note on my nightstand, but I couldn’t read it before a scream filled the quiet. I hightailed to the source and found one of the kids from a pack member crying on her knees as she looked at one thing. My father, face down in the lake and unmoving.” Another flare of power ran through her body. It was so powerful she stumbled a little backward as another whimper came from her.

This was too much. It was too much for someone to handle and his whole pack went through it. He went through it and yet he was still here. Liv took a few calming breaths as she opened her eyes and met his gaze. He hadn’t shed one tear. She slowly dropped her hand from her mouth and really looked at him.

He may not have shed one tear, but that is only because he doesn’t allow himself to cry. The fact of his still white knuckles and impossibly hard gaze confirmed that.

“My dad killed himself by going into the deep water before injecting himself with silver dust and aconite, paralyzing himself. He drowned in the process.” Liv remembered her swim today. Her hand went to her collar and his eyes snapped to it as well. “Just like you would have died the same way, if you had wanted to kill yourself today.”

“I’m sorry.” She whispered. She knew she had brought back memories for him and she hated herself for it right now. He may be a villain, but he didn’t deserve everything he went through.

“The note said that he was sorry and he asked me to take care of my baby brother who may be human, but is still family and deserves a good life.” Caden continued like he hadn’t heard her. She knew he did and she also knew why he didn’t react. She rested her hand on her chest. “King and the Alphas came by as they heard what happened and he did nothing more than chuckle, clasp my shoulder and tell me that I was going to be a better Alpha than my father had been anyway, before he walked away like nothing happened.”

It remained quiet after Caden was done. She could feel the pressure of the weight the story had brought and she had to fight to not succumb to it.

Liv took a few more calming breaths, before her power finally started to settle. She took a few steps closer to the table.

“I’m sorry.” She said again. He didn’t react, he just looked at her with his hard gaze.

“Ask the next question if you still want answers.” She flinched at the harshness in his voice. She actually didn’t want to ask anything else, but she knew that she still needed to know more. She swallowed as she looked at the ground. “Your dad took the oath, how can you even plot King’s death without the oath killing you?”

“Because the oath bonds only the person to King and not his bloodline.” Her head immediately shot up. “What? How do you know that?”

“I know because I can cross the border and plot his death without anything holding me back. My pack was freed from King’s hold the moment I became Alpha. The only reason we are still here is because King isn’t dead yet. Once he is, we will return to our territory.” Holy shit... She never knew that the oath worked like that. Just like anyone else, she thought the oath actually bonded the bloodline and not person.

“Next question, Moonblood.” His nickname for her forced the next question out of her before she could stop herself. “Who was Lyn?”

As if it was possible, it became even more silent as Caden’s eyes turned an intense emerald green. She blinked a couple of times to see if she was actually right, because there was no way his eyes could become green. Yet, they didn’t change to amber. A little shocked she took a step back, right as Caden slowly got up from the bench. “Who told you that name?” She swallowed as a shiver of fear ran down her spine. The unusual eyes woke up a fight or flight response inside of her and she was ready to hightail it out of there. What the hell was he?!

“Dustin misspoke and she heard it.” Rev answered for her. A low growl came from Caden, but he didn’t take those eyes off her.

“Why do you ask about her?”

“Because she was the same as me.” Liv answered truthfully. “What happened to her?”

“I just told you.” He snarled at her through gritted teeth. Liv gave him a confused gaze, before everything in her head started to connect with each other.

My dad held his mate in his arms as he was forced to watch helplessly as she bled out.

They fell in love in the human way, even though she knew that his heart and soul still belonged to my mother.

“Your mother... Lyn, a Moonblood, was your mother...” Liv said breathlessly as another tear rolled down her cheek. That was not possible. There was no way...

Caden gave her a small nod. Liv immediately shook her head as she took a few more steps backwards. “No, that is not possible. There has never been a Moonblood who birthed a son! You cannot be...”

“You claim that I’m lying?” Caden cut her off. Her breathing became rapid as her mind was trying to work its way through the maze of the information she got.

“It’s not possible...” She whispered as a tear rolled down her cheek.

“There is a whole lot more possible than you believe to know, Livana. You may think that you know all there is to know, but you don’t. You don’t even know who you are.” Her eyes snapped to his. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Caden straightened himself.

“I’m done answering your questions.” He turned and started to walk away.

“No!” Her power blasted out of her and Caden was forced to stop as she took over the control of his blood. She was done with not knowing the whole story and being kept in the dark. She was a fucking Moonblood, she will get the answers she wants. But she wasn’t the one who had control over her power right now. Her emotions did and she could only watch.

Growls from all around her erupted as wolves got closer to protect their Alpha who was struggling to move his arms. She didn’t give them any attention as the power forced him to turn around and face her. Caden’s eyes promised her death.

“Why do you need my help to kill King?” Her voice held a power she hadn’t heard before.

“You are one of the only ones who can.” He answered, not entirely voluntary.

“Why? Why am I important enough for even Lycaon to want me?” He fought her power with all his might and she felt the connection trash. Blood started to leak from her nose and ears, but she didn’t have a choice but to hold on.

“Answer me!” She yelled as she got closer to him. Caden groaned as he fought her power, which was already starting to weaken.

“Livana, let him go.” Ben’s voice sounded from behind her. “He cannot tell you what you want to know.” Her power still held on to Caden. Even as her strength was starting to fade and her body started to tremble. She felt a finger touch her on her neck. “You’re going to kill yourself if you keep this up, Liv.” Ben said as he had probably seen her blood. She wanted to, gods she wanted to let him go, but she couldn’t. Liv had absolutely no control right now. The power will only release him is she were to die, got the goal her power and emotions sought or if someone-

“Let him go!” Liv screamed as the connection was severed.

-forced her.

Her hold on Caden broke as she fell to her knees and trembled. Her entire body felt like it was being stabbed with knifes. She breathed heavily, before she was suddenly grabbed by her throat and pulled up. She yelped as she grabbed his wrist, before Caden pushed her against the wall of the house. “If you ever try something like that again, I will kill you. No matter if I need you or not.” He pulled her off the wall before slamming her back against it. Forcing her to scream and fall to her knees. Tears streamed down her cheeks again. Footsteps walked towards her again before someone crouched. She looked up and saw Ben. There was some blood on his lips and she immediately knew he had drunk some of her blood and used his dominance on her to make her obey. “Sorry, píka.” He said before she lost her conscience.