Chapter 13

Mark pov Two weeks later, on a beautiful sunny summer day, our little ghost woke up. She didn’t know how sunny it was or see all the people outside enjoying the weather. She woke up in a dingy cell turned into a hospital room in a dungeon full of criminals, rogues, and everyone else Alpha felt wronged by. She opened her eyes and smiled. “Hey, look at you. Finally, you decided to join us again. We have missed those dark black, purple eyes and that gorgeous smile. Kelp and I have been getting into all kinds of trouble without you keeping us in line.” She tried to answer but couldn’t. “Use our link, Luna. Your vocal chords were destroyed when Thomas shredded your throat. Doc says you will never speak above a whisper again. Even that will be painful. “No, one or both of you have been sitting with me while I have been healing.” Her big eyes were watery, and her bowed lips were quivering. “You both have been staying down here with me. Thank you.” “Hey, none of that. We haven’t done that much. We talked you ear off. That is why you finally woke up, so you could tell us to shut up.” “You saved me. Even when I didn’t want to be saved, you held on to me and wouldn’t let go. No one has ever shown me that kind of care ever. Except for the lady.” “Kelp those people who sold me to Thomas, they weren’t my parents. The lady showed me my real parents and they loved me.” “Shhh. You need to rest. Doc will be here soon and…” the door slams open and guess who strides in? “Look who finally woke up. I’ve been waiting for you little ghost. You have a punishment to serve.” Alpha rubs his hands together, walks over to the bed, leans down and whispers, “I will finish what I started and your wolf won’t be able to do a thing about it.” He trails his finger up my arm and across my small breast. Before Kelp could say anything, Doc entered the room, “I see you still can’t get a grown woman to show an interest in you. You must torture a child who has just returned from the brink of death, Thomas.” “Steven, you have forgotten yourself again. Katia owes me a debt and she will pay it off.” “Thomas, you are going to destroy this pack. Your obsession with this child is not going unnoticed and pack members are disgusted by your actions towards her.” “It doesn’t matter what they think. I am the Alpha, and they will abide by what I say and so will you.” Sweeping his gaze back to Katia, “so my little attempted murderess, every time one of your protectors tries to help you, the punishment will be served by you.” Blinking, I continued to stare at the wall over his shoulder. I can’t bring myself to look directly at him. I know it infuriates him, but I will not back down now. Regardless of what I do, his wrath will eventually kill me. I still do not fear him, just the pain I know he can cause me. I wish I could understand what drove him to be the way he is and to do the things he does to young females. When he is not snarling, he isn’t an ugly man. Someone would love to be his Luna; I am not that person. Finally, when he realized I was not going to look at him or respond, he spun on his heel. “Katia is to receive weekly injections of wolfsbane starting tomorrow and I expect her tied to the post three days from today.” He left and the rest of us just remained quiet with our thoughts until a woman came in. “He has left the dungeons. My son Eric is keeping watch in case he returns.” “Thank you, Coral.” “I wish we could do more.” She sighs. “Hello Luna, I am happy to see you are finally awake.” Smiling, I nodded at her and whispered thank you. I looked toward the men in the room and Mark spoke quietly but loud enough for those in the room to hear. “Little Ghost, we need to do the blood ritual with Doc, Coral, and Eric, who is the pack Delta, so they can link with us, and you can link with them. We can trust them.” Katia studied each of us, then smiled and whispered, “Thank you for your willingness to help me. However, I do not want anyone to get in trouble or injured because of me. Please know Alpha Thomas will not hesitate to punish you once he is done with me, if he finds out you have given your loyalty to me.” Even with our wolf hearing, it is hard to hear her whispers. The tears running down her face show how painful it is for her to speak. “Quiet young lady. As your doctor, I insist we get this done as quickly as we can. Your vocal chords and throat are still healing, and all this talking will just reinjure what has already healed.” “Okay, who can keep watch while Eric is here to be part of the blood ritual?” Kelp wonders quietly and Coral smiles, “Already taken care of. I linked the receptionist, asking her to tell my son I needed his help here and to please let me know if Alpha had returned. I need him to sign some papers for me.” Eric strolled in with a smirk, “Let’s get this party started. The sooner we get this done, the easier it will be to protect our Luna.” “If only it was going to be that easy, Eric.” Doc was busy checking Katia’s vitals and we all nodded in agreement at his remark. “Well, it’s a beginning, having it so our Luna can communicate with us and the Alpha unaware.” Eric smiled at her, “Isn’t that right, Luna?” She just smiled and shrugged. She knew this was not going to be easy and that she was going to suffer the most of all. We had to figure out a way to control Alpha and his wolf so we could get her out of this hell. Doc had us all stand around Katia’s bed and then sliced each of our palms. We bled into the glass he was holding and then he cut Katia’s palm. Once her blood mixed with ours, there was a bubbling and the doc took an eye dropper, pulling some of the blood into it, “Only a few drops of the mixed blood is needed for each of us to be affected.” He held the dropper to Eric first and he held the dropper over his mouth dispensing the small amount of blood into his mouth to swallow. Doc took the dropper, drawing a little more blood into the dropper. Again he held it out to Coral. She did the same as Eric and on it went until all of us had completed the ritual. When Katia took her turn, it looked as if the completion had brought her a measure of peace. She did not seem as panicked, knowing she would not have to use energy trying to communicate with others she did not share a link with. “Do you feel that? Oh, my goddess, can you feel the power of her blood? She has the power of an Alpha and a Luna together.” Doc was as amazed as Kelp and I were when we first did the ritual to communicate with our Luna. “The reason Kelp and I call her Alpha Luna. She is someone special and we are her guardians. I feel this in my core. I knew it the moment she walked out of that house and just stood staring at me. We are hers and she is ours. It is what feels right, and we have to find a way to get her out of these dungeons and safe from Alpha Thomas until her fated mate appears.”