Rejected Luna.

IA

d, her craggy hand stroking my cheek. "You have your moth

my experience - not when I learned what "abuse" meant as a five-year-old

ecial person to li

f me. Staring down an offer I couldn't refuse three weeks after escap

filled the room as I looked up at him, my voice cracking. Denver

stion, Alpha Eric's declaration. His voice was hea

knew as the playboy with a bad reputation, one that preceded him all over t

lating, mine widening in shock. A wordless message wa

my veins like venom. "I'll marry him," I whi

your father. After you've made a complete recovery, we'

ctually eased the pain. I looked at Denver, searchin

mending skin, makeup covering the sickly remnants of bruises, De

the wild Alpha at last tamed, of the woman no one knew the origins

His eyes - dark green, hazard green - connected with mine before his

when he pulled away, the phrase

my heart raced. Just three weeks ago, I was a slave. Now, I was

dress," I said nervously as D

"Where do you think you're going? The dangerou

elled of him in the room - pine, musk, a sense of power. My hear

should re

thes." His command

lized that, because he loosened up. He cupped my face with

r for my father," he said, tra

d me. Why else do you

't yet gone past surviv

every touch, was something my body had not known for so long - fear, desire, confusion. The fabric po

so soon," he said, waver

want to." I moved nearer, compelled b

egradation. But I felt this one could be

t gently onto the bed. "I'll b

ed inside, the connection crackled-it was confirmation of what I had suspected. We were mates.

pain, but rather from the bittersweet knowledge that this mom

put on her clothes and left, without

ing down around me. This was just business.

ng days" every two weeks. Each time, after the doctor's vis

didn't talk at all with me - but in the frustrated way his jaw was s

ind me. "She's barren." "Such a failure." "Can

ey's words mocking me every night. Special? I couldn

rash, of feeling like my now cold hometown was growing colder, of feeli

ame th

A number from the doctor was calling. I typed with shak

r voice changing this

. Everything froze - my br

s, years of this, all these failur

s of events that would tear apart everything I thought I knew abou