True Luna: The Darkness Within (The White Wolf Series Book 5)
True Luna: The Darkness Within: Chapter 17

Hunter’s POV

I had no excuse for talking to Luna Emma the way I did.

I was just so fucking angry and so fucking scared. Well, that wasn’t true. I wasn’t scared. I was fucking terrified. There was a hole in my stomach and it felt like it was about to swallow me whole. I kept picturing her hurt. I kept imagining the torture she went through. I kept imagining the chains around her body.
The only fucking things that should have been around her body were my arms! The only fucking torture she should have endured was my lips starting a fire in her body that only I could extinguish.

She should have never been hurt. She should have never been forced into the darkness. She should have been right here next to me. We should have been marked and mated by now. There should have been my pup in her by now. We should have started our lives together by now.

Nothing was right and I was so angry.

I wasn’t back at my pack, holding my mate in my arms. I wasn’t waking up next to her. I wasn’t burying myself inside her every morning like I wanted to from the moment I saw her. I wasn’t breathing in her scent until it made me grin. I wasn’t kissing her soft lips and tasting her skin on my tongue.

Nothing was right and I needed someone to blame.

“I am sorry, Luna,” I mumbled quietly while we waited for Alex to finish talking to Stella.

Luna Emma looked at me and gave me a small smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

“It’s okay,” she said. “Nothing you said was wrong. It is my fault. I should have found another way to deal with her darkness. I should have…”

“Didn’t you hear what Alex said?” Alpha Logan interrupted her. “You’ve done everything you could. We all did. This isn’t your fault, Emma. Richard is the only one to blame.”

Hearing my grandfather’s name had me seeing red. I couldn’t wait to come face-to-face with him. I was going to stick my claws into his pathetic little neck and watch him bleed. I was looking forward to looking into his eyes as the last bits of his pathetic life left his body.

“Alpha Logan is right,” I said, making Luna Emma look at me. “This isn’t your fault and I shouldn’t have said it. Richard is the only one to blame.”

Luna Emma took a deep breath and released it slowly. I could tell that she wanted to say something else, but Alex flinched and all of us focused on him.

“What did she say?” Mason asked immediately.

Alex looked up at him and gulped. The fear and pain I saw on his face almost made me scream.
What happened to my Angel?!

“Alex?” Beta Andrew mumbled.

Alex took a deep breath and ran his fingers through his hair. He leaned his elbows on his knees and buried his face into his hands. He grunted and cursed quietly.

“Is she okay?” I asked as I kneeled next to him. “Did something happen to her?”

“We need to prepare that room,” Alex mumbled, making me freeze.

Was he serious?! He and I agreed that we would never lock her up! Why the hell was he saying that?!

“What the fuck, Alex?” Mason growled. “We are not locking her up! We will replace another way! We will…”

“There is no other way!” Alex shouted and lifted his head abruptly.

I saw tears on his face and the hole in my stomach doubled up in size. What the fuck did he mean by that? There was always another way! There had to be another way! I wouldn’t let them do that to her!

“That fucker who took her doesn’t know what to do with her,” Alex continued as he clenched his fists tightly. “He never counted on her being so strong. He keeps her chained up with some magical fucking chains that are supposed to block her magic. But she is so fucking strong, that she keeps breaking through them. Stella said that it was only a matter of time before Sophia broke free.”

My heart raced. That was great news! She would be free! My Angel would be free and we would be able to bring her home and help her!

“That’s fucking great!” Mason exclaimed. “She can escape and come back home.”

Alex looked at him and shook his head.

“Stella said that Sophia will kill them all once she breaks free,” Alex said, making my heart stop. “She said that Sophia doesn’t care about anything or anyone anymore.”

I furrowed my eyebrows. She cared, of course she did. She had to care. There had to be a part of her that remembered how much she loved us. She didn’t forget that. It was impossible.

“Stella said that Richard wants to replace her weakness,” Alex continued, his voice raspy. “He believes that she would help him get his revenge if he found what she cared about.”

Everyone except Alex looked at me. Mate was a wolf’s greatest weakness and their greatest strength. I was hers and she was mine.

“Let him come,” I growled. “I will kill him with my own bare hands.”

Alex looked up at me and shook his head.

“Sophia told him that she doesn’t have a weakness,” Alex said, making my heart fall into that black pit in my stomach. “Stella said that Sophia doesn’t care about us anymore.”

I couldn’t breathe.

No.

She cared. She had to care. There had to be at least a small part of her that cared.

Holden howled and whined. His pain washed over me and my knees buckled.

“Stella is right,” Anna’s voice made me turn around to look at her.

When did she get here?

“Sophia isn’t the person we all know and love anymore,” Anna continued. “She isn’t in that body anymore. She is trapped with the light magic somewhere deep inside this new creature. We can’t treat that dark creature like we did Sophia. We have to fight against her and set Sophia free.”

Dark creature?

The pit in my stomach started pulling all of my organs in. I was losing myself. I was losing my heart and my soul. I couldn’t even feel my body anymore.

Dark creature?

No. She was my Angel. She was my Sophia. She was my beautiful little mate. She was the love of my life.

My vision blackened and I couldn’t hold Holden back anymore.

I growled like I’d never growled before and shifted into my wolf.
I would rip apart everyone who turned my love into the dark creature she now was.