Wolf Dominion Volume 2
Chapter 40

Ryder’s [Luna] POV

“I know where to go,” I tell Hades dismissively, as I walk back into the forest, after leaving Opular in a panic. Both had tried to ask me what had happened while I was in Xrat’s mind – but I had not disclosed anything.

“I can walk you all the way back to your human camp, I really don’t fucking mind,” Hades murmurs, irritating me.

I turn back to him in the dead of night and I salute him.

“Until tomorrow?” I suggest, “Dusk. The crater.”

“Sure… but we can’t keep meeting at the same spot,” Hades growls, even as I’ve turned and I now run away.

I sprint through the forest. Trying to clear my head.

I can smell the human camp, even as I make my way through new terrain.

I’m not too far. Maybe a thirty minute walk, if I slowed down.

However, I’m eager to talk to Valen, to say we have potential allies. I’m also trying not to think about Skye.

Just as I think his name, I stop running as I feel a distinct vibration in the ground.

Almost galloping?

No. No it’s –

Xrat is let loose, he’s coming for me!

And Skye could be in his head right now! Controlling his movements, smelling the air – and potentially me!

“Shit,” I hiss as I turn around frantically, replaceing the nearest puddle, I dive into it and the mud, rubbing it all over me as swiftly as I can. Every inch of my skin, under my arms, between my legs, everywhere.

I rip a branch off a nearby bush with smelly leaves and I rub that over me too.

I have to replace a river to really mask my scent properly. This would only delay it if he had already found a track to my scent.

I replace the downhill track and start to sprint that way, knowing my time is limited.

I don’t get far when my head quite literally smacks into a row of teeth that pop out from the tree line.

I nearly have a heart attack – but it’s not my wolf.

Silent Scora. Fyre’s sand coloured wolf.

She’s been hunting me down.

I stop, shell shocked, eyeing the bared fangs and the Transcended eyes of Fyre staring right back at me.

All she had to do, was bite me in half and I was done for.

I watch the gums pull back further.

She is preparing to end me when her ears flick back, the gums loosen – and my ears pick up the sound next. Of a rumble… from a dirt-bike.

I try to take a step to the left, to test my boundaries – but Fyre almost bites my head off with her wolf right then and there, snarling over my head until I have to kneel into the dirt and cover my head with my hands.

The dirt-bike gets louder and approaches quickly.

“Lucky replace, Fyre?” I hear a deep male voice call out.

I believe it to be a companion for Fyre’s hunt – but it’s not my son Ryder, because he would be in his own wolf.

Instead, it’s another one of the Alphas.

The dirt-bike’s engine gets louder then dies as he skids to a stop in the clearing.

“A lone wanderer?” Raygar speaks, walking right over and putting his boot on the back of my head and across my fingers, “Nice replace, Fyre. I’ll take her over from here. Don’t you dare move, food,” Raygar sounds hungry as he growls it sadistically. Scora huffs in annoyance and treads away. I have not moved. I have not said anything. I’m contemplating my options, when Raygar says over me, after an ominous pause, “…since when do your kind have prosthetic limbs… where did you get that foot… suppose it doesn’t matter, since it won’t be of any use soon,” Raygar takes his boot from my head and presses a gun to the back of my head.

I don’t let any other time pass.

I strike my head out just as his lazer blinds the night and singes off my hair, burning the side of my face and my shoulder as I launch into his leg and bite his ankle as hard as I can.

My canines rip into tendon and reach the bone – and I punch up into his balls so he falls forward.

I wrestle with him briefly on the ground, but I keep jabbing at his eyes with my fingers so he closes them and looks away, as I wriggle out from under him.

The moment I’m half way to my feet I launch onto his head and knee him in the ear, hearing a crack, hoping I’ve disoriented him enough and fucked up his balance to the point he’ll have a concussion.

I punch him in the back of the head, as I wrench the gun from his grip and sprint away – until I see the dirt bike is free to take. I choose that instead and jump over it. I see Scora keeping her distance, as I keep the aim of the gun up on both of them.

I look back at Raygar, perhaps mistakenly, as I kick the dirt-bike over so the engine starts, and I see his head looking up – his eyes squinting.

I’m certain he can’t understand it’s really me, and won’t believe it anyway the next morning, so I take the opportunity to smile and aim the lazer gun at his face.

It was such an easy kill.

As the dirt bike starts to move with my tense hand over the acceleration, I pull the trigger – and the laser almost goes right through his forehead, but he puts his face into the dirt and it singes off his hair instead.

I had aimed to kill, hoping I would relieve some kind of tension in my gut from all the betrayals from Wolf Dominion.

But my hand fumbles on the laser gun and it slips through my fingers after the shot lights the night up, hitting the ground. I pick up the gun again as I take off properly on the bike – ready to get back to the camp.

The rest of the ride I hear the rumble of the engine, and nothing else from the forest.

Total silence.

As if nature just witnessed me almost commit a murder of one of my own Alphas. Unnatural.

The moment I’m near camp, I jump off the bike and try to keep it in… b-but I just can’t keep the rising nausea at bay.

I keel over and throw up into the grass.

I dry retch a few times and then end up crawling my way down the river bank, sinking into the water to cry out my startled reaction to death. As the Luna I never cared about killing, but… this time it’s different.

It was built into me.

To be loyal.

To Wolf Dominion.

Even after everything they had done to me.

If I could miss such a simple shot on Raygar?

How the hell was I going to kill Skye?

Would I have to kill all of them? Vastian? Mila? How would Hades view me if I took out his whole family?

Look what Skye had done to me. I was a mess. I was confused.

Raygar wasn’t the target then.

I try to reason it away.

Only one would die – and that would be Skye.

The rest would fall into line.

“Ran away to gather us supply?” Valen calls out distantly from the camp, on the way to the river. He whistles his excitement looking at the dirt bike, and the laser gun.

I welcome the distraction and smile as I wade back into the water and look at him, looking proud of the loot.

I see other figures coming forward. Cobra and Adam come also to back up Valen. Adam is still nursing his shoulder wound, but Cobra looks back to better health.

“What else did you gather today?” Valen comes right to the edge of the bank and squats to catch my eye, “Any intel we can use?”

“Allies,” I answer, “A rogue Wolf and a Lion. Perhaps even all the Lions.”

“They know you exist?” Valen raises a brow, almost disapproving.

“Not really,” I answer cryptically, thinking of Raygar and almost crying again. I block out the strangely unfamiliar tears, but Valen, being all too human, notices.

“What happened?” Valen inquires of me, kindly.

“I don’t know if I can kill my Dominion,” I admit, choking up on the thought, “T-the,” I choke a bit more when Cobra and Adam step forward to glare, “The Alphas,” I say, “I’ve had… intimate relations with all of them… and I –”

“Winning the war isn’t about death, Ryder,” Valen surprises me with this statement, a statement you would never hear on Genesis, “Those you do not kill, you can take as prisoners of war – and reform.”

“Enslave the Alphas of Wolf Dominion?” I answer, “Impossible.”

“If they follow your word, out of love for a Luna, it will be like walking dogs into their cages,” Valen speaks slowly and inspirationally, “…but the Dominator has to die, Ryder. Skye must die. And to win their respect, you will have to do it.”

“Violence is respectable and admired among them,” Cobra adds, backing up Valen, “Use it effectively.”

“Do you think you can do it, for the right reasons?” Adam poses me the next question, “…or… despite your detailed story telling about them all from the Genesis planet, are you just as bad as them, if not worse… you told us you were designed to be a very efficient killer? For that you must have no remorse.”

“That’s not true,” Valen snaps at Adam, and looks to me, “You must feel remorse, and do it anyway, for the right reasons. That is what makes a Luna.”

“You know, do you?” I chuckle, “Apparently you know more about Lunas than I do…”

“In Destor, we’d be calling that a Queen,” Valen suggests, winking.

“I –” don’t want to be a Queen.

But I stop myself. Sealing my lips shut, because Valen holds out a hand, guessing my racing thoughts, “Shh, come on out of the river. You need to sleep, and sleep well. We’ll be on guard. You’re our hope – please don’t underestimate such a powerful thing.”

Skye’s POV

I lie next to Seye, who sleeps peacefully in a veil intertwined over her naked body, atop the sheets, while I can’t sleep. Even after getting adequately fucked while she kept sweetly silent.

I’m staring at the plain ceiling, feeling… off.

I can’t work out why.

Although Xrat’s mood was irritating me. He was getting old, so perhaps he was having some kind of memory deterioration, howling for the bond to his first, a bond that no longer existed.

I hear a light knock at the door.

“Come in,” I rumble.

Vastian pokes his head in, “You need to come to the med-bay,” he speaks quietly and professional – a little worrisome.

I roll out of bed, and Seye reaches out a hand.

“Stay,” she whispers, slyly awake the whole time she feigned sleep, “Please?”

I ignore her and stalk from the room, my mind still pre-occupied.

I follow Vastian down to the med-bay, located in the upper level of the crumbling carpark, where fresh air filters in from the streets, and so do the overgrowing vines. Our makeshift lab and private hospital is empty except for my youngest brother.

On one slab of concrete, Raygar sits with his head bandaged, and his leg up, no stitches yet.

“Why have you not fixed the wound before infection?” I growl at Vastian, who motions me to have a closer look.

“Look closer, Skye.”

“Did a wolf get you?” I look briefly and ask Raygar, “I didn’t know there were wolves out there.”

“There aren’t,” Raygar hisses, “And I’m fine,” Vastian grabs Raygar’s head and checks the bandage is in place over his ear.

“Tell him,” Vastain commands our younger brother to speak more forwardly.

“What.” I ask, dry. A little bored.

Raygar is hesitant and can’t even look me in the eye as he looks around.

“I’m concussed, I’m seeing things I shouldn’t see –” he murmurs under his breath.

“The bite wound says otherwise,” Vastian snarls, “Tell him.”

“A human bit me, okay?” Raygar makes the shameful admission, rightly so, he shouldn’t allow a scratch to surface from those weak pathetic mongrels out in the forest, “A tall human, crouching, covered in mud – with a prosthetic limb… left foot. I could of swore it was…” Raygar has me lost, I’m not following, I don’t even understand he’s agitation.

“Spit it out,” I snap, “I don’t have all night, I’m too busy fucking my Queen to talk about your beatdown by a rouge human. Are you kidding me?”

“I saw Ryder,” Raygar finally says it, holding my eye, “Luna Messier Ryder –”

He’s damaged.

He’s concussed.

And he’s got my fist flying through his face – breaking his nose.

“IS THAT A JOKE TO YOU?!” I scream over Raygar, knowing he had a foul humour at times, as spit is flying, I grab his robe collar, almost choking him! How dare he! I let him go and shove him back onto the slab, turning to Vastian, I walk right up to him, until our foreheads clash and our noses brush, “…and you play into it…?” I pull back, disgusted, “It is not Ryder, it’s a feral human with a disease and a prosthetic foot – give him antibiotics,” I hiss and turn.

My snarl is wiped from my face, as I see my son.

Ryder has appeared, after slipping in through a window, looking confused.

“Are you talking about me?” he points to his chest, raising a handsome brow, just like my own, “I heard you talking about me.”

“No, no,” I shake my head, calming down as I walk toward him, so he follows me, “We’re not talking about you, son, it’s nothing to worry about.”

“I swear you –”

“I never told you about your mother,” I hope this distracts him. It does. Ryder immediately matches my gait, as I walk toward a window covered in vines, with a view right up to the sky and the moon, “She was fierce, unbreakable.”

“Tell me more,” Ryder hopes.

“No,” I’m ice cold, but I don’t care.

“You can’t just say that and leave it – who was she? Dad,” Ryder sounds too eager, his eyes wide and wanting more information, “At least tell me her name.”

“You already know it,” even as I say it, I have to look away as my emotions get the better of me.

I spin and start to walk off.

“No, I don’t know, I’ve never known!” Ryder yells after me, “Father, please. This is the first time you speak of her –”

“Her name was Ryder,” Vastian calls out – against my wishes. I glare at him, and quicken my gait. I don’t dare look back at my son. Who is now speechless, “She loved you very much, though you did not spend many moments with her,” Vastian adds.

I do not want to stick around for this.

“Is she…?” Ryder whispers.

“She’s very dead,” Vastian answers, cold and snappy – to get back at me for my outburst.

On my way out into the emergency stair case, I slam the door, and head upward.

She was dead.

I killed her.

And every second since that moment.

I regretted it.

I wished I could turn back time.

I had been trying to.

Back in the ship – in the Wolf Dominion ship.

But I kept failing.

So what the hell was I? I was just the Dominator now – but it felt like I was the Dominator of nothing.

Everything was meaningless since the day I took her from this Earth.

Blinding rage and jealousy.

Ended in what I was made to be – a vicious killer.

So that was the human’s punishment for making me like this.

Death to all.