The Hidden Luna

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Scarlett groaned in pain. Her blood felt like it was tainted with acid. Her bones felt like they were going to fade to dust.

"The wolfsbane should subside soon, love," a voice said as Scarlett's eyes flooded open. Her gaze landed upon the man who was with Hunter, the man who she had no doubt was her father. He chuckled as he inspected her from top to bottom. "You look like your mother. But your eyes... those eyes belong to me."

Scarlett scoffed. "You're nothing but a sperm donor."

She knew it was the wrong thing to say, but she didn't care. He killed Zoey. Leon. And Zion. He deserved it. What Scarlett didn't know, was that it would enrage him to the point she felt the back of his hand slammed into the side of her face, the impact of it echoing throughout the room.

She flinched against her restrains. She was tied to a chair, much like the man Asher had kept in the pack household's basement. She laughed as the stinging on her cheek blossomed. "You killed my friends, slapping me isn't going to bring anymore pain than you've already inflicted."

Her father cocked his head to the right, his dark scared eyebrow arching. "Here I thought you were weak. I guess we both are surprises to one another."

Scarlett didn't reply, she kept her focus on the ropes around her wrists that rested behind her. She and Zoey had taken a self-defense class which included escape scenarios, but the ropes were tied so tight her circulation was compromised. She sighed. "Is this the part where you tell me your tragic backstory and I'm supposed to feel sorry for you?"

"You have her fire too," he mused, his eyes bright as he thought of his mate, her mother. He shook his head. "I wouldn't say my story is tragic. I met your mother when I was made Alpha. We fell in love. It was perfect. Until she got pregnant." He glared at Scarlett. "We had agreed she would be bitten, she would be my Luna. When she found out she was pregnant she refused. I told her we could wait until you were born, but she still refused. The longer she stayed with me at the pack house, the more she realized she did not want this life for her and her daughter. She left while I was attending to business."

He leaned forward in the chair across from her. "I looked for you both for years, going from territory to territory of various packs knowing your mother was smart enough to seek help from one of them. I sent out my members to different packs, Hunter landing in the Argent pack. He told me report after report of the future Alpha obsessing over his human mate. At first, I thought nothing of it, humans and werewolves being mates was nothing out of the ordinary, but it wasn't until he sent me this photo when I realized it was you."

He helped up a photo of my mother and me on take your kid to work day. Asher didn't want to go to his father's work, which Scarlett now understood, so he went with Scarlett to the hospital. She and her mother were in matching baby blue scrubs flashing a thumbs up at Asher, who was taking the photo. She fought the tears the threatened her vision. She blinked and turned away from her father.

Quickly, he grabbed her chin and forced her to look at him. "Where is she?"

"Dead," Scarlett snapped, not caring if the information hurt him, which it evidently did as he dropped his grip on her face, his eyes wide with shock. She didn't care for his sadness, not when he inflicted so much pain. "Cancer. Not once did she mention you. Not when she was healthy, not when she was sick, and certainly not when she was dying. That shows how much she cared for you."

Her father released a growl and leaped forward, his hands instantly around her neck. Scarlett laughed. "She told me you were dead and I wish you were."

He squeezed harder, his eyes narrowed in on her ever-reddening face. "I would have taken care of you both. She never would have gotten sick if she was bitten."

"Alpha," a strained voice spoke from the right of them.

Her father's grip loosened and both Scarlett and him looked over to Hunter standing at the door. He looked to Scarlett and then to her father, his expression unreadable. "The news of Scarlett missing has reached the Argent pack. We need to leave."

Her father stood straight and wiped the invisible dirt off his shirt. He nodded once. "Get her in the truck. I'll get the others."

Without further information, her father left the room and she was alone with Hunter.

He walked over to her silently and began untying her restraints. "Don’t bother fighting, the wolfsbane isn't out of your system and it'll make things worse."

Scarlett scoffed at his threat. "Asher trusted you."

"Asher is weak," Hunter replied. "He doesn't deserve to be Alpha."

Scarlett arched an eyebrow. "And you think you can be Alpha in this pack if you do my father bidding?"

"No," Hunter said, moving to the front of her, replacing the rope around her wrists with a zip tie but this time in front of her. He looked her in the eyes, hunger flooding them. "You're going to be the Alpha and I'll be your consort."

"My father tried to kill me, I doubt he'd make me Alpha and I know I would never make you my consort," she bit out the last word with all the venom she could muster. The idea behind it, behind Hunter's logic disgusted her beyond comprehension.

Hunter chuckled darkly, trailing a finger down her cheek. His touch felt violently different than Asher's. Asher's felt like electric excitement, Hunter's felt bitter and bleak. "You need a man, Scarlett. I can show you what a man really is."

He leaned forward, his lips meeting hers. Her eyes widened. She wanted to pulled back, but she couldn't. Instead, she did the next best thing. She bit him.

Hunter pulled away and touched his lip while blood bloomed out of it. He chuckled, shaking his head. "You'll come around eventually."

"I rather die," Scarlett replied bluntly and she meant it. After everything she had been put through with her father, being bit, getting Asher back to now losing him again, she really would rather die.

Hunter placed his hands on the arms of the chair. "We could arrange that."