Moon Bound

(56) Peace Offering |Scarlet's POV|

"ShadowFang, let us welcome our new members into our ranks." He flicked his hand at my friends in a gesture that could be only translated as 'rise'.

Standing to their feet, they retreated back to their places, leaving him to stay alone in the middle of the clearing.

"Let us celebrate this night with..." his voice faltered. He tilted his head up, looking ahead.

The pack stirred up, a sudden nervousness filling in the hushed space. Some turned back to look in the same direction he was while others lifted their eyes to the Moon watching overhead.

Praying in silence as the forest started to shake with the rumble of feet crashing through it and the unmistakable sound of bodies piercing the quiet as they advanced our way.

What is happening, Regan? Questioning into the mind-link we shared, I came to stand next to him.

My hand finding his, it slipped into his out of instinct and making me forget I was actually mad at him.

I found it cold, the tingles his touch would usually invoke missing.

I don't know, Scarlet, he said, voice void of emotion, of that warmth it took when he'd speak to me.

I tensed. He didn't sound like the man who was my mate.

'Regan?' I wanted to voice my alarm but before I could hundreds of stars appeared, shining in the surrounding darkness of the trees and breaking me out of my brooding thoughts. Not stars, I realized as they stepped out of the hurdle and into the clearing. Eyes. Glowing with an animalistic glint in the darkness as their bodies, covered in fur and stuck in between transformation, neither human nor beastly, glinted dark under the moonshine.

"The wildlings," the words came out breathlessly as if he'd been caught up in the terrifying sight just like I had.

A bloodcurdling scream came from the circle of wolves, starting me out of my daze. And then, as suddenly as it came, it was hushed down.

A woman's body hit the ground, the same woman who'd lost her child to them and now she was lost too, her blood saturating the grass from the gash on her neck. A tragedy unfolding with the life that was slowly pouring out of the mortal wound.

The moment the man stepped over her body I recognized him as the wildlings' alpha. Cole's brother. Slowly, he made his way to where Regan and I stood then he stopped in front of my mate. Only a few inches separated the two males as one alpha measured up and down another.

A battle of wills before a battle of flesh.

I glanced away from the wildlings' alpha, my gaze skipping towards Cole and the rest of my family, expecting to see the same terror on their faces I could feel hammering against my chest.

Blank faces except for Cole's. It felt like I was seeing that familiar face for the first time, like I was seeing the truth for the first time.

Illuminated by the moon, the expression on his face was scary - the corners of his lips slightly upturned, dark eyes squinted into slits of black and staring at us with a hunger I had never expected to see in them.

He was not afraid of them, he looked almost happy to see them, almost like he'd expected them to come and with the wildlings' presence it made it even most terrifying.

Trust spiraling down into betrayal, there was suddenly only one question in my mind, Who is the man looking from within these midnight eyes?

"What's the meaning of this?" Regan's voice rang through the place. A voice that should have been louder but was now just a whisper. Tension splattering the night, vapors of fear rose from wary skin breaking in shivers.