Moon Bound

(58) Anything|Regan's POV|

Flashes of reality. Words echoed like they were spoken from a distance. They came into the catacombs of my mind. Locked inside, I listened to these bits and pieces coming through. A loophole he missed or one he was allowing?

I didn't know. Perhaps I never would.

All that I knew were those flashes of her. I could see hands that were dragging her towards the crowd, could hear screams that were breaking over her lips, ending as abruptly as they came.

An unexpected fortune or a curse to know what was happening yet be helpless to do anything?

Had it been all in his plans or was this just a turn of events not even he could foresee – having me under control while she was fighting... fighting alone when I was not there to save her?

The thought was killing everything in me.

I wished I could just climb up the abyss. Everything around me was dark but these flashes. My eyes were watching, not seeing all they needed to see, they were released for a second and then blindfolded. Still alive, the man had been buried inside his own body while the beast was left alone to fight something he couldn't fight alone.

Crowd parting to take her in, hold her where she no longer belonged – never did, clawed arms were weaving around her, chaining her in place without the need for real restraints.

A wounded animal was howling the hurt out. The beast was calling me out just like I was reaching for him. Out of grasp, no contact was possible when he was standing in between, oppressing the beast and commanding the man.

Imprisoning them both.

Cole was walking in the middle of the circle. Gleaming with insanity, yellow eyes were watching those steps, wild creatures taking in every word he was offering.

"ShadowFang, tonight I'm standing before you as your alpha. A true leader who won't promise you a better life or a peaceful existence. No, I can't promise you any of this but I can give you what you deserve. A glorious battle. A name others will fear. A reputation that will precede you. An identity." Voice breathless, he was letting me listen to every word.

Who was really that man who took reign over something that had never been tamed, never conquered? Who was that monster? How was he possible?

"Tonight, ShadowFang, is a night of changes. And the choice is yours. Stand by me, fight with me, follow me instead of this shell of a man who is too weak to lead you and too fickle to stay loyal or this girl who's always running away, who couldn't keep her own mate by her side. Stand by me and taste everything your nature can give you or die underneath these illusions."

A flash of him – arms open, raised on both sides, he was holding them up, pointing in both directions – mine and hers, like a statue pointing the flaws that needed to be removed.

Pain like poison running through my veins, I could feel it as well as I could feel his pleasure. Knowing that he was the reason for this feeling, the source of my torment, he was giving me more and more of it until there was no space left to be filled and then he was pouring out more.

"A night of changes, ShadowFang! A night of choices! Are you ready to take what's rightfully yours, ShadowFang? Are you ready to forsake weakness and fear and fight for what was taken from you? Are you ready to embrace all that you can be, what each one of you can be? Are you ready, ShadowFang?"

Words like fists of steel hitting a brick wall until it started crumbling under the impact, more and more of it, the choke hold he had on me was slowly getting loose, allowing the flashes to turn into reality, at first a blur of images and then a sight that was crystal clear.

Standing in the middle of the circle, no longer just his own watching him, with each moment he stayed, with each word that sunk into realization, more and more eyes were turning to him. Hopes for a future, as dark as it was, still a future better than any I could give them.

Or maybe they were just too afraid to deny that future he offered. With no bond to my pack and their frozen faces, I had no way to know.

At last, my gaze found her amidst the crowd of wildlings and wolves. Body limp in the arms of her captors, the fight was gone out of her, replaced by a quiet desperation I could see written all over her face. The storms in her eyes were gone. Tears were illuminated by the Moon, making her eyes look like two mirrors staring back at nothing and everything at once.

Reflecting.

Why did I keep her here? Why did I want her to be by my side? She would have been safer without me. Now, surrounded by my enemies, by those who always threatened us, it was my fault and, finally, I knew I had nothing of what I thought I had.

What I had, what I was... Nothing.

Weak.

Cold flesh of a hand resting against mine, the touch was burning on my skin. It was not her skin I could feel against mine.

Cheater.

Begging for that chance, promising to be the man she needed...

Liar.

"Will you follow me, ShadowFang?" A shout in a desert, an echo from the words of a god, eery with a promise that would be fulfilled, unlike mine.

Minutes passing by, wasted in stillness and indecision, the Moon was watching from above. She always does.

Watching as her children were about to betray her, every one of them for their own private reasons. Right or wrong, hopeful or hopeless...

Doing nothing.

There was only one direction to this road. She knew it. They knew it. The man knew it.

The beast, at last, in agreement with the human side that had been buried inside, would follow.

"Well? Who's going to be first?" Engaged in his victorious speech, there was not a better time than the present.

Reaching out, twisting flesh and bones that were not real but felt like they were, exploring the inside like neither one of them had done before, completion was what they sought, what we needed to be freed from these separated cells the monster was holding us in.

Only I could hear the howls. Only he could hear my screams. A song that only the other was ever going to understand.

Fingers digging into that feminine flesh, sensation coming back on a tide that would bring my ultimate destruction, I could finally understand what the growls meant.

'Let me out, let me reign, let me lead,' he said. 'Let me be a beast.'

Pulling away, breaking the contact with her, the red, still bleeding mark on her skin mocking everything I'd ever thought of myself, it was just a step. Putting one foot in front of another, moving just a few inches away from where I stood, it was such a small thing to do, yet it meant so much.

"I will but, please, Cole, I beg of you, let her go. I will do everything. You just let her go. Please."

Whipping his head around to look at me, arching a brow in surprise, Anything? Are you sure, Regan? he asked, never saying the words out loud but sending them to my mind instead.

Anything... Alpha.