The Castle Under The Moon

Chapter Eleven

Shadow takes a gander at the still sleeping Luna that was laying on a small, metal framed bed.

After he had knocked her out he picked her up, bridal style, and hurried back to her room. He then proceeded to jump off the second story balcony before running to the fence and tossing her in the air, jumping over it, and then catching her before she hit the ground.

The cabin that they were currently in was the one he had planned to bring her to so that he could recoup and hide long enough for people to become unfocused and sloppy so that they could make their way through the portal without being noticed.

After making sure that Luna was safe in the cabin he had gone out and shifted, needing to let the beast out for a hunt so that he would calm down.

Something was eating at him every time that he walked too close to her, knowing that she was completely innocent and he was taking her somewhere that she would be punished and harmed didn't sit well with him or, now that he was calm, his beast.

Just thinking about the way he had seen Mehdi treat his "pets" made him want to kill everything around him.

Shadow growls and then rolls his shoulders, trying to remove the thought from his brain.

Taking another glance at Luna, he decided that pacing wouldn't do anything so he walked over to the small chair that sat beside the bed.

Luna has shoulder length, dark brown hair, that was mostly straight. Her top lip was smaller than her bottom lip, and they were currently in a pout, making Shadow want to reach his hand out to touch them, which he thought was the oddest thing he had ever felt in his entire existence. Luna is around five-three and on the chubby side.

Shadow closes his eyes, leaning back, remembering her bright blue eyes when he had caught her off guard in her room, right before he had to chase her down the hallway. There had been so many different shades of blue that he began to unconsciously count them to pass the time.

Luna gasping and sitting up in the bed causes him to lose count as he opens his eyes and sits, stock still, knowing that her human eyes wouldn't be able to see him in the dark.

"Couldn't even light a candle." She grumbles and slowly stands up on the opposite side of the bed that Shadow was on.

"Twat." She scoffs as she limps around the room, arms in front of her.

His eyes zero in on her left foot as he thinks back to when she told him that she wasn't a fast runner.

"I'm just going to ignore that." Shadow speaks up, causing Luna to screech and step backwards, tripping over her own foot.

Before Shadow was even able to think, his body surges forwards, catching Luna, not giving her enough time to hit the ground.

Their breathing deepens, he could hear her heartbeat speed up and sense her fear and pain.

Shadow crouches, placing his right arm under her knees, picking her up bridal style and sets her on the bottom of the bed.

"What are you doing?" She asks, trying to hide the fear from her voice.

"Helping." Shadow grunts as he lights a lantern.

"Oh, how nice, my kidnapper is helping me." Luna mumbles.

Shadow ignores her and sits down on the floor in front of her before grabbing her left foot.

"Don't touch it!" Luna barks in surprise, pulling her left leg up to her chest and away from Shadow's rough hands.

He looks into her eyes, as if daring her to say something else, as he gently grabs her left foot again.

When he looks back down at her foot, something hits him, making him feel more connected to her.

Luna's entire foot was covered in scars, as if someone had taken a knife to it. Her ankle had one, continuous scar around it, reminding him of the ropes that had been wrapped around his wrists. Her calf was also scarred with vertical lines traveling from her knee down.

When he got his bearings, Shadow began to massage Luna's crooked foot, causing her heartbeat to slow down a tad as the pain ebbs.

Since the giant of a man was occupied, Luna decides to look him over.

Shadow has coarse, black hair that stopped about an inch below his shoulder. His eyes are a deep, golden brown, and his jaw and nose are both straight and strong. He has gorgeous copper colored skin and he was around seven feet tall, while his shoulders looked as if they weren't going to fit through the width of the doorway, though he wasn't bulky.

One thing that Luna did notice was the jagged scar that started on the left side of his face, right beside his eye, and traveled diagonally down his face and onto his neck before disappearing beneath his black button down.

Before Luna can stop herself she whispers a small thank you.

Instead of speaking, Shadow just grunts and continues rubbing Luna's foot.

"No one has done something like this since Jaiyana." Luna whispers more to herself then to Shadow.

Mentioning Jaiyana causes Shadow to freeze and glance up at her.

"Sorry, I talk when I'm nervous." Her face heats up as she looks away from Shadow's watchful eyes.

"How long did you know her?" He asks, surprising the both of them, as he went back to working on Luna's foot.

Of course he knew the answer, but for some reason he wanted to hear her talk.

"About a year." She mumbles, biting her lip to hide a moan as he hit a certain spot on her foot.

The beast stirs when he hears the small noise come from Luna, who thought she had hid it from him, so he drops her foot and stands up, holding the lantern in his left hand.

"Do you need to go to the bathroom?" Shadow asks her, keeping his eyes trained on the wall behind her, not understanding the feeling within himself, it was one that he had never felt before.

"Yes." She answers, watching the ground as she stands, making sure that her foot was okay with her weight.

"Lets go." He grouches out, heading towards the door, leaving her behind with his long strides.

"What are you?" Luna asks, picking her pace up as much as she could.

"A beast." He states, opening the back door of the cabin, waiting for her to walk out first before he follows.

"How explanatory." She grumbles, angry at his answer.

Shadow almost tells her that that is exactly what he was, no one has called him anything else, but keeps his mouth clamped shut when the outhouse comes into view.

"Someone's grouchy." Luna states, her confidence rising the longer they were together.

"Watch it." He growls out, causing Luna to slam the wooden door shut.

After a few seconds, Luna's voice rings out.

"Can you walk away a little bit? I can't go with you standing right there." Shadow could hear the embarrassment in her voice.

Deciding to be nice, he walks a few feet away.

"I could still hear you if I was in the cabin." He says.

"That wasn't gross or anything." She grumbles.