The Nameless Luna – Book Two: What Binds and Breaks: Chapter 8

I thought uncovering my past would make things easier. I thought I’d discover why I was different and unlock my wolf. I thought I’d find my name at last.
But for each answer I’ve been given, a new question is already forming.
‘I sensed it when the wolf king brought you into his kingdom, which borders mine. I sensed you, and I did not know what it meant until I got closer and I smelled your mother’s blood flowing in your veins. Fate has given us a second chance, sweet girl.’
‘You- you can’t just… swoop into my life like that out of nowhere.’ My voice trips over my own words, my breathing ragged as I stutter in a sad attempt to express what I’m feeling. ‘You can’t swoop in with your riddles, and your secrets, and-and your bats! Do you have any idea what it’s been like? Do you even know what it was like for my mother, all because of you?’
Marco frowns, hurt flickering through his blood-red gaze once again. ‘I loved your mother more than I have ever loved anything in this world. I adored her, and I never wanted anything but joy for her. I knew I could not be her mate, but I wanted her to be my queen.’
‘So why wasn’t she?’ I ask, tears stinging my eyes as my voice rises. ‘Why weren’t you there when she got sick and lost her mind? Where were you when her pack turned against her for having a bastard freak? Where were you when I had to grow up without parents? Don’t stand there and tell me you wanted my mother to be your queen. She never got to be, and I was raised without an ounce of love. I wasn’t even given a name! So where were you?’
There is more anguish than accusation behind my words, a desperate sort of sorrow washing over me and threatening to pull me under. Marco closes the distance between us as a sob breaks out of me.
‘Where were you?’ I ask again, and I slam my hands against his chest, shoving and hitting with all my strength.
But I may as well be fighting a wall. He stands there and takes it, unyielding against every blow until I’m panting in between my tears, and I no longer have the strength to push him away.
‘I’m sorry, my sweet princess, I’m so sorry,’ he says softly, his tone soothing. When he wraps his arms around me, it’s all I can do to collapse into his embrace. ‘Your mother feared Viktor would wage war if he found out about our affair. She wrote to me about you and formulated a plan. She would fake insanity, acting like she’d lost her mind to cover up the truth from Viktor. Her brother would have killed her if he found out she’d slept with a vampire, and she could not risk involving someone else in the deception in case he uncovered the lie. The only way to spare herself was to say she did not remember who the father was.’
Vanessa was never insane. More tears spill over my eyes, streaming down my cheeks at the revelation.
My father was not some monster who abandoned us, and my mother was not a deranged madwoman. They were just brave, broken people who’d loved each other against all the odds and had lost everything in the process.
How could something so pure have gone so terribly wrong?
‘She pretended to lose her mind to cover everything up, so no one would ask questions if she started acting erratic or showing strange symptoms,’ Marco went on. ‘She wanted to make sure no one was suspicious when she disappeared. The plan was for her to carry out the pregnancy with the help of the pack’s healers. She knew the birth would be dangerous, and she wanted to be among wolves until she was sure there would be no complications.’
But there had been complications. I was born early, which Viktor always said was a bad omen. The irony is it wasn’t bad luck but rather bad timing that became the undoing of my parents’ plan. Vanessa was counting on more time to lay the groundwork and make her escape, but I arrived two months ahead of time.
And she passed away less than a week later.
‘When the letters stopped coming, I went to the Banes’ territory myself, traveling there in secret out of sheer desperation to see her again. I found out she had died, and there was no word of a new pack member or of Viktor having a niece. I assumed our child perished with her.’
Of course, he did. He had no way of knowing I was born early, and he didn’t anticipate the extent of Viktor’s cruelty. I was never viewed as a part of his family, never treated as a member of the pack. I was an illegitimate, nameless orphan.
‘I would have fought my way through the Banes if I’d known you lived,’ he said slowly, an unnatural and deadly calm in his voice. ‘I would have killed every last one of those wolves to find you.’
As I blinked up at him in between my tears and looked at my father, I knew he meant it. He smiled down at me sadly, tucking a loose golden strand of hair behind my ear. His fingers were cold against my skin, his touch almost ghostly.
His wrath is different from Tristan’s. When Tristan gets angry, he burns like the sun itself, and when he’d spoken about the Banes, he could barely contain the furious fire behind his amber eyes. But where Tristan is wild and fierce in his protectiveness of me, Marco is ruthless and calculating, his eyes cold despite their crimson hue.
‘Tristan.’
The name slips out of my lips of its own accord.
The thought of him hits me like a splash of cool water, and I stiffen in my father’s embrace. Marco frowns down at me, the features of his handsome face drawing tight with concern. He looks ancient and lethal, and I quickly shake my head, trying to clarify.
‘The Rogue Alpha from the territory you found me in… he’s my mate. He’ll be looking for me.’
Marco watched me as I pulled away from him, a curious kind of sadness darkening his gaze. I wonder what he thinks of the mating bond. Is he skeptical and suspicious about it like Tristan? Do vampires view the laws of wolves as silly or superstitious? Or does my father resent the bond? Does he regret that he could not be that for my mother?
‘You are Luna of that… peculiar pack?’ he asks carefully, and I can’t help but smile in spite of myself.
Yes, the Rovers are a peculiar bunch indeed. I cannot blame the Night King for being wary of them. I judged them once too. But I appreciate him not dismissing or condemning them outright the way others might, especially when they are not even his own kind.
As far as first impressions go, Marco left much to be desired. But I’m beginning to get the sense that there is more to this mysterious man than just whispers and shadows… and bats.
I’m still a little weirded out by the bats, honestly. And don’t even get me started on the blood drinking.
But we can circle back to that.
‘Don’t believe everything you hear,’ I mumble, the affection evident in my voice. ‘The Rovers are more than they appear, and they have been good to me. But no, I am not their Luna. Things between Tristan and me are… complicated.’
He nods thoughtfully. ‘I suppose I should know better than most that reputations can be misleading, and rumors cannot be trusted. I am glad that these… Rovers… have been kind to you.’
‘They have,’ I agree. ‘And they’re probably worried sick about me right now. Tristan was already concerned after what happened during training, and…. oh goddess… Tristan…. he told me to wait for him. I promised I would never run away from him.’
Realization and horror begin to sink in as I imagine what he must be going through. The last time I vanished, he found me undressed and unconscious by the edge of the lake. Does he think I broke my word? Or did he assume I went back into the lake and drowned?
A thousand scenarios play through my mind in a matter of seconds, and not a single one of them is good.
‘You have to take me back. Now.’