A Tale of Three Lunas-Completed

Chapter 33

Zinnia's POV

I wake up from the most delicious sleep I have ever had to the smell of bacon. I'm not in my room, but I can't exactly remember how I got here. I'm trying to place were I am.

"Good morning, dulce." Lorenzo sits next to me on the fluffy bed, holding a large plate of mouthwatering breakfast foods. I start to remember the events of the previous day. Lorenzo handled my body very tenderly, and, even though I was startled when it happened, he marked me at my request. I touch the spot on my neck where his teeth sank in and there are puncture wounds still throbbing a bit.

"Does it still hurt?" Lorenzo asks coming over to me and chewing on some food.

"I'll be okay." I say, taking a piece of bacon off the plate. He sits close to me as he feeds me food off the plate and he tells me what he did after I went to sleep.

"So I was hoping that the two of us could meet with Kai in about an hour."

"About what? When are we leaving for your pack and why did you have to mark me early?"

Lorenzo sighs, putting the empty plate on a table and turns all of his attention to me. The look on his face makes my heart pound in my chest. I don't know what he is going to say, but I feel uneasy.

"I need you to see something and it's not going to be easy for you. I um, well actually, our paths have crossed before, I just didn't know it. I have been looking for you for years, but I didn't know that it was you I'd been looking for until I found you."

At this point, he is confusing me and making me nervous. "I don't get you."

"Okay, well, when we were talking and you were telling me about your family, you jogged my memory. I actually met your mother on the day she was killed."

"What?" Every hair on my body stands on edge.

"I didn't know she was your mother. My father brought me to your pack because our two packs wanted to take over a third pack, but your Alpha apparently had a score to settle first."

I can barely take in what Lorenzo is telling me. He met my mom? I feel frozen, anxious, my blood turning to ice in my veins, but I want to know more. I have to.

"Do you know about the Exchange?"

"Yes."

"Well, I've never done it before, obviously, but I thought it was the only way for you to understand what I saw that day and get a sense of what actually went on in your pack. If it is too painful you can pull away. What I am going to show you is going to upset you, but I'll be here for you."

"You're scaring me."

Lorenzo's face softens and he reaches his arms out to me.

"Then I won't do it. I'll just tell you what happened."

"No, I want to see."

I move toward him.

"Okay."

He closes his eyes, holding me in his lap. When he puts his forehead against mine, images of things I have never seen before start to flash in my mind.

I see the dark, broken down, wide open space that I remembered from my childhood. It was an abandoned building on our pack lands that as kids we would tell each other was haunted. I see the space full of familiar faces. I can't hear anything, but I see Alpha El, a younger Alpha El, yelling at a group of people and then brutally murdering his own mate. Immediately after, I see my own mother yelling, grabbing the hand in front of us. Lorenzo's hand? I see Alpha El speaking to a young Shawn and then him screaming, tears streaming from his eyes, as he raises a claw against my parents.

Then Lorenzo pulls away.

"He killed them?"

Lorenzo looks at me, wiping my tears. I am still trying to catch my breath.

"My poor mom, she didn't deserve that." was all I could say. I could taste the tears hitting my lips. "My daddy, he looked so afraid."

Lorenzo reaches for me, but I pull away. I don't want to feel the calming sparks that I know will give me comfort.

"I need to be alone."

"I don't want to leave you, Zinnia. We need to be together right now."

"Please. I would like to be alone."

He nods and gets off of the bed. "I'm sorry you had to find out this way, but I needed you to know how I got your mother's necklace. I still have it and we can go to my pack and get it when you are ready."

I nod, not even remembering about the necklace but no words come out.

'Call me if you need anything, my Luna.' he mindlinks to me before leaving. The second the door closes, I cry into a pillow, letting the frustration from all the years of lies and deception drain from my heart and my body. The range of emotions wrack through me and the guilt and anger add themselves to the mix. As I feel myself spiral, one final thought centers itself in my mind.

Revenge.

~~~~~~~~

Xena's POV

I have never felt this strong. I didn't even know this level of consciousness was possible, but now that we have been marked by our powerful Alpha mate, I feel a new intensity, a potent force within me that wasn't there before.

A cold chill goes up my spine as I feel my human, my Zinnia crumbling from the inside, the reality of the situation is too harsh for her. It is up to me to protect her.

Zinnia has unknowingly given me control as she began fully grieving the loss of her parents. It was too much for her, but I'll make sure she comes out of it okay. I, of course, know what's best for her and if its revenge she wants, it is revenge that I will get for her.