How to reject a Luna

Chapter 22

*Sebastian POV*

I concentrate all my energy on the door, Tobias and I lift our legs in perfect unison, we don't even need to speak, words are unnecessary when I am with a man that I have spent my whole life beside. We are as close as brothers, for 21 years we have shared the good, the bad, the devastating, he is only the unwavering part of my life, the only person that I have been able to count on without question, he is a grumpy pain in the ass 90% of the time but under all that, he is my friend, my family.

Without a word we perfectly time a kick to the solid wooden door the timber smashing into little tiny pieces as we enter at full force without a moment hesitation. My claws are extended, my canines are out, I am ready to kill, I am itching to kill. My eyes are black with anger, my wolf is barely contained as we make this last moment, he and I both won’t settle until we see Willow alive and well, I don’t even dare to think through the possibility that she may not be.

How dare they take Willow, how dare they take her in some sort of power play, why should the innocent be used in such a way? It is a such heinous act. How could they get their facts so wrong and take the wrong person.

Before I even get a chance to enter the room Tobias places his large hand on my chest, pausing my movement, giving me chance to look around the room and assess the situation, My anger ceases and is quickly replaced by confusion.

"What the fvck?"

Tobias looks at me with his eyebrows raised, like he is expecting me to be able to explain the situation, that will never happen because I am completely bewildered.

In front of us lies 4 wolves. The first one is just in the doorway, he is now covered in timber splinters from the door, his body is facing the bed but his head is facing the door in an unnatural way, blank, dead eyes look at us, his mouth in a surprised look, the others are much the same way, all of their necks snapped, bones broken, ribs broken, the damage is extensive but not a single drop of blood spilled.

Then I see Willow in the middle, just lying collapsed on the ground in the midst of the c*****e, she is just on her side, her head on her hands, almost in a sleeping posture, I can hear her faint soft breathe, hear the rhythmic beating of her heart, it only further confuses me.

Before I can reach her, arriving to her one step in front of me,Tobias gathers her up in his arms in one swift movement, and wraps her in his embrace.

"She is just unconscious"

I breathe massive sigh of relief and walk over to join Tobias, her beautiful face looks somewhat serene as it rests against his strong chest. I gently brush the hair out of her face and look down at her adoringly, she doesn't seem to have a single scratch on her. After I verify that she is safe and well, I look around the room again, it doesn’t get any less shocking the more I look at it, even though I am well aware that Tobias would have the same knowledge as me, I can’t help but ask.

"Who did this?"

Tobias holds Willow close to him as he looks around the room shaking his head, before putting all his focus back on Willow.

"I don't know"

"Look at them they don't have a external mark on them, it wasn't a wolf, they are just smashed to pieces internally"

Wolf killing is naturally more bloody, just as violent but definitely more bloody, sharp teeth plus sharp claws just results in the fact. But these bodies don’t look like that, nothing about them screams wolf.

I look at Tobias, my eyebrows raised, the question that I can't believe could possibly be true, slips out my lips before I have a chance to be rational and hold it back.

“Do you think it was her, do you think it's possible?"

"She is unconscious, how is it possible?"

I look around the room again. I want to investigate further, I cannot smell a single other scent in the room, so who did it? I can’t help the niggling feeling, but looking at Willow’s angelic face, who would believe it? How could it be possible?

"Tobias get her out of here, we don’t know who else could be around, get her to safety, I want to stay here and investigate this, we need some answers"

"If she wakes up and sees me holding her she is going to freak out"

"You are her mate you should be able to calm her down, at very least she will know that you are taking her to safety"

"You know she hates me, what if I can’t calm her?"

I roll my eyes, I want to say so many things along the lines of ‘you deserve it’ but in the end I hold my tongue, being a smart ass isn’t going to help anyone.

"I am sure you can work it out, if not restrain her until I get there"

I know it must cut him deep to know that someone else will have more chance to calm his mate than himself, but that is back to ‘you bought this on yourself’.

"Hmm"

He glares at me, I shrug and eye him in a provocative manner before concentrating back on the room, turning my back on him. It isn’t my fault that Willow likes me more than him.

"Stop talking about irrelevant things, get her to safety, we will sort all this out later, I will catch up with you both soon"

He nods and cradles her gently against his chest and walks out the room, I start looking around at the bodies around me, studying them closely, searching for clues, I must say I am impressed with the level of skill and ruthlessness involved to do so much damage without the usual mess that I usually associate with death.

I hear some muffled noises, due to my advanced hearing I can pick up footsteps and voices even over the large distance. I glance around the room before I instinctively dive under the bed.

I have no idea why I just did that, when have I ever hid from danger, always the first one to face it head on, but it is too late to come out now so I just stay put and live with my decision, so I just hide under the bed and wait. I hear footsteps enter the room, without a door to impede access the footsteps enter without a pause. I just lay under the bed, pressed hard against the filthy ground, my large frame not at all suitable for this, I worry that I am pressed so tightly that even the rise and fall of my chest from breathing will actually move the bed, I hold my breath the best I can and curse myself for getting myself into this compromising position. I listen.

"She is gone"

"Do you think Tobias saved her?"

"I don't know the deaths outside were definitely made by wolves, but in here, look at the bodies, it has all the telltale signs of a hunters training, she killed them"

"She is already trained?"

"I guess so, they are usually trained from birth so there is not much chance that she is untrained, look at the little footprints and hand prints all over them, she definitely did this"

"What do we do now?"

"Activate our spies within the pack, we need to know who she is, check if there are any survivors remaining here that can give us a description of what she looks like, if she is so highly trained already she is even more valuable than we initially thought, it will cut our timeline in half, this is good news"

I clench my fists under the bed and wait for them to walk out. Spies in our pack. Finally they leave the room. I have never been so glad to actually not fight, I am very thankful for my random act of cowardice. I have learned a lot of valuable information.

I sneak out of the room and kill any rogue I see. I don't want those people to know what Willow looks like.

I will keep her safe. I will defend her with my life. I kill every rogue in a savage but silent manner and slip out undetected, I just hope they haven't managed to talk to anyone before I take their worthless lives.

I shift and chase down Tobias, I get all the way back to the pack house before I get to him, I spent a lot longer in that concrete building than I wanted to. I do actually want to be there when Willow wakes, I don’t want her to her to feel uncomfortable. I head straight upstairs after making sure no one is around. I walk down the corridor to Tobias' room and knock on the door.

*Tobias POV*

I look down at my precious mate as she unconsciously snuggles into my chest, like her movements when I lay down next to her at night, I think she is more asleep than anything else, while I am glad that she doesn’t have a scratch on her, I can’t help but be surprised.

She rubs her face against my chest as she moves into a more comfortable position, her arms even snake around my neck. I pause with the sudden occurrence and check her face again, scared that she will wake and see who she is hugging and try and escape. I breathe a sigh of relief as I view her tightly shut eyes.

I continue walking and just enjoy the moment with just the two of us, casting aside the fact that we have a looming danger behind us. I feel at peace with her in my arms, my heart that has been up in the air can finally be put down. I pull her closer to me, hugging her tightly to my chest, feeling her small warm body against me, letting her scent surround me, letting the last piece of tension leave my body.

I get back to the pack house in a reasonable amount of time, I travel neither slow nor fast, I want her to be in a safe location yet I don’t want her to wake up. Sebastian still hasn't caught up with us. I can't help but worry about him, what if something has happened? I know he's a strong warrior but I can't help but worry about my best friend. I look down at Willow as she moves again and gently brush her soft fragrant hair out of her face, tucking it behind her ear as I resist the urge to kiss her exposed neck. Luckily no one is around as I carry her straight up to my room and lay her gently down on the bed. The moment her back hits the bed her eyes fly open. Her green eyes are completely unfocused, her usual sharp intelligent gaze is no where to be seen, she screams and starts kicking and punching. My eyes widen as I cop a surprisingly strong right hook to the jaw, her limbs flail wildly as her piercing scream fills the room. All I can do is grab her and pin her arms to her body and holding her legs tightly, restricting her movement completely. I sit on the bed and hold her close to me.

"Willow calm down it is just me"

I don't know if that's actually going to bring her any comfort, I am not sure how deep her hatred for me runs, how much she can feel our bond through the pain I have caused her. She starts frantically looking down at her clothes, her voice high pitched and laced with grief.

"Did they r**e me?"

I growl at her words. Is that what those men were trying to do? I want to go back and beat their corpses some more.

"I don't think so, when we found you, all the men were already dead and you were still clothed"

She breathes deeply and I watch as she forces herself to calm down and think rationally.

“I can’t feel anything”

I hold her tight.

“Willow, I really don’t think they got a chance to”

She nods as she grips onto my shirt and puts her face on to my chest as I rub her back. She starts sobbing and I just hold her. It feel so weird to be holding her while she is actually conscious. I hate that she is upset but my heart feels light knowing that she turns to me for comfort, that she hasn’t pushed me away, that we get to have this moment. She finally stops crying and looks at me, her green eyes studying my face closely, I hardly dare to breathe, just wanting to keep this moment going for as long as possible, ho,ding her close to me as long as I can, worried that she will push me away the next second, now that the moment of panic has passed, her senses all returned, her hands still gripping my shirt, her eyes are glued to mine.

"Did you save me?"

I look away and try and gather my thoughts while I would love to take credit for rescuing the damsel in distress to try and mend the bridge between us, I can’t lie.

"Well sort of, we came into the building and got you out, but by the time we reached you the men in the room with you were dead"

How I wish I could of been the one to rescue her. She focuses on my face again and then pushes me back. My heart feels empty with the loss of contact.

"I don't know everything, I don’t pretend to understand everything, I am not sure how I even know what I know, but I do comprehend is that you rejected me, if that is what you want, if that is how you feel, my safety has nothing to do with you, don’t bother with me, I will only stain your perfect life, why are you even here?"

I sigh as the moment of peace has dissipated leaving only emptiness in its wake.

"I'm so sorry I did that to you Willow, as soon as the words left me I regretted them, I should have never said that, I should have never treated you like I did, everything I have done since the first moment has been wrong, everything is a massive mistake, I have been in hell ever since, please forgive me"

"What was your reasoning behind it?"

I hold her hand, gripping it tight even when she tries to pull away, is the fact I am an i***t a good reason. I don’t think it is, so I doubt that she will buy it as an excuse.

"I was scared, having a human in the pack just requires so much protection, I didn’t want you to get hurt, but now you are in danger anyway"

"Why am I in danger?"

"Someone sees to think your a huntress and they want you"

"What is a huntress?"

"A huntress is a human woman with special abilities, they are bred for the purpose of taking out my kind and other supernaturals"

"Ohh really, well I can't be that"

"I know you can't"

I look at her and study her perfect face, I have seen more expression on her face at school, why now in the midst of all this information does she not look the slightest bit flustered? She seems unnaturally calm. I continue.

"Why don't you seem freaked out about me being a werewolf and how do you know what a mate is?"

I watch her as I see her concentrate and try and work out what she is going to say to me.

"I don't really know to tell the truth, for some reason none of this has been coming as a shock to me"

"Hmmm"

"Is that weird? I feel like it is weird"

Well it kinda is, but I wouldn’t tell her that. I know she is fated to a werewolf therefore should be able to take the information well, I would think it would still be slightly shocking, I would even accept faintly surprising, yet she takes it so well that I would think she had just found out what she was eating for dinner.

"It is a bit weird but it's fine, do you need to know anything?"

I am only too aware that my hand is still on her waist, she isn’t swatting me off yet, I am not sure if it because she hasn’t noticed or she she doesn’t mind. The sparks between us are surging through my body, it is hard to believe a little tingle in the tips of my finger can make my whole body feel so good. If it is so pleasurable with the slightest touch it stands to reason that kissing or going further, lots, lots further could hold untold, unfathomable pleasure, the mere thought of it is driving me wild, coupled with the fact that she is on my bed.

I press down those unsavoury thoughts, I cannot get ahead of myself here, just because she is here talking to me, doesn’t mean that she has forgiven me, I still have a long way to go to get her to consider me before I even think about ravaging her.

"I am not sure"

I look at her, she hasn’t run out of the room, so I should consider it progress, but I want to know where I stand, what I have to do to make all this right. I hope I don't sound too desperate and I hope I aren’t pushing too hard. I try and sound indifferent but I am dying slowly.

"Willow do you think you can accept me?"

I sound a lot more hesitant than I was planning almost bordering on timid. I watch her, every micro expression, I want to see what is going through that pretty little head of hers, I want to know everything. I can't even breathe, my lungs are sapped of every ounce of oxygen. I just looking in her eyes searching, hoping.

"Tobias, I decided that I actually want to know something"

My heart jumps, I don’t know if this is positive, but not receiving a down right no, is a win.

"Anything at all, just ask me, I will do my best to answer"

"What is a mate exactly?"

"A mate is someone that the moon goddess has especially chosen just for you, you love and care for them unconditionally, protect with your life. They are your other half"

She looks at me with her eyebrows raised her head tilts to the side and I realize what I have said, I have walked straight into a trap of my own making. My heart nearly stops its constant rhythm, as it rises to my throat, choking me. I wait for the words that spell my certain demise, the end of my love before it even had a chance to flourish.

"Have you done any of that for me?"

I can't even look her in the eyes. My soul is shredding little bits and pieces scattered and broken. Of course I know the answer, I can’t explain myself, I can’t extend the answer, trying to make it right, all I can say is like it is, the short and simple truth.

"No"

She runs a finger under my chin and pulls my face back up to hers.

"Do you really want to make this work?"

"Yes I will do anything, please"

"Watch me while I fvck Sebastian"

I growl, she wants me to watch my worst nightmare? Just thinking of the sounds I have heard before shreds my heart, even seeing them kiss made me want to kill everyone, how could I possibly watch that type of thing?

“For what purpose?”

“So you know what happened with your failure to act, what your rejection lead to”

“I all ready know what it lead to, knowing is enough why do I have to see it?”

“If you see it, it will make you think a bit more clearly about your decisions in the future”

"No fvcking way am I doing that, and if you even think about touching him again, I will kill him"

She stands up.

"That's fine, have a good life"

She walks away from me with a simple flip of the wrist which is the most basic goodbye, the nonchalant leaving gesture, caring zero about what she is walking away from. My wolf is clawing to the surface. I can't let her walk away. I hate her having every bit of power within our relationship, but I threw away that right, now whether we are or we aren’t is in her hands, I can do nothing to change that fact. If I let her walk away now, I feel like I am never get another shot at it. A big space will be left in her wake, my life will never be complete without her.

I say against everything that I believe in, against every reasoning, even though I hate it, I know that it is something that I will just have to endure.

"Fine Willow, I will do it"

She turns around a beaming smile on her face. I don't know what she thinks this is going to prove. But I am willing to do anything at this point.

It is fine to say it, but how I am going to handle it in reality is unknown.