Luna and her Alpha mate

03 - Taken

Luna finally clocks out from work late that evening, exhausted after a whole day of unforgiving translations and mediations.

She smiles at the security guard of the immigration headquarters where she has been working all day who waves back as he is currently on the phone.

“See you tomorrow!” She calls as she runs out of the door and sighs as she sees how dark it is outside already. A particularly nasty situation has developed at the refugee center and they have been working hard on it since that morning so she didn’t even realize how late it had gotten.

Taking a deep breath, she hurries to the bus stop as she sees a bus arriving.

Given the late hour, there are very few passengers and she sits down gratefully on one of the vacant seats, sighing with relief that the day is finally done.

"Are you sure that’s what he said?”

“Of course I’m sure! What a stupid question!”

“Well, I just think it’s really strange that he wants us to—”

“After meeting him in one of his moments, you’re still surprised!? Come on…”

“You’re right… So what are we going to—”

“Shh! Somebody else is here.”

The men suddenly turn quiet but Luna pretends to put on her earphones to listen to music on her phone. She is busy browsing for something pleasant to listen to when they resume their conversation and Luna blinks in surprise because they switched to talking in Inuktitut, the Inuit language.

Which she only recognizes because as a linguist, she has studied and continues to study many languages and she actually knows several minor ones. Inuktitut happens to be one she has been very interested in at some point and has learned to speak since she was a teenager.

“It’s so annoying that we have to ride the bus. You really should just replace your stupid car!”

“Hey! We’re trying to blend in and lose our tracks! This is a good idea and you know it! And that car is important to me! Have some respect, it’s older than you are!”

“Exactly! Let it retire! When we have completed this mission, I’m going to buy a new car with my cut. Maybe a van… or even a truck. God, I hope at least one of those girls in the truck pleases him. It’s getting harder to find a place to dump them…”

Luna freezes.

What..? WHAT!?

She can feel the cold creeping into her body at the realization that she is now a possible witness to a crime against young girls being taken.

Closing her eyes, she groans internally. Her night just turned from bad to worse.

She surreptitiously looks around, praying that somebody else takes the bus so she’s not alone with these possible criminals. The driver of the bus looks tough, she wonders if she can ask for help.

Pretend you didn’t hear or understand anything. Just play a song on your blo0dy phone! She screams to herself, inside her head.

With trembling hands she presses the first song she finds and techno music bombards her ears, making her wince. Too loud! Her stupid earphones were not properly connected yet!

Damn, damn, double damn, she’s dead!

She adjusts the volume, praying they don’t notice. But of course, that’s too much to hope for.

Suddenly one of the men comes closer to her and asks. “Hey, lady, you got a gum?”

Startled, she looks up and meets the eyes of a very ordinary looking man, smiling like a friendly stranger.

“Oh, um…. Just a second I think I do…” She starts to rummage in her bag for her box of gum before she realizes what she’s doing and looks up in horror at the man, whose expression has now changed from relaxed to dangerously alert and hostile.

The man had spoken in Inuktitut and in her panic she had answered, like an i***t, confirming that yes… she understood what they were talking about and her reaction now betrays that she heard everything.

Another man sits beside her, sighing.

“It’s not your fault, really.” He says, his voice filled with regret that made Luna’s blood run cold as ice. “We should have been more careful. But then again, who could have known somebody speaks that particular language in this part of the world, so far from home.”

Luna tries to swallow but her throat feels tight with fear and she can’t even get a single word out.

“You do understand how it is, though. Unfortunately, we can’t let you out of our sight now.”

Luna glances at the driver but the man looks back at her with cold, empty eyes from the on board mirror. No help coming from his corner, then.

“He’s one of us.” The man beside her confirmed cheerfully, almost sounding amused. He seems the more approachable of the men but Luna would bet all her savings he’s the one she should be most wary of. “We have a very wide network.” He adds conspiratorially.

He looks like someone who can take a human life as easily as taking out a mosquito with a zapper racket. It’s obvious that he is the one with more authority, able to decide whether one lives or dies.

“P-Please…” She manages to croak out, hating how she sounds so weak, and yet the fear inside her right now is debilitatingly strong.

The man chuckles and grabs her cellphone before standing up again and another man takes the seat. “I’m sure there’s no need to tell you that my friend here won’t hesitate to knock you out if I say the word so do yourself a favor and behave, we’ll be at our destination in a few minutes. One wrong move and you won’t know what hit you. I’m sure you won’t like that.” He walks over to the driver and they start chatting like old friends in another language, this time something Luna does not understand, while the bus takes a turn into a more secluded area.

Luna tries to calm herself. It would not help if she passes out or gets knocked out. She doesn’t really know self -defense and the best she can manage is to reason her way out of this mess.

But these men don’t seem to be the kind one can reason with.

Maybe she can still find a way to escape them. She certainly won’t go down without a fight but she already knows it’s a lost cause. Maybe she can bargain with them? She speaks several very valuable languages… she could offer to be a part of their network, just long enough to be able to get out of their clutches.

Oh, but it wouldn’t be so simple, would it? Of course it will take more than a few pretty words and promises to cajole them into trusting her.

No, no, no… she cannot die like this. There is so much she still needs to accomplish!

She is so busy thinking of ways to save herself that she doesn’t notice immediately that the bus has already stopped until the man beside her stood and forced her on her feet.

With a sudden surge of courage, she tries to fight back, hitting the man with her bag with all her might, knowing whatever hell awaits her in their destination is not worth living for, she might as well go now.

But with one quick, hard smack at the back of her neck, Luna finds herself losing to the darkness and her last thought was, strangely, someone else’s regretful voice in her head saying…

“I didn’t even get another chance with you…”

***

"Do you…do you still love him?The sky god…"

Gaea doesn't answer.

"I apologize…for the indelicate question...." Triton said.

She nods pensively. "...The truth is, we were all at fault and the mate bond made it worse, not just because it gave us no choice, but because it made us think that we have no choice."

"What? I don't understand. What's the difference?"

Gaea pauses before entering the forest behind the cliff. "I sometimes wonder what would have happened if there was no fated bond in the first place. Would Oceanus have accepted me instead, if he knew that I loved him, not because fate dictated my heart to?"

A searing pain in her head wakes Luna up, pulling her away from the usual dream.

She groans, hating the bright sunlight that is causing her this headache and she burrows her face on the pillow.

Wait, sunlight!?

That cannot be right… The last thing she remembers is getting off work at almost midnight…

She gasps as memories begin to flood her and she sits up immediately, closing her eyes again as her head feels like somebody hit it with a baseball bat or even a bowling ball.

Maybe someone did!

Tentatively she opens her eyes and gasps when the first thing she meets is the silver-eyed gaze of someone she never thought she’d ever see in person.

"I was hoping your eyes would be green but now I see they look even better...like two pools of melted chocolate with a sprinkle of pistachio."

It's one of the gods in her dreams!