His Luna Queen

Failure

Janet was careful to run in a pattern that no one would be able to track her. She even stopped a few times, trying to see if someone was tracking her. But she didn't hear anything. No one was on her trail.Her heart pounded as she saw the road beyond the woods. Almost there. Once she reached the road, she'd be able to make her way her University. Things were going better than expected.

What she didn’t expect was for a brown wolf to jump out and pounce onto her the minute she passed the perimeter of the woods and broke out into the clearing before the main road. He snarled and his piercing blue eyes warned her to stay down. He was strong. There was no way Janet could fling him off of her. But Janet was angry. So Janet snarled right back at him and headbutted him as hard as she could. Gritting through the pain, Janet bucked under him, hoping her surprise attack threw him off-balance.

Not expecting resistance and taken by surprise, Owen lost his hold on her. Janet slashed her claws deeply across his chest and sent him sliding across the dirt floor. Janet approached Owen, her wolf growling and ready to slam her paw against his head hard enough to make him black out. Suddenly, another wolf, smaller than Owen but still bigger than her jumped at her. Janet moved in perfect timing so that the wolf ending up pouncing Owen with his claws out. They dug deep into Owen’s back, making him howl out in anger and frustration. Janet watched as Owen's wolf slashed deeply into his allies back, wolf instincts for preservation kicking. Good, they were attacking each other now.

There was sudden a whizzing sound as a dart flew straight to her neck. This she had not anticipated. Janet growled angrily, batting at the dart and looking at who shot her. Her driver was holding up a tranquilizer gun, and looking at her apologetically through the scope.

“Sorry Luna,” he whispered. “but it doesn’t look good if you attack your own subjects.”

Janet snarled and crouched low. She was getting ready to lunge towards him and attack. But another dart was shot her way right as she jumped towards him. Losing her momentum, Janet landed on ground near the driver. She felt her world becoming cloudy and did her best to regain her footing. Janet swerved to the left drunkenly. Her vision became blurry. She couldn't fight the drugs in her system. Her bones snapped as she concentrated on shifting back to human form with the last vestiges of her consciousness. She lay on the grass in her human form, unable to even lift her head and curse at them all. She'd been so close! She'd failed. Something soft and warm was placed over her naked body. Janet fuzzily registered it was a blanket.

“I found her bag!” a gruff voice called out as darkness overtook her.

“You all right Beta Owen?” Janet’s driver called out. He’d been the one to throw a blanket over her body.

“I’m fine!” Owen retorted after shifting back to his human form and shrugging on a t-shirt.

Owen looked at Janet laying unconscious on the ground.

“She really packs a punch,” Owen said with admiration, a half-smile on his face. “I think Alpha Nick’s met his match,” he said with a chuckle. “Come on men, let’s get our Luna home. Careful,” Owen warned as one of the men bent to pick her up. “Make sure she’s not hurt.”

“She doesn’t have a scratch on her,” one of his warriors pointed out, eyeing Owen’s own wounds. “You on the other hand…bested by this tiny she-wolf!”

“By our Luna,” Owen corrected as Janet was laid down in the backseat and he took the front. “And it was thanks to my plan that we caught her! If I hadn’t picked up on how she was probably going to try to make it to the main road again since she'd been eyeing the map, we would still be in the woods looking for her.”

They resumed their journey, Owen mind-linking Johnathon that they’d found her.

‘Ten men and you lose one tiny girl!’ Johnathon grumbled angrily through their mind-link.

Owen shook his head.

‘She’s not just any girl,’ Owen tried to explain. ‘She’s…different.’

‘Ofcourse she’s different! She’s the Luna! And you almost lost her!’ Johnathon yelled so loud it made Owen’s brain hurt.

Owen looked back at Janet. He sorely hoped she had some fight left in her so Johnathon would realize exactly what Owen meant.

* * *

“Where did you send Owen?” Nick demanded of his father.

Una and him were sitting in the yellow parlor having their evening tea. Una looked at her husband in surprise.

“Love, what’s going on?” Una asked sweetly.

“I sent him on a confidential assignment, we’ll both brief you once he gets back,” Johnathon hedged.

“What important assignment, my love?” Una asked eagerly.

Nick looked at his father expectantly. Johnathon sighed.

“I sent him to go pick up an important dignitary who will be visiting us to discissu potential alliances with some other packs,” Johnathon finally said.

“And you didn’t think to inform me?” Nick asked demandingly.

Johnathon shrugged.

“Diplomacy and International Relations is Jerrod’s department. He’ll brief you accordingly.”

“But Jerrod didn’t tell me about any important guest from abroad,” Una argued, flipping her long blonde hair behind her shoulders. She looked at Nick with a sickeningly sweet smile that didn’t fool him at all. He wouldn’t trust a word out of that vapid insipid blonde’s mouth.

Johnathon sighed.

“Jerrod doesn’t have to tell you everything,” Johnathon snapped.

“Now don’t be mean dear,” Una said with a pout and crossed her arms.

“You need to learn to let go of that boy,” Johnathon grumbled. “He is no longer a child in leading strings.”

“But he’ll always be my baby,” Una argued.

Nick began to back out of the room. He really didn’t want to be involved in this stupid argument. He wanted answers, but not bad enough to stick around and be brought into the middle of another argument between his father and Una.

Nick informed his valet that he’d be taking dinner in his study and sat down to look over important documents regarding the security of his subjects. Nick massaged his temples. It was one problem after another these days. There was a she-wolf traficking cartel he was trying to track down. But damn they were so deeply entrenched within the gutters of this country that it was damn hard to dig them out. They targeted unmarked she-wolves and sold them as slaves. Unmated she-wolves who often went into heat were deemed invaluable assets. It was sickening. Many people under Nick's rule had suffered due to this cartel. Albeit they'd suffered more during the previous monarchy. But even one kidnapped girl was one too many for Nick. Even a dear friend of his had been kidnapped and he'd never heard from her again. He felt partially responsible because he'd been unable to protect her. He was a failure. He wasn't fit to rule if he couldn't protect his people.

"I'll find you one day and I'll make sure those bastards pay," Nick vowed into the silent room as he looked through the reports his spies had forwarded to him.

There had to be a way...

His eyes lit up as the words 'The Tortured Black Wolf' jumped out at him. He knew about this Club... had even been a member at one point. His breath hitched as he recalled who he'd ended up visiting this club with at one point...just to experiment. Could it be?

Nick stayed up into the late hours of the night...researching and looking into his suspicions. At one point, waking up one of his spies to come see him at 3 am in the morning. He needed more information and he needed it now. He would not fail to bring them down this time.

A/N: Please join my giveaway going until Jan 25th. Rubyk12author is my iG. We've got some wonderful prizes. Hope you enjoyed today's chapter. I'd love to hear your feedback on how you think their reunion should be? explosive? or steamy? Maybe BOTH!