The Luna's Escape

Chapter 11 - A Familiar

1 year later

Jasmine

I closed my eyes as I rocked in my chair, the tip of my toe tilting the motion. The humidity and temperature were perfect in a Tennessee spring, but I knew summer would be around the corner to stomp all over it. Heavily pregnant in last year’s heat had not been fun, and it had been a steep learning curve, having never lived in such a muggy climate.

A tiny babble, increasing in volume as he fussed, rose above the dawn chorus and the rustle of plant vines stretching their limbs. His arms reached from the bassinet, seeking me out with chubby fists.

“Honestly, I don’t know where you put it,” I chuckled, lifting my sweet little boy out of the cradle, his blanket trailing behind where he had kicked it off.

Kaison was approaching six months old and had an appetite to match a growing Alpha werewolf pup. Being half-blooded seemed to hold no bearing in that regard. He was exactly how I had pictured him in my vision, down to his dark caramel curls and stunning green eyes, vivid in every shade of emerald. They were his father’s eyes, but they were all that belonged to Dominic. The rest of Kaison was mine.

I slipped my crossover top aside and unclasped my nursing bra, letting my son latch for his second round of breakfast after his short nap. Breastfeeding hadn’t been easy in the beginning, and the bout of mastitis in my left breast during my first month of motherhood hadn’t helped things, but we’d gotten there. My breasts were growing a little sore now that Kaison’s teeth were coming in, but I would take it all. It meant I was raising my son how I wanted and not under Dominic’s cruel control, which is exactly how it would stay, no matter what I had to do.

Once Kaison had his fill, I covered myself up and slung him over my shoulder to burp him into his cloth. A thin vine of passionflower reached out around his hand, coiling from the porch’s column and sharing its sweet perfume. The other vines of wisteria and trumpet creeper jostled, growing animated for the earth wiccan they bloomed for, the Elder of the Family who had sheltered me despite the risks I came with.

“Linden said he’s ready when you are.” Elder Dove swept her skirt aside to ascend the steps, taking the seat beside me and wiping my baby’s mouth with the corner of his burp cloth. “I’m gonna miss this little sapling… I wish you’d stay.”

Kaison giggled with the tickles on his chubby cheeks, unaware of a looming danger that would come true if we remained.

“I wish I could, Dove, but you know I can’t.” I gave her a sad smile, meeting her deep brown eyes that shone in every bright shade of honey and amber.

The year I had spent fleeing from any shadow that could belong to Dominic had taught me that the ‘easy path’ wasn’t just the choice to remain with him. It was every choice I made in the outside world. Any time I thought about staying in one place, the visions would start… the visions of Dominic finding me.

They stopped for a time when a chance encounter brought me to a wiccan Family on the Tennessee-Virginia boundary. It was Elder’s son, Linden, who I quite literally stumbled into with my large belly, shocked to encounter another wiccan when I least expected it. His wife and mother came running, and the moment I met Dove, a vision hit of her delivering my baby, and I knew I was meant to go with her.

And then four days ago, Dominic’s face plagued me once again with repetition and vigour to snatch away my safety. If I chose the easy path and remained, the man I fought tooth and nail to run from would find me. I didn’t know how, and I didn’t want to find out. Once I had made a plan to myself, the visions ceased, so I had to believe I was making the right decisions. But I dreaded that the slightest change might trigger them again, and it left me paranoid.

“You want me to take him for a little while so you can pack a bag?” Dove tilted forward on the edge of her rocker.

“I already packed one while he had his nap. But you can hold him anyway.”

She held her arms out, big grin and all, for Kaison, cradling him as a second instinct. As a female Elder of the Family, she had presided over many births in the commune and delivered them herself. True to my vision when we first met, she had delivered my baby, and she let us live with her, guiding me through motherhood.

My son reached with small fingers, grasping for the long strands of the Elder’s grey-streaked black hair. She smiled down, letting him grasp, knowing he never pulled; he just liked to hold, and he did the same to his favourite wolf plushie and to my hair.

I entered the home and went to my bedroom to grab the cross-body bag I had stuffed with essentials, my baby sling and my cape coat that doubled as a nursing blanket, pausing at the foot of the bed. The fresh sheets hadn’t erased last night’s strange dream, one I couldn’t recall when I awoke, but my body did. My skin had been sensitive, my lower half ached and I was hot. Not hot from the weather or too many blankets; the kind of hot from intense passion. s*x was the last thing on my mind, and my experience with it had been uncomfortable at best. I wasn’t sure why my subconscious was growing horny out of nowhere.

I shook my head free and took the things I needed. The longer I remained here, the more I risked another vision of Dominic’s face, his anger, his menacing frame towering over mine and his outstretched hand covered in blood.

“Ready?” Dove rose to her feet, exchanging my bag and coat for Kaison.

No, but I nodded anyway, kissing my son’s rosy cheek.

“Ba!” he giggled, waving his arms and babbling at the trees that swayed overhead.

I grabbed his small fists, kissing and blowing raspberries on his soft, plump skin. He was so innocent, and the guilt sliced through my heart with each step, knowing I was taking away the only home he knew. I was doing it for his own good, so he would never face the cruelty of his father, but I couldn’t help feeling like a failure of a mother to him. The safety I thought I had found for him was taken away, and all I could do was run. Again.

Linden waved from his truck, opening the rear seat door as we approached. The man was very much like his mother; the same black hair but with deep green eyes flecked in bright amber like his father’s. The colour, albeit a different shade, was a bitter reminder of my secret green-eyed man, who had not graced a single vision since I fled from Dominic. The man without a name had dominated my dreams and then simply vanished. I tried to give up thinking about him, but every man with green eyes reminded me of the man I couldn’t find or have. For whatever reason, he had abandoned me, so I spoke of him to no one and left him to vanish into my memories.

Dove loaded my bag and coat in the trunk, while Linden tried to unfurl Kaison’s hands from my curls so he could be strapped into the car seat. I kept the baby sling around my torso because it would only go back on once we reached the bus stop.

“You know who you’re asking for?” Dove reiterated, trying her best to delay the inevitable.

“Alpha Conner or Alpha Eden. I know.” The pack I was heading to had a most unusual dynamic of having two Alphas leading it and no Luna.

The Elder’s lips tilted in a frown. She trusted this ‘Silent Forest pack’ in the south of Tennessee, but I didn’t; my paranoia wouldn’t allow me to. I knew she wanted to contact them ahead of time, and she didn’t fully agree with my decision not to. I lived in a state of uncertainty that any choice I made might lead to my whereabouts being discovered. None of my actions so far had led to more visions of Dominic, except any decision to remain among the wiccans. So I had to trust that moving with as few people aware of it as possible was the right choice.

“I want you to take this.” Dove thrust an item into my hands. “And I won’t hear any refusal. If anything goes wrong… I can’t stand the idea of you being on your own with no way of contacting anyone.”

It was a phone. My anxiety spiked, because what if this was how Dominic found me?

“You know she won’t take it back,” Linden said as he stood up straight and shut the car door. “My mother’s more stubborn than a mule in glue.”

That she was. She knew when to give and when to push. And when she pushed, there was no saying ‘no’.

“Okay, but if you get a call from this number and it’s a man…” I gripped the phone and slid it into my back pocket, the device weighing heavy with the implications. “Please, get everyone out of here. Don’t give him time to link you with me.”

“Sweetheart, it wouldn’t be hard for anyone to figure out you’ve been staying here.” Dove tucked a curl behind my ear. “It’s bad enough you won’t let us take you to Silent Forest pack borders or contact them. But I understand why. None of us ever know the consequences of our actions until it’s too late, except you. So, any flashes of that,” she choked, as though she fought to keep a spew of curse words down, “awful man by accepting a phone?”

“No.”

“Good. Keep it and let me know when you and your little sapling are safe.” She guided me to the back seat next to Kaison. “I know you’re gonna love Conner and Eden once you meet them. You’ll see.”

It wasn’t just Dove who sang their virtues to the high moon and back. Everyone in the Family had. The pair of Alphas had taken in many rogues over the years, but how many were a rogue like my son, with an Alpha like Dominic after us?

I knew, intimately, never to trust a reputation, no matter how many people believed it.

As the car pulled away, I turned and waved until the forest lining the road consumed Dove’s figure. I spun back in my seat, wiping away a rolling tear as I said goodbye to the first sense of peace I had found in so long.

“You okay back there?” Linden glanced in the rearview mirror.

“Yeah. I’m just gonna miss your mom.”

“When you’re settled, I’m sure she’ll come visit.” He flicked his focus back to the road. “Listen, Conner and Eden might not be the ones to get to you straight away. It might be one of their subordinates or, more likely, their kids; they’re about your age. I think it’s their eldest that lives on the eastern side of the pack, Roman.”

Roman?

Why was there familiarity attached to that name?

*

*

*

The human bus service didn’t cross the borders of Silent Forest pack, stopping a short ten-minute walk away instead. I had changed lines so that I would arrive on a backcountry road, hoping it might be without cameras. My mind had been racing through every scenario it could, from best to most dire, and I was beginning to psych myself out. More than once, I had spun around, but where else would I go?

Kaison had fallen asleep in his sling, pressed against my chest and hidden away under my cape coat, where the cool breeze of the Appalachian valley couldn’t touch him. I would never know how he could sleep with my heartbeat racing and pounding through my bones.

Ahead of me stood an elevated structure similar to the sentinel huts from Tundra River, but these were raised on stilts, allowing for a higher advantage of the surrounding area.

“Can I help you?” A deep voice laced with a southern drawl caught me off guard. “Sorry. Probably shoulda worn a cowbell round my neck.”

A huge man stepped from behind a tree, his dark blond hair catching the afternoon rays and his brown eyes darkening under the shadows.

“I…” a growing pause formed between us, one that transformed into a gulp when two more wolves sprang down from the short tower: a red-haired man with a short beard and a dark-haired woman.

“Hey,” the blond wolf male softened his tone and raised his hands, his eyes darting to the small, concealed mound. “They’re just my patrol partners; you’re not in trouble. You needin’ some help?”

I gave a slight nod of my head, the panic of facing pack after so long chasing my voice away. When I snatched it back to heel, I croaked, almost whispering, “Yes?”

“What sorta help you need?” The dark-haired she-wolf approached with a bright smile.

Hearing her voice, Kaison woke and began wiggling against me. I tried to keep him still, but he started to babble, not that it made much of a difference. These wolves would have smelled my son before they saw us.

“Me and my son…” All of my words and every conversation I tried to anticipate lodged themselves in my throat, leaving me floundering in mounting nerves. “We… his father…”

“Miss, it’s okay.” The she-wolf ignored the heat burning my face and the damn tears collecting under my eyes, rubbing my arms as I fought my breathing. Twelve months building up my confidence, and I lost it all in twelve seconds. “Do you wanna come sit a minute?”

She led me to a bench hollowed out from a whole log at the base of the tower, kneeling in front of me.

“My son’s father is a dangerous wolf.” I couldn’t meet her eyes, sweeping my coat aside to show Kaison, his big eyes battling against the sudden light. “I was told you help people like us?”

The she-wolf’s dark eyes twinkled with wonder, riveted on my son.

“Oh, he’s precious! Look at those lil’ bitty cherub cheeks.” She curled her fingers around my son’s face, and he squealed, waving his arms at the attention.

“What my mate means is, yes, we can help you,” the red-haired wolf male chuckled, hearts popping over his head with love for the woman.

“Can I ask?” the blond man said. “Are you in immediate danger from the father? Is he following you right now? ‘Cus I can get warriors here to make sure he doesn’t get his hands on you.”

“I don’t know, but I don’t think he’s anywhere near. I just know that he has to be looking for me, for us.” I kissed Kaison’s forehead, lingering my lips on his skin in comfort. “I last saw him a year ago… when I ran.”

“Okay, well, let’s start by getting you somewhere safer than the side of the road so you can figure out if you wanna stay.” The blond wolf paused, a far-off glaze to his eyes as he mind-linked. “Someone’s gonna come pick you up, but it’s about an hour’s drive for him to get where we’re at. Think you’re up for some walking to meet him part-way?”

“I would actually love that. I’ve been sitting most of the day.”

“Great. Ebony and Nolan here will go with you. I’ll stay here and make sure no one comes knocking. The name’s Virgil, by the way.”

“Thank you. I’m not really sure what I was expecting—”

“You prepared for us to be as bad as the wolves you were running from.” Virgil offered me a half-smile, knowing exactly what was churning around my head. “You’re not the first, and sadly, you won’t be the last. We’ve helped a lot of men and women in your position, running from someone and trying to keep their kids safe. You and your boy are safe here. You can breathe.”

And I did, because even if this sense of relief didn’t last, a vision of Dominic was yet to be triggered.

They walked me from the pack border marker and along the road that weaved through the trees, almost vanishing in the turns. Neither of them hurried me to speak of the secrets I held onto. They didn’t pressure me with endless questions. I wasn’t treated like an outsider or a threat… or had I thought too soon? My paranoia went to work again, making me believe it had all been too easy so far. So much for my sense of relief.

“So, you gotta name?” Ebony asked after the silence stretched.

I swallowed, deliberating whether I was about to make a huge mistake by replying, “Jasmine.”

“You’re a wiccan, right?” Nolan inclined his head down to me, the lack of a southern accent evident. “It’s a little hard to tell sometimes, but your eyes are a bit of a giveaway.”

His mate snorted. “Maybe wolf males find it hard. Us she-wolves,” she gave me a conspiratorial tap on the side of her head, “we can sense these things. And I can sense this handsome young man takes after his mama.”

Once again, Ebony was keen to coo over my son, making little faces for him to giggle at and stroking his cheeks.

“His name’s Kaison… Do you want to hold him?”

“You bet I do! I just love pups.”

Her arms opened, and she took him with so much care that I had to wonder if she and Nolan had a brood waiting at home. I was about to ask but stopped as I watched her smile slant, shifting to longing. I knew that face and had worn it myself.

“Big yawn for such a tiny man.” Ebony copied the little ‘o’ with her lips, nuzzling my son’s cheek and holding him out to me like a treasure. “Too much excitement for one day.”

“Sleep and eat.” I settled him back in his sling around my chest. “It’s like he’s storing energy for when he starts crawling.”

I found myself surprised by how comfortable I was around these two, by how the unease and dread of facing werewolves after so long had melted away word by word. This was not what my worries had built me up to expect.

My only experience with packs was my time in Tundra River, and Dominic would have never let someone unknown waltz into his pack; not that many outsider wolves came calling on his borders. Before Tundra River, a time that spanned an eternity ago, my only knowledge of how packs lived came from the occasional rogue my Family sheltered for brief spells. I used to like rogues; many were sweet. But I had grown to fear them, back when Dominic manipulated me into thinking their kind had kidnapped me. A new perspective and living as one had changed my mind somewhat.

As I walked on the flat surface of the maintained backcountry road, my feet stumbled on an invisible hazard. Ebony caught my arm, steadying me with firm hands and supporting Kaison. A light flutter that had been tugging at my chest swelled, dancing for an unseen spectator.

“Are you alright? Do you need a rest? We’ve been walking a while now,” Nolan asked, his brows bunching in concern.

“No. I need to keep going.” I focused ahead of the winding road, the tug forming tendril-like fingers to pull me to their source.

Gaia was leading me towards something, and it wasn’t a vision surfacing that drew the sensation. This was something else entirely. Something that raised my pulse and hammered my lungs.

Tyres crunching on the small grit of the road came first before the quiet hum of an electric motor rounded the bend, emerging from the forest and reflecting the blue sky on the windscreen. The blue pickup skidded to a harsh stop as though the driver had slammed on the brakes for a darting wild animal despite the road being clear – we hadn’t passed another car or person once in the last forty minutes. The inner cab sank into shadow, hidden behind the white and blue shine of glass to obscure the occupant.

“That’s Roman. He’s one of the future Alphas, and he’ll be taking you the rest of the way to the pack house.” Nolan’s voice murmured behind me, but the thickening air displaced its clarity.

“He coulda stopped a little closer,” Ebony grumbled, but she, too, vanished under the rising tide that became the buzz in my ear.

The door opened, and from under it landed one boot, then two, attached to a pair of long, muscular legs clad in blue denim. A large hand curled around the door’s edge and swooped it shut, revealing a man who drove the breath from my body. The charge in the air threatened to split in a crackle, humming in an immense Alpha’s aura, as the man stood taller than any wolf I had laid eyes on. Black images of wolves and woods peeked across his thick bronze-tanned forearms, the rest hidden under a green plaid shirt.

But it was his face that captured me and constricted our world, where we were the only two beings to exist. His wavy chestnut curls tied behind his head led to a short beard that wrapped around his jaw, begging for my fingers to run through it. A pair of intense eyes hung wide under his raised brows, throwing me back in time to my seventeen-year-old self when I first saw them in a vision.

Pale jade…

I couldn’t believe it. After a year of being denied a glimmer of those eyes, I now had them in the flesh, sparkling every shade of creamy green and silver. They were eyes I had never met yet could never forget, no matter how many times I told myself I should.

My every step had led me here… to him. My soul cried out to his, wanting to entwine itself with him for all eternity and allow the invisible threads pulling us together to knot themselves tight. He was my familiar, my soulmate, the one whom the moon goddess had matched me to and spun Gaia to lead me towards.

“You can leave us,” his mouth moved, and I could have swooned at the pitch of his voice – a deep baritone timbre that was naturally quiet and made me want to lean in to capture every note.

I didn’t know what Ebony and Nolan did or where they went. All I knew was that we were alone. He made a tentative step forward when the silence became excruciating; the cool breeze coiling around the trees to rustle the leaves served as the only link that the real world flowed around us.

My grip tightened subconsciously around Kaison hidden under my coat, breaking the abrupt spell that settled to remind me of another life clinging to my chest, and I realised the magnitude of what this meant. The one being destined for me was a being I was running from: an Alpha wolf. I wanted my freedom from these creatures, not be bound to another one. Never had it occurred to me that the man in my vision would be this. Would he even accept a woman with a child as his mate?

The man, Roman, drew closer, his hand stretching out for me as though he were in a trance.

He wanted me?

A small bloom of hope ignited deep within. My son would be safe, we would be safe. But what halted the tiny blossom from bursting with warmth was how swiftly the heated fire in his stare evaporated, replaced by a crippling grimace.

“Mate.” The word twisted from his lips as though the very utterance of it pained him.

~~~~~

The book will move to PTR after this chapter. I’ll be applying for PTR at the end of May - beginning of June, but I won’t know exactly when it’ll come into force (sometimes it’s approved in a day, sometimes it’s a week).