*Marcus*I didn't care what the Healer said. I didn't want to hear it.It was the first time that I felt that way. But Arealla had to recover. She had to get better. Which meant that I had to ignore the words she had just spoken. To accept it would be to give up, and there was no way that I would ever give up on Arealla.I glanced at her pale and bruised form. Her breathing was so shallow and sparse that it was barely there. Seeds of despair were already being planted by the thought that she would never be whole again.No! I refused to give in to my fears."Alpha?" the Healer asked.I had been silent for a while, my expression most likely pained and contorted. I took a deep breath and turned to the healer."Say I made contact with her pack. The one she had been born into. Would their healer perhaps know a way of restoring her to full health?" I asked.The Healer Trisha looked hesitant. This was all very new for her, too. She was used to having the answer, she was used t

*Marcus*The woman still kept her hood covering her face. Her cloak was dark green and heavy, the kind that would be good enough to sleep on, the kind that would protect the wearer through everything.It was little more than an accessory, given that we were wolves, and impervious to all of those things either way.She didn't want to show her face.I had seen her before, but years ago, when I had still been a child. And I didn't remember her, but even if I had, I doubted that it would help in any way. She had probably changed since then. We all had.She spoke very little, and even when she spoke, she acknowledged nothing and gave nothing away."I have not summoned you," I told her simply, denying her words and the implied meaning. "I sent a request to every Alpha and Luna from every pack. And with that request, there was a condition. The same condition that is attached for breaking treaty, for entering pack lands unwarranted. A simple request and simple condition, in our wor

*Arealla*The world was jarring, after being in the Moon Sleep for so long. The Goddess had come to me again. This time, she had stayed so very long. She wouldn't say if I would survive or not, and I don't think it was because she hadn't known. I think it was because she had wanted to give me the chance to see for myself.But she had answered more than a few of my questions. Especially those about myself, and where I came from.I should have gone to the Moon that much sooner.But now she was gone, and I was staring up at the woman that was my mother.I pushed myself into a sitting position, with Marcus cautiously helping me. But I didn't need the help. I knew that I had been dying, that I had been weaker. But everything was different now. I could feel my mother's blood coursing through my veins. It was like liquid gold, healing and spinning everything into place.Once I was sitting, I regarded my mother. She looked so much like me. We had the same eyes, the same lips, the s

*Arealla*I turned to Marcus. I would give him the few minutes that he asked for, but there was nothing that he could say that would make me change my mind.These wolves had thrown me away. They had so many options, so many choices before them. And they had chosen to just give me away to a random human.They could have given me to Marcus' parents. They could have at least tried to get my wolf back. But they didn't. They wouldn't. They would rather have made their daughter an orphan, surrender her to the humans, than do anything that might seem like it was giving in to their enemy.Not even for their daughter's life.There was nothing that Marcus could say that would make me overlook that. I would move the earth for him. But I wouldn't go back to them. Not after the Moon Goddess had guided me to him, and brought me back to the Dark Moon despite all of Vanessa and Thibault's efforts to separate me from him and the pack.I would tell Marcus all of that, and I would say it befo

*Arealla*I stared at him as he spoke. I had never once seen his expression so open, it was like I was staring at his heart."I want nothing more than to just keep you here with me," Marcus said again. "I want to keep you safe so that nothing happens to you, so that you are never in need of any of them healing you. I want to give you everything that I have to offer. I want to keep you a part of this pack."Marcus spoke easily, and I could hear the truth of his words."But that would not make either of us happy," he said again, shaking his head. "We would come to regret what we had done. I am Alpha, and you are Luna. Our pack needs us. Both of our packs. They are fractured into two pieces, but they are one. And we have the chance now to fix it, to make it whole again. And if we turn away from this now, then we will blame ourselves and each other for the rest of our lives."I knew that he was speaking the truth, it was just that it was too hard to have to accept right now. Marc