Page 45 of Luna Ascending

This frail, horrendously thin woman is their mother... Angus' wife. She's fucking alive. After all this time... she's alive! Although, if Angus keeps squeezing her like that she might not be for much longer.

She's wearing another of those fucking collars Liz has on – a dull metal circlet, just big enough to fit around her neck and no more. The skin on her neck is rubbed raw and there are some nasty oozing sores down one side – she must have had that thing on for months, maybe years.

The bile in my throat threatens to choke me. I have to distract myself before my anger takes me and I turn on the guards we've taken captive. The fight is mostly over up the stairs now – those that remain alive from the Coven's side have been tied up, ready to be questioned.

I organise the hostages to be carried to the nearest road by groups of shifters. I can't help myself, my eye keeps falling back to the captive guards.

Those that surrendered are huddled together, mostly staring at the floor. They're refusing to look at the state of their hostages as we help them out into the daylight, squinting and flinching at everything.

One of the rescued shifters is so weak she stumbles into a hog-tied guard and he spits on her in disgust. The look of revulsion crossing his face causes my last nerve to snap. I grab him up and dangle him off the ground in front of my nose.

“What the fuck do you think you're doing?! Look.... look at what you've done, you disgusting piece of shit. Look at the state of these people, and the old witch? She's nearly dead. And all you can do is spit on them? Don't expect my mercy.”

The guard flails helplessly in the air clearly terrified, and a small glow of satisfaction rushes through me.

“I should kill you all now” I growl, my hand closing tighter on the bastard's windpipe.

I watch, almost detached, as the guard's face starts to turn red and he flails ever more wildly. His breath comes out in hisses as he fights for air. I just hold him, feeling a baleful satisfaction as the man stills and his eyes start to roll.

“Put him down!” Freya's voice at my elbow breaks through “Put him down right now! DOWN. NOW. This is not right Aaron!”

I glare at her and drop the man, who lands with a sickening crack on the floor. I make sure my boot makes rough contact with his windpipe again, and I threaten to press harder as he gasps for breath.

“Why should I stop?” I address the guard “you're a mercenary... you kill for money, right?”

The guard looks terrified but daren't move. Instead he glances wildly around for an escape, for an answer.

“Let me live, I'll tell you who your traitor is” he rasps out.

My rage dies instantly, replaced by a cool steely calm as I turn, following the man's quivering gaze to stare at my father's kappa. Fucking Rennard.

I suddenly remember the patrol guard calling him by his name, I'd been so full of adrenaline it hadn't registered. They shouldn't ever have met before tonight. I huge growl erupts from me, echoed by all the shifters around me.

Rennard is already in his wolf form and is running.

By the time the pack gives up chasing Rennard it's a long haul back to the bothy. It's nearly dawn when we finally load up the rescued shifters, our new hostages and Morganna and get back to the estate.

I knew I hated that man, I could just never put a finger on what it was about him – fucking traitor! I'm beyond furious he managed to escape. If I ever meet him again, I swear on the goddess I will kill him, excruciatingly slowly.

Something integral in my father has shifted; he's a broken man. Finding his beta's wife alive, when he'd persuaded Angus to give up on her, and learning of Rennard's betrayal has defeated him. He's deflated, he seems half the size of man he was.

For the first time, I step up into the role of Alpha, and it feels dangerously good. I have to stay grounded – I was way too close to loosing it with those guards. Killing hog-tied captives isn't exactly something a leader should do. Not the kind of leader I want to be at any roads. I have to keep a lid on my temper. Though Goddess knows it would have felt good to destroy them. A little thrill of animalistic hate reverberates through me at the thought.

I order my sister and Lyell be tracked down. They're taking far too long to resurface after our rescue mission. The way I caught Lyell staring at my baby sister has me worried. I might not exactly be against inter-species relations but this is my sister, and I know Lyell's history.

After congratulating them on their team work I send Aurora sulking back to her rooms, rolling her eyes like the teenager she is. I can't afford Lyell to be distracted by her – he has work to do. And she can't afford to fall for him. Not Lyell, please... I throw a half desperate plea to the Goddess.

The metal collars on Liz and Morganna prevent them accessing their powers. For Liz the collar is stopping her shifting, and for Morganna it's blocking her from her majik's force.

Liz couldn't change from her cougar back to human form when she was first captured, until a guard unlocked the collar with an electronic fob and forced her to shift back before locking it again. She's had the fucking thing on ever since, and who knows how long Morganna's been wearing hers. She won't talk.

It's imperative Lyell replicates the device's signal. Liz seems to be recovering but Morganna is fading. She's been locked off from her powers for so long, she's lost her sense of self. She just stares blankly ahead, not responding to anything, not even acknowledging Angus's existence. The old beta is inconsolable – he has his love back, and yet he doesn't.

I just hope Freya's right and that when Morganna gets the collar off she'll come back to herself. I'm worried though. Whenever I look at Morganna there's a weird twisting feeling in my gut; there's something not right with her.

Angus won't stop fussing around her- cleaning, bathing, dressing and feeding her like he's more suited to being a mother hen than a bloody wolf.

Tavey is acting beta beside me – there's no point in trying to force Angus to his job, his mind is completely focused on Morganna. Anyway, I'd rather have Tavey working beside me, even without Angus' distraction. Tavey is my beta, we work as a team.

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