Page 12 of Moon Bound

I stroke the leathery skin of a banana leaf hanging low, waiting to meet my daughter. To be blessed with another child, a female no less, is a miracle, but I know this won’t be the happy reunion I may have wished for. My world ended the night Orianna told me she was returning to the shifter pack to marry the Alpha. She told me to leave and never return, to allow her the chance at a happy life. And I did…until a raven brought me the news of Orianna’s passing. No, my world endedthatday, for she was no longer living her happily ever after somewhere with someone. It didn’t have to be me as long as it was everything she deserved.

Finding my inner strength, I follow the sound of multiple heartbeats and the winding footpath. But before I round the final corner, I still because sitting on a stone bench under huge umbrella-shaped leaves is a female, so like her mother, I could have fooled myself for a moment. Jaxon senses me before turning on his heel and dropping to kneel briefly. Torsten and Chase do the same, and I’m confident the raven on Aspen’s shoulder inclines its head. Aspen, herself ignores me. A lump rises in my throat, threatening to choke me from the inside. The males present quickly dismiss themselves, but their heartbeats don’t drift far enough to be out of earshot. Drawing closer, beneath the shadow of the leaves, I see Aspen’s hair is not pebble gray like Orianna’s but a stark white to her waist.

"Aspen," I start, but trail off because what else is there to say? Only when she peers up do I see my sole contribution to her existence. Midnight blue eyes that blaze a path of fire into my very soul. Multiple emotions shine from within, but anger is the most prominent. I can’t help but crack my first hint of a smile in years. With the clench of her jaw and the rigidness of her small frame, I’m taken back to a place I’d long since forgotten.

Orianna was the epitome of beauty, her petite frame exuding regal grace and formidable strength. Shifters and vampires had always been mortal enemies, but she defied every obstacle and introduced me to the true depths of passion. And then, just as suddenly, she shattered me—leaving behind no remnants of the vampire or king I had once been. For years, I attempted to gather the fragments of my soul and piece them back together, but they never quite fit as they used to. I will forever be broken, but for that brief, exhilarating moment in time, it was utterly worth it.

"I, um,” I clear my throat. “I apologize for any inconvenience that may have been caused to you during these past years, I was unaware of your-" Aspen snorts and rolls her eyes, which is a grave insult for a king, but I can forgive her insolence for a while. Taking a deep breath, I move forward and gesture to the empty space on the bench. She doesn't react, so I take a seat. The raven stays, and even without being told about his shape-shifting abilities, I can tell who and what he is. If Aspen has been assigned a guardian like her mother, it's clear that she holds significant importance in the supernatural world, just as I had suspected.

Exhaling, I knot my fingers together. There are no right words, nothing that’ll give us back the thirty-odd years I’ve missed. But the best I can give her now is the truth and hope it’s enough.

"She was really something, your mother. I want you to know that my involvement with her wasn't a power move, not on my behalf, at least. It isn't easy for me to admit out loud, but I would have offered your mother the moon if she'd let me retrieve it for her. Orianna made her choice, and I have respected that all these years. But if I'd known about you. If I’d know what you’d been subjected to…" I glance over in time to catch a glimpse just as a tear slides down Aspen's cheek before she turns away, and a pang of pain pierces through my fractured soul, yearning to soothe her anguish. My own flesh and blood, suffering from a life she never should have been forced to lead.

I attempt to clear my throat, “I truly hope Conall wasn't too harsh on either of you when he discovered the truth."

My throat tightens as I nearly choke on Conall's name, bile rising in my throat. My fingers twist and contort until the skin around my knuckles stretches paper thin and bulges with rage. Memories of our last fight haunt me like a ghost, vivid and pulsating with life. We went for each other’s throats, and Orianna acted as the rope that pulled us apart, her words a blade that splintered me from the inside out. I chose him, Lorcan. Leave us be. Blinded by heartache, I stumbled away, shattered into a million pieces — never to look back. But here I stand now, wishing I had fought harder to stay.

"Conall was the best father I could have ever hoped for,” Aspen’s voice is small, vulnerable. “He taught me to love and laugh, to hunt and fight. He would let me ride on his wolf’s back under every full moon since I was old enough to sit upright. We used to dance around the campfire and hike mountains to map the stars. He was my teacher and guide, and he loved my mother with a ferocity I've never seen in others." As she intended, a stab of anguish digs deeply into my heart, but I manage to refrain from letting it show. Just. Aspen twists to stare straight into my eyes, hers beginning to glow softly as her temper rises.

"And then it all ended because of you. My wolf was unleashed on my thirteen birthday, along with another beast I refuse to acknowledge. I drained and killed a quarter of the pack before realizing what I was doing. That night, I saw Conall's heartbreak and his love for me vanish instantly. Almost…almost as if I had imagined my entire life before that moment,” she laughs bitterly.

“Sometimes I wish it were a dream because then it wouldn’t have hurt as much as it did to see that light fade from the eyes of the man who I thought hung the very stars himself. But that night, I was banished to the exile hut, cut off from the others, and completely disowned. I was a scandal he couldn't stand the sight of.”

Another tear escapes her eye which she angrily swipes away with the back of her hand. Aspen takes a steadying breath, battling her instincts to lash out. Affection isn’t my natural state, yet I yearn to pull Aspen into my arms and protect her from the outside world, even if I’m inadvertently the cause of her suffering. However, my only crime was loving her mother deeply enough to respect her wishes. Does that make a fool or an asshole? I open my mouth the respond, but Aspen cuts me off, her voice spiked with venom.

“I realize that the blame doesn't rest solely with you, but my mother isn't here to defend herself anymore, so you'll receive every ounce of my hatred on her behalf." Her words cut me deeply, but it’s her expression which hurts the most—barely contained rage, fangs exposed with a growl emanating from deep within her chest. On a lasting snarl, she shoots away in a blur of speed, leaving me to deal with the information and heaviness she's imparted.

“Well…that could have gone better,” Chase comments, stepping into the moonlight. “Ow, the fuck?!” He hisses as Torsten yanks his head back by his hair, and Jaxon punches him in the jaw. I ignore them all, leaning forward to rest my bare forearms on my knees and choosing to stare at the ground beneath my polished black shoes. Thoughts whirl—emotions war. Many revolutions were just unknowingly spoken of.

Eight years ago, a raven transformed in my bedroom, her words carrying like sledgehammers as she spoke of Orianna’s sudden illness and the consequences. I heard of a child of both species but was oblivious to Conall’s misconception that Aspen was his real daughter. Never taught to accept her vampire side, and she now suffers from it.

What was Orianna thinking? That staying within her betrothed's realm would keep the peace between our species? That he'd be a better father than me? If only she had asked for help - I could have given them sanctuary and treated them like the royalty they were.

“We will get her back," Jaxon kneels before me, determination darkening his blue eyes. I can only nod, my throat too tight to speak, and press down on his shoulder in silent command, go after Aspen and take all these idiots with you.

More blurs race passed, leaving me alone with the gentle crashing from the waterfall. My brain works overtime as old wounds reopen and emotions barrel through me. Grief is the strongest, closely followed by confusion. A shuffle sounds at my side, and I glance across at the small raven, tilting his head towards me. Offering my hand, he hops onto my wrist, closely noting the torment tearing at my features.

“Swayer, isn’t it?” I ask, and he nods. “I met your mother briefly. She told me you would keep Aspen safe, and for that, I thank you. You are welcome at my castle, and none of the vampires will mean you any harm after I give the order. Please just…help her adjust,” I plead. An immortal king pleading to a damn bird. Yet this is my life now. Sweeping out my hand, Swayer spreads his wings to take flight, soaring from the greenhouse toward the hidden cabin—the same one I built to share my life with Orianna.

Chapter7

Aspen

Branches grab my hair, and shrubs latch onto my combat boots, but there’s no stopping. No holding back the blur of rage, flying through the forest like a bullet lost to the wind. Only when my feet hit the beach beyond the cabin do I falter and stumble to stop. The softness of sand gives way beneath my soles, and I crash to my knees, permitting the tears to finally fall.

I hate him. How accepting he was. How heapologizedfor the inconvenience that is my life. I’d wanted him to be an asshole, validating me for cursing him every day since I discovered who and what I was. But now…now I’m left with self-loathing for not reaching out to the vampires sooner. I let my pride and stubbornness in what my mother tried to build get in the way. In conclusion, I’ve only done myself a disservice.

You should have let me in,the internal voice mocks, and I slap myself around the face. I can’t handle any more anger as my eyes burst with gold, and my fangs extend painfully. I want to rip the nearest piece of flesh to shreds, devouring screams and feeding on agony. I would have done it to the king himself if his understanding hadn’t blindsided me.

“Conall, please let me see her!” my own scream reverberates around my head. Smoke invades my lungs from the huge fire in the center of camp, the sound of screams filling my ears. Separated or not, the pack loved the alpha’s mate. Her nurturing nature is evident in the crowd gathered around her cabin, chanting, and rocking for a miracle. Then there’s the firm shoulder, shoving me back a step.

“You need to go,” Conall’s psycho apprentice growls. Black of hair and soul, his wolf rolls just beneath the surface of two huge arms shoving me back a step. The rules of my banishment were absolute. My mother could visit me, ‘at her own risk,’ but I was never to enter the pack’s camp again.

Even still, knowing that I might not get another chance, I fight and refuse back down.

“Father, please!” I scream again, pushing back with all my might. Only then does the commanding male on a fallen log-carved bench stand. Thick fur capes hang from his shoulders, enhancing his huge size. Dark-cropped hair and blue eyes highlighted by the raging fire in the center of the camp. Turning slowly, an evil and loveless man stands mere feet away, but there might as well be miles between us.

This Conall isn’t the same shifter who raised me or the only father I had ever known. His cold eyes barely register me crying and pleading for his attention. If only I’d been the powerful wolf, he’d always dreamt I’d be. The fact that I am that and more doesn’t matter; I’m not his and he couldn’t stand the sight of me after my first shift into the monster that I am.

---