His Rogue Luna novel Chapter 82

I smiled to myself.

This pack had come so far thanks to my lovely mate.

Feeling eyes on me, I turned and saw a young vampire boy staring at me, quickly looking away as he was caught.

He took a few steps towards me, as if walking over to me but then stopped and turned around. Clearly he wanted to say something, but seemed too shy to do so.

I walked over to him myself, curious as to what he wanted.

"Everything okay?"

He jumped at the sound of my voice, finally tuning back around. He was quite scrawny, clearly still young. He couldn't be older than seventeen.

"Yes Sir, everything's fine," He stuttered, clearing his throat awkwardly.

"Really? You don't look okay," I pointed out.

"It's nothing really," He said, looking away. I raised my brow, not sure if I should drop it or not. "You just look like someone I know. Do you have a brother, maybe a cousin?" He asked.

I wasn't expecting that question.

"No, I don't have a brother. I'm not sure if I have any cousins outside of this pack either," I answered honestly.

"Never mind. It wouldn't have made sense anyways since they're a vampire," He dismissed, shaking his head to himself. Before I could say anything, he scurried off.

"Keiran!" I heard my dad call out to me. "Come look at the spells the witches have done," He waved me over.

I quickly forgot about the young vampire and jogged over to my dad, once again pleasantly distracted from the absence of my mate.

Artemis' POV

Going to the pack lands of my deceased family was quite an experience. The whole journey there was solemn, my uncle just as lost in thought as I was. It was also eerily quiet, which only made us all more tense and alert.

While I couldn't hear any minds or sense anyone nearby, I felt something was off and couldn't ignore my gut feeling.

I was soon distracted from my nagging thoughts by a sudden shift in the atmosphere. I startled, looking around and wondering what had suddenly changed until I realised: we were on the pack lands.

The air was thick and heavy, still filled with the anguish of that treacherous day. What should have been warm and fertile land was dry and barren, forever poisoned by the blood of the innocent.

I looked to my uncle, feeling his emotional turmoil grow the more we walked into the lands.

The land looked completely empty, with sparse trees. The wind rustling leaves was the only sound asides from our footsteps. My skin was crawling with unease as I felt we were being watched, but I couldn't catch a single scent or mental signature.

I wasn't sure where to start looking, since there didn't seem to be any obvious signs or clues so far, so I stuck to silently following my uncle. His face was impassive, his eyes distant as he walked purposefully in one direction.

The guards flanked us, not lingering too far from us. I could tell they were all as uneasy as I was, from the way their fur bristled and their ears remained perked, noses in the air.

As we continued walking, I count help but find it strange how I hadn't ever stumbled across this one before, even by mistake.

As a nomad, I had frequented the southern parts of America, and the new Silverclaw Guardians' pack lands was not too far off from here. This land was currently no man's land, and if the pack ever did expand, they would surely reach this old territory soon enough.

My uncle suddenly stopping had me halting too.

He shifted, slipping on the clothes in the bag he carried. I did the same and we soon continued walking in our human forms.

The guards remained shifted.

"Come," He said, and he continued walking, with me silently following. We seemed to walk for a while and I grew more uneasy by the minute.

I was also suddenly cold, despite the fact that we were on dry arid land, in an almost desert area.

The sky was growing dark with thick grey clouds looming over us threateningly, mimicking the uncomfortable churning in my gut.

"This is where it happened," My uncle spoke up, stopping at a large clearing.

Like the rest of the land, the earth was dry and cracked, with nothing but stray weeds growing. There were random pieces of rock and wood scattered haphazardly around the place.

It took me a second to see it.

This was exactly the place I saw in my visions.

The place my uncle so clearly explained to be where it happened.

The place where my parents were murdered. The place where a lot of the pack members were lynched, their homes burnt into ash and rubble.

The place where McConor told my parents he'd find and murder me.

The place where my mother made that promise, the one I was so desperate to fulfil.

"I wish I hadn't run," My uncle whispered, tears running down his distant eyes. I wrapped my arm around his waist, comforting him as he mourned.

"I wish I had stayed with everyone and fought, not run like a coward," He said bitterly.

"If you hadn't run, I would have never met you Uncle," I said, turning to him. "I wouldn't have learned about the Gifted, I wouldn't have ever known anything about my parents. I might not have even ended up as a spirit wolf either,"