Dangerous Lycan: Claim Betrayed Luna’s Second Chance Mate

I turned sharply to face Kieran, the shock running through me as Kieran slammed the hardcover book down on the table. The ornately embossed seal of the Werewolf Council glinted in the dim light of his chambers.

I had moved indefinitely into his chambers after that night at the diner. There was no time we spent without our hands on each other unless at times like this.

“A meeting,” he growled, “They want a meeting.”

“After all this time?” I echoed, picking up the paper and skimming through it. “They haven’t exactly been sending out Christmas cards,” I rolled my eyes.

“It’s a trap,” Kieran said, his jaw clenched. “They wouldn’t suddenly be interested in peace talks unless they were planning something.”

His words echoed my fears. The timing was too convenient, too sudden after years of tension and preaching war to us. I had not left Kieran yet, nor had I suddenly my powers. And so why were they sending an invitation to Kieran for a meeting? Something smells fishy but either way, there was a war looming. The sound of war was terrifying, especially after what happened with the vampire kingdom. And what happened to me after that?

I would choose any other option than allowing anything of that sort to ever happen again.

“Maybe, but maybe not. Maybe they’re finally seeing reason.”

I thought about the positive side. Being optimistic was what kept me afloat.

Kieran snorted, “Reason? These Werewolves and reason don’t exactly go hand in hand, Clara.”

“Perhaps not,” I conceded. “But what if there’s a chance, even a slim one? We can’t just dismiss it out of hand.”

“Have you forgotten what happened?”

He had to remind me.

“How can I forget? I’m the target, remember? Let’s just see the possibility of what this meeting can bring up. You never know, this could bring the peace that we have always wanted.

He stared at me; his eyes boring into mine.

“Look,” I said, meeting his gaze. “We can take precautions. We would go there with a full guard, we choose the meeting place, and we don’t go unarmed.”

He sighed, “And what if that’s not enough? What if this is just a ploy to lure us into a vulnerable position?”

The fear in his voice mirrored my own. But the thought of countless lives being lost in a war that could be avoided spurred me on.

“Then we fight,” I said, my voice firmer than I felt. “But at least we’ll know we tried everything to avoid bloodshed.”

He moved away. I knew that he considered it. It was a good plan. Every plan that didn’t involve a war was a good plan for me.

I watched him.

Finally, with a deep breath, he spoke. “Alright,” he said, “We’ll go. But on my terms.”

“What terms?”

“On the terms that you would do exactly as I say at least for starters.”

I nodded; a smile tugged at the corners of my lips. “Agreed.”

Kieran took up a paper and settled in his study as he began to write a reply to the letter he had just received. I stood beside him watching as he wrote down every word. It was more like acknowledging the message that they had sent and agreeing to meet up. Since the message from the werewolf council didn’t state the meeting place, he asked them about it too. Hopefully, it would be at the werewolf council building, the same one that we had gone to the first time that we had been invited.

“The message is here,” Kieran said later that afternoon. I had curled up in bed all day hoping that the meeting was what they said it would be.

I left the bed as soon as Kieran settled in his study and joined him there

“What does it say?” I asked, standing beside him as he unfolded the paper.

“It’s at the Werewolf Council center.”

I heaved as I heard that. It was a good sign.

“That’s good.”

“Right?”

“Yeah, I mean if it’s at that center that means they just want to talk.”

“Alright then, we leave tomorrow,” he said.

I nodded.

On the day of the meeting, the sky was a steel gray. The uncertainty reeled in me but I needed to stand firm. Kieran would want that.

The abandoned highway was before us, a cracked asphalt lane swallowed by the forest. The wind howled, rattling the windows of the armored SUV as we approached the meeting point. It was unusually quiet, unlike the way that it used to be. Not that it was a path that I was familiar with but I knew in my gut that something was wrong. I knew it was a bad time to show any form of weakness as we were already halfway to where we were headed.

“Kieran,” I said, “are you sure about this?”

His jaw was clenched, his eyes narrowed as he focused on the road ahead. “I don’t trust them, Clara. Not one bit. This could be a trap.”

“Yeah, I don’t know how this might sound but I’m beginning to get that feeling as well, but we are here. Let’s just get it done.”

Kieran sighed, “Alright, but if anything feels off, we turn back.”

I nodded.

As we pulled into the shadow of the road, the SUV doors were yanked open before we could even react. A group of werewolves surrounded us.

I sat still behind Kieran as I watched them. From their stern stares and claws already out,? they didn’t look like they were there for a meeting.

“What’s going on here?” Kieran asked, “We are just here for the meeting. But this is not the meeting place that was stated in the letter,” he added.

I didn’t know how to tell him without the werewolves grabbing my words that this might have been a trap set up and we had just walked into it. Unarmed and unguarded.

“Kieran,” the leaders snared. He had a hulking figure with a fur coat the color of burnt umber. He held a curved blade in his hand, “We were expecting you.”Property of Nô)(velDr(a)ma.Org.

“Fuck,” I swallowed.

Every fiber of my being screamed that something was wrong, an uneasiness growing with each passing moment. My head throbbed and my heart pounded faster all at once.

“Yes, but this is a bit out of proportion don’t you think?” Kieran asked. He tried to hold his voice firmly but I still heard the quiver embedded in it.

“It’s quite a perfect spot for what is about to happen,” the werewolf said.

“Look, the Werewolf Council building where we had agreed to meet is just a few miles ahead. Why don’t we go there and have this meeting? just as we had earlier discussed?”

The werewolves stared at each other and roared in laughter at Kieran’s suggestion. Just then, I knew that we had been playing.

I grabbed Kieran’s hand, squeezing it firmly.

Suddenly, one of the werewolves, a young male with eyes burning with what I could tell as rage, threw a handful of strange, glowing flowers through the broken passenger window.

“What’s that?” I gasped but before I could realize it, the sweet scent of the strange flower filled the air which made my eyelid heavy and my eyes droopy. My vision suddenly turned blurry. I held my trembling hands out and a petal of the flower fell on it. I recognized those flowers Moon blooms. It was a rare breed of witches’ ivy trees. During one of the nights, I sneaked into my father’s study room to study the scrolls, I had come across a write-up on one of the scrolls about a certain breed of Moon Blooms, with its purple petals and sweet scent just like the one that I held in my hands. It was rumored to possess the ability to weaken magic.

Magic? That was mostly what I possessed. The powers from the moon were what made me.? My powers were my only defense, and the more I sat there and inhaled, the more I felt my powers sputtering, growing fainter within me.