Chapter 13

The next few days Sebastian and Skye spent bonding with one other. About a week into this, they get into their first argument. “Skylar,” Sebastian says, sounding irritated, “Why won’t you call me by my name?”

“B…because your m…my a…alpha n…now,” she whispers softly.

“You are my mate, and my future luna, you need to address me by my name.”

“L…Luna?”

“Yes, luna.”

“I c…can’t b…be a l…luna!”

“Why not?”

“I c…can’t b…be!”

“Skylar, why not?”

She whimpers softly at his harsh tone. “I’m n…not….” She looks away from him. “I’m n…not…”

“Skylar!”

“I’m not good enough!”

“Yes, you are!”

“No, I’m not! I…I’m a hybrid! I have t…two c…children already! I…I’m p…pregnant! Y…you’re p…pack w…won’t a…accept me!”

“They will!”

“N…no, no!” She shakes her head and backs away from him. He reaches over and grabs her, preventing her from running away.

“I told you not to run away when we’re talking about something important!”

“Let go of me!” She pulls away from him. “Let go!” Eventually, she pushes him, causing him to stumble backwards. She takes this as an opportunity to run out of the house and into the forest again.

“Dammit, Skylar!”

Skye

Skye runs for a long time before finally stopping, collapsing onto the ground due to exhaustion. Unbeknownst to her, she’s entered Alpha Nathan’s territory again. The border patrol guards find her unconscious and bring her back to the small room, where she’d been held before she had escaped.

When she wakes up again, she quickly notices that she’s in a small room. Her eyes widen in fear as she realizes where she is. The door bangs open and in comes Alpha Nathan. “You stupid bitch!” he yells at her, “You really thought that you’d escape from me?”She begins to shake uncontrollably from fear. A few of Alpha Nathan’s men come into the room and forcefully remove her shirt. “Hold her still! This is your punishment for running away!” He brings a metal whip down on her back. A few lashes into the punishment, blood begins to seep out of her wounds on her back.

After what seems to be forever, the whipping finally stops and Alpha Nathan and his men leave the room. Skye collapses onto the ground and loses consciousness again.

Sebastian

Sebastian storms upstairs after Skye has run away. Alice quickly follows him. “Alpha?” she asks, “Aren’t you going to go after her?”

“No!” he answers, “If she wants she can come back by herself!”

The next couple days, he goes around angry at everyone and everything. The longer Skye is out of his life the angrier he gets at her. Eventually, after a month has passed and Skye has still not returned his mother urges him to look for her. “Sebastian,” she pleads with him, “please start looking for her!’

“Why should I?” he answers, angrily, “She’s the one who ran away! After everything I did to try and make our bond stronger, she ran away!”

“Sebastian, I’m worried something might have happened to her.”

“Yeah, it would be her fault! She chose to run away from the life I gave her! If her life is difficult right now, it’s on her!”

Charlotte sighs and leaves her son to simmer on his own. She mindlinks a few of the warriors and asks them to patrol the border to look for Skye. She paces around as she waits for news from the warriors. Soon enough one of the warriors mindlinks her and tells her that they hadn’t seen any sign of Skye.

She sighs again and leaves the house, venturing out to where the vampire’s territory starts. She stops at the borderline and waits for one of the vampire guards to notice her. When one of them asks, “What do you want?”

“Do you have anyone in captivity right now? I’m looking for someone.”

“What do they look like?”

“Well, she has fair skin, long, black hair, and heterochromia .”

“Afraid we haven’t seen anyone matching that description.”

“Alright, thank you. Please try and contact me if you do.” She walks back to Sebastian’s house. “Sebastian?” she calls out upon entering the house. She’s met with silence. She begins to pace about the house, becoming more and more anxious about Skye’s disappearance.

Skye

Skye isn’t sure how long she’d been at The Nightingale Pack. She hasn’t eaten for several days now, nor has she slept well. “P…please,” she whispers, “S…Sebby, p…please h…help…”

After a particularly harsh beating, she manages to summon her phoenix, Ash. She manages to write a short message uses her blood, then she uses magic to strip the message off the floor and towards Ash. “P…please, g…give t…to S…Sebby.” Ash takes off through a window and Skye passes out again.

Sebastian

Sebastian is at the gym, blowing off some steam when suddenly something bursts through the window, sending shattered glass flying everywhere. He looks at what shattered the window and sees that it’s a phoenix. The phoenix coos softly before releasing a message written in what appears to be blood.

Sebby,

Please help. Alpha Nathan found me. I’m sorry.

Skye

He pales and runs out of the gym and back to his house. “Mom!” he blurts out, when he enters his house, “Mom, are you here?”

“Sebastian,” his mother scolds him, “why are you yelling?”

“Mom! Skye’s in trouble! Alpha Nathan’s got her!”

“What? Sebastian, how do you know this?”

“She sent a message, using one of her familiars! Mom, we have to go and get her out of there!”

“We can’t just rush into the place! We’ll all get killed that way!”

“But Skye…”

“I know, if we all get killed before we reach her we won’t be able to help her!”

He grunts and follows his mother to the training grounds, where she announces, “Warriors! We are going to war with The Nightingale Pack! We must prepare accordingly!” An outbreak of cheers follows her announcement.

The next few days are spent plotting on the best way to attack, kill, and dominate their enemy. Eventually, when their plan is fully plotted out, they set out towards The Nightingale Pack.

Skye

When Skye wakes up again, there’s a loud commotion outside of her small room. She’s too ill to care what’s happening. Several hours pass before there’s cheers, followed by a sober silence.

“Skye! Skylar!”

She suddenly hears someone calling her name. “Mate,” Winter whispers, “mate came.”

She opens her mouth and tries to call out to him. “S…Sebby,” she whimpers so softly no one can hear her, “S…Sebby, help.”

There’s a rustling from outside her room, and then the doorknob jiggles. “Skylar?” Sebastian’s voice comes through the door, “Are you in there?”

“S…Sebby….S…Sebby….”

There’s a loud noise and Sebestian bursts through the door. “Skylar!” He kneels down beside her. “Oh, Skylar, I’m so sorry! I should’ve looked for you sooner!”

“S…S…Sebby,” she whimpers before passing out.