Second Chance for the Barren Luna (Talia and Jason) novel Chapter 322

Talia’s POV

During dinner, Nolan sat across from me, eating slowly and asking how my afternoon had been. I tried to come across casual, but inside I was a bundle of nerves. He reached over and touched my hand.

“I hope you haven’t forgotten about tonight, Talia. I have been thinking about it all day,” he said.

“Of course not, my love. I am well rested today,” I told him.

Nolan smirked, “Good. I am going to make sure it is a night you won’t forget.” If it had been the real Nolan, I would be quivering with desire. All I felt was disgust and dread for this imposter. I managed to force a seductive smile.

“Hurry and finish your soup so you can do your rounds. I want you back early. Don’t make me wait,” I said, letting my voice turn soft and inviting.

Nolan smirked. “I will be back early.”

I watched him finish his soup. When he was done, he stood up, kissed my forehead, and left for his rounds.

Once he was gone, I let my fake smile fade.

‘Disgusting,’ my wolf growled. ‘Get his scent off us!’

I wiped my forehead with a napkin, then left the dining hall and went back to my room. Annie was still asleep on the bed where I had left her.

Earlier, before dinner with the imposter, I had brought Annie the same soup. “I brought you some of the soup, sweetheart. Eat it before it gets cold,” I told her.

Annie, no longer worried that I might tell Nolan what she did, ate the soup. She was already falling asleep before she finished, and she knocked the bowl over when she tried to stand up.

“I’m so sorry, Luna,” she yawned.

“It’s okay. You’re tired. You should rest,” I said softly as I placed her on my bed and pulled a blanket over her. She was asleep within a minute.

Robin had given me a sleeping potion back at the cabin. He said he got it from the healer to help with his insomnia. He’d seen the healer use it on injured wolves, so he knew it was safe and very strong.

‘This could be a trap,’ my wolf warned while I was pouring it into Jason’s soup.

‘No. If Annie wasn’t involved, I would agree, but I trust Robin to choose carefully for Annie,’ I told her.

‘We should give him an overdose and be done with it,’ my wolf huffed.

“No. Not yet. I need Moonbrook’s help to make sure Jason pays. I won’t let him have an easy death,” I snapped.

I sat on the edge of the bed next to Annie. There was a bruise on her forearm, about the size of a golf ball. Seeing it made my heart hurt. How could Jason hurt a child?

‘We’ll get her out of here. He’ll never hurt her again,’ my wolf said.

Robin stepped into the hallway first, and I followed. He led me down a side hallway I had never used before, then into a narrower one, and finally through a door I thought was just a closet. It opened onto a stone staircase going down.

“What is this?” I asked.

“A secret escape tunnel that Jason had the rogues build. He uses it for moving supplies out without being seen from the grounds and for other things,” Robin replied.

The stairs went down for a long time, and our footsteps echoed off the stone walls. At the bottom, we stepped into an unfinished tunnel held up by old wooden beams. Some looked sturdy, but others leaned at odd angles. In some spots, I could see earth through the gaps. The tunnel felt unsafe, and I wanted to get out as soon as possible.

“What other things does Jason use the tunnel for?” I asked.

“Transporting captured wolves for the mad rogue experiments. He has been running tests on captured wolves down at the other end of the tunnel, but we’re not going there,” Robin answered.

I gritted my teeth. Jason was still carrying on his father’s experiments. My wolf huffed, ‘Like father, like son. It’ll do everyone a favor once he’s dead.’

We started down the tunnel.

“How far do we have to go?” I asked.

“There’s a hatch in the floor of an old barn just outside Moonbrook’s border,” Robin explained. “We’ll exit there.”

I nodded at his instructions, but we had barely taken a few steps when footsteps sounded behind us.