The Heartless Alpha’s Beloved Luna (Avery and Gideon) novel Chapter 28

Chapter 28

Avery’s POV

I awoke slowly, like swimming up through deep water.

There was a strange, metallic taste in my mouth, and my head pounded. I was laying on a hard surface. Dirt, perhaps?

My limbs felt far-away and heavy. They didn’t respond to my attempts to move.

All I could do was lay here.

Weariness overtook me and I dreamed.

In my dream, members of Nightwolf were surrounding me, supporting me. I saw a few faces I knew; Anna, and Melody, and Gideon’s family. They were smiling and clapping as though something good had happened. They embraced me with genuine affection. Anna handed me a small cake and said, “Welcome back!” while Melody excitedly hugged my arm…

I woke to the feeling of someone shaking my arm. At first, I thought it was Zara. She was always grabbing onto me and pushing me around. I shoved at her, trying to free myself, but my hands were gripped tight.

Slowly, my eyes adjusted to the darkness around me. There was a person leaning over me trying to pull me to my feet. I pulled my arm away and heard them curse as they lost their balance and tripped.

I didn’t recognize their voice.

One of the kidnappers? A rogue? My heart was racing a mile a minute. I felt like I couldn’t take a full breath.

I had to try to alert someone to where I was! I inhaled as much as I could and screamed.

Rough hands slapped over my mouth. My captor shoved me back down to subdue me, but my strength was coming back. I pushed and kicked back at them.

I felt my mark flare with heat on the side of my neck and strong, dominant energy emanated away from me. The shadowy figure dropped their eyes, disoriented, and threw themselves off of me. They darted away into the bushes.

So my mark was still protecting me! That was something at least.

Still, I had no idea where I was. The forest around me was pitch black.

I could hear rustling nearby and voices arguing, but couldn’t make out what they were saying.

My stomach rumbled. I hadn’t eaten since before leaving Nightwolf territory for the Alpha Ceremony in Silvermoon. Assuming I’d been out for several hours, it had been almost a full day since I’d eaten. I was so hungry.

Did my captors plan on keeping me and feeding me? Or were they planning on harming me? I needed to try and escape either

way.

My hands were tied together at the wrists. The rope binding them had been tied to a tree nearby.

Moving slowly, I crawled to the end of the rope, where it was knotted, and began trying to untie it. My hands were stiff and sore from the tight knots. It was hard to feel my fingers.

“Hey! What are you doing!” someone yelled at me.

“She’s trying to untie herself!”

“Damn this girl!” another voice cursed.

I heard footsteps running toward me in the darkness. Again, my mark flared, and they paused a short distance away.

“We can’t get close!” One of them yelled.

“Get the bugs.” A cold, commanding voice snapped. This one I hadn’t heard previously.

Bugs? What bugs?!

Whatever it was, I didn’t plan on waiting around to find out. I tried to work faster. If I could just get these knots undone, I could try to slip into the trees and disappear.

I was beginning to make progress loosening the knots when I heard a sinister clicking sound.

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