THE LUNA WHO CONQUERED DEATH novel Chapter 13

Episode 10-1

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THE LUNA WHO CONQUERED DEATH

Chapter 10: Marcus’s Brother

I woke at 4:00 AM to my phone ringing.

Marcus’s name flashed on the screen. He never called this early unless something was wrong.

“Marcus?”

+25 Points

“It’s David.” His voice was tight with panic. “My brother. He went out drinking with friends last night and… Sera, he crashed his car. He’s at Mercy General. They’re saying he might not make it.”

My blood ran cold.

David Reed. Marcus’s younger brother. In my past life, this had happened tomorrow night. He’d spent a week in the hospital with a broken leg and concussion, but he’d survived.

The timeline was shifting again.

“I’m coming with you,” I said, already out of bed.

“You don’t have to-

“I’m coming. Give me five minutes.”

I dressed quickly in jeans and a sweater, scribbled a note for Damien saying there was a pack emergency, and met Marcus in the driveway. His face was gray in the pre–dawn darkness.

“Thank you,” he said as I slid into the passenger seat,

“How bad is it?”

“Internal bleeding. Possible spinal damage.” His hands gripped the steering wheel so hard his knuckles

were white. “The doctor said the next few hours are critical.”

We drove in tense silence, Marcus pushing the SUV faster than was safe. I wanted to tell him it would be

okay, that David would survive, that I’d seen this future and he made it through.

But I didn’t know if that was still true. The timeline was changing. Events were shifting. Maybe this version

of David’s accident was worse.

Maybe this was one of those fixed points the Moon Goddess had warned me about.

Some deaths are fixed points, Sera. You can delay them, but you cannot prevent them.

No. I refused to accept that.

We reached the hospital just as the sky was beginning to lighten. Marcus practically ran to the emergency room, and I followed, my Luna authority getting us past the human nurses who tried to stop us.

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+25 Points

David was in surgery. His friends sat in the waiting room, three young wolves who reeked of alcohol and guilt.

“Beta Reed,” one of them stammered when Marcus appeared. “We’re so sorry. We tried to stop him from driving, but he insisted he was fine.”

“Where were you?” Marcus’s voice was dangerously quiet. “When he got in that car, where the hell were you?”

“Marcus.” I touched his arm. “They’re kids. They made a mistake.”

“A mistake that might kill my brother.”

The waiting room went silent. The three young wolves looked terrified, and I couldn’t blame them. Marcus was typically calm, controlled. Seeing him this close to losing it was frightening.

“Go home,” I told the three of them. “You’re drunk, you’re scared, and you’re not helping. We’ll call if there’s news.”

They fled gratefully.

Marcus sank into a chair, his head in his hands. “I should have been there. I should have stopped him.”

“You couldn’t have known.”

“I knew he was going out drinking. I knew he was going through a rough patch.” He looked up at me with anguished eyes. “I’ve been so focused on pack politics and Damien’s mess and… and you. I stopped paying attention to my own family.”

The guilt in his voice was a mirror of my own feelings. How many pack members had I let suffer in my past life because I was too busy playing perfect Luna? How many problems had I ignored because they weren’t my immediate concern?

“He’s going to survive this,” I said with more confidence than I felt.

“You don’t know that.”

“I do.” I sat beside him. “David is strong. Stubborn. He gets that from his brother,”

Marcus managed a weak smile. “He’d be furious if he heard you call me stubborn.”

“The truth often makes people furious.”

୮

We sat together as the sun came up, waiting for news that felt like it would never come. Other pack

members began arriving as word spread: Lucas, some of the warriors David trained with, even a few of the

younger wolves who considered him a friend.

Damien called twice. I let it go to voicemail both times.

Finally, after what felt like days but was only three hours, a doctor emerged.

+25 Points

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