Luna Cherry

22. bad with it

"I suppose you're here for a reason?" Darrel cackles tossing his head back against the wall.

Levi keeps himself contained monitoring the situation and me, my chest rising and falling in fear, "You've abused this woman for years."

"And? She's my wife."

Jackson lays a hand on Levi's back keeping him in place. I watch the Alpha's skin ripple, the wolf wanting to rise to the surface. For the first time since I've been kidnapped, Levi looks deadly.

"I'll rip your tongue out."

"And do what with it? Bury it in the soil you wolves piss on?" Darrel spits towards the cage doors. His eyes scream vengeance.

"You know of the wolves?" My voice is meek, barely a shadow of what it normally is. Levi turns his head towards me, a grimace in place. He doesn't wish me to speak, but right now, I need answers to questions I hadn't known to be asking.

Darrel rolls his head over to me, "Now's a good time to tell you I'm not an AC guy."

"Darrel?" I cover my mouth, tears brimming.

"Don't cry. You know how weak that makes you."

Levi takes a step towards me laying a hand on my lower back. I don't shy away from him letting my husband see the softness in Levi's touch, something he never offered me, "She's here to confirm your identity, nothing more mafia fucker."

I snap my head towards Levi, my heart skipping a beat, mafia? "What are you talking about?"

Darrel laughs loudly, his chuckles vibrating through the room in a horrendous mockery, "Didn't realize you were a mafia bitch? Hm?"

A mafia bitch. Me? The fucker sits against the wall, a bloodied crack lip smile sent my way. He runs his dry tongue over his breaks, not flinching as the known burn moves through him. These wolves have beat him black and blue, and yet he holds the sadistic look in his eyes peering over me as if I'm a meal, "What is he talking about?"

"These wolves are the bane of my existence. The heritance is based on code of the family, the blood code. As the leader of the local crew, my father won't give me the money he's stashed away or his title as King until his last dying breath. You, my airheaded wife, were the key to guaranteeing that. As long as I hold a wife, and only one, I am entitled to every last dime."

"Wh-why are you telling me this?" My voice croaks, all the answers I have ever wanted being given between us. The late nights, the scars, all the guns throughout the home. I wondered why such a simple job would need support, but his constant degrading kept me from prying too much.

"These wolves aren't going to let me live." He coughs, blood specks spattering over the concrete floor, "And you were really fucking boring. The only enjoyment I got out of our marriage was fucking you sleeping and beating you awake."

Jackson grabs me pulling me from the prison right as Levi shifts. I dig my face into the beta hiding from the vicious screams that snap through the room. A snarl is heard, and the unrecognizable screams of fear from Darrel resonate through me, all the way to my scarred bones. The only indication of his death was the heavy silence that laid over my goosebumps.

"Luna, the Alpha want's you." Jackson's voice is barely above a whisper, hands held barely against my skin. He seems to be comforting me in the best way he can, but with Levi as angry as he is it's probably best to keep himself from holding me too close.

"Please take me out of here." I wrap my hands through his shirt begging him to pull me from this space and for the first time ever, the wolf listens to me. Beta drags me from the room holding me tightly. I feel the elevation through and up the stairs, then warmth of the sun.

"Give me my mate, Beta."

"She doesn't want you, Alpha. She needs space."

"I didn't ask."

I fight against Jackson, but it means nothing as he hands me over. Levi wraps his electric arms around me pulling me into a large hug. He traps my head under his and wraps his finger through one another. My lungs halt, air leaving me. Being so close to a murder throws me off, sends me into a flight or fight, "I want to go home."

"You are home." He mumbles into my hair taking a deep breath of my scent. Jackson leaves us with a wave leaving me alone with the deadly Alpha.

"You killed those men."

"I've killed a lot of men."

"Take me away from here."

Levi doesn't fight me on that. His naked body shifts back into the wolf, the clothes from earlier shredded as soon as Darrel spit his last words. He lets me throw my legs over him and get comfortable before running through the woods, this time much less freeing. Once more this lost the magic, and now I am back to feeling like a prisoner. If only I could identify my glass wall, find some way to break it and be truly free.

My questions of how Darrel knew of the wolves, the mafia, his acts of murder, everything leaves me as I start to plot my escape. I've let myself get too comfortable the rose-colored glasses finally falling from my eyes. While Levi seems genuine, he could break my neck the moment I deny him farther than he's willing to tolerate.

The large house comes into view, Mary standing at the door with a stack of clothes hanging over my arm. I'm pretty sure I look like shit, the blood stained into my clothing from the first man to get killed, "Come on, hun. Let's get you cleaned up." She tosses the clothes to Levi's wolf right before dragging me off his back. I follow mindlessly letting her guide me as she sees fit.

This time, however, I find myself in a pastel blue room with white covers. Mary gives me a small smile leading me over to the bathroom. I take the sweats and t-shirt from her letting myself enjoy quiet of the marbled bathroom. The shower comes to temperature soon enough. I step in, my back enjoying the pressure. My eyes stay closed after a single glance of the red flowing down the drain. This isn't the time to study too much into it.

Mary is waiting for me outside the door. Her smaller figure takes up little space in the large room, red hair tied back into a long ponytail, "Thanks."

"Of course, Luna." She clears her throat, "I mean, Cherry. Sorry. The animal in me is worried for you."

Tears that should have fell sooner break over running quickly down my cheeks. I run myself into her arms wrapping tightly around her. Mary doesn't hesitate to run her hand through my hair, the other splaying over my back, "It's okay. It's okay."

"Mary." My voice cracks, heart breaking, "He just killed them."

"I know. It's okay."

"Fucking murdered them." I take in a breath to fuel the wails, "And their blood..."

"It's down the drain. You are clean of it."

"But am I?" I shove my nose into her chest, the snot running over her beautiful top, "Am I really clean of it?"

"You are. You didn't kill them."

"But the man who claims to care for me... Who wants me to choose him, he doesn't think twice about it?" She pats my head, "Who is to take the burden, if not him?"