Chapter Five

The sounds of screams and the smell of fresh blood welcomed Robert into his abode. The side of his mouth turned up into a snarling grin. This meant that someone was being tortured, and he hoped like hell that whoever it was doing the torturing was able to get some information. He was becoming desperate for any clue as to where the shifters stayed.

The corpse he had dropped off earlier that evening for the alpha wolf to find had belonged to one of Boston’s finest, a policeman. Unfortunately he could only give him information he already had which was the name of the alpha �" Keiran Marrok. They had continued to torture him till they turned blue in the face, but in the end, they realized they had gotten everything they could out of him. This led him to believe one thing: the people at the PD obviously didn’t know anything about what Keiran was and what he was the leader of. If only they knew…

If he could just find where they lived, then he could take them all. It would be so easy. His men could block the exits as he snuck in. He’d pop off a couple rounds into the alpha and the beta each as well as that little blonde he’d seen with them. As for the other two…

Robert closed his eyes. He couldn’t…no, he wouldn’t think of the other two as his children anymore. The twins were dead, killed by the monsters they had become and he would avenge their deaths as well as his wife’s. In his mind, there was only one way to do that �" kill every single wolf shifter that ever walked on the face of this planet.

Simple enough…or so it had seemed. Those damn shifters were craftier than he’d originally assumed. They could hide so easily. But he wouldn’t give up.

Walking down the main hallway from the front door, he had the man that was with him �" he couldn’t even remember his name…Dave, something like that - pull open the heavy metal door that separated the main part of the house from the torture rooms.

He took pride in the rooms; hell, he had designed them himself. Each one had a different theme of tools. They ranged from sharp knives to whips; at least those were the more common ones. There was one room that was filled with torture items that he’d made himself, and it was those that he thoroughly enjoyed.

Stepping through the door, he looked back at Don…whatever the hell his name was. “Go back and close the door behind you. Do not let anyone in or out, unless it is me. Do you understand?”

“Yes, sir.”

Giving a sharp nod of his head, he turned and waited for the click to signify that the door had been locked. When it was, he folded his hands behind his back and meandered his way down the long hallway.

The men had nicknamed it ‘the Green Mile’, off of the movie, but he didn’t take part in that nonsense. This wasn’t a joke to him, nor would it ever be.

Another of his men walked out of one of the torture rooms, covered in blood. He nodded his head to have him follow him and looked into every holding cell that he passed, looking for his next victim. He had all sorts of shifters in his hold; males, females, and children alike. Most of them scattered to the back wall in fear when he passed, but there was one, a male, that stood straight and tall, despite the whip marks across his body.

As Robert turned to face the front of the holding cell, the male grabbed the cell bars and spat in his face. It only made him grin. “This one…”

His man opened the cell and wrestled the male into a choke hold to usher him into the farthest torture room, Robert’s favorite one with all of his own tools. He followed close behind and wiped his face as he spoke. “We’re going to break you; that you can be sure of.”

~

The early morning sun shone through the small crack between the window curtains. The sunlight just happened to shine right on Luna’s face, stirring her from the deepest sleep she’d had in months.

She hadn’t had any nightmares about her weeks in Robert’s torture rooms and holding cells. It didn’t even keep her up to all hours of the night, and she had to wonder if there was something wrong with her. Maybe she was just still in shock and the pain of remembering everything was soon to come.

She took comfort in the feel of the warm sun on her face and snuggled deeper into her blankets, but the sunlight quickly became annoying and she knew she wouldn’t be able to stay in bed any longer to sleep.

She slipped out of the covers and put her head outside her bedroom door, listening intently. All of the other rooms were closed save for one other. It was Raul’s room and when she saw the kitchen light come on at the other end of the house and heard someone digging through the fridge, she knew he was the one in there.

Wrapping a small blanket around her shoulders, she tip-toed down the hallway as quietly as possible and moved into the kitchen. Sneaking up behind him as he looked in the fridge, she tapped his shoulder only to make him bang his head on the door and scream out in fear.

“S**t!”

She quickly put a finger up to her lips to tell him to be quiet, but there was an unmistakable giggle passing her lips. “Shhh…”

“Bloody hell, Luna, you scared me.”

She furrowed her brows and reached up to smack him on the back of his head, completely forgetting that he had just hit it on the top of the fridge. “What did I tell you about your language?”

Even though he was rubbing his head to alleviate the pain he was feeling, he let out a chuckle. “You’re still on me about the language? Rafe cusses, you know.”

He had her there. “Yeah, I know, but still…”

"I’ll try my best, dear mother.”

“Hey, don’t be smart with me, young man.”

A second passed and they both started laughing. Realizing they were too loud, she shushed him again and covered her own mouth.

Raul lowered his voice and opened the fridge again and pointed inside. “You want something to eat?”

"Yeah…I’m actually starving,” she placed a hand over her belly which began growling right on cue.

With another chuckle, Raul gathered everything to make them both a sandwich and she hopped up to sit on the counter and watch him, her legs swinging slightly. As he worked, she tilted her head as if she was studying him. In some ways, she thought of Raul as another brother, but mostly as a son…

His parents had abandoned him a few years after he was born, and she had been the one to find him. So in a way, he was her son.

“So,” she mumbled as she twirled her thumbs. “Is there something you want to talk to me about?”

He hesitated for a moment, but kept cutting the tomato. “What makes you think that?”

“Oh, come on, I saw the look you were giving Maddie.”

Just at her name, Raul’s face lit up in a way she had never seen before. He put down the knife but kept his face down; she could have sworn she watched his face turn red.

“I’ve never felt…so sure about anything in my life, Luna. I know that she and I are both young, but I can just feel it. It’s not just me either; it’s my wolf, too. He calls to hers, and now that the full moon is getting near, he’s growing desperate to get out and…”

If his face wasn’t red before, it definitely was now.

“Mark her?” She asked with a smile and the smallest hint of a tease.

“Stop,” he rolled his eyes but after a moment, he nodded his head. “I know that we have to ask before we do anything to make it official, but Rafe said to let you rest.”

“You don’t even have to ask me, Raul. Really, that rule for packs just means that you need to let the alpha know, you know? But to keep to traditions…I, of course, give you full permission. You and Maddie are just absolutely perfect together… So when’s the wedding?!”

His eyes went wide as his head lifted quickly. “Luna! That’s like…not going to happen for a while.”

She couldn’t help but lean against him as she laughed loudly. “I know, I know… I was just kidding.”

He shook his head and handed her one of the sandwiches. “You’re terrible.” Turning around, he leaned back against the counter. “But I love you.”

She took a large bite of her sandwich and ruffled his hair, making him groan. “Love you too, Raul.”