Chapter 222 – The Luna Trials Novel by Marissa Gilbert

Filed To Story: The Perfect Luna by Marissa Gilbert

Her wounds made her hiss from the pain, but she already knew there was nothing lethal. She would heal if no new battles occurred now.

That strange feeling overwhelmed her again, and she tried to stand up, looking around, but only dead bears were scattered around her. She took a few steps with her bare feet, trying to adjust the red rags on her, when she saw some movement in the snowy mist.

At first, it looked like a giant wolf. Bigger than any other she had seen.

The mist got thicker, and when it dissipated slowly, she saw a shadow of a n@ked man walking towards her.

She froze, unable to move. Unable to breathe..

Tears were burning her eyes, and she wanted to say something, but only a weak, broken noise left her ch3st.

It wasn’t even a whimper.

Their eyes locked, and so did their souls. A forever unbreakable bond that no one ever Would be able to erase. Two halves of the same whole united at last.

Savvy placed her hand on her ch3st, trying to steady her heart, which was racing so fast she was afraid it would fail her.

All the pain she had felt for the past few days found a way out now in one despairing painful sob.

“Mate,” she whispered with her trembling l!ps. The word that she hated. The word that only brought her pain and suffering .

She was afraid that it was a dream, a cruel hallucination, and none of this was real.

“Mate,” Kai replied while a single tear fell on the ground from his chin, shattering the world and everything they had known..

Kai had never been a patient person, and it was t*ortur*e of a new kind to stay behind and wait. It did not bother him that he could not shift back to his human form anymore. He wasn’t picky and was ready to spend his whole new life as a wolf as long as he could rescue Savannah. She was his priority and the one and only thing on his mind from the moment he woke up. When Fenrir asked for his firstborn, Kai didn’t even hesitate.

Why would he? A child was in a distant future he could never have in the first place without the rebirth, and in all honesty, he could have tricked the God later. There were many legends about similar occurrences. Either way, it was a problem for later. But Savvy… Savvy needed his help now.

Of course, he wanted to save his kingdom too. He was brought up and trained to exist with the weight of responsibility for the North. However, now he knew that if he was ever f0rced to make a choice, he would have to spend eternity begging Fenrir’s and his people’s forgiveness because he knew whom he would choose. It was not right, it was selfish and not worthy of a king, but Kai knew now that Savvy came first. She was his everything, and somehow, after he was reborn, all those feelings only intensified.

The memories of Savannah’s scared face were flashing before his eyes. Memories from when life was slipping away from him. He understood what was happening before she did, and when she realised he was dying, it scared her beyond belief. That girl had no problem facing multiple enemies, walking into deadly traps, being betrayed and stabbed in the back, but losing him brought horror to her face and grief into her soul.

Primal boundless fear gripped her and Kai. Kai was horrified, too. Knowing that he was abandoning her, knowing that the enemy would come for her when she would be at her weakest..

The Lycan King of the North had already felt weak once. Right after his parents d*ied. After just one day, he had to start taking care of his kingdom and his depressed little sister. Every time Elene sobbed in his arms, every time his then-advisors looked at him as if he was just a little boy with a sparkling crown, he felt like that. Useless, weak, pathetic.. an impostor.

Contrary to everyone’s beliefs, his life was never easy. Although his childhood was happy until he lost his parents, even when they were alive, he had to work hard for everything. His father didn’t accept any excuses and he had high expectations of his heir. Kai didn’t get to play with other kids much, he had more important things to do. Maybe it was the reason that he had trouble making friends in the first place. He had next to no experience with relating to people. He was introduced to Aspen because their fathers were friends, but it took them years to get close. Lachlan was an exception – the two of them hit it off immediately. Although Kai was always surrounded by people, Lachlan and later Aspen were the only two he could call friends. They stood by him when he became the King, and he knew he could always count on them. It was important because he was also aware he couldn’t count on anyone else. Everyone wanted a piece of him, but mostly, they wanted him gone. The Northerners were fiercely loyal to their King, but, just as with their Lunas, they had to accept him as their King first. So, Kai earned their respect. He had to become stronger, sterner, and more ruthless.

For a brief moment, he thought that he and Gideon could be friendly, but they were too much alike. Kai knew he had to be the best for everyone to fear him and stay away from the North. Gideon had similar ideas about the West. They were unlucky to end up at the same Alpha training facility at the same time because they immediately clashed. It still could have been a healthy compet*ition. They tried to keep it up for a while, but once Kai heard Gideon talking about his sister in a less-than-complimentary way, all hell broke loose. Kai went on the defence, and there was that knowledge etched in his mind that the best defence was a good offence.

Playing the role of the perfect king was hard for him because perfect was one thing that he wasn’t. This was why he loved his “gardener and the little maid” game with Savannah so much. He loved her gaze flickering when she looked at him and, at the same time, having no idea who he really was.

She came into his life unexpectedly and turned everything upside down, bringing chaos into it, but also.. she brought him peace. Kai didn’t even notice how his life became all about he.

And now he had quite a few things to worry about.

Kai had made an impossible deal. Maybe she would never forgive him when she found out, but as long as she would be there to find out, he’d take it. He would find a way around this. He would do everything he could to make her happy and not give away their first-born baby, but his main priority would always be Savannah’s safety.

If he had to d*ie again today to achieve this – so be it.

It was strange to be in this new form. Fenrir called him Amarok, and he remembered old northern legends about giant lonely wolves who destroyed everything in their path. This wasn’t what he wanted to be, but again, he was ready to accept it if it meant he would have enough power to defeat his enemies. He was supposed to be dead anyway, but since he was given a second chance, he wasn’t going to waste it.

His whole body was new, and it took some getting used to it because of how giant it was. It didn’t feel the same as being in his royal lycan form. He wasn’t simply larger now, but in a way, he became stronger and more powerful. He couldn’t find it in himself to shift back into a human, but at the same time, he had no trouble making everything around him freeze. He could create ice with his will, and he could shape whatever he wanted out of it.

The first thing that he tried when he realised that was, of course, Savannah’s sculpture. He sat in front of it now, waiting for the news from Ash, keeping it away from melting. He had made her almost identical to the real version, and just looking at her was helping him to stay focused and maintain his sanity. She was his anchor to this world, and having her close, even if it wasn’t the real Savvy, was helping him to keep himself from going feral and charging at that damn castle.

Riannon was the one who talked him out of it.

Surprisingly, Gideon’s mate was his voice of reason now.

When she was contacting him through her wolf Onyx, he could feel their emotions and knew that they were genuine. That made him listen.

Time after time, the Luna and the Queen of the Western Lycan Kingdom told him to believe in Savannah, promising that the Princess would be able to take care of herself. He really wanted to just go to Bjorn’s castle, K*ll everyone, and get Savvy back. But they all knew that it wouldn’t be that simple. Too many things weren’t adding up, and traitors were everywhere.

He was greedily watching the news, promising himself to K*ll both Chloe and Claude when he would get the chance. He couldn’t believe how easily they switched sides. However, thanks to them, he was getting bits and pieces of information about Savannah. Lachlan did not want to show him the whole video of how she was brought to the white bear’s castle, but after his menacing growl, his Beta gave up and let it play. Seeing her on his enemy’s back brought him back into despair.

For once, he and Gideon were on the same page, and both wanted to go to the White Bear Cliffs immediately, but this time Kyle was the one who stopped them.

“You need to see this!” He stood before the two of them with his laptop, opening a page of his TruthTeller website.

“This is really not the time!” Gideon growled and Kai snarled in agreement.

“Just wait!” The young man insisted, and then Evelyn and Riannon stood up for him, insisting that he had a point. “I’m receiving anonymous videos from how everything really went,” he told them. “Bjorn probably has enemies in his castle, too! There are so many of them! I mean, so many videos… Look!”

He started by showing them how they’d chained Savvy to make her sit on that white bear’s back, which made Kai’s insides burn with fury. Then there was a video about how Savannah was almost unconscious by the time they got to the castle and how she threw up all over that piece of trash, the white bear king. That last part brought him momentary satisfaction, but at the same time it pained him to see the woman he loved so much in that situation. The last video was of three girls Kai had never seen before.

“I’ve been cleaning the whole room for hours!” one of them complained, “I don’t think that Queen Savannah will be ready to perform her… queenly duties anytime soon. The healer told the king that she shouldn’t be doing anything physical for at least the next two days.

Poor man! I thought the king would snap his neck on the spot. He was lucky to survive.”

“The king seems impatient, though,” another girl said. She had a broom and dustpan in her hands and looked like a maid without a uniform.

“He will not touch her in anger!” The third one rolled her eyes. “Have you seen how he looks at her? She was sick all over him, but he was worried if she was all right, not caring about anything else. He would never do anything to hurt her!”

The video ended, and Kyle closed his laptop. Gideon and Kai exchanged glances. This time they didn’t need  to speak to understand each other.

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