Chapter 59 – The Perfect Luna by Marissa Gilbert

Filed To Story: The Perfect Luna by Marissa Gilbert

Riannon felt power circling through her bloodstream. It felt as if the shifting took her ages when in fact it had just been seconds. But the overall sensations were very new.

She felt powerful, she felt capable of lifting mountains… and also she felt very different from how she was supposed to feel in her wolf form.

Onyx was always a strong wolf, but this time it was a whole new level.

What happened to her? She looked around, growling, and noticed that the battle had stopped momentarily and now her friends and her enemies were staring at her in shock. No one dared to move, and she didn’t know why.

“What is going on?” She asked her wolf and felt her smirking in their mind.

“You see, Riannon,” she said matter-of-factly, “I wasn’t appearing for so long for a reason. And today you will finally find out why.”

“Well?!” Ria tried to push Onyx into elaborating on that, but at the same time one of the bears woke up and charged at her with fury in his red eyes. She never fought a bear in her life. They were known to be bigger and stronger. Almost a match for Lycans. Yet she sprinted at him and took a jump, easily knocking him off and going straight for his furry neck with her claws. She didn’t even need to do anything else as she felt the life under her slipping away quickly.

Onyx took the control from her and let out a loud growl that resembled more of a roar, From the corner of her eye, she noticed how a few foxes sprinted away, running for their lives.

She noticed Roxy and charged in her direction. The desire to kill the b*tch who caused so much trouble in her life was overwhelming. However, three foxes threw themselves at her, followed by another bear and she had to stop to deal with those.

Gideon watched his mate from afar, trying to get to her. He still couldn’t believe what he just saw.

What was she? Because sure as hell she wasn’t a regular werewolf with her bigger than average form and glowing silvery fur. Her wolf was perfection, the most beautiful beast he had ever seen. And as he saw her dealing with their enemies with ease, he admired her strength and grace.

Riannon would never stop surprising him. His mate… His woman… His queen.

The battle was over fast and to her disappointment, there was no trace of Roxy when they were done.

“Don’t worry,” Onyx said, “We will still get her. She will be ours to kill.”

of times!”

“I am happy to be back too,” her wolf admitted with a chuckle, “And, Ria, you did so well on your own. You never gave up and you stayed strong. You fought for us and our mate. And all this taken together helped me heal and get to this point.”

“Heal?” she asked.

“Yes, Riannon,” Onyx confessed, “Our rebirth came at a price. The moon goddess could only do this using my life force. It almost killed me permanently. My spirit was crushed but she put me into hibernation to save me. This was why I was only able to respond to you when something big was happening, something that almost made me awaken. But I was still too weak then and couldn’t help you much.”

“At least you told me about our mate,” Ria let out a little laugh, “You have no idea how confusing that was without you there.”

“And yet you managed just fine,” the wolf snorted, “He helped us the most, you know. The closer you were to him the more my healing was accelerated.”

“He helped me to heal too,” Riannon admitted the truth out loud for the first time, “Onyx, was so broken inside after everything. Our death, your absence, the last year with Brayden… It all took a toll on me. Sometimes it felt as if I was beyond repair… And if not for Gideon, then I don’t know if I could do it.”

“You would still do it,” Onyx sighed,” because you are that strong. I am proud to have you as my human.”

“And I am proud to have you as my wolf,” she said, “It was horrible to be alone. But!

wouldn’t want any other wolf. Just you.”

“Don’t make me cry, Riannon!” Onyx snorted, “You know that I am an Alpha. I don’t do that. And especially now of all the time!”

“Yeah, about that,” this reminded her of all the new sensations, “What is wrong with us? What happened? Everything seems so new and… strange.”

“Nothing is wrong with us,” her wolf corrected her, -If anything, everything is amazing with us. The Moon Goddess returned us for a reason. We have a mission in life now. And to help us with it, she gave us her blessing.”

“The Goddess herself?” Riannon couldn’t believe what she was hearing. It sounded surreal even to her that happened. Too many things went wrong in our past life. You had already started fixing some of those on your own and this is how Selene knew that her choice was right. Thanks to you, she blessed us. It is a very special type of blessing and it changes us. Over time, we will only get stronger. So no enemy could defeat us in the war that is to come. For we are the ones who would put an end to this.”

-A war…” the words echoed in her mind, making her shiver. “After we died, Riannon,” Onyx went on, “It got really bad. Everything was so messed up. And wolves were practically wiped out…” “Wait, but how do you know this?” She asked, trying to comprehend the information she was given. “The goddess showed me everything,” the wolf informed her, “I know about everything that happened in our past life and what happened after we died. I will tell you. But not now.”

“Ria,” she heard the voice that she loved more than anything in her life and that brought her back to reality. She looked at Gideon, who stood before her wearing absolutely nothing. He looked worried and each muscle on his perfectly carved body was tense. “We got ourselves a fine mate there,” Onyx growled in approval, “We need to mark him asap! I am not letting him go.”

“Neither am I,” Riannon agreed and saw Gideon stretching his hand towards her. He looked worried, as if he wasn’t sure how she would react. The glowing fur was not helping probably and she tried to dial that down. Surprisingly, it worked and her fur returned to it’s normal silvery white colour.

Gideon’s fingers brushed over her and she purred at his touch, letting him closer.

“Thank Goddess, Ria,” he kneeled before her and embraced her, “You scared the hell out of me right now. Come back to me…

She stared at him in astonishment. Was he even serious right now?

“I am going to repeat my question, Riannon,” Brayden growled, “What have you done to my mate?!”

“What have I done to your mate?” She shot her brow up at her ex, “Your so-

called mate has just killed Dean.”

She felt tears burning her eyes again, but she was not going to give him the satisfaction of seeing her crying in front of him. Not even for Dean. Brayden did not deserve to see her cry.

“That’s a lie!” her ex-husband gritted through her teeth, “How on earth would Roxy do something like that?! She is just a weak omega! She can’t hurt a fly!”

“We have about a dozen witnesses, Bray!” she stopped him, and his mouth opened in shock, “She is hardly an omega! Moreover, she isn’t even a wolf! She is a god damn fox!”

He stared at her bluntly, lost in his thoughts and not knowing what to say. But then he clenched his fists and looked the crowd that came with her up and down.

His own warriors were by his side already.

“And I guess those wonderful and very reliable witnesses of yours are the lycans next to you? How convenient! Maybe also Maya the traitor?”

She slapped him. Hard. She knew that this was the last thing that was needed right now to get what she wanted, but it felt so good.

“Don’t you dare!” she warned him, “The only traitor in our pack was always your fake mate!”

“It’s not our pack anymore,” he smirked, “Remember, you ruined that earlier today?”

“I saved what I could from you and your fox!” she snapped at her ex again. For the first time ever she felt like she really hated him. Onyx, who was growling inside of her, wasn’t helping to calm down either. In their past life, he hurt her the most and she still couldn’t forgive him.

“How fortunate for you!” Brayden chuckled, “Riannon the saviour! When I do something, it’s because I am selfish. But when you do something, it’s for the common good!”

“That’s what happens when people think of others, Brayden. You should try that one day, ” she scoffed, folding her hands on her chest, “I demand you to give me

Roxanne. I need just a minute with her and I will be able to prove to you who she is! Now that I know the truth. And then I will kill her with my own hands for everything that she has done!”

“I am tired of repeating myself,” Bray rubbed the bridge of his nose, letting out an

“Useless!” Ria mumbled to herself, rolling her eyes. The fox won’t come back here. Not when her identity was discovered.

Now that she thought about it, she understood what a silly idea that was. But in the heat of the moment, she wasn’t thinking clearly, and this fiasco was the result.

“Let’s go,” she commanded to her people, turning away.

“Not so fast!” Brayden grabbed her hand but in the next moment, Gideon was already pinning him to the wall of the mansion. It all happened so fast that the guards from both sides didn’t even have time to react.

“You touch her like that again and I will rip your head off,” the lycan king growled, squeezing his fingers around his opponent’s neck, “Not only is she and Alpha of her own pack now, but she is also my queen. Do something like this again and it will be your death sentence! And you will be lucky if it’s you alone. Because if you piss me off properly one more time, might as well wipe out what is left of your pack! Not that there is a lot.”

“Gideon,” Riannon brushed her hand over her mate’s back, soothing him,

“Please, don’t.”

He sighed heavily and let go of Brayden with a huff. The alpha almost fell to his feet but managed to lean over the wall for support.

“You came to my territory! You did something to my mate!” he started listing the things he thought actually happened.

“Your mate?” Gideon chuckled loudly, “Are you even serious?! Haven’t you lost her? AGAIN. Do you even know that it is physically impossible to lose a mate or to forget about her? I hate to be the one who breaks it to you, Alpha Brayden, but you don’t have a mate. I mean, maybe you do, somewhere in the world and one day you will meet her. But that fox isn’t the one.”

“She is not…” Bray tried to protest.

“She is a fox!” Riannon cut him off, “And she also works with the werebears. I don’t know how she convinced you that she is your mate, but I also really doubt that it’s the truth. Just think about it, Brayden.”

Her ex-husband looked at her with clenched lips and fists and she had no idea if he believed them. But neither did she care anymore. It was his problem and not hers.

She knew that the next time she would meet Roxy, she would be the one to kill her. Because her patience was wearing thin. She only regretted that she hadn’t done it sooner.

“Let’s go, Riannon,” Gideon wrapped his hands around her and looked her in the eye, “I don’t think she will come back here. She is not that stupid.”

“Yeah,” his queen nodded and followed his lead back to the car.

Brayden’s warriors got closer now that the lycans were gone but he pushed them away and went inside of the mansion.

He watched his ex-wife being cared for by the lycan king in front of his eyes and the sight still made him shudder inside. But on top of it, the news of his mate was breaking him.

He didn’t even notice how she disappeared. And, of course, there was a simple and reasonable explanation for that. He was busy. With his pack being broken in half and with the move. So much had to be arranged in such a short period of time that he forgot about her completely…

Was it normal? Could it even be happening? The lycan had a point… How could one forget about his mate?

Riannon used to be his chosen mate but he never forgot about her. Even now, after everything, he was still thinking about her more than she deserved it. His thoughts today were busy with her when he had to pay attention to his true mate…

He called his top warrior, Jacob, first and promoted him to a Beta dryly, then ordered to find out what happened to his mate.

“Find video footage from the grounds, a trace, her scent… whatever. I want to find out if she walked out of here herself or was kidnapped,” he told the guy and looked him in the eye,“ Be discreet about it. Until I know what happened here exactly, I don’t want anyone to know a thing.”

“Yes, Alpha,” Jacob bowed politely and walked out.

Brayden did not count on him finding out much about it. He wasn’t Ash. His previous Beta had an eye for details that everyone else missed. He paid attention and knew how to stay in the shadows, unnoticed.

Jacob… wasn’t it. He was one of his best warriors, but not a match to his old friend. The same way as Roxy wasn’t a match to Riannon. No matter how much he tried to imagine that she was.

Was it possible that she was a fox? He never asked her to shift. Mostly because he thought that she was an omega and was embarrassed about others seeing that the Moon mate?

That thought scared him. Because then he lost Riannon for nothing.

Everybody knew that foxes could change their scents, so theoretically speaking, if Roxy was a fox, she could fake the scent of his mate. But for that, she would need to know that scent … Moreover, the scent alone wasn’t the problem. The bond was. No fox could fake that. So, why did he want the redhead all the time?

He wasn’t a manwh*re. Lust wasn’t what he lived for and he knew very well how to control himself.

So, what would happen there if Roxanne wasn’t his mate? Could there be a different explanation for everything? That did not seem likely. Unless witches were involved. But that was also a far cry. Love spells did not exist. And werewolves were resistant to any kind of spell-infused mind manipulation.

He couldn’t find an answer no matter how hard he tried.

After he dealt with all the urgent matters, he closed himself alone in his office with a bottle of brandy.

Usually, Ash would join him for this with a conversation that would help everything to get into the right places. Until Riannon came to end it with an even better solution.

And then she would take him to bed…

But now all of this was over…

He took a deep gulp of the fiery liquid, feeling it burn his throat. However, it did not make anything better.

His fingers ended up rubbing the mark on his neck again, which was bothering him. It did not disappear. Even though he didn’t feel pain through it anymore. His bond with Riannon was broken now. And it was even more painful than when she was in the lycan’s bed.

The knock on the door broke his train of thought and his new Beta walked in with the laptop.

“Alpha,” he said, “I think you need to see this…”

Roxanne was driving fast. She couldn’t let anyone catch up with her.

Today she f*cked up big time and she knew it. Castiel would never forgive her for destroying his perfect plan this early and for losing that many people. The bear king wouldn’t be happy either her group. Always.

She wouldn’t come to her king empty-handed. She would bring him the peace offering.

She parked right next to the packhouse in the Fox kingdom and walked out of the car. She knew she couldn’t go inside. And she wasn’t wrong about it, because when Castiel walked out of the mansion, he looked furious.

He didn’t even let her say a word before he grabbed her neck and jerked her up in the air. Her legs trembled, not finding any kind of support and she felt his grip getting tighter and restricting her airways.

“You are either super brave to come here after what you have done, or you are super stupid!” her king growled. In other circumstances, she would enjoy that sound. But not now.

Now, he wasn’t playing with her. He was ready to kill her any moment now for her mistakes.

“You failed your mission, couldn’t fix it and then only made it worse from there!

You blew our cover and had my men killed!” Castiel continued, “You almost cost me this war! Tell me, Roxanne, why shouldn’t I snap your neck this very moment? I don’t think I need to keep such a disappointment as you!”

One of his eyes glowed red and her toes curled. That man was always her main weakness.

“I brought you something!” she croaked, hoping to appease him, “It will help…” He watched her for a few seconds and after that swore loudly, dropping her to the floor.

“This better be good!” he spat and she crawled in the direction of the car trunk.

Roxy stood up on shaky legs, trying to make her breathing steady, but failing.

She hated to be so weak in front of him. He hated weakness…

She found the key in the pocket of her jeans and opened the trunk, demonstrating to him her little present and praying that this was enough…

---