The Crystal Moon Curse: Book 5: TAKEN

Chapter 16. Trigger

QUILLA

“Why is he such an ass?” I grumble turning to stare over the backseat out the rear window to glare at Viggo’s black SUV following us.

I hope he can feel the death stare I’m throwing through the windshield. He seems to be able to feel and sense everything else about me. I can’t believe what I heard him say to Sebastian. He honestly thinks I’m going to let him put a baby in me? Fuck that shit.

My mother turns over in her seat to answer.

“That’s just an Alpha being an Alpha,” she says drily.

“Hey!” Sebastian protests with a low growl.

“Present company excluded. You’re the best kind.” she apologizes, flicking Sebastian a warm side smile.

“I should think so, but to be fair to Viggo, he is in general a level-headed Alpha and has been a good King. His lycan on the other hand, well, not so much. What Kyros did marking you was definitely an ass move.” Sebastian agrees catching my eyes in the rearview mirror.

I’m tempted to touch the mark on my neck. Ever since I woke up yesterday it has been gently tingling under my skin. Even now I feel it spreading across my shoulder and down my chest. Only pure stubbornness keeps my hands at bay. I’m going to pretend for as long as I can it doesn’t exist.

“Gods I wish we were heading home instead of Lycanos,” Neo grumbles turning back forward in her seat with her arms crossed.

“Where is home?” I ask feeling Kyra’s interest pique matching mine.

Neo turns around again to face me with a smile.

“Crystal Moon. That is our home pack. You’d love it there. Not very different from Black Oak. Mountainous, but we have the most beautiful pine forest I swear. It is a several-day drive from Lycanos though. We used to have a jet but we had a few difficult years after you were taken and we had to sell it.”

“Wow, a jet? So you come from a wealthy pack?” It’s hard to reconcile that thought with the well-kept but old truck we are traveling in.

Neo frowns. “Well, not as well off as we used to be.” she glances at Sebastian and some unspoken communication seems to happen before she continues.

“Our pack, Crystal Moon, was part of the Prime 10 Wolf Council, but several things happened after you were taken and about seven years ago we lost our position. We are doing fine though, it’s just been difficult.”

“Was it because of me?” I ask knowing instinctively it was. I can tell Neo is mulling over what to say before she speaks.

“Yes, and no.” she sighs, her blue eyes darkening as she seems to disappear into memory before coming back. “At the time you were taken, there was dissent growing among the packs about Crystal Moon and how my sisters were all mated to Prime 10 Alphas and a perceived shift of unbalanced power in Crystal Moon’s favor.”

Neo spends the next few minutes telling me about her six older sisters, their mates, and my astounding twenty-five cousins. I’m speechless as my mind takes in the fact I have a massive extended family.

I spent all my life in a small bear clan hiding from the fact I could have a wolf family out there in the world and the truth all along was I did. A huge family, and a powerful one at that too.

“The wolf that took you, Cain, was Viggo’s father’s Beta. He was crazed by mate-death madness - and he used the dissent against Crystal Moon to cover and craft his secret plot to take revenge on Viggo’s father who had claimed his mate as his Luna. Cain knew he had no hope of getting to either King Viktor or Viggo at Lycanos so he went for you. The night you were taken your father and I were fighting off an attack at Crystal Moon, we had sent you to stay with your father’s brother Mateo at his home pack Blood Stone, but somehow Cain had that figured out. A crazed lycan is deadly, unpredictable, and never to be underestimated. We made the mistake of underestimating Cain and you paid for it. He killed all of King Viktor’s guards who were sent to protect you and almost killed your cousin Astrid.”