Saturn

Luna IX

The guards drug her back outside and sat her back in the van. Her breathing was labored. They forced her to sit down and guarded the doors from outside the van. Hadley leaned her head back against the wall of the van and stared at the black ceiling. Sweat pooled in her palms and slid down her forehead and dripped on her neck and chest.

What had just happened? The scent that seemed to trigger it had dissipated. Her body still quivered and her wolf was still sending her signals. She was confused and disoriented. She felt like she had been drugged, and still hadn't ruled that out.

"Can someone help me?" She breathed. One guard turned his head and looked at her. "No ma'am. There is nothing to help. Stay there, Alpha's orders."

She panted and clutched the seatbelts on either side of her tightly. "But I think I am dying..."The other guard outside the door let out a loud laugh and muttered something under his breath. Her wolf had retreated, leaving her to suffer in silence.

☾

"I don't believe I can tell you you're wrong, Xav."

"What the hell do I do?" Xavian exclaimed. "We are set to kill her! She wants to die. The last thing she is going to want is this!"

Lucian held his son's shoulders tightly. "Listen, she should be feeling the same thing as you. It could change her mind."

"And if she doesn't? Then we kill the one person the moon goddess planned for me? I can't force her to stay here!" Xavian yanked free from his father and paced the foyer anxiously in circles.

"We will come to the bridge when we have to. For now, we need to decide what your plan is. You can keep her here, keep her in the cells if you want to. You can delay the execution and give yourself and her time to think, or you can bring her in here now and talk to her."

"Goddess," Xavian grumbled to himself. "If you bring her in here, I don't think I will be able to talk to her. My wolf nearly forced past my control."

"That is a start." Lucian left Xavian in the foyer to tell the guards to return to her cell, swinging the mahogany door wide open.

As he stepped outside, Xavian flew out the door after him and nearly toppled them both to the ground. "Wait!"

Hadley heard the exchange from inside the van and whipped her head to listen in. "Wait, dad, wait. I want her here... put her in a spare room."

"As you wish," Lucian said. "Callahan!" The guard at the door left and met Lucian half way.

"Yessir," he replied. "Take her upstairs in a spare room in the opposite wing as Xavian. Lock the door and stay outside. No one in, no one out unless ordered by a Vernon."

"Yessir." Callahan turned on his heel to join his partner and the rogue. 

Forbes entered the van and grabbed Hadley by the arms again and this time led her alone, holding her arms together in front of her and leading her by them. He took her into the pack house and into an empty room. Callahan trailed behind them. There was now no sign of Xavian. His scent still lingered.

She was tossed inside, the door locked behind her. She stood disoriented and still off from the whole experience with the Alpha. She looked around with nervous eyes. The room was done up beautifully with a wooden bed set and plush blanket. She shuffled slowly toward a door at the other end of the room. A bathroom. The bathroom was stocked like a luxury hotel, something she had only heard and read about in the magazines and books her parents had brought her as a kid. They had only taken her into the human cities a handful of times to buy clothes or shoes or things for their tiny cabin they stayed in for a while. She had no means of going there on her own after they passed and never got to explore further than where they took her.