. Apostasy . A Luna's Struggle

Mature content : sexual contact

Anulla knelt on the pier staring out at the rising Moon, she prayed. She thanked the Moon that she could feel her wolf again. She prayed for healing for her body, prayed for courage for her heart, prayed for strength to endure another year. But most of all she prayed that Orion would not start hitting and abusing her again. She prayed that he would change, and that he would treat her as a true mate. Since they came here, he just ignored her except to give her the antidote doses. The last eleven days had been, in a single word, strange. Every morning, she cooked breakfast, and tidied up the house, there wasn’t much to do with only two of them. Orion went into his office and spent all his time on the phone or the computer. She had never been allowed to use them so she would sit in the window seat and read or doze. Her antidote dose always made her very sleepy.

He had told her she would spend her time there with him, even if he didn’t talk to or knowledge her. Sometimes she would feel him watching her but always when she looked up his head was bent to some other task. Then she made them lunch, he would lay with her until she went to sleep and always be gone when she woke. She didn’t know where he went in the afternoons, but the ache of the mate bond told her he was not alone. So, she wandered the grounds or picked flowers or sat on the pier, occasionally she felt his gaze. In the evening, she would make dinner and wait. Eventually, he would show up, they would eat in silence, then she would take her dose and go to bed, falling asleep before he joined her.

She kept waiting for him to demand sex of some kind or another, but he never did. He never touched her except to hold her in his sleep. She almost as lonely as she was in the catacomb tomb of the kings. Her numbness from the wine was replaced by emptiness and loneliness. So. she prayed for the guidance of the Goddess to save the people of the kingdom of the Monarch.

-^^^^^-

Orion watched Anulla sitting at the end of the pier over the water, a golden moon was rising. She looked so beautiful in the moonlight, so tempting. He resisted the urge to go out and sit with her. She made him weak, wanting her was a weakness he was determined to conquer. It was hard enough to spend every night lying next to her silken hair and tantalizing skin. To have his passions, pressing against his undershorts until it felt like it was going to split the skin open. She stood and the sheerness of her summer slipdress did nothing to hide her curves as the moon stood behind her. He trembled in his need, in his addiction and that is what it was. He admitted he was addicted to sex with her body.

Every afternoon he went to the cottage beyond the fences and took the three service girls he kept there, his mistresses. He had made them lighten their hair and wear blue eye lenses and veils. They were oiled to mimic his mate’s scent and were perfectly obedient, but they did not fully satisfy what he needed.

He needed Her. The sweet scent of her wafted in on the breeze causing him to groan aloud, and he realized he could not sleep with her tonight without having her. Everyday her scent seemed stronger and sweeter. He was finding it harder and harder to resist. He needed to get away from her if he was going to overcome his addiction. He would go to the valley that had put up such a resistance and finish what they started with the tainted wine. One more night close to two weeks, he could make it one more night and then he would leave tomorrow. He told himself firmly to just wait until she went to sleep then join her and leave first thing in the morning. He heard her light steps on the stairs and sat down at the desk like he was working.

“Orion?” her voice caressed his skin like silk.

“Yes, Anulla,” he tried to sound annoyed.

“Um, I was... I was going to bake a cake, I was craving cake but if you want s-something else?”

Her scent overwhelmed him. Orion laughed harshly, striding over to her as he glared into her winter blue eyes, “Cake? You want to know if I want cake? When what I want is so much more than cake?” He could almost taste her and his control vanished.

Her scent swirled around him like the mist off the lake, making his fangs descend and his mouth water. She shrank back against the door as he put his nose to his mark. Her skin felt so warm, so inviting. He nipped at her neck. He drew his claw down the front of her dress, opening it. Her perfect creamy breasts fit perfectly in the cup of his hands. Anulla actually groaned in pleasure as his tongue and teeth teased her nipples. He pressed his body against hers, kissing her possessively. She melted against him and his resolve failed.

“I don’t want cake, kitten, I want you... now,” Orion growled.

He took her against the wall, as she moaned and clung to him, he craved more. When her legs wrapped his waist to pull him deeper, he carried her over to the desk and swiped it clean with one motion. She laid back, her golden hair spread around her as he drove into her and indulged in her breast. He lost track of how many times they both came that night, but they fell asleep with their bodies still joined. The next morning the heat and tantalizing scent of her skin had him taking her over and over throughout the day. In the heat of their passion, he had mark her and allowed her to mark him causing a euphoric orgasm like nothing he had ever imagined. He had barely managed to close the link between their minds after his childhood memories pour out.

“Oh Orion...” She had held his face and kissed him as she wept over his father’s harsh treatment. “I promise to make up for the lack of love you had growing up.” She was truly disturbed by the way he was raised.

“It made me a strong ruler.” He had shrugged it off, but it had bothered him that she thought there was something wrong with his father’s method of raising him to be a great king and warrior.

They had sex in every room, even the kitchen where making food had become an erotic experiment in eating from the other’s bodies. Sticky and smeared with confections, Anulla had desired to take a bath but watching her rise from the bath with luminous pearls of soap bubbles sliding down her ivory skin was too much for him and he had crawled in the tub with her, still clothed. She had laughed into his kiss and moaned his name as they sloshed water all over the floor. The experience of that day was beyond any fantasy he had ever indulged in, even when she was under the influence of the tainted wine. Her endless willingness to fulfill him only fueled his addiction and he did not care as long as she gave him more.

He woke the next morning with her in his arms and her hair still damp, she felt hot, but she was trembling. Suddenly, she started convulsing. Startled, he remembered she had taken none of the antidote yesterday and he grabbed two bottles and poured them down her throat, in minutes she stilled. Her dull eyes staring at nothing. He wiped the spilled antidote from her cheek and chin. Her eyes half-lidded, fluttered.

He pressed a gentle kiss into her too warm forehead, she hummed softly in her contentment as she fell back asleep, her words slurred, “Thank you, Loh-gan.”

Orion stood over her shaking in jealousy rage. She moaned feeling his anger. His fist ready to punch her and beat the identity of her lover out of her. But his wolf would not let him move to strike her. So, he stood there with whole body shaking as badly as hers at during her convulsion. Finally, he managed to block his feelings completely from her; he had many years of practice blocking his true feelings from his father. He turned and strode out of his room and to the office.

His voice a barely controlled growl of rage. “Matthias, I need you to find me a wolf named Lowden, who has been at the castle.”

Matthias put the phone down for a few minutes then returned, “I am sorry Monarch, but we have no one named Lowden registered as serving or visiting the castle. May I ask why you are seeking this wolf so I may know how broad to make the search for him?”

“I believe our Luna is screwing him beyond the terms of her service.” Orion snarled. He could hear Matthias shuffling papers.

“Sire, perhaps he is one of the western healers who cared for the Luna, she has no one with that name or a similar name on her service cards.” Matthias reported. Orion harrumphed and hung up.

Orion took several deep breaths, perhaps it was just a fluke, the name of some healer. Anulla had just had a seizure and he had just given her medicine. Matthias was probably correct. Orion looked through Anulla’s memories. Everything from her time drinking the wine was hazy like a daydream forgotten, but the things he found startled and angered him. All of his unmated, ranked warriors including his dungeon masters had registered that they had taken regular weekly service with Anulla, but he saw most had not screwed her. They LIED. The rogues he had recruited for his army seemed to target her for brutal encounters but with his warriors protecting her rarely more than one or two rogues a week got to have her. Seeing the encounters, he felt the same raging jealousy he had when she had sought solace from Miles and Walsh.

He also learned the healer and her apprentice were helping the service girls endure their time and not get pregnant at Anulla’s encouragement. She brought back a recipe for a tea that suppressed a female’s heat while they were doing their service, and the mated pairs were helping her and the service girls to avoid their duties by hiding them and lying about service given. Most of the castle staff and warriors were more loyal to his Luna than him.

He seethed in rage and jealousy, his pathetic, herbals-addicted mate was stealing the loyalty of his subjects from him. He was the Monarch, he protected them, he provided for them, he owned them, but they loved and aided her. He faced the same problem his father had, his Luna was trying to steal his kingdom. He needed a new plan to deal with her, he needed them to believe he cared for her so he could regain their loyalty. She had to believe he cared for her for them to believe. His wolf paced unhappily but Orion ignored him. He would win back his subjects and Anulla would help him.

Anulla woke to Orion touching her cheek gently, “I brought you some soup. And your next dose is here. I have to go, there are problems in the battle with a rogue pack. I have summoned the dungeon masters to come protect you. Stay in the house. I’ll be back soon, my golden one.”

“What’s wrong?” her voice trembled, her eyes large and shining. “You’re holding back something.”

He made a disgruntled sound in his throat. “My warriors are failing. Do not worry about it, you are still weak, and I don’t want you to feel my wrath. I think... I feel... Anulla, you’ve changed me. I... I love you and I can’t let anything happen to you.” He pressed a kiss on her forehead, “Stay here, take your doses, get well. I’ll see you soon.”

He kissed her passionately, letting her sense the passion her touch aroused in him, and how he wanted to repeat everything they had done the day before. Looking up at him, she bit her lip, flashing him a shy smile as he left. He grinned and closed the door. Instantly his hard, smirking mask returned. He was surprised at how easily she had bought his lies, she was such a weak wolf. Letting her mark him had just made it easier for him to lie to her and the sex was so much better. He climbed into his long car, his mistresses were waiting for him in the back.