. Apostasy . A Luna's Struggle

Mature content: child abuse, spouse abuse, rape, murder, violence, infidelity

Orion took her back to the castle, he seemed kinder but there was a buried cruelty to the way he treated her. One moment he was a man she could love, the next he was punishing her for some imagined slight or failure. And it wasn’t just her that he treated this way, it was everyone. It was like he was deliberately nice, then he would forget and fall back into his old behaviors. This new bipolar behavior had everyone around him confused and on edge. The Monarch seemed madder than ever.

Healer Odette had taken the news of Anulla’s pregnancy in stride, giving her a tea to strengthen the pup and her wolf, and an oil to help hide its scent. Miles or Walsh was always shadowing her, they allowed no one to take service from her, and when Orion confronted them about it in a ranting tirade that would have had lesser wolves pissing themselves, her two stone lions had simply responded that she was his and no one else’s. Orion had taken Anulla brutally that night, drunkenly accusing her of seducing them and blaming her for turning them against him and the rules of his kingdom as he had groped her breast and hips until they bore his handprints and claw marks. Afterward she had laid in his bed under his unconscious body, praying to the Goddess that the war would come so her child and all the females in her kingdom would be safe.

In the morning, Orion had apologized for being ‘forceful’ and promised it wouldn’t happen again as he watched her limping around the bed changing the bloody sheets. He had kissed her mark and said he was just stressed because he knew there were traitors in his kingdom, and he was getting paranoid about keeping her safe and that was why he said such things. His flaccid excuse for terrorizing her was jealousy because he loved her so much he couldn’t endure the thought of losing her. She let him think she believed him, but she didn’t.

Amy treated her wounds. When she was finished, Victor had simply said five words to her. “They know, they’re coming soon.”

It was a dangerous thing, she and Victor were doing, they were the traitors the Monarch was seeking so hard. She felt like a spider spinning a web, listening to the vibrations of the strings that were the servants of the Monarch. As Anulla left the healer, she felt a burning stab in her heart. Orion was with one of the service females, it happened at least once a day. Amy had told her he had two or three females that he kept in one of the guest cots. Females who were willing to be his concubines to escape their service duty. Amy didn’t think it was fair that Anulla was expected to give service and they weren’t. Anulla had shrugged it off, saying if they kept his attentions, let them have him. She blocked the discomfort out and went about her duties.

Today, she had to gather the filthy linens from the barracks, replacing the soiled with clean. She hated those the Monarch was recruiting to build his army of death. As she unloaded piles of clean folded sheets into a closet she heard a child crying and choking. She rushed out to see a rogue to forcing his manhood down a young teenaged girl’s throat while another was taking her from behind. The girl was one of the prisoners from the valley. The blue collar around her throat meant she was too young for service.

“Stop!” Anulla yelled at the them, “Stop it now! She’s a child.”

The older one let go of the girl’s hair and pulled himself out of the child’s mouth. She gagged and coughed and cried all at the same time as he sneered at Anulla. “Well, well, well, if it isn’t our lovely Luna. You can service me while we watch my brother screw his mate.”

He stalked toward her like she was prey. The girl’s tearful desperate eyes held Anulla’s and Anulla suddenly knew she would kill them both or die trying. For years she had suffered, and no one helped her, so she would help this child. Anulla reached up and unstrapped her collar, Orion had been forgetting to put the lock on it since he no longer chained her to the wall. In a swift motion, she was a snarling golden wolf. She lunged tearing the rogue’s arm open and clawing his chest.

“You damned biyatch,” he screamed as she mauled him. Then she leaped at the younger one who was trying to get off the bed where he had pinned his mate down to rape her. A mangy brown wolf tackled her to the floor and bit her leg hard as she scrambled to get to her feet. Suddenly, it was lifted from her body and the sickening sound of crushing bones followed. Miles was shaking the carcass so hard, blood and gore was splattering the walls and floor and ceiling. Her wolf scrambled back to the younger one clamping onto his shoulder with a fierceness she had never felt. He had hurt a child, he needed to die.

“ENOUGH!” Orion’s command voice froze her wolf, just before she shifted her bite to the rapist’s neck.

Her wolf spat the youth on the floor then fur traded for skin. Blood ran down her arm from the bite, but she did not even feel it. Every wolf witnessing the commotion drop to their knees except Anulla. She picked up the battered, bleeding girl and turned on him with a fury she had never expressed.

“Is this your kingdom, Oh great Monarch? A kingdom of perversion and pedophiles!” She screamed, her wolf close to resurfacing, “Look at her, she is barely a teen, wearing a blue collar and still two of them. Two of yours! Did this to her!” She stalked toward him with the whimpering girl. “And you wonder why the kingdom’s females have to be locked up to keep them from killing themselves and their daughters... This is why. This is why you have to suffer traitors; this is why females would risk death to flee, because the kingdom has fallen so low that it rapes children.” Her last words were hissed like a snake.

Orion snarled, “How. Dare. You...”

“How Dare I?!? I am your Luna, I am the mother of all the wolves in your kingdom, dear mate. I will protect the children of our kingdom from your dogs. Miles! Take her to the healers. Victor, put him in the cells until the Monarch can decide the appropriate punishment for double raping an under-aged blue collar. Let him pay for his brother’s violation of the law too.”

The dungeon master and Beta obeyed immediately.

She turned to the gathered mercenary rogues, “Get the blood cleaned from the walls and change your own beds, you filthy beasts. You are Monarchy wolves now, not rogues, and you will act like it or I will make you wish you had never pledged loyalty to my mate.”

Anulla stormed back to the castle in a furious cloud of golden hair. Orion stared after her in rage and, oddly, in lust. Her passion for the kingdom was equal to his own and he had never realized it until that moment. Her weakness was an illusion, her fierceness made his wolf puff up proudly, but it made Orion seethe. He turned back to the kneeling masses.

“Did you not understand your Luna? Get to work, you have an hour before I let my wolf punish you all the same as those who violated the laws of the kingdom,” he growled and stalked toward the castle after his Luna. He needed to find her and punish her hard for openly defying him.

-^^^^^-

Anulla was in the healer rooms, helping Miles hold down the assaulted girl, who thrashed in spite of being unconscious while Odette stitched her torn body. A bandage wrapped around Anulla’s arm was stained red and seeping.

“How badly is she hurt?” Orion growled.

Odette huffed as she worked, “She may never be able to carry a child, Monarch Balthazar. Before she fell asleep, she said the wolf who did this claimed to be her mate.”

Anulla growled and her wolf’s eyes looked at him, he realized her wolf was in control. He also realized she had shifted. All Monarchy females were supposed to have a sliver of silver under the skin of their upper arm to prevent them from shifting. He waited while they finished.

“Miles, do to him what was done to her but don’t kill him. Come my golden Luna, I need a moment alone with you,” He said sternly.

Miles growled at him slightly, as if he knew what Orion was planning to do to Anulla, but a snarl from the Monarch silenced the dungeon master. Anulla followed obediently to their chambers, he could feel her fear replacing her anger. She knew she was about to be punished and she was afraid. He held the door for her and closed it silently behind them.

“Orion, I’m sor...” His fist drove the air from her body, and she collapsed to the floor gasping.

He picked her up by the hair and drug her back to her feet. “What did you say, mate? I didn’t quite catch it.”

She gasped like a fish out of water, finally wheezing , “I’m sorry.”

The back of his hand knocked her across their bed. “Say it again.”

“I’m sorry,” she whimpered, trying to scramble backwards and away from him.

Orion seized her ankle and dragged her back toward him then slapped her again. “Say it again.”

“I’m sorry... I’m sorry...” She chanted.

He rolled her over, thrusting into her painfully. Her cries were muffled as he held her head down despite how she struggled and tried to push up. Pleading for him to stop, to let go, she was sure she was going to suffocate. He came over and over, until their fluids ran down her legs. Finally, he had yanked her back against his chest and bit down on his claiming mark so hard she was afraid the bone beneath would break and she screamed. As he moaned his final pleasure into her hair and licked her neck, she sobbed silently, praying it was finally over.

He whispered in her ear, “You are my Luna, but if you ever publicly disrespect me or speak out against me again, I will fuck you to death. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Monarch,” she whimpered, then he shoved her down on the bed, put on his clothes and walked out.

Trembling she curled into a ball, pulling the covers around her naked bruised body. Quietly the door opened, and gentle hands touched her. Amy wiped her battered body with warm wet cloths, and dabbed numbing gel over the bruises blooming on her skin like wildflowers in a field.

“I don’t know how much longer I can do this, Amy,” she whimpered.

“You are strong, Luna Anulla, stronger than any warrior,” Amy responded.

“No Amy, I’m broken, I just seem strong because there’s nothing left to break.” She wept in the apprentice healer’s arms while she prayed to the Goddess for strength. She had to keep resisting him, for the sake of every female in the kingdom, for every child, for her own child.

-^^^^^-

The next day group of terrified she-wolves was brought to the castle in a large truck. Forced to stand naked and chained, the women and girl huddled together. Anulla watched from the upstairs windows. The Monarch walked down the row of terrified females. A tall, coffee-skinned female with long, tiny braids, held up her head in defiance. Her flesh was scarred and covered with swirling tattoos, her baring was that of a warrior. She snarled something and spat in Orion’s face. Anulla’s hand flew to her mouth but she couldn’t look away.

“Oh Goddess,” Amy breathed out in terror, clinging to Anulla.

They watched the Monarch unchain the warrior female. She immediately dropped into her wolf and attacked him. They fought for several minutes but soon it became clear that the Monarch was toying with her. Breaking one limb at a time until she couldn’t stand, finally he forced her to shift back to her skin. She was beaten as badly as Anulla had been the first time before his wolf had taken over. The female’s face was unrecognizable, her jaw looked broken. Amy was sobbing but Anulla forced herself to bear witness as he drug the broken she-wolf over to the stocks, throwing her over one of the pommels and forcing her neck into the hole. Her arms and legs hanging useless. Tears ran down Anulla’s face as she watched another suffer her horror. She knew the woman was screaming as Orion forced himself into her. She clutched at her chest at the burning sensation of the bond betrayed. She could feel his enjoyment of what he was doing. Finally, she tore her eyes away to look at the terrified females in chains. They were all sobbing, and some were screaming.

Suddenly a commotion broke out among the she-wolves and the warriors rushed into the group. As they were subdued, Anulla realized that every young female save one had been killed by the older ones. They had killed them to save them. Anulla had to stop this. She had to find a way, but it was too late for these females. The Monarch had stopped to watch his warriors. He shouted something and Anulla saw a box of collars carried out. Three of his warriors dragged struggling females out of the group. Mates. Orion gave them red collars, but with a wave of his hand, yellow collars were placed on the remaining females and one by one they were placed in the stocks or chained to posts. The Monarch had ordered these females gang raped for one moon or until death which ever came first. Anulla knew most would not last 10 days. His warriors were already starting with them. She felt his eyes on her, when she looked at him, the Monarch smiled at her. Malevolence poured through the bond, and her blood ran cold. The real Orion was back.

_^^^^_

:::Things to think about :::

23 Warning Signs of an Abusive Relationship Does your partner tease you in a hurtful way & play it off as a “joke” or tell you you’re being too sensitive?

Does your partner call you names such as “stupid” or “bitch”?

Does your partner act jealous of your friends, family, or co-workers or coerce you into avoiding or not spending time with them?

Does your partner get angry about or make you change the clothes & shoes you wear, how you style your hair, or whether or not you wear makeup & how much?

Does your partner check-up on you by repeatedly calling, driving by, or getting someone else to? Has your partner gone places with you or sent someone just to “keep an eye on you”?

Does your partner insist on knowing who you talk with on the phone, check your call log or phone bill?

Does your partner blame you for his problems or his bad mood?

Does your partner get angry so easily that you feel like you’re “walking on eggshells”?

Does your partner hit walls, drive dangerously, or do other things to scare you?

Does your partner often drink or use drugs? Does your partner insist that you drink or use drugs with him? Have you lost friends or no longer see some of your family because of your partner?

Does your partner accuse you of being interested in someone else or cheating on them?

Does your partner read your e/mail, check your computer history, go through your purse, or other personal papers?

Does your partner keep money from you, keep you in debt, or have “money secrets?”

Has your partner kept you from getting a job, or caused you to lose a job? Has your partner sold your car, made you give up your license, or not repaired your car?

Does your partner threaten to hurt you, your children, family, friends, or pets?

Does your partner force you to have sex when you do not want to? Does your partner force you to have sex in ways that you do not want to?

Does your partner threaten to kill you or themselves if you leave? Is your partner like “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” acting one way in front of other people and another way when you are alone?

If you answer yes to one or more of these questions, you may be at risk – please speak with a domestic violence advocate.