Freeing Starr

After finishing up breakfast, I excused myself to the bathroom for a quick second.

There, I found myself pacing the length of the room anxiously, trying to talk myself into going near my new husband who scared the daylights out of me.

“You’re a Luna now, Starr. You can’t be hiding away from your mate like this. Others will know that you’re afraid of him. So stand up to him. I mean how hard can it be? If he’s angry, you calm him. If he’s annoyed, you make him irritated, and if he wants you, you make him beg for you,” I paused for a second before sighing, “Who am I kidding? If he wants me, he would just take me and there’s nothing I could do about it. It’s not like I can overpower him.”

Was I even meant to be a Luna? How weak and pathetic did everyone think I was? If I was stronger... would I have been able to defend myself against my father? Against Zion?

I highly doubted it, but just the thought alone made me feel better.

“Starr? I already told you that Zion is not a patient man. You wanna hurry up in there?” Niah knocked on the door and called out, her voice portraying how tense she was. For someone who always praised Zion, it’s weird that she was this tense around him.

“I’m coming!” I called back, turning on the sink to splash some water on my face.

I ran a hand down my face and looked up at myself in the mirror.

Was I not pretty enough to get a happy life? Did I do something bad in any of my past lives?

I quickly pushed all those negative thoughts away and braced myself for what was to come.

I dried off my face and opened the door.

Niah waited until I was fully out of the bathroom before leaning up off the wall and scowling at me.

“Let’s just go before Zion decides to take both our heads off,” she muttered, brushing past me and bumping shoulders.

I touched my shoulder and muttered an ouch under my breath, rubbing the area gently.

I followed Niah out of the kitchen doors and into a wide open clearing. There we met Zion standing out in the middle of the clearing, a scarf blowing in his hand.

I eyed the scarf in confusion and tried to quench the rising fear and anxiety within me as I got closer and closer to my new mate.

I stopped at least five feet away and diverted my eyes downwards to watch the dirt patch beneath my feet.

I could feel his heated gaze on me and it made my heart race nervously. Zion was an intimidating man, I knew it, he knew it, heck! Everyone knew it.

“You’re weak,” was the first thing he spat out, his voice laced in anger and frustration.

I flinched at his tone and fidgeted nervously, my heart almost pounding out of my chest in terror.

“You can’t defend yourself and my people will not accept that as our Luna, you understand me?” He asked, his voice frosty.

I nodded my head and kept my eyes glued to the ground.

You think I didn’t know that? I was tempted to scream but I couldn’t find my voice to. I knew my weaknesses more than anyone else. It’s not like I can just wish myself to be what I’m supposed to be. All my life, I’ve been struggling. All my life, I’ve been crying. All my life, I’ve been hopeless. All my life... I’ve been weak.

“Look at me when I’m talking to you mutt!” Zion growled, startling me out of my thoughts and causing me to take a few steps back with wide terrified eyes. My whole body shook as I felt his dominance forcing its way around me, forcing me and my wolf to submit.

I whimpered as I exposed my neck to him, feeling even more vulnerable than the night of our mating. Zion came up towards me and ran a finger across his mark slowly yet gently, causing my body to shiver in pleasure. Then he curled his fingers around my neck and squeezed slightly.

I gasped in surprise and grabbed a hold of his hand, trying to pull them away from my neck desperately as he slowly tightened his grip.

I gasped for air pathetically, pleading him with my eyes to release me. I scratched at his hands, whimpering.

Zion stared at me through dark, cold eyes. He hid his emotions well, and even in this situation I found myself jealous of his ability to hide what it was that he was truly thinking.

I blinked my eyes repeatedly as my throat begged for relief. I kept my eye contact with Zion even as my vision got hazy and as my wolf begged me to look away. I had no choice. I scratched at his hand weakly as a last attempt to get free of his death hold but my attempt was futile and I soon found myself slowly accepting my faith and closing my eyes, getting ready to face death as I rasped desperately for air.

Just as I slowly felt my awareness of the world leaving me, the tight hold on my throat was released and I dropped to the ground roughly, my mouth opened widely to breath in the well needed oxygen.

I scrambled away from Zion as he stood there stoic and watched me as I took in desperate rasps of air, my throat burning and my eyes watering in fear and pain.

Why would he do something like that? I didn’t do anything wrong.

I could feel Niah’s sympathetic stare burning into my face, and I refused to meet her eyes, embarrassed of what had just happened.

“Get up and put this on,” Zion ordered as a light fabric was thrown on my face causing me to flinch in surprise.

I glanced at the scarf warily and took it up.

“Today’s lesson is to help with your awareness. You’ll place that over your eyes and I’ll attack you from a random direction. Your task is to simply block or dodge my attacks.”

I gulped down my nervousness and placed the scarf around my eyes. I made sure that it completely covered my eyes and was secure enough that it wouldn’t fall off. I didn’t want to risk getting punished by Zion.

“Your sight has been blocked,” his voice rang out clearly in the small clearing we were in and I turned cautiously in the direction I thought his voice was coming from, “Now, you have to depend on all of your other senses. Your hearing, smell and touch. Can you do that?”

Did I have a choice?

I nodded my head anxiously and turned around again to the direction of his voice.

How was he moving so fast? I knew this wasn’t going to be easy and that caused my wolf to surface desperately, wanting to help as much as possible.

Zion growled, “I asked can. you. do. it?”

“Y..y..yes” I stuttered out breathlessly as I quickly spun around at the faint sound of his breathing.

“Good. Because the last thing this pack need is a weak Luna.”

Then everything went silent.

It was as though the creatures of nature knew what side of the forest to be on right now. Nothing could be heard except for the sound of the wind blowing through the trees and rustling the leaves.

I wasn’t prepared.

I didn’t have time to gather my bearings as I was suddenly thrown off my feet.

A groan escaped my lips as my side throbbed. I pushed myself back up slowly, my breathing heavy as I tried to listen to the movements around me.

As soon as I was able to regain my footing, my body was flung again but this time, I crashed into a tree.

A whimper escaped my lips as I felt my flesh stretch and tear, the scent of blood filling the air as it gushed out of the scrapes on my arms and side.

“Focus!” Zion growled.

At this point, I was panicking. I couldn’t hear where he was coming from and I had no means to protect myself. I was suffering. How could I focus?

I whimpered slightly and forced myself up on shaky hands. My body pulsed with pain as my eyes watered.

Why haven’t my wounds healed yet?

I used the dented tree as support to lift myself up.

I had to force myself to focus on my surroundings but found it futile. The pain distracted me from hearing the approaching footsteps.

My heart sped up when I realized that my wounds still hadn’t healed. I panicked even more.

“W...W...Why aren’t I healing!?”

I clutched my side and refrained from wincing at the throbbing pain.

“You’re weak! A wound from an Alpha cannot heal as fast unless you’re an Alpha yourself.”

I frowned in confusion as the pain slowly dulled.

“What does that say about you, mate?”

I trembled slightly at the deadly tone in his voice, my heart sinking and my face paling as the answer floated around in my mind.

“I’m not an Alpha,” I whispered brokenly, my heart aching and my wolf whimpering in embarrassment.

A feeling of self loathing began to drive its way through my heart.

My body suddenly tensed as I felt Zion’s body pressing up against my back. His breath tickled my neck and I immediately forgot my pain and disappointment.

“I don’t know if I should be angered or disappointed at this evaluation,” he tsked, taking a strand of my hair and twirling it around his finger.

I winced at the pain that flowed through my heart, my wolf mentally howling at her failure towards our mate.

I bowed my head in shame, “I’m sorry.”

Zion growled and clutched my hand tightly, his nails digging into my sensitive flesh and creating more wounds for me to deal with.

I winced and resisted the urge to flinch away, my body trembling profusely in fear.

Zion quickly turned me around and yanked the scarf from around my eyes and forced me to look at him.

I blinked my eyes open and gulped as they collided with Zion’s bright mercury ones.

His wolf was on display.

“I don’t need an apology!” He growled, letting go of my arms and wrapping a hand around my waist, pulling me tightly against him.

I stared into his eyes, with my wide, tearful eyes, my heart beating erratically in my chest.

“I want you to tell me that you can do better the next time we try this,” he tightened his grip and shook me slightly, “tell me that you will get better,” he demanded.

I nodded my head quickly, eager to please him in any way I could.

His gaze softened slightly and I felt a surge of hope float through me.

“I can’t have a weak Luna,” his eyes hardened once more, “You either get stronger or die.”

I paled at his words and stumbled as he pushed me away.

Niah caught me before I could fall.

“Get your wounds cleaned and healed. We start again tomorrow,” with those words said he left, leaving his terrified and heart broken mate behind.