I was lying stiff and cold in the bed, staring at the ceiling with my swollen eyes. My face hurt like a bitch, and I could feel the dried trail of tears running down my cheeks. It felt puffy, everything looked blurred and I felt numb, no senses, no feelings, no emotions. I couldn't sense anything around me, my whole body buzzing, yet calm, and I swear I didn't want to feel so much pain ever again.

Never again.

Liana was lying beside me too, though she looked a lot better than me, probably.

I felt like the ground beneath me was shaking. Was it an earthquake? No. After a few moments, I realized it was Liana who had gotten up and was now shaking me. Her frantic voice felt like it entered one ear and left another, because I couldn't make out a word of what she was saying.

Slowly, ever so slowly, my body felt like it came back to its senses.

"....Moon, come on, get up. Listen to me, Moon! You have to get up, quick! Moon! Moon! Can you even hear me! Oh goddess! Moon, please wake up, move, twitch, fuck! Just move, Moon!"

I blinked.

I tried to get words out of mouth, but all I could do was move my lips. I tried, summoning all my strength, just to let out one word.

"...Can't..."

"Oh, Moon. I should have known that it would take a toll on you. You've still not acquired your complete strength, and this...this was too much for you. Moon," she shook me urgently, "...can you feel your wolf?"

I mouthed a 'no'.

I couldn't feel her. Not even my pure blood. Both were absent, leaving me empty...lifeless.

"Then bring her back. Do anything you can to bring her back. You both need each other to heal, Moon."

And I gasped loudly when I felt as if all my life and energy came back to me in one go. My senses returned to me, and I felt as if I could move myself.

And I could feel my wolf.

She felt uneasy, I felt uneasy. She definitely didn't like whatever she was feeling, and last night hurt her more than it pained me. I could feel it, the hurt, the pain, the betrayal and fury that my wolf felt, and so did I feel the fury burning my veins.

"Moon, are you okay?"

I looked up at Liana, her eyes full of tenderness, and empathy, as if she could feel what I felt, as if she knew what was going on in my mind right now.

I shook my head as the tears fell, and I curled myself into a small ball, sobbing to myself. It hurt, so badly, it was torturous. Why? Why was it that me and my wolf were tortured and punished when he was the one who was wrong?

"It'll be fine, Moon, it'll be okay once we cross the moonline. Let's escape to the human world for a few days, till everything settles down here." She wrapped her arms around me and rocked me back and forth, kissing the top of my head. I still kept crying in her arms, my heightened emotions refusing to calm down.

I don't want to feel this pain ever again, this pain of his betrayal we suffered. Wasn't it enough for us to have to know that he made another bitch his queen? Do we have to suffer from this pain every time he fucks her?

I don't want to, trust me. But what can we do about it?

I can - I can reject this bond right away. I'm not going to lose my pride and dignity as the real queen for someone who doesn't know my worth.

I gasped, and Liana gasped too.

"What was that, Moon?" She shook me. "Don't tell me!" She gaped in horror, "Your wolf isn't thinking about rejecting Adrian, is she?"

"She is." I whispered. How did she know?

"No, no, no! The whole kingdom will fall apart! You can't let her do that!" Liana grabbed my shoulders again, and looked at me frantically.

"But didn't you say that the werewolves couldn't, you know, officially reject each other?"

"A Luna Queen can." Liana sighed, "Only she and the Alpha King have the Power to officially reject each other. But that has happened only once and the whole kingdom had nearly fallen apart because of it. The Alpha King and the Luna Queen are strategically bonded together by the Moon Goddess. If they find the other unfit, then it is indirectly going against Moon Goddess's decision. It causes excruciating pain to both the sides, and both of them die, leading to the downfall of the entire empire. So there's actually no point in rejecting."

She continued, "The difference is, when the King rejects the Queen, which has never happened until now, the whole empire will die a swift death, along with the King. But when the Queen rejects the king, which happens only in extreme cases, it acts like a slow poison. A rebellion starts among the werewolves, once they realise that their King is unable to satisfy the Luna Queen. Then slowly the whole empire of werewolves crumbles down. The last time a Queen rejected the King because he had cheated on her -I don't even know how that's even possible- and the empire could survive it only because the King had managed to win back the Queen's heart."

I shivered.

I won't reject him now, but know it, if this continues, and if he doesn't accept us soon, then I won't give a fuck about us dying, I'll reject him right away.

Please, think before you do something like that.

I don't know.

"No, I didn't." Liana said when we were nibbling on our breakfast, "I didn't feel any kind of pain last night. All I felt was uneasiness and longing. And I knew those emotions weren't actually mine." She pushed her plate aside and rested her cheek on the table.

"I don't want to go anywhere near him right now, and he's already making me feel so guilty for what I'm doing to him. Ana's a mess too, her pride has been hurt, but she refuses to see her mate in agony. Why can't wolves be like humans? Why do wolves have to be so simple and primal; for them, love is love, faith is faith, loyalty is loyalty, and a mate is a mate. I swear werewolves are more complicated than humans, and much more complicated than wolves."

I rubbed her shoulder, "I really don't know what you should do, what we should do, now. I think we should just go with our instincts." I told her.

"Every single instinct of mine is begging me to let him in, to go to him, to claim him as mine and claim all the rights I have of a Prime Luna. But I don't want to! I'm fucking scared! Everything's a mess!" She groaned and banged her head lightly against the table.

Knock! Knock!

Our little breakfast session was interrupted by urgent knocking on the door. We both gave each other confused looks, wondering who it could be at this time. My wolf and pure blood hid themselves as Liana sniffed, searching for the visitor's scent.

An easy smile graced her lips and she went to open the door, with me hot on her heels.

It was Hans, Liana's loyal guard. His eyes fell on me the moment Liana opened the door and ushered him in. The moment Liana closed the door, he stood in front of me and then knelt down on one knee, curling his fist on his chest, right above his heart.

"I, Hans Wolfe, swear my loyalty to you, Luna Queen."

I gasped. How did he know?

A feeling strange to me engulfed me as I stared at the werewolf submitting himself to me and my wolf's voice rang out in my head:

I accept your loyalty, Hans.

I hadn't realised that the voice wasn't just in my head, but I had spoken it out aloud, my wolf's voice echoing in Liana's empty living room.

Hans stood up slowly with a proud smile on his face, and bowed deeply.

"It is an honour, Luna." He paused, his expression turning grim. "I apologise for any intrusion, but the wolves have been ordered to guard this house on all sides till Alpha Jaxon arrives precisely by noon."

Shit! That's just half an hour!

"Why?" Liana asked.

"Apparently, Alpha Prime has realised that you, My Queen, have befooled him into believing that you are a mere human. The Alpha King had recognised your scent on him and then he knew that you had lied. Alpha Jaxon and Alpha Adrian are already on their way here. I have managed to send the guards away for fifteen minutes, this is your only opportunity to escape." He said.

Liana and I looked at each other and nodded our heads. While I disappeared into the bedroom where Liana had already kept all the important stuff packed, I heard her talking to Hans, "Thank you very much, we will forever be indebted to you."

And then I appeared in the living room with our luggage. Hans looked worried as his eyes trained on the luggage we were carrying as if he desperately wanted to say something.

"Is there something you want to say, Hans?" I said, imploring him to look at me.

He looked up, as if it took him a lot of courage, and then he bowed, again, "Luna Queen, Luna Prime, we, the guards, who have sworn our loyalty to you, sincerely wish that you stay here and let the Alphas claim you. The Weres need their real Luna Queen, their Luna Prime. It would be a great loss for the entire kingdom to lose you."

We frowned at him and Liana shook her head saying, "Trust me, when I say that our presence here will cause more of a disaster. It is difficult for Luna Queen, right now, as it has been merely a couple of days since she came to terms with the fact that she is not a human. You..." She trailed off and her eyes widened.

She sniffed the air once more, and we both stared at her, wondering what she was doing. But then, she turned and looked at me with horror.

"They're here, not too far! We need to leave, Moon! Those fuckers are half an hour early!" She grabbed my hand and muttered a hasty thanks to Hans, dragging me towards the back of the house.

Shit, shit, shit, shit! Why did they have to be here so soon! A few minutes more and we could have managed enough!

I felt my wolf trying to calm herself, but my PureBlood was still absent.

We sprinted through the back of the house, which didn't have a door, and precisely at the same moment we heard an explosion at the front of the house.

Did I mention that we had fixed the front door just this morning?

"We don't have time, Moon!" She frantically said, jumping on my back.

"Run!"

And with that I took off, with all my might, grateful to the moon goddess that I didn't have to shift to run as fast as I could. I once again felt the exhilarating feeling of the breeze caressing my face, feeling Liana's strength seep into me, making me run faster and faster. I whizzed past the fields, the trees, our Luna wolves hiding their scents so that our mates couldn't find us.

A roar echoed around us, followed by a loud, ferocious growl.

Stop. Stop right now, Moon!

I didn't. I kept running. It was not my wolf, it was Adrian's growl, the King's command for us to stop running.

"Keep running, Moon! We cannot stop!"

I felt more and more of Liana's energy seep into me, and I pushed myself to run faster, desperately wanting my pure blood self, but I knew it would be too much of a risk right now.

A howl pierced through the air, my heart tugging, something inside me begging me to stop and return to my mate, but I ignored it. My feet staggered for that moment, and my pace slowed down, but I still pushed myself to somehow keep running.

"Run, Moon!" Liana shrieked above me, "They are manipulating us! They are threatening us to come back! Shit, shit shit! I can smell them, Moon! They are close, fuck! They are close!"

That made me run as if my ass was on fire. And Liana wasn't lying, even I could smell them. Adrian's scent overpowered Jaxon's as it engulfed me and teased my senses, taunting me, making my body yearn to be close to his. My movements faltered, and my feet struggled to keep up with the war between my mind and my body.

I was losing it.

His scent made me lose control on my body. My wolf wanted the safety of her mate, she wanted to be near him. All I could feel was his scent, and all I could hear was his roar, nothing else. I was running blindly, my speed slowing down to the point that I could feel my mate near me.

I want him, Moon. Please, let's go to him!

Get a grip! Don't you remember what he did to you last night? He was fucking someone else when we are here, his mate!

A growl tore through the entire forest, a loud, ferocious growl, full of fury, and I knew it was mine. My wolf grew more and more furious as she remembered what we went through, last night, and it fuelled her next actions.

My hands went behind to clamp Liana's loosened limbs around me tightly, and it seemed that just like me, her wolf had lost her control. Once she was clinging tightly, I whizzed, my previous speed returning as I ran another mile.

We were already out of the wolf territory, but the moonline was still far away. My wolf growled in my head again, and I picked up my speed, annoyed that the Alphas could still catch up with us.

His scent wasn't enticing me anymore.

I pushed myself far enough, to the point that I couldn't smell them anymore, and that was when my Pure Blood self returned to me. It made me run faster than ever, with Liana clinging to me tightly.

That was when I had actually realised that Liana had managed to get a bag too, which had all of our money in it.

All of a sudden, my wolf and my pure blood withdrew, and it felt like all my strength had been drained out of me. It still took me a few moments to finally come to a stop, and Liana climbed off my back before I could fall down.

I didn't even realise that I was breathless for a lot of time.

I panted loudly and slumped down on the ground. I was tired, dog-tired, and my throat felt dry. My chest heaved and my limbs felt limp as I completely fell back so that I was lying on the ground.

"Here, have some water. You did an amazing job!" I heard Liana whisper as she lifted me up slightly and held her bottle to my chapped lips, "Drink it."

I took a deep breath in and then sipped some water from the bottle. I took a few more moments to calm my fast pacing heart and then chugged down half of the water we had.

"How are we going to go ahead now? They can still catch us here. And I don't think we will be able to run as fast here." I said, looking at Liana who disappeared behind a tree.

"Liana? What are you doing?" I asked her, as I heard a weird clinking sound.

My eyes widened when I heard the revving of an engine.

I got up and followed the noise, finding Liana as she straddled the beast she called a motorcycle. I went up to her and touched it in awe, excited for my very first motorcycle journey. I squealed and took the helmet she had held out to me as she winked, and sat behind her, wrapping my arms around her waist.

All the previous tension was forgotten as I took the, probably, best ride of my life, grinning ear to ear as we soon reached the highway.

"Where do you live, Moon?"

I told her my address details as she nodded, and I wondered if she knew the way there. We rode for about another hour, the afternoon sun shining above us. We ignored the catcalls and wolf whistles from the other bikers, determined to reach my place before anyone could find us.

"What should we do now?" I asked Liana after we had woken up from our hour-long nap.

Entering the house that had been my humble abode since I was a baby - we moved places once or twice but ended up coming back here when Grandma didn't have much time left - I had felt the warmth rushing into me, the happiness of being back home and along with it came exhaustion.

We both had fallen onto the bed instantly, shoes and all, and fell into a deep, careless slumber.

Now that we had woken up, refreshed, we were deciding what was to be done for the rest of the day.

"I don't know." She shrugged. "Maybe we should do some shopping." She stood up and walked into my closet.

After some time, she hollered, "Your clothes don't fit me. I mean, they are perfect around my waist and legs, but the boobs and ass are either too big, or a bit tight, like prebond boobs and post-bond boobs. Honestly? Your size didn't change much, even though your girls are larger than mine."

I rolled my eyes, "Are you done discussing my rack, Liana?"

"Yup."

"Any conclusions?"

"Yup. We need some shopping. Tees, pants, shorts, camis, underwear, especially lingerie..." She kept on with her wish list.

"Wait? Why do you need lingerie?" I asked her, and her head appeared out of the closet as she narrowed her eyes at me.

"Reason One: You never need a reason to wear something sexy inside." She said, pointing one finger at me. "Reason Two-"

"I thought we didn't need a reason?" I raised a brow, amused.

She shushed me, "Shut up and listen to me. Reason Two: Both you and I know that those bastards are still after our asses. Which means, they are probably letting us rest for a while, you know, calm before the storm? Even though we are across the Moonline, they are still more powerful than us. Adrian and Jaxon Wolfe are big names here, one of the richest, hottest, and most powerful men. They are going to find us in no time, and I want to stay prepared."

"By wearing lingerie?"

She gave me a look, "Don't you know, babe?" She walked out and stood in front of me, striking a sexy pose, "A woman's body is the deadliest weapon, and for Alpha Werewolves, it's a killer."

I laughed and shook my head, yet totally understanding what she was trying to say.

"You know what?" She sat down in front of me, "I feel bad for my virginity, because I know it won't be long for it to be taken. My virginity has been with me since the past entire century, I don't want to lose it."

I burst into a fit of giggles and fell back on my bed, "That is not what you will be thinking when you and Jaxon will be alone. Especially during your heat." I giggled, remembering the time I had first met Adrian and all the thoughts that had been running through my mind.

I bit my lip.

All of a sudden, Liana shrieked, "Heat! Fuck! How could I forget? Today was supposed to be the onset of my Heat! Shit, shit, shit! I can't go shopping now." She pouted and fell face first on the mattress.

"Aw." I cooed, "Don't worry, babe. I'll get the lingerie for you."

Lingerie.

What a problem it fucking was.

I had already spent an hour or so in the shopping mall, buying clothes and other stuff that Liana wanted. I had no idea how long we were going to stay here, or how frequently we would need to stay here so I bought as many clothes as I could.

The only thing left was lingerie.

And I had no idea what exactly it was that she wanted. She didn't give me the exact details, and I didn't have enough money left to buy everything they had. The woman at the counter was looking at me weirdly as I groaned and fussed.

"Is your man difficult? I mean, some very, very particular needs?" She said.

I started shaking my head, wanting to tell her that it was for my friend, when a horrifyingly familiar scent struck my nose and a warm hand snaked around my waist, my body pressed against a hard, familiar wall of muscles.

I gasped. The tingles and sparks were so...so...

"No particular needs. She looks beautiful in everything. Pick up anything you want, love." A deep voice caressed my ear as I felt Adrian press a kiss against the crook of my neck, sparks travelling down my body.

Shit! He found me!