***Zara's POV***

Cold.

Biting cold.

My bones ached and my body felt stiff from the cold and the pain, or the pain of the cold. There weren't any thoughts swirling in my head besides cold and pain. A muffled shout tumbled into my consciousness. I tried to understand the voices after the indiscernible shout a second before. The sensation of goosebumps rising on my skin made me curl as the wind blew over my exposed body. Then there was a familiar throbbing pain that jolted me awake.

Jerking awake caused searing pains to pull at the healing skin on my backside. In my ears my frightful scream sounded otherworldly. My palm tightened even more over the throbbing mark left by the one creature I never wanted to see again. The creature that was the cause of so much of my suffering. Looking now at a chaotic mess of snarls, shouts and glowing magic my world from cold painful darkness tried to focus on the graphic images in front of me. Some of these faces were familiar. Some faces were that of pack members that I had grown-up with during school. They were some members that were kind, but mostly they found every opportunity to be bastards. Other faces I haven't seen before, but I knew that they were working with him -- the creature of my nightmares and pain. It was in the way that they looked at me. Like I was a prize for their master.

A male witch stepped forward and into the light. He looked at me like he had already won, all full of cockiness and bravado. His hands smoothed out his tailored suite and then he combed back his reddish hair back into place.

Dread started to fill me up to the point of suffocation. My breathing became harsh and my heart hammered painfully in my chest.

James jumped to cut him off during his advancement, and some of the pack members joined in my defense. The witch then burned with fury and pulled a fireball out and over his raised fist.

"Give her to us or DIE!" He threatened as he raised his fireball higher in his closed hand.

Lightning struck near the blown apart hole as a witch in the back swiped her hand across her darkly clothed body successfully sending an ominous chill in the room.

James held his ground. He was not intimidated by their display of magical awesomeness. One of the pack members quivered violently, but still stood her ground. To her rescue a few younger male pack members stood beside her all sporting the same dark head of curls. The sight made me feel slightly hopeful that I would have a fighting chance to not have to be taken to their master; again.

Hope quickly started to die as flashbacks of The Siege crept into my thoughts. Four years ago my mother, the rightful Alpha Luna of the Veiled Moon Pack, was called to help her pack that made her an outcast or even some say a rogue of her. They begged her to help fight off the horde of rogues that invaded the pack territory. I was nearly eighteen, young and strong. Alpha blood flowed through my veins and I too followed my mother into battle as her Beta of sorts. When we arrived, witches emerged. Witches cut through foes and allies to get to where my mother and I were fighting. It was like they sensed our presence. My last memory of my mother before I was overcome with rouges was that she was fighting off rouges and witches alike. Her beautiful white and grey wolf, Hilde, was struck with a lightning bolt. Hilde's yelps rang in my ears. Her cries mixed with my wolf's.

Tears streamed down my face.

As my gaze was able to take in more of my current surroundings I noticed that there must have been a battle in this hospital room I have found myself in now. Stone was blown apart and shards were lodged into the walls, cabinets, and beds. Slumped over bodies littered the floor. My heart ached with more pain. One body in particular made my heart hurt with even more sorrow. 'Freddy?!' His liver spotted head that I've seen only get balder my whole life laid bloody. An ominous feeling in equal parts sadness informed me that he shielded me from the blast that broke into the hospital bay.

"Just give her to them!" A pack member yelled. "She's not even part of our pack!" His voice resounded in the room and few other pack members nodded in agreement while others dared not speak or move.

The male witch from earlier smiled. "See. All of this will go away." His words warm honey. Then he stretched out his other hand toward me. It was an offering.

"NO!" I shook my head in horror. "No. No. NO!" All the eyes in the room looked at me. Some were filled with disgust at my cowardice, some with pity, and few looked at me with determination. The room was split against my favor.

Again a battle ensued. James lunged for the male witch in front of him. Screams and snarls. Shouts and cries of pain. Rough hands yanked my half naked body out of the hospital bed. I kicked and screamed. My body is still feeling weak from the injuries.

At the moment I felt pathetic. Here I was again being what I hated most. 'I promised myself that I wouldn't let myself be this girl again.' Years after my escape I trained nearly everyday as a human. Mother, and Auntie gave up everything for me to be where I am today. My mother fought to the death for me, and Auntie sacrificed her magic so that I would not spend the rest of my life with my false evil mate. I needed my wolf more now than ever. Reaching inside of myself, I truly believed that we'd never be completely severed. Frantic yells rang in my head while I used the mindlink avenue I used only with her. Silence. She was still gone or unresponsive.

Stubbornness coursed through me. Even without my wolf, I was still refused to believe that this was my fate. 'My true mate is still out there. He has to be waiting for me.' Tears still fell, but this time they were angry tears. 'I would rather die than go back to that monstrous creature.' The world around me moved in a blur as I racked through my thoughts. 'No one is going to save me this time. There won't be another Persephone, if I get taken to him.' I clenched my jaw in resolve and forced myself to the present.

My mind focused on all of my enemies movements, weaknesses, and strengths. The rough hands that have their grip on me were pack members. Betrayal from these men made bile rise in my throat. Their touch made me sick. For them to forsake my mother and then now myself, their true Alpha Lunas, was abhorrent to wolf kind. As a pack of stealthy assassins, the Veiled Moon Pack always had questionable alliances and intentions as they were known to be friends to rouges. It was during the time of my grandfather, my mother's father, that the pack decided to pick a side during the Unity War. It was the Veiled Moon Pack that determined the outcome of the North American monarchies. My grandfather, the Alpha of the Veiled Moon Pack, died and my mother was then their Alpha Luna. She was at least until that the pack discovered that she was pregnant with a pup; me. Eventually she was driven out by the followers of Edith. Her followers believed the Beta Female's words that my mother was too promiscuous and shamed her for being rejected by her mate saying that she wasn't fit to be their Alpha Luna. They ostracized her and my mother didn't have the strength to fight or prove her innocence to them since she had just been rejected by her mate that she met while at war, her father and Alpha dead, and pregnant with a pup she didn't know how to support.

"Has she finally accepted her fate?" A new deep voice said. I whipped my head to them and roared in hatred as an answer. Glowing brown eyes bored back into my glaring ones.

"Should I muzzle this bitch, General Ferron?" One of the rough hands asked.

Confusion overcame me. "What?" This word escaped me before I could properly think.

"You're noisy and dumb." Ferron smirked. "This pack has been in our pocket since we killed that bitch Ingrid." He stepped closer. His hot putrid breath on my face. As he leaned down to my eye level he lifted my chin with his fingertips. "She begged for my sister to save her and her daughter's life. Then my little sister laughed in her face and slashed her throat open as your mother drowned in her own blood." General Ferron raised himself back up to his true height. My body slumped with the heavy new information. "Don't worry about revenge. She died shortly after she summoned us here." I couldn't see his face but I could feel that he was smirking. "Edith was always just as slow as she was greedy. Her righteous mate, Patrick, figured it out before she did!" He laughed heartily at that. Even the rough hands of the pack members holding me shook with their shared amusement.

I raised my tear stained face up to the sky. They had taken me to the top of a grassy wet hill behind the pack house. A little ways off in the distance I could hear explosions from fire witches, and thunder from the plasma fortified by the witches of weather. It felt like my whole world was crashing down around me. Throbbing pain ebbed from my forced mark, and intensified. When I settled my sight back down to the earth I stopped to stare wide-eyed; face to face with my nightmare.

Beautiful cream colored paws slowly padded over to me. The stunning almost golden colored wolf leaned toward me with his pale golden eyes that bore a single deep scar over the right side from the brow to just below the shadow of his eye. His snout was closed as he rubbed his soft fur against my cheek. A warm tongue licked my tear stains away reverently. With his cold wet nose, he trailed down to the ugly mark and gently nipped.

To my horror, I felt myself yearn for him to do more.

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Thank you readers for reading this far! For those of you that have waited for this chapter for a long time, I'm sorry. I'm now done with school and now I have more time to do what I really want to do! So thank you for sticking with me thus far!

I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, and I'd love to hear from you. :D

<3 Lynne