Story - , Moons Peak [FINISHED]- Unbreakable Bond (chapter 20)

♥ WHEN I WOKE up later, I realized I was in someone’s arms, and I started to panic. ThinkingI’d dreamed up the whole rescue, and I was back in Trench’s arms. I opened my eyes, whipping my head around for emphasis. My guard on alert trying to sniff out Trench and the pack of dogs that held me captive for weeks. “Hey, beautiful.” A familiar voice greeted me, and I let my eyes gaze up into light green eyes. Human eyes, and that’s when Satchel’s scent finally registered. Clad in his suspenders and slacks, and his bare chest exposed, and his feet vulnerable. I was in his arms, no longer a wolf - naked - save for the huge off-white shirt I was wearing that covered what modesty I had left. The shirt had Satchel’s scent all over it, and I found that relieving somehow. The smell was comforting, hypnotic andtantalizing. “Satchel?” I groaned when my side abdomen stung with pain, as I triedto shift my weight around in his arms. He kept his pace, stalkingthrough the forest with purpose all the while being careful not to jiggle me around. He gazed down at me with astrained smile. “You’re gonna be okay, Willy. We’re almost home.” I sighed in relief, nestling into Satchel’s comfortable heat. I missed his voice. Loving the security of his solid arms, and the way he let his lips brush on my forehead every now and then, reassured me that I was safe. As soon as we were in the comfort of a home, and I’d been wrapped upin a thick warm blanket, he placed me in front of the hearth, where the orange flames were ablaze. We were in his house I realized, and I was lying in his arms, on the couch.His arms wrapped around me from behind, and I was lying on his bare chest. The logwood house was just how I remembered; cozy with Native American sculptures and artifacts everywhere, and the same indoor-outdoor flow of wooden furniture. It was pretty as I let my eyes wander around the room, and watched the flames in the hearth dance gracefully as it casted shadows over the walls. My mind reeling if this was another one of my hallucinations that I’dendured through my transition. He lightly tugged on the shirt I was wearing. “You look good in my shirt.” He murmured in my ear, and I smiled, relishing in the comfort of his broad hands stroking my hair away from my face. He rested his chin on my shoulder, lightly kissing itwhere his shirt hung loose on me, and my skin was exposed. He frownedwhen he saw my scar where Cairo had marked me, shifting the shirt so he could get a better look. "God! What did they do to you?" He whispered in shock. I shook my head. "It doesn't matter anymore." He sighed, letting it go. I was thankful that he didn't decide to pry, because i just wanted to forget it all. "Willy...? Did they...?" He couldn't seem to choke out the word, and it finally registered what he was trying to say. I shook my head defiantly. "No. No. They did nothing like that..." He exhaled heavily as if he'd been holding his breath for too long. Thank God that sexual abuse wasn't part of their agenda, though of course it didn'tmean the physical abuse they'd put me through was okay, no. It still stained my memoryof what Cairo had done, but other than that, they really didn't want to hurt me. At least, Trench and Sheeba didn't. I tried to sit up when Aretha Heins came into the room, with a tray balanced on her lap as she wheeled herself closer. Her hair a croppedcurly style, and her eyes as green as Satchel's were delightful with glee. She wore a thick sweater, and black jeans. She just smiled and urged me to lie down. "How are you feeling?" She asked, and nodded toward the wound on mystomach. "I'm fine, thank you." Sheplaced two steaming bowls of liquid, on the coffee table, with two plates of homemade bread and some glasses of water. "I hope you're hungry." She said, and I was shaking my head, because I didn't want hermaking a fuss over me, but the sweet aroma hit my nose, and my stomachgrumbled involuntarily. I blushed because I knew they heard it. "Just a little bit." I admitted. Aretha flicked her eyes toward her son. "Satchel, make sure she eats this. She needs it." Satchel nodded and pointedly looked at me following his mothers orders to eat. I watched Aretha's retreating figureas she left the room, and Satchel had the bowl in front of me with a spoon ready to feed me. I rolled my eyes. "I'm not a baby, Satchel. I'm quite capable of feeding myself. Besides, I only got shot in my stomach, my arms still work fine." He had a half smile tugging at his lips, and shrugged. "I know, but this would save you the trouble from moving." He nodded toward the spoon, and I rolled my eyes to eat what he was offering me. I let him feed me the chicken soup, and somehow the mere gesture made it feelmore intimate. He broke off a piece of Aretha's homemade bread and fed me a little of it. I moaned. God! It tasted just how I remembered it. Sweet, fluffy and pure goodness. He licked his lips, and raised his eyebrows. He was staringat me with slight amusement, but I couldn't mistake the lust in them. "What?" I stopped chewing. He stifled a chuckle, and shook his head. "There's something on your...come here." He wiped a crumb off my bottom lip with his thumb, and then popped it into his mouth, suckingon it. I blushed, but hid it behind my smile. He ate the rest after I couldn't eat anymore, and then he finished off his plate too. After we settled backdown. I sighed in relief. My stomach full, and my security intact...a little. I felt I was comfortable here. "That reminds me, I forgot to wish you a happy birthday." He nestled his mouth into my neck and whispered."Happy bithday" before he replaced it with a kiss.I smiled a little. "Thanks." "Sorry I didn't get you anything." He apologized, running his rough chin on my shoulder. I craned my head so that i could see him. "You being with me, is enough." I stated matter of factly. We shared a knowing look as we sat in comfortable silence together. I sighed thinking about everything that had happened since coming to Denvers Drove. Never had I thought I'd ever become this animal I had supposedly become. It was all so overwhelming to think about it...even still, I'd never thought I'd be falling for my childhood bestfriend either. It seemed like my life in New York was a distant memory...like I had never left this place at all. I cleared my throat,and turned to Satchel in earnest. “Tell me how I ended up like this?” He stopped stroking me abruptly, and gazed down at me with a pained expression. “You were shot by poachers. But it's okay…I took the bullet out, so it will heal.” I raised my eyebrows, at what he wasn’t saying. “Poachers? Don’t you mean my Grams? Or was Iimagining that part?” He rubbed at his chin, eying me warily. “She’s…” He started, but I knew he was going to make excuses for her. I shook my head rigorously. “I want to know Satchel…no more secrets. You looked at her like you weren’t surprised to see her there.” He rubbedhis hands over his face, and frowned. “Word around is that your Grams has been leading an army of poachers in the area…rumors have it thather and her posse have been hunting werewolves for years, but I didn’t believe them. I needed to see it for myself…so I teamed up with them.” “It wasn’t until I saw it with my own eyes what they’d nearly done to my mom, that I knew the rumors were fact. They thought my mom was a werewolf going through her transition, so they shot her where she was. Turns out she was fixing a few nails on our roof when they hit her, and she fell, causing a permanent spinal injury. I was too late to stop it, but that didn’t stop me from taking down everyone that had caused my moms pain. Grams wasn’t there at thetime, but they were under her orders. "After, Iwas considered a traitor to them, I went through my transistion when I turned seventeen. I calledfor the wolves to help methrough my change, but Iwas considered a traitor to them too...it wasn't until they found out I was part of the Pure-Breeds that they wanted me on their side. I turned them down because I knew they were just using my bloodline to strengthen their pack...they've been holding that against me ever since.” I was horrified by his story, I was stumped speechless. "Trench - The grey-wolf that took me - said you built those fences to trap animals...is that true." He was quiet for a few seconds then finally nodded. "That was before I knew what they were for. I'd been told they were traps to capture game, not wolves." I gulped. “My Grams instigated that? What happened to your mom...why didn’t you tell me?” He shrugged. “You weren’t exactly forth coming when you first got here.” He gave a sad smile. “-Besides, how was I to know she’d taught you different? You acted a lot like her when you arrived." I bit my bottom lip and blushed. “I’m sorry…” He shook hishead. “Don’t be.” “So, the question is why? Why is my Grams doing this? It’s so uncharacteristic of her…” “After my mom was bound to a wheelchair, we talked for hours…she told me your Grams’ first husband was a werewolf.Your grandfather William. After his first transition, your grams killed him because she couldn’t accept who he was. Said he was an unstable monster...or so I heard. "A few weeks after he’d been killed, she fell pregnant with your mom. Your Grams wasn't going to keep it until she found out there was a fifty-fifty chance that her child would be normal…but the other fifty meant her child could have the disease, lycanthropy disease.” I was intrigued by this telltale story of his, I needed more. “She risked it though?” He nodded. “She did, and your mom hadn’t been affected at all to your Gram’s relief…and she had the privilege to have lived out her years...it wasn’t until your mother was pregnant with you that she’d started having complications. You had more of your grandfather’s genes thanyour mother had the energy for. You were born, and your mother died because of it.” I lowered my eyes. “That explains the fever. Grams told me that she died when I was born, but not the extent of it.” He grunted. “Figures.” “Tell me more.” I urged. “I want to know how it isthat we exist.” He sighed and I felt his breath hit the nape of my neck. “Well, werewolves are born from a family member that carries the genetic gene. A werewolfbite or scratch isn’t a problem unless the one bitten has at least one parent affected with lycanthropy disease. It has to run in their bloodline to have the effect.” “A human can't change from a single scratch or bite?” He shook his head. “That’s a myth. Humans would just get an infection that would leave them to hallucinate, nothing more. They won’t changeat all. However, a bite or scratch can enhance or force its transition earlierfor a breeder. A breeder is a person that is unaffected by the geneticgene, but still has it in their bloodline, howver, one bite or scratch could force their change to the extent where they're killed because of it. Then there's a carrier. That's what you and I are. We somehow carry the gene on from our bloodline, and our transition is inevitable by the time weturn seventeen.” My headwas spinning with all thistruth, I didn't know whatto say or think. “My mother wasn’t bittenthough?” He shook his head. “She wasn’t, but the fact that you were a carrier, she knew she wouldn’t survive the pregnancy fortoo long. Unfortunately, bearing a child with the affected gene has the equilibrium status as a werewolf bite. No one usually comes out of it alive.” “That’s awful. What about you? How did you become?” He bit on his lower lip for a little whilebefore answering. “My moms a breeder too, she almost died giving birth to me, but somehow she survived the change. She's a wolf now because of me, but she can't go anywhere because her legs don't work in either wolf or human form. My dad comes from a long line ofwerewolves - Pure-breeds, he was one.His father was one, and so on and so forth." He cleared his throat and resumed his tale. "My dad was shot...several times. My mom didn't want the locals to panic if she'd told them he was murdered, so she said he died of a fever.” It was impossible to mask my horror on my face. I bit my nails trying to take this all in. “Grams?” I breathed. He just shrugged. "Nobody has solid proof to put her away, since she's never the one with the gun...until I saw you lying there in the forest." "She's a murderer...mass murderer." I stated as if itwas obvious. "-Why?" “She blames our species for what happened to her husband, even though he died at her hands, she’s always going to blame us for what he was made of. “ My eyes stung with salt. “I can’t even..” “She’s known for a lot of things, but this…she’s become a tell-tale legend. We’re almost extinct because of her.” I was close to stuttering. “How have I not seen it before, she’s talked about this place for years, despised the living crap out of it. I just thought she hated my stepmother, and my father for remarrying after her daughter’s death. But this is just…beyond extreme of her. I’m so naïve, I didn’t know.” He was stroking my hair again, I realized. “She thought she was protecting you, maybe.” Ishook my head. “Do you know what this means? I’ve hated my dad for years, because of my Grams. All along, she’sbeen the vindictive monster, I’ve been living a lie.” I winced when I tried to get up, and my wound felt like it was stinging me again. I pulled the blanket aside, to study my wounds. “You okay?” I nodded. “Yeah…just stings a little.” The wound was still a little fleshy, but I could tell it was healing. Isighed. "What about when we change? Is it the whole full moon thing?" "That's also a myth, though somewhat of it is true. We're bound by the moon, but we can change whenever the moon is visible. A full moon, however, forces our change, and we're stuck in wolf form until the sun rises." "That's promising I guess." We lay there just drinking in each other’s warmth. I felt his lips running absentmindedly on the top of my head, breathing in and out, so that his scent mingled with mine. He was a little too quiet for my liking. I bit my lip. “Tell me what you’re thinking?” I asked, playing with his fingers abesentmindedly. Waiting for him to answer. He sighed. ”I was just thinking, that I’ve never been so scared in my life. When I saw you lying there, covered with blood, it was…I thought I was gonna loseyou.” He gently tilted my chin up so that I was facing him. “Do me a favor and don’t do that again. I don’t think I can handle it.” I looked up to him with a lazy smile on my face. “Promise I'll try not to getshot again…besides, you owe me a date.” He chuckled, letting his eyes roam my face with amusement, but I couldn’t mistake the painin them. “I look forward to it.” He kissed me on the lips gently tugging on my bottom lip, claiming me with his sweetness. I had to refrain from moaning from the way it tasted. Pine, mint and pure Satchel, it was heaven. I could do this for ages. I broke the contact when aflash of Trench’s gunmetal grey eyes gazed down at me and I gaspedin horror. “Willy, what’s wrong?” I blinked my eyes again, only to see Satchel frowning down in concern. I had to shake my head for emphasis. “I…nothing.” I frowned, letting my eyes roam his face for a little longer. Myeyes had been playing tricks on me for weeks, but this was extreme. I bit my lips. “Can I ask you something?” His shifted his weight so I can see him better. “Sure…” “You said grey wolf had claimed me before I’d disappeared. How does one break that?” He ignored the question I realized, and he was staring aimlessly at the flickering flame. I sat up a little, ignoring the pain in my side, and touched his face to get his attention. “Satchel?” He reluctantly looked at me, and his eyes were a little glassy. He swallowed, making his Adams apple bob up and down, and then sighed. “It’s…” He rubbed at his face again, a habit I noticed when he was frustrated. He squeezed his eyes shut for emphasis, and then pegged a level stare on me. He fell silent and just stared at me, and stared a little longer. His jaw muscle bulged out, as he clenched his teeth. “It’s what?” I prodded. His mask of horror finally erupted, and I could see the pain flooding my insides. Just from his gaze. “The bond is unbreakable.” He finally whispered, avoiding eye contact. Clearing his throat a couple of times as if he didn’t trust himself to say anything else. I gasped, shaking my head violently. Denial kicking in and I could hear my heart thudding louder. Unbreakable?! How is that even possible? I wanted to scream and pull my hair out or something to numb the pain. The thought of having a lifetime bond with my kidnapper? It sent icy chills down my back. The bond is unbreakable. Those words blared to life repeatedly in my head, and the more I heard it, the more I panicked. Of course, some part of me knew that Trench would come looking for me, just as Satchel had come to my rescue, but the other part was tellingme that I belonged to grey wolf, but I shut that part out. This wasn’t happening.♥