A Luna for Alpha Kieran-Chapter 12: Quest

It all began at her fingertips!

At first, she thought it was just rage!The ticking! The itch!

But then the burning worsened.Her throat burned, and her stomach churned as if her insides were trying to claw their way out. Sweat pooled at her temples, her skin feverish, damp, and tingling with a sensation that wasn’t quite pain...but wasn’t anything close to normal either.

Autumn sprawled on the floor, fingers twitching, nails scraping against the rough wood. At first, those scratch marks looked like mindless strokes...just angry, desperate marks left by a caged animal.

But then, as the hours bled into days, the patterns emerged.Clawed lines twisted into jagged spirals, overlapping like the veins of a leaf, or perhaps the branches of a dead tree.

She did not remember doing it. Did not even realize what she had been doing until she blinked and saw the same design repeated on the walls, the floor, even the underside of the cot.

Three days.

Three whole days without food. Without water.

And yet...she was not thirsty. Was not hungry.

Just angry. A slow burning, all consuming rage that kept her awake even as her body should have been screaming for sustenance.

"What the hell did he make me drink?" She rolled onto her back, staring at the ceiling, teeth gritted.The silence was worse than the dark.

And then...click.

The door creaked open. novelbuddy-cσ๓

Autumn did not move. Did not even turn her head. She already knew the routine. The woman would step inside. Then stand there, all silent and obedient, check the room, look her up and down...and then leave without a word.

But this time the footsteps were wrong.

Too heavy. Too deliberate.As if calculated.

She sat up sharply...and froze as the door completely opened.

A man stood in the doorway.

He set his gaze down without a word.Then his gaze flicked from her to the claw marks covering the room.

He let out a smile.

"You have been busy," he mused, tilting his head as if admiring her work.Then the man crouched, fingers tracing one of the deeper grooves in the floor. "You know what this is, don’t you?"

She did not.

He chuckled at her silence. "No?"

Autumn’s pulse spiked.

"Ok, no problem! We learn as we grow. By the way, I," he continued, straightening, "am here to offer you a way out."

Her breath hitched. "Trap. It’s a trap. Kieran’s testing me." She yelled in her mind

But the man’s smile only widened.

The man didn’t just smile as such if we want to be exact...it was a slow, serpentine curl of lips that didn’t belong on a human face.

His eyes were a shade of gold. Too bright to be natural, and it gleamed in the dim moon light somehow seeping into the attic , as he studied Autumn’s claw marked prison.

" You are quite artistic, I must insist! "

Autumn stayed crouched against the far wall, muscles tense. "Who the hell are you?"

"A friend," he said, though the words felt like they dripped with mockery. "Or an enemy of your enemy. Depends on how you look at it to be honest."

As he stepped closer, the air thickened with something metallic...like old coins and wet earth. His shadow did not move right. It stretched too long, twitching at the edges as if alive.

"Three days without food, without water... and yet, here you are. Not starving. Not even weak." His gaze dropped to her hands, still caked with dried blood from her frantic scratching. "Interesting, isn’t it?"

Autumn bared her teeth. "Get to the point."

The man chuckled, low and smooth. "Midnight. The eastern gate. A car will be waiting." He tossed something onto the floor between them.It was a key, blackened with age, its teeth jagged like broken bone.

"Why would you help me?" she demanded.

"Oh, little wolf," he purred, "I am not really helping you. I am giving you a choice." He leaned in, his breath unnaturally cold against her ear. "Stay here and rot in Kieran’s cage... or walk free and watch him choke on his own mistakes."

Then he was gone. The door clicked shut behind him, leaving Autumn alone with the key...and the gnawing sense that she had just made a deal with something far worse than Kieran. Or was walking right into a trap!

***

Midnight came too soon.

The key turned with a sound like a dying breath.

The attic door creaked open, and Autumn slipped into the hallway, her bare feet silent on the stone. No guards. No alarms like mentioned. Just an eerie, waiting stillness, as if the place itself was holding its breath and waiting for Autumn’s next move!

And she did move. But she moved like a ghost, following the man’s directions,word by word...down the servant’s stairwell, through the abandoned kitchen, into the moonlit courtyard. The eastern gate stood ajar, rusted hinges groaning in the wind.

And there, just beyond the threshold, stood the man.

"Took you long enough," he said, grinning.

Autumn didn’t return the smile. "Who are you really?What’s your name? "

"Names are such fragile things," he mused, stepping forward. "But if you must call me something... try ’My Savior’. " He chuckled.

She scoffed. "I doubt that.But thanks. What in it for you though? I mean helping me escape?"

His grin widened. "Smart girl.I love it when pretty girls ask smart questions." He held out a hand.But effectively ignored all the questions

Answered none. "Shall we?"

Autumn hesitated.

And as if right on cue -

"AUTUMN, DON’T TOUCH HIM!"

Kieran’s roar shattered the night.

She whirled as her heart started hammering against her chest. She felt like a thief getting caught, all over again.

She moved just in time to see him and a handful of his warriors storm into the courtyard, weapons drawn, faces twisted in fury.

The man sighed, as if annoyed by an interruption. "Ah. The infamous Alpha arrives."

Kieran’s gaze burned into Autumn. "Autumn!Step away from him.Now."

Her pulse pounded.The way he called her name, like he owned her...like she wanted him to own her...it felt like a chain connecting them...more like a leash! God dammit! Autumn get a grip on your feelings girl! "Or what? You will lock me up again?Starve me to death? Chain me, torture me... "

"That’s not a man," Kieran cut her short with a frantic yell. His eyes looked furious but the fury was not directed at Autumn.

" Ah! Kieran! You had to come along and question my masculinity in front of this pretty girl, huh? That definitely doesn’t work! Bastard!" And with a wicked wink and a smirk, he lunged.

The man or what ever he was,moved faster than anything Autumn had ever seen. Faster than Alphas, seasoned lycans... witches too.

One second, he was standing there...the next, Kieran’s fist passed through empty air as the man literally dissolved into shadow.

Then he reappeared behind Kieran, driving a blade toward his spine.

Autumn screamed in agony... in warning... like she wasn’t the one running from Kieran and the man wasn’t in her side.

Kieran twisted just in time, the knife grazing his side. Blood splattered the cobblestones.

"Girl,that’s pathetic sportsmanship.Please chose a side," He taunted before turning his full attention towards Kieran again. "Is this really the best you can do, Alpha Kieran?"

Kieran not answer. Just attacked again, his movements were brutal, precise but desperate. His warriors joined him, but the man did not even flinch.

He snapped his fingers.

And the shadows answered.

Dark figures peeled from the walls, from the ground, from the very air. They were skeletal warriors with hollow eyes and grinning teeth. They descended on Kieran’s men like a flood, cutting them down before they could even scream.

Autumn watched, frozen, as the courtyard became a slaughterhouse.

Kieran fought like a demon, his fists and fangs tearing through the shadow soldiers, but there were too many. One by one, his warriors fell.

Until it was just him.

Blood dripped from his lip, his knuckles, his side. He was brutally injured. He was breathing hard, swaying on his feet but he still stood between Autumn and the man... and his minion.

"If I don’t make it...run," he growled at her. Autumn couldn’t even look at him. Her gaze was darting between the man, his minions, closing in. " Autumn, are you listening? " Kieran barked. " Run and do not look back. Do you understand? " He was on the verge of shaking.

And the man laughed. "Oh, she is not going anywhere.Are you Autumn? We are on the same team, right? You and I? " He turned to Autumn, extending a hand again. "Come, little wolf. Let’s end this.It’s already been so much fun. I don’t want to waste any more energy on this! "

But Autumn’s heart hammered.

Freedom was right there.Literally arms extending, calling to her.

No compulsion...no forceful abduction...no other hindrance...and yet she hesitated.

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