by Marissa Teng
The moon and the star
Marissa Teng
The Moon and the Star
By: Marissa Teng
This book is a work of fiction.
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarities to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Text copyright © 2019 Marissa Teng Teng LLC
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without express written permission of the author.
The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of a copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by fines and federal imprisonment.
Cover art by Jessica Shero
Edited by Jessica Shero and Jason Algera
Contents
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Epilogue
One
Lucia struggled to keep her footing as she trekked up the snowy hill. As the wind harshly blew the falling snow into her face, she didn’t try to shield herself. Instead, she did her best to shield the one thing that was important to her, her son, Stellan. He was the only thing that kept her going and the reason she was running away. Her husband was abusive, cruel, heartless, and the Alpha of her pack. However, Sterling, her husband, never officially married her, or rather, never claimed her as his mate. He never marked her knowing that once he did, a bond would form between them making her Alpha female to their pack, a title he did not want to share with anyone.
Lucia was promised to Sterling when she was born and he was only four years old. Sterling’s father, Clinton, was the Alpha of the pack at the time and was a strong leader. He cared for his pack and kept them safe. When Sterling turned 19, he attacked and killed his father and claimed the title of Alpha. Then, when she was barely 15, Sterling went to Lucia’s pack and demanded what was promised to him once he became Alpha. Her. Her father, the Alpha of his own pack, cursed himself for promising her to him but once the alliance between him and Clinton was made, nothing could be done. There was nothing he could do once Sterling became Alpha unless he wanted to challenge the young Alpha. Luke, her father, was not stronger than the young Alpha, no one was. So sadly…he let her go. He loved his daughter but if he didn’t let her go, Sterling would kill Luke’s pack and take her anyway. That decision would haunt him forever especially since he never saw his precious daughter again.
That’s when Lucia’s torment began. That night, Sterling took her and tortured her, raped her beat, her, and broke her. Then the next day, he did it again, and again and again. For five years, she suffered at his sadistic hands until he decided he needed an heir. Then, he used Lucia for that too. For nine months after that, Sterling didn’t harm her. He fed her well and the beatings stopped. But, once she gave birth to their son, Stellan, Lucia’s nightmare began again. But now, she wasn’t alone. She had something to give her strength. Stellan.
As a wolf shifter, Sterling knew how much a pup needs his mother, so, he never tried to take Stellan from Lucia. Sadly, that did not stop Sterling from doing what he wanted to Lucia, sometimes, in front of the small boy, without caring. But when Stellan turned six, he had enough. As his father slapped his mother, something snapped inside of him and he shifted into his wolf form and attacked.
Stellan launched himself at his father, grabbing onto his calf muscle. Sterling was taken by surprise but quickly kicked the young pup away, laughing. Stellan was slammed against the wall and that was when Lucia had had enough. No one would ever harm her son.
Lucia shifted, something she was never allowed to do, into her wolf as Sterling sat there, laughing at the crumpled body of his son. Using that as a distraction, she lunged herself at his neck and bit. Sterling screamed and thrashed but she just bit down harder. He reached back and grabbed ahold of her fur and threw her off him. She stumbled along the floor but quickly regained her footing. Then, he began to shift into his wolf.
Knowing he would kill her and her son, she lunged at him as he was in mid-shift. The force pushed Sterling back into the wall and momentarily knocked him out. Shifting back into her human form, since she wasn’t able to hold her wolf form for too long, she picked up her son, threw a few things into a book-bag along with a sweater and jeans on herself and ran to the car.
Lucia knew how to drive, she learned that before her parents gave her up to the monster, but that was when she was 15 and now, she was 26. They were in the middle of a snow blizzard and she had no idea where she was going. She just knew she had to get away.
Stellan stirred, and woke up with a start in the back seat. He quickly shifted back into his human form.
“Mommy, are you ok?” he asked. Lucia let out a startled shriek but it was quickly replaced with a relieved sigh.
“Yes sweetie, I’m alright. Put on your seatbelt.” She told him. “Are you alright, my love?” she looked at him, naked in the back seat. Reaching over she grabbed the bag in the passenger seat and handed it back to him. “You have some clothes in there, put them on before you freeze.” She didn’t have time to pack much, a few pants and sweaters for Stellan and even less for herself. He pulled a sweater over his head and threw on some pants then clutched the bag to his chest.
“Did I kill him…?” Stellan whispered, shaking and scared as he tried to wipe some of the blood off of his mouth. Lucia didn’t have time to answer because Sterling had rear-ended her car with his truck. Lucia lost control of the car and the car headed for a cliff. She screamed, trying to straighten out her car but another crash came to the car, this time sending it flying over the cliff. The car rolled and rolled as the screams of her son and herself filled her ears. The car crashed into a tree and stopped rolling. Lucia’s head lolled to the side and blackness took her.
She woke a few moments later when a voice urgently told her to wake up. It was Stellan. Stellan survived the crash and so did she. Her eyes fluttered open and she realized someone was pulling her out of the car. Small hands clutched her arm as she fell to the icy ground.
“Mommy! Please be ok.” Stellan whimpered, kneeling down next to her. He had a gash on his forehead and blood pooled down into his eye causing him to keep it shut. Lucia reached up to wipe some of the blood off but flinched. Her ribs, a few must be broken.
Gritting her teeth through the pain, she had her ribs broken before, it sucked and was super painful but she could take it. She stood up as Stellan helped her. He grunted under her weight but didn’t complain.
“We have to get out of here before he comes looking for us.” She said taking a step and almost fell. Her leg had a long gash on it. Her jeans were ripped and blood trickled down her leg. Again, she could take it. She kept telling herself that. She would have to take it if she wanted to save herself and her son. She looked up at the cliff where the car fell from, it was miles away now but she knew Sterling would come for them. They couldn’t stay here, it wasn’t safe. She pushed forward, into the darkness of the trees and night away from the man that was now hunting for them.
Two
Jaxson had been about to drift off to sleep when he heard something. He heard a car crashing and rolling with the faint screaming of a woman. He shot up out of his bed and ran outside his cabin. He sniffed the
air. Blood. But it was far, at least 15 miles, but still in his territory. Whoever had just crashed needed help. He could tell they were still alive even though they were bleeding. If he didn’t get to them quickly, they would freeze in the harsh weather. He thought about going back inside, getting dressed and taking his truck but in this snow, running would be faster. Without a second thought, he shifted into his bear and began running into the woods. Even as a bear, he was fast. He could cover the 15 miles in at least 15 minutes if he kept up this pace. He heard a shuffling next to him and another bear caught pace with him and followed behind. It was his younger brother and his Beta, Holden. He must have heard the crash too. Either that or he saw his Alpha running into the woods and decided to follow.
As the two ran through the woods for about ten minutes, the smell of blood became more potent. Jaxson could now tell that it was a woman and a small boy bleeding. They were also shifters. Wolf shifters. In his territory. But they didn’t seem hostile. If anything, they seemed scared and hurt. A low growl came from his brother behind him. Holden must have smelled the wolves too. They picked up their pace, closing in on the woman and child.
There, next to a fallen down tree, Jaxson spotted them. The woman was on her stomach, sprawled out on the ground as the boy knelt next to her, crying trying to wake her. Was he too late? He sniffed. No, she was still alive, just barely. As they got closer, the boy turned towards them. His face was covered in blood and his eyes went wide with fear. But the boy quickly turned towards them in a protective stance to shield the woman. Was she his mother? The boy then shifted into a small wolf. Jaxson’s bear let out a small gasp. But this boy looked no more than six years old. How was this possible? Wolves could only shift for their first time when they were 16 years old, just like bear shifters.
Suddenly, the boy staggered and went limp. He fell to the ground but quickly tried to get back up. Once more, he fell to the ground then passed out, shifting back into his human form. Jaxson and his brother shifted back to their human forms and ran towards the two of them. As Jaxson knelt down next to the woman, his bear roared inside him.
MINE.
Shocked, he reached out and brushed the woman’s blond hair away from her face. The touch sent an electric shock into his body and the woman stirred and let out a whimper. Did she feel it too? He quickly reached out and scooped her into his arms. She was cold but faintly breathing.
“What are you doing?” Holden asked. “She’s a wolf in our territory. She needs to be killed for trespassing, they both do!”
Jaxson growled at his brother for even suggesting such a thing. This woman was helpless and dying. And his. “Grab the boy and the bag.” He ordered.
“But—”
“Now!” Jaxson roared, his eyes slightly went red before going back to their soft green color. Grumbling, Holden picked up the small boy and threw him over his shoulder and grabbed his bag with the other hand. “Keep him warm.” Jaxson ordered as he turned and ran back into the woods, back towards his cabin.
Jaxson kept the woman close to his naked body as he ran. He let his heat slip into her trying to warm her. He wasn’t as fast in his human form but he was fast enough. They would make it home in a matter of moments. He kept glancing down at her as he ran. She had a bruise on her jaw, and her wet hair clung to her face. Her face was a pale blue color from the cold. He had to get her inside quickly.
He picked up his pace as he pushed out the forest and into the clearing that showed his cabin up ahead. He sprinted towards it with his brother falling behind. He ran up the few steps and stormed into his cabin running towards the fire. He softly placed the woman down next to the fire and began taking off her wet clothes. What he saw stopped him in his tracks.
There were scars and bruises covering what he could see of her stomach. His bear roared with anger. These marks were old and not from the crash. As he pulled her sweater off, he saw her body was covered in a few more bruises and faint scars. Someone had tortured this woman for years.
Holden came into the cabin and ran toward the fire, placing the small boy next to it. He gasped as he saw the woman. “Jesus, Jax, what happened to her?”
“Someone did this to her, it wasn’t from the crash,” Jaxson said not looking away from the woman. Holden could feel Jaxson’s anger roll off him but he also smelled something. Attraction. Jaxson wasn’t even trying to conceal his want for her. But she was a wolf. How was his mate a wolf? Not only that, but the only wolf pack for miles was run by a sadistic Alpha named Sterling. He had killed numerous wolf shifters causing the other packs in the area to leave giving him more power and more territory. She had to belong to that pack.
“Jax…”
“Leave now,” Jaxson interrupted. “Go get the other pack members and have them patrol the area. Wolves might come looking for her and I want no one to get near her.”
“But Jax…” Holden said softly. “She could belong to one of them, even if he did abuse her…there’s nothing we can do. She has a son, she has to be married.” Jaxson let out a low growl in warning.
“She has no claiming mark.” Jaxson said gesturing to her neck. It had a few light scars but as Holden looked, he saw no mating mark, nothing to prove she was married. This woman was unclaimed even though she clearly had a child.
“Jax I still think we should—”
“No!” Jaxson roared again. “Your Alpha gave you an order! Now do it. No one will take her from here. Now go and tell the others. This woman is to be protected by the pack. She is mine.”
***
Once Holden left, Jaxson ran to the bathroom and filled a basin with warm water and grabbed a washcloth. Running back to his mate, he knelt down and began gently dabbing away all the dirt and blood from her face and body. She was beautiful. Jaxson had never seen such a beautiful woman. Not that he went out much from his cabin or territory. Sure, he was the Alpha but that only meant he had to protect his pack and provide a suitable pace for them to live, which he had.
Jaxson had built a packhouse about a mile away from his cabin. There, he housed the rest of his pack comfortably. He would go over once a week and listen to what his pack members had to say and ask for and would make sure they were provided for. Once a month he and a few members, usually his beta and his third in command along with a few women, would go into town and get what supplies they needed.
Jaxson then limited his contact with them and chose to do most of his work from his home. He didn’t much like the company of others, but he was strong so his pack sort of gravitated towards him which is how the Hollow Forest Pack came to be. It started out with just Jaxson and his brother Holden. Then a few more bears were added and so on and so on and now, his pack was now at least 100 strong bear shifters who everyone left alone. Looks like now, that won’t be an option considering how his mate was somehow…a wolf. He looked out the window at the stars in the night sky and wondered why the Star King would even bless him with a mate. Moreover, why had he blessed him with a mate that was a wolf?
Once all the dirt and blood was cleaned off of her, Jaxson dressed her in one of his shirts, he wanted her in his scent and not that other wolf’s scent that she had been in before he washed her, and wrapped her in a quilt. Then, he went to work on her son.
The boy was the spitting image of his mother. He had the same soft features and blond hair. He was still amazed that this small boy was able to shift at such a young age. The wolf he shifted into wasn’t a full-grown wolf and looked more like an adolescent wolf but still, that had to be unheard of. Had the boy done it to…to protect his mother from whatever horror they were running from? From whatever horror caused her to be covered in all those scars?
His bear roared inside him.
We can’t let her get hurt by anyone ever again. His bear told him. Jaxson nodded as he picked up the boy and checked him for injuries. He seemed to be clean of them except for the gash on his forehead. It looks like this boy wasn’t tortured like his mother. Somehow, that knowledge calmed his bear, just slightly.
We won’t. She’s never leaving my side. Jaxson told his bear. He wrapped the boy in a blanket and carried him to his bed. Then he placed him under his covers and went back to get his mother.
She was so frail yet he felt strength pulse off of her in waves as he lifted her up. She turned her head and rested it against his chest seeking comfort. Jaxson tightened his hold on her feeling his power leave him and enter her. It was healing her, he noticed but just as she took his power, he took hers and a sense of calm covered him. Was this the power of mates? He had never heard of it being like this.
Jaxson leaned his head down to hers as he walked to his room.
“Take what you need from me, my love.” He whispered to her, his beautiful mate. His wolf. His bear let out a contented sound as Jaxson placed her in his bed, next to her son then got in behind her, wrapping her in his protective hold.
We are healing her, do you feel it? His bear asked.
Yes. Blessed be our king, we are healing her. Jaxson responded and drifted off to sleep as a warm, wonderful feeling filled him and his bear.
Three
Lucia awoke feeling safer than she had ever felt in her life. She was reminded of her life before Sterling. Her safe life with her family before they...before they gave her away. She looked at Stellan, asleep next to her with a bandage of his forehead. Odd, Sterling would never— She shot up remembering what happened. Sterling threw Stellan against the wall, she shifted, fought, ran away with her son then, the bastard rear-ended them off a cliff!
Oh no, he would come after them. He would get them back and he might even kill Stellan to punish her. She tried to get up and that was when she realized there was a warm arm wrapped around her waist. A man's arm. She turned slightly to see a huge muscular man lying next to her. He had beautiful brown hair that covered his forehead and the sexiest beard covering his face. It wasn't a long beard, but a normal, manly, rugged beard.