Chapter 321

[ 947 words ]

Talia’s POV

Last night, I barely slept. When I got back to my room, my hands wouldn’t stop shaking as I pushed a chair against the door. I kept listening for footsteps in the hallway, afraid the imposter would return and force the mate mark on me.

All night, I kept replaying the possible ways to get a message to Robin. By early afternoon, when the guards were usually distracted, I knew what I had to do.

This morning, there was a young guard by the dining hall I hadn’t seen before. I spotted him when Annie walked me to breakfast. He kept staring at my diamond earrings. He was young and undisciplined, just the kind of person I could use.

I approached him quickly and said, “I want to walk in the lower garden. I will not be long.”

He replied, “Alpha said you can’t leave the wing without an escort, Luna.”

“You can be my escort. Walk me down,” I said simply.

“I cannot leave my post.”

“It’ll just be for ten minutes. No one will know,” I urged, trying not to let my anxiety show.

I held out the earrings, hoping their sparkle would convince him. “Take me to Robin’s cabin. Then walk me back. That’s all I’m asking.”

He glanced at the earrings and then checked the hallway both ways. He paused for

a moment, took them and slipped them into his coat pocket.

“Ten minutes, Luna. That’s all I can allow,” he told me.

“Thank you,” I said.

“Thank me if this works and we don’t get caught,” the young guard responded.

He walked me out through the lower garden and along a path to cabins behind it. The guard stopped at the path. He pointed at the third cabin and said, “That one. Be quick.”

I went up to the door and knocked once. Robin opened it. His one eye widened the second he saw me.

“You shouldn’t be here, Luna,” he said.

“Let me in and close the door.”

Robin stepped aside, and I came in. He shut the door behind me and turned the lock. “What are you doing here? Alpha is not going to like you being here.”

“I need your help. I need to get out of here tonight,” I told him.

“This is the Bloodmoon pack, Luna. It is your home. If you have issues, you should be talking to Alpha Nolan, not me,” Robin stated.

“I know this is not the Bloodmoon pack, Robin. The man who looks like Nolan is not Nolan. I know he’s Jason. I do not know how he has done this, but I know it is Jason,” I retorted.

“You’re mistaken, Luna. This is Bloodmoon,” Robin repeated.

“Stop lying to me, Robin,” I said, my voice catching. “I’m your Luna. Nolan and I got you and your daughter out of Michael’s house. We saved you. We saved Annie. I need you to tell me the truth. Please, after everything, you owe me that.”

“Everything I’ve done has been for her.” Robin’s voice broke, and he looked away. His hand trembled on the edge of the table. “He said I could die with the others, watch Annie die, or serve him. I wanted to keep her safe, so I did what he asked. He promised she’d be free once it was over.” His single eye looked glassy, guilt written all over his face.

“Annie is going to die here if you don’t help me,” I pressed.

“What do you mean?” Robin asked.

“Do you really think Jason will keep his word? He’s as bad as Michael, even worse. If he’ll do this to me, someone he claims he still loves, what do you think he’ll do with Annie?”

“He promised me she would be safe.”

“He has been beating her, Robin,” I lied. I hadn’t seen him beat Annie, but I knew Jason. The way Annie shrinks back and always overexplains, I was certain he was beating her. Even if he wasn’t, he was going to start. “Her arms are covered in bruises. Jason promised you a good life for her, and he has been hurting her since the day you handed her over.”

Tears filled Robin’s eye, and his face twisted with anger and guilt.

“No, you’re just lying to get me to help you,” he said.

“It is the truth. Jason will kill Annie once he is done using you,” I said.

“He said she would have everything she needed in the palace. He said she would be raised like a daughter of his household. He told me she was settling in and she was happier without me to remind her of what she lost.”

“He’s lying to you. Jason and the Rogue King are now enemies of every pack. They won’t bring you and Annie freedom. Freedom only comes if they fall, and that’s what I’m working toward. I have to leave tonight. Waiting puts Annie and all of us at risk. We’re running out of time.

Robin sank into the chair by the table, looking empty and lost. He covered his eye with one hand, his shoulders shaking in fear. Every breath seemed like a struggle.

“You can’t stop them. They have the mad rogues,” he muttered.

“Healer Leslie was close to an antidote before I was kidnapped. She has probably completed it now. Without the mad rogues, Jason and the Rogue King are nothing,” I explained.

Robin did not answer for a long moment.

“Your eye… was that him?” I asked quietly.

Robin touched the patch with two fingers and nodded. “Yes.”

Guilt twisted in my chest. “I’m sorry.”

“I’ll help you,” he said at last. “On one condition.”

“What condition?”

His jaw tightened.

“Take Annie with you. I don’t care what happens to me anymore. I only care that

she’s safe.” His voice roughened. “You take her far away from here, and you never

let him get his hands on her again.”

“I promise.”

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