The Wolfless Luna's Revenge: Returning With His Secret Twins-Chapter 281

~Samantha~

Black Moon’s old residence looked like death had set up a vacation home and decided to stay permanently.

Three stories of rotting wood and crumbling stone, windows like empty eye sockets staring at nothing, the whole structure tilted sideways like gravity had given up halfway through. Vines crawled over everything, black, twisted things that didn’t look like any plant I’d ever seen.

And the smell. God, the smell was like copper mixed with decay.

"So this is where they lived." I kept my distance from the entrance. "Cheerful place."

"Matches the personality." Killian was already moving around the perimeter, checking angles. "But something’s not right here. You picking up on it?"

Oh, I was picking up on it alright. The air pressed down on my lungs like invisible hands squeezing. Every breath tasted metallic. Wrong.

"Maybe we should check the perimeter before we just walk in." Killian started.

A sharp whistle sliced through the air.

Dominic hit me like a linebacker, sending us both crashing sideways. An arrow slammed into the tree where I’d been standing, vibrating from the impact.

"Arrows!" Killian was already mid-shift, dodging another projectile that came from literally nowhere.

More whistling sounds. Arrows flying from the walls, the ground, hidden places I couldn’t even see.

"Get down!" Dominic threw himself over me as three more arrows buried themselves in the dirt inches away. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

Killian had pressed himself flat against the building’s side wall. "They’re motion-triggered! Anything near that entrance sets them off!"

"I can’t die like this!" I shouted back. "Any bright ideas on getting past them?"

"Give me a minute!"

Another arrow whipped past so close the fletching brushed my hair.

Then silence dropped like a curtain.

Complete. Total. Silence.

"Did they run out?" I whispered.

"Shadow traps don’t run out." Dominic’s grip on my arm tightened. "They reload."

Of course they did.

The ground in front of the entrance started glowing this nasty purple color. Symbols burned into the dirt, spreading outward in a perfect circle.

"Move now!" Dominic jerked me backward.

The tree we’d hidden behind didn’t just break. It evaporated. Turned to ash and dust in under three seconds.

"Okay, so that just scared the shit out of me!" I managed, heart hammering against my ribs.

"This whole place is one giant trap." Killian looked shaken from his position. "Shadow magic laced through every inch. Whoever set this up really hated visitors."

"Can we shut it down?" I asked.

"Probably. There’s usually a central source powering everything." Dominic studied the building like he could x-ray vision through the walls. "Take out the source, the rest collapses."

"Probably?" I repeated.

"Shadow magic doesn’t come with guarantees."

The arrows started again. Different angles this time. More of them.

We split up fast. Dominic left, me right, Killian held his ground.

I could hear them hitting dirt behind me, getting closer with each one, and then..

"Sam, get down!"

I hit the ground hard just as Dominic came out of nowhere and intercepted an arrow mid-flight.

Except intercepted was the wrong word.

It went straight through his arm.

Upper left, just above the elbow. Clean through.

"Dominic!" I was moving before I could think, but he was already standing, snapping the arrow shaft and yanking it out like it was a splinter.

"I’m good," he bit out, but black veins were already spreading from the wound like cracks in glass.

Shadow poison.

"You’re bleeding shadow poison, that’s the opposite of good."

"I said I’m good." He took a step and his leg buckled.

I caught him before he face-planted. "Stop being stubborn and let me help."

"We don’t have time. We need to get inside before.."

"Before you collapse from poison? Brilliant strategy." I was already ripping fabric from my shirt to wrap his arm. The black veins kept spreading. "Sit."

"Samantha."

"Sit down or I swear I won’t forgive you."

He actually obeyed.

I knelt and bit into my palm hard enough to break skin. Blood welled up immediately.

"What are you doing?" His eyes went huge.

"Fixing your stupid heroic move. Royal blood burns out shadow poison." I pressed my bleeding palm against the wound before he could object.

"Don’t...you’ll weaken yourself.."

"Shut up and hold still."

My blood touched the wound and I felt it instantly. Like someone opened a drain inside me and everything started pouring out. The black veins retreated, pulling back toward the injury, and where my blood met shadow poison, it literally burned away in wisps of dark smoke.

Dominic’s hand covered mine. "That’s enough."

"It’s enough when the poison’s gone." I kept pressure on the wound even though spots were dancing in my vision.

His eyes locked on mine and his whole expression changed. Went soft in a way I rarely saw.

"Thank you," he said, barely above a whisper.

"Don’t thank me for basic decency. Keeping you alive is pretty much the minimum requirement."

The final black vein vanished. His wound started closing up, skin sealing itself back together under my palm.

I pulled away and I nearly experienced a blackout.

Dominic caught me before I could fall. "Easy. You gave too much."

"I gave what was necessary." I leaned into him because standing on my own wasn’t happening right now. "You took an arrow for me. Least I could do was make sure you lived through it."

"I’d do it again." His arms tightened around me. "Every single time."

Something warm spread through my chest that had nothing to do with blood loss.

"I know you would." I looked up at him. "That’s what scares me."

Before he could respond, Killian’s voice cut through the moment.

"Hate to interrupt whatever you both got going on, but I found something!" He was waving from a side window he’d apparently climbed through. "Study on the second floor! You need to see this!"

Dominic helped me stand, keeping one arm around my waist. "Can you walk?"

"Can you?" I shot back.

"Touché."

We made it to the window slowly, because we were both pretty banged up and Killian helped pull us through.

The inside was worse than the outside. Everything covered in dust and cobwebs. Furniture rotting. But no more traps, which was something.

Killian led us upstairs to what must’ve been Black Moon’s study.

Papers everywhere. Books stacked to the ceiling. And on the desk, a journal open to a page covered in handwriting.

I picked it up, squinting at the words.

Phase Three: Merge royal blood with shadow power. Create hybrid wolves loyal only to me. Control all Packs through forced bonds. No one will resist. No one can resist.

My hands started shaking.

"They were planning to weaponize royal blood." My voice came out hollow. "Turn it into some kind of mind control."

"Not just planning." Killian pointed to another page filled with diagrams. "Look at the dates. They were already testing it. On live subjects."

Dominic leaned over my shoulder, reading. His whole body went rigid. "These dates. This was happening while your mother was still alive."

"She must’ve found out." The pieces clicked together in my head. "That’s why she hid whatever she hid. She knew what Black Moon was doing and she was trying to stop it."

"And they probably killed her for it." Killian’s voice was grim.

I kept reading, page after page of horrifying plans. Experiments. Test subjects who didn’t survive. Pack members Black Moon had used as guinea pigs.

Then I found a list of names at the back.

Candidates for the hybrid program.

My heart almost gave up.

Because right at the top, circled multiple times, was a name I recognized.

Mine.

"They were going to use me." The journal slipped from my numb fingers. "I was on their list. They were planning to experiment on me."

Dominic caught the journal before it hit the floor. His face had gone white. "Okay, I think we have seen enough. Time to go back home."

"But there’s more to this,"

"Now, Sam. Before whoever’s maintaining these traps realizes we’re here."

He had a point.

We climbed back out the window and started the trek back to the car. None of us spoke. What was there to say?

My phone buzzed halfway back.

Text from Maggie: The twins won’t settle down. Keep asking about valleys and dangers. Gamma’s trying to calm them but they want to use magic to help you. Call when you can.

Guilt hit me immediately.

"The twins are freaking out," I told Dominic. "We need to get home."

"Already going as fast as I can without passing out." He was pale, still recovering.

"I can drive."

"You can barely stand. I’m driving."

We made it back to the car and Dominic drove while I texted Maggie to let her know we were okay.

The manor appeared eventually and I’d never been so happy to see those gates.

We pulled up and I could already hear the twins before we got inside.

"Is the valley dangerous?" Devon’s voice carried through an open window. "Because Mom went to a valley and valleys always have bad guys in stories!"

"Your mother is perfectly safe." That was Gamma, sounding exhausted. "She has your father and Uncle Killian protecting her."