The Luna Trials by Marissa Gilbert Read Online
Chapter 59
The cold metal made Savannah shiver, and she looked at the ancient bracelet on her wrist.
“It’s just temporary,” Bjorn a*s*sured her. “Until I can fully trust you.”
“At this rate, it’s going to take a while,” the Princess hissed, realising that the silver bracelet with a familiar northern pattern on it was enchanted to drain strength from her and prevent her from shifting. This was something she had not anticipated, and she glared at the man who swore that he was her new mate. Mates were not supposed to be like this. She knew it when Zack betrayed her, and she knew it now after everything she had experienced with Kai. Maybe the moon goddess never wanted them to be together, but in her heart, Fionnlagh was the one and only mate in her whole life.
He gave her what she craved the most. He made her feel safe, wanted, heard, respected .. His death did not change her heart. She would love that man forever.
“Just think about the positive. I’m letting go of that girl you like,” he had the audacity to smile at her, and if she could do it now, she would rip his heart out just as she did with her first fake mate.
“Only if her father pays you more than others!”
Savannah pursed her l!ps, reminding him that he wasn’t really generous, and he looked at her as if she had done something absolutely adorable. She loathed the way his eye traced every feature on her face and wanted to get away, but he caught her from the back and wrapped his arms around her tightly, not letting her leave.
“The things you do to me, Savannah Stormhold!” He buried his face into her hair, inhaling her scent and not wishing to let go. She was so close, she smelled so nice.
This woman finally belonged to him, and he couldn’t wait to savour her.
“Let me go,” she said coldly, and he froze from the iciness in her tone. He’d angered her again when he knew he had been walking on thin ice with her already.
“l am so sorry” he whispered into her ear, brushing his l!ps over her earlobe gently, wishing to fix everything fast. He didn’t know how long he would be able to hold himself back. “I know this is far from ideal, but it’s just for now. Savvy, after I mark you, the bond will snap in its place, and you will see.”
His fingers trailed over her collarbone, and she flinched. One of his claws elongated, and Bjorn grazed it over the skin on her marking spot, which caused fear to ripple through her whole body. Werebear marks were different from werewolves and lycans. If a bear bit someone, even in half-transformation, it would be safe to say that the bitten person would have his or her bones crushed and flesh torn because it was harder for bears to control their jaw strength once they tasted blood.
Especially the white bears, who were known as the strongest and fiercest of any other.
So, instead of biting, they left their mark with claws on the same spot every other species used for claiming their mates, Three deep cuts that would turn bright red on a true mate and black on a chosen one.
If he pressed just a bit harder, he would find out that she wasn’t his mate, and she couldn’t have him finding out now. She was not ready. Nothing was prepared yet.
“You say you’re sorry, but these are just words!” She tried to distract him, and surprisingly, it worked as Bjorn finally let her go, scratching the back of his head instead.
He wasn’t good at this courting thing. He never got how it worked.
“Savvy, it may not seem like it, but everything I do, I do for you, too.” He placed his large, calloused palms on her shoulders and turned her gently to face him. “These hard days will soon be over, I will be King, and you will be my Queen. Both the West and the North will belong to you. I know that you will never forget what I did, the relatives of yours I took, but with time you will understand that it was a war and I had no choice. I will give you pups to fill that void. So many that you will forget about anything else. We will make you happy. Not now, but one day it will happen. Mark my words.”
“Still, these are just words!” Savannah said reproachfully and walked away towards the desk, scanning it quickly as she approached in search of something useful. Anything to make listening to this delusional cr.ap worthwhile.
“Tell me what I can do to fix this,” Bjorn stepped closer but kept his distance this time, trying to pretend that he respected her personal space. It almost made her laugh, but she had a role to play, so she suppressed it.
“Tell me something I don’t know about you,”‘ she taunted, locking eyes with him. “No, better yet – tell me something that no one knows.” She wanted to avoid the repet*ition of all of the sad events in his past that she didn’t care about. She needed something useful this time.
But he stayed quiet, and she chuckled bitterly, trying to make him feel even more guilty than he already did.
“Never mind,” she said and strolled towards the door, “I will see myself out. I can at least walk back to my room, can’t 1?”
“Savvy!” Bjorn’s voice was more like a plea at this point, but she was already prepared to leave.
“Please don’t follow me” the Princess cut him off.”
You clearly want a trophy wife and not a mate. I am not in the mood for all this.”
Her hand was already on the door handle when she heard him, “I’ve been blessed by a God.”
The words made her halt on the spot, clutching the metal of the doorknob so hard she was afraid that she might r!p it off.
“ls that a joke?” she asked without facing him. It was madness! He must be mad!
“No, it’s not” he a*s*sured her. “Moreover, this is my biggest secret, and I haven’t told anyone about it. You’re the first person with whom I’ve shared it.”
Savannah’s head was buzzing with thoughts. Now that she thought about it, it made sense. In fact, it made so much sense that she couldn’t believe she hadn’t thought of it before. His strength was beyond everything she had seen before. She thought that it wasn’t normal, but she had never suspected divine intervention.
First, however, she wished to ensure it was true, so she said, “You’re lying.”
Bjorn’s eye flashed for a second as she angled her head at him with one of her brows raised in a challenge.
He exhaled loudly through his nostrils but didn’t do anything else.
“Why would 1? I’ve proven it to you many times. A regular werebear wouldn’t be able to defeat a royal lycan with ease, don’t you agree? Not to mention that you already know a person who has been blessed by a goddess – your sister-in-law.” Nothing on his face made it seem like he was lying, and Savannah felt like he was sincere. “So, it’s not like this is unbelievable.”
“What God?” Surely, it wasn’t the Moon Goddess this time.
“It doesn’t matter,” Bjorn shook his head. “He’s one of the old ones, but he chose me as his champion, and I have not fail him once.”
“What is your power?” Savannah knew that he had to have something. Riannon was reborn back in the past and now had the ability to see the future either in her dreams or with the help of her wolf talking to the Moon Goddess. The blessing of the gods meant special abilities.
“‘Strength,” Bjorn confessed easily. “No one can compare with me in strength.”
“Why were you running away all the time then?” She couldn’t help this little jab, and the bear’s l!ps curled into an understanding smile.
“To have as few casualties as possible,” he admitted. “I was serious about this. And also-” he stopped talking, and Savannah suddenly realised that he was about to reveal something extremely important, something she had to hear.
“What is it?” She urged him to reply.
“There was only one limitation to my power,” Bjorn said after a pause, looking at the woman that was now his and thinking there wouldn’t be any harm in letting her in.”I will tell you. There’s no point in hiding it now that everything is over.”
Savannah leaned with her back against the door, ready to listen, and nodded for him to go on.
“l asked for this power, and I had to prove myself worthy to get it” he started explaining, “and when I finally achieved my goal and became this strongest shifter to ever exist, my first thought was to march straight to the capital of the North and K*ll Kai that very day. He was already the Northern King back then.
However, the deity who blessed me told me not to do it”
“Why not?” Savvy’s voice was barely a whisper as imagined that her beloved could have been K*lled even before they’d gotten to know each other. Those precious memories she cherished might have never happened.
“I don’t know the details, but he warned me against going into a battle one-on-one against Kai. He said that the lycan king would defeat me if this was to happen and that I had to find another way out of my predicament with the Northern Crown. I didn’t have any reasons to doubt the words of the God who had given me what I needed the most, so I took his advice to heart. After all, there were ways to defeat Kai without fighting him, and this was exactly what I did in the end.”
Savannah clenched her l!ps as the pain stabbed her heart deeper. If only Kai was alive, she would have known the one way to end it all. This did not explain, however, why a God would tell him that. Weren’t gods almighty? Why couldn’t his chosen one K*ll Kai? As far as she knew, Kai wasn’t blessed by a deity, although he did have a special ability. Was this somehow connected to the fact that Kai and Elene could easily shift to their third forms and then shift back without any kind of trouble, unlike other lycans?
She stopped herself. There was no use thinking of this now. Kai was dead, and Bjorn was basically a super bear now. Her plan was getting more complicated because K*lling him was at the centre of it all, and now she knew exactly what she was up against.
“Again, Savvy,” the man walked closer to her, and she felt the scent of chestnuts and wintergreen intensifying,
“I’m telling you this as the first step of our new relationship because I believe in this. Your wolf is still healing after everything that happened and-
Not this again. She couldn’t listen to this again.
As if the heavens heard her thoughts, the door opened, and the Serpent entered the office without invitation.
“I hope I’m not intruding,” he smirked, although it was written all over his face very well that he knew he was. Savvy was grateful, though, because it was a chance for her to escape.
“I will leave you to it,” she said and tried to retreat to the exit, but Joran caught her wrist and yanked her back.
“Nice bracelet!” he sneered, and Bjorn growled menacingly.
“Take your hands off my mate!” he snarled, each word filled with venom and warning tones.
“Just admiring my most recent creation,” Joran chuckled, unclenching his fingers and making Savannah gasp.
“You made this?” She touched the patterns on the cold metal. She knew at once that magic was involved when Bjorn clasped it on her wrist, but Joran did not give her a warlock’s vibes.
“I can make anything happen,” the Serpent winked her, standing with his back to Bjorn, who seemed furious about their interaction. He was clearly implying that he could help her, but she remembered the price.
Savannah made her way to the exit, trying to grasp the bits of the conversation between the two men as she was slowly closing the door behind her.
“Bad news for you, Bjorn, I still have not found my dragonfly,” Joran said in a mocking tone.
“They come and go as they please,” the Bear King grunted. “What seems to be the problem this time?”
“The problem is that I sent you my favourite one, and now she is missing along with my payment” The Serpent sat in one of the chairs and placed his feet on Bjorn’s desk, to the displeasure of the latter. “And if you can’t find her, this will make our last contract void which will result in a lot of trouble for you.”
“She got the payment as usual,” Bjorn had a vein protruding between his knitted brows. “What happens after she takes it is none of my concern. They all belong to you.”
“She is somewhere on your lands!” Joran said lazily, “so it is very much your concern.”
Bjorn turned to one of the bookshelves and got a scroll that looked a lot like a map. Savannah gasped map was something she could use. If she could take just a glimpse..
The bear’s healthy eye glimmered as he spotted her in the darkness behind the door, and she realised that it was time for her to retreat.
To Savannah’s relief, Bjorn didn’t come to the room at night. She feared that he might, but for once, luck was on her side.
However, she was about to test it because the more she was thinking, the more she was sure she needed to see that map.
The thing was. Savannah did not want to believe it, but she suspected that the God, the deity Bjorn was talking about, was Joran. It simply made sense because the White Bear King bowed to no one, and most people here were afraid of him. But not Joran. Joran behaved like he owned the place. Not to mention their first conversation and the fact that he asked for her firstborn.
That was a bizarre request for anyone. Unless..
Unless he was a deity.
The thought alone terrified her, but also… also it gave her hope. She was not going to give him her firstborn because if he asked for that, then he knew she would have one. Or at least that was what her logic told her.
Moreover, he must have thought that when she did have a child, that it wouldn’t be with Bjorn. Savvy did not want to think of it, but it suddenly started looking like she had a future. Like there was hope.
Although maybe it was just her wishful thinking.
However, if Joran wanted her child with Bjorn, he would have asked him and not her. Bjorn would have easily given up their kid for more power. After all, power was what he cared about the most.
But Joran wanted Savannah’s future child. Not Bjorn’s.
Her hands touched her belly as she looked out of the window into the starry sky. Could it be possible? What if there was already a small part of Kai growing inside of her? She couldn’t know for sure; even Athena couldn’t tell her this early, but even the slightest possibility of it happening made her change her plan entirely as she watched the North Star shining brightly in the darkness of the night.
A few hours later, she tiptoed to Bjorn’s office in bare feet after she managed to get rid of one of her guards and put the other one to sleep, just like Gideon and Reid taught her. The office was close, and she needed just a second alone with the map to know all possible escape routes. Her worst fear was that Bjorn would be inside, but yet again, she was fortunate to see the room empty and didn’t waste time rushing to the bookshelves.
Savannah took the scroll she saw earlier today and was happy to see that it was a map of the territory around the castle. She greedily stud*ied it and moved on to the next one. One after the other, she went through them all until she hit the jackpot and found a map of the castle itself.
The princess sighed in relief when she found a few secret passages she could use in future. This ought to be the best feature of these old castles.
Savvy was about to clean up when the door opened, and a chill went down her spine. She was caught, of all!
“What are you doing here?!”