The Alpha's Borrowed Luna (Abigail Hayes) novel Chapter 245

Chapter 245

I found myself in a warehouse Frecognized. It wasn’t a place I came to often, but I knew it. It was dim and cold, just like I remembered.

“Why am I here? My voice echoed strangely in the empty space.

You are here because I wanted you to be.” Thalia emerged from the darkness, her ageless face illuminated by some unseen light

source.

My heart sank. I’d managed to avoid being alone for days, but here she was again. “What do you want from me?”

“I did tell you I would be back, didn’t I? Well, here I am, and I have mission for you.” She approached with that predatory grace that sent shivers down my spine, holding something out toward me.

A small glass vial filled with clear liquid.

“What is this?” I asked, though some part of me already knew the answer.

“That, my dear, is wolfsbane extract.” Her smile was cold, calculated.

“Why are you giving me this?” My fingers closed around it despite my desperate desire to pull away.

Don’t worry, it isn’t for you but for the Alpha King, Kaius. You will put this in his drink.” She moved closer, her voice dropping to a near whisper. “The Wolf’s bane when in his system would weaken him, and so we could proceed to the next step, but for now, this is all you have to do.”

Horror washed through me. “He could die.”

“That would be a pity, a death too quick, not at all worth all the time I spent plotting.” She waved a dismissive hand. “You are right though, with the quantity in that bottle, it can kill regular wolves, but with him being a powerful Lycan and everything, we have to lean on that.”

“You are willing to risk his life?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, what she was ordering me to do.

‘Do you really think I care about him? If he dies, then so be it, but this is what you have to do.” Her tone hardened, any pretense of civility vanishing.

Panic surged through me. I couldn’t do this–wouldn’t do this. I dropped to my knees before her, pride forgotten in the face of this impossible choice. “Please don’t make me do this; please, I beg you.”

Something glittered in her eyes–satisfaction, perhaps, at seeing me reduced to this. “Do that again, beg once more.”

“Please don’t do this to him; don’t make me do this…” Tears streamed down my face as I knelt before her, willing to sacrifice any shred of dignity if it meant sparing Kaius.

“That was fun to watch.” She tilted her head, studying me with the detached interest of someone observing an insect. “Now go do as

I said.

“Elowen.”

I jerked awake, gasping for breath, to find Kaius leaning over me, concern etched across his features. “You were crying in your sleep, and I tried waking you, but…”

My hands flew to my face, finding it wet with tears. A dream. It had just been a dream. Relief washed through me so strongly I

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Chapter 245

nearly started crying again.

I threw my arms around him, Burying my face against his chest. “I’m okay,” I whispered. “Just a nightmare.”

“Well, that was unexpected,” he said, though his arms tightened around me.

“It was just a bad dream.” I pulled back slightly, struggling to shake off the lingering dread that clung to me.

He studied my face, his amber eyes searching. “Are you coming with me to work?”

The memory of Thalia’s commands from the dream slammed into me cold and sharp. Suddenly, the thought of staying glued to his side all day–my recent pattern–felt terrifyingly wrong. Fear cailed my stomach. I was the danger now. Every moment I spent near him was a risk, pulling him closer to whatever Thalia intended to do through me. I couldn’t let that happen. I had to keep him away, keep him safe from me.

“No, I’ll skip today.”

Surprise flickered across his face. “Had it been because of what I said–pay no mind to that; I was only being paranoid and worried

for you.”

I shook my head. “Is not that, it’s just…. your job is boring when it comes to the paperwork; I would prefer remaining here and enjoying a good sleep.”

“That’s fine, but you can stop by if you feel like it.” He kissed my forehead before rising from the bed.

“Don’t worry, I won’t.”

After he left, I tried to pull myself together. It was just a dream, I insisted silently, trying to push the fear back down. Just a dream. Even if she was an Elder, she couldn’t actually give the poison in a dream, right?

I drifted through the day in a haze of false normalcy–taking a long bath, reading a book I’d started weeks ago, even napping without the constant fear of Thalia appearing. By nightfall, I’d almost convinced myself that things might be okay, that perhaps Thalia’s control over me had limits I could exploit.

Then I saw it.

A small glass vial sitting on the windowsill, catching the last rays of sunset. Clear liquid sloshed inside as I picked it up with trembling fingers.

It was all supposed to be a dream. A very bad one. But it wasn’t; it hadn’t just been a dream. My hand shook as I held the bottle, identical to the one from my nightmare.

“Add this to his drink.” Thalia’s voice echoed in my head as clearly as if she stood beside me.

“No, no you can’t.” I whispered to the empty room, clutching the vial so tightly I feared it might shatter in my grip.

But I couldn’t trust myself. I couldn’t trust my own hands, my own mind.