Gemma
As she ran through the forest and into the hills several miles away, Gemma thought of Theo. Her leaving would absolve him of his vow. It would also make things easier on him, as he had stated he could never love her. She knew he had been avoiding her because he couldn’t stand being around her. It brought him too much pain and guilt. Her leaving solved that problem.
Gemma knew exactly where to find the wolf shifters and Aliyah. They would be at the site of the sacrifice with Aliyah, a long way from the pack homelands. So even if the dragons knew where the wolves’ lived, it would do them no good. She wouldn’t be there.
As she approached the makeshift camp, she stopped and looked up at the moon that was fading away and howled. The howl contained a message to the universe, declaring her love for Theo.
She walked boldly into their compound as the white wolf. The leader must have been alerted she was coming because he was waiting for her.
“You are here. I knew you would not let your human friend pay the price for protecting you,” he said.
“You will let her go, or I will kill myself right now, and you will still not get your sacrifice,” Gemma said, changing to her human form and picking up the knife she had carried with her, holding it to the side of her own neck.
The leader of the wolf clan, Zagon, yelled, “Bring the woman here.”
Aliyah was brought to the front. She looked like she had aged a hundred years since Gemma had last seen her.
“Are you all right?” Gemma asked.
“I am as well as can be expected,” she said. “Gemma, you can’t do this. Think of all your parents have sacrificed to keep you safe. I’m an old woman, and my time is getting close to ending, anyway. Run, child, and stay safe. Once your birthday passes, they will have no need for me.”
“Silence, human,” Zagon roared.
Gemma turned to Zagon. “How do I know you will let her go and not attack her later?” she asked.
Zagon pulled a knife from a sheath and made a cut across his hand. He clenched his fist, and the blood droplets fell to the ground. “I give you my blood oath that we will return her to her home, and we will not harm her in any way. She will be safe for the rest of her natural life.”
Gemma dropped the knife. Not even an evil wolf shifter would break a blood oath.
“So be it,” she said. “Release her, and I will come with you peacefully.”
“Gemma, you can’t,” Aliyah screamed.
“Take the sacrifice to the dungeon,” Zagon ordered.
The wolf shifters took her to an underground prison. She knew the wolf shifters weren’t going to kill her right away. There was still a couple of weeks until her birthday. They needed to wait until that night when the moon was full.
Silver was wrapped around her arms and legs so she couldn’t shift into her wolf form and escape.
As the days passed slowly, her mind swirled with anguish and fear. She felt as though the walls were slowly closing in around her.
She was an animal, put on display. The wolf shifters walked past her prison, even bringing their children to see the white wolf.
Gemma held her head up. She forced every one of the wolf shifters to look her in the eye when they came to stare at the white wolf they were going to sacrifice.
Late at night, though, when she was alone, she cried for Theo. She cried from loving him and knowing she would never have a chance to be his mate. She cried because he was living with all the pain and guilt of losing Savannah.
After days of constant pain, Gemma began to lose hope she would ever escape. There had been a tiny piece of her that had held hope she would find a way to slip away, or the dragon shifters would find her and stage a rescue.
She had to face reality. No one wanted to die to help her. To keep her sanity until her birthday, she retreated inside herself.
She quit responding to the guards and anyone else who came by her prison. She stared at the walls, wide-eyed, barely blinking. Her mind was filled with a huge fog that pounded away in her brain. Her eyes were glazed over, and she saw nothing. She heard nothing going on around her. She was cocooned in her own world, and nothing could penetrate it.
Though, something did penetrate the heavy fog. She felt the life growing inside her. She could feel the essence of the life that had formed from her and Theo’s love.
Gemma instinctively knew this child would be very powerful, although she didn’t know in what way.
Her mind whirled with thoughts. There was a life growing inside her. She was going to have a baby. The child was going to be powerful and had to live. If she was sacrificed on her birthday, the child would not live. She had to find a way to survive.
Then, her brain went down another path. This child was a result of her and Theo’s lovemaking. The only way shifters could produce children was if they had sex with their fated mates. This meant she and Theo were destined to be mates.
With these realizations, Gemma’s soul sparked to life. Her will to live reignited. She would live for her baby and for Theo.
