The Lunar Queen Chapter 103

Lyric POV

As we pull up outside the gates of the pack the air is so thick it’s hard to breathe.

The second the SUV’s stops Nova goes completely still inside me.

“There’s magic everywhere here, but it feels different” Nova says.

“I know I can taste it” I say.

It coats the back of my throat like smoke and decay.

We all get out of the car.

“Man I know they said it felt eerie but actually being here it feels almost haunted” Hunter says as we walk through the gates barely hanging on it’s hinges.

Every step deeper into the territory makes the pressure in my chest heavier.

My skin prickles from all the residue magic in the air. Even the earth feels it, all the grass and nature around the entire territory is dead.

Not dying. Dead like the life itself was ripped out of the ground.

“Something unnatural happened here” I say to the group.

“What was strong enough?” Winter questions.

I shake my head “This wasn't ordinary magic, it wasn’t even witch magic. This feels different, unnatural ” I say.

The energy here feels twisted, like the magic was forced into something it was never meant to become.

When we make it to the center of the town it feels like we are in the abandoned town in a horror movie right before we all die.

Not even birds are making noise. The entire territory feels frozen in time.

“Okay this is seriously creepy, an entire pack just gone” Winter says.

Cole looks at me “What do you want to do?” He asks.

The trust in his voice steadies me slightly despite the unease crawling beneath my skin.

I don’t even answer I just take my shoes off and curl my toes in the grass.

The earth beneath my feet feels cold. Empty.

I take a deep breath and close my eyes as I try to connect with the earth to see what happened here.

Magic immediately rushes through me violently enough to make me sway.

My eyes shoot open and like a movie screen the entire scene shows on the wall of a nearby house. We all gasp in shock.

The vision feels disturbingly real, like the territory itself is forcing us to witness what happened.

A man in black mask walks to the center of the pack exactly where I stand and he looks around and points to a building out of view.

Even through the mask something about him feels deeply wrong.

Everyone in the area stops to see what and who he is. Warriors run up and gather around him before he crouches down and puts his hand into the grass.

The second his hand touches the earth Nova snarls violently inside me.

He looks up and smiles a sick smile and the next thing we know a blinding white light covers everything and when the light clears, everyone that was standing around him is gone.

Not dead, gone. Like they were erased from existence itself.

He bows slowly and then walks away the same way he came.

“What the fuck was that?” Dominic asks looking at me.

I’m frozen looking at the wall although the vision has already stopped.

My heartbeat pounds so hard I can barely hear anything else.

“What are we up against Nova?, he made an entire pack disappear” I say frantically to her.

For the first time in a long time genuine fear creeps into my chest.

The panic washes over me so fast my hands begin to tremble.

Cole comes into my line of sight.

“Hey come back to me princess, we will figure this out together” he says.

His voice cuts through the panic enough to ground me slightly.

“What if I’m not strong enough to face whatever that was?” I ask locking eyes with him.

The question slips out before I can stop it.

“Then we will do it together, we are stronger together” He says kissing me softly.

The steady certainty in his voice calms the storm inside me more than anything else could.

“Let’s search the pack and try to find what he was pointing at” He says taking my hand in his.

And despite the fear curling in my stomach, I tighten my grip on his hand and force myself to move forward.

As we start walking something pulls me towards a tall white building.

The closer I get the worse the pressure in my chest becomes.

It stands out from the other houses and buildings in the town. I walk to the building and the same unnatural magical feeling overwhelms me.

Unlike the rest of the abandoned pack this building feels cold even the air around it.

I place my hand on the door and I’m violently pulled into a vision.

Pain explodes through my skull so suddenly my knees almost buckle.

I’m in a lab of some sort and there are scientists everywhere and tubes of blood with labels on them by species.

Wolf. Witch. Vampire. Fae. The labels blur together so fast nausea rolls violently through me.

A man walks into the lab “is the sample ready?” he asks one of the scientists.

“Yes Alpha the sample is ready” he replies.

The Alpha smiles and chills run through me. It’s the same smile from the man behind the mask.

Cold dread floods every inch of me instantly.

Nova growls low in my mind, hackles raised.

“Good, then we need to pack everything up and get ready” he says walking out.

A warrior comes from the back carrying a small girl in his arms, “Is she alive?” The scientist asks.

My stomach twists violently before the answer even comes.

“No, she didn’t survive extraction” He says.

The words slam into me so hard my chest physically hurts.

"But did we get what we needed?" He asks the warrior.

The warrior shakes his head "No sir" he replies

“Very well we must find another seer then” He says before turning away and I gasp for air as I’m pushed out of the vision.

Reality crashes back into me painfully and I stumble backward gasping like I can still smell death in the air.

Tears instantly stream down my face.

“They are stealing our magic, they are taking what Selene gifted us and stealing it and killing us in the process” I say voice cracking with every word.

The horror of it wraps around my chest so tightly I can barely breathe.

I turn towards the door “We need to get in here” I say melting the entire door.

The metal screams loudly as my magic tears through it.

“Wait princess, I need to see what you saw” he says as gently as he could.

I shake my head tears falling faster “I don’t want to see her little body again” I say looking up at him.

The image of the little girl won’t leave my head.

He cups my cheeks “I know my love, but I need to see if I can recognize anyone in the vision” he says softly.

The pain in his eyes almost breaks me further because I know he’s already thinking about our children.

I sigh heavily “Okay” I say placing my hands on his cheeks I close my eyes and replay my vision for him.

The second the vision hits him Zeus roars violently through the bond.

He growls so loud the other come running over.

“What happened?” Dominic asks.

“It’s Warren, he’s experimenting on supernatural species and extracting their gifts or magic” Cole growls out.

Pure rage rolls off him so heavily the air itself feels tense.

I turn and walk into the building.

Every instinct inside me screams to run the second I step through the doorway.

The air feels cold in here and the stench of decay is so strong in the air that I gagged as soon as I stepped inside.

The smell clings to the back of my throat instantly. Rot. Chemicals. Blood. Death.

Someone turns on the lights and the sight is terrifying.

Dozens of dead supernatural creatures in the middle of the lab.

Some of them are still children.

We all freeze mid step at the sight in front of us.

Even the warriors behind us go completely silent.

“How could he do this to someone, how could he do this to children. All for power” I say softly.

The room suddenly feels too small. Too suffocating.

“I need to go” I say turning and walking out of the lab.

The second fresh air hits my lungs I nearly collapse from the weight of what I just saw.

“Dominic have some warriors stay behind and get some more out here as soon as possible to take anything that may look like it could be important and pack it up and bring it back to the pack” Cole says before walking behind me.

His voice is calm but the fury pouring through the bond feels lethal.

“Cole do you understand what this means?, the kids and I are all in danger” I say and he growls.

“Nobody will touch what is mine again” He snarls.

The possessive rage in his voice sends chills down my spine because for the first time since meeting him I think Cole is genuinely ready for war.

“We will figure this out and we will stop him” He says.

But even he sounds shaken underneath the anger.

I can’t stop seeing all the bodies what kind of evil is this. I thought David was evil but this is something else entirely.

David killed out of obsession and revenge. This… this feels calculated, planned, purposeful. What is his end game?.