Our Luna, Our Mate by Linda Middleman

Athena's POV

'Athena...' called a soft spoken voice as I slowly started to come too, having surrendered to the darkness as my Uncle and Cousin had left me all alone within the basement of our house. "Huh?" I mumble, still groggy.

'Athena? Are you okay?' asks the voice as it slowly gets clearer allowing me to finally figure out who was trying to speak to me just now.

"A-Artemis?" I ask, unsure if I was hearing right, for my wolf should have still been sleeping thanks to the wolfsbane that my Uncle had injected into us just before his sick fun began.Published by Nôv'elD/rama.Org.

'Yes my sweet child, it's me, I'm so sorry I wasn't strong enough to help you' cries Artemis as she begins to whine and whimper from deep inside my mind upset with the fact that she had failed her human.

"B-But how? You should still be asleep" I say to her not fully understanding the situation that was before us. "I thought you were asleep till morning, that's usually how it goes when they inject us with wolfsbane." 'Athena... it is morning, we've been down in the basement all night. I've been slowly tending to your wounds once your family's Omega had come down to wash and bathe you from all the blood' answers Artemis. "Impossible" I tell her. "I would have felt it if someone else had tried to touch me."

'Not if you're unconscious my dear, we've been here all night while chained to that blasted support beam after our Uncle and his Son tormented us' whispers Artemis sadly as if wishing it weren't true.

Frowning, I tried to move my arms, only to realize that my arms had indeed gone numb from being held above my head for so long which meant that my entire family had left me down here the whole entire night without so much as freeing us.

Angered by that, I begin to squirm, attempting to move my arms as a wave of frustration hits me when suddenly I hear the basement door open and the sound of feet as they begin to make their way down the basement steps and to where we had been chained. "Oh Athena" calls a voice I knew all too well, and after last night's events one that I would forever fear until I was far gone from the pack.

"Time to wake up oh dear sweet Athena" purrs the voice as they slowly approach me, my blue eyes slowly rising to meet those of my Uncle's green ones. At the sound of his voice I can't help but wince, not liking what was about to happen if I didn't comply like the good little girl that I was supposed to be.

"Morning Uncle" I ground out, my mouth sore from the ball gag as it had still been in my mouth the night before and had only been removed just recently while trying to keep my composure as Artemis began to growl at him, pissed that he had hurt us when he was supposed to be family and our protector.

"That's my good little girl" smirks Collin as his eyes begin to roam over me which sent shivers through me as he eyed me up and down like a piece of candy before speaking up once more. "Don't forget, you're helping Diana and Brian with the Ball today, so if I hear anything less than that we'll be right back here understand?".

Nodding my head I try to keep my thoughts to myself. "Words Athena" growls Collin who didn't like it when I didn't use my words like a big girl.

"Yes... Uncle" I mumble, my head kept low as I feel him move to undo my cuffs that had kept my arms above my head all night. Once freed I gently lower my arms as I begin to gently rub feeling back into them as my wounds were now almost healed all thanks to Artemis. "Good, now get dressed. Diana and Brian are both waiting for you over at the pack house so get a move on" and with that he quickly turns and walks away allowing me to dress in silence as I move to see that new clothes had been laid out for me as my old ones were all torn up thanks to Brian and his stupid knife.

"Our family's Omega must have brought these" I whisper as I move to throw on the clothes which consisted of black cotton panties, a black t-shirt bra, a light blue tank top, black denim shorts and a pair of black canvas shoes.

Upon finishing, I quickly fix my hair before moving to race up and out of the basement before my Uncle could swiftly change his mind, making a mad dash for the pack house and where the Mating Ball would now be held in just two days from now. -Pack House-

"Where is the Bitch?" screams Diana who didn't want to be there, having wanted to spend the day with Jacob, but to her surprise, her parents were making her be there just like Brian.

"Relax, Father just mindlinked me and said that he just released her from the basement so she should be here shortly" replies Brian who also didn't want to be there but knew they had to as they had to keep tabs on Athena for their Father.

"You know, I don't understand why Mother and Father brought her here in the first place. It's not like Mom and Luna Selene were actual sisters to start with, the Alpha should have just let the Rogues kill her" huffs Diana, who all but knew about their relationship to Athena. "Because.. The Alpha couldn't bare to see her die at the hands of the Rogues, even though Luna Selene and our Mother were only half sisters, the Alpha knew that if anything had happened to her Athena would be loved by her family, too bad for them they can't seem to find her Uncles" smirks Brian, as he too knew of Athena's family and the lone fact that her Father was a triplet and his other two brother's were both part of different packs except no one knew which pack leaving Athena at the mercy of theirs. "Hopefully they decide to stay gone for good, because if word ever got out on how badly we've been treating Athena, those Uncles of hers would rip us to pieces" states Diana unaware that Athena was listening in on them from the safety of the shadows. Half sister, Uncles... Who? What? Where? Come my scattered thoughts. I didn't even know I had other relatives, but again I really don't remember much of my childhood nor of that night when everything happened, it's like a part of me went missing as well. 'Don't worry, we'll figure it out together' replies Artemis as if sensing Athena's worry.

'And if we can't? Am I truly stuck here with my so-called family? The Alpha doesn't even know what goes on with us so how am I supposed to survive this if we can't figure it out?' I ask her, my mind racing suddenly.

'Sweetheart, you worry too much, for now let's just focus on the Mating Ball alright. Because something tells me that we'll find our second chance mate there' purrs Artemis who was getting excited by the thought of finding our new mate.

'Mate?' I blink, trying to remember what it felt like to have a mate as it had been over a year since our last one and all we had gotten was heartache.

'Yes, now go before your wicked cousins get you into more trouble' mutters Artemis as she tries to usher me out into the ballroom before Diana and Brian could really do some damage.

Taking that as my cue, I quickly move to enter the ballroom. "HERE! Sorry I'm late" I shout as I slowly approach the pair.

"FINALLY! We've been waiting for you for over an hour" frowns Diana, unaware that Athena had heard their whole conversation just minutes beforehand.

"Sorry, I was.. Detained" I whisper, knowing that they both knew that I was stuck down inside the basement the night before and were suddenly acting as if I was late by choice.

"Yes, Yes, we know. Now then, Mother and Father said you have to help us or else there'll be consequences" remarks Brian as he looks between the two girls knowing that Diana could easily flip out on Athena when she wanted to.

"I know," I say. "What shall I be doing first?"

"HA! You? You'll be helping the Omega's with the food and beverages, but for now you get to help with the decorations" scoffs Diana who was now pointing to boxes filled with all sorts of decorations.

Grimacing, I turn to look at where Diana was pointing to and pale. 'How am I supposed to do that?' I say to Artemis as I notice all sorts of lights and banners and other miscellaneous things that either required the help of two people or that of a ladder. 'Don't panic' says Artemis, who knew of my sudden discomfort.

'But-'I try.

'No' and just like that Artemis closed her side of the link making me feel dejected.

Sighing, I slowly make my way over to the boxes to see what it all was, thankful that it didn't look overly terrible. Turning I move to look at my Cousins. "Will you both help me?".

"Us? Heavens no, we have our own tasks to do, this is yours and it better be completed before dinner time otherwise father will be notified" says Diana with a smirk as she and Brian walk away, leaving me to tackle the ballroom by myself.

"Well here goes nothing" I mutter as I go to do as I'm told, not wanting to get beaten or worse raped when I was starting to feel kinda hopeful with the ball as something that Artemis had said about finding our mate giving me hope.