Blue Moon

XIV

Axel

"Goddamnit." I snapped, digging out some money and throwing it on the diner table before practically shoving Cayden out of the booth. "I really wanted to eat pancakes and not get involved in some stupid case after a tabby." I lamented as I ran out the door, looking around wildly for Hannah.

"Well, what did you expect, that she would just accept that everything she knew was false and she was actually kidnapped from the pride when she was a kid, and come with us all smiles and happiness?" Cayden dead panned before sniffing at the air to try and discern what direction she went in.

"Well no, but come on, did she really have to run before we got to eat?" Cayden ignored my laments, much to my chagrin. But, he did catch Hannah's scent headed off into the woods.

"Come on, we better hunt her down." Cayden said through a tired sigh as he lead the way into the woods. We weren't even supposed to have this much contact with her until back up arrived from the Pride. All our job was was to make sure that the lead had in fact been correct and she was in fact the missing tabby. I hadn't been totally sure at first, which was what prompted our first interaction. But, the smell was there, lingering lightly against her skin. It had almost completely faded from her, but there was still that trace amount of something feline coming from her pores.

"Damn it. She ran over her own trails, how is she that fast?" Cayden grumbled, clearly annoyed at the girl's actions.

"Well, from the intel, she was kept by hunters, they must have trained her as well as the brainwashing." I said with a shrug, crossing my arms behind my head and letting out a sigh, "Can't we just find the little kitten later? I want to go back to my breakfast."

"You're pathetic when you're hungry." Cayden just about snarled.

I opened my mouth to make a snarky reply, but the snapping of a twig caused me to freeze. If I wasn't mistaken, and I rarely was, that noise came from above us-

Branches cracked and crashed and a heavy weight slammed into my back, knocking me to the ground and pushing all the air out of my lungs. Cayden on the other hand dodged branches, lunging to go towards me until her voice rang out and he froze. "Don't move." She snarled the words and I registered the feel of cold, sharp metal against the back of my neck.

"My goodness, sweetheart, if you wanted me under you, all you had to do was ask." I managed to wheeze out the words even with her strong body crushing my lungs at the moment.

"Shut up." She snapped, digging the blade into my skin, I could feel the draw of blood, but tried to ignore it. "Now, Mark wouldn't have had your number in that burner if you were a part of it. So, what do you know about the Blue Moon experiment?" She shifted slightly, but only enough to alleviate some of the pressure on my lungs. I had been correct in the assumption that the hunters had trained her well.

Although my breaths came slightly easier now, I had no idea what she was talking about. "Look, Hannah, I just got a call from some random number claiming they were holding a stolen tabby for ransom. The king sent us to look into the tip. I've never heard of this Blue Moon thing." I managed to turn my head to Cayden. The guy was watching us with a mildly annoyed expression on his face, and hadn't even attempted to get the girl off of me. The jerk. He just shrugged noncommittally. Clearly he didn't know anything either.

"Why would he call you?" She dug in hard, drawing a small trickle of blood from my neck. I couldn't help but hiss at the pain. Even when you healed quickly, you weren't excused from the pain of injuries.

"Oh, uh," I laughed, smirking towards Cayden, causing the other tom cat to roll his eyes, "Well, the stolen tabby's my promised mate."

She let out an indignant noise before she slammed her fist into the back of my head, knocking my face into the ground hard and turning out the lights which was weird since we were outside.

***

Klara

My wrists were bound in silver that slowly burned at the flesh. I couldn't remember how long I had been chained, but I could no longer feel the actual pain from the cuffs, only smell as my skin was charred. My surroundings were hazy, my eyelids heavy from exhaustion. I could hear them though, separated from where I was chained by a thin wall.

"Give her another dose."

"But sir, the last time we gave that much to a pup they died."

"She can handle it. Besides, it won't work without another dose. Oh, and give me a status report on the tabby as well."

"Yes sir."

The door was metal and grey, though it looked dull through my clouded eyes. Still it swung open, heralding the young man in the lab coat. He had a clipboard in one hand, but my eyes were trained on his other hand. He gripped a syringe filled with a blue liquid. My body jerked back, but there was nowhere to move to. I was chained to a cold chair that was bolted in place. My muscles were weak, and I could do no more than squirm desperately to try and put space between myself and the man.

"It'll hurt less if you just stay still you filthy mutt." The man snapped, hand gripping my arm so tightly I thought my bones must have been brushing together. I whimpered in pain, still struggling as the man unceremoniously shoved the needle in my arm and pushed the plunger all the way down.

It felt like ice creeping slowly through my veins, freezing my body inch by inch. It only got worse every time. I was no longer able to shiver. I couldn't even move as the substance moved through my body. I could feel as my heart stuttered, slowing from the ice in my blood. My lungs could hardly move. I-

"Klara? Klara wake up!" I felt warmth, warm hands shook my shoulder firmly. "Shit, she's freezing, someone call Doc. Klara? Can you hear me?" I knew that voice. It brought along with it the feeling of fire in a hearth, of the safety of home.

"Adrien?" My voice was shaky and cracked. My tongue felt heavy with sleep and my throat was dry. "What happened?"I mumbled out the words as I tried to blink my vision clear from the nightmare that played behind my eyelids. I shivered, the only warmth on my body was coming from where Adrien's hands rested on my shoulders.

In the next moment, Adrien crushed me against his chest, burying his nose in my neck while letting out a relieved breath of air. "Don't scare me like that, Klara." He murmured, squeezing me tighter for a moment. I let myself relax into his hold, resting my head against his.

"Why are you so freaked out? I was only having a nightmare." I mumbled. Already the events of the dream were dissipating into the void of my subconsciousness. All I really knew was that it was a memory from some time ago. I couldn't remember though if it was from the past five years. Something in my gut told me it was from well before that missing chunk of time in my mind.

"I came in to wake you for breakfast since you don't normally sleep this late and you were freezing. Like deathly cold, and I thought for a moment that you weren't breathing." Adrien didn't bother to lift his face from my neck. I could feel the he wolf taking in little gulps of air in order to taste my scent on his tongue.

I lifted my arms, embracing Adrien back, brushing one hand up and down his spine. It was an autonomic response to the fear that I could feel still rolling off of him in waves. "I'm okay. I'm here." I said in a whisper, frown pulling down the corners of my lips. I had been trying to forget how I came back to the pack. I had been trying to pretend that I had never been away, that there weren't large chunks of my memory missing. But, this wasn't something I could ignore. I needed to figure out what was going on here, and why I had been with hunters, why I had smelled like a human, and what the hell was happening here.