Caged Human Luna — He Stole My Freedom To Hide His Curse Chapter 04

Caged Human Luna — He Stole My Freedom To Hide His Curse Chapter 04 What The Moon Goddess Never Did

Elaine.

He looked down at me from his towering height, his face turning completely to stone. A slow, harsh breath escaped his nose.

“No,” he said flatly.

I blinked, the rejection hitting like a slap. “What do you mean, no? You want to ruin Ethan. I am giving you the keys to his entire kingdom, but I refuse to do it as a fragile human. Turn me.”

“You think a werewolf bite is a magical quick fix?” Fenris stepped away from the desk, his massive frame casting a long shadow over me. “It’s venom, Elaine. It’s a violent, agonizing fever that burns a human from the inside out. If your spirit isn’t strong enough to bear the wolf, it doesn’t turn you. It kills you.”

He leaned down, his face inches from mine, his icy eyes boring into my soul. “I don’t know you. Right now, all I see is a pampered, broken trophy looking for an easy escape from her husband. I’m not wasting my blood.”

Rage, hot and blinding, surged through my veins. “A pampered trophy? I just ran through miles of briars in the dark while being hunted by alpha wolves. I stood by and watched my husband cheat on me, use me, and lie to an entire pack about a curse to keep me caged. Do not call me a trophy.”

“For now,” Fenris said, walking back to the desk. “Marcus is an idiot, but Ethan isn’t. He won’t risk a war with the Council yet. He’ll look for legal loopholes, or he’ll wait until we leave this station and ambush us with brute force. We have maybe two weeks before the High Council Gala. That’s your deadline.”

“So what do we do?” I asked, clenching my fists.

Fenris looked at my scratched face, and the raw determination in my eyes. A sly smile played ar the corner of his lips.

“You want a wolf’s power? You prove you can handle it,” Fenris said, stepping closer.

“I won’t bite you. Not yet. But I’ll offer a deal. You survive a wolf’s training as a human. I push you until you break, and if you don’t break-if you prove your spirit can actually hold a wolf- I’ll turn you.”

I looked at his massive, calloused hand extended toward me. It was a terrifying gamble. He could kill me with the training alone. But returning to Ethan meant a lifetime in a gilded cage.

“Deal,” I said, gripping his hand.

“Good,” he rasped, his grip tightening just enough to let me know he meant business. “We leave through the back tunnels now. My stronghold is five miles into the mountains. If you can’t keep up, I leave you behind.”

He shoved a hidden stone panel beside the desk, revealing a pitch-black staircase leading straight down into the earth. Fenris descended without looking back.

I took a deep breath, gripped the strap of my bag, and stepped into the dark after him.

We had been walking down the damp, suffocating tunnel for less than ten minutes when we finally emerged, standing on a jagged cliffside. Fenris threw a pair of heavy boots and a pair of tactical pants at my chest.

“Put those on,” he said, his face a mask of stone. “Your training started five minutes ago.”

The next week was a living hell.

Fenris wasn’t a teacher; he was a drill sergeant with a sadistic streak. My mornings began with a five-mile run up the rocky mountain steep. As a human, my lungs burned, my knees popped, and my feet bled through the thick leather boots. If I slowed down, he didn’t encourage me. He just ran ahead, leaving me to navigate the jagged terrain alone.

“The wolf won’t choose a weak vessel, Elaine!” he would shout down from a higher ledge, “If you fall, you die up here!”

By afternoon, we were in the courtyard. He threw me onto the hard dirt until my elbows were raw and my ribs were black and blue.

“You’re fighting wolves,” he barked, standing over me as I gasped for air on the ground. “They are faster, stronger, and they can smell your fear. Get up.”

I wiped the blood from my lip and forced myself to my feet.

By nighttime, covered in bruises and smelling of sweat, I sat across from Fenris at his desk, surrounded by maps of the territory and the financial ledgers I stole.

“The Crystal Waters pack isn’t as rich as Ethan pretends,” I said, tapping a finger on a line of numbers. I knew these books inside out; I had managed his household accounts for three years. “He’s laundering money through human front companies in the city. Look here. He’s buying silver weapons from illegal black-market human syndicates.”

Fenris leaned over the desk, his icy eyes widening. “Silver? The High Council strictly bans packs from hoarding silver weapons. If the Council finds out, they’ll strip him of his Alpha title.”

“Exactly.” I said, a dark smile touching my lips. “And I know the exact bank accounts he uses to pay them. We don’t just kill him, Fenris. We ruin him first.”

Fenris looked up from the ledgers, studying my face. For the first time, the harsh line of his mouth softened. “You really aren’t a pampered trophy, are you?”

“I told you I wasn’t,” I wiggled my brows at him.

A few days later, we were sitting by a roaring fire in the courtyard. The mountain air was freezing, but the heat from the flames kept the chill at bay. Fenris had roasted a fresh hunt that smelled incredible.

I tore into a piece of meat, juice running down my chin. Fenris watched me and let out a rare laugh.

“What?” I asked, chewing aggressively.

“Nothing,” he said, shaking his head, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips. “Just thinking about how horrified Ethan would be if he saw his elegant wife eating like a feral pup.

I laughed, tearing down more meat, “Ethan can go straight to hell.”

“To hell,” Fenris agreed, clinking a mug against mine.

The laughter died down, leaving a comfortable silence between us. I looked at him, seeing the deep, hidden pain he kept masked behind his brutal exterior.

“Fenris,” I said quietly, setting my meat down. “What really happened between you and Ethan? Why do you hate him so much?”

He stared into the flames, his jaw tightening until the bone practically showed through his skin. For a long moment, I thought he was going to avoid the question.

“Ethan always thought he was above the laws of the Moon Goddess,” Fenris said, his voice dropping. “Years ago, before he took over the pack, he used to sneak out of the territory. He went into the human cities. He would… use human women and then use pack magic to wipe their memories”

I felt a sickening knot form in my stomach. It sounded exactly like the monster I had married.

“I found out,” Fenris continued, his hands curling into tight fists. “I told him I was going to the High Council. I threatened to expose him. The next night… he came to my home. My younger

sis..”

Fenris choked on the words, his chest heaving. “He raped her, Elaine. And then he slaughtered her like an animal just to send me a message. I didn’t have the power or the pack backing to fight him then. I had to run. I became a rogue waiting for my chance.” He wiped a hand across

his face, his voice tight with ancient rage. “It was only later I learned the Moon Goddess had cursed the whole territory, banning everyone from leaving.”

The fire popped, throwing sparks into the air. I stood up, the wooden mug falling from my hand and spilling onto the dirt. My breath hitched in my throat as a terrifying, blinding realization washed over me.

“No,” I whispered. “No, Fenris. That’s a lie.”

Fenris frowned, looking up at me, his blue eyes flashing with confusion. “What are you talking about? Ethan told the whole pack-”

“Ethan lied to us,” I interrupted, my voice trembling but clear. “He lied to the whole pack. I saw his beta cross the borders freely the day I ran into you. Nobody else is locked in.”

Fenris stood up slowly, his massive frame towering over me, his face turning pale. “What do

you mean?”

I looked directly into his eyes, delivering the strike that would shatter his entire world. “The Moon Goddess didn’t ban the territory from leaving. Ethan’s the only one cursed and banned.”