Bound by the Moon (The Ancients Series Book 4) Read Online Free Page A

laughter. May the spirits always look after and bless this beautiful baby.”
    Mikael turned from me to Evan and Natalia then. “Now, what we need explained is the light that actually shined out from Natalia to surround Willow.”
    Natalia was no help. She simply mumbled, “I’m so sorry,” repeatedly.
    Evan sighed before answering. “Can we all just sit down for a minute, calmly, while I explain. I promise, nothing bad happened here.” Suddenly, the dark circles under his eyes took on new meaning, as I gauged the fact that this was not a first time occurrence. He blew out a breath, getting ready to speak again, before I interrupted to make it clear that I didn’t want him to hold anything back at this point.
    “Evan, my track record with your pack, your family in specific, hasn’t exactly been all roses. So, excuse me if I worry when one of your people starts glowing my baby up with mystical light.” I retorted hotly. “If you hold back at this point, and I find out later that there was something we needed to know, I promise you I will rip through heaven, hell, earth, and anyplace in-between to find you and dole out a justice I find befitting.” Natalia’s eyes grew wider as I let fly my promise for vengeance if her mate lied to me.
    “I know, Jess. I promise you, Natalia meant no harm to you or Willow. Just listen, please.”
    “Fine.”
    “You know we left, after Malachai was killed and the girls were captured and put in the locks.” I nodded my head in agreement. We had been worried at the time that he would take Asriel with him, and that Ashley would have to make the choice to go or stay without him. I don’t know what sort of deal they worked out, but Asriel ended up staying behind with Ashley, and working for my father, while Evan and Natalia left town. “I took Natalia back to Romania when we went away. We went back there to see if we could find Natalia’s younger sister. When she was taken to be a part of the King’s harem her sister hadn’t gone through all the transitions yet, so we thought, maybe she had never gotten sucked into that life.” Evan shrugged and looked for Natalia now just stared at the floor. “We didn’t find her, but we did find their father who swore the King took both girls the night he came for Natalia.”
    “That’s insane!” I noted before Evan continued.
    “Yeah, well, we all know where my father and brother stood on the sanity scale. Anyway, we didn’t find Claire, but when we saw evidence that she’d been there all along, one room down from Natalia, she lost it.”
    “When I was there, it was common knowledge that they did horrible things to the girls in that room. They were used in different ways than we were.” Natalia confirmed.
    “How do you know she was there?”
    “I found her bracelet. My mother gave each of us one when we young, and bid us never take them off.” Natalia saw me look to her wrists for the telltale bracelet, but there wasn’t one. “Antoine had a lady friend of his take mine off of me. She had to put some special sauce, um, not sauce, but special lotion maybe on my arm to make it fall off.”
    I looked at Evan, oddly curious about the importance of these bracelets now, and making note to share this information with Serena. Perhaps she could make sense of it.
    Evan nodded his head, and pulled Natalia in closer to him. “Nat, lost it. She fell to the floor, crying, and when she did this glow erupted from her. All around us, the neglected dead plants just kind of blossomed and started coming back around. They held the same faint glow she did at first, and then it would fade away, but the healthy blossoming plants remained.”
    “I don’t know what happened, or why I can do these things. You have to believe me.” Natalia’s eyes rose to meet my own, and all I saw there was fear. “I didn’t try to hurt your baby, only bless her like our people always do.” Tears were streaming down the girl’s face as I went to her and put my