Luna panicked. What would she do? What would happen if he found out the mark was gone?
Oh, fuck, this is not good.
Luna looked over her shoulder at him nervously.
He was watching her hand, and his eyes were narrowed. He suspected what had happened, or he knew a reason why it would have happened. What was that reason?
No point in hiding it anymore, then.
Luna sighed softly and slid her hand down, out of the way, then let her head loll downwards, which to her was sideways, to bare her neck.
"Gone," he murmured from behind her. He didn't seem exactly surprised. More... troubled.
"How?" Luna ventured to ask. She knew that the mark had been deeper than physical, and even if it was only physical, it wouldn't just vanish so soon. Luna had never had a scar on her neck heal so quickly before.
"We have a problem on our hands," he rumbled, pressing closer again. Luna shivered as his lips brushed her neck again.
"What's that?" she asked, desperate to keep him talking and also attempting to keep herself on track and not give herself time to focus on how his body was making her feel.
"You are not just a human," he responded. As he said it, his arms wrapped back around Luna's waist, tightly.
"Wh-"
Luna began to ask another question, but Lukas clapped his hand over her mouth before she could get it out.
"I think that's enough questions. It's time you gave me some answers."
Lukas's arm that was still around her waist squeezed, and she choked out a word into his hand as she gasped for breath, barely able to get enough through her nose. She was panicking, again.
His knees dug into her hips on either side, then he rolled her over onto her stomach, kneeling atop her with one leg on either side. At least his grip on her waist had been reduced to a hand instead of an arm that restricted her lungs.
"Don't speak," he growled. His voice was dark.
Luna squeezed her eyes shut.
"Just nod if you know, shake if you don't. Got it?"
Luna nodded.
"You got a name?"
She nodded again.
"Who's your mother?"
Luna hesitated, then slowly shook her head.
Her mother the queen was a weak-willed woman who chased popularity with desperation. Coincidentally, she was also barren. That was why Luna had no siblings, despite her mother's constant search for her father's "affection".
Luna's real mother was someone else. Her father had adopted Luna after a few months of trying to no avail to impregnate her mother.
After all, a tyrant needs an heir, Luna thought bitterly. If her father hadn't needed one, she would be either still in the gutter where he left her after her birth, a beggar, a whore or a courtesan, or a swordsman who hid her gender to earn her keep.
While the last outcome wasn't bad, it was the uncertainty that made her accept his summons and become his true daughter.
Luna hadn't known at the time that the palace would be worse than the streets to her.
"Don't know?" Lukas questioned. Another nod.
"I didn't figure you came from that bitch calling herself the queen," he muttered, half to himself. "Where I'm from she would've been praised for surviving a week."
Luna remained still and silent as he thought for a moment, then he sat back on his haunches above her, releasing her mouth. Luna lifted her head slightly and gulped in air, but she didn't speak, afraid of re-triggering whatever that aggression had been.
She lay like that, with him above her, for a short eternity. She prayed to whatever deity had created humanity with every breath that he would decide this wasn't worth punishment. Each time his hips shifted, she felt a shiver go through her body. Eventually, after his hand on her waist had begun to caress her side, Luna turned her head to the side slowly and laid it back down. Her neck had been burning so much from holding it just above the mattress that she was nearly in tears.
"Do you still have any love for them?" Lukas asked in an even lower voice.
Luna's breath caught when she tried to speak, so she shook her head, determined to answer.
"One more question."
His voice was low. Low, dark, and cold.
"What is this?"
He had his hand on her back.
Right over the-