ﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـ Tethered ﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـ

Chapter 4

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• Luna •

Something much more wild and ferocious took control of Luna once she locked eyes with Sam. She was overcome by a sickening, sinking sense of animosity. Her fist swung out as it struck his cheekbone. He was knocked against the wall by a strong, powerful force. She was filled with all of the resentment and rage she had ever felt over the years.

White-hot pain danced across her hand, and he let out a startled groan. "Lu-Lu—"

"Don't call me that."  She swung again, this time driving her knuckles into his chin.

As Sam staggered back, he grimaced in pain. "Lu-Lu, you need to calm down so I can explain."

"Hell no!"

As she spun and reached for a small lamp next to the bed, the overhead light suddenly turned on. She wasn't sure how it did. Sam's abilities shouldn't function if she couldn't use them in her cell. He lunged at her and took advantage of her being caught off guard by the sudden glare.

Pushing forward, he forced her to back away from the lamp. "You will be sedated," he warned. "I know you don't want that."

"Go screw yourself!" She swung at him again, slamming her fist into his abdomen.

He twisted her elbow. A sharp pain shot up her arm, causing her to gasp in shock. She kicked out as he spun her around. He let go of her arm, narrowly avoiding the thrust of her knee in his groin. "We can't talk if you're going to act like this." His pale eyes narrowed. "You have to behave."

"You're a bastard!" she yelled, rage seeping from her lips. "You shot my husband!"

Sam chuckled under his breath and, well, she lost her shit.

Luna attacked him like a boxer—a really lame boxer because Sam easily avoided her strike. Her left fist smashed into the bed, and the next second, he pressed into her back. She toppled forward, slamming into the bed on her side and bouncing it against the wall.

His knees dropped to the mattress as he grabbed her shoulders and rolled her onto her back. He cursed after being slapped on the arms. She stood up and swung again at him.

"Stop it," he yelled as he grabbed her hand. He leaned over her, his face inches away from hers, and spoke quietly. "Stop fighting, Luna. You're making things worse. BARDA is recording everything. How did you think the lights turned on? This room will be sprayed with phycyne."

She tried to push him aside, but he shifted his weight so that his knees were pressed against both sides of her legs, trapping them. Panic crept up inside her, causing her pulse to hasten. Nausea intensified, and the panic increased. "Get off of me!"

"I'm not sure if I should. You'll swing at me again."

"I will!" She jerked her hips, but he didn't budge, and her heart was pounding so fast she thought she was going to have a heart attack.

Sam shook his head. "You need to relax. I came to talk. You can count on me."

She let out a strangled laugh, her eyes wide. "Count on you? I saw you die. Twice."

"You have to trust me, and I can explain everything." His platinum blond hair spiraled across his temples. It was once artfully messy, but it appeared that he'd run out of hair dye recently.

She wanted to hit him again, but she couldn't. "I will murder you!"

"You won't like this." He pushed down, his gaze fixed on her. "I know our relationship—"

"We don't have any sort of relationship. We don't have anything, Sam!" She forced her muscles to stop trembling by taking deep breaths. He stared down at her for a few seconds, nostrils flared and mouth set in a tight, grim line. "I hate you." Saying that seemed pointless, but it made her feel better. "You're dead to me."

He winced and spoke in hushed tones. "I hated deceiving you, Lu-Lu. I had no choice. If I'd said anything, you wouldn't have understood what was going on around you. I'm not the bad guy here."

She shook her head, puzzled and outraged beyond belief. "You're the bad guy. You made me think you died seven years ago. I grieved for you. You screwed with my mental health."

"I'm sorry."

"Sorry means shit! How could you?"

"The organization made me do it "

"Hell no." She inhaled a breath as Sam stayed hovered over her. "Our daughter never got to know her father."

"It was . . ." He paused as his voice cracked. "It was for the best she never got to know me. The real me, Luna."

"You're such a slimeball."

"I deserve that."

"This is my life, Sam." Tears welled up in her eyes as she realized she had no control over her life anymore, thanks in part to him, and she struggled to keep her tone steady. "Was any of it true? Your feelings for me?"

He remained silent for a long time. "We weren't supposed to be anything more than friends, but after our night together, we produced Sarah. That's what they wanted. A child born from a hybrid and an origin."

"Son. Of. A. Bitch," she hissed.

"Hybrids aren't supposed to get sick, but I had developed a tumor in my right frontal lobe. They had removed it, and I was sent to Pakistan. My mission was to ensure that you met Amir after you'd witnessed my death." His body pressed harder, and his chest came into contact with hers. She remained motionless as she listened to his explanation. "When a Pure Soul meets their companion, their abilities grow stronger. More intense. I had to let you and Sarah go. But then Chase entered your lives, and they wouldn't let me do anything. I couldn't step in."

Her compassion for Sam the first time she thought he'd died had been the final nail in her coffin. It was painfully ironic. She wished she could claw his eyes out now.

He exhaled a ragged breath. "Chase had no idea he was being set up. In this game, they used him as a pawn."

Luna scowled. "Is that what this is to you? A game?"

"They wanted to see how powerful you could become. You've proven it by knocking out the man they detest. Chase isn't their favorite person."

"No shit!" She wiggled a little, but Sam was too strong. With his weight on her, her arms and legs were going numb. "Then why was I deceived at St. Matthew's?"

"Because they were trying to hide the truth, Lu-Lu."

"Which is?"

Sam swallowed and cleared his throat. "The real truth."

"Like any of you are capable of telling the truth." She shifted her body, attempting to knock him off balance. He lifted, still clutching her wrists, and hoisted her off the bed, murmuring another curse. Her bare feet slid across the floor as he forced her to the bathroom. "What are you doing?"

"You need to cool off," he said, his jaw clenched.

Luna dug in and only managed to irritate the soles of her feet. He threw her body inside and banged her into the sink. He shoved her back against the wall before she could start whaling on him again.

She toppled over the shower stall's short rim, landing on her buttocks. A chronic pain shot up her spinal column.

Sam lunged forward, one hand on her shoulder and the other reaching blindly to the side. A second later, frigid water blasted from the showerhead, hitting her body.

Screaming, she struggled to stand up, but as the icy water doused her skin, his other hand landed on her neck and stopped her. She shuddered, flinging her arms in the frigid air. "Leave me alone!"

"Not until you're willing to listen to what I have to say."

"I don't care!" Her body was bound to wet clothing. Her hair was plastered to her face under the continuous stream of water. She reached for his face out of fear that he was trying to drown her, but he slapped her hands away.

"We have to talk." Sam snatched her chin, digging his fingers into her cheeks, forcing her to look him in the eyes. "Hate me all you want, but do you think you wouldn't be here if you hadn't met me? If that's the case, you're crazy. Your fate was sealed the moment your father accepted BARDA's serum. If you're going to be angry at someone, it should be him."

He had rendered her immobile. "You're insane. You're holding my father responsible for this? He gave me life."

"Lawrence screwed you over, knowing he needed some sort of help to procreate. That's it in a nutshell. And let us not forget about Amir. He shouldn't have left you alone in General Davenport."

"You're pushing it now, Sam."

He smirked. "Amir had to have known the organization was coming for you. He's not a moron."

She groaned and shook her head. "That's the Sam I remember. Everything is someone else's fault."

His eyes narrowed, and the redness on his face darkened. "And you've always been a self-centered brat."

She raised her hand and slapped him across the face before she could stop herself. "News flash: I am not the egoistic one. I raised Sarah and did not abandon her."

As she climbed out of the shower, he backed up and shook his head. He reached around, turned off the water, and chucked a towel at her. "Don't hit me again. You won't have another chance."

"Don't tell me what to do." She tried to dry off with the towel as best she could.

He gripped his fists tightly. "Look, I know. You used to love me, but now you despise me. Those were the good old days."

"Screw off!"

"Luna, get over it. There are more pressing matters to attend to. For example, how will we survive the apocalypse?"

"How are we going to get through this?" She planned to strangle him with her towel. "I'm not surviving anything with you. Amir and I will make it out of here alive."

"Well, you can't see him unless you give them what they want." He leaned against the closed door, cautiously watching her. "You've got no idea what's going on, Moon."

"Don't call me that." She twisted the water out of the clothes angrily and ineffectively.

"Are you civilized now? Can we talk? Things are not as they appear. And I wish I could have told you the truth a long time ago. I couldn't before, but now I can."

She turned her head in disbelief and let out a choked laugh.

His eyes narrowed and he took a step forward. Her back arched in warning, and he didn't get any closer. "Let's be clear about one thing. If Amir wasn't in the next room, you'd explode and throw everyone and baby Jesus off a cliff to get to him. The world could crumble around you, and your only focus would be on him."

"And Sarah," she added.

"That's exactly what I did, Luna. To save you and Sarah from torture early on, I had to practically throw you and her off a cliff. So don't act like you're better than me."

He gave up her and the chance to be with his daughter so that they could be saved from BARDA? If that was true, he should have told her about it instead of keeping it hidden. And she thought that was insane.

"You believe you can justify this? You're wrong. You're a monster, Sam. Nothing, regardless of your good intentions or the truth, will ever change that."

In his steady gaze, a sliver of unease shone through.

It took everything Luna had not to yank the towel rod from the wall and pummel it through his chest. She flung the towel aside, shaking more from hatred than from the wet coldness soaking through her clothes.

He pushed the door open, and she took a step back, wary. He squinted. "We're not the bad guys here." He walked out of the bathroom, groaning. "You'll see."

She went after him. "How do you keep a straight face when you talk like that?"

Sam sat in the chair. "You want to go up against them. I get that. I do. I've lied to you about almost everything, and I know it, but you wouldn't believe the truth unless you saw it. And the moment you do, everything will change."

She knew there was nothing in this world they could show her to make her change her mind, but she also understood it would be pointless to argue with him about it. "I have to change clothes."

"Go ahead."

She glared. You're not staying in here while I get dressed."

Sam scowled angrily. "Change in the restroom. I won't be looking in on you, so don't worry." After that, he laughed. "It's nothing new, Lu-Lu; I mean, I've seen it before. Sarah wouldn't be here if . . ."

"Don't finish that sentence."

"I'm just saying that I won't do anything unless you want me to. And I'd be down for that. It's been a while, hasn't it?"

Her palm itched to wrap around a very improper spot on him and twist. Her next few words came out of her mouth. She could feel them. She trusted them.

"You're going to die one of these days," she said. "And if it's not from my hands, it'll be from my husband's."

As he met her stare, he cracked a smile. "You've killed, Lu-Lu. You know what it's like to take a life after escaping St. Matthew's, but you're not a murderer." With a knowing look, he caught her sharp intake. "Not yet, anyway."

She turned away, her muscles tensed.

"Like I said, we are not the bad guys. The Defectives are, and you'll see that I'm not lying. We're here to prevent them from doing more damage to the world."

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