005 Decline His Offer

Lilith’s POV

“I will try to be friends with Hannah,” I said, trying to end the conversation in the easiest way I knew.

Before I could find my way out of his pack, I needed to avoid more conflicts with Orion. He could make my life hell easily and now...he just might.

“How can you be friends with a beta’s daughter?” Orion blurted, only to realize it was too mean a thing to say when I was trying to make peace, “I mean, the high ranks are a bunch of brats. They look only at ranks when it comes to friends. What I’m saying is--”

Were they looking down on me? Or, you were.

“It’s okay,” I cut him off, not wanting to look at the ugly truth anymore, “I won’t go near Hannah again.”

Even though it was Hannah who kept striking. It didn’t matter who avoids who. I never thought I should avoid a bully, but that was because my Orion spoiled me. Orion Hawthorne wouldn’t.

Orion looked relieved. A genuine smile back on his face, Orion took my hands into his, “Thanks, Lil. One day, I will give you a rank higher than hers, higher than any of them! I promise!”

“Okay,” Feeling so empty, I couldn’t even fake a smile.

Orion frowned because my reaction was not what he expected, but he was not saying anything.

The night my Orion was taken away from me was just like this. He had his hand over the mark I left on his neck, and he said one day he would come and make me his Luna.

But now, all that was left there was an ugly scar on his neck.

I touched my own collarbone, feeling the scar that gave me courage in all those cold, lonely thousand nights, mourning the loss of the best thing that ever happened to me.

Maybe seeing my move triggered something in him, Orion softened his tone rarely: “I know it’s hard, but my life is hard too. The title was my birthright, but I have to fight so hard, just to claim it.”

I nodded numbly.

I should never let them take Orion three years ago, if I knew that power would twist even the clearest soul in the world. But then again, I couldn’t make that decision for Orion, even if I could.

“That’s my girl,” Orion let out a long breath, smiling at me with his tone bright again, “Anyways, that was not why I came to see you today.”

Why was I not surprised? That he didn’t came today to apologize, after he called me a liar in public, ignored my mindlinks, and marked Hannah over and over?

“The Feast is next week,” Orion tipped my chin up to meet his eyes, “You know? The Full Moon Feast? Once every year, when the red moon is full, the pack holds its grandest feast that--”

“Yes,” I stopped his culture lesson impatiently.

Werewolf’s power was granted by the moon. They were the strongest on the full moon in a month, and even stronger on the red full moon in a whole year. The Red Full Moon was not a special thing just for his pack, but for wolves everywhere. Except I guess, being the most powerful pack in the kingdom, their feast would be more grand.

I never knew how much I hated the superiority in his tone when he talked to me like I was some wide-eyed redneck.

When he told me to keep our marks a secret, I believed him that he wasn’t ashamed of having an orphan mate. When he told me not to train in my wolf’s form, I believed him that he wasn’t ashamed of Lycoris’s small size, which Hannah kept making fun of.

I really WAS wide-eyed.

Last night broke the spell, and I felt like a blind person who just got his sight, seeing the ugly truth for what it was for the first time.

“Father prepared a gift for you, did you know?” Orion asked me, that confusing nervousness back in his eyes.

“He mentioned something like that,” I nodded.

I finally understand his sudden “nervousness” around me: He didn’t want to fight because he wanted the Alpha’s gift for me.

Three months ago, the Alpha got injured in a battle, and was sent to my little clinic. Well, I say clinic...my little cabin where I healed people for money. I knew nothing about being a healer, nor was I trained in anything, but I needed to make a living, and that was the only way--

My blood can heal physical wounds.

That was my biggest secret that no one could know. No one except Orion and The Lady. The Lady told me if people knew about it, they would capture me and drain my blood because of how valuable my rare blood was.

So I opened a “clinic” in a small town, and sold “healing potions” for money. I would boil some wellness herbs, and add my blood secretly to the water, so when people drank the “potion”, their wounds would heal.

That was why they sent the Alpha to my “clinic”, and why the Alpha brought me back to the pack.

I’ll admit. The Alpha didn’t insist on taking me back, but merely suggested it. It was me who agreed without a thought when I heard the pack’s name -- the pack that Orion was taken to.

I knew Orion didn’t want to leave me behind when Mama Beth took him to join the pack. I knew that it was not easy for Mama Beth to survive in a pack as the Alpha’s woman, but not “the Luna”. I knew that being an orphan, taking me with her would make her position even harder.

That was why I took the chance when I could join the pack on my own.

But among everything that I considered, I never thought Orion would not want me here.

“If it’s something valuable, you can have it,” I told Orion without thinking, only to regret it when the words left my tongue.

I was too used to sharing with Orion.

I should have used it as leverage to get Orion to accept my rejection. It must be very valuable, if that “gift” made him so nervous that he would come to “make truce” first and mind his tone around me.

“I knew my Lil loves me the most,” Orion grinned happily, stroking my face with a finger.

I shifted slightly just enough to avoid his touch.

“The thing is, the gift is not an item to give, but I do want to claim it,” Orion let out a relieved breath, “The Alpha is granting you a mate, any man you claim in the pack. I need you to decline his offer, or better yet, ask for something you actually CAN give me. Don’t take it wrong, but I’m not ready to claim a mate, not when I’m so close to the title.”

I opened my eyes widely, nearly laughing in anger.