ZEDANE
The rain is cascading down the roof in strong pellets. A storm that marks the grief that has settled over the pack since the news a week ago.“Alpha,” Tunil, my second in command and best friend, calls my attention from the door.I turn to face him. “What do you want?”He eyes me up and down. “You might want to put that attitude aside for a while. Everyone is grieving and you don't get to be the one who takes his out on everyone else.”I would have his tongue out by now if he wasn't my best friend, and right.“What do you want?” This time my voice is darker and has dropped several degrees.“The funeral rites are about to start. We cannot keep waiting on the rain to let up, so we made a makeshift shelter to hold the fire.”I cock my head, looking at him but somehow unseeing. “We will wait.”“Alpha, we…”“I said we will wait!” I thunder.He squares his shoulders and shifts from pack subordinate to friend. “I already told you that we cannot keep waiting. It's been a whole week. An entire week and Elma's been lying there waiting for the perfect moment.”“Lunil.” I warn.He scoffs. “Oh, cut if off Zedane. Am I supposed to be scared of that tone? You and I both know that I could hurt you just as badly as you could hurt me, so let's not go there.”I slant him a dark glance, my fists folding to hold back the rage. “Leave.”“You're the Alpha and should be present at the ceremony. In fact, it wouldn't hold without you.” He lets his gaze hold mine for a long time before he speaks again. “Don't let your pack down.”He turns and walks out of the room after the last words and I keep glaring at the spot where he was standing just now.After a while I feel the anger start to filter out of my system. It's not him I should be angry with, it's the moon goddess and her twisted mind.I walk out of my chamber and head out to the pack cemetery where I know the ceremony was scheduled to hold.The room is buzzing with sad energy. One that threatens to leave the inhabitants of this space grief-scented at the end of the day.I step into the open space and everywhere goes quiet. I don't pay them any attention, though. I continue to walk forward until my feet reaches the pyre that was set up for her.Her twin pups are brought forward and the maiden holding them has no idea what to do with them. Normally, the pack's Luna is supposed to stand beside the Alpha during rites like these, holding unto whatever family is left behind.I see Lunil move away from the pyre and towards the back of the room from my peripheral. I know exactly what he is about to do.“Lunil!” I call. I don't bother to turn around to face him though.The already still room, stills even further. “Yes Alpha,” he answers.“Let her be. I will do it.”I ignore the gasps that ring out and open my arms for the maiden to place the pups in each one.I don't say a word throughout the ceremony. I just clutch onto Elma's pups and grind my teeth in anger. My mind explodes in vapid thoughts as soon as the rituals are finalized and fire is set to Elma's lifeless body.What the hell?! Elma was okay, she was in perfect health and now what? We have to try raising two pups that lost both their parents to the cruel hands of fate.That never ends well. More times than not, it produces an army of rogues. Wolves who are mercenaries instead of protectors and would do anything to ensure that they don't take orders from anyone.I turn around and walk away with the cubs as soon as the last one of the ambers catches on fire.Someone screams in the distance and I stop in my tracks. A maiden is racing towards the cemetery with tears licking her skin.“What is wrong?” I ask as she falls down in front of me, still crying.“We just… we…” She hiccups as she tries to give an answer through her sobs.“Speak!” I command.She looks up at me. “Alpha, Juna is… Juna is… Juna is dead. She… she… passed away while giving birth to her pups.”“Pups?” I ask.It seems like my brain is processing the information one at a time, but the most pressing issue here is the fact that my pack has lost two mothers in the space of a week and the coincidence is not lost on me.The maiden nods her head. “Two. She had twin pups.”My eyes lock on Kiena's from across the room and I hold her gaze, anger and bitterness running wild in my system.“Here. Have the pups fed and cared for. I have something important to attend to.”The maiden who brought the pups for their mother's funeral takes them from my arms and bows.I look at the one at my feet. “Clean her up and have her prepared for her funeral rights, after Sybil has checked her of course. We need to know the cause of these occurrences.”“Yes, Alpha.” She bows and turns away from me, going back in the direction she came.I walk away from the cemetery and grab Kiena's hand on my way by. She gasps at the force with which I'm holding onto her but doesn't complain.Good. I'm not in the mood for it anyway.We make it to the manor in quick strides and I continue to pull her along until we get to a lonely hallway.“Let go of me, you're hurting me!”I don't respond. I instead continue to pull her along with me as we walk in the direction of my chamber.She tries to pull her hand away from mine. “Stop it. You're hurting me.”I ignore her again and this time she screams at me, planting her feet on the ground to stop herself from following behind me.“What the hell is wrong with you? Leave me alone!”I spin around to face her. “That's exactly what I want to know. What the hell is wrong with you, Kiena?”KIENA“Excuse you?” I throw back immediately.The hell is wrong with him? He's the one going all unhinged caveman on me and he dares to ask me what is wrong with me? He pins me with a blank stare. The stare is filled with anger and so much darkness.I try to pull my hand away again but he refuses to free me.“Let go of me, Zedane.”“Answer my question.” His voice is low and intimidating.“The hell kind of question is that? How am I even supposed to know what you're talking about? You're the one who pulled me here so angrily and yet you're asking what's wrong with me? Isn't it obvious which one of us has something wrong with them?”“You're cursed.” His voice is so low that I am unsure if I heard him right.“What did you just say?” I ask.He drops my hand like it stung him and walks back a few steps. “You're cursed. You're a curse, Kiena.”I cannot believe my ears. I'm staring at him in shock while he stares at me with so much hatred that I almost shrivel up.“What do you mean by that?
KIENA I have no idea where it is that I'm going, just that I'm upset enough and I'm going there.Screw Zedane Rhage! Screw my impulsive decision to get mated to a man I don't know! Screw Dimitri Vocci for using me as a pawn in his game of politics! And Screw Xhecon Luther for not being a man worth tolerating!I stomp onward in angry strides. My feet are screaming for a reprieve but I can't stop. I can't bring myself to go back to the unfair reality of my cursed existence so I continue to march forward. Oh, that reminds me. Screw the moon goddess for making me latent! It's all her fault. Everyone I've ever come in contact with thinks of me as a worthless liability and all I can do is fight every second of every day to prove that I am not.Screw every single one of them! I hate them all! Especially Zedane douchebag Rhage.“Ouch!” My foot gets caught on something that viny and I drop to the ground in a painful roll.Something warm trickles along the skin on my calf and I look down to s
ZEDANE"What is your problem? Why are you looking at me with so much disgust on your face? It was you who asked me to show you in the first place, so don't go acting irritated by the sight of it."She glances down at the injury in question and turns to glare at me again. "It's not even that gross. It's just a narrow cut that runs along my skin."I clench my fists tighter, trying to tame the beast that is pulling at me to take charge. Something is seriously wrong with this woman, it's like a she cared about is starting a war."Go, Kiena. Leave now!"Hurt flashes in her eyes for a second before she masks it and folds her arms over her chest in defiance."Why the hell am I the one who's expected to leave? If you're that grossed out, then get out!"I shake my head in a move that's meant to clear it, but instead it jumbles my thoughts even further. I pull at the hair on my head."You need to leave now, Kiena."She scoffs."I already told you, if someone needs to leave here, it's you. Now g
KIENAI didn't think twice about what I was doing after I got the parchment delivered directly to me. I woke up to the knocks on my chamber's door and found that I'd gotten a delivery - much to my surprise.As soon as I open the folded piece of cloth to see the familiar lines of writing that belongs to none other than Estina, I got into overdrive.There was no contemplating involved as I took a hurried bath and got into a car in the Alpha's garage or when I drove up to the huge gates and rolled the windows down to gain passage. They opened the gates for me with such swiftness and tons of head bows that for once I didn’t exactly hate the idea of being the Luna of Blackwater pack. But there seems to be an overabundance of second thoughts as I stand just a few steps away from the hidden gateway of Whitevalley pack that's only used in cases of serious emergency.I let out a heavy sigh and take a step forward, ready to step back into the territory of Alpha Dumitri Vocci, my former Alpha a
ZEDANEI haven't been in the same space as Kiena ever since the incident in the woods two nights ago, but all that changed the moment I got a call from pack security that she had just driven out of the pack.I contemplated letting her be for a while, thinking that she might have decided yo up and leave finally after the last stunt; but knowing how proud Kiena is, she definitely would not have left with anything that belonged to me or my pack - that includes the pack car.Hence my decision to go after the little fireball, and I couldn't be any more grateful that I did. Damn, the woman has a death wish, suicidal tendency and genocidal tendency all wrapped up in that delicately hot body of hers.I force in a harsh breath through my nose and turn to cast a glance at the flesh and blood representation of chaos sitting beside me. She has her face turned to the window and her expression is drawn into something terribly sad. The visual of her hunched shoulders, glossy eyes and sad face strik
KIENA“Luna,” a tentative voice calls from behind me and I turn around.I'm lying in my bed, my head tucked comfortably on my pillow and cushioned by the swaddling of sheets that pool at my neck.“May I help you?” My voice is soft even though I want to snap instead.It's not the fault of the little girl that she belongs to a pack with a jerk as the Alpha. Matter of fact, all Alphas are jerks. From Dimitri Vocci to Xhecon Luther and now, Zedane Rhage; every man is far worse than the last.She shows me her hand. “I brought you a plate of brownies, Luna. I didn't know what you liked so I also picked two cupcakes and two muffins just in case.”My forehead furrows in a mixture of confusion and suspicion.“Who are you?”“I'm Lina. I'm an Omega wolf and all the wolves tell me that I'm weak and…”“They tell you that?” I interrupt her, anger skimming my blood all of a sudden.She looks shocked by my reaction and her nod of affirmation is tentative. I raise myself up into a sitting position and
I had a simple saying, "never react in blind panic when you're faced with a scary situation."Guess what though? Fate had a saying too. "Never make rules without consulting me first."After its saying is a maniacal cackle that I would normally have found comical, not so much today.Panic, of the hot, blind and wild variety, is swimming through me; running along my veins on torrents of fire.My eyes scour the entire congregation of smiling faces, coming to rest on the one person I don't want to see today or ever, sitting ramrod straight in the first pew.Our eyes lock on each other and a veil of anger covers me from the inside. Proud and stubborn, regally dressed and oozing selfish success is none other than my traitorous Alpha - because I refuse to call him my father - Dimitri Vocci.His golden gaze burns on mine, a silent dare for me to question his authority. His lips are pressed in a flat line, awaiting patiently the submission he knows would come next.I lower my eyes, dropping t
KIENA"Ms. Vocci, last daughter of Alpha Dimitri, do you bind yourself to this man? To fight with, support, give heirs, and become flesh and blood with him, till death do you part?"Xhecon stares at me expectantly, an air of arrogant dominance pouring off him in violent waves. I can feel the stillness of the air as the entire combination of Whitevalley and Dark forest packs hold their breaths in anticipation. My response would be the key to securing an alliance that benefits no one but the Alphas involved, at least that's what it seems like to me.My mouth moves before I can stop it. "No." The sound is feeble though, barely audible even in the hush of the cathedral. I know the exact moment the pack priest catches my response. His breath hitches and his eyes widen to very large proportions. I would laugh, but that would mean death so..."What did you just say?" Xhecon asks in a cold hum, his voice menacingly low.I square my shoulders and raise my chin defiantly. I did say I would ra