Author’s pov Ashton’s men arrived at the pack severely wounded, some of them could hardly walk and they were carried in by the pack guards. Ashton rushed out as soon as he sighted them from the balcony. “Hey guys, how did it go —-“ he paused, talking as he saw many of them wounded. “Alpha,” one of the men stuttered. “We…. We were overpowered because the alpha of the pack came directly at us with a sword.” He explained. “So…. Just Xavier against all of you and he won?” Ashton asked angrily. “Ye… Yes boss. It was not an easy fight and we tried so hard to —-“ Another of them tried to explain but Ashton cut him short. “Shut up, you cowards.” Ashton snapped. “I had so many of you go there because I wanted victory or nothing. You guys are just too useless, just this little assignment, you messed things up.” He fumed. The soldiers were quiet as they could sense the anger in Ashton’s voice. They knew that trying to explain themselves or calm him down will worsen the situati
Charlotte: “Ashton’s pack was the rival pack!” I exclaimed in shock from the hidden spot where I had been watching Xavier have a meeting with his soldiers. After he left my room earlier, I was so sure he was hiding something from me but I didn’t think much of it until I almost walked into the meeting while trying to get myself some water from the kitchen. At first, I instantly turned back and tried to return to my room, but a part of me wanted to stay and listen. I am so glad I did because if I had not heard this, Xavier would have never told me about it. “He outrightly lied right to my face,” I muttered. If Xavier could lie so well with a straight face, I wondered how many times he had done it in the past and what else he must be keeping from me. I also knew he was doing this to protect me and keep me from worrying about Ashton but this was not helping at all. Hearing it like this just makes me more worried about the situation. As I watched the soldiers disperse, I began
Xavier: “Does she know something?” I thought to myself, staring into Charlotte's eyes filled with doubt and anger. “Don’t you dare lie to me again, Xavier!” She warned. “I want only the truth.” Seeing how furious she was, I figured this must be about her being adopted. It meant she had found out the truth but how? “Look Charlotte, I am so sorry for hiding it away from you like this, I wanted to tell you but I just didn’t know how you were going to react,” I muttered. “I know, Xavier. But you should have at least told me the rival soldiers were from Ashton’s pack. It felt more scary to hear it from your meeting earlier with your pack soldiers,” She replied but this time with a much lower voice. “Ashton’s pack,” I thought to myself, feeling relieved. Charlotte was not talking about the adoption but was instead talking about the fight earlier. “I’m sorry, Charlotte,” I said. “It’s fine, I am just so worried that the whole fight might have something to do with me,” She replied,
Charlotte:The bed was warm, but the space beside me was frozen.I turned my head slowly, eyes adjusting to the morning light pouring in through the curtains. Ashton lay beside me, shirtless, broad back turned, muscles tense, as if sleeping next to me was a punishment.Maybe it was.Maybe I was the punishment.Maybe sleeping by my side was his form of punishing me, a reminding me that I was not going to be his lover, that I was never going to be enough in his eyes. Mate or not, I knew that he did not want me by his side.I sat up slowly, pulling the sheets around me, watching the rise and fall of his breathing. His scent, a rich blend of pine and rain, should’ve calmed me. But these days, it just felt like a reminder of how far apart we really were, mated by fate, divided by choice. People who did not want to be with one another and yet we were simply forced to be together because of a bond that bound the two of us. A bond that we chose to accept rather than him rejecting me or I reje
Charlotte: I didn’t see Ashton for most of the morning. I tried to look for him, maybe find him, maybe speak to him. Even if he did not want me around, I still was his mate, his wife, the woman who was willing to do everything for him. But no matter how hard I tried, I could not find him. Not at breakfast. Not in the training field. Not even when I passed the council room where he usually held morning strategy with his Beta and advisors. He was nowhere that I could see. The coldness from last night still clung to me like frost on skin. I tried to ignore it. I always tried. I always did my best to put the beautiful smile on my face, the perfect stunts. I roamed around the park, managing it, making sure that I fulfilled my duties, that I did not leave my responsibilities unattended to. I made myself useful, helped the kitchen Omegas, walked the perimeter of the territory like I had any real duty here. I didn’t. I was Luna in name only, a title stripped of meaning the moment Ashto
Charlotte: The forest had never felt so suffocating. And never did I find myself feeling as alone as I felt today. Each step through the thick underbrush was heavy, my legs aching, my body chilled from the cold bite of the wind that refused to die down. The world around me was quiet, unnervingly so, as if the trees themselves were holding their breath, watching me wander like a ghost. Like the whole world was mocking my luck, once again. Just when I thought that maybe I had another chance, that maybe I was not alone… here I was, all alone, all over again. Again, a rogue. Again, forgotten. Again, exiled. And again, unwanted. I didn’t know how long I’d been walking. Hours, maybe. Long enough for the pain in my chest to settle into a dull throb, and long enough for the weight of Ashton’s voice to echo one too many times in my head. "You're not fit to be Luna." "You were never meant to be mine." I clenched my fists. The papers still burned in the satchel at my hip. The paper
Xavier: The moment I laid eyes on her, my wolf went silent. It was her son that pushed me towards the forest, but I did not expect for my wolf to go quiet over a woman, regardless of who she was. I did not know, but I knew this, the bond that formed between us the second that my eyes laid on her was one that I did not expect. Then came the weight, everything snapping back into place. Tethering, yanking tight, wrapping around my chest, deep in my bones. My wolf growled, but not in warning, but in recognition. Mate. But she didn’t feel it. If anything, she seemed to be completely oblivious of it. She stood before me bruised by betrayal, reeking of Crescent Moon… and heartbreak. Her scent was off, frayed at the edges, like a thread unraveling from too much pain. The bond pulsed beneath my skin, but hers didn’t respond. She did not feel it, or maybe she did. Her wolf was just concealing it. She was in too much pain for her to recognize it. It didn’t matter. For now, I did not wa
Charlotte: I woke to silence. Not the kind laced with tension or cold indifference, but real silence. The peaceful kind. The kind that said that there was no one speaking, no one yelling, no one waiting for you to make a mistake. It was just quietness. For a second, I forgot where I was. For a second, I found myself looking around, trying to familiarize myself with the room. The sheets beneath me were clean, soft. The scent in the room was faintly woodsy, cedar and earth, but not unfamiliar. A far cry from the stale corners of Crescent Moon, or the bitter frost of exile. My eyes welled up with tears, but I refuse to let it show. I just looked away as I took a deeper breath than necessary, calming myself down. I sat up slowly, muscles stiff but intact. My body was still sore from walking around for hours. Normally my body would have been stronger, but judging by the weakness that I felt, the pain that I felt, my sister betraying me, my mate's rejecting me, everything just draine
Xavier: “Does she know something?” I thought to myself, staring into Charlotte's eyes filled with doubt and anger. “Don’t you dare lie to me again, Xavier!” She warned. “I want only the truth.” Seeing how furious she was, I figured this must be about her being adopted. It meant she had found out the truth but how? “Look Charlotte, I am so sorry for hiding it away from you like this, I wanted to tell you but I just didn’t know how you were going to react,” I muttered. “I know, Xavier. But you should have at least told me the rival soldiers were from Ashton’s pack. It felt more scary to hear it from your meeting earlier with your pack soldiers,” She replied but this time with a much lower voice. “Ashton’s pack,” I thought to myself, feeling relieved. Charlotte was not talking about the adoption but was instead talking about the fight earlier. “I’m sorry, Charlotte,” I said. “It’s fine, I am just so worried that the whole fight might have something to do with me,” She replied,
Charlotte: “Ashton’s pack was the rival pack!” I exclaimed in shock from the hidden spot where I had been watching Xavier have a meeting with his soldiers. After he left my room earlier, I was so sure he was hiding something from me but I didn’t think much of it until I almost walked into the meeting while trying to get myself some water from the kitchen. At first, I instantly turned back and tried to return to my room, but a part of me wanted to stay and listen. I am so glad I did because if I had not heard this, Xavier would have never told me about it. “He outrightly lied right to my face,” I muttered. If Xavier could lie so well with a straight face, I wondered how many times he had done it in the past and what else he must be keeping from me. I also knew he was doing this to protect me and keep me from worrying about Ashton but this was not helping at all. Hearing it like this just makes me more worried about the situation. As I watched the soldiers disperse, I began
Author’s pov Ashton’s men arrived at the pack severely wounded, some of them could hardly walk and they were carried in by the pack guards. Ashton rushed out as soon as he sighted them from the balcony. “Hey guys, how did it go —-“ he paused, talking as he saw many of them wounded. “Alpha,” one of the men stuttered. “We…. We were overpowered because the alpha of the pack came directly at us with a sword.” He explained. “So…. Just Xavier against all of you and he won?” Ashton asked angrily. “Ye… Yes boss. It was not an easy fight and we tried so hard to —-“ Another of them tried to explain but Ashton cut him short. “Shut up, you cowards.” Ashton snapped. “I had so many of you go there because I wanted victory or nothing. You guys are just too useless, just this little assignment, you messed things up.” He fumed. The soldiers were quiet as they could sense the anger in Ashton’s voice. They knew that trying to explain themselves or calm him down will worsen the situati
Xavier I felt so relieved about the fact that Charlotte was okay. She was on my mind all the while I was outside, and I just hope that she did not see all of the blood splash. “Are you sure you are okay?” I asked her again. “Ye… Yeah, I am fine” she replied coldly. “But what exactly happened though?” She asked me. I paused for a while as I didn’t know what to say. I didn't think I should be exposing Charlotte to what happened today. “It’s nothing serious, charlotte.” I said, trying to wave the situation away. “Don’t worry, It has been taken care of.” I assured her. Charlotte stood there and just stared at me. I knew there was something on her mind about the fight but u pretended not to know because I didn’t want her to worry about anything. “So, what were you up to the short time I was away?” I asked her, trying to move on to another conversation. But Charlotte wasn’t having it. “Xavier,” she called me. “Yes,” I replied, hoping that she would mention something
Charlotte: Almost immediately after Xavier left, I realized how boring things were without him. Sitting down there without him felt lonely. It felt unexpected that he was now a huge part of my life despite meeting him just a few days ago. If anyone had told me months ago that I would meet a strange man in the woods who would mean so much to me, I would have argued. I found myself missing the way he smiled, teased me, and always knew what to say to me in every situation. “You like him so much that you cannot even spend a minute away from him,” My wolf, interjected. “Go home, he is probably also waiting for him to return back to him.” The word home made my heart skip a bit. This was the first time I had a home where I was loved, a place I was happy to go back to and have someone who would be glad to see me return. “We are not doing that today, snap out of it,” My wolf chimed in again, snapping me out of my thoughts. “You know what? You are right,” I said. “I am not doing this
Xavier:As we continued our walk around the pack, I seriously began to doubt my decision about not finding out who Charlotte's real family was.I was so impatient and needed to know not only who they were but the circumstances that led to her being put in an adoption home.“You seem distracted, Xavier,” Charlotte muttered, snapping me out of my thoughts. “You have barely said a word to me.”“I am just really excited to see you so happy,” I replied.Charlotte seemed to believe me as she nodded with a gentle smile.“Let’s take a seat there,” She said, pointing towards a huge tree with chairs arranged under it. “You still have about an hour till your meeting.““Is this you trying to spend some alone time with me?” I asked, stopping to look at her.“You are free to return home if you want,” She replied, walking towards the tree while I rushed towards her.“There is no place I would rather be,” I muttered.She smiled briefly but immediately maintained a straight face.We then both found tw
Xavier: There are several questions in my mind but there is just no answer. One of the questions was how Charlotte’s adoptive parent managed to keep the fact that they were not her biological parents and why they would do that only to end up maltreating her so much. After Charlotte saw me with the papers, the way she looked at me nearly broke me. I just knew I could not go behind her back to find out who are real parents were. Charlotte had to know first and then decide whether she wanted to search for them or not. “It’s not in my place,” I muttered to myself even though deep down I knew I could call Max and get the information I desperately wanted in less than a day. “I will tell her first then do whatever she wants to do,” I muttered to myself while reminiscing about the hug. It seemed like the Levi situation brought us closer and even though I was still upset about losing a friend, it felt nice to know that something nice came out of the situation. Now that I knew for sur
XavierI opened my eyes the next morning to find myself still in Charlotte's room. I could not remember exactly how the night went but I hoped I did not misbehave or say anything to annoy Charlotte. I looked to my side and saw Charlotte sleeping peacefully beside me, she used three pillows as demarcation between us and that made me smile a bit. Before she woke up, I tried my best to remember everything that happened the night before. Even if I was sure to behave myself anytime I was drunk, I had to think about it all over again since Charlotte was involved. I remember how I came into her room after Levi left. I remember being in a conversation with her, I smiled as I remembered how precious the hug between us was. I tried my best to remember every single conversation and then I remember asking her about her biological parents and she responded just normally. “That means he knows she was adopted," I wondered. “If she knew she was adopted,why did she still address Lydia as her blo
Charlotte:Levi’s apology seemed sincere enough but the sudden change in mind felt weird to me.Just some minutes ago, she was out there insulting me and now she was apologizing.I figured it had something to do with what Xavier must have said to her since he was standing right by her side.“Please say something,” Levi said to me snapping me out of my thoughts.People who wrong me barely apologizes to me so it was hard for me to think of what to say in that moment.“It’s okay,” I muttered, nodding my head.“Thank you, Charlotte,” Levi stated with a smile pulling me in for a hug.The hug felt a bit weird but I could see it made Xavier relieved.“I am leaving and I promise I will be better and not be in this head space the next time you see me,” Levi said after she turned towards Xavier who only nodded his head.His behavior seemed a little weird to me and I just could not figure out what was up with him.“I will ask the driver to take you home, bye,” He stated.From the way I saw it, t