Chapter 5: Father’s Warning

Moana’s POV

“You are doing it on purpose,” he hissed.

“Doing what, Alpha?” I asked, my voice trembling.

“Your scent,” he said. He leaned down, his nose brushing the skin of my neck. I shivered.

“It is everywhere. I can’t go into a room without smelling you. I can’t eat. I can’t sleep. It feels like you are pulling on a string inside my chest.”

“I am not doing anything,” I said, tears filling my eyes. “You are the one who rejected me! You told me I was nothing! If you want the feeling to stop, then let me leave the pack!”

Eldrick’s hand shot out and grabbed my waist, pulling me hard against his chest. I gasped. The touch was like an electric shock, and the pain in my heart stopped instantly. For the first time since the ceremony, I felt at peace. My wolf hummed with joy.

“I can’t let you leave,” he whispered into my ear. His voice was soft now, almost like he was crying. “If you go too far away, the pain will kill me. And I hate you for that. I hate that my life is in your hands, Moana.”

He pulled back just enough to look at my face. His golden eyes swirled with color. He looked at my lips, then back at my eyes.

“You have your father’s eyes,” he said. His grip on my waist tightened. “Every time I look at you, I remember the knife he held to my throat that night. I remember the blood. How can the Goddess give me a mate who comes from a family of killers?”

“My father didn’t do it!” I yelled, finally finding my courage. “Look at the maps, Eldrick! Look at what he was doing for the pack!”

I tried to show him the map, but he snatched it from my hand and threw it across the room.

“I don’t care about maps!” he roared.

He pushed me back against the bookshelf. He put his hands on either side of my head, trapping me. He was so close I could feel his heart beating against mine.

“Tell me you hate me,” he whispered. His face was inches away from mine. “Tell me you want me to die. Give me a reason to stay away from you, Moana.”

I looked at him and saw the powerful Alpha who had ruined my life. I saw the man who had made me a slave. I wanted to say I hated him. I tried to find the words.

But the bond was too strong. My soul knew he was mine.

“I can’t,” I whispered.

Eldrick groaned. It was a sound of pure agony. He leaned his forehead against mine. We stood there for a long time, just breathing each other’s air. For a moment, we weren’t an Alpha and a servant. We were just two broken people tied together by a golden thread that wouldn’t break.

“This is a curse,” he whispered.

“No,” I said softly. “It’s a gift. You are just too proud to see it.”

Eldrick stiffened. He pulled away from me and stood up straight. The coldness came back into his eyes, but I could see his hands were still shaking.

“Clean up this mess,” he said, pointing to the maps he threw. “And stay in the library. If I see you in the hallways tonight, I will lock you in the dungeons.”

He turned and walked out, slamming the door behind him.

I sank to the floor, my heart racing. I picked up my father’s map and smoothed out the wrinkles.

Eldrick is starting to feel the truth, I thought. He is fighting it with all his strength, but the bond is winning.

I looked back at the secret paths on the map. I had a feeling that soon, these paths would be the only way to save the pack and the man who had rejected me.

The library was silent again, but the air still tasted like him. I sat on the floor for a long time, holding my breath and the scars on my hands.

He had held me. He had smelled my hair. For a moment, he hadn’t looked at me with hatred. He had looked at me like a man who was starving and thirsting for me. But then he walked away.

“He always walks away,” I said to the empty room, a small smile spreading across my lips.

I wiped my eyes and looked back at the maps he had thrown. It was an old, yellowed piece of paper. When he threw it, the paper had hit one of the wooden shelves and ripped just a little bit.

I picked it up to fix it, but then I stopped.

“What is this?” I whispered.

The rip in the paper showed something underneath. This wasn’t just one map. It was two maps glued together. My father had hidden something between the layers.

I used my small cleaning knife to carefully peel the two layers apart. My hands barely held the knife steady. If the guards caught me with a knife, they would throw me in the dungeons. So I had to be very careful not to get seen.

When the papers came apart, a small, thin letter fell out. It was written in my father’s neat handwriting.

To my Moana, my little princess.

If you are reading this, then I am probably no longer with you. They will call me a traitor. They may even say I became a rogue. But none of that is true.

I am trying to save the Alpha.

There is a mole inside the pack. A snake hiding in plain sight, wearing a crown of gray hair.

Trust no one, Moana. Especially the Elders.

Look at the North Border. Follow the hidden paths. Then search for the door behind the closet in my room.

The answers are there.

The real enemy is…

I quickly flipped the thin piece of paper to the other side. Nothing. The letter had ended there. A large brown stain covered the bottom of the paper. Blood.

“Whose blood is this?” I whispered, my voice shaking.

Dread crept down my spine. My father wasn’t trying to kill the Alpha. He was trying to warn him. And he knew who the real traitor was — a snake wearing a crown of gray hair.

A cold wind slipped through a crack in the window and brushed across my neck. I shivered.

“What does that mean?” I whispered, my voice shaking violently. “Do not trust anyone. Especially the Elders.”

“Elder Marek,” I breathed.

He was the oldest Elder in the pack. He was the one who encouraged Eldrick to reject my plea that night of my father’s. He even told Kaelen to leave me there to die after the blood moon ceremony. Elder Marek had spent all these years convincing everyone that I was a snake they should avoid completely.

If Marek was the real traitor, then Eldrick had been trusting a monster all these years. I paused for a moment, trying to rearrange the maps.

I have to warn him. Even if he hates me, even if he throws me out, I have to try and save him.

I quickly grabbed the letter and the map and ran toward the door. I forgot that Eldrick had told me to stay in the library. I ran through the dark hallways of the Pack House.

When I reached the Alpha’s study, I could hear voices inside.

I pressed myself against the cold wall outside the study door. My chest heaved so loudly I was almost certain they could hear it. I held the map and the letter close to my thigh, trying not to make a sound.

“…Moana cannot become Luna,” a familiar voice said. Elder Marek. “It’s impossible, Alpha. She is… she cannot lead. You must send her away. Before she ruins everything with her evil bloodline!”

“No!” Eldrick’s voice answered, raw and strained. “You know the rules, Marek. If I push her away… or if I let her leave… you know what will happen. I can already feel the curse of the bond sickness killing me. It hurts too much. It feels like she’s inside of me. Every moment. Every breath.”

“She is not your mate!” Marek’s voice grew louder. “She can’t be, Alpha! The Moon Goddess made a mistake! You of all people must see that, Eldrick!”

“I hate her!” Eldrick’s voice followed. “I hate that she has this power over me! I hate that I cannot stop thinking of her! But I… I can’t let her go either!”

There was silence for a moment. I couldn’t hear anything, so I pressed my ear even harder against the door.

“Then allow the elders to banish her. We would send her away, and you will be free.”

“I… I can’t,” Eldrick roared. “I…”

As I leaned in even harder, the study door snapped open. A guard standing right there had seen me pressed against the wall.

“Stop right there!” he barked.

His hands grabbed my arms, pulling me roughly. The impact was so hard the letter slipped from my fingers and fell to the floor, landing face down in a patch of black mold in the corner of the entrance.