Chapter 6

DANE.

This car ride had been hell, and it wasn’t over. Two more hours to go. It felt like a punishment that I couldn’t escape.

What I hadn’t been prepared for was how potent the mate-bond would feel. It was overwhelming. Her raspberry and cream scent was taken in with every breath. It required a lot of restraint to keep myself from inhaling deeply.

I fucking hated that she smelled delicious.

She was a weapon. Every curve of her body, every subtle sway of her movement was designed to unravel men. Long blonde hair that would look great wrapped around my fist, tits the perfect size to fuck, ass and hips carved to tease and challenge, skin soft but firm, begging to be claimed. She was everything I wanted to touch, to possess, to conquer—and I hated that I felt it.

Her title—Luna—meant nothing. It was a name, a piece of paper. It didn’t give her power over me. She wasn’t my equal. And she never would be. Aria Morgan wasn’t someone to love. She was collateral damage. A pawn. A tool in a plan I had built for years. And when it was done, she would be discarded. Rejected. Unwanted.

Some would call me a heartless monster. Fine. Let them call me that. I didn’t give a fuck what anyone thought about me.

‘Obviously,’ my wolf, Jericho, growled. ‘Just remember that you reap what you sow.’

‘And I want you to remember that this is being done for a reason.’

All of it, everything I was doing, everything that I’d already done, it was all for Sam. It didn’t matter how much time passed by. The loss still hit me hard. I felt like I failed him because it was the duty of the big brother to protect the younger one.

Failure was not something that I was ever good at dealing with, but this hit me even harder because it was Sam. The loss of Sam hit everyone hard, especially our family. My parents hadn’t been back here in two years, opting to live their lives jetting around the world. I knew that they were suffering, but they weren’t the only ones. I hadn’t just lost my brother. I lost the rest of my family too.

‘Have you paid yet?’ I asked Jerome. The faster that we got back to the pack, the faster I could get out of her presence.

‘We’re coming out now. I was given a Luna command to allow her to pay for herself.’

A lesson would be learned if she thought that she could get away with shit like that.

“Cute trick with the Luna command so that you could buy junk food.”

She took me by surprise when she informed me of what she actually got. She was clearly not happy with my assumption about junk food, probably used to people judging her based on looks alone. Having curves and a larger physique didn’t necessarily equate to being unhealthy.

Silence ensued as I went back to ignoring her. She needed boundaries. I wouldn’t apologize.

I was able to get a lot of work completed during our trip, even if a part of me was distracted by her presence. Thankfully, the two hours passed by quickly enough.

Aria proved that she was going to be challenging after she blew up upon me telling her like it was in regard to her mother. The promise of being whipped should deter her from trying her luck with me.

Being fated to a Morgan was something that I despised. Like I said, she was simply a means to an end – collateral damage. When the time was right, and my revenge plan succeeded, I would reject her. She would be sent off into the world as a lowly rejected bitch who nobody wanted.

Jericho growled at my thoughts. He hadn’t been thrilled with the contract idea in the first place, but that got worse when it came to the fact that it would be a fated mate tossed into the mix.

‘Shut up, fuckhead. I’ve always wanted my mate. I agreed to let you play with your whores until our mate came along. You gave me your word that there’d be no more of them once we found her. It was something that YOU agreed to. That’s one line that I won’t let you cross. You already know the consequences of it if you do,’ he warned me.

‘Are you seriously threatening me? Over her – a mate who jumped at the chance to become a stranger’s chosen mate, knowing that his mark would’ve made it impossible to find her fated mate? A mate that just so happens to be you.’

He seethed when Jason described her eagerness to sign.

‘Yeah, she really seems eager,’ he mocked me. ‘Let me guess, she also strikes you as the type who wouldn’t break the contract conditions, knowing that she’d lose the sizeable funds that she’ll gain access to as long as she plays by your rules.’

What was he on about?

Jericho sighed as if this conversation was exhausting.

‘It’s not this conversation that’s exhausting,’ he muttered under his breath before showing me what he meant.

Perhaps I had been too focused on suppressing the mate-bond while holding a tight rein on my control. I re-fucking-fused to ever let her think that she had anything that I wanted.

I saw what he meant. She really hadn’t acted like Jason had led me to believe that she would. Perhaps she was just playing hard to get? This wouldn’t be the first time that chicks had done it.

‘She agreed that her father had told her what was at stake. She knows about the money,’ I pointed out.

‘Yes, to the first part. What’s to say that was what she was referring to? Perhaps he laid down his own stipulations. He wouldn’t want this deal to fall through because it’ll provide the resources to keep Morgan Enterprises afloat after the losses that he’s been suffering. C’mon, Dane. Just because we’ve dealt with sharks bigger than him doesn’t mean that he isn’t a shark himself.’

In our shared mindspace, I saw him standing up at his full height, leveling me with a look that snared my attention.

‘But let’s circle back to the earlier comment. Yes, I’ll leave you if you dare to fuck a whore while there is still an intact mate-bond. I’m not saying to be head-over-heels for her or anything, but you will not disrespect the bond that way because of the immense agony that it’d cause her. I’m not thrilled about her being a Morgan either, but I do trust my Goddess.’

He shut me out after he said that, leaving me to thoughts that seemed to scream in the silence.

I could feel the pack’s happiness when I introduced Aria as my Luna. Our pack had been waiting year after year for me to find her or to take a chosen mate. She played her part perfectly, a look of warmth and happiness at being received like this, not even hinting at the sadness that I could feel through our bond.

Next, she was introduced to my Beta, Adam, Gamma, Finch, and his mate, Bex.

“It’s so nice to meet all of you,” she told them with a smile. “I know that it’ll be a learning curve for me to figure out how this pack runs, but I promise to do my best. I’m excited at this new opportunity that fate decided to put in my path.”

At least she was a good actress. It’d make it that much easier to keep this act up.

Adam and Finch studied her carefully, just like they did with anyone new. This pack had faced a lot of shit over the years, which just served to hardwire it into us. Aria seemed to meet their approval, as could be seen by the genuine smiles on their faces as they greeted her. Bex was the excited one, thrilled that she was no longer the only female. It had been two years since she joined leadership but had been a trooper.

“Can you set her up in the room beside mine?” I asked, interrupting their conversation. “I agreed that we could take things slowly as she settles in.”

There’s no telling if the blush on her cheeks was part of her act or not.

Bex grinned, linked arms with Aria, and walked off. Bex was the type of person that could make anyone feel welcome.

Well, this wasn’t a permanent arrangement. Not that anyone but I knew that.

The guys told me that there was something in my office that had been recently delivered and was urgent. That didn’t sound good.

I sat down at my desk and opened the envelope that Adam handed to me.

My blood boiled as I flipped through the contents, elevating into full-blow fury when I got an article that detailed the death of a legend – Samuel Holden.

“Who the fuck sent this shit?” I demanded to know.