Chapter 8

VALTOR

The moment I caught the scent of the pack's wolves in my territory, I unleashed my troops without hesitation. And just like usual, they from whatever pack they belonged to never lasted long against us. I see some ran and most died.

When the chaos finally settled, my gaze caught on a figure lying motionless on the ground.

A woman? Out here alone, in the wild heart of my territory?

She was bleeding, her skin marred with scratches.

I crouched down beside her.

“Is she alive?” Loran, my friend and most trusted subordinate, asked. “Impossible after fighting them all at once."

Carefully, I turned her over until her face was tilted up toward me.

The moment her long blonde hair fell away from her features, I froze.

“Gosh,” Loran breathed. “She’s goddamn beautiful, Valtor. How could such a Goddess have ended up here?”

I barely registered his words.

It wasn't her look that made me unable to react but the recognition that I had seen this woman before in the bar.

That foolish woman who was drinking alone until she was drunk, barely escaping the grasp of two bastards who would have taken more than her dignity.

“We can’t just leave her here. Should we take her? They would like her,” Loran suggested.

He was talking about my followers, wolves who had bent the knee to me. It wasn’t right to call them a pack members since rogues didn’t live by such rules. Those beasts got hard the second a woman walked into sight.

The image of them sharing her somehow made the muscles in my jaw tighten.

“You speak too much,” I said flatly. “Another word and I might rip your tongue out, Lor.”

Loran flinched.

Removing my fur-lined coat, I draped it over her frail form. She stirred, a soft whimper escaping her lips as I gathered her into my arms. She was warm and weightless.

“Going to take her?” Loran asked in disbelief. “I thought you wouldn’t like seeing them share her.”

I know bringing her into where we live was unwise. She didn’t belong in a place like that.

But I couldn’t bear the thought of leaving her here either.

“She’ll stay in my house. Make sure no one comes to see her.” I said at last. My tone left no room for argument.

-----

Since I brought the mysterious woman here last night, my mind has been in turmoil. Her image keeps slipping past my defenses and it takes everything in me not to storm downstairs to where she’s being treated.

The attack left her with several scratches. My healer said she was able to recover on herself though she would still need days of rest.

The door to my office slammed open and Loran strode in,

“I’ve got her identity. She’s a pack wolf but here's what's more shocking, she’s a Luna of Stoneclaw Pack. Kallias Thorn’s mate.”

“You sure?” I stepped closer.

Since the first time I saw her at the bar I knew she couldn’t possibly be a rogue. Her well-groomed looks suggest she was someone who had never known hardship, a wolf born in high status and privilege.

It just never crossed my mind that she was a Luna. And not just any Luna but the mate of the man I most wanted to see dead.

“How in the hell did she end up in our land then?”

“Our spy says Kallias has taken another Luna,” Loran replied. “The new Luna is pregnant. The woman you brought here, maybe she’s been discarded.”

“That’s ridiculous for a man worthy of the title to do that.” My voice dripped with mockery.

“But it happened. He let her walk out of his pack without so much as a single escort.” Loran shrugged.

Yeah.

I thought she was a fool wandering alone when it was clear she’d never so much as stepped beyond guarded walls. But now I realize maybe she hadn’t come by choice, she’d been thrown out.

A Luna of the Stoneclaw Pack, Kallias Thorn’s mate, My enemy’s Luna. The same woman whose home I tore into not long ago when I freed my people from her husband's prison.

“What do you want to do with her, Valtor? Bruce says we keep her here and send word to Kallias. If he still cares, he’ll come to fetch her himself. We could demand gold for her return maybe more.”

I almost laughed. Somehow I knew that Thorn wouldn’t come for her.

After all a Luna like her wouldn’t last a single day here in my world.

“Valtor?”

“Throw her out,”

“What?” His brows shot up.

I turned my back on him. “She could be a spy. I don’t trust her.”

My gaze shifted to the view beyond my office window. The dark tangle of trees, the rushing currents, the sheer cliffs of stone, this was no place for a woman like her.

“I won’t host my enemy’s mate under my roof.”

-----

After Loran left, I’d spent every minute since trying to push that woman out of my thoughts. But I can't. Finally, I rose and left my office, my steps taking me downstairs toward her room. I needed to see her just once more before she was going to be thrown out tomorrow.

I pushed open the door and walked to her bed.

The fire in the hearth sent warmth through the air but she still clutched the blanket tightly around herself.

“D-don’t,” She whispered, her voice trembling. “W-what did I do wrong… Kallias…”

She was calling for her mate? The man who had cast her aside? Pathetic.

Her brow was drawn tight, her body twisting restlessly.

I don’t know if it was my presence or something in her dream, but suddenly her eyes flew open.

A sharp gasp escaped her and she scrambled backward.

But I caught her before she could leap from the bed.

“Stay still,” I growled, my shadow falling over her trembling form.

Our eyes locked and for the first time in years since the day Kirana died, a strange sensation stirred in my chest.