CHAPTER 10: The Beta Of The Penston Pack

I GRIP my still stinging cheek to look at Raine. Her chest was heaving up and down, yet she glued her eyes on my own, trying to stay as strong as she deem herself to be. My eyes were wide.

Wide both in shock with a fair share of anger.

I can almost hear everyone’s breath from how quiet the place came to be when the loud sound of my cheek against Raine’s palm tuned up the entire dining area.

Calvin who was standing and talking to the Penston pack’s council turned to notice everyone’s silence before his eyes found the commotion happening between the two ladies he’s keeping beside him.

One was useful, the other was for love.

“You bitch!” my hand instantly found itself on her hair, entangling around her pink strands as she shrieked under my grasps. The Penston Pack gasped at their Luna’s lunatic behavior, but at this point, there was no stopping me.

I had enough of her, and now that she’s cut the remaining string of patience I have, I can no longer keep my stance.

“Ah! Calvin!” She was already shouting as I pulled her hair while I marched around finding an open area. A massive thud sounded when her body collided on the marble floor. Her tears were streaming down her face and I took satisfaction at the sight of it.

Everyone was gathering around, murmuring to themselves about the Luna being a monster for doing this out of jealousy.

They were far from the context, but I’m glad I’m the villain on the bottomline of their rumors.

“isn’t your life too great, Avalon?” I hissed at her, grinning widely like a mad woman. My sanity is slowly slipping from my tight grip.

“you’re pampered. Loved by everyone! Things just go according to you and your silly little sobs.” my heart was racing every second I let out the words that were locked up in the back of my mind for so long.

“That love—the love you’re receiving, I killed for that—Goddess knows how much I tried really really really hard for that love.” I added, the tears were starting to blur my sight.

No, I cannot fucking cry already!

“And yet—yet . . . you’re getting it all in a matter of weeks—with weeks with your smile . . . your cries . . . Why? Why? Is it because you’re the Alpha’s mate? That doesn’t make any sense!” I wiped the tears that were already cascading down my cheeks.

I’m too obsessed with my goal. With the former Luna’s promise. I was too immersed. I believed that perhaps . . . Life isn’t worth living unless you have something worth dying for, but then I didn’t know it was already ruining me.

But I can’t go back now.

I’ve killed for this, and I’m willing to kill more.

I purse my lips closed. Swallowed the lump in my throat and closed my eyes to take a deep breath before a smile slithered its way on my lips.

“You might have to die for now, Raine.” I mumble.

I close my eyes, imagining the appearance of my wolf. Its brown fur. Paws that can slash anyone in its way. And the pride of the Luna it has carried throughout the years.

The one I can never ever give up.

“Die—” a growl came out of me as I stood in my four paws and before I knew it I leaped towards her crying body on the floor. The adrenaline in me rushed unstoppable in my veins.

The wretched feeling of killing another of my own kind seeped through with it.

This is necessary though. She has to die, and I’d be more than happy to slit her throat as fast as I can just to clean anyone who’ll hinder my way.

The Alpha doesn’t need a mate. No one does. I just need to stay in power. That’s what all that matters.

Right?

Argh!

A growl accompanied by a whimper came out of my lips before the pain followed. I was thrown across the room, hitting the thick walls of the dining area before my claws even touched a strand of Raine’s hair.

I still wasn’t able to kill her. Fuck.

With my stinging eyes, I tried to look whoever it was though there was no need to see it. It was always Calvin. He was always there for her.

My paws crashed down the floor when my eyes laid on the man I haven’t seen for months now.

It wasn’t Calvin this time. It was Elliot.

Penston Pack’s Beta.

My best friend.

The shock was so overwhelming that it almost overcame the pain from the hit, but the prickly feeling of my sides instantly made me once more remember the state of my own body and the situation were in.

The blood trickled from my side and I turned to see the wall I was thrown at. There was a now bloody lamp stuck on the wall, which explains the agonizing feeling of being stabbed.

The place was already spinning but I held my ground to still witness what happened and to show the Beta who he was trying to stop.

He was already standing in his human form, all in his naked glory in front of the entire pack. There was afterall, no issues of nudity with us. It was normal for every werewolf to be naked everytime they shift with no emergency clothes around.

“T-thank you-thank you for helping m—” Raine was smiling widely at Elliot and took his hand to stand back up. Before she could even utter another word, the Beta gave her to the worried Calvin, not even bothering to greet his Alpha and came to me.

“Luna . . .” he mumbles before taking his coat hanging on a chair which I assume he took off before shifting.

My wolf was already exhausted from the blow. Elliot was over five meters before my head gave up from trying to understand its surroundings. My knees fell to the loss of strength, and before I knew it, I was shifting mid air and was falling down in my human form.

Expecting the impact of the floor, I was instead caught by familiar arms.

The last thing I knew was Elliot’s scent lingering around and the darkness succumbed the entirety of me.

-

“You know, life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.” Elliot mumbled behind me. I roll my eyes at him.

He came back on the day of the commotion at the ball, and he was already blabbering with quotes I swear to the Goddess, I don’t know how he comes up with almost every single minute.

He’s been following me all day!

“631! that’s already your six-hundred and thirty first’s quote of the day, and it’s still noon, Elliot! Goddess, can’t I just have a peace of mind right now!?” I cursed at him, shaking my head.

“I mean, I don’t even know what evilness you’re plotting. So I’m filling up your day with sunshine and smiles!” he grinned before passing by me with his hands behind him, walking like a happy leprechaun.

“You’re a freaking disgrace of a Beta!” I exclaimed. He turns to me, grinning from ear-to-ear.

“Aww! Am I hearing how much you love me?”

Ugh! he’s still the same after so many months.

The party ended with me being carried away by Elliot who was butt naked while I was covered in his coat, lying unconsciously in his arms.

Calvin . . . didn’t really say anything about it. Like any other Aloha would react if anybody else touched his Luna. Henwas much preoccupied with Raine who was bawling her eyes out.

Everyone pretty much talked about what happened, and the ‘villainous acts of the Luna at the ball’ for the entirety of a couple of days.

I would have laughed if it wasn’t so true. It was indeed villainous, and I would have done it all over again after Raine slapped me just so I would never seem like the victim.

Calvin waited for me to wake up for my punishment, but with Elliot’s request to let it slide as I was ‘too driven by emotions’, he gave up. Afterall, his Beta just laid his life to be a spy on another pack we’re targeting to attack next, of course he wouldn’t be so cruel as to deny his one and only requests.

After that, Calvin refused to even look at me for the entire time, or even talk to me at all.

He would just avoid me when we come across each other, and so I headed out to clear my mind but this guy just . . .

“I thought you wanted to go to the garden? Are you really spacing out in this beautiful weather?” Elliot shouted from across the distance.

I released an exasperated sigh, rolling my eyes once more at his attempts to make me smile.

This is by far the most unhelpful, but just the thought of someone doing this much for me is already more than enough.

“They say, a better life has been achieved when you are no longer trying to achieve a better life. Contentment, Maryna.” he shouted.

I push a strand of my two-braided dark hair behind my ears. The hills were windy and his voice was getting drowned by the wind. He’s just there, grinning at me.

Perhaps he’s right. Life is a better life if I’m not constantly yearning for a better life.

Ha . . . still a disgrace for a Beta indeed. A smile formed on my lips and I looked up at him who’s already on top of the grassy hills.

“that’s six hundred and thirty two!” I shout before running behind him atop the beautiful landscape. I sat on the grass.

Every blade of green glass tingling beneath my exposed legs. Elliot followed beside me and we simply stared at every beautiful thing the Goddess gave.

Maybe . . .

Maybe if I get content. Right here, right now. Perhaps my life would be better.

It wasn’t Raine’s fault to be fated with Calvin, an Alpha of the Penston Pack and is the designated Luna. It was no one’s fault but the Goddess, and yet . . .

I close my eyes.

Maybe if I take a deep breath and just let things be . . .

I can’t.

I clench the fabric of my maroon sundress.

I have killed for this position and have promised the former Luna. I will stay as a leader of the Penston Pack.

“Do you remember how we rode horses when we were twelve and I held the reins?” Elliot pulled me off from my heavy flow of thoughts and I looked at him as a smile formed on my face.

“We fell on a river.” I rolled my eyes for the thousandth time today and he threw his head back, laying on the grass as he cackled at the memory.

That was when life was so much easier.

“Have you . . . found your mate yet?” I unconsciously asked.

He turned to me and I thought he just couldn’t say it, until his eyes stared even more.

“What?” I chuckle. I’ve always thought his gray eyes were so unique, and I still think it is.

“I don’t need a mate, Maryna.” he uttered and I shook my head, silently disagreeing.

Even Alphas who are known to be the strongest need one. I doubt a Beta doesn’t.

But I am certain that I don’t.

The afternoon was spent nicely as Elliot and I spent the entirety of the day playing all the things we weren’t able to do when he had a mission to become a spy on a small pack.

He was there for months and his excuse to leave without getting caught was that his ‘mother’ was somehow found on another pack and he was to live there, though he was actually just going to deliver back the information he’s gathered.

I don’t feel bad for the pack though. you’re supposed to conquer or be conquered.

Elliot and I parted ways just before dinner. The pack council would be taking his information and would take another step for a new plan.

Still, Calvin didn’t bother to pretend he’s trying to avoid me.

“Don’t you think the Luna is already acting too inelegant?” I halted in my tracks back towards the pack house after hearing those words.

“She is. The moment Lady Raine arrived. She became . . . insane. Like a mad woman.” another stated.

They must be Omegas.

“Well, she can’t actually do anything about the Lady being the Alpha’s beloved mate. it’s not like she’s also that desirable.” a group of them laughed at the last sentence.

What?

“Perhaps if she tried to show more of her body and be a weak little woman in front of the Alpha like Lady Raine, maybe she’ll become even more seductive.”

Fucking hell, looks like someone is dying tonight.

I was about to move towards them when a familiar voice had me nailed on the ground.

“You Omegas should stop. it’s not nice to say that behind their backs. Especially the Luna . . . even if she’s becoming more and more of a lunatic due to jealousy.”

Raine . . . ?