What the Moon Decided

Aria's POV

Winchester pack house was not at all the Silvermoon grounds I was growing up in. It was bigger losing walls of marble, high windows which flung the moonlight back like mirrors, and guards at every turn. Yet behind the beauty, I was experiencing the same feeling that I had always felt in my old home. Alone.

I remained because I had no other places to go. Not because I wanted to.

Damon had already seen to that on the very first day I was here, he did not chain me, did not take me and keep me in a cell. He just told me that I would be safe under my roof. Safe. The term was no longer real. It was not the first lie, but a man had said it to me and vowed that he would love me all my life.

I felt my pulse now deceitful whenever Damon got into a room with his rich voice. My skin was tingling, my wolf aroused. I said to myself, it must be fear because I must know it must be?

Wherever I went, there was quiet tension in the pack house. Wolves were lurking around me, and murmuring where they believed I was deaf.

"The omega they bought from Silvermoon."

"It is her, the omega Alpha Zac gave away."

"What's she doing here?"

Their words slipped over my skin like vermin. I had my head low, kept going.

During meals, I sat at the end of the table, where there was no one seated. Nobody sat beside me unless he was instructed to. Even the servants were reluctant and placed food to be chewed as if I would bite them. Damon did not get into the game frequently, but when he did, silence was his trail. He was a presence that was commanding with ease.

And yet he continuously looked my way. Just once. Sufficiently long to forget to breathe.

I got up early this morning, hearing the training field being filled with grunts and growls. I observed warriors fighting in the appearing sun on the balcony. Damon was there shirtless, and his skin was pale and wet. His movements were crept, drilled. An Alpha all the way through.

I did not need to look as long as I did.

My stomach contracted, and a weird heat burned low. My wolf awoke and scratched the inside of my head. 

Mate.

No, I said to myself and shook my head. He can't be. I was already enslaved to another--once at least, I had been. I still felt like I was scarred by the betrayal of Zac. Something new could not fit in. There was no room to bond, It is dangerous too.

In the afternoon, I was in the central hall where the pack meeting was taking place. I was not to be there; Damon had asked me to rest, but curiosity and pride pushed me on.

The room was crowded with Alphas, Betas and warriors. The table was covered with maps and red pins pointing at the territories. I was at the back, but I attempted to be inconspicuous, but as soon as my smell penetrated the atmosphere, people stared.

"Why is she here?" a woman asked sharply. Her voice ripped through the air like a knife. She was a tall, fierce lady with a braid of her golden hair. "She's an outsider. She need not be a part of council affairs."

My chest tightened. I glanced at Damon, hoping he would say No and send me away as all the others had, as all the others had sent me. But he didn't. His cold and inexpressible eyes met mine across the room.

"She stays," he said simply.

The woman bristled. "Alpha, with all due respect, she is not one of us. She has no rank. No place here."

I should have stayed silent. I ought to have dropped my head and exited. But there was something in me, something different and weary of bowing... I snapped.

"I did not come to ask to be here," I said mentally. I was so shaky in saying the words. "But I'm not deaf. I can listen."

The room went still. The eyes of the woman were drawn in menacingly. "You dare speak to me, omega?"

My throat narrowed, but I did not retreat. "You are the one who is talking about me. I guess it would be fair of me to respond."

A grumbling growl shook out of her bosom, and my wolf rose. The suspense became so great that breathing was difficult.

Damon acted before it would explode.

"Enough." His voice was deep, commanding and was heard throughout the room. "Beta Lyra, stand down."

"But Alpha..."

"Now."

The atmosphere grew a number of degrees colder. His tone had a strength which was not to be ignored, and he could draw obedience out of anyone. Even Lyra bowed her head and withdrew, but her glance still met me menacingly.

My breath came fast. The room stared at the spot where I was. Damon flipped to look at me, with an expression that was inexplicable. "That is no place to fight, Aria. You're under my protection."

I was struck more by the words than I had anticipated. Protection. Again that word. It was not like any other time, that it sounded like a lie.

Still, guilt rose in my chest. "I did not intend to cause any trouble," I said to myself.

"You didn't," he said quietly. Then for a moment, something flickered in his eyes, something soft nut yet dangerous. "You had forgotten that you can never bow anymore in this pack.

I just could not lose the memory of his voice that evening. They had a sort of softening in his eyes that gave way to his heartbeat and then went cold.

I sat at the window and stared at the forest on the other side of the walls. It was a cool night, caressing me with a whisper. Yet my body burned. Whenever I thought of him...his voice, his expression, my heart leapt up like I was running miles.

It's the bond, my wolf murmured. You feel it, don't you?

I crossed my knees shaking my head. "No. I can't. I won't."

But my wolf didn't listen. She came a little nearer, and her voice was velvet and wild. 

He's yours, Aria. The Goddess of the Moon does not make mistakes.

Tears pricked my eyes. "She did once."

I recalled how Zac was disgusted at me rather than loving me one night. The night that he rejected me in the pack. So why had she permitted me to suffer? Does the Goddess really care?

Nonetheless, as I shut my eyes, it was no longer the face of Zac that tormented me. It was Damon's. His steady eyes. His voice. His very sound on my name, so promising and warning both at once.

I couldn't sleep.

Time came by, and the moon rose higher, filling my room with silver rays. My heart wouldn't slow down. With each breath I drew, I vowed I felt him, his perfume still faint in the air. Cedar and smoke and something darker, something that made my wolf whimper inside my heart.

I turned and rolled, till at last some weariness pulled me down.

And then I dreamed.

Damon was standing there in the clearing in the moonlight, his eyes a glow of faint gold, his chest bare, with the marks of battle scars on it. The atmosphere of the air vibrated with strength. I was drawn--magnetic, irresistible.

Keep on running, he said, in a rough and low voice. "Why?"

"Because I don't trust you."

"Liar."

He moved nearer, one step at a time, one word giving me creeps. "You don't trust yourself."

His hand touched my cheek, and my breath stopped. Sparks. Real, burning sparks. The bond between us was tingling, vibrating, impossible to deny.

"Stop," I whispered. "You're not..."

But before I could finish, his mouth was on mine. It was a fierce kiss that was hungry, and my knees nearly gave way. His smell enclosed me, and I could not think until only the beat of our hearts together continued.

The world went over, and the moon and sun devoured all.

I woke with a gasp.

The breathing of my chest was felt as I was soaked with sweat. The moonlight was pouring over my bed, and I seemed a little still to be dreaming. But I wasn't. My lips were still tingling, my body still burning.

And worst of all, his scent was natural.

Cedar and smoke. Faint, but there.

I sat up, heart racing. The room was all empty, the door still closed. Damon was not here, yet I could feel him somehow. As was his presence haunting by the walls.

My fingers were shaking as I pressed them against my lips.

It was but a dream, I said to myself. Just a dream.

But the voice of my wolf was soothing and certain in my thoughts. No, Aria. It was the bond.

I huddled up under the blanket and shivered as the reality drove into my bones.

I don't know what this was between us--it was not attraction. It was not so much confusion and fear. It was something that was older, something in my blood.

And as I closed my eyes again, the scent of him clung to me like a mark I had never received.