3: Alpha’s New Toy⁉️

Luna Valerius

“You have to run, Luna,” I whispered to myself. “If you stop, the monster they talk about will become real. Run from becoming a wolf. If they don’t want you, then you don’t want them. Remember that.”

But only ten minutes later, a pair of glowing eyes appeared through the thick mist between the trees. Then another. And another. They weren’t wolves. They were in human form, but they moved with an animal agility, circling me.

“Look what we have here,” one of them said. His voice was sharp as a paper cut. “The Alpha’s new toy came out to taste the rain. Let’s have a taste of her.”

I stumbled back, but my spine hit a solid trunk. It wasn’t a tree. It was Dante, Silas’s right hand, the one I’d seen at the castle gate. He was in human form, wearing only black leather pants; fresh claw marks on his chest were still bleeding. I thought only hunters were after me. Were wolves now attacking each other, too?

“I told you to leave, didn’t I?” Dante said, his voice dripping with barely concealed disgust. “But you’re so stupid you stepped right outside the protection shield. Now the hybrid pack chasing us will eat you alive, and Silas will blame us for it.”

“I don’t need his protection!” I shouted, my voice shaking even as I tried to stand tall.

Dante laughed, but there was no joy in it. “Is that so? Then look behind you, little cursed one.”

In the direction Dante pointed, a woman emerged from the trees. Her long, raven black hair fell to her waist, and her eyes glowed with an icy blue coldness. It was Hestia. The pack’s healer. The she wolf who, according to gossip, had admired Silas since childhood and never left his side.

Hestia walked toward me and stopped right in front of me. She raised her hand and gripped my chin hard. “The smell of your cursed bloodline... it turns my stomach,” she whispered. “I don’t understand what Silas sees as a mate in you. You’ll only bring disaster. Because of you, hunters and other wolves are at our door.”

“I didn’t call anyone here!” I said, pushing her hand away.

“You didn’t have to, Luna Valerius,” Hestia said, a poisonous smile curling her lips. “Your existence is a curse. The hunters and the others will never stop hunting you. And Silas will sacrifice his pack to protect you.”

Just then, the ground shook with an explosion deep in the forest. A silver brightness turned night into day for a moment. The hunters were testing the borders. Wolves’ howls tore through the darkness.

“Dante. Hestia.”

Silas’s voice echoed with an authority that drowned out thunder. But he wasn’t there; his voice seemed to come from inside the wind, from beneath the earth. “Bring her inside now. Or I will exile you both with my own hands.”

Hatred flickered in Hestia’s eyes for a moment, but then she bowed her head and stepped back. Dante grabbed my arm and yanked me toward the castle. “Walk, little disaster. It seems our master is ready to burn the world for you.”

“I’m not coming!” I screamed, but a growl rang in my ear.

“Come to me now, or I will come to get you myself, Luna Valerius,” Silas said. Hearing the foreign wolves’ voices and the hunters’ weapons, I had no choice. I submitted.

When we returned to the castle, the atmosphere had completely changed. In the middle of the hall, there was far more commotion than I had seen earlier. Wolves were preparing. Healers were brewing antidotes to silver poison. Silas stood at the head of the massive map table in the center of the hall.

When he saw me, his gaze didn’t soften. If anything, it darkened further. Dante dropped me in front of him as if throwing me away. With a growl, Silas lunged and grabbed Dante by the throat. I watched in terror.

Before I could say “Stop, what are you doing?” Silas was already on Dante.

“Be more respectful to your Luna, Dante. Or I won’t be responsible for what happens,” Silas said, his tone deadly. Then he turned to me.

“I let you leave, Luna,” Silas said, his voice cold enough to freeze everyone in the room. “But the forest has given you its answer. Now the game is over.”

“I’ll stay until this is finished. Then I’ll leave,” I said, but Silas let out a dark, choked laugh.

“This doesn’t end here, Luna. Everything is just beginning.”

He took a step toward the table and picked up an old, dusty dagger lying on the map. When I saw my family crest on its hilt, I stopped breathing.

“That... that’s my family’s dagger. Where did you find it?”

Silas held the dagger out to me. “Your father gave it to me, Luna. Years ago, when your curse first began to awaken. He asked me to kill you. Rid the world of this monster, he said.”

The world collapsed on me. Learning that my own family hadn’t just abandoned me, but had hired a hitman, no, an Alpha, to kill me hurt more than a thousand silver bullets straight to the heart.

“You’re enemies. Why would they ask you to do something like that? They knew you wouldn’t do it,” I said. He laughed.

“When your brother killed my sister, they were going to give you to me in exchange. I accepted, Luna. To end the blood feud, I was supposed to take your life and make your family suffer the same pain.”

“Why?” I whispered. “Why didn’t you kill me?”

Silas leaned toward me, and I felt his intense warmth again. He put his hand over my heart. Beneath his fingers, my rhythm quickened even more in his presence.

“Because when I walked into that room, I didn’t see a monster in a five year old child’s eyes. I saw the other half of my own soul,” he said. His gaze suddenly turned red, and the torches in the room flickered violently despite the absence of wind. “And today, that half will be made whole. With your consent or without it.”

Another howl rose from outside, but this one was a scream of agony. The castle’s great doors shook with a massive crash.

“They’re here,” Dante said through gritted teeth.

Silas turned to me and pressed the dagger into my hand. “Make your choice, Luna. Either end your own fate with that dagger, or stand with me and take revenge on everyone who stole from you. Defend this kingdom with me. Stand by me, and let’s take our revenge together.”