2: Golden-eyed Stranger

Ronnie's POV 

For a moment, the silence in the room was so thick I could hear my own heart pounding. I stared at Elisha, searching his face for something, anything. Just anything that looked like the man I thought I loved.

I waited for the apology.

Waited for him to say, Ronnie, I’m sorry. This isn’t what it looks like.

My soul was screaming at him to give me a reason not to fall apart right there.

Instead, he straightened his shoulders. His face went cold. Empty.

“Reject you?” he repeated, a chuckle escaped his lips. “I would gladly do that.”

Before I could even go any further, he started.

“I, Elisha, Alpha heir of the Silver Moon, reject you, Ronnie, as my mate and future Luna.”

The words hit, sharp and clean.

“You were a mistake the Goddess made,” he continued. “A burden. A weight around my neck. Keisha is twice the woman you’ll ever be.”

The bond didn’t just break.

It ripped.

Pain tore through my chest like claws, deep and brutal. I gasped, folding over, my hands clutched my stomach as if I could hold myself together by force. The agony spread everywhere. My bones, my skin, my wolf. She curled into herself, whimpering in the back of my mind.

Keisha didn’t even look away. She lay back against the pillows, lazy and smug, tracing a finger over the mark of her lipstick on Elisha’s shoulder.

A mark that should have been mine.

“Get out,” Elisha said flatly. “And don’t come crawling back when your little tech hobby crashes and burns.”

I said nothing.

If I opened my mouth, I’d either vomit or howl like something that was breaking.

So I turned and walked past the guards, my head high even as my vision blurred with tears.

The night air was cold, but I didn’t feel it. My feet carried me away from the pack lands and into the human town nearby, a place where no one knew my name.

I needed noise.

I needed to be numb.

I found a dive bar that smelled like stale beer and shattered hopes. I didn’t care about the looks. I slid onto a stool and pointed at the cheapest whiskey behind the counter.

“Keep them coming.”

One shot became four.

Four became too many to count.

The burn was the only thing that felt real. The deal I’d walked away from. The accident that never happened. The sister who took everything that was mine, it all blurred into a bundle of mess.

“To my trash career,” I muttered, raising the empty glass. “And to the useless wolfless wolf.”

By the time I stumbled outside, the world tilted. Streetlights shining a little too bright as though they had intentions to expose the darkness that sat buried inside of me.

I started walking, just heading towards where my legs took me. I didn’t even care where.

Suddenly, the once silent road turned into chaos. Tires screeched. Headlights flared.

A black SUV skidded to a stop inches from my knees.

“Hey!” a deep voice snapped. “Watch where you’re going!”

I leaned against the hood as the driver stepped out. I didn’t look up, but I saw him approach me, his figure looking unending.

“Why did you stop?” I complained the minute he made it to my front. My hands dragged over the polished paint of his car.

He grabbed my arm to steady me. His grip was firm, not cruel.

“Get out of the road, you drunk fool.”

My head finally snapped up.

When my eyes met his, I paused for a moment too long.

What I saw wasn’t something that could be admired once and just forgotten. I had to look again.

“What are you looking at?” He snapped.

Now we were off the road, but for some reason, his hands were still holding onto mine.

My hands grabbed his face instinctively; those golden eyes seemed like they were drawing me in. He had the kind of moustache that was rampant amongst those drug lords in Italian movies. I took in every single feature, unable to look away.

I only came back to my senses when he forcefully dropped my hands from his face.

“Who the hell do you think you are to touch me like that?”

Instead of getting angry at his tone, a smile played on my face.

“You know what?” I whispered, tugging clumsily at his tie.

“I’m available tonight.”

He caught my wrists.

“If you need someone tonight...”

“You’re crazy!” He cut through my words. “Get back home before you get yourself killed.”

“Home,” I murmured. “To that slut of a sister?”

I shook my head. “Nah!”

“Then stay on the streets. But don’t fucking get in my way again.” I watched him make his way towards his car.

How cruel! I thought as I angrily began to make my way down the street.

As I walked, everything blurred before me. My head began to spin so badly that I didn’t know darkness from the night light. Before I could move even further, darkness swallowed me completely.

The last thing I remembered was the sound of my body against the rock-hard floor.

Then nothing.

I woke up with birds chirping and a headache that felt like war. I rolled over, expecting my mattress.

Instead, I felt silk sheets beneath me.

Cool and Expensive.

Definitely not mine.

My eyes flew open. The first thing that caught my eye was the vaulted ceilings. I sat up too quickly despite the banging in my head. The room screamed money.

I looked down at myself, only to notice that I was wearing a shirt far too big to belong to me.

“Oh no,” I breathed. “No, no, no.”

“Finally awake?”

I nearly fell off the bed.

The man from last night stood by the window, coffee in hand. In daylight, he looked unreal, like he’d been carved instead of born.

“You,” I accused, pointing. “You took advantage of me!”

He didn’t react.

“Could you possibly still be drunk?” he said dryly.

“Excuse you?” My words came out sharper than I intended. “Are you trying to blame me after having taken advantage of me?” My tone was harsh, and I was pointing fingers at him as I approached him.

He wasn’t shaken by my angry looks. Rather, he stepped closer and gestured toward the mirror. I stood beside him, messy, swollen-eyed, in borrowed clothes.

“Look at us,” he said. “We’re not on the same level, nor do you fit into my world. So stop overthinking things cause I’ll never stoop so low, no matter what?”

“You’re an asshole,” I snapped.

“And you’re a mess,” he replied calmly as if counting his words.

“How dare you?” I lifted my hand to hit him, but he caught it with a swift move, our eyes burning into each other.

For a moment, I stood there, feeling heat rise up my body as I stared into his golden eyes. The longer I stared, the more my anger faded, giving room for something else. Lust?

He scoffed, hands in his pockets as he turned away.

“Your clothes are cleaned. Get dressed and let my driver take you back before you do something dumb again.”

Watching him leave, something tugged at the back of my mind. Something so strong, something I refused to recognise.

He paused.

Did he feel it too?

****

Honestly, I didn’t want to go with his driver, but I had no idea where I had dropped my phone and wallet. They might as well be gone. So now, I was left with just one option.

My face dropped as soon as we arrived at my Pack. The whole drama from last night replayed in my head.

Like I hadn’t had enough trauma from the Packhouse, the driver dropped me in front of it. I rolled my eyes at the building, reluctantly stepping out.

“This is not from the bottom of my heart, but tell your boss thank you.”

The driver zoomed off.

My head suddenly snapped to the other side of the road. I sighted Keisha.

She leaned against a pillar, flawless as ever. Her gaze flicked from me to the luxury car pulling away.

“Well,” she said sweetly. “That didn’t take long.”

“I mean, is this your new job now? Beds instead of brains?”

I stopped.

She kept going.

“Well, sorry to spoil the fun, but spreading your legs around is not going to make you any better than what you already are. A cheap, wolfless slut.”

I didn’t know what pushed me, but I raised my hand in a quick moment, and the next moment, it landed on her face.

The sound echoed.

Her head snapped sideways as she held onto her cheeks in shock.

I’d never lifted my hands against her before, so this came as a big surprise.

“Keisha!”

Elisha rushed to her, fury blazing. I didn’t even realise he was close by.

“What’s wrong with you?” he yelled, cradling her in his arms as if I had almost killed her.

“Trust me, it’ll be worse than that the next time if she tries something silly with me!”

He frowned. “Apologise to her, now!” He said, his tone heavy.

I rolled my eyes at him. “You don’t own me anymore. So you can’t tell me what to do!” I let the words sink in before walking away.