Chapter 5

EMILIA POV 

My body froze at the strange greeting I received from the sister of my mate.

What did she mean by hell? Was she just pulling my legs to see how I would react? Was it a threat of some sort?

She pulled away from the hug, smiling widely at me.

“You seem to overthink things a lot. What I meant was, my brother is a hellish person to deal with, so welcome to the hell I have to face everyday.”

I heaved a quiet sigh of relief, smiling back at her for the clarity.

“You must be tired. Should I show her to her room?” Katarina turned to Alpha Lucas, who had been standing and watching our exchange the entire time.

“Not yet. Just take her bags up. I’ll show her to her room later,” he instructed her, beckoning for me to follow him.

“It’s not your room just yet, and you can’t be my Luna if your fighting skills are as poor as they are. Last night, you did nothing but kick me in the shin and slap me on the face, is that seriously all you’ve got?” he questioned, and I nodded in response.

“For the Moon Goddess’s sake, you cannot survive in my pack with that. We are warriors in Moonclaw. Everyone fights. Young and old, male and female. We only have Omegas who are as powerless as they come to serve us, and you don’t want that, now, do you?” 

I shook my head for an answer.

“Good. Now, I want you to train here.” He opened the doors to the room he led me into, revealing weapons of different shapes and sizes with an open space in the middle of the room for combat. It reminded me so much of Carlos’s training room and everything I had gone through in it.

“At the end of each week, you will be required to fight me for assessment, and I will tell you just how much progress you have made. The more progress you make, the higher your chances of being the Luna of my pack. Prove that you’re unworthy, and I will not hesitate to reject you and send you to the Omegas’ quarters, where you will have to serve my soldiers.

“Do not tell a soul that you are my mate. It is to be kept between you, Katarina, and I. If I so much as sense that somebody knows and you told them, you will be rejected.”

I had no other option but to nod at his orders and make up my mind to improve.

*

“You have stayed in my pack for four whole weeks,” Lucas reminded me on a weekend after his usual fighting assessment. “During those four weeks, you have been provided with the time and the opportunity to train. During all of those four weeks, I have fought with you four times. During those four weeks, you have lost the fight four times in under two minutes. That is four weeks wasted, and four weeks of you proving that you cannot possibly rule by my side over my own soldiers.”

“No, I—”

“No excuses. I told you what the consequences will be.” He sighed. “I won’t reject you just yet, Emilia, but you will have to be transferred to the Omegas’ quarters as a servant to my soldiers.”

“You can’t. Please, just give me one more week. I can—”

“What difference will one more week make?” He questioned, waiting for me to ponder it. He was right. Four weeks had gone by, and I couldn’t break past the average strength of an Omega. I was an Omega, through and through, and being mated to an Alpha was not going to change that.

“I’ll tell Katarina to move your things,” he announced, walking away.

*

Serving the soldiers of Moonclaw was the least honourable thing I had ever been involved in. Their laundry was smelly, they were rude, and you were expected to take all of it without protesting.

It was the middle of the night, and it was my turn to do the laundry for the end of the day.

I stood in the laundry room, shoving the sweat-filled shirts and shorts into the washing machine, when I heard the door close.

I turned around swiftly to find Royce, one of the soldiers, walking towards me with his shirt and shorts. I turned around and rolled my eyes so he wouldn’t see before he reached where I stood.

“You don’t mind helping me with these, do you? I forgot to give them to you,” he said, handing the clothes to me.

I grabbed them and loaded the washing machine until it was full.

As soon as I turned the washing machine on, I felt Royce’s arm snake around my waist.

“Why don’t we do something to kill the time before they’re all washed?” I could clearly smell the alcohol in his breath now.

I pulled away from his grip, running out of the crammed spaces so I wouldn’t be trapped between him and a washing machine.

“Please, go back to your room,” I said as politely as I could.

“Come on, Emilia. I’ve heard the stories. My boys claim that you come into them.” He staggered forward, and I stepped back, heading towards the door and preparing to run if need be.

As if reading my mind, he ran towards the door in an attempt to block the exit, but I ran as fast as I could, pushing him out of the way and opening the door.

By the time I got into the hallway, he had regained his footing and his arms were now over my mouth, muffling my screams for help. Luckily, he was too drunk to hold a firm grip, and I bit his palm.

As he yelped and let go of me, I stood up and ran out of the house and in the direction of Alpha Lucas’s house. Royce’s words replayed in my head about how some of his “boys” claimed that I had come onto them, which was a lie. Who was to say someone would help me in that house?

There was only one person I could run to, and I didn’t hesitate to run towards him.

As I ran further, the mate bond in my chest started to go haywire, and I held on to my chest as I rushed into Alpha Lucas’s house, whose doors were not locked.

I ran up to his room and barged in, heaving.

Then, I discovered just why the mate bond had been reacting.

My mate was on the bed, his lips locked against those of another woman in a passionate kiss, and he was in the process of taking her top off.