As soon as Aurora was taken away, the party was over. There was no reason to celebrate anymore. Whispers of the moon goddess' forbidden choice rumbled through the pack.
Never has a fated mating felt like a curse rather than a gift.
Alpha Damon, on the other hand, thought nothing of it.
While his rejected mate was dragged off in the dirt, he turned his back on her and strolled into the empty hall. And immediately, he dismissed her existence from his mind.
He’d rather lose a limb than think of an omega as a problem. She was not worth his thoughts.
He had a war to win.
It didn’t matter that she was supposed to play a vast role in the way this war would go for him. He wasn’t going into battle with a slave by his side. She was no one.
A few hours ago when she ran into him in the maze, he never sensed what she was. Rather, his wolf was distracted and had never been pacified by the acknowledgment of anyone’s existence as he was at that moment.
He remembered her scent too. Below the stink, was a hint of citrus and something rosy. She didn’t feel like a slave when his lungs soaked up her smell.
For a second, he was addicted. Never wanting her skin far away from his.
Soft. His wolf growled.
Yes, soft. That was how she felt in his hands, and delicate. Too delicate.
Like a flower hanging by the roadside about to wither. But she was nothing of such. Rather, she was a weed waiting to intrude and infest.
His jaw clenched as his eyes darkened. In his pocket, his knuckles tightened into a fist. He couldn’t remember the last time his anger was toward himself.
To be fooled by his senses as an alpha was outrageous.
“Never again.” He swore to himself.
The goddess’ choice be damned.
Casting the slave away from his mind, he focused on the dispute behind him. His beta, Ralph, and the elders were arguing.
Tired of their bickering, he turned to them. “You had one job.”
Eli, one of the elders, bowed. “Alpha, please, we did not know it would turn out this way. The goddess cannot be predicted or manipulated.”
“One simple, pesky task.” Damon strutted closer. Implacable irritation filled his eyes, but his voice remained calm.
“I should throw you in the dungeon as well. Let’s see how the goddess would like that.”
Eli frowned. “Your arrogance should never reach the ears of the divine one. She gave you the power and strength to defeat every enemy you faced.”
“You think the goddess is the reason a thousand of my men died in battle? The reason we tasted blood and had to leave our brothers to die in the mud. You know nothing.”
“Victory comes at a cost.”
Damon almost laughed. He knew the cost of victory. Hell, he’s paid the price all his life.
He didn’t need a pompous old man who still thinks only in the ways of the old to tell him how the ruins and wins of war work.
“You both served my father well. He trusted you and I still keep you around because of that. But don’t think I’m as patient as he was. I’ll rip the cloaks off your back and send you to your end. Because, and understand this, I do not trust you.”
Edgar, the second elder, gasped. “Alpha… w-what are you saying?” He shook his head in disbelief as he rubbed his sweaty palm nervously under his cloak.
“Only the two of you can speak to the goddess.” Ralph cut in. “We trust your word with absolute faith. But after tonight, that’ll be impossible. It’s either the goddess has made her first mistake, or you both are plotting the alpha’s doom. And we know which is more likely to happen.”
Immediately Eli’s head shot up. Still, he barely looked the alpha in his eyes. “I will not stand here and let you insult us. We served the late alpha with everything we had. Our duty is not a simple one and yet we do it perfectly. The slave was sensed by the alpha, as the goddess proclaimed.”
Damon knew what his beta meant. In other packs, there were stories of elders ending the reign of an alpha out of disdain or an organized coup.
But he knew that wasn’t the case here.
The death of his parents was a buried alley he never wandered in. The elders were not the ones to blame. The past was best left alone, no matter how dark and tormented.
“What next?” Damon asked. He could feel his skull throb. This conversation was becoming a chore, and he needed sleep.
For the past year, he barely had any. Battle after battle stole a certain truce he needed for the night.
Coming home was supposed to bring peace to his eyes but here he was. Arguing with old men about their precious goddess, unable to respond to his pack’s impatience and a slave as a mate.
Something had to go right soon. Unless…
“We don’t know for sure. But we can…”
“I don’t care what you do. Find anyone else. Pick from any honorable house, as I told you to in the first place. Before you insisted that asking the goddess was an easier and better way. Well?!”
“So what I hear is true? An omega and our alpha… hmm.”
All eyes turned to the door. Rosalind, the third elder and healer of the pack, stood by the entrance.
Damon felt at ease to have her in the room. Rosalind had been in the war with them. For a year she catered to his men and helped as much as she could.
She was the only elder he trusted because she had proved her worth and understood the loss they faced. Also, after his parents passed, she raised him and kept his secret.
“You have twenty-four hours to find another.” He lasered his attention back to the elders.
The rest of his threat didn’t have to be spoken.
“I beg you Alpha. Defying the goddess is not advised. She won’t tolerate her gesture being revoked or ignored.”
“I will not take a slave as my Luna!”
His shout sent a rumble through the walls. Edgar fell to his knees, and Eli followed. Both of them shook to their bones.
The war had made Damon's temper shorter and nastier, but he didn’t want the elders to see just how unattached his wires were.
“How long do we have?” Damon ignored them to face Ralph.
Ralph reopened the letter in his hand and sighed. “The next full moon.”
“That’s in six days. What happens then?” Rosalind asked.
“The battle begins,” Ralph explained. “Every alpha chosen to fight for the throne of Alpha King will attack. Without a Luna, Damon will be disqualified.”
“Something else is wrong. You sound worried, why? If he’s no longer a candidate isn’t he exempted from the battles?”
Ralph passed her the letter. “There’s only one rule. Every Alpha must have his Luna to take the throne. That’s it. Every other thing goes.”
Rosalind frowned. The thorn gripping their necks was beginning to hook hers too. Her eyes went wide. “But that’s ridiculous. They can’t.”
“They can.” Damon chuckled, not a shred of humor in his tone. “And they will.”
Ralph turned to pour himself a drink. He took one to Damon. Offering it to him before he spelled their disaster out.
“It doesn’t matter if Damon finds a Luna or not. He is undefeated and every alpha hungers to be the one who destroys him. His Luna helps him stay in the contest, without her, he can’t fight to be Alpha king. But…”
“But it doesn’t stop them from coming for us.” Rosalind finished. Her hands became weak and dropped to her sides. The paper in her hands almost fell to the ground.
Damon knew she’d understand. Every battle they had fought for the past year, they won. But they came back with victory in their hearts and a massive loss on their backs.
Whether he found a Luna or not, the other alphas would still come for him, and for his people. He didn’t have enough men to fight them but he was willing to fight.
Without a Luna, it’d be for nothing.
Because he can defeat them all, and heaven and hell knew he intended to, but it won’t matter. Because of that one rule.
Only his Luna can mark him as a qualified contender. Without her, he was just an alpha fighting battles he’d win but never get the throne.
He could never let that happen.
He glanced at the elders still on their knees. “On your feet.”
They shuffled to their feet. Their eyes to the ground and hands clasped behind their backs.
“Go to the goddess. Ask her for another.”
“A-and if she… doesn’t give another?”
Damon snarled. “You join the slave.”
“But Alpha, please, the goddess cannot be forced to…”
Their pleas fell to an empty, cold room. Damon was already out the door and their clock had begun to tick.
