“B-Beta Nemora, I-I’m sorr-ry for stopping by like th-this—” Elluana’s pale cheeks tinge pink in embarrassment as she fumbles with her words. Impatient, a man steps between us, hiding her completely in his shadow. Elder Samual. One of the wolves responsible for bringing Elluana into the pack. As if that isn’t reason enough for me to hate him. He’s spent the last eight years doing everything I his power to undermine Reeve’s authority as Alpha. And when Reeve rejected Elluana, he was the loudest to protest. I’m not surprised to see him glowering here. He’s never more than fifteen feet away from the future Luna.“Beta Nemora, we request a minute of your time.” Samual doesn’t wait for me to respond, shoving past me into the Luna’s quarters, Elluana’s wrist tight in his grasp. “We understand you are quite busy with your duties within the pack, but this was an urgent matter.”“What is so urgent that you’ve dragged this poor woman here at this late hour?” I ask, taking hold of Elluana’
In the end, I relented to Reeve and ended up back in the Luna’s room of the packhouse the next morning. I can still smell Elluana’s faint scent lingering on the arm chair. I was only gone for one night, so she didn’t have time imprint her scent on everything. But I excpected her to at least sit on the bed, or open the wardrobe. It’s as if she sat in that one spot all evening and didn’t dare move.Frustrated, I pinch the bridge of my nose and exhale a heavy sigh. I told her to become stronger. The pack needs her to be unshakeable and bold. Thankfully, Reeve is setting up a room near ours for her to stay in. Maybe I should bring her with me to train. It can’t hurt for her to at least observe the drills so she can know what’s going on and how to make decisions in case Reeve or I am incapacitated.I’m so distracted by my thoughts and plans, I didn’t hear Reeve enter. When he wraps his arms around my waist it startles me and I nearly send him through a wall.“Goddess, Nemora!” he groans, cl
“I know you are not stupid enough to threaten me and my unborn child to my face,” I growl, stepping up against Samual who falters only a moment. He stumbles backward but catches himself and straightens up.“I’m only warning an expectant mother of the dangers that lurk around every corner.” Elder Samual clears his throat and regains his fragile composure. “You can never really know where a person’s loyalties lie until they have a blade in their hand. Will they use it for you or against you?”“The only person I don’t trust is you, venomous old lout!” I hiss, letting my wolf Noctura rise. My own Alpha aura is nothing to balk at and Elder Samual shrinks away, backing himself to the bedroom door.“Careful, Beta Nemora. We mustn’t allow our tempers to flare and break trust,” he states, trying to sound like my very aura isn’t enough to crumble him to dust. “I simply wanted to help you see reason. You and I both know Alpha Reeve needs his mate. He’s unraveling at the seams!”“Are you question
Present DayMakayla’s POVI’m numb as Christobel weeps, recounting the details of my father’s final moments and my mother’s swift departure from Io. Should I be crying with her? Is it right for me to cry when I don’t know these people and was the cause of so much heartache? Realistically, I know it isn’t my fault, but guilt still weighs heavy on my heart.If my mother hadn’t been pregnant with me, would she have been able to fight the Elders and take back control of Io with my father?“You’re just like her, you know?” Christobel sniffles, smiling wearily as she squeezes my hands gently. “I can tell you’re already blaming yourself for what happened. But it wasn’t your fault. It will never be your fault.”Clearing her throat, she wipes her eyes on the sleeve of her blouse, never releasing my hands. “Your mother had to kill your father because he was going on a rampage. Everyone who was there that day acknowledges that she saved the pack from total destruction. We all know Nemora as a he
It’s a few minutes before I calm down enough to ask more questions. Did they know from the beginning who I am? Why did it take so long for them to save me from River Crest? Does all of Io know that I am the daughter of Alpha Reeve and Beta Nemora? Are they angry at me?“Calm down, wildling,” Rafe hums, kissing my temple. “Breathe. One question at a time.”“At the time, the witch only told me that Nemora’s bond was switched to a Beta of a nearby pack. No name, information, or defining characteristics,” Christobel says, shaking her head. “It took a lot of searching before we narrowed it down to River Crest. We had no idea Nemora was already gone. And there was no way for us to know if her child was a boy or a girl.”“Not to mention, it took years for me to step up as Alpha of Io and resume the search in earnest,” Rafe adds. “Up until five years ago, Thane was acting Alpha.”
Christobel excuses herself, leaving Rafe and me alone. The door isn’t closed for three seconds before he wraps himself around me in a crushing hug. At the same time, his guards come down, and I feel all of his emotions intensely. They mingle with mine, clouding my already confusing feelings. I can pick out a single, strong undercurrent of sadness. The deep, heartbroken kind that permeates everything and makes it heavy like a dead leg.You’d think he was the one who just discovered he had wrongly accused his mother of a crime for his entire life.“Are you okay?” I ask, rubbing his back and kissing his shoulder.“I should be asking you that,” he grumbles into my shirt, squeezing me tighter. “How do you feel knowing the truth?”“About my mother? Numb. I can’t process all of this in a single afternoon.” I release my mate, slipping from his grasp and wrapping my arms around myself. It’s not the same as it once was. Giving myself a hug used to be the only comfort I could get. It used to feel
My stomach growls in the pause between my question and their answer. I try to muffle it with my hands, but the cat’s out of the bag, and I don’t get another word in edge-wise before Rafe hoists me into the air and carries me out of the room and down the stairs to the main level of the packhouse.It’s my first time seeing this area clearly without sneaking through in the middle of the night or clouded with confusion of a rogue attack. I want Rafe to slow down so I can catch my bearings, but I know better than to ask him to do that. The second my stomach growled, I felt his anxiety spike. He’s not going to stop until I’m stuffed with food, barely able to breathe or stand.All I can do is hold on tight and take in as much of the blurred scenery as possible. And maybe try to memorize the route to the cafeteria. Damn, I really need someone to show me around.We burst through heavy doors into a large café, and the smell of food hits me like a warm pillow to the face. My stomach protests lou
I smelled him coming a mile away.My father only ever comes to see me when he reeks of cheap whiskey and rage. He needs a target to attack and someone to blame for all the various misfortunes of his life. I'm guilty of only having been born to the bitter tyrant.I press my face against the dingy wallpaper inside my run-down trailer tucked away in a corner. My heart pounds with an all too familiar dread, despite having endured this scene many times in my life. It's all burned into my body, like muscle memory.The sound of his heavy footsteps echoes outside with the uneven crunch of gravel under Deadrick Pride's stumbling gait. He's here for me, fueled by the liquor that consumes his inhibitions and ignites his rage.The trailer, my paper-thin sanctuary, closes in around me. Its walls, worn and rusted, bear the scars of countless altercations. The only physical evidence remaining of the many wounds inflicted by my father, my family, my pack. The half-broken windows allow slivers of moon