EMILIA POV
“What… What is…” I couldn’t form a fully comprehensive question. My mouth was opening and closing repeatedly, and I was trying hard to wipe the image out of my head, but it didn’t help that my mate was standing there, putting his shorts back on as if he just couldn’t care less.
For a second, I wondered if my genuine surprise was validated. If my mate was cruel enough to take me to the Omegas’ quarters, why should I be surprised about him being with someone else?
“Emilia…” He sighed, rubbing his eyes and walking towards me, taking me by the arm and leading me out of the room.
“What are you doing?” I asked, my voice low.
“What are you doing?” He countered as if I was in the wrong, taking me aback. “You should be in the Omegas’ quarters, why are you out here in the middle of the night?”
“I came here because I thought you could help me.” I hoped he could hear the disappointment and hurt in my voice. I hoped it would do something to him, but it only hurt me more that he didn’t look as remorseful as I wanted him to be. “I was almost taken advantage of by one of your soldiers.”
“They wouldn’t dare.” He sounded sure until he saw my face and saw just how serious I was. His brows furrowed and drew together. “Which one of them was it?”
Somehow, I knew he wasn’t angry because he cared about me. His ego would take a punt if he let it go, and that was the only thing making him mad about what I had told him.
“I don’t know his name, but I can identify him if given the chance,” I replied.
“You can return to your quarters,” he commanded, waving me off. “We’ll sort this out tomorrow.”
As he was about to return to the room, I grabbed him by the hand with a look of confusion at how he was handling the situation.
“What do you mean by that? I just…I just found you in bed with another woman. I told you what just happened to me, and you’re telling me to return? You’re not even going to try and explain anything?”
I could feel the tension seeping into his arms, causing me to let him go.
He turned to me with his eyes narrowed.
“Are you serious about this right now?” he questioned, and I got terrified for a moment at the tone of his voice. “You’re offended that you found me in bed with someone else, and that makes sense to you? Why would you even feel bad about that?”
“You’re…my mate, Lucas,” I reminded him, watching his frown deepen. “When I was running all the way here, I felt the mate bond react strangely. I believe it’s because of your actions. It’s not right for you to be in bed with someone else, and I find it sad that I have to lecture you about it.”
I heard Lucas scoff as he looked at me in disbelief.
“Have I ever acknowledged you as my mate this whole time?” I was scared of looking at his face as he spoke, not wanting to see what kinds of emotions were swirling in them, so I settled for staring past him and at the door to the bedroom, where the other woman was still in.
“You took every opportunity you had and tossed it aside, stepping on it. You cannot be my Luna. I think you’re making the mistake of thinking we’re still mates because I have not rejected you all this time.”
This was like an electric shock in my bones, forcing me to look at him.
“What does that mean?”
Before he could give me an answer that could clear his name, he sighed and turned to me.
“I, Lucas, Alpha of Moonclaw Pack, reject you—”
“No.” I shook my head.
“—Emilia as my mate and the Luna of the pack.”
Snap.
Something separated in my chest like a rope that had been pulled on both ends for so long that it couldn’t bear the strain anymore and just…snapped.
The last thing I was expecting was the sharp pain that accompanied the breaking of the mate bond.
I stumbled backwards, my back crashing into the wall behind me as I clutched my chest and tears welled my eyes.
“Lucas…” I gasped, in complete denial. “You can’t…”
If anything, I was the one with the right to reject him after what I had just caught him doing, but of course I couldn’t. I was the weak one.
“You can sleep in one of the rooms tonight if you feel unsafe in the quarters. By tomorrow, you should resume your work as an Omega. You can’t just return to Fangsbane Pack; recall that you’re here as my prize for the fight.”
Without any more words shared, he turned around and walked into the room, slamming it in my face.
Now, the tears were falling freely. I didn’t know where to go from there or what to do. I had been trained in combat and practically everything else that came with being born a werewolf, but nobody had thought to prepare me for the pain that came with being rejected by the mate and how to handle it.
I slid down the wall, my heart pumping loud and fast as I tried to fix my mind on just one thing; the soldier who had chased me down from the Omega quarters, the rejection I had just been through, or the thought of what Lucas was probably doing in the bedroom with the woman.
As if reading my thoughts, the door to the bedroom opened and the lady walked out with an annoyed scoff, muttering to herself.
I picked myself off the floor and found an empty room to sleep in as that would be better than returning to the drunk soldier who would most likely not hesitate to go after me again.
I slumped against the bed, forcing my eyes closed and going to sleep after much difficulty.
~
“You’re up. Good,” Katarina commented as soon as I opened my eyes and found her standing by the bedroom window.
I sat up, rubbing my eyes and looking around. I wondered for a split second if everything that had transpired the night before was a lucid dream, but the dull ache in my chest was a reminder that it was no such thing.
“Why are you here?” I asked Katarina, exhausted.
“To train you,” she answered as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Sensing that I was still confused, she walked up to me and started to explain: “I heard what happened from Lucas. Even though I haven’t experienced it before, I have to say that I understand how painful it must be right now.”
“So, what now?”
“I want to train you now, start all over from the beginning. You were only training before because you wanted to be the Luna. Now you’ll be doing it for yourself. It’s time to see how far you would go without any external motivating factors, don’t you think? I also think it’s the best way to make my brother regret rejecting you.”
Before I could politely decline, the door opened, and one of the soldiers rushed in.
“Where’s Alpha Lucas?” he demanded.
“I don’t—”
“You have to see this,” he announced and ran off. Katarina and I shared a look before we ran behind the soldier. My heart hammered fast in my chest, and my stomach twisted.
Whatever it was, I could sense that it would be bad.
EMILIA POV“Oh, goddess!” Katarina exclaimed as the soldier finally led us into the town, where a lot of the pack members gathered in front of their houses, holding the bodies of their loved ones.“This…” I placed my over my mouth to mask how shocked I was by the view.There were tens of dead people we had seen so far – about twenty or more, and they all looked like they had died from the same thing.But nobody knew what had killed them.Their bodies were pale, almost gray, and the palms of their hands were completely reddened.“This is bad. Find someone to go track Lucas and bring him here this instant!” Katarina ordered the soldier, who took her word and ran off.We walked towards one of the many people who were sitting outside and bawling their eyes out over the death of their loved ones. This woman was holding a teenage boy to her chest.“Please, save my son! He was fine last night, and I found him like this when I woke up and went to check on him. Please, Jacob! Open your eyes. Y
EMILIA POVThe soldier that had been yelling at me for the laundry launched himself into one of the rooms, returning with weapons and running down the hallway and out of the house.I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t tell if I was expected to join in on the fight as I watched soldiers running from one room to another and down the hallway, and I was too scared to ask them as they all looked ready to kill anyone or anything that stood in their way.“Hey, what’s…what’s happening?” I stuttered as I got out of the house and met one of the Omegas wiping a knife with a piece of cloth.“A rogue attack. We haven’t had one of those in a long time. I wonder why they’re here,” she mumbled, seeming more concentrated on the knife she was wiping clean.“And us? Are we supposed to join the fight?” I questioned, wondering if the knife was hers and she was preparing for the battle.Her eyes shot up so that she could examine me for a moment. Then, she stood up with a sigh as a soldier rushed out of the
EMILIA POVWe all shared looks with each other, wondering if this soldier had lost his mind and was trying to trick us into believing some mindless joke that they had all planned on their way back from the war.Seeing that none of us was moving – in fear or in doubt – the soldier raised his voice and boomed at us: “I want to believe that you all have functioning wolf ears! Grab whatever you can and join us on the battlefield! Nobody will be having your back! It’s a full war. You either die alone or you assist us to win this! Orders from the Alpha!”The soldier turned around and shifted into his wolf form, racing out of the house and leaving all of us in the room to scramble and wonder what to do next.Some people had made it into the kitchen to grab knives while some of the others were sure that they could take out a few rogues with their wolf forms.Unsure of what I was going to be doing, I blindly followed. There was nothing else I could do but hope that if we reached there, they wo
EMILIA POVI looked at Katarina, confused at her words. What was there to say about me so much so that a seer would summon me and Alpha Lucas to see her.“I don’t understand. What truth about me is there?” I questioned, not liking the way Lucas was staring at me with suspicion.“I guess that’s what the seer wants you to find out. Come with me,” she said, taking my hand in hers and walking forward so that Lucas walked behind us.There was silence, and I couldn’t help but feel Lucas’s eyes burning a hole in the back of my head. I wondered what it was that this seer, who was most likely not a true one, had in mind to tell us.I had been raised not to trust seers or wolves who delved into spiritual. Carlos used to tell me they were nothing short of witches and would take the side of witches if there was ever a need to fight against werewolves with them.As we walked towards the seer’s place deep into the woods of the pack, Katarina and Lucas stopped at the same time, causing me to stop an
EMILIA POV“We’re being attacked!” was the last thing I heard someone announce to the rogues who were still in the kitchen before all hell broke loose.Someone pushed me to the back, standing in front of me.“You’re already injured. You can’t fight right now,” she said to me as they clashed with the rogues.I couldn’t stand there and watch just because I had an injury. I ran into the kitchen to grab a sharp knife, getting back into the living room as the Omegas had all shifted and we’re pushing the rogues back so that they would all be outside the house.I found a rogue on top of one of the Omegas, snapping its teeth and trying to find something to bite. I took its distraction as an opportunity to lunge for it and stab it right in the neck.Blood squirted out of its neck, but it didn’t relent immediately. It thrashed around wildly, running for me and trying to attack me as well, but I used my feet to kick it back until it got weak enough that it fell to the ground with shallow breaths
EMILIA POV I almost laughed at what the seer had just said. I would have laughed if nobody was taking it as serious as they all were.“I’m… I don’t think I understand what you mean,” I voiced my confusion.How could I possibly be the cause of two rogue attacks in a pack that wasn’t even mine? I was an Omega, rejected by the Alpha, for the Moon Goddess’s sake.If they believed I had ties to rogues, they had to reinvestigate and see that I had always been under Carlos’s wings since I lost both of my parents, and he kept a strict eye on me that I barely had the time to even talk to my pack members back in Fangsbane, let alone a rogue.“I want you to know that I’m not accusing you of anything,” Gwen, the seer, made it clear. “That you had something to do with it doesn’t mean you planned it. I meant you have something about you that brought about the attacks or the plague that recently took the lives of some pack members.”“And what exactly is it that she has with her?” Lucas asked.“I’m
EMILIA POV“Gwen?!” I yelled, avoiding the broken glasses on the floor and bending beside her body, trying to hold her down so that she wouldn’t move and get injured from the broken glass on the floor.“What’s happening? What…” I looked around, heaving. I didn’t know what to do.She grabbed me by the arm, squeezing so tightly that I winced in pain. Her eyes were wide, and her throat gurgled as if she was trying to tell me something.I picked her up so that she would sit up, patting her on the back to try and get all the liquids in her throat to get out.“Should I go get help? If there’s something around here that can help, point at it!” I instructed her, but her eyes were already rolling back into her head, and her body was jerking even more aggressively.I settled for going to get help, so I pulled her body away from the broken glass on the floor and ran out of the house, heading for the pack to get Maya.By the time I got into the Omega quarters, I was heaving and gasping for air.“
EMILIA POV“No, wait. You can’t do this,” I protested against Lucas’s orders for the soldier to take me to the dungeon. “I didn’t do anything. It wasn’t me, I swear. I met her like that, you have to believe me.”“Lucas…” Katarina started, standing in front of me and the soldier so that he wouldn’t take me just yet. “You know she didn’t do it. You need to stop.”“Let them go, Katarina,” he only responded. “I’ll figure this out the way I want to.”“This is not the right place to start,” Katarina warned. “Having her put in the dungeon will only make everyone panic and start to wonder what’s going on. Please just—”“Step out of the way for them,” he commanded her, his tone devoid of warmth. She seemed to notice this as she followed his command with a sigh of defeat, turning to me.“Just hang in there, Emilia. I’ll come back for you, I promise, okay?”I didn’t want to rely on her words or even show that I had hopes of getting out of there, so I settled for not replying. I only stared at th