Ava.
I sat down there sobbing, watching as my mate walked out on me after telling me he was going to hurt me over another woman.
Everything about what was going on hurt so bad I could barely breathe.
I should have been treated better. I struggled to get to this position; I struggled to get Zane’s attention and love.
But I knew the bitter truth; Zane never loved me. I could see that clearly now, it had been a one-sided relationship all along.
I looked around me at the home I shared with Zane for more than four years at the pack I had worked so hard to mold and maintain.
In the early stages of my becoming a Luna, I knew nothing about governing a pack. It was all too overwhelming in the beginning.
But I was determined to show Zane that I wasn't some woman that just wanted to answer the title of Luna.
I worked hard to adapt, to learn, and this was how I was treated back. My mate had cheated on me with my friend.
My wolf was howling in pain, adding to how miserable I felt. I could see the anger, pain, and frustration pushing forward, threatening to erupt and I let the emotions loose to hurt to fight them back.
Lifting my head to the ceiling of the room I screamed.
"Why Goddess, why, why did you bless me and curse me. You made me a Luna and yet you cannot give me a child to secure my position and the heart of the man I love. Why?"
The room was silent. Of course, the Goddess wouldn't answer.
I dropped my head to the ground, gritting my teeth in pain, and banging my fists on the ground.
"Why, why, why" I muttered as I punched the floor with my fist a lot of memories whizzing fast behind my closed eyes.
Even though Zane said he wouldn't take away my position, I knew I had lost both the position and his heart.
It was cruel. If I had been rejected, it wouldn't have hurt as much as it did right now.
My mate had gone off and slept with another woman, and now they had a child together. It was the most painful thing to hear, the most painful thing to experience.
I didn't know how long I stayed there on the ground crying, but soon I was dry-eyed. There were no more tears left for me to cry. I had nothing more left to give.
My days in this house and my marriage with Zane had come to an end. Looking around the den, I came to a conclusion.
I will have to leave the house. I couldn't remain here anymore looking at the eyes of the man who was my mate bringing in another woman to live with him.
It was an insult to any woman’s dignity.
With difficulty, I got up from the ground and staggered a little as the pounding behind my head intensified and the room swam a bit.
My heightened sense of smell picked up a familiar scent which let me know that someone was in the living room with me and that someone was the last person I wanted to see.
I turned back to see Cassie standing at the threshold of the door.
Anger surged forward, clouding my vision, and it took me a great deal of self-restraint not to launch myself at Cassie.
I had to remember she was pregnant. My wolf was mad. It wanted out; it wanted to launch itself at her and attack her.
I just stood there watching my best friend and the woman who had taken my mate away from me. Loathe coursed through me as I desperately fought to keep my wolf and anger in check.
"Ava…" Cassie started, walking toward me.
"Don't you dare!" I roared. "Don't you dare come close to me, don't you dare."
Cassie’s face was twisted in a mask of pain.
"I'm so sorry, Ava. I didn’t mean for it to happen this way. I got caught up in the moment, I…"
"You got caught up. Cassie, are you kidding me? He's my husband, he's my mate. How the hell did you get caught up in something that belongs to someone else?"
The anger I was so desperately trying to fight was growing by the second and it was threatening to consume me.
"He came to me Ava. I wanted none of this in the beginning but I pitied him, and… I… believe me, I didn’t know when all this happened."
Her words were grating in my ears. Every second, every minute i stood there listening to her I felt like I wanted to commit murder, just reach up to her grab her neck and snap it.
"I'm so sorry Ava, I know what I did was wrong, I'm so sorry."
Cassie suddenly burst into tears, her little body rocking as she cried.
But I didn't care. Her tears weren't going to bring back my mate she had taken wrongfully . It wasn’t going to take care of the damage she had caused.
"I want to know one thing, Cassie. Will you at least tell me the truth to this question I'm about to ask? I deserve that much at least don't I?"
"Yes, I will," Cassie replied, looking at me with eyes filled with tears.
"Do you love him?"
There was a pause as Cassie stared at me, her eyes glassy.
"Answer me, do you love my mate?" I bellowed.
"Yes, yes, I do Ava and I'm so sorry" Cassie blurted out, as she started crying again.
I closed my eyes at her answer and opened them again.
"Get out," I growled, my wolf, fueling me with anger.
"Ava I...”
"I said get out!”
Cassie flinched at my voice and turned, running away from the living room.
"That was unnecessary."
I looked to my left to see Eli, one of the pack wolves watching me.
"She shouldn't be treated that way. She's pregnant, you know?"
Eli was a gamma, one of the lowest ranks in a pack and now he had the audacity to step into my house and stand up to me.
With lighting speed, I reached Eli faster than he had time to react and flung him to the wall, pinning his head to the wall.
"I'm still your Luna, and you will know your place. If you so much as talk to me in a disrespectful manner, I'll make sure you pay dearly for it."
Eli was scared, he gulped, his throat bobbing up and down.
"And if you so much as look in my direction, I'm going to make sure you never see again," I growled, my eyes flashing amber.
My wolf's anger was getting the better of me, and I didn't care. I wanted to feel anything but pain and sadness right now. The anger was fitting.
"Have I made myself clear?"
Eli nodded, his head moving up and down like a fish out of water.
"Now get out," I snarled.
I let go of him and he dashed out of the house and I was left alone with my anger and pain.
A run in the woods would do anything but stay here.
Running out of the house, I shifted to my wolf's form, completing the change quickly as I bounded into the woods.
Ava. The woods whizzed past me as I ran with reckless abandon. Shifting for me was like a temporary release from all the problems life threw at me. It was my source of dopamine. To run free, untethered, unbothered with just the wind caressing my fur and my paws hitting the soft earth as the moon illuminated the path ahead of me. Yet I knew that even after my temporary retreat, the problems were still facing me back at the pack. My husband had gone ahead to fuck another woman, breaking the mate bond we both shared. It would have been different if he was wrong with another woman, but I knew this was an irreversible change because now my best friend was carrying his child. The thought of Cassie, whom I took as my friend, spreading her legs to let Zane in, filled me with a jumble of so many emotions; Anger, pain, grief, and disgust. It was getting more and more difficult to concentrate on running. Yet no matter how I tried to block out these thoughts from my head, an image of Zane an
Ava. I felt my teeth clamp unto my tongue and the warm, Iron taste of blood filled my mouth. I couldn't believe it, Zane had just slapped me. Never in our five years of marriage had Zane ever raised a finger at me, but apparently this night he had thrown all of his principles to the wind. I took a hand and wiped the blood that was now seeping from a cut on my lips. Not only had I bitten my tongue but the force of the slap had split open my lips. From the corner of my eyes I could see Nona standing to the side doing her best to look insignificant. I couldn't blame her. Everyone knew how dangerous Zane could be when he got angry.. I turned slowly to face Zane, the shock of the slap still in my system. The part of my face where the slap had landed on felt numb and a weird high pitched ringing filled my ears. Zane hadn't just slapped me as an ordinary man. He had added his wolf strength to make it even more painful. "Why?" I asked fixing my gaze on him, my eyes searching his which w
Standing in front of the house I had once shared with my father before become a Luna I hesitated. My father was a pack enforcer and a highly respected Beta because of how skilled he was. My mother had died while giving birth to me and since then my father had raised me teaching me everything I knew. I knew how to spar, how to fight without shifting to my wolf. In a way he saw me as a son he never had and even though my wolf had emerged as an Omega he had pushed me to move from that rank to the position I found myself now. If I told him this news I was sure it was going to break his heart to a million pieces. I stared at the wooden door my heart heavy, my tongue tied, my knuckles a few inches from knocking on the door. But I knew I had to tell my father sooner or later if I resisted from telling him now it would be delaying the inevitable. One way or the other he was still bound to find out. Gathering courage, I knocked on the door simultaneously hearing laughter from inside the h
AVA. I could feel every pair if eyes in the hall drawn to Zane who stood powerfully tall commanding respect like he owned it. I could feel the tension in the room rising like poisonous gas as it came to settle about us thick with promises of what was to come. I could see Cassie playing with her fingers each of them locking and unlocming against each other as her feet tapped the ground nervously. I could see Zane stare at the pack as he carried his throat getting ready to speak. I could feel my heart beat madly behind my chest as a horrible itch began somewhere in the side of my eyes.I could feel my wolf going melancholy as it too anticipated what Zane was about to say. "I can tell that you are all excited and at the same time confused as to why this ceremony was suddenly called for, but be rest assured it is nothing to worry about." Zane paused as the pack watched him as one. I didn't think I had ever seen that level of concentration anywhere. "The woman you can see seated here
AVA. I hurriedly packed my things into the small box I decided I was going to use for my escape. My father was currently positioned at the door his eyes fixed to the pack hall at the distance acting as a look out. The last thing I wanted was for the gathering in the hall to dismiss and people started filling out. I wouldn't be able to make my escape as effortlessly as I wanted to if that happened. But I knew I was worrying for nothing. The ritual of inaugurating a new Luna into a pack wasn't something that was trifle, it took a good couple of hours. Knowing the pack customs the gathering in the hall were likely to stay there for quite some time as Zane was the meticulous type. Just as soon as I was done with the last couple of clothes I wanted to pack with me I heard a yell rise from somewhere outside. As I listened closer I realized it was coming from the direction of the hall. I felt goose bumps spread across my skin. That didn't sound like a yell of excitement, rather ominous
AVA. I watched as my father dropped to the ground twitching, the gash in his neck spilling blood like a liquid tap. I watched as he switched his eyes to amber willing on the powers of his wolf to try and heal him from death which was fast approaching, hovering over him like a harbinger of doom. I watched as he failed the gash too wide and too deep for his healing powers to kick in. I watched as his eyes turned from amber back to human, the light slowly fading from them. I watched as he tried to call out to me, yet no words formed, his mouth opening and closing like a fish that had just been drawn out of water and was craving oxygen. I watched as he stopped struggling and lay still, his eyes wide open. My rock, my cornerstone, dead. I just stood there barely believing what I was seeing praying, hoping that I was in some kind of bad dream, praying that I would wake up any moment from now realizing everything had been just one heck of a bad dream. Zane stood there watching me, his
AVA When I opened my eyes, the first thing that I could see was darkness. It pressed around me like poisonous gas intent on killing a victim. My surrounding was pitch black. I didn't even bother to move, it would be futile as I couldn’t even see any of my body parts. I just lay there on the ground of wherever it is I was and opened my eyes as wide as I could trying to see if I could make out any shape in the suffocating darkness. Laying down there I knew I was dead, it didn't come to me like a fragment of a thought but rather as a full realization that I was never going to see the land of the living again. I was never going to feel the wind on my fir as I ran, or the taste of food, or the smell of the earth after it had just rained which were some of my favorite sensations. The irony of it? My husband had ordered my own death and my father’s best friend had carried it out; how more cruel could life become. Ava. It jolted me out if my thoughts and I went still, reducing my noisy
Ryker. As soon as I stepped into the pack grounds that night I instantly knew something was wrong. Usually, I kept the patrol of the pack grounds to my enforcers but today was their day off they deserved it; this week had been long and grueling. Fending off vampires from the border wasn’t exactly a pastime of mine but it still had to be done. I opted to do it alone but Tao,the head enforcer of my pack; ever the work alcoholic accompanied me. I don't exactly know why I wanted to take on the patrol work today, maybe it was because I missed the feeling of the chilly night breeze caressing my skin and ruffling my hair or it was because I missed my nightly runs. Either way I just wanted to get out of the confines of the house this night. A few minutes after I started the familiar patrol formation I caught a strong metallic scent in the air and I very well knew what t