My Immortal Luna

My Not-Step-Brother

Eleanor

“You did what?” My aunt screamed, her eyes wide in horror after I told her I had just rejected Alpha Zachary as my mate.

I knew my aunt was going to overreact, but I had also miscalculated how loud she was.

“I just wanted you to be the first to know before you hear it anywhere else.” The words flowed from my mouth and I shivered in disgust as I realised they were the same words Zach had said to me before giving me the news that tore my hearts to shreds.

My aunt looked at me like I had gone crazy.

Contrary to what Zach had said, I did have family. I had family that loved me to a fault.

I had an aunt, and a man who had picked me and cleaned me up when nobody would.

Although I don’t think aunt Liv still haboured that love after what I had just told her. In fact, she looked ready to murder me.

“Can you hear yourself, Eleanor? You just threw away a chance at finally finding a home, a home of your own.”

A home?

I frowned at her. “This is my home, aunt Liv.”

And it was true.

Twelve years ago, my own father had killed his mate, Liv’s sister, and my mother’s dying wish had been for Liv to take me to the farthest place where my father could not find me.

We had traveled, hungry and battered, until we had gotten to Nairethorne Pack. It had taken us eight whole days because Liv, a trained warrior of my former pack, had done everything she could to lose our trail and scents and make it look like we had been killed.

How Alpha Carden had accepted us into his pack would forever remain a mystery to me.

Nairethorne was known for it’s strenght and danger, and Carden ruled with an iron fist.

But the man who had taken me into his home, was far from the man I had heard about.

In fact, I owed him my life.

Aunt Liv looked like she wanted to strangle me, clenching and unclenching her fists in frustration before finally placing her hands on my shoulder. “Please tell me you are joking, Eleanor. Please.”

Why was this so important to her?

She had been the most thrilled when I had told her I had gotten a mate.

“Did you hear me at all? The man said he has taken a chosen mate, while still being fated to me. Aunt Liv, I would die, slowly, as the mating bond eats at my soul. I can’t sit and waste away for a man who sees me as worthless!” I hissed, trying to shake her off, but she held on firmly.

“And so what, Eleanor?! You will not be the first, or the last she-wolf whose mate took a chosen mate! You are strong, you come from a strong bloodline. You are meant to fight for your place, Ellie. This world is tough, and you cannot remain in here, playing princess to a man who is not, and would never be your father!”

I wanted to see reason in her words, but all it felt to me, was like I had been slapped in the face.

Did she really think I was going to sit and let a man walk all over me?

Enraged, I peeled her hands off me. “So you think because I refuse to live like a second choice, I’m weak? No! I am strong, and that is why I am able to work away from a life of pain!” My eyes stung as I remembered my mother.

If only she had walked away earlier, she would have been here with me.

“What aunt Liv? I let him have his way and then put up a happy facade as Luna while he enjoys his time with his chosen mate who he loves. And then what? When I refuse to do his bidding, he turns me into a submissive punching bag! Hell no!”

Oh I was going to fight for my place, but not in the way she was insinuating.

I watched as her eyes widened at my words, and scoffed when I saw guilt flash in them. “Eleanor_” she started to say, but I interrupted her.

“Save it!” I snapped. “As for Alpha Carden, he may not be my father, but he has done a thousand times worth more than that disgusting man has, and will ever do for me. This is my home, and you have no right to say those things because just as he took me in, he took you in too!”

Aunt Liv could be harsh, but I never would have expected her to be this harsh.

I knew she loved me, and always wanted the best for me, but this time, she was wrong as hell.

I would rather slice my skin a thousand times with a bread knife, than play second for another worthless alpha.

“Eleanor_”

The door opened just then, cutting off whatever my aunt had been about to say.

We were currently in the huge library of the alpha’s mansion, and while I would have preferred the ground to open and swallow me, at that moment, I knew it was not going to be possible.

In the open door way, stood the very man I had thought was not going to be in the pack’s mansion until the next morning.

Alpha Carden.

“What is going on in here, Eleanor? Liv?” His thick brows with streaks of grey hair were drawn together. “And what is this I’m hearing about you rejecting the Daysette Alpha?”

I couldn’t tell if he was angry yet, as that was his tone on a normal day.

But the thick baritone had my heart pounding erratically.

In the twelve years since he took me in, I had done everything I could to make him proud and not disappoint him.

I had in fact, now done the very thing I had tried so hard not to do.

Aunt Liv rushed forward, “Eleanor and the Alpha are just having a lover’s spat, Carden. You know new mates, they can be a handful.”

I appreciated her trying to cover up, but it just annoyed the heck out of me that that was what she had come up with.

Couldn’t she remember that I reeked of rejection, and as an Alpha, he could smell it?

I sighed and looked down at the floor, unable to meet his gaze.

It's not like I was going to take Zach back, so I might as well just come clean.

“Actually, I did reject Alpha Zachary. He turned out to be worthless and undeserving of my time and loyalty.”

I should have chosen subtler words, but heck, I didn’t care.

Just thinking about Zachary caused rage to course through me.

I waited for Carden to yell at me, scold me, tell me how disappointed he was, but the voice I heard next did not belong to Carden.

In fact, it was when he spoke, that I realised the air had in fact, shifted.

“And may we know how you came to this conclusion and decision, Beetle?”