The Luna He Should Have Killed

Chapter Two

Pain woke me before sunlight did.

For a few disoriented seconds, I couldn't remember where I was. My head felt as though someone had split it open and packed the wound with hot iron. Every pulse of my heartbeat sent another wave of agony through my skull.

I opened my eyes slowly.

My bedroom ceiling stared back at me.

The familiar cream-colored plaster should have comforted me. Instead, panic slammed into my chest.

The war room.

The contract.

My father's hand.

I sat up too quickly and immediately regretted it.

The room lurched sideways.

A sharp gasp escaped my lips as dizziness washed over me.

Before I could fully steady my breathing, the heavy oak door to my room swung open.

My mother stepped inside. She didn't rush to my side. Her expression was completely flat, her hands folded neatly over her fine, grey dress as she walked toward the bed.

"You're awake," she said flatly.

"Mother..." My voice was a broken whisper, raw and scraping against my throat. "Father... he…"

"Your father did what was necessary to silence a hysterical child," she interrupted. She reached down, her slender, manicured fingers gripping my chin with a firm pressure. She twisted my face to the side, examining the blood-stained bandage with a critical, detached eye. "The skin isn't torn too badly. The swelling will go down, and it won't leave a permanent scar."

She let go of my chin, wiping her fingers on a lace handkerchief as if she had just touched something contaminated.

"Is that all you care about?" Tears of sheer disbelief blurred my vision. "Father sold me!"

"And that sale is the only reason you are currently breathing," she snapped, her gaze hardening into flint. "The news from our men just arrived. The Silver Claw disaster was catastrophic. The King’s army didn't just take the base, Alessia, they slaughtered every single one of our men. Two thousand of our men were wiped out in a single day!”

My breath hitched.

"Because of this disaster, Alpha Magnus Rune has changed the timelines," my mother continued, turning her back to me to pace the room. "His four thousand soldiers are already marching to reinforce our borders. But he is not a fool. He knows we are desperate, and he refuses to let his men fight for us while his prize sits pretty in our home."

She stopped pacing and looked back at me, her eyes dead and calculating.

"The mating ceremony is no longer before winter, Alessia. It is no longer months away. It is not even weeks."

A horrible, icy dread began to coil in my stomach. "Mother, no..."

"You have ten days. Rune arrived at our borders this morning, and his soldiers will be joining him soon."

The words landed with terrifying simplicity.

Ten days.

Ten days before, I was handed over to a man old enough to be my father.

Ten days before my life stopped belonging to me.

"We’ll begin the ceremony preparations tomorrow. Do not embarrass this family again, Alessia."

The heavy door clicked shut behind her, leaving me alone in the dim light. I sat there for a long time before desperation pushed me out of bed.

I needed to speak to my father.

The corridors were nearly empty when I slipped from my room. Most of the guards had probably been reassigned, and the servants were too busy preparing for whatever came next to notice me.

As I approached the war room, raised voices drifted through the partially opened doors.

"We can't hold the valley," one commander said.

"Then abandon it."

My father's voice was immediate.

The room fell silent.

"Alpha," another man said carefully, "there are thousands of civilians living there."

"I know."

"We cannot abandon it," another commander whispered, horrified. "The valley contains three of our largest civilian villages. If we withdraw our guards and surrender the territory to the King's army, those people will be slaughtered.”

"Let them die!" Silas roared, slamming his fists onto the table so hard the wooden markers rattled. "The rebellion is collapsing! I don't care about a few thousand peasants. I need time! If surrendering the valley buys me another forty-eight hours to get Rune’s army behind in the battleground, then Blackthorn can burn every house in that valley to ash!"

A chill ran through me.

Those weren't soldiers he was condemning.

They were families. Children. Entire villages.

And my father was willing to throw them away without hesitation.

I stepped back from the door just as a horn blasted through the estate.

The horn blew a second time—three short, sharp bursts. It wasn't the alarm for an enemy attack. It was the official salute for an arriving warlord.

Suddenly, the heavy iron-reinforced doors of the main hall downstairs were violently thrown open, the echoing crash reverberating all the way up. Heavy, predatory footsteps, accompanied by the distinct, heavy clinking of black-iron armor, began to march up the grand staircase.

A dark, suffocating Alpha aura flooded the corridor. It hit with such force that my knees nearly buckled, and I knew immediately that Magnus Rune had arrived himself.

I looked up, my breath hitching in my throat as I came face to face with him.

He didn't just look at me. He devoured me.

His dark, greedy eyes raked over my trembling form, slowly traveling up and down.

He lingered, letting his gaze trail deliberately over the thin cotton of my nightgown clinging to my chest, the pale curve of my bare collarbone. He took a slow, deep breath through his nose, inhaling the scent of my fear and my pain like an animal savoring a meal.

A wet, perverted smirk spread across his thick lips.

Then he chuckled.

"Silas, you fool," Magnus rumbled, his gravelly voice dripping with mocking amusement. "You could have bargained for six thousand soldiers, and I would have given them to you without blinking. Especially knowing the jewel you were hiding up here."

Laughter rippled through a few of the commanders in the now wide-open room.

The room was spinning, but it was the way he looked at me that finally broke something inside me.

The laughter around us faded beneath the roar of blood in my ears.

My stomach lurched violently.

Before I could stop it, I doubled over and threw up all over Alpha Magnus Rune's polished black boots.