The Alpha King's Swapped Luna

Chapter 4 Goodbyes

I’ve always found that no matter how hard I tried, I was different from the rest of my pack. When I was happy about something, they seemed to be upset about it, and when I was unhappy about another situation, they seemed to rejoice. Even now as I laid motionless in my recovery bed, broken and betrayed, the pack was celebrating over their latest victory. Me.

I could feel the absence of my wolf beneath my skin. It felt as if a part of me was missing, as if a whole appendage was missing.

No, I suppose missing isn’t the correct word- but wrong, terribly wrong. As if someone had cut off my limbs and sewn them back in the wrong location.

Beyond my sorrow, I felt an incredible anger I had never experienced before. I thought I was angry when Alpha Grayson rejected our bond but it was a mere match flame compared to the inferno that was my anger now.

They had violated me in ways beyond my physical body. They had ripped apart my soul. They took the only good thing I had left and shoved an unfamiliar soul into my body.

A wave of annoyance washed over me, but it wasn’t my emotion… it was the foreign soul taking residence in me.

“Get over yourself, pup.” An unfamiliar female voice echoed in my mind.

“Excuse me?” I shot back into my mind, furious at the audacity of the she-wolf.

“You’re not the only one grieving.” She spoke before retreating to the back of my mind, taking her unfiltered emotions with her.

I turned towards the window in anger. Today was Alpha Grayson and Ashley’s wedding day.

Outside, the entire pack was gathered for a beautiful lunch to celebrate the upcoming ceremony for the future Luna. It was tradition to hold a celebration in the afternoon and the ceremony in the evening when the moon was beginning to rise in the sky. It was supposed to symbolize the Moon Goddess watching from above and giving her blessing to the newly mated Alpha and Luna.

What a load of s**t.

I watched for a few more minutes when a harsh knock sounded at my door.

I sighed and forced my body to a stand. It had been a week since I was placed in a recovery room, barely even guarded by the gamma wolves because frankly- who would guard an omega wolf too weak to stand, much less run away?

“Yes?” I said as I opened the door.

The man that used to be my father, or rather, Beta Dale, scowled at me from the threshold of my prison.

“You’re expected to attend the wedding ceremony tonight.” Beta Dale must have seen the shock on my face because he continued, “All members within close distance are required to attend the mating ceremony of The Alpha and Luna. If you do as you're told and don’t cause us any more trouble, we may even let you leave for the North without being chained in silver.”

“I’d like to chain him in silver just to watch him squeal.” The new wolf inside me gave a dark wolfish chuckle. I tried to shove her presence away but it was as if I were shoving a brick wall. “What? Didn’t like what I said?”

“Be quiet.” I grumbled.

“Elyse?” Beta Dale raised an irritated brow.

“Yes, sir.” I bowed my head.

Beta Dale looked at me in question but nodded and strolled away.

“You’re much too quiet for my liking.” The powerful wolf huffed, flicking a mental tail in annoyance.

“And you’re much too loud for mine.” I said aloud out of frustration.

A soft chuckle sounded in response. “Perhaps. But I refuse to sit in silence like your previous wolf did. Do not expect me to, Omega.”

“Don’t call me that.” I snarled.

The wolf chuckled darkly in my mind. “Then don’t act like one.”

***

I stood in the back, as far away from the wedding party as I could get while still fulfilling my order to stay, though I was near my breaking point.

Alpha Grayson looked devilishly handsome. His dark brown hair was styled back, making his emerald green eyes pop in the setting sun. Even more stunning by his side was Ashley in a floor length wedding dress with a five-foot-long train. Its skirt was so widely fluffed and filled with tulle you couldn’t see any of her figure past her ribs. She looked like a golden goddess.

I simmered in grief and self-pity. She was living out the dream I imagined for myself while at the border camps. And she even looked prettier.

While the wolf elder spoke about some boring words on the unification of mated pairs, Alpha Grayson looked down at Ashley in affection. My heart stung.

I hated him, I wanted to kill him, and yet I still longed for him.

“That’s pathetic. He’s not even worth your pain.”

“Just shut up, or I’ll bash our head in just to give me some quiet.” I whispered, probably sounding like a crazy woman to anyone who could hear me.

“Just look at him– so smug, and weak. He’s boring and he knows it.” She continued on, disregarding my threat. “I bet he would lie there in bed and make the woman do all the work.”

I couldn’t help the small snort that came from me. My lips twitched but I held back the smile.

“I bet he’s never pleasured a woman in her life, either.” She snorted.

“He certainly never did it for me.” I thought bitterly. And just like that, all the pain came rushing back. I felt stuck reliving the old memories, playing them over and over in my brain. The first time we held hands, when we kissed, our secret rendezvous in the library. Each one bled my heart, drop by drop.

After the ceremony, Beta Dale, his wife, Vance, and the newly appointed Luna Ashley ushered me off to a horse drawn wagon for the journey north.

Beta Dale had his usual stoic expression but his wife– the woman that I used to call my mother– was sniffling dramatically, blowing her nose into a hanky. I didn’t know why, however. She acted so relieved when I was sent away to the border camps three years ago. I wouldn’t delude myself into thinking it was dejection of my leaving.

“It’s such an emotional day for the family.” She sighed, blotting her eyes from the nonexistent tears.

Vance stepped forward and approached me. His expression was the most surprising out of all of them. He looked slightly remorseful. Vance hesitantly patted my shoulder, clasping it as he looked me in the eye and grimaced. “Good luck… Elyse.”

Ashley practically shoved Vance aside and pulled me in for a hug. I kept my hands at my side and stared straight ahead. She lifted her lips to my ear and whispered, “Try not to die too quickly up in the north, dear sister. You’ll cause even more embarrassment to this pack if you do.”

“What do you mean ‘try not to die’?” I leaned back and questioned her.

Ashley blinked in realization and a sinister smirk grew on her face. “You mean you don’t know?” She watched for my reaction and then threw her head back and laughed. “This will be so entertaining.” She covered her smile and stepped back.

I stared in confusion for a moment when rage and pain flowed through my body, but it wasn’t my own. It was the wolf. Ashley’s wolf, I realized.

“She really is selfish, isn’t she.” The wolf’s sarcastic, bitter voice rang.

“I’m sorry.” I mentally spoke to her.

“When we come back… we’ll make them regret everything they’ve ever done to us.” The wolf whispered her threat, so softly I almost couldn’t hear her in my mind. Somehow, that one sentence altered the pain inside me. It was still their full force, but it was less debilitating, and far more vengeful.