Alpha's Broken Luna's Heart

Chapter 6

"Steven, please… Steven, just listen to me!"

I ran after him but he was walking too fast.

"You don't understand what you heard. Please, let me explain!" I shouted.

I desperately wanted to tell him that he had completely misunderstood everything he overheard, that it was all just a terrible misunderstanding.

Tears rolled down my cheeks, and a sharp, heavy pain throbbed in my chest.

But he was already shifting. I watched as his human form began to blur and transform, bones cracking and reforming, muscles expanding beneath golden-bronze skin.

When the wolf emerged, it was magnificent and terrifying. His dark eyes, so like Steven's but infinitely more dangerous, fixed on me for one brief moment. In that moment, I saw something that broke my heart all over again: he truly believed every terrible thing he'd just accused me of.

Then he turned and bolted toward the forest, his powerful form disappearing into the darkness like smoke.

"Steven!" My scream followed him into the shadows, but it was swallowed by the night. He was gone. The most important person in my life, the man I was supposed to marry, the mate my wolf recognized and yearned for despite everything he'd put me through. He was gone.

And he thought I was a murderer.

I stood in the pavilion, trembling, unable to move. My uncle's hand came to rest on my shoulder, but I barely felt it. The weight of what had just happened was crushing me, suffocating me.

"Amber," Uncle Marcus said softly, his voice carrying concern and something else. "He will calm down. He will understand—"

"No, he won't!" The words tore out of me.

My wolf was distraught, whimpering for our mate who had just rejected us so completely. "Did you hear what he said? He thinks I let the Alpha die. He thinks I'm power-hungry and manipulative and—" My voice broke.

"You are not—"

"But that's what he believes!" I pulled away from him, needing distance, needing to run, needing to do something to stop the world from spinning apart. "And not only him but others will think the same. The pack will know that he hates me. They'll see it, and they'll wonder why, and then they'll start to believe it too. They'll think I'm unworthy of being Luna. They'll think I'm a power-hungry female who let the Alpha die to secure my position."

My uncle's face darkened with the weight of political implications, but I was beyond caring about pack politics. All I could think about was the devastation in my mate's eyes, the certainty of his accusation, the finality of his rejection.

This full moon I was supposed to become his wife.

Tonight, Steven despised me. Tomorrow he would despise me.

"You must marry him," Uncle Marcus said, "The pack needs this union. The Alpha's dying wish—"

"I don't care about the Alpha's wish right now!" I snapped, and immediately regretted it. His eyes hardened. I took a breath, trying to compose myself. "I'm sorry. I... I just need to be alone."

Without waiting for his response, I fled.

My feet carried me through the corridors of the pack house, up the stairs and into my room. I locked the door behind me and leaned against it, letting my legs give out. I slid down until I was sitting on the cool wooden floor, my knees pulled up to my chest.

And then I broke.

The sobs came from somewhere deep inside me, from a place where all my hurt and confusion and desperate loneliness had been festering.

I cried for the misunderstanding. I cried for Steven's anger and pain. I cried for the future I'd been forced into, a marriage with a man who despised me, who now believed I was capable of letting his father die for personal gain.

I cried because, despite everything he'd put me through over the years with his cruelty and his distance, I still loved him. My wolf still ached for him. Some foolish part of my heart still hoped that one day he would look at me with something other than disgust.

Now that hope felt like it was dying.

Hours later, when my tears had finally dried and my eyes were swollen and burning, I made my way to the hospital wing. Sleep was impossible. My mind wouldn't stop spinning through those terrible thoughts, replaying every moment.

The night shift was quiet, the corridors dimly lit by soft magical orbs that cast everything in shades of blue and silver.

I moved slowly through the hospital, my uniform still perfectly pressed despite the emotional wreckage I was experiencing. I needed to be professional, composed but I was shattered on the inside.

I spent the night at the hospital and next morning I visited my patients.

Alpha Derek was sleeping when I entered his room. His face, even in rest, showed the toll that his failing body was taking on him. The monitors around his bed beeped softly, tracking a heartbeat that was becoming increasingly erratic.

I changed his IV bag and checked his vitals, and then allowed myself to sink into the chair beside his bed. My hand found his, so much paled and frailer than I remembered.

"I'm sorry," I whispered, though I knew he was asleep. I needed to say it anyway. "I'm sorry I couldn't save you. I'm sorry my power wasn't enough. I'm sorry that even though I pushed myself beyond my limits, even though I used every ounce of energy in my body, it wasn't enough to keep you here."

My voice cracked, and fresh tears threatened. I forced them back.

"But I tried. Please believe that I tried with everything I had. I didn't fail you because I didn't care. I didn't fail you because I was saving my power for someone else. I failed because your wolf has given up, and no amount of my healing can change that. Your body is ready to let go, and I have to respect that, even though it's breaking my heart."

The Alpha's eyes fluttered open. For a moment, confusion clouded his gaze, but then recognition flickered across his features. His weathered hand squeezed mine. I was surprised that he still had this strength.

"Amber." His voice was a whisper, rough from medication and illness. "Come closer, child."

I leaned in, my ear near his lips so I could hear him better.

"I know what you did," he said, and the words nearly destroyed me. "I have always known. You poured yourself into trying to save me. I felt it. Every ounce of your power, your determination, your love." He paused, breathing with difficulty. "Do not let anyone tell you otherwise. You gave me more time than any healer could have. You gave me time to see my son becoming an Alpha. Time to know that he would have a mate as remarkable as you."

"He doesn't want me," I said bitterly. "He thinks I—"

"He is afraid," Alpha Derek interrupted, his voice still weak but carrying the authority of his rank. "He is afraid of what you make him feel, and so he is lashing out. That is his fear speaking, not his truth." The Alpha's eyes, so like Steven's but much kinder.

"I need you to hear me, dear. I need you to understand that you are going to be a remarkable Luna. You have the power, yes, but you also have the strength of character that a pack desperately needs. You have compassion and wisdom and a heart that refuses to be corrupted by power or position."

I wanted to believe him. I desperately wanted to believe the goodness he saw in me.

"What if he's right? What if I failed you?" I asked, the question barely audible.

"Did you?" the Alpha asked simply.

I thought about it, searching through my own heart with brutal honesty. "No," I said finally. "I would give up everything, the position, the power, all of it, if it meant you could stay."

"Then that is your truth," he said. "And that is what matters. Not what others believe. Not what my son believes in his pain. Your truth. In here." He reached up with a trembling hand and touched my face. "This is what makes a good leader. A good Luna. Someone who knows themselves and acts from their own moral compass."

After I left his room, I made my way to the common area where Mia was supposed to be working. I found her restocking medical supplies, her movements efficient and practiced. When she saw my face, concern immediately flooded her features.

"Amber? What happened? You look like you've been crying for hours."

We moved to a quiet corner, and the words tumbled out of me in a desperate rush. I told her everything, about how Steven heard some part of our conversation and misunderstood.

"He thinks I let the Alpha die," I finished, my voice small and broken. "He thinks I was so desperate for power that I was willing to sacrifice his father. How could he think that of me, Mia? How could he believe that I'm capable of something so monstrous?"

She pulled me into her arms, and I let myself lean into her comfort for a moment. "Because he's an i***t," she said firmly. "He won't listen to you now. Give him some time to cool down and to think properly.”

"Why does it happen to me every time?" I asked with a muffled voice.

"He will understand one day. I've watched him for years, Amber. The way he looks at you when he thinks no one is paying attention. The way he's always trying to provoke some kind of reaction from you. That's not hate. It is fear that he hides behind cruelty."

I wanted to believe her, but it was hard.

“ Mia, I just —--”

The hospital door opened, and Nico walked in, a powerful warrior from the pack, handsome and strong with kind eyes that had always looked at me with too much tenderness. He carried a small stack of papers, something about prescription refills, but his eyes immediately found me.

He hesitated, looking at my teary eyes. "Hi, Amber," he said carefully. "How are you doing?"

"She's getting married tomorrow," Mia said, and I shot her a look. But she just smiled sweetly at Nico, waiting for his reaction.

His entire expression seemed to crumble inward, though he tried to hide it. His jaw clenched, and for a moment, his hands tightened on the papers he was holding. But when he looked back at me, he forced a smile, the kind of smile that made my heart ache because I could see how much it cost him pain.

"That's... that's wonderful, Amber," he said, and I could hear the lie in every word. He had confessed his feelings for me this summer and I rejected him.

Because my heart was always with Steven. My wolf urged me to reject his feelings instantly and I did the same.

It was written all over him, in every gesture and glance that he was devastated.

"You'll be a beautiful Luna. The pack is lucky to have you," he said, his eyes reflected hurt and sadness.

"Thank you, Nico," I said softly, guilt twisting inside me. I'd never encouraged his affections. But he loved me and I felt gratitude and friendship for him, nothing more.

After he left, Mia let out a long sigh. "I feel so bad for him," she said, shaking her head. "Nico is completely gone for you. He would do anything you asked."

"I know," I said quietly. And that knowledge made me feel even worse. "I never asked for any of this, Mia. Not Steven's cruelty, not Nico's unrequited love, not this position I never wanted."

"I know, honey," she said, pulling me close again. "I know."

But even her comfort couldn't ease my nervousness and anxiety. Tomorrow I would marry a man who hated me, become a Luna in a pack that would soon learn their Alpha's son despised his mate, and step into a future that felt like a minefield of pain and misunderstanding.

All because Steven had heard only some parts of our conversation and misunderstood.

All because I was too weak to make him listen.

All because the universe had decided that my mate's greatest strength would be his ability to believe the worst of me without ever giving me a chance to explain.

That night, I lay in my bed, staring at the ceiling, and wondered how many years it would take for him to understand the truth.

I wondered if he ever would.

And I wondered if I would survive the attempt to make his heart mine.