Claimed as the Alpha's Second Luna

Chapter 5 The Wolf Knows

Alexander's POV:

I woke with a headache that pounded behind my eyes and a mouth that tasted of iron. My throat was raw, my hands ached, and there was a scratch across my shoulder blade I didn't remember getting.

The morning light was gray through the windows, and the bed was empty beside me. Elena had already risen. She was an early riser, always had been, and I was grateful for it this morning, because I didn't know what I would have said to her if I had woken with her in my arms.

I sat up—the room tilted—I gripped the edge of the bed until it steadied. Last night came back in pieces, like trying to hold water. Fragments. The dark. The heat. The sound of cloth tearing. A glimpse of skin in the dark, the curve of a shoulder, my name called over and over in a voice I couldn't quite place, until the world narrowed to skin and breath and the wolf running wild in my blood.

I had lost control. That was the only clear thing. My wolf had taken the night, and I had been rough. Rougher than I had ever been with Elena, if the memory of my own hands was worth anything. I had hurt her. I didn't remember exactly how, and that made it worse.

I washed my face in cold water and went to find her.

She was in the main hall, by the low sofa, and she looked exhausted. There were shadows under her eyes, and she smiled at me anyway, the way she always did. That was my fault too, I thought. I had kept her up, taken from her, and left her to face the morning alone.

"Elena." I sat down and drew her beside me. "Last night. My wolf lost control. I..." The words were hard. "Whatever happened, I don't remember much. But I know I was rough with you. If I hurt you anywhere, tell me. Let me make it right."

"It's fine." Her voice was soft. "Really. You're my mate. I'd never hold that against you."

"My mate". She said it the way she always said it, easy and kind, and something in me eased. I had married the best woman in the pack. I had known it for ten years—spent the night treating her like a stranger in the dark. She'd forgive me anyway.

"I'm lucky to have you as my mate," I said. And I meant it. I would be better. I would make it up to her. I would love her the way she deserved, every day, for the rest of my life. I made the promise to myself there, on the sofa, with her hand in mine, and I meant to keep it.

"I need to handle territory business," I said. "Rest. I'll come back at noon for lunch."

"All right."

I stood and walked toward the door. The servants were moving through the hall, and I paid them no mind. The pack had staff, and I didn't keep their faces.

The maid was on her knees by the far wall, scrubbing the floor. I saw her the way I saw any servant, in passing, nothing.

Then I saw her.

Leon went wild.

My wolf had been quiet since the night, sulking and restless, and in the space of one heartbeat he was anything but. He surged to the surface, and I felt his joy, his hunger, his certainty, and it took everything I hadn't to stop walking.

Mate. The word wasn't a thought. It was Leon shaking with it, battering at me. She is ours. She is ours. Finally. The Moon Goddess put her in our path, and she is ours.

I didn't look at her again. I couldn't. I stopped in front of her, because stopping was less strange than walking past her, and I heard my own voice come out flat and calm, like a man asking about the weather.

"Are you new?"

"Yes." Her voice was low. "Luna Elena assigned me to work in the main house."

I nodded. I turned. I walked away.

Behind me, Leon was howling at me to turn back, to look, to take what the Moon Goddess had given us. I didn't turn. I walked down the hall. My boots made the same sound they always made. My hands didn't shake, and no one knew the Alpha had just met his fated mate and walked past her like she was a shadow.

I made it to the end of the hall, stopped, put my hand on the wall, and closed my eyes.

"Leon." My voice was barely above a whisper. "Be still."

She is ours. He wasn't calm. He had never been this far from calm. You felt it. You know it. The Moon Goddess put her in our path, and you walked past her.

"I have a mate," I said out loud, and it sounded like the truth, because it had been the truth for ten years. "I have Elena. I made her a promise this morning. I meant it."

Leon went quiet. Not convinced. Quiet. He wouldn't forget. I knew that. But he would wait, because I was the Alpha, and I had given him a command, and he had never broken one.

I walked out into the morning. The sun was bright, and the territory was waiting for me. I put the hall, the maid, and the moment somewhere I didn't intend to visit again.

Leon circled inside me all morning. I kept him chained, kept my word, and didn't go back to the house until noon.