The Alpha Who Took Me Under the Full Moon

CHAPTER 2

“Lucky you,” Alpha Luca Draven said, his voice rough. “I already killed all the rogues. If not, that little scream of yours would have been the last sound you ever made.”

His words were as cold as the look in his eyes. His fingers were still wrapped tightly around her wrist.

“Let go of me,” She snapped, twisting and trying to pull free, but he didn’t budge. She began to panic.

He ignored her struggle, still lying on the ground, his body weak but his gaze sharp. His eyes scanned her slowly, Her thin white dress clung to her body, outlining every curve. He could tell she wasn’t wearing a bra, the way her n*****s pressed against the fabric made it obvious.

Her long brown hair spilled over her shoulders, and her wide green eyes held both fear and bravery. She was beautiful innocently and dangerously beautiful.

“You are fragile, yet you managed to survive out here alone at this hour. Interesting,” he said in a mocking tone. “But I didn’t come all this way for a pretty face. I need to confirm something.”

Before she could react, his hand moved, brushing aside the thin strap of her dress. It slipped off her shoulder, revealing pale skin and the soft curve above her left breast, the fabric luckily still covering round plump mounds. Her body went still as the cold air kissed her skin.

“There it is,” he murmured, his fingers grazing the small, moon-shaped mark on her chest, dangerously close to her boobs. Her birthmark. His touch was light, but there was nothing gentle about it.

“The seer was right,” he said under his breath. “My chosen mate with the moon marking… I thought I would never find you”

Vera’s heart skipped. Mate?

His gaze met hers. “Tell me, little lamb,” he said softly, “do you feel it too? That pull you can’t explain?”

Her cheeks flamed immediately “What’s wrong with you you psycho!” She spat, shoving his hands away and dragging the strap back over her shoulder. “I said let go of me right now

before I…”

He didn’t give her a chance to finish before he decided to cut her off the only way he wanted to.

His mouth suddenly crashed against hers, shocking Vera. It wasn’t a gentle, sweet, or romantic kiss. The kiss was consuming, dominating, and demanding, he was taking exactly what he wanted with no apology. His lips pressed against her until she couldn’t think.

Vera’s entire body felt hot. Her mind screamed that she pushed him away but her body and wolf refused to listen. The beast inside her only stirred violently, desperate to claw to the surface.

As Luca kissed her, he could feel his pain fading. It was like fire spread through his veins, burning out the curse that had been killing him. The seer hadn’t lied. Even just her touch, her kiss was enough to stop the pain, to keep him alive temporarily.

Vera bit his lip hard, breaking the kiss.

He pulled back and let out a low chuckle, wiping the blood from his mouth with his thumb before licking it away.

“Mmm, sweet,” he said, sitting up straighter as energy returned to his body. “A kiss was enough to keep me breathing. Imagine what the rest of you could do.”

His words made Vera’s rage explode. She slapped him hard across the face, the sound echoing in the night. “How dare you touch me like that, you freak!” she spat.

He didn’t move, didn’t even flinch. His eyes filled with amusement, his voice calm but cruel. “I like you already,” he said, pausing before adding, “Feisty little lamb.”

He loosened his grip on her wrist, slow and lazy, as if letting her go was his decision, not hers. “Run if you want,” he said quietly. “This doesn’t end here.”

She ran into the night, while he sat there with a smile on his lips, already imagining a thousand ways to break her, to claim her. She was interesting, and he liked it.

“We are here, Alpha Luca!” came the panicked voice of his beta, Frost, who arrived with a few of the royal guards.

Luca Draven rose to his feet, looking perfectly healthy. Frost’s eyes widened in shock as he stammered, “Y-you look fine, Alpha… The med.. medicine is here… I thought..”

“Keep an eye on that woman running off,” Luca interrupted, nodding toward the woods where Vera had disappeared. “I want to know everything about her. Everything.”

Frost followed his gaze, gulping hard. “Yes, Alpha.”

Luca walked toward the waiting car, unbuttoning his collar for air. The night wind brushed against his skin as his mind replayed the kiss, the way she looked, the way her mark had glowed faintly beneath his fingers.

The seer prophecy was coming to pass. He had said only his chosen mate, a woman with a moon moon-shaped birthmark on her chest could save him and he had just found her.

She was real, the woman destined to save him. The one curse that could also be his cure.

She was his mate. His only salvation.

And she was perfect.

.

.

.

(46 hours later)

“Vera Ashford,” Alpha Luca said as he flipped through the photographs in his hands. His eyes lingered too long on one particular picture before he let out a low laugh at how innocent she was looked. “Doesn’t exactly look like the kind of woman the Moon Goddess would send to save a monster like me, does she?”

He glanced at his beta, Frost. “So this is all about her?”

“Yes, Alpha,” Frost replied.

Luca had ordered his beta to spy on her, and now, in his hands, were all the details he could possibly need.

His eyes moved over the documents, and he let out a scoff.

“This is tragic. Her mother’s dead. She lives in an abusive home. Works three jobs just to survive… pathetic.” His tone was cold and detached. “So she’s been bleeding for everyone around her and now the goddess wants her to bleed for me too?”

“Yes, Alpha Luca,” Beta Frost replied. “The spies questioned her neighbors and anyone who might know anything about her. This is what we have gathered so far, she works three jobs, and her stepmother takes all her earnings, reducing her to nothing but a slave in her own home.”

“I didn’t ask for her biography,” Alpha Luca cut him off sharply. “Do you think she’s strong enough to survive what’s coming at least until I’m done with her?”

Frost hesitated before answering. “She’s endured this long…”

Luca waved his hand lazily, dismissing him. “You can leave.”

Frost bowed respectfully and left the room.

“What are your plans for her now, Alpha?” asked the powerful seer, Morwen Bloodseer, a middle-aged man with streaks of gray in his hair. His brow lifted slightly. “You know what must be done. You have to…”

“I am aware of that already,” Alpha Luca Draven snapped, cutting him off as he took a sip of his drink. “I know that to be free from this illness, I have to sleep with my chosen mate three times under the full moon because that’s when the Moon Goddess’s healing power is strongest. Otherwise, I will be dead within 120 days.”

He took another sip of his liquor, trying to clear his head.

That was his reality. He was a powerful Alpha, yet somehow the Moon Goddess had decided to tie his survival to a weak, insignificant woman. Now, he needed her to live.

“Do you plan on marrying her?” Morwen suddenly asked.

Alpha Luca set his glass down on the table, his cold eyes fixed on Morwen. Then he let out a dry, sinister laugh. “Marry her? Why would I marry the woman the Goddess sent to die for me?”

“She will die after the third time you have s*x, you know that,” Morwen said firmly. “You could at least give her some dignity. Let her die a mate, not a tool. It shouldn’t be that hard to marry her, She is your mate.”

“f**k the mate bond. It means nothing,” Alpha Luca replied, raising a brow. “If she dies a w***e or a wife, what difference does it make, as long as I get what I want and live? Don’t expect vows or flowers. If the Goddess wants me to survive, she will have to accept the way I take her.”

Morwen’s expression darkened. “You sound like a man untouched by fate.”

“Fate touches me plenty,” Luca said quietly, a faint, dangerous smile ghosting across his lips. “I just don’t touch back.” He lifted his glass and took another slow sip.

Just then, Beta Frost burst into the room, panic written all over his face. “Alpha, there’s trouble!”

Luca didn’t even flinch. His expression stayed calm, almost bored, as he asked, “What is it?”

“It’s the woman Vera Ashford,” Frost said quickly. “The spies said she's in trouble and another man is trying to claim her.”

Luca’s grip on the glass tightened until it cracked slightly in his hand.

His voice dropped low, soft, but deadly. “Then let’s remind whoever he is that she already belongs to me.”