Alpha's Luna

Chapter Ten - Struggles. Kaine

It’s been days since I last spoke to her.

Not truly, not beyond clipped orders or the silence that stretches between us like a blade left unsheathed. She’s everywhere and nowhere all at once—her scent on the wind, her presence like a spark I can’t stamp out.

And now, she’s here in the chamber reserved for Luna instruction. The servants stand at the edges, waiting, useless as shadows. Selene stands in the center, wrists bare, chin lifted in defiance. She doesn’t bow. Doesn’t soften. Not even when I tell her to repeat the motions of obedience the way she was taught.

“I’m not a dog,” she says flatly.

The servants exchange uneasy glances. My jaw tightens. “You are my Luna,” I reply. “And you will learn the rites.”

Her mouth curves, sharp and mocking. “Or what? You’ll growl at me harder?”

The wolf inside me paces, restless. Her sarcasm feeds it, fuels it. This girl is really getting on my nerves.

I move before I think, stepping into her space. My hand captures her wrist. She jerks back, but I’m quicker, seizing the other and drawing them together. With a flick of the leather strap at my belt, I bind them—firm but not cruel.

Her eyes widen, a flash of surprise before she masks it with another smirk. “Oh. So this is your idea of teaching?”

I lean close, my mouth brushing her ear. “No. This is my idea of reminding you.”

“Of what?” she challenges, breath hitching as the strap tightens.

My lips curve against her skin. I whisper what I swore I’d never admit: “Of how you looked bathing in the hills. You looked really obedient listening to nature's beauty”.

Her body stiffens. Her gaze snaps to mine, violet eyes sparking with shock and fury.

Ah. So she didn’t know that somehow, I saw her that night.

The corner of my mouth lifts. A slow, deliberate smirk. “Yes, little Luna. I saw.” My voice drops, velvet wrapped around steel. “Every curve. Every sound. The way you laughed, naked under the moonlight. Do you want me to describe it back to you?”

Her throat works as she swallows, but she doesn’t look away. She tilts her chin higher, throat bared in the age-old wolf gesture of defiance and challenge.

“p*****t,” she mutters, but her voice is thinner than before.

“Honest,” I correct. My wolf rumbles beneath my skin, amused. “I only told you what you were too careless to hide.”

Her chest rises faster now. Her breathing betrays her even as her words try to cut me. “You’re disgusting, you were spying on a bathing woman, I mean me.”

“And yet—” I press, circling her slowly, forcing her to turn with me, her wrists still bound between us. “Your pulse quickens when I speak of it. I can hear it. Selene, I was just looking at my woman, you're my wife, remember”

Her glare sharpens, but her breath falters, and I feel the invisible string between us hum tighter, tighter.

One of the servants clears his throat nervously. The others glance at one another, eyes wide, uncertain if this is teaching or something more dangerous.

Selene raises her voice suddenly, sharp as a blade. “If you’re done playing Alpha, why don’t you untie me?”

The air snaps between us.

I look at the servants, who shrink back like pups caught spying on their sire.

“Out,” I command.

They freeze.

“Now.”

The chamber empties in a rush of skirts and bowed heads. The door slams shut, leaving only the two of us and the silence that thrums like a bowstring ready to break.

I turn back to her. Selene is flushed, her lips parted, her chest heaving. Bound wrists between us, eyes locked on mine, her defiance burns hot enough to sear.

She spits the words like fire. “Do you really think this is how to treat a bride?”

I step closer, close enough to feel the warmth radiating off her. My voice dips lower, mocking and dark. “Do you really think you’re just a bride?”

Her breath stutters. She bites her lip, as if to cage the answer.

And gods help me, I want to tear the truth from her mouth, taste it, devour it.

But I don’t. I hold the leash tight, if only barely.

Because right now, the air between us quivers—anger and attraction wound so tight they’re indistinguishable. And though my wolf howls to break her open, to mark her, I force myself to smirk instead.

“Think on it, little Luna,” I murmur, brushing my thumb over the leather binding her wrists. “What scares you more? That I tied you… or that you like it?”

Her gasp is the sweetest sound I’ve heard in years.

The chamber feels too small. The walls close in, the silence presses down, and her eyes burn into me like they can see through the armor I’ve worn my whole life.

I rake a hand through my hair, rough enough that strands stick up in every direction. My wolf paces hard inside me, claws scraping, demanding release. I can’t. I shouldn’t. This isn’t what couples do, I tell myself. This isn’t what an Alpha does when he’s meant to lead, not unravel.

And yet…

Her wrists are still bound, her skin flushed where the leather touches. My chest tightens. I should untie her and walk away. Simple. Easy. But my feet don’t move.

“You know you’re my Luna, right?” The words rasp from me, harsh, broken, not at all how I intended. “And you’re supposed to behave like a proper wife.”

Her eyes flare, defiance and something else I can’t name. I force out the rest, the words jagged and raw. “Selene… I’m sorry if I…” I stop. Damn it, the apology sticks in my throat like a thorn. I shake my head, growling low. “Never mind. Forget it.”

I step closer instead, drawn in like a moth to flame. She doesn’t move, doesn’t flinch, just stares at me with those burning violet eyes that undo me in ways no blade ever could.

I’m breathing harder now, close enough to feel her breath mingling with mine. For a heartbeat, I don’t exist as Alpha, as Ironfang’s Wraith. I exist only as a man staring at the one thing he can’t have, but desperately wants.

My fingers work at the knot, undoing the leather binding. The strap falls loose. Her hands are free.

She doesn’t thank me. She doesn’t retreat. She lifts her palm—and slaps me across the face.

The c***k echoes in the chamber. My cheek stings.

And I laugh. Low. Dark. Something in me breaks, something I’ve been holding far too long.

My hand lifts almost on its own, cupping her face. Her skin is warm beneath my palm, softer than I imagined, her breath quick against my thumb. She stiffens for a moment, eyes flashing with defiance—but she doesn’t pull away.

“Selene,” I whisper, my voice frayed at the edges, more a plea than a command.

Her lips part, and the last of my restraint burns away.

I lean down and press my mouth to hers, slow at first, testing, tasting. The moment our lips meet, the fire I’ve been holding back roars to life. She gasps softly, the sound breaking me open, and I tilt her head just enough to deepen the kiss.

Her hands twitch at her sides, then clutch at my shirt as if she can’t help herself. The grip at my chest sends a shudder through me. I pull her closer, one arm wrapping firmly around her waist, molding her body against mine.

Her lips move against mine with surprising urgency, as if she’s just as hungry as I am but afraid to admit it. When her tongue slides against mine, tentative and curious, my breath catches. A groan escapes me before I can stop it, low and guttural, the sound of a man undone.

She moans softly into the kiss, and the sound nearly drives me to my knees. Her mouth is sweet, intoxicating, and every brush of her tongue with mine sends sparks down my spine.

I hold her tighter, my fingers splaying across the curve of her waist, grounding myself in her warmth, in the reality that this isn’t a dream. She’s here. She’s kissing me back.

The kiss grows deeper, slower, less battle and more surrender, a rhythm that feels dangerously close to home. Her soft gasps mingle with my rougher breaths, the air between us hot and unsteady.

When I finally pull back, it’s not because I want to—but because if I don’t, I’ll lose myself completely.

Her lips are swollen, her eyes wide, her breath ragged. She looks at me like she’s seen something she wasn’t ready to find.

And gods help me, I already miss the taste of her.

After Selene tears her mouth from mine, she stands still panting, eyes wide like she’s staring at a ghost. Her lips are swollen, damp, her breath uneven. She looks at me like she doesn’t know whether to slap me again or fall apart.

I grip the back of a chair, steadying myself, because I don’t trust my legs to hold me. My voice is hoarse when I force the words out.

“I’m falling for you.”

Her gasp cuts the air.

I keep going, raw and unfiltered, because I can’t cage it anymore. “I didn’t realize it at first. I thought avoiding you would silence it. That if I stayed away, the pounding in my chest every time you walked in the room would stop. That if I ignored you, the fire under my skin would fade.”

I drag a hand down my face, laughing bitterly. “But it didn’t. It only got worse. Every day. Every glance. Every damn smile you give to someone else.”

I meet her eyes, letting her see the truth I’ve buried. “You’re the reason I can’t sleep. The reason I can’t think of matters straight. The reason I…” My jaw tightens, words breaking off.

Her chest rises and falls quickly. She looks shaken, torn between disbelief and something softer, something dangerous.

I step toward her, slower this time, controlled. My hand hovers near her cheek, aching to touch but not daring without her choice. “I avoided you because of this. Because every time you’re near, Selene, my heart doesn’t beat like an Alpha’s. It beats like a man’s. Out of control. Too fast. Too loud. And I don’t know how to stop it.”

The silence after is unbearable. Her lips tremble, her eyes shimmer with questions she won’t ask.

I drop my hand, retreating a single step. My body still aches for her, but I give her space.

Because if I don’t, I’ll lose the last thread of control I have left.