ALPHA RYDER'S LUNA

Amelia's POV “Worthless! I wonder if I was actually the one that gave birth to you, or if your mother had you by one of her desperate lovers…” my father growled in anger as the back of his hardened palm came on my face. He floored me immediately with that vicious strike. I thought I had blacked out for a moment, as I was still reeling from the hit I had just taken. I was sure that my neck had snapped from the impact. “Why in the Blue Moon did you come back here, you weakling?” he continued raining his hateful words at me as all I could do was cry hot tears. “Alpha Gray rejected me… and he chose his lover over me…” I tried to, at least, explain myself before he would continue beating me up again. “I just couldn't bear—” “You worthless piece of garbage,” he snarled. “You would have been better off staying there, even if it meant you being reduced to a mere s*x slave or a maid.” I managed to get on my knees to look at the man who was speaking to me monstrously, to know if he was still the man I called father. For a moment, it felt like some cruel creature assumed my father's face and was beating the living daylights out of me. “But father…” I tried to speak up, but I knew that nothing I said would get through his hardened heart. “There was no way anyone in my position could endure being treated like trash by your own fated mate—” “You were fortunate enough to be an alpha's trash, and you threw that opportunity away,” he breathed remorselessly. “And here you are, talking back at me.” With that, he grabbed my neck as I was still on my knees. The indignation in his eyes made me swallow all the words I wanted to say. He looked like he wouldn't hesitate to snap my neck if I uttered one more wrong word. “Father, let her be for now,” Jada— my despicable half sister, said to my father. “You have many more activities that suit you better than taking the life of this piece of garbage.” He let out a deep breath, as he took his hand off my throat. I broke out into loud sobbing as he turned to follow Jada out of my room. Jada stopped to let my father walk out of the door before she picked up from where my father left off. “Hilarious, how you thought you could become Alpha Gray's Luna. Filthy piece of garbage…” I could do nothing but kneel on the floor of my room as I cried my eyes and my heart out, with no one to comfort me. It was clear that my misery was just about beginning. I felt foolish for ever thinking that escaping Gray's fortress for my pack would make me feel better. There I was, pained and exhausted from all I had been through. Everything took its toll on me, from the long run on foot, away from Gray's territory, to the beating I had gotten from my father. Everyone seemed to be having a good time outside, and that made it even worse. I couldn't go outside, as the news of my ordeal with Gray was already everywhere. “My lord… we have a problem!” Suddenly, I heard the voice of Darryl, my father's beta, downstairs, as he seemed to interrupt the good time they were having down there. There was a sudden silence. Though I was yet to awaken my wolf, I still had a hearing that was acute enough to get the details of the whole conversation downstairs. “What happened?” my father questioned. There seemed to be a reluctance to reply from Darryl's end. It had to be something terrible. “We were patrolling the borders, and we mistook some men for intruders. Eventually we beat them up terribly,” Darryl's voice was really shaky with fright. “So bad that one of them was injured beyond recognition.” “I don't see how they can be a problem. We'll just make peace with them and get it over with,” my father didn't sound bothered about it in the slightest way. “It's not worth all the panic and the—” “But the thing is that, they just weren't any men,” father's words didn't seem to calm Darryl in any way. He still sounded frightened, and that had me frightened as well. “They were Alpha Ryder's men…” “What?” my father flared up instantly, at the sound of that. “What the hell were you all thinking?” A grave silence fell over the whole building, as it dawned on them that the pack was in serious trouble. No one had ever dared to step on Alpha Ryder's toes and gotten away with it. He was as unforgiving as they come. That made him the most feared alpha in all of the Lunar Hills. “My lord, I swear it wasn't an intentional act to get into trouble…” Darryl muttered. “You try telling that to Ryder and see if he forgives you for it,” my father retorted. “Has Ryder gotten word of it?” “He already has, and he's making demands,” Darryl said, his tone brimming with hopelessness. “What demands?” “An eye for an eye. Tooth for a tooth, a man for a man…” Darryl stuttered in fright. “If we don't meet his demands, his men will be here by sunrise.” “Goodness…” my father sighed in frustration. “Just give them one of the men who was part of the mobbing,” Isla, my stepmother, gave her suggestion flippantly. She was even worse than her daughter, as she seemed to have no value whatsoever for anything that wasn't herself, her daughter, and perhaps my father. I was sure that she was with my father, just because of his alpha status. “I can't afford to lose any more men. We're in the middle of building up our pack's security. Every one of them is crucial.” My father sounded too angry and frustrated to come up with anything. “Then give them, Amelia,” Jada said without a second thought. “That wretch…” I whispered to myself painfully. My father was already considering giving me away. “Brilliant idea, Jada,” Isla commended her daughter avidly. “With one slick move, we will be getting rid of the trash in our pack and settling the dispute at the same time.” “Go get her then.” My father seemed not to have a say whenever those two gave him suggestions. “She's upstairs.” I felt betrayed as I heard the heavy footsteps of the men hurrying upstairs in the direction of my room. My heart went into a frantic sprint, as I made for the window, hoping to escape my fate. But they were unto me before I could slide the window open. They grabbed me by the arms and pulled me like I was some criminal. “Father, please… let me go…” That was all I kept screaming as I was taken out of the building. No one had any regard for my tears as I was being made the price for a cause I knew nothing about. But my father barely looked in my direction. Good riddance, he must have thought.