Alpha's Regret: The Luna He Betrayed

Chapter 7

Chapter 7: A Bit Of Kieran's Past

KIERAN

The phone trembled in my hand as I stared at the message that had just lit up my screen. Three simple words that shattered five years of carefully constructed walls: "I need to talk."

From Seraphina.

My wolf, that had been dormant for the past hour as I'd tried to distract myself by having some fun with the blonde that was currently lying down across my chest, suddenly roared to life.

The scent of the woman beside me, that smelled something like vanilla and artificial sweetness—became wrong, everything my wolf rejected.

I was already moving from her touch before I consciously decided to, gently but firmly pulling away from her touch.

"Kieran?" she murmured, her voice filled with sleep and satisfaction, from being railed well tonight.

"Where are you going?"

"I have to make a call," I said, already reaching for my clothes, as I wore them quickly, making myself presentable.

"You should go."

She sat up, the sheet falling away from her body, revealing her nakedness which before would have stirred something in me but now it was doing nothing, confusion evident in her brown eyes.

"But I thought—"

"You thought wrong," I said firmly stopping her from having any hopes or assuming that this meant something to us.

"This was a mistake."

It had been a mistake. Five years of celibacy, of rejecting every female who'd thrown themselves at me, and I'd finally caved tonight.

I'd been so tired of the whispers that had been going around in my pack and beyond, the rumors and speculation that I had been unfortunate enough to hear, the pitying looks from my pack members who thought their King was pining for a woman who'd publicly humiliated him.

They weren't wrong.

The blonde—Jessica? Jennifer? I hadn't bothered to remember her name—gathered her clothes with bruised ego and dignity, glaring at me, giving me looks that promised drama later.

But I couldn't bring myself to care about that right now. All that mattered was the phone in my hand and the message that meant everything had changed.

After she left, I sat on the edge of my bed for a long time in silence just staring at that contact name I'd saved as "My Heartbeat" seven years ago.

Even now, even after everything, I couldn't bring myself to change it.

Seraphina had always been the fire burning in me that kept me alive, the reason behind every decision that I took once I came of age.

I thought back to when it all began, when we were just children and I thought she was the most annoying creature the Moon Goddess had ever created.

*We were seven and five respectively when our families first started spending a lot of time together outside business.

The Blackwood empire and the Nightshade kingdom had been allies for generations, helping each other for centuries, but my father and Vincent Blackwood had been discussing closer ties between the family, not just that, also cooperation and trade agreements, that would change the city in a mere few years for the better if it came to pass and that was the kind of partnership that required absolute trust in each other.

Which meant family dinners, pack meetings, and endless hours of being forced to entertain Vincent's daughter while the adults talked business.

Seraphina had been a small chaotic thing with wild silver hair and eyes that spoke of mischief.

She'd taken one look at me, the serious, responsible heir to the Lycan throne, and declared war.

Our pranks that we did to each other back then had been legendary. She'd put honey in my hair during a formal dinner with the vampire council.

I'd retaliated by hiding dead fish in her bedroom. She'd convinced me to eat soap by telling me it was a new kind of candy. I locked her in the garden shed for three hours.

Our parents had gotten tired of us ever getting along, but they'd also recognized something neither of us understood at the time: we were perfectly matched for each other.

Every prank that we pulled, had required careful planning, and also a lot of intimate knowledge of the other's habits, and attention levels that bordered on the lines of obsession.

We'd been obsessed with each other from the beginning. We just hadn't recognized it as love.

Everything changed the day I turned eighteen.

I was cocky that day, very excited about finally receiving my wolf and all the power that came with it, as the heir and first born which was double the power that I was supposed to receive.

I thought I was ready for anything. I wasn't ready for the way my wolf immediately zeroed in on sixteen-year-old Seraphina, who was standing in the crowd with a bored expression on her face and a dress she'd clearly been forced to wear.

I wasn't ready for the way every instinct I possessed suddenly screamed "MATE" with a force that knocked the breath from my lungs.

And I definitely wasn't ready for the way my newly awakened wolf took control, driving me toward her with a single focused determination.

The tackle that followed afterwards had been pure instinct. One moment I was standing beside the altar, accepting congratulations from the pack elders, shaking hands with the council members who had officially crowned me as the Crown Heir to the Throne and the next I was on top of Seraphina, my canines out and aimed at her throat.

She'd been so small beneath me, so fragile, and my wolf had been filled with the news to mark her and claim her as mine forever.

Her scream had cut through the atmosphere like a blade as everyone soon realized what was happening, that it wasn't a prank.

It took six full-grown Alphas to pull me off her, and even then my wolf had fought them with everything he had, furious that they were touching my mate.

I'd been dragged to my room, kicking and snarling, while Seraphina had been rushed away by her parents, who looked traumatized about what had just happened.

The week that followed had been hell. My wolf, denied his mate, had driven me to the brink of madness. I'd clawed at the walls, howled until my throat was raw, and begged anyone who would listen to bring her to me. The rut had been more intense than anything I'd been prepared for, my body burning with need for a girl who was two years too young and absolutely terrified of me.

When I'd finally emerged from my room, weak and exhausted from the hell that I had been in, everything had changed.

Our families had already begun planning our future, arrangements have been made while I'd been locked away like a rabid animal.

An engagement when she turned eighteen, a wedding shortly after, the joining of two great houses through a bond that had been ordained by the Moon Goddess herself.*

*Seraphina had wanted none of it.*

The girl who'd once delighted in our arguments and insults now looked at me with fear and resentment. Every conversation became a battle, every interaction was filled with her anger at having her future decided without her consent.*

"I hate you," she'd told me during one particularly heated argument. "I hate that you get to decide my entire life because your stupid wolf couldn't control himself."

"I didn't choose this either," I'd shot back, hurt and frustrated by her refusal to see that I was as trapped as she was. "Do you think I wanted to be tied to someone who can't even stand to be in the same room with me?"

But the truth was, I had wanted it. Even as a confused, overwhelmed eighteen-year-old, I'd recognized that Seraphina was everything I'd ever need.

She was fierce and intelligent, beautiful and strong, the perfect match for someone destined to rule. The fact that she hated me for it had been a constant source of pain.

The night everything changed forever, we'd both been drinking. It was her eighteenth birthday party, held at the Blackwood estate, and the wedding was only two weeks away. I'd been drowning my nerves in whiskey while she'd been getting progressively more belligerent with champagne.

I'd found her in the garden, crying beneath the moonlight, and for a moment she'd looked so young and lost that my heart had broken for her.

"I don't want this," she'd whispered, and I'd sat beside her on the stone bench, maintaining careful distance, so as to not infringe on her personal space and risk getting chewed out again by her.

"I know," I'd said simply, because I understood what she was going through even though a part of me resented her for trying to fight what would literally make us happy.

"Do you?" she'd asked, turning to face me with tears streaming down her cheeks. "Do you really know what it's like to have your entire future decided by someone else's instincts?"