The Alpha's Forbidden Grimoire

chapter 3: The Luna's Quarters

Elara's POV

The old Luna quarters were a cage dressed up as a palace.

Liam left me inside and closed the doors. Two guards stood outside like I was some feral animal that might bite. Maybe I was.

I didn't cry. I wouldn't give these walls the satisfaction.

I walked to the window. From here I could see it perfectly - the burning circle behind the packhouse. Three years later the grass still didn't grow right there. Black and dead in a perfect ring. That's where they tied my mother. My aunt. My little sister Mara, who was twelve and still believed werewolves were fairy tales.

And standing at the edge of it all, holding back a screaming Liam, was Kade. Nineteen years old and already looking like an Alpha. He watched. He did nothing.

The door slammed open so hard it hit the wall.

I spun around, iron letter opener from the desk in my hand.

Seraphina.

She didn't have her fake smile now. She had two she-wolves behind her, both bigger than me, both already half-shifted, claws out.

"So the Alpha's little healer," she said, stepping inside like she owned the room. She closed the door behind her. The guards outside said nothing. Of course they didn't. Everyone knew Seraphina wanted to be Luna. "Do you know how long I've waited to be in this room? Three years. Kade wouldn't let anyone in here after Magnus died. And he puts you in it. A Crowe."

"Get out," I said.

She laughed. "You think because you smell a little like his dead mother he wants you? Kade hates witches. His mother was a witch and he watched his father execute her. He ordered your family burned because your kind is a disease."

"He ordered my family burned because he's a coward who believes anything a jealous girl tells him," I snapped.

Her face twisted. She moved fast - faster than I could track. One second she was by the door, the next her hand was around my throat, slamming me into the vanity. Perfume bottles shattered.

The letter opener fell.

"You little b***h," she hissed in my ear, her claws extending, pricking my neck. "You think you can come back from the dead and take him? I have been by his side while you were hiding in the human world playing shopkeeper. I held him when the curse started rotting him. I will be his Luna."

"Then why isn't your scent all over this room?" I choked out, blood trickling where her claws pierced me. "Why does it still smell like her?"

She screamed and raised her other hand to claw my face.

The door exploded off its hinges.

Kade's POV

I could smell her fear from my office. Sharp, metallic, wrong.

I could smell Seraphina's rage too. And blood. Elara's blood.

Vargr, silent for months, roared inside my head: MATE. MATE HURT. KILL.

I was across the packhouse before I realized I was moving. Liam shouted my name behind me.

I kicked the Luna quarters door so hard it cracked down the middle.

Seraphina had Elara pinned to the vanity, claws at her throat. Elara's neck was bleeding. The two she-wolves behind Seraphina were laughing.

And the scent - gods, the scent of my mate's blood made the black veins on my neck burn white-hot. Not with pain. With fury.

"WHAT DID I SAY?" I roared.

The Alpha command hit everyone in the room like a physical wave. Seraphina and her friends dropped to their knees, hands over their ears. Elara stayed standing because the command wasn't for her - I made sure of it. My wolf wouldn't let me command her.

Seraphina looked up, eyes streaming, shocked that I used Alpha voice on her.

"Kade, she - she attacked me! The witch -"

"She is under MY protection," I snarled, grabbing Seraphina by the arm and throwing her away from Elara. She hit the wall hard. "I said no one touches her. Did you think I was joking?"

I didn't look at Elara yet. If I looked at her bleeding neck, I would shift and kill Seraphina right here, and then I'd have to explain to the whole pack why I killed my best friend for a witch.

"This room is forbidden," I said to Seraphina, voice deadly quiet. "You know that. Get out. Take your dogs and get out."

"This is my future room!" Seraphina screamed, tears now real. "You said - you said after the curse was gone we would -"

"I never said that. You imagined it."

That broke her. She stared at me, then at Elara, who was pressing her hand to her bleeding neck, glaring at me with pure hate even though I just saved her.

"You'll regret this," Seraphina whispered to Elara, not to me. "Witches don't become Lunas. They become ash."

She stormed out. Her friends scrambled after her.

Silence.

Liam appeared in the doorway, breathing hard. He saw Elara's neck and rushed forward.

"Elara -"

"Don't," I snapped. He stopped.

I walked to the vanity, grabbed a clean cloth, and threw it at Elara. I didn't dare touch her. If I touched her blood, Vargr would force me to lick it clean, to mark her right there.

"Clean yourself up," I said, voice rough. "You are a healer, not a fighter. Act like it."

She caught the cloth, pressed it to her neck, and looked me dead in the eyes. No fear. Only disgust.

"I hate you," she said clearly.

"I know," I said.

"You stood there and watched them burn."

"I know."

"You will never be anything but your father's son."

That one landed. The black veins on my neck pulsed blacker.

I turned away so she wouldn't see it hurt.

"You have one week to figure out how to break this curse, witch," I said to the wall. "One week, or I send you back to that shop in pieces. Understood?"

"Understood, Alpha," she said, mocking the title.

I left before I did something stupid like claim her mouth to shut her up.

Outside the door, Liam grabbed my arm. "You can't keep her here like this. The pack will -"

"She stays," I growled. "And no one - no one, Liam - knows she is my mate. If Seraphina finds out, she'll kill her before morning. You tell no one."

Liam's eyes went wide. He looked from me to the closed doors where Elara was.

"Goddess help us both," he whispered.