CHAPTER 7:TONGUE TIED
1410 Words
**Stephan**
I shouldn’t be this angry. Not over her. She was insignificant.
But I was. Over that stupid request she made.
The mere thought of the words had me slamming my jaw so hard my teeth rattled.
‘You could mark me now, if you want.’
The words were still crawling under my skin, hours later. Brazen. Shameless. And so f*****g annoying, it made me want to tear something apart.
What the hell did she think this was?
A game? Some sort of Luna play?
I wasn’t some love-starved pup desperate for a Luna. I didn’t choose her out of sentiment. I chose her because she was expendable. A pawn. A tool to finish what I started years ago. A means to get those scheming elders off my back.A means to conceal my dark secret.
I was used to her. And she was used to me. She was quiet, didn’t think, didn’t ask questions and made no ridiculous requests.
So why the hell did her voice still echo in my ears like a goddamn taunt? Mocking me for the very thing I had no control over.
I gritted my teeth and slammed my fist into the edge of my desk. The wood cracked. Papers scattered.
“She doesn’t know,” I muttered to myself, jaw clenched. “She doesn’t know a damn thing.”
And yet she looked at me like she did. For the first time she looked like she saw something. Something strange. Something no one else dared to look for.
I didn't want her to look. No one should.
A knock came at the door. “Come in,” I barked.
Kyren, my beta walked in, his eye full and lips drawn in a tight line. The grim look on his face immediately sent my skin tightening.
“What?” I asked, already annoyed.
“It’s Reika. Luna of River brook.” His voice was soft. Careful. “She’s dead.”
The air drained from my lungs. Just like that. My eyes widened.
I froze.
For a moment, my mind blanked. Nothing but a ringing silence. Then her face hit me. Reika, her bright green eyes dimmed, her face drawn with a plastic smile on her lips the last time I saw her.
The woman who once ruled with power and grace now stood behind a man who wasn’t even worthy of her shadow, who reduced her to a minuscule version that was barely recognizable. Kaid. That bastard.
I could still see his smug grin. Flashy rings. Slicked back hair and a voice that drowned hers. The way he clutched her arm like she was a trophy he barely deserved to own.
And beside him—her sister. Lyra. With her tight hold on her and tighter smile. The scheming look she always had on, her eye glittering as she gazed at Reika. Envy and jealousy marred her appearance.
Reika had been surrounded by wolves and now she was torn apart.
She had looked so...small. Her back was straight, chin up, but the light in her eyes was gone. As if something sacred had been choked out of her.
And I had done nothing.
Said nothing.
Not even goodbye.
I never could. Because whatever I felt for her—whatever flicker of want or connection tried to claw its way out of me—I buried it under the weight of what I am.
Because wanting her meant risking everything. Because wanting her meant dooming her.
Because love wasn’t made for men like me.
So I stayed in the shadows, watching until she was extinguished.
“She was found near the gorge.Camp trip. She got separated from the rest, car skidded off the cliff and she was torn apart in her weak state.” Kyren continued, voice lower now.
“What do you think?” I asked, almost whispering.
“Something looks fishy. The death is clean. Too clean.”
Of course. The wolves have finally got to her.
I blinked, forcing the emotion back down my throat like bile. “When’s the funeral?”
“Three days.”
“Postpone the wedding until after. We should go pay our last respects,” I said, voice flat.
Kyren raised an eyebrow but didn’t argue. “Understood.”
He waited like he had more to say. I raised my brows in question.
“Anything else?”
He hesitated. “You alright?”
No. I wasn’t. I was never okay. I will never be.
“Fine. You can go.”
He left.
I sat there for a while, silent, staring at nothing. Grief didn’t come for me the way it should’ve. Not loudly. Not with tears. It just sat quietly behind my ribs, dull and relentless.
I stood. Green eyes burned into the back of my mind. Reika.
I needed a distraction.
I needed something—someone—to burn this ache out of me.
And somehow, my mind went back to her.
To the girl who dared ask for a mark she didn’t deserve.
To the girl who stood in this very house and acted like she could take up space in it. To the place holder.
Zara.
I wandered through the corridors, my head bobbing in response to the greetings of the servants as they cleared up the remains of the luna choosing ceremony.
I found her in her room, the one I’d instructed the maids to set up for her after the coronation. After all , I indeed choose her and needed to award her with the perks that came with the position.
I thought she’d use it to curl up and shrink.
She didn’t.
She stood by the window, back straight, arms folded. Her hair was loose, floating down her back like a free bird. Her face bare, her lips shimmering and her cheeks carried a natural blush.
But there was something hard in her eyes. Different from the usual coy look she had. It’s wasn’t submission. Not fear.
She leaned against the wall as she heard the door click shut, gaze meeting mine without flinching.
I stepped inside, unbuttoning my shirt slowly and leaned against her dresser.
She didn’t bow. Didn’t curtsy. Didn’t even bat her lashes at me like she normally does.
“What do you want?” she asked.
I raised a brow. “Excuse me?”
Her jaw tensed, but she didn’t look away. “If you came here to yell at me for earlier, go ahead and get it over with.”
“You think I came to argue?” I asked, walking toward her.
She didn’t back down.
“Well, you certainly look like it. I think you came here because you're angry and you need someone to punish. News flash I’m not in the mood for..” she held up her hand, waving it around my figure. “This.”
I stopped in front of her, close enough to see the flutter of her pulse.
“That mouth of yours is going to get you hurt.”
“It already has.”
Her voice cracked just slightly, like a scar that hadn’t finished healing.
I stared at her. Really stared. Something about her had changed. She wasn’t trembling like she did that first night or the other nights i had come to her.. She wasn’t hiding behind sweetness and submission.
This version of her was steel wrapped in silk. And I didn’t know if I hated it or if I wanted to test how far it would bend.
Why unlock this version now? Has she been pretending? Just to become the Luna?
“I didn’t come to argue,” I said finally, voice low. “I came to remind you of what this arrangement is.”
“I haven’t forgotten.”
“Good.”
I took one step closer, watching her eyes.
“Strip.”
The word cut through the space between us.
She didn’t move.
I watched the moment the command hit her. Her expression faltered, barely. Her fingers twitched. Then she straightened even more.
“No.”
The silence that followed hit harder than a slap.
My jaw ticked. “What did you say?”
She met my gaze. “I said no.”
I couldn’t speak.
I didn’t move. She had never refused me.
I just stood there, staring at her like I’d never seen her before.
And for the first time since I became Alpha, I wasn’t sure what the hell to do next.
- Writer
