Be My Luna

5

Winter’s POV

“What have you done?” my father’s voice came out in a ragged whisper, his hands gripping my shoulders, shaking me as though he could rattle sense into me. “How selfish can you be, Winter? I told you, I begged you. We cannot survive a war against a pack like his, but what did you do? Winter!”

His words echoed in my ears, but my mind drifted in and out, numb and heavy. Only then did the truth hit me, the weight of my stubbornness, the ruin it might bring. A single tear slid down my cheek, hot against my frozen skin. “I…I’m sorry,” I choked.

I tore from his grasp and ran, desperate, heart pounding as I rushed to catch Beta Fadel. But he was gone. His guards with him. I bolted out of the pack house, hope crashing with every step, only to see their car pulling away. I chased until my legs screamed, until the burn in my lungs was unbearable. I waved, I screamed, but no window lowered. No door opened. They didn’t stop.

On that street, I must have looked deranged, a madwoman chasing a ghost. But the only thing that remained was him, his scent, thick and clinging, staining the very air I breathed. Bitter orange laced with sharp spices, it coated my tongue, sank into my skin. He hadn’t released it inside the meeting room, but out here…out here, he unleashed it fully.

My knees buckled beneath the weight of it. That was no ordinary presence. Only an Alpha could mark territory like this, leaving their pheromone behind like a brand. And I knew Alphas, I could always tell. Yet he didn’t smell like the others. No. His aura was darker, primal, dangerous in ways I had no name for. Even the guards scattered along the street had gone tense, shoulders rigid under the unseen force pressing down on us.

Alphas only mark territory with one purpose: conquest.

My stomach twisted as dread hollowed me out.

What have I done to my people?

Barely two days passed before Ashborne struck. Chaos exploded at our borders, fire raining down with screams that seemed to split the night. They didn’t just suppress our border patrol and battle warriors; they brought bombs of fire, searing through cottages and homes without even breaching our gates. Their target wasn’t the fighters. It was the heart of our people.

Ashborne was nothing like us. Unlike Moonveil, their strength wasn’t just in numbers or claws; they were advanced, ruthless, and sharpened by war. Rumors whispered that under their former general, they had mastered weapons and strategy that no ordinary pack could withstand. That general was now Alpha Fadel.

Regret carved into me like a scalpel as I worked through the flood of wounded, my hands bloody from trying to heal and mend what little I could. Every bed filled, every cry of pain, every body dragged into the hospital reminded me of what I had done.

Families torn apart. Homes burned to ash. Lives shattered.

And all because of me.

Father tried again and again to reach Fadel, to beg him for mercy. Each attempt was spat back in his face, the only reply a chilling offer: surrender yourself willingly to death, and the pack will be spared.

It was my pride, my stubbornness that brought this on us.

This was my fault.

I spent endless days at the hospital, pouring every ounce of strength into healing, stitching, and tending the broken. Years of pretending to be an Alpha, years of convincing myself I had strength, yet when strength was truly needed, I hid behind gauze and sutures. It was proof of who I really was… and who I wasn’t.

When I finally forced myself to the pack house, it wasn’t courage that pushed me, but desperation. I had decided to call Alpha Fadel myself. I didn’t know what I was expecting. He would never take his own calls, but I had to try.

To my surprise, when the secretary saw my number, they answered. The same people who had rejected my father over and over.

“Snow bunny,” came the purr, deep and ragged, from the other end of the line.

My jaw tightened. Even his voice made my stomach turn. “Alpha Fadel,” I forced out, the name bitter on my tongue. “Let’s meet. I—”

“Okay,” he cut me off, and the line went dead.

I stared at my phone in disbelief. “What… just happened?” I tried calling back, again and again, but no answer.

Hopelessness weighed on me like chains. I retreated to my room, curling into the silence. I just wanted to make things right. Why did he have to be so impossible? Exhaustion dragged me under, but sleep barely lasted an hour before something else pulled me awake.

A smell. Strong, suffocating, yet… soothing. Bitter orange laced with dark spice. It wrapped around me like invisible hands.

My eyes flew open.

On the balcony, perched casually on the railing, sat Fadel. The moonlight caught the tattoo scrawled across his chest and neck, his skin bare above jet-black pants. His silver eyes glowed like blades as he tilted his head, watching me with the idle curiosity of a predator amused by its prey.

I managed to choke out, “How did you—”

“Your pack isn’t as protected as you think,” he said with a mirthless chuckle.

He reached for me. I dodged on instinct. The smile faltered from his lips, and with it, the brief illusion of kindness.

“I want you to call off your armies. End this. It’s me you want, isn’t it? Then leave my pack out of it… Take me,” I bargained, my voice tight, but he only laughed.

“I only sent a battalion, not the whole army. Your pack is far too small to be worth all of them,” he mocked, his tone cruelly light.

“Just stop already. I agree to be your pet. What more do you want?” The words scraped my throat, and though tears threatened, I forced my face to stay hard. I would not let him see me weak.

He stepped down from the railing with the unhurried grace of a predator. I kept backing away until the cold glass of the balcony door stopped me short. His hand rose, pinching my chin between his fingers, forcing my gaze up to meet the abyss of his eyes. They were no longer silver but obsidian, swallowing the moonlight. His breath was icy against my neck, making my heart stutter while my body refused to move.

Then he leaned closer, his whisper sinking like poison into my ear.

“What do I want? I want to break you into submission. I want to shatter you until you’re on your knees, begging for my love. I want to f**k you so hard it erases every memory of anyone who came before me. I want to tear down the proud, stubborn female Alpha of Moonveil until all that’s left is mine.”

His lips crushed against mine faster than I could turn away. A searing, possessive kiss.

“That’s what I want.”