The Luna He Hates

4

Alpha Roan.

She had no words when I demanded the truth about my mother…no answers for the blood, the knife, the coma but when I so much as mention her filthy reputation, she finds her voice?

“Say what you said again!” I snarl.

“Please…”

I snap her chin up and lock her face in place.

“Defend yourself again, you f*****g slut.”

Her naked bubble breasts rises and falls. I force my gaze lower just to punish her with it. Not because I want her. Hell no. I don’t feel anything for the woman who butchered my mother. If I looked at her and felt even a flicker of desire, I’d carve out my own f*****g heart.

She gasps at her own nakedness.

“Half the damn state’s seen you naked. Touched you. f****d you. My mother is trapped between life and death just because you didn’t want to be mated to me? So, you could go off and w***e yourself out to other males? You let them mark you so that when I finally found you, I’d see their reminders.”

She shakes her head in battered tears.

I step back and let her go only to drag my eyes over her. To her neck which still bears my mark of two years ago. To the structure of her body and you know, if she weren’t a bloody murderer, what man would not find himself helpless staring at those voluptuous breasts, they are as white as fresh cream, tipped with that same blushing pink as her bitten lips.

They rise with every panicked breath in treacherous weight. A lesser man would have already fallen to his knees, worshipping at the altar of her flesh. A weaker man would’ve begged to taste her. But I?

I scoff. Her waist is a f*****g joke. Narrow enough to snap between my hands, yet flaring into round hips. That scrap of underwear does nothing to hide her yet all I feel is revulsion.

“How many hands have been on you, Meluna? How many mouths on your bosom? Are the numbers so ugly you’ve lost count?”

Her eyes dart everywhere but mine.

“Answer me!”

“I didn’t. I didn’t…it’s not true, please. I didn’t sleep with the Alpha of the Twin Pack. I swear—I didn’t.”

“You didn’t f**k the Twin Alphas?” I scoff. “Then you didn’t sleep with Alpha Caden either? You think I’d believe a girl like you with no formal training in fighting—just ‘survived’ as a rogue for two f*****g years?"

“I survived by running—”

“Stravus!” I bellow, cutting off her pathetic excuse.

My Beta walks in, and I don’t even blink at the fact that she’s still bare before him. Let him look. What’s left to hide? A slut doesn’t get privacy. A traitor doesn’t get respect.

“Would you believe this wench didn’t sell herself to survive?” I ask Stravus in mockery.

His expression fails when his eyes land on her. He’s not used to seeing his Alpha’s mate like this.

“You can go ahead and take a look at her. The only reason I haven’t rejected her is because I want this bond to be her living nightmare. So go on. Look at every filthy inch of her.”

Stravus clears his throat. “If she didn’t sell her body then she had to fight to survive. But if she didn’t fight… then she had nothing else to offer but her body.”

“Alright then…” I announce. “We’ll test her survival skills. Get some Gammas from the Delta academy on the training gym. Let’s see just how this helpless b***h managed to outlast death for two years.”

I glance at her one last time. “Put on some f*****g clothes. You’ve got ten seconds.”

I walk out of the room and I see Landon, my second Beta. Not that I owe anyone an explanation, but being a Pureblood Dusthound places me far above Lycans on the chain. So, of course, it’s only natural that I command and have multiple Betas especially with a pack this size.

“There was no one else running with her.” Landon stops in front of me to deliver his report.

It’s about last night’s hunt—the one where I joined. I hadn’t realized my wolf still remembered her scent that clearly, that bitter mix of snow, salt, and betrayal. I ordered Landon back out into the woods for one reason: I want to know if her father helped her during those two years.

I need a reason to lock him behind bars and reduce his family to nothing.

I’ve already stripped him of his position as Head of Discipline in Delta. That was only the beginning. I want treason and if I can’t find evidence, I’ll manufacture it. My goal isn’t just to ruin Meluna...it is to annihilate her family a thousand times over until nothing remained

I have the mind and the cruelty to see it through.

“Is that her?” Landon nods past my shoulder.

I turn.

“In the flesh.” I mutter and start walking. She better follow if she values what's left of her pathetic pride.

On the training floor, four gammas are in uniform, waiting. They are likely her old peers from the academy. Since she never graduated, this would be her first real encounter with them since her disgrace.

They stiffen when they see me and salute in unison. “Morning, Alpha!”

Stravus hands me a long wooden staff. My preferred tool for training gammas when I’m not in the mood to use my fists. It’s impersonal, sharp, and just cruel enough to make a point without killing.

“I’m sure some of you recognize her.” I pace slowly. “This is the criminal you’ve all been searching for the past two years.”

“Of course, Alpha. Meluna was in level five with us at school.” Helen, the only female in the group replies.

“Good, we’re going to find out how she survived those two years because surely—surely—she didn’t just run and hide. Helen. Fight her.”

She nods with sharp pride. The others fall back in a circle and give space but I stay close.

I want to see it myself. I want to watch every lie unravel right in front of me, exposed like her pathetic little secrets.

Helena starts circling her on the concrete and Meluna looks at me.

“I can…can’t.”

“Can’t what!?” I dare her to finish that sentence.

“I survived by remembering my father’s—”

“Your father?” I cut in, folding my arms slowly across my chest. “You mean your father secretly helped you?”

Landon chuckles behind me. It’s the sound of shared amusement. The one where I twist her words so I can implicate her.

“No! That’s not what I meant. I mean he taught me how to hide!” she shakes her head violently.

“Good. Then hide from Helena’s moves.”

I toss the training stick toward Helena who catches it without so much as a blink. I trained her myself, one of the best Gamma candidates to apply for pack house position from the Delta Academy.

Meluna starts backing away and it only confirms everything I’ve always known. She’s weak. A liar. And soon, she’ll be crawling. I want this. I want Helen to beat her into f*****g submission.

I watch her legs. Those don’t belong to someone who’s survived off grit or strength. Her hands shake, breaths come in uneven spurts, and when Helena begins circling, Meluna stumbles.

Then the first strike lands into the side of her neck. Meluna drops to the floor like a broken wing.

“Wooo…” the Gammas jeer.

Meluna lifts her head—barely—and one stray curl falls over her face. Her lips part as if she wants to speak, wants to plead.

Don’t. Don’t even think of asking for mercy.

“Hit her if she gets up too slow.” I add.

Helena obeys instantly and brings the stick down across her spine. It wrenches a scream from her throat, a kind of music I didn’t know I liked until now.

Meluna groans, tries to rise—wrong move again. Helena hits her again. And again. A blur of movements. Wood meeting skin.

“Get up and fight me!” Helena barks like a seasoned predator and stomps on Meluna’s wrist which forces her to look up.

“Fight before I crush your wrist…the same wrist you used to harm the Alpha’s mother!”

“Ah!” Meluna cries, flailing under her grip, trying to shove her off but there’s no strength in her arms, no discipline in her stance. No sign of survival instincts. She’s not a warrior. She’s not even prey worth chasing. Just a trembling, lying w***e. The only thing she’s ever fought for is a chance to spread her legs.

Helen looks at me, awaiting a sign.

I nod. No mercy.

She brings her heel down and stomps onto Meluna’s hand. On the dirt, her fingers are red, already swelling, and I watch her scuttle backward on the ground like a kicked dog.

Perfect. She’s learning. She’s realizing that whatever hell she faced outside the Dusthound Pack is nothing compared to the one waiting here. Out there, she could run. Out there, she could sell her body and buy silence. Here, she’ll remain a rogue, even if she was born into this pack and no amount of whoring will buy her freedom now.

“Helen—” she sobs.

“Get up and fight me!” Helen grabs her by the collar of her sweat shirt and drives her elbow into her jaw, sending Meluna flat. Helen hauls her up by the hair and slams her face-first into the dirt. “Get up and fight me!” Her boot presses down between Meluna’s shoulder blades, grinding her deeper into the dust.

“I can’t fight!” Meluna wails, scratching at the ground. “I can’t—I can’t fight!”

“You can’t? Is f*****g the only thing you can do?”

She fists her hand into Meluna’s hair, yanking her up by the roots until that tear-streaked face is forced to look at me.

I stare at her.

And give her nothing.

“Fine.” Helena hiss. “Those who can’t fight get beaten.”

She twists Meluna’s arm back for another move but I raise a hand to stop her. Because this next lesson? I want to teach it myself.

I take the training stick from Helen and curl my fingers around it. Oh, but I’m not about to use it myself. If I hit her, even once, with half of strength, I’ll shatter every bone in her body. And I can’t have her dying…not when I’ve barely begun her suffering.

Meluna sees the way I twist the stick and the sound that comes from her chest isn’t even normal.

“Alpha, please…don’t hurt my sister!” A voice shouts suddenly and I shift my glare to the side. A male rushes between us and throws himself in front of her.

“He’s her brother.” Stravus murmurs. “Did you forget? You allowed him to join gamma delta just so the day you caught her; you could use him as a tool to punish her.”

Ah. Yes. I remember now.

How touching.

“Kaden?” Meluna breathes.

I see horror in her eyes. The helpless, pathetic pleading she starts to mouth to him when she notices my smile. That’s right, little witch.

I wasn’t even going to beat your brother. But now that he’s come charging in like some noble mutt on a leash? That’s exactly what I’m going to do.

“You know better than to stand in the Alpha’s way!” Stravus snaps at him.

Kaden doesn’t flinch. He just stands there in that pressed Delta uniform, shoulders taut like he’s ready to break himself for her. And he’s looking right at me.

“Please, my sister won’t survive this. She’ll die if you do this, Alpha.”

I take note of his structure.

He looks like he trains. He could take a beating. Wouldn’t that ruin her more than anything else? Watching the last person, she loves get torn apart—because of her.

“So, you’ll take it for her or shall I beat her to death right here while you watch?”

“Ka—Kaden, no—” Meluna stammers in sobs.

“I will take it, Alpha.” he sinks to his knees.

Right there. In the dirt. In front of me.

“Roan, please! It’s me you hate! Don’t hurt my brother. Please, I’ll do anything!”

My gaze slams into hers.

Did she just—

“Did you just call me by my name?” I step toward her but her brother grabs my boot.

“Alpha, please!” He grips my leg so that’s when it hits.

That heat of irritation she’s caused me in two years of chasing shadows, two years of filth dragged across my name, two years of my mother barely alive is now multiplied by ten and handed to me on a silver f*****g platter.

I bring the first strike down to her brother and it dents inward into his shoulder blade. It splits his skin, an unnatural hollow of where bone should be, and for one beautiful second, his entire arm hangs wrong, limp as a gutted fish.

This is what she made me into and now she gets to watch it in full.