The Luna He Hates

6

Alpha Roan.

I let go of Lisa the second the murderer is out of sight. She lets go of me, too.

I only had her touch my bicep for one reason and that reason just ran past us like a kicked dog. The reason I made Lisa my stand-in Luna wasn’t romance, it was spite. The elders kept whining about the empty Luna seat last year, saying the Dusthound Pack needed one. So I made up something called ‘a replacement Luna.’

Lisa comes from a family of bottom-feeders who’d sell their daughter for scraps. While the other parents in the state feared their daughters ending up with the “mad Alpha,” grieving his mother, her parents agreed immediately.

I haven’t made her Luna. Not until I reject Meluna. Yet I can’t reject Meluna until I’ve made her suffer. I need her to feel pain through our bond just as she has done to me all through the last two years. My wolf and I felt her rejection through her blatant promiscuousness and now, I am going to take it to hell.

When I turn back to Lisa, her cheeks are flushed—full of love that she carries for me.

“She must’ve really pissed you off, Roan.” she says.

I don’t answer. She already knows that since the day my mother fell into that endless sleep, I’ve been a ruin on fire.

That first year? I wasn’t even here.

I traveled across the entire damn world searching for someone—anyone—who could fix what Meluna broke. I met doctors, surgeons, ancient healers halfway around the globe and then, word got out: Alpha Roan of the Dusthound Pack had left his territory and therefore, the Dusthound throne was up for grabs for anyone who could kill me.

Every ambitious bastard in the globe came for me.

I was hunted by mercenaries in Prague. Chimera wolves kidnapped me through the Siberian wilds. A coven of rogues in Istanbul took me after my short-lived escape. Lycan wolves who wore the skin of dead alphas stitched over their own came along.

I was bled dry in dungeons, shackled in silver thorns. I fought in pit arenas where the floor was made of bones. I was crucified on a cross of wolfsbane and dragged behind a moving truck across a salt flat. Another time, a black-blooded chimera chewed on my legs for hours and the burn scars on my back?

I came back with half a spine and more scars than skin. I’ve been slashed open with weapons that were never meant to touch a pureblood. And still, I lived but this isn’t even half of what I went through in that year. In all of it, I have become stronger, an apex predator in the way I fight and all I do is speak from pain.

“I wish to make her suffer more!” I growl in the memory of it. “Tell me, what else is there that I don’t know about her? You were her best friend. You know every crevice of her pathetic little life. Surely, there are more things I can break.”

Lisa perks up. “Of course, Roan. Um, Meluna…had a crush on a freshman in school. His name was Justin. He transferred in late that semester and they really liked each other. She was hoping he’d be her mate… before she ever stepped foot in the Dunefang pack house.”

“Really?” My finger twitches with wicked anticipation.

“Yes. He’s working in the pack house medic now. I saw him just now when Kylan was dragged into the bay.”

Perfect. A neat little thread from her past, still breathing in my house and if he meant something to her back then, I’ll make him mean something now.

That’s when Stravus comes over.

“I just spent the last-minute tearing Cynthia off your mate in the medic.” he says, then holds out a fistful of hair.

I raise a brow. “Your wife did that?” I chuckle.

“You tell me. What do I do with it?”

I take the hair between two fingers. Dark. Curled. Still warm.

“I’ll keep it as the first debt collected. By the end of this, I won’t let even a drop of Meluna’s blood go to waste.”

I walk away, thinking of the meetings I’ve missed with Splinter and the sixty elders that form the Pack Bench. They spend their freewill whining about my rule and how I’ve turned the Dusthound Pack into a regime. That I’ve gutted traditions, cancelled festivals and in conclusion, that I’m nothing like my father.

Their biggest complaint is the fact that I am without a Luna. Without an heir. As if any of that matters when my enemies are clawing at our borders from the east to the west.

I push the door of my office and drop the lock of Meluna’s hair onto the table.

“Never stop me from punishing the w***e again!” My growl is aimed at Splinter, who sits opposite me, legs crossed like this is a casual tea hour and not a confrontation with the so-called mad wolf of Dusthound.

If there’s one person in this pack who doesn’t fear me, it’s him. My father’s brother.

Middle aged and far too used to power.

“I will stop you if you keep doing it in the open. Don’t you have enough rumors swirling around you already? There’s already a picture circulating of Meluna after what you did to her brother. Just as you make her suffer, your reputation suffers the same."

I sit.

“Everyone already knows I’m the mad wolf. I don’t feel like changing that anytime soon.”

Splinter snorts, looks to Landon. “For the moon’s sake, will your betas ever grow a spine and advise you properly?”

Landon drops his gaze at that request.

“The entire pack sees you as a dictator. An Alpha who’s taken a different path from what your parents sacrificed their lives to build—”

“Do not s**t me, uncle!” I slam the drawer open and take out my Italian pipe. I light, then inhale deeply until smoke curls like incense from my nostrils.

“Let me refresh your memory. You are the Alpha who banned the Mate Festival. You shut down the Full Moon Celebrations. You revoked the seats of those who didn’t agree with you. You banished three Beta bloodlines who voiced opposition.”

He leans in. “You do not have a Luna. You have not rejected your fated mate, and yet you have not crowned the girl you parade around as a replacement either. You are ruling in a contradiction, and worse, you don’t even try to explain yourself. No one has ever seen your kind of Alpha before.”

I blow another stream of thick, fragrant smoke like Bakhoor from desert packs.

“The elders are tired of watching you spiral.”

“I am not spiralling.”

“I know you have suffered, Roan. We all know but banning the Mate Festivals because of what happened between you and Meluna…? That’s personal vengeance, not pack law.”

“Am I Alpha or not?” The question isn’t to be answered.

It’s a reminder that no rogue, nor outlaw, nor outcast has managed to step near Dusthound territory. Not to even think of harming one of my pack members. Wherever anyone hears Dusthound, they stay away from my people. Not since word spread of all I survived in that cursed year while I was scouring the world for doctors who could treat my mother.

By the time I found a master specialist in wolfsbane treatment, my mother had already been in a coma too long. Still, I pleaded the specialist to stay in the pack…waiting for the day my mother opens her eyes.

I glance at Landon. “What else do you need to tell me today? Apart from more damn petitions to unban those idiotic festivals, what else is new?”

Landon swipes his tablet. “That would be the message from the High Circle of Claw and Moon about an unrest. A rogue faction from Russia has attacked eight packs across three states. The damage has been…um”

He glances at Splinter as if he forgot the rest of his words.

“The high circle has brought in a team of Russian counterforce into the state to eliminate the rogue problem.” Splinter picks up. “And since our pack sits at the capital of the State, the Circle is asking if we can house them.”

“Of course.” I stamp the document.

The High circle is basically the governing body of werewolf packs all around the country and they respect us greatly.

Splinter rises and collects the paper.

“Are we going to entertain them?” Landon asks. “I hear Russian wolves love a drink in one hand and a woman in another—”

“We just need to house them for the night. After that, they’ll leave to do what they came to the country for.”

“No.” I lean back and cross one leg over the other. “Landon’s right. Russian wolves love women and as a reputable pack, it only makes sense that I fill their cups too.”

Splinter narrows his eyes. “What are you thinking, Roan?”

“Uncle… when did you become so slow?” I laugh. “We have an entertainer, don’t we? Meluna Lockwood. I hear she likes c**k and she takes it well.”

“I swear that is not what I was—” Landon looks helplessly at Splinter.

“It may not be what you were thinking but it’s what I’m thinking now.”

“Roan—”

“Please, shut it, Uncle.” My voice hardens. “You make it sound like I’m asking her to do something she doesn’t already enjoy. Two years. Two entire years, and all she did was f**k her way around the state. I’m giving her what she likes.”

Splinter glares at me. “You’re going too far.”

“I don’t understand why you keep coming between me and what I do with her! What is it, Uncle? Because you were friends with her father? Or you want a taste of her too? Don’t worry, she’s up for grabs. Any of you can have her.”

“Boy, don’t ever disrespect me like that again!” He growls and silence is exchanged between the both of us.

He’s the only one in the entire pack who dares to speak to me like that. He’s an authoritarian. I’m stubborn. I don’t see lines when I’m angry. I don’t apologize. I say what I want.

“Her father was head of pack discipline for fifteen years. Of course, I know him!”

“So what has the man been asking?” I stretch back into my chair. “I told him, the day I caught his daughter, I’d f**k her up so bad he wouldn’t recognize her the next time he saw her.”

Splinter exhales. “He has no choice but to pray for a miracle. We both know that won’t happen but did you really have to hurt their son too? You already have Meluna. William’s wife has been slipping in and out of hospital from the stress. Depression. Roan—2

I slam my palm on the table. “The boy wanted his sister’s punishment. He offered himself up to protect her. What was I supposed to do—f*****g…hug him?”

I shake my head. “You have no idea the joy it brings me to hear that their little family is crumbling. Now, why don’t you be a good uncle and tell him what I plan to do to her tonight?”

“Roan—”

“Then again. It’s not me doing anything. I’m just giving Meluna the lifestyle she clearly wants. I’m supporting her choices. Generous of me, don’t you think?”

“You must be mad if you think I’ll carry that message.” Splinter storms out and I watch the door shut behind him. Good riddance.

“Landon, be a good beta and let William know. Make it seem like you are doing him a favor and while you’re at it, tell Lisa and Aurora to get Meluna dressed up tonight.”

I release smoke through my nose as a god who doesn’t answer prayers.

“When the guests are done eating…Meluna will serve him next.”