The Luna He Hates

7

Meluna Lockwood.

I’m curled up in bed, knees tucked to my chest like I’m trying to disappear. Thirty minutes ago, I was a mess of bruises and bone-deep aches.

I stretch one leg out cautiously but the pain is gone. The deep ringing on my scalp from where my hair was pulled is also gone. That’s the cruellest part of being bonded to a wolf like Roan is that his power thrums through me whether I want it or not, stitching my wounds shut before I’ve even finished bleeding.

He hurts me. I heal. Then he hurts me again. A cycle with no end.

“Meluna?”

I push the pillow off my face when I hear my name. Lisa stands by the door. Her blonde hair is golden and pretty. For a heartbeat, I can almost pretend the last two years never happened. That we’re still eighteen, whispering about boys under the covers at sleepovers, painting each other’s nails and dreaming of prom.

But I just saw Roan with her. I saw his hands on her. His lips. And still, she smiles like none of that happened.

“It’s me. Lisa.” She walks in.

I sit up. The grey sweats is loose on my body as I slowly plant my feet on the floor. She glances down at my clothes and her nose twitches like she disapproves.

“So... you recognize me?” I ask.

“Of course I do. Aurora will be here soon. Roan asked us to pass you a message—”

I don’t mean to lunge at her. But suddenly, my arms are crushing her to my chest in a hug. She smells different, like an expensive perfume instead of the strawberry shampoo she used to steal from my bathroom

“Lisa!” I breathe, “I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry you have to go through this because of me.”

She stiffens in my arms. “What are you—”

I pull back just enough to hold her face in my hands. “Roan… what he’s doing to you. He’s hurting you, isn’t he? I didn’t know until I saw it today. Lisa, I’m sorry. I didn’t think he’d drag you into this.”

Her eyes dart. “I’m his replacement Luna. He has every right to touch me.”

I step back. “But he must have forced you, Lisa. There’s no way you’d be with him willingly. Did he…did he use you to hunt me down? Is that why you’re here?”

Lisa’s lips press together.

“Stop, Meluna. Please… you sound so silly right now. Roan didn’t force me to do anything. I agreed to replace you and when he finally rejects you, I will be his Luna—”

“You’re my best friend!” I scream. “In what world is that even close to normal? You and Roan? Lisa, he’s a monster—”

“And you’re what?! You killed his mother!”

“I didn’t!” My hand lands hard on my own face as I spin away from her. I can’t breathe, can’t think. My chest aches. When I turn back, Aurora walks in, pushing a small gold cart stacked with folded clothes. She doesn’t look at either of us.

“You didn’t?” Lisa spits. “Then who stabbed her with a wolfsbane knife, huh? Was it your f*****g twin?”

“You don’t understand. It happened, but… I don’t remember doing it. I know it sounds stupid. Trust me, it’s been two years and I still can’t explain it. But that’s the truth. Lisa, you know me. You know I wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

“Apparently, I don’t know you at all. You stabbed the Alpha’s mother with a wolfsbane knife. That means it wasn’t an accident, Meluna. It means you meant to kill her. For what? Just because you didn’t want to be with Roan?”

“No. No, that’s not—”

“Roan spent the first year after that incident traveling the world for a doctor that could help his mother. In that year, he was hunted, burnt alive by Lycans in the Eastern wilds all because he was searching for a way to undo what you did!"

“…What?”

“Oh, you didn’t know?” Lisa shoves me by the shoulder until I fall back onto the edge of the bed, staring up at her as she leans in.

“Roan has more than a thousand scars on his body. The skin on his back is charred like the bark of a tree. Do you know why he always wears long sleeves? It’s because his arms are covered in acid damage. Do you know he can’t sleep for more than an hour at a time without nightmares—”

“That’s enough, Lisa.” Aurora says.

“I haven’t even told her half of it yet!”

“But I think she’s heard enough.”

I’m already crying. My cheeks are soaked but I wipe at my face, struggling to breathe through the truth that’s slamming into me from all sides.

“No.” I whisper. “Tell me. I want to know everything.”

But Lisa just steps back and folds her arms. “The only thing you need to know right now is that we’re expecting guests and Roan wants you to entertain them.”

“What? Entertain? I don’t understand.”

“It is no secret that you’ve been wayward and promiscuous throughout the entire country. So, Roan simply wants you to entertain the Russian guest and you know what they say about wolves from there.”

“Roan is asking me to sleep with the guest!?” My voice croaks. “I’m not a dog. I’m not some w***e—”

“But it’s what you’ve been doing. How is this any different?”

“For moon’s sake, Lisa!” My vision blurs with angry tears. “I’m a virgin! I didn’t sleep with any Alpha. I didn’t w***e myself across the states! Why are you believing the same garbage everyone else does? You’re supposed to be my best friend! You knew I was saving myself for my mate. I didn’t even date anyone in school—”

“Stop with the lies! You still sound like a pampered little b***h. First, you stab the Alpha’s mother but ‘didn’t mean to,’ and now you’re suddenly a virgin after two years of sleeping around? What’s next—miraculously innocent, too?”

The insult hits me like ice water to the spine. I stumble a little, stunned by how much it hurts coming from her.

Before I can explain myself again, Lisa storms out of the room.

My hands hang limply at my sides, and my lungs feel too tight to breathe. I turn to Aurora, the only one left now and she sighs.

“Your brother, Kaden is fine. He’s been transferred home to your parents. He’ll heal, probably within a month.”

My head snaps up. Roan banned anyone from telling me about Kaden and yet, she is doing so.

“Thank you for telling me.” I croak.

“You’re to wear the yellow tube top and the skirt in the cart. You can choose any accessory you want. I’ll come back to get you when it’s time to meet the guest.”

Aurora starts to walk away but I can’t stop myself from asking.

“Do I… really look like a murderer?”

Aurora crosses her arms and starts to inspects my face. She comes forward, takes my chin between her fingers and tilts my head up. The way she studies me makes my heart twist.

“No, Meluna.” she says quietly. “I not only think you don’t look like a murderer... I also think you’re innocent.”

Air rushes out of my lungs like I’ve been holding it in for years. When she lets go of my chin, something in me shakes loose.

“If you survive tonight after Roan’s wrath and whatever he has planned, I’ll help you. And for your own good, stop trying with Lisa. She is not your best friend anymore. She is simply someone who wants to become luna.

Hours later,

I adjust the stupid yellow tube top for the hundredth time. It keeps slipping, and I don’t know if it’s the fabric or my trembling hands. The skirt sits low on my hips but flows willowy to my feet. It’s pretty, in another life.

In this one, it feels like a costume for my own disgrace. My belly is showing because the top is so small.

Aurora said if I survive tonight, she’ll help me. That means I have to protect myself.

I go to the cart she brought earlier and start searching. Among the folded clothes and hair clips, I find a hairpin. My fingers tremble as I take it, twist my hair into a bun, and tuck the pin deep inside where no one will see it.

“Come on.” she says.

One hallway folds into another. We take an elevator, then cross into another level of the pack house where I hear deep, rich laughters.

As we get to the door, I slow my steps and low my eyes. The laughter ends the moment I walk into the room. I have not seen him Roan yet but, Eluna prowls, letting me know that he is at the end of the room.

I take a dare to see if she’s right and there he is, like a bulldozer. With the weight of ten men packed into one body. He’s broad enough to block out the fireplace behind him, his silhouette eats up the light. Roan’s eyes glint like royal gemstones but he’s the devil’s incarnation. One I created with my own hands.

Lisa’s words about the scars. The burns. The sleepless nights. The blood. All of it my fault. All of it…and yet, we’ll never make it to the part where he forgives me. That part of the story doesn’t exist.

“There she is John.” Roan rises on his feet.

John, I assume…looks at me but I don’t meet his eyes. I focus only on Roan. The enemy I know is safer than the one I don’t.

I look at my hand just as Roan goes behind me.

“Her name is Meluna and she’s very good at pleasing a man. Though, if you’d been in the country, you’d already know how accommodating and talented she can be.”

His hand lands on my waist, and I gasp. Not just from the shock of touch, but from the coldness of his fingers against my bare skin.

For one foolish second, I think maybe this moment will not be bad but he pushes me. And suddenly, I’m bent over the table with my cheek pressed against the wood in panic.

My body bends under him like I’ve been here before. This is how Roan chooses to remind me that I am his to break.

This is the part where I begin to cry. I thought I came here brave. Ready to fight and survive whatever Roan had planned for me.

But it’s different when I see him. Because when it comes to Roan, I realize just how powerless I am. It’s not just his strength. it’s what he does with it. The way one flick of his hand could break a rib. I am barely holding myself together when he hasn’t even touched me yet.

“I told them to put her in a skirt that makes it easy for you to tear. The men who’ve had her say she’s delicious. So, I hope you like my gift.”

“She does look beautiful, Roan.” the visitor says with a thick accent. “I’m surprised you’d give a girl like this to me, when you could easily keep her for yourself.”

Roan’s laugh is nothing like laughter. “Her beauty means nothing to me.”

“Even as she is your mate?” the guest asks.

“No.” Roan doesn’t hesitate.

Suddenly, he grabs my hair and pulls. I’m yanked backward against his chest from the table, trembling so violently I know he can hear the air stuttering in my lungs.

I’m shaking. I don’t want to look at the guest, but I do. He looks like death with a close stature to Roan!

I turn to Roan to plead.

“Roan, please—” I whisper.

The moment his name leaves my lips, I know I’ve made a mistake.

A slap comes faster than thought yet before I can crawl away, his hand finds me again and throws me onto the table. My legs splay, my skirt rides up.

“EVERYONE, OUT!” Roan roars.

Glass shatters somewhere behind me and the room empties in a blink for what he will do to me next.