The Luna's Conquest

I Form A Mating Bond

The man on the horse takes his sweet long time looking around, surveying the damage he'd caused. I want to hurl myself at him, to throw every curse I know his way, but the sadness keeps me on the ground.

After several hours of searching for hiding pack members around my father's mansion, a few more wolves are brought out. It is night already, the moon casting its pale milky light on the scene of the battle. I stand to my feet and elbow my way through the women and children to the front, hoping and praying I would see my brothers or my mother among the new wolves, but they are still missing.

As my eyes scan the crowd looking for my family, I feel a hand touch my elbow and I look back. It's my mother, looking worse off than the last time I'd seen her, only a few hours ago. Her face is streaked with tears and dirt, and her smooth auburn hair is dishevelled.

"Mom." I exclaim in relief and wrap my hands tightly around her, sobbing into her shoulder. I feel some of the fear in my heart dissolve as I feel her familiar warmth around me. I can't believe she's alive.

I release her and step back, cupping her face with my hands. She's sobbing into my fingers, her face twisted in a grimace.

"I can't believe you're alive. I thought I'd lost you." I whisper, then continue. "What about dad?"

She shakes her head slowly, her eyes full of sadness, and my heart shrivel with despair. I know he's dead, I can see it in her eyes.

"And what about my brothers?" I press on. "Before the battle, dad told his beta to go and look for them."

My mother continues to shake her head. "I don't know, Sekinah." She says, her voice broken. "The best we can hope for is that they're still somewhere in the forest, safe from all of this."

"He will pay for this. That man will pay for this, I swear on the Goddess." I say savagely, and my mom makes a tone of disapproval.

"You'll only die if you do anything stupid." She whispers. "That man is ruthless, and his men will kill you before you can even raise a finger to touch him."

I open my mouth to reply, then stop. How in the world do I tell my mother that I know he won't kill me? That what had transpired between us in the middle of the field is greater than what either of us can explain?

My mother and I turn as we hear a horse approaching. The leader of the attack stops before us and reins his horse in.

"How many slaves are there?" He asks a nearby soldier, and the soldier replies: "About a thousand, Alpha."

The alpha nods, and then he looks down at me and our eyes meet again. And for the second time that night, I feel a searing synergy between us. The world around me seems to fall away, and it's just him on his black horse and me at his feet. Nothing else matters, nothing, not when he seems to be peering into my soul that way.

I hear him curse under his breath as he looks away, and I do same, holding on to my mother for support. A wave of vertigo washes over me and I feel faint. All my words are gone: all the curses I had hoped to yell at him had flown out of my head. I am helpless and bare before his gaze.

What a punishment the Goddess had given me.

He turns back to us and instead stares at a point just above my head. I feel the anger rise inside me as he does so, and the urge to yell is restored.

"Coward." I scream."Murderer! Why don't you look into my eyes? Look at me and see the damage you've caused. Look at me!"

"Woman, you would do well to shut up!" He yells back, still not looking at me. I let out a whoosh of breath and shake my head slowly. "I cannot believe this." I mutter.

"Believe what you want." He retorts, then keeps quiet. I can almost see the gears working in his head as he thinks. And then he surprises me by stretching out his hand towards me. "Come on." He says. "You're riding on my horse tonight."

I stare at his hand incredulously, then spit on the ground. "I would rather die."

In his surprise he looks into my eyes, and I experience that surge of connection again, only a lot weaker this time. "What did you say?"

"I would rather die than ride with you." I repeat. "I will not betray my people and my pack by riding on your horse."

I feel my mother's hand on my shoulder as she says: "Just ride with him, Sekinah."

Two of the alpha's guards move towards me, but the alpha stops them. "Don't touch her." He commands. "If a hair on her head is hurt—"

"I am not riding with you." I reiterate and look away, but my mother replies in my stead.

"She will ride with you, alpha. Will you not, Sekinah?" I turn to her in surprise, and a moment passes between us. She is trying to pass across a message with her eyes. Do what he says, her eyes tell me. And I understand, perfectly so. Perhaps my mother is wiser than me.

I grit my teeth in indignation and slip my hand into his outstretched one. His hand is rough but warm to the touch, the hand of a battle-worn warrior, and against my will I feel myself relaxing in his presence. He pulls me up without so much as a grunt and I settle in front of him on the horse.

His chest is bare and even warmer than his hand, and I can feel his breath tickling my neck. I can feel his hard edges on my back, my waist, everywhere, and I close my eyes, trying to remind myself that this is the man who had orchestrated the death of my father and ten dozen other wolves, but it's hard. He's my mate now, and I am bound to him in more ways than one. We wait until my mother joins another horse with a guard with her, then the alpha grabs the reins of his own horse.

"Are you comfortable?" He murmurs behind me, his breath hot on my neck, and I nod silently. I do not feel capable of forming coherent words.

"Use your words, Sekinah." He murmurs again, igniting a fire of desire in my belly. I inhale sharply, trying to remind myself that this is the man who displaced my entire family and my pack in a single night, but that realisation is slowly fading to a discreet corner of my mind.