Between two alphas

Episode2

VESHA

“I’m sorry. Didn’t see you there…” I stuttered.

I thought I saw a smile…and a nod that almost went unnoticed.

Then he sank in, leaving bubbles floating around where he was.

I wanted to run. Scream. Shout for help. Not to his rescue, but to mine.

Wolves never crossed Lycan borders without permission, nor did Lycans. So why was he here? Or why was I here? Which of us crossed?

I couldn’t even recognize where I was again because the only thing in my head was to run.

I started off slowly, swimming backward with a keen placement of my eyes on the bubbling spot. He didn’t come up. Good.

But what if he needed help?

I let my instincts lead, and I turned to swim away.

The water stirred suddenly and he came up right in front of me.

I gasped, colliding with his chest before I could stop myself. My hands flew up, pushing against solid muscle, my heart pounding so loudly I was sure he could hear it. I stumbled backward in the river, water sloshing around us.

“I’m sorry,” he said quickly. “I did not mean to scare you.”

His voice was calm. Too calm for someone who had just appeared out of nowhere.

I stared at him, frozen. Up close, he was even more unsettling. Taller than I had thought. Stronger. His amber eyes searched my face, Assessing.

“What are you doing here?” he asked softly. “Alone. At this hour.”

I opened my mouth to answer, but nothing came out. My thoughts tangled, fear mixing with something else I did not want to name. The river felt colder all of a sudden, or maybe it was just him being too close.

I tried to step back again, but the current shifted. I lost my footing slightly, and without thinking, he reached out, steadying me by the arm.

“Easy,” he murmured.

His hand was warm against my skin. Too warm.

I sucked in a sharp breath.

Before I could stop him, his thumb brushed gently under my eye, wiping away water or tears. I did not know which. The touch sent a strange feeling through me, like a spark traveling down my spine. My body reacted before my mind could catch up.

“There,” he said quietly. “Your eyes. You’re a wolf”

Then he pushed a strand of wet hair away from my face. Slow and careful as if I might break.

“Why are you here?” he asked again. “You should not be wandering this far on your own.”

The moment shattered.

I moved away fully this time, hugging my arms around my chest.

“I urm…I was sent to…” I started, then stopped.

“Alpha!” a voice called from the woods.

He stiffened.

His head turned sharply toward the sound, his expression changing in an instant. He looked back at me once. “You need to go,” he said. “Immediately.”

“Oh I…” I began.

“Now,” he insisted, lower this time. Urgent.

I did not argue.

I turned and swam toward the shore, my limbs suddenly heavy. When my feet touched land, I climbed out and wrapped my arms around myself, watching from behind the line of trees.

He swam closer to the edge on the opposite side just as a woman stepped into the water. She was beautiful. Long hair, confident movements. She laughed as she reached him, slipping easily into his space.

His shoulders relaxed.

The sound of their laughter echoed across the river, light and intimate.

Something in my chest sank.

I looked away, shame creeping in where longing had been. What was wrong with me? Drawn to a man who clearly belonged to someone else. A Lycan Alpha. Probably married.

I let out a slow breath and turned back toward the path home.

******************

The following day was the day I waited my entire life for.

Asides getting marked by Caelan, I would finally move into the mansion. My new status as the Luna would bury every history about my origin for a very long time, and I would finally be treated as the mate of an alpha…a Luna.

I was draped in purple and a crown of flowers on my head. The excitement in me flowed like an unending river, making me pace about my room. When the knock finally came, Caelan stood by the door with his arm extended.

“Walk with me,” he ordered gently.

“Of course,” I smiled, locked my arm around his and moved with him.

Instead of taking the closest corridor to the hall, we went through the farthest.

Nothing was said until we arrived at the aisle directly leading to the entrance of the door.

“I won’t mark you today,” Caelan blurted.

He said the words like they were mere letters of the alphabet, yet each word shredded a piece of my heart.

“Wh…why? What do you mean, Caelan? We planned for this a long time ago,”

“I planned. Not we,” he corrected. I bet he noticed how easily that moved me to tears, which is why he decided to look at me. “The conclave still bears deep resentment for you and your family. They still believe you carry their darkness and would stop at nothing to make sure they don’t have someone like you representing the pack as the Luna,”

“Someone like me,” I scoffed with a sob, trying to hold it in with a smile and a sarcastic tone. “I have done everything they’ve asked. Everything you’ve asked,”

“Don’t you think I know that?” He interrupted me. “You’ve failed to prove yourself to the conclave. You’ve failed to show them you’re nothing like your family. So…not today,”

His words shattered the pieces of myself I’ve been holding together for months.

How do you walk a woman all the way here on the most important day of her life only to shatter her heart?

“What did they threaten you with?” I coughed.

“What?” He asked, surprised that I could tell.

“The conclave must have done something to make you change your mind. I know you. I know you love me, yet you choose to…”

“The alpha position will be taken away from me if I dare mark you. I’ve worked my entire life to be here. I can’t let a mistake ruin my success. Not today,” he concluded.

A mistake!

I tried to pull away from his grip, but he tightened it. “What are you trying to do?”

“To Leave,”

“No. You’re going in there with me. You’ll put on a smile and act like everything is alright. Prominent wolves and Lycans are there. You can’t…we can’t risk a failure. Do you understand?”

I inhaled, doing all I could to hold back my shaky breath. I nodded. “Yes, Caelan,”

We walked in, and I did exactly as he instructed.

A perfect smile, a sweet voice and always standing in his shadow.

We greeted every single person and table but one—

“There’s one table left,” Caelan pointed towards it. “Lycan king Morvane Larister,”

I followed his gaze only to meet those familiar amber eyes staring back at me just like last night. My heart sank recalling the way he touched me, the way the current flowed around us and how shame dragged me out of the water.

He smiled. I couldn’t tell if it was at me or at Caelan.

“Hurry. We shouldn’t keep him waiting.” Caelan gently pulled me along.

********************