The Perfect Luna’s Rogue Mate

Chapter 2

Chrystal tore her gaze from the storm-grey depths that seemed to see too much, to know too much, and finally found her father, the pack Alpha of Moonblaze pack, the Alpha King of Malbarone Kingdom.

Alpha King Mason Barone stood frozen on the dais, surrounded by guards. His face was pale as death as he watched the rogue approaching his daughter.

A wolf he had personally banished from the Kingdom. A rogue who was supposed to have died so long ago that his name and face should have been forgotten.

But the face was of another. One no one in the Kingdom or the pack had been able to forget. A shifter long dead. Certainly gone. Yet this one had shown up. Today. At his daughter’s mating ceremony.

Chrystal reluctantly drew her gaze away from her father.

Her eyes rested on Castian once again as she straightened, slowly, with the regal dignity that had been bred into her bones, despite the pain from the sacred bonding not having receded by an inch.

The rogue had stopped his advance, just feet away from her, his gaze where hers had been a second earlier, on her father.

His eyes, the curve of his lips, were radiating a disdain Chrystal could not understand.

“Why… Why are you here?” she asked hoarsely, finally finding her voice, watching the rogue wolf carefully as Darius moved forward on her right, his blue eyes on fire.

“What do you want from us?” she pressed, trying to pull his attention, his focus, to herself instead of her family.

The pack warriors surrounded the three of them now, Chrystal, Castian, and Darius, moving silently as the crowd, as well as the King, looked on in disbelief.

The King, however, had eyes for only one of the three.

Chrystal’s face relaxed as determination replaced panic, though her brow was covered in beads of sweat, and her chest was tight, making breathing difficult.

“I hope you have a better plan than just showing up and hoping for the best,” she said evenly, her voice carrying clearly across the suddenly quiet gathering.

That did it.

Castian turned to her, his brows lifted in what might have been surprise or approval, and the corners of his lips twitched.

He eyed her slowly without saying a word, as if she were not worth the effort, or was but a distraction from his true goal.

Then, his gaze returned to their former target.

“Alpha Barone!” Castian called out in his deep, powerful voice, “Is this how you intend to greet your son-in-law?” he remarked, a smile growing on his face.

Though it could hardly be called a smile, his expression was more like a dare, his tone beyond disrespectful.

It was more than fearlessness; it was more than arrogance. It was too raw, too close to something that reeked of the deeply personal. Something private.

Chrystal would have gaped, but her grooming did not allow for such expressions.

The crowd had now moved well away from the three young wolves, while warriors had fully surrounded them, blocking Castian’s path back to the forest he had stepped out of, blocking his route to their pack members, and any hopes of advancing toward the Alpha King.

But, for all Castian seemed to care, the rogue may as well have been in an empty field staring up at the night sky for all the urgency or disquiet he displayed.

Daruis stepped forward, placing himself between the rogue and his bride, his expression twisted in fury as his face turned red. “Son-in-law? You? A bloody rogue? Wake up from your dream!” Darius growled.

“Your tongue is quick, little Alpha. Do you feel any bond with the Luna? Hmmm?” Castian retorted wryly, his tone dripping with a disdain that the Noble Alpha did not miss.

Clearly, he had taken control of his own pain. A pain he shared with Chrystal.

She watched him still, managing her own suffering as best she could while her mind worked, trying to find ways to get the rogue away from her betrothed, who seemed to be closing a distance that should be maintained as far as he possibly could.

She knew, as surely as she knew her own name, that the rogue before them was dangerous.

“She’s mine!” Darius spat, his piercing blue eyes on Castian, his chest pushing forward, his hand tightening on the hilt of his sword whose tip was pointed at Castian’s throat.

The magic disagreed.

As if in response to Darius’ outburst, the runes on the ground flared red, completing the bonding process and binding Chrystal and Castian’s fates together. Both wolves staggered.

Castian hissed quietly and grunted, and his storm-grey eyes immediately darted from Darius to Chrystal’s pale face. Chrystal’s lips parted slightly as she breathed out silently, steadying herself. She swallowed deeply, grinding her teeth as she forced herself to remain upright.

Her eyes were closed as she controlled her breathing.

“Kill him!” Darius bellowed with the fury of a wolf who saw his entire future crumbling before his eyes, and Chrystal’s eyes shot open.

“No!”

“No!”

She and her father called out at the same time. Darius’ head snapped back to Chrystal and immediately to the Alpha King, who remained motionless, watching the events before him with continued composure.

“The bond is formed,” Chrystal rasped as her heart hammered against her chest. “Any attack risks both our lives through the mate connection," she continued, explaining the situation for Darius’ benefit.

“Clever girl,” Castian murmured under his breath, though whether in approval or mockery, Chrystal would never know. Her jaw clenched as she held back a retort.

Darius' eyes narrowed, then snapped to Castian. “She is MY Luna!” he roared, as if nothing had been said after his kill command, his voice growing more heated with each word as denial warred with the evidence of his own senses.

“This is some trick! You have used some rogue magic!” Darius continued, his words shooting like arrows at the intruder’s mind.

“I?” Castian droned, his eyebrow rising again, his tone rich with condescending amusement as he regarded the younger wolf with the kind of patience usually reserved for entertaining children. “When? How?” he remarked encouragingly, as if urging a pup to explain its reasoning.

“That –”

“That is you and your people’s play, surely,” Castian continued, cutting Darius off, with the casual authority of someone accustomed to controlling conversations and commanding attention, his eyes gliding to Alpha Mason, his tone laced with hidden meaning.