He Took Her Side, I Rejected My Alpha

Chapter 3

I stayed at Kaya's house for two weeks.

Two long, ugly weeks.

I watched Elara on the feeds. Every day she posted something new. Every post contained Kael's scent. His shadow. His.

"There's a Moon Goddess above us, and there's a Guardian Star above me."

The accompanying image was a selfie of Elara.and in the back corner of the photo, the unmistakable silhouette of Kael speaking with another Pack leader at the floor-to-ceiling windows.

"My Guardian Star never stops shining. So I keep chasing the light."

The accompanying image was a close-up of a silver star pendant catching moonlight. And just behind it.a pair of long, strong, scarred hands.

Kael's.

"My star shows me wider forests."

The accompanying image: the Northern Coalition summit. Elara, radiant in the foreground. Kael's profile, eyes closed in restful focus, just behind her.

One image after another.

Kaya was pacing the room like a caged Warrior. She jabbed her finger at the holo-screen and roared.

"This poisonous b***h. Has Kael actually gone blind? Can he not see her venom? A pack full of fools.not one of them believes a word you say."

Kaya was howling with rage.

I was the one going eerily still.

I could feel the first sharp agony of the Mate Bond fracturing inside me, but it was passing. Anya had curled up quietly in a corner of my soul, licking her wounds.

To Kaya's tirade, I only offered a soft, measured observation.

"Kael knows."

"He knows?"

Kaya dropped down beside me. Drained half her bottle in one swallow.

"Then why does he keep swearing they're innocent?"

"To Kael, as long as their bodies have never completed the consummation mark, as long as they haven't shared souls under a full moon, it's innocent. He genuinely doesn't think he's broken our vows."

That had always been his shield. That ridiculous, performative line in the sand.

So every time I lost control of my anger, every time Anya wanted to claw out of me and shred something.he'd hit me with the same response: Elara and I are completely innocent. The filth is in your jealous mind. You see filth because you're filthy. And every time, I'd been the one rendered silent.

But now, looking at all of it from outside myself.

I was free of him.

I reminded Kaya, "The movers are here."

Kael and I were going to be formally severed through the Elder Council. I needed to be moved out of the Alpha's residence. I had to go retrieve what was mine.

After all.

My mother's moonstone heirloom was still in that house.

"As long as you're clear on it."

Kaya rode back to the Pack core territory with me. Stood guard outside the Alpha's residence.

I had been watching Elara's feeds carefully. I knew Kael was supposed to be away on boundary negotiations.

So I'd thought we wouldn't meet. I was wrong.

The moment I shoved open the heavy carved oak doors, I caught the smell of grilling meat from the kitchen.

I walked deeper into the house. There, at our long dining table, sat Elara.legs crossed, a venison shank in her hand, completely at home.

The instant she saw me, her face froze. She jumped to her feet like a guilty pup.

"Luna Leah."

She was wearing the bespoke winter cloak I had made for myself. The boots, too. Mine.

And Kael walked out of the kitchen at exactly the wrong moment, plate of grilled meat in his hand. His smile died on his face.

He recovered. Stiff. Painfully casual.

"You're back? Want to grab something with us?"

I didn't dignify him with a glance.

I walked straight past him into the bedroom we had shared for ten years.

And I froze.

My ancient scroll fragments.shelved with obsessive care along the headboard.were scattered. The fur bedding had been rummaged through. The wardrobe was hanging open. And the warded storage chest in the deepest corner, the one I'd sealed with my own family's binding runes.

Had been forced open.

My chest locked. Anya was already snarling inside me before my eyes confirmed what they had to confirm.

"Luna Leah."

The chest was empty.

Elara's voice came from the doorway. Small. Pitiful. Barely above a whisper.

"I'm so sorry. Alpha Kael and I got caught in a thunderstorm coming back from patrol. Our supplies were lost. He asked me to come here and grab a dry cloak."

"And I.I bumped against that chest by accident."

There was a roaring in my ears. I turned my head slowly. Elara stood in the doorway with shimmering fragments of stone clinging to her fingers.

My eyes dropped to the floor.

To the shattered moonstone lying in pieces at her feet.

I forgot how to breathe.

"I really didn't mean to."

"Luna Leah, please."

Elara suddenly threw herself at my feet. Threw herself. Knees cracking against the slate.

She grabbed my forearm and started sobbing.

"Please forgive me. Please. I didn't know it was your mother's heirloom. I didn't know. I swear to you on the Moon I didn't know."

She caught my hand.

"Punish me. Please. Beat me with your own hands. Make yourself feel better. Please."

She started to bow her head down toward the stone floor as though she were going to c***k her own forehead open in front of me.

Just as her skull was about to meet the slate.

A muscular arm came across both of us. Kael's hand caught her forehead in his palm.

He lifted her gently to her feet. Wiped a tear away from her cheek. Then he turned to look at me. Calm. Almost bored.

"What's done is done. The wolf-soul in that stone has already passed on. There's no point making another wolf of our own kind suffer over it. Elara has already apologized."

His tone made it sound like a four-hundred-year-old soulstone, carrying the last shred of my dead mother's essence, was a trinket.

And that I was the petty, vindictive Luna making a scene.

He moved his body slightly to shield Elara from me. Like I was the dangerous one.

"Stop making her suffer. Her conscience is already eating her alive. She's carrying enough."

I hadn't said a word. I hadn't moved.

Anya was on the absolute edge of berserk.

As long as Elara performed her victim role, every wrong in this house became my crime.

The time she'd stolen my sacred herbs.

The time she'd taken my hunting blade.

The time she'd defaced the moonstone token from our Bonding Ceremony.

The time she'd waltzed into my private wing. My absolute forbidden zone.

And now. Now. The single thing my mother had left me. The last piece of her soul I could touch.

And Kael was asking me to forgive her. To be the bigger wolf.

The room screamed in my ears. My throat closed.

My fingertips, without permission, sprouted claws. My body had stopped pretending to be calm.

I turned to look at the woman crying into Kael's chest.

I walked over to her in three strides. And in front of him.in front of Kael's stunned eyes.I grabbed a fistful of her golden hair and slammed her head against the wall.

Her broken scream filled the room.

I drove my knee into the back of hers. She dropped down hard, and this time she really was on her knees in front of me.

"That isn't how you kowtow."

I pressed my foot down across her shins. Twisted my fingers tighter into her hair. Slammed her head down again, into the cold stone.

The impact made a sound like cracked porcelain.

I heard her shriek. Saw a thin red line of blood weep down her forehead. The iron smell of it hit my nose and threaded straight into my nervous system.

I told her, "That's how you kowtow to a higher-ranked wolf."

My eyes burned red. My pupils had narrowed into slits.

I started to drag her head down again, and Kael caught my wrist.

He held me there. His Alpha pressure rolled through the room like thunder.

"Let go."

"In your dreams."

Kael raised his other hand and pinned my shoulder.

Then, very deliberately, he forced my claws out of Elara's flesh. One finger at a time.

I felt one of my own claws bend backward. The pain made me hiss. He didn't notice. Or didn't care. He kept peeling my hand off her, his voice an Alpha's warning growl.

"Don't push this any further, Leah."

Push this any further.

I looked at Kael. The laugh that came out of me was almost unhinged.

"Kael. The difference between higher-ranked wolves and witless beasts is that we think. We tell right from wrong. We have laws our ancestors carved into stone. We don't let rut-instinct decide who gets blind protection!"

"If you want to wield your Alpha power to shield her."

"Fine."

I didn't even feel the claw of mine snap off cleanly.

I saw blood well up from my fingertip and.in the half-second Kael froze.I drew my other hand across the entire length of Elara's face. Slowly. Deliberately. Claws extended.

There was a wet, tearing sound that echoed alongside the c***k of my second claw snapping under the pressure.

Elara's face.the carefully composed, pose-ready face that lived on a hundred feeds.was torn open from temple to jaw.

Even the most gifted Healer in the Pack couldn't erase a scar opened by a Luna's wolf-marked claw.

Elara dissolved into hysterical screaming, both hands clamped to her ruined cheek.

I started to laugh.

"That."

"That is what happens when you challenge a Luna."

"And Kael."

I looked at him. At the dawning horror in his face. At the writhing figure on the floor between us.

"I want you to remember something."

"My blood runs all the way back to one of the oldest war-bred bloodlines in this forest. I am not, and have never been, the kind of soft creature who only knows how to hide behind her Alpha's back. You should have known that by now."

"Kael."

"You have officially crossed every line I have."

"I am going to flay you alive in front of the Council.or I don't deserve the name my mother left me."

Kaya burst through the door with her sidearm drawn. She took one look at the bloody mess on the floor, took one look at my hands.still dripping.and let out a curse.

"That poisoned son of a bitch."

She put herself between me and Kael, her shoulders squared. The moving crew hung back in the doorway, too terrified to come any closer.

Kael was staring at me like he'd never seen me before in his life.