Wolf of Crescent Moon

Part 1: Chapter 14: Threaten the Royal

- Rieka’s P.O.V -

It’s been a week since I last saw Ethan and honestly, I miss him a lot. I haven’t been doing much around the palace, just some basic duchess duties but other than that, I stayed in my room or the garden by myself.

Malik and I are barely speaking with each but it didn’t matter to me since he wasn’t at the top of my list lately.

On the plus side, my wound has healed since then, of course, it’s still blue around it and there’s that mark where the bullet was, but it doesn’t hurt anymore and I could remove the bandages completely.

It was in the middle of the day and I knew Malik wouldn’t be back for hours so I took this as an opportunity to go see Ethan. I wasn’t sure he would come but I wanted to give it a try. I took the knife he gave me the first time we were together and scratched my arm and watched it heal and after that, I left the palace.

I waited for about an hour and to my surprise, Ethan did come.

“This is the first time you want us to meet in the daylight,” he approaches me his hands in his pockets.

“You’re lucky I wasn’t in a meeting or something important,” he continues until he was inches away from me.

“I missed you… a lot,” I tell him and he smiles.

“What do you want to do?” he asks.

“Nothing, I just wanted to see you,” I tell him.

He looks at me for a second then takes my hand and we start walking.

“Where are we going?” I ask.

“Would you like to see Crescent Moon?” he asks and I couldn’t believe my eyes.

“Are you serious?” I tell him.

This is the first time he takes me there while I’m awake so it made me happy to see him trust me with this.

“I’m not showing you the packhouse so it’s okay if you know the road there,” he says.

“The packhouse isn’t in Crescent Moon?” I ask confused.

“It is, but only the ones who have been there or seen it know where it is. You came in and out of it asleep so you wouldn’t know where to find it,” He explains.

I nodded finding it interesting how the wolves were smart enough to keep their city a secret and their packhouse even more hidden. Having hunters as your neighboring city definitely isn’t the best but it’s not like they had a choice.

Crescent Moon wasn’t very far from Kratos, it was only an hour's walk there. I was stunned by the beauty of this place. Trees surrounded the entire place and there was a big waterfall to our right, I turned around and was able to see the small buildings behind the trees. They all looked like they were damaged houses to fool the people from outside the city to think no one lives in them.

“It’s… beautiful,” I said.

Although it looked like an old broken place it still found a way to be incredibly magical.

“You all live in these houses?” I asked pointing at the old destroyed houses.

“No, just the omegas. The betas and I live at the packhouse,” he explained.

“What is the difference between these two?” I asked.

“It’s like the Greek symbols. Alpha means first or in our case leader, Beta comes second, so my soldiers or like Lucas, and then the omegas, the helpers, maiden, they’re usually the ones with no physical ability to fight or mothers who need to feed their cubs,” he explained.

“Do they choose which group they want to be in?” I thought thinking about this ranking system.

“Usually no, but if I find an omega worth being a Beta we train them, and if a Beta betrays me or the pack, they directly become an omega or one of the packless depending on the crime.” He told me causing more questions to enter my mind.

“Packless?” I asked.

“Yes, they’re the ones who have done something unacceptable, so that decision is up to me whether I want them in my pack or not,” Ethan explained.

“No. There’s you,” he clenched his jaw.

I looked at him for a while not knowing what I should answer and as if he read my mind, he decided to change the topic.

“Want to go look at the houses?” he spoke and I nodded following him.

When we got to the city and no longer on the hill, I saw the children come out of their houses followed by their parents and one by one started bowing. They all looked at Ethan with admiration, respect, they all looked up to him whether he was younger or older than they were.

He is their Alpha after all, and their promised Alpha king once we officially mate.

“Luna,” one of the maiden said turning my attention to her and suddenly they all started saying the same thing.

I looked at Ethan and saw him smiling.

“They accept you,” he said which made me smile too.

“Do you accept them?” he then asked my smile fading away a little.

“Come on, I’ll take you back,” he held my hand and we walked back to the top of the hill.

“I’m sorry,” I apologized.

“Why?” Ethan faced me and furrowed his eyebrows.

“I’m not the mate you want me to be or the Luna your pack expects me to become,” I said making him even more confused.

“Why are you saying that?” He asked.

“I look at you people and they all respect you, they look up to you, Ethan, and me, I barely know what being a werewolf is,” I looked at him.

“It's not your fault,” he said.

“No, but if I was meant to be Luna I would’ve left Malik and Kratos a long time ago and came to you, I could’ve mated with you and you can officially free them from your full moon curse,” I said feeling sad and disappointed in myself but at the same time, I couldn’t help but stay in Kratos.

I wanted to help Ethan, but for some dumb reason, I’m not.

“Rieka, Rieka listen to me. You grew up as a human, you were raised as a human, and now suddenly I’m asking you to leave everything and everyone behind to come to be my people’s queen. If I was getting tired of waiting or I was angry at you I wouldn’t be here with you trying to teach you everything,” he held my shoulders.

“If I didn’t want you to come to me with you will I wouldn’t wait for you for as long as you need,” he said calming me down.

“I’m your mate Rieka, I’m the closest person or thing there will ever be too caring for you,” He continued.

“I’ll take you back,” he caressed my cheek then took my hand and led me out of Crescent Moon.

******

When I got back to the palace, I was dragged by Malik, I didn’t understand what he was doing but I tried freeing myself from him as hard as I could but I couldn’t.

“Malik, what are you doing?” I asked him but he wouldn’t answer.

“Malik!” I shouted but still no answer.

He pushed me inside our room and slammed the door behind him.

“Where were you?” he asked with anger.

“What gives you the right to speak with me like that after dragging me the way you just did,” I crossed my arms responding in the same tone.

“Answer me right not Rieka or I swear I will-“ he started.

“Will what? What could you possibly do?” I interrupted him and I saw the rage in his face.

He stared at me for a while then walked toward me slowly.

“If you think for a second, I don’t know what you’re doing, you are very…” he grabbed my face.

“Very wrong,” he finished his sentence.

“You’re hurting me,” I said my skin burning.

“I wouldn’t be so worried about scars,” he spoke and my heart started beating very fast.

Does he know?

No that’s not possible…

“I’m your husband… Me! So, if I see you speak with Ethan one more time, I will end you,” He said then let my face go.

He thinks I’m cheating.

That’s not a good thing, but I felt relief when I realized he still did not know I’m a werewolf. However, I had to be more careful from now on.

Malik would never hurt me but he wouldn’t hesitate to kill Ethan especially since he’s the wolf he’s looking for.

“What happened?” My mother entered the room and saw me standing in the middle of it still in shock.

“Josey told me she saw Malik dragging you unwillingly. Did something happen?” she asked.

“He thinks I’m cheating and threatened me,” I told her.

All the worry on her face faded and was replaced with an ice-cold expression. What was she thinking?

“Mom?” I looked at her.

“Don’t worry about it,” she said then got up and left leaving me even more confused.

- Queen Helena’s P.O.V –

I left Rieka’s room with one thing on my mind, the danger she is in right now. If Malik finds out her secret, he wouldn’t wait a second before placing a bullet in her skull, then do the same with her mate.

I opened the door to my chamber and saw my husband on the bed minding his own business. I looked at him with fire in my eyes and waited for him to notice me which he soon did.

“Helena?” he said looking at me.

“Your son-in-law threatened Rieka,” I told him.

“Why? Did he see her do something she isn’t supposed to do?” he answered as if it was nothing.

“She’s your daughter,” I said but he chuckled.

“No, Helena…” he stood up.

“She’s your daughter. My children are human,” he said with a disgusting smile on his face.

“I already took you in and made you queen after you betrayed everyone, so don’t ask me to make you any more favors. I already have a werewolf in my house,” he spoke.

“So if Malik found out you-“ I started.

“If he found it then I expect him to do what any hunter would do,” He stopped me.

“Do not speak of your daughter with me again, am I clear?” he said his face inches away from mine and I nodded.

This was not the first time we have a conversation similar to this and it always ends with him cursing my daughter for being what she is and threatening me he will expose her.

But I will end this…

~ To be Continued ~