The Alpha's Lost Luna

15

Rowan

I went to scoop her up before I straightened. The crowd was still gathered, watching. Heather stepped forward, desperate and pleading. "Rowan, I was only trying to protect what should be mine..."

I moved so fast she barely had time to gasp before my hand was wrapped around her throat. The entire square froze. I lifted her just enough to force her onto the tips of her toes. The pack remembered the immature teenager that left for the academy. They hadn't been introduced to the dangerous alpha that they turned me into. Heather's hands clawed at my wrists. My wolf snarled beneath my skin.

"You will listen to me carefully," I said. My voice was low and lethal. "I am not your lover. I am not your future mate. I am not your boyfriend." Tears filled her eyes and I squeezed her throat slightly tighter. "Whatever fantasy you and my mother have cooked up in your minds ends now. We are nothing to each other."

Her breathing turned ragged and pain echoed through her eyes. I leaned closer to her.

"You were never a choice."

A broken sound left her throat. I released her, and she stumbled backward, coughing, crying and humiliated. I felt nothing. No guilt. Not sympathy. Only relief. I turned back to the crowd, and then I made sure every single person there heard me. I knew what I said earlier put a target on her back, and I was about to either make it ten times worse or help her tremendously.

"Elizabeth is under my protection."

The words rang through the square like an Alpha command. No one breathed. No one moved. I stepped in front of her battered body lying there motionless, and looked every wolf there dead in the eye. I released a fraction of my wolf's aura and smirked as the crowd flinched.

"You go after her..." my voice dropped. "... I will take it as you going after me."

The air itself felt heavy. Even Cade stood taller beside me. I let the silence stretch on. Let the fear settle among them. Let them understand.

"This ends today!"

I turned to Cade before I gestured for Regina to stand. She was helping me with Elizabeth, but the pack would never learn without an example. Heather was one, but they needed to learn that no one was exempt from this. Not even someone as valuable as a healer. She stood, understanding what was about to happen.

"You," I said and she flinched. "You are the pack healer."

She swallowed. "Yes, alpha."

"And yet, you stood here and watched," her eyes dropped. I stepped toward her. "You watched a defenseless wolf be beaten. Whipped. Burned with silver. Left bleeding in the dirt like she was worth less than the mud beneath your feet."

"Alpha, I..."

"No," my voice cracked like thunder. "You do not get excuses. No one does."

She visibly trembled. "I was under Luna Faye's direct order..."

"And that absolves you?" I stepped closer. I knew that breaking an alpha pairs commands was extremely difficult. If she truly was ordered to stand aside, she wouldn't have been able to refuse. But I didn't care about that. Not right now. "You took an oath to protect this pack. All of it. Not just the wolves convenient to protect. Not just the ones my mother approves of."

Tears welled in her eyes as she understood, and I could sense she agreed. Good. She should feel it. The pain.

"By doing nothing, you were complicit." Silence. "If you want even the possibility of my forgiveness," I said coldly, "You will get on your knees right now and you will save her. And when she wakes up, you will beg for her forgiveness. Mine is contengient on hers."

Regina nodded quickly before continuing to prep Elizabeth for transfer to my rooms. She understood what I was doing in making an example for the rest of the pack gathered here to see. "Yes, Alpha."

"Now."

She rushed forward, and I knelt beside Elizabeth as Cade gathered the discarded silver restraints. When he returned he had an unreadable expression on his face. I stood to my full height. "Leave. Now. Take my warning however you will. I am not my mother, and I am nothing like my father. But I will not run a pack of bullies."

I scooped Elizabeth up the moment Regina gave me the go-ahead, cradling her small form against my chest like something fragile I couldn't afford to break. The second that she was in my arms, something deep inside me settled. Calm and peace. It filtered through my body, through my bones, through the restless pacing of my wolf until even he quieted. Holding her felt like breathing after being underwater too long.

I buried my nose against her neck and inhaled deeply, letting the soft lavender and floral scent of her wash over me. Beneath it lingered the sharp metallic sting of iron and copper. Blood. Rage coiled violently in my chest.

The scent of her pain mixed with the softness that was uniquely Elizabeth made something dark and possessive rise inside me. I wanted blood for blood. I wanted every person who had ever touched her with cruelty to answer for it. I forced myself to look at Cade.

"Can you handle the damage control from here?" He nodded immediately. I didn't need to order him. I didn't need to explain. Cade was my friend before he was ever my future beta, and his loyalty had never once wavered. I trusted him with my life. With hers... "Thank you."

Cade stepped forward, placed a firm hand on my shoulder and gave it a squeeze. No words were said. None were needed. I turned and walked away from the town square — from the stake, from the blood on the ground, from the memory of Elizabeth chained there like she was something less than us.

Every step away from that place felt like dragging her back from hell. The farther we moved from the square, the stronger the scent of the sea became. Salt and wind replaced blood and fear. The closer we got to the packhouse, the more the suffocating pressure in my chest eased. Regina kept pace with us, monitoring Elizabeth every few steps we took.

Elizabeth stirred in my arms. Her lashes fluttered. I felt her shift slightly before the pain hit her. Her face twisted as a broken whimper slipped past her lips. The sound cut straight through me. Her eyes opened. Green. Bright, even through the haze of pain. Like polished peridot catching the sunlight. Dazed, glossy, and exhausted, but they found me instantly.

"Rowan..." my name. Just one word. Soft and weak. Barely more than a whisper and it still hit me harder than any blow ever could. Goosebumps rose along my skin.

It was like saying my name had taken the last of her strength because her eyes slipped shut again as a tear dripped from her lashes and trailed down her cheek. Her body went limp against me. No. Not again... my legs moved faster. I held her tighter, carrying her toward the only place I could think that felt safe enough for her right now. Home.

I tucked her against my chest, hoping the sound of my heartbeat, hoping my scent, my wolf, me... might bring her even the smallest sense of peace. Selfishly, I wanted her to know she was safe with me. That I would tear this entire pack apart before I let anyone hurt her again. I let myself have one small indulgence.

I pressed a kiss to her forehead and shut my eyes for half a second, trying to memorize the moment despite the pain wrapped around it. The weight of her in my arms. The warmth of her skin. The terrifying reality that I could have lost her before I truly ever had her.

"It's okay," I whispered. My voice cracked. "It's going to be okay. I've got you." I tightened my hold on her. "I promise."

Even if it was a promise I wasn't sure I knew how to keep. I would burn the world trying.