The Alpha's Unwanted Luna

TWO

It was a bright afternoon, though the trees kept the sun far from the cottage. Only a few rays stole through the window of the cottage and touched Nathan’s dish. He wished it would rain and drown out the sounds around him, but his keen werewolf nose could not smell moisture in the air. That meant he was going to be stuck listening to conversations he would rather not have.

"Would you like more beef on your plate?" Nathan heard from across the table, and he suddenly looked up.

Sitting across the table from him was the wolf who had changed his life and had forced him away from home.

For years, Nathan had grown to despise the man seated opposite him. He’d wanted to fight his claws and fangs on the night of a full moon, but he knew he had to wait his turn. Only an Alpha could challenge another, and he was not one.

"It is perfect, thank you," Nathan said to his host. The woman who served him, he paid no heed to. Though she was innocent and had done him no harm, he felt no kinship to her.

Everyone around him smelled different, as they were not of his pack. And he smelled different to them as well.

And it is all because of you. Nathan thought of the large man seated opposite him. He looked up once again at the man and their eyes locked.

Both men could sense the other's hostility, but they kept their claws sheathed. Jason knew he could not take the alpha on his own, as Kenan was much stronger than he was, but it did not make his body temperature lower any less.

Kenan watched him as keenly as he watched him too.

"Don’t you find the meal pleasing?" His betrothed asked as she came to sit next to him.

"I do. "Thank you," Kenan said to her with a forced smile before he turned to his meal. It was a cut piece of raw beef, but he had no appetite for it. He knew, as did his hosts, that he ate cooked meals at the other end of Shadowmoon, where his father and the rest of his pack resided.

Nathan knew he was being tested.

He cut out a slice slowly and put it in his mouth. The two pairs of eyes at the table stared at him as he chewed on the raw piece of meat.

"What do you think of it?" Kenan asked him. His tone was razor sharp, and he held back more words than he was told.

Kenan said to him, "Perfect."

"Well, I am glad," his betrothed, Astrid, said casually, and went on to eat.

She was oblivious to the tension in the room.

"I think the two of you would make a good couple," Kenan added.

Though Nathan did not turn his face, he could feel Astrid gazing with a smile on his face.

I don’t want to be here. Nathan thought in frustration. He ate a little more of his lunch but waited at the table until the alpha was done with his meal. And Anderson took his merry time finishing his meal, making loud chewing noises and talking while he ate.

"Is there a problem, Jason?" Nathan asked, calling Jason for the first time that afternoon.

"There is none." "My mind just wandered," Nathan lied.

"I thought maybe you were missing your pack," Anderson said to his daughter, laughing, "or maybe you were missing the comforts of your home, your father's." Kenan joked, picking on Nathan.

Be calm. Calm yourself. Nathan thought repeatedly, trying to calm himself. Werewolves were known for their hot tempers, and Nathan knew he was being goaded into a fight he was sure to lose.

He wants to kill you. Nathan knew. Even though he had agreed to the union between his daughter and the son of his rival, Kenan wanted a fight. He’d wanted to fight some more, drag out the conflict, and kill even more werewolves, but suddenly, he wanted peace. And though it had smelled quite suspicious, Nathan's father had agreed to it.

Nathan had been chosen to mate with Astrid.

While that also meant that Jason would one day become the alpha of Kenan's pack as well, he thought the price was a real burden. He was not in love with Astrid, but he had an obligation to play his part. He was born with that obligation, and now that he was old enough to fulfil it, he was given away for peace.

...in the name of peace.Nathan reminded himself. He believed that peace was the source of his sadness and lack of appetite.

"I am grateful for the meal," Nathan said as he stood from his seat. "I would like to go for a walk."

Kenan spread his arms wide. "You can go anywhere you wish to." "These woods are mine, and you are my guest," Kenan said.

"And one day, the alpha," the excited Astrid added. Nathan did not share her excitement, and neither did Anderson.

"He will have to earn it," he said sternly.

Though Nathan was outside, he could quite easily hear their conversation for miles if he’d wanted to.

Prove myself? Why do I need to prove myself to him? Nathan grumbled as he walked farther and farther into the woods.

He could smell everything in those parts of the woods that were new to him. The earth smelled similar to that in his home, but the rest of Kenan's pack filled the afternoon air with unfamiliarity.

Nathan nodded his head to the werewolves who sat outside the pack, waiting on Astrid. They nodded back to him, not wanting to offend him as he was Astrid's betrothed. Over the past few days that Nathan had been one of them, he had seen them follow Astrid all over the woods and town. But Nathan did not like them, as they were troublemakers. He could easily smell it on them and they could judge him.

He turned away from them and walked into the woods, walking farther still, not knowing where he was going, but knowing that he needed to get as far away as possible from the cottage. Nathan's chest was clogged with tense air, and he needed to breathe easily again.

The trees got thicker the farther Nathan walked into the woods.

His ears suddenly picked up the sound of a squirrel being attacked by a predator, and Nathan ran for it. When he found the squirrel, it was swinging its tiny paws frantically at a large dog. The dog winced and backed off immediately when it sensed Jason’s presence.

It was a canine just like Nathan's, and it could tell what he was and what he was capable of. The dog turned around and scrammed. The surviving squirrel ran away from Nathan even though he tried to pet it. It disappeared into the tree branches above him.

Kenan would have thought Nathan unworthy at the sight of him sparing a prey, but Jason was glad that he was truly alone once more.

"You have a duty to your pack. If you could give up your heart to end the war between our packs, wouldn’t you? " Jason’s father’s words echoed in his mind as he walked, kicking up weeds in his wake.

Astrid. Nathan allowed himself to consider every single day that he had spent among Anderson’s pack. He wanted to close his eyes and wish things were easier, but he could not.

Hidden by the forest and the wind, Nathan came to an abandoned building, overgrown with plants. There was barely much left of what would have been a large house. All that was left were some of the walls and a six-foot concrete pillar.

It was as tall as Nathan was, but the height of it did not discourage him. He could run faster than the best human athlete, lift weights that an Olympic weightlifter could not do, and he could jump high without the use of a pole.

Nathan reared from the pillar and leapt. His legs left the ground quietly before they were planted on the side of the pillar. Nathan ran up the pillar and came to sit on the round top of it. There, looking down at the forest floor from that height, Nathan felt alone and at peace.

Astrid. He thought again. She was blonde and, in her own way, attractive. She had full breasts and thick round thighs that she constantly swung conspicuously. Those were attributes that made male werewolves break into sweat or go rabid with l**t, but not Nathan.

She wanted him. If she had wanted any man in her pack, she could have gotten him. She wanted to be the mate to the alpha, as every pack female wanted to be. But Jason was not in love with her. He tried, but he couldn’t.

Nathan sniffed the air around him, taking in the scents of everyone within a large radius of him. It was soon to be mating season, and the woods were not going to smell of wet leaves or flowers anymore. It was going to be about l**t.

And Nathan was expected to mate with Astrid. Everyone, both in the north and south of Wolfdale, expected it of him.

Nathan could slowly feel himself drowning in the sad state of his situation once more. It was the dreadful feeling he had fled from, but it still haunted him. His nose sniffed the air again, and he knew he would not be able to escape the thoughts until he had performed his duty to his pack and to Astrid.

"You will be the alpha. You will have all the power a wolf might desire. And a mate," his father had said to him before sending him off to live with the enemy.

"To be a prince and lose my happiness or keep it at the cost of war?" Nathan asked himself the question without an answer.

The evening grew quieter as the sun snuck out of the sky and Jason heard the sound of water clashing against rocks. A river. Nathan got up to his feet atop the flat-topped pillar, and he jumped down onto the ground.

As he walked towards the sound of the river, Nathan knew one thing. He was a prince, and that meant that his choices were made for him. Unlike what his father believed, there was no freedom even in power.