Rejected Luna Of The Cursed Alpha

What I Witnessed

There was a pause when everything came to a halt.

All that could be heard from the warrior was his ragged breathing. His claws were back inside and the amber color was now gone from his eyes, leaving them human. He searched frantically, as though he had woken up in the middle of a dream that he didn't know how he had got into.

"What happened?"

There was no answer.

None of them knew, not the guards with their weapons out ready. Not the healers who were trying to rush over to him. Not even the elders who stood near the ceremonial fire and looked shocked on their faces.

Especially not the girl who everybody was looking at.

Aria lowered her hand slowly.

She looked down at her hands and fiddled with her fingers as if searching for something inside her body. She was breathing quickly and her face looked confused and then shocked.

She looked scared.

Not of the wolf.

But of herself.

I looked at her as her eyes flickered between the young warrior and her own trembling hand and then back to the young warrior as if waiting for an answer to magically appear if she stared hard enough.

It didn’t.

There was no triumph on her face. There was no satisfaction. There was nothing suggesting that all of this happened according to a carefully laid out plan.

Only confusion.

Pure and utter confusion.

I knew enough about reading men to know when they were lying. I had seen noble men feigning loyalty only to plot their betrayal. I had seen rogues begging for forgiveness seconds before drawing out their weapons.

Fear could be faked.

Shock could be practiced.

But confusion? No, it could not.

That made it clear to me that this wasn’t a conscious effort on her part. Had this been something more calculated, then there would have been satisfaction in her eyes. This was not premeditated; therefore, she would have anticipated it.

Instead, she seemed to be a person who walked into a completely new terrain where the world below her feet had started moving.

The young warrior looked at her with wide eyes.

“I...” He stammered out, “I heard..."

He didn't continue further.

A healer was sitting next to him. “What did you hear?”

The young man gulped. “It was weird.” His eyes never left Aria. “My wolf was roaring one moment." He put his hand on his chest. “And..." His eyebrows drew down. "It was like..." He struggled for the right words. "...someone told him to calm down."

Whispers broke out instantly.

"Impossible."

"A human?"

"There has to be some other explanation."

"No explanation stops a wolf in rage mode."

I did not participate in the whispering.

I had seen too many wolves lose themselves over the years.

Five warriors were necessary to hold them down.

Sometimes they had to knock them out so that they would shift back.

Never, not even once. I had seen them calm down on their own. And definitely not due to the presence of a human woman.

My gaze sought Aria out again.

She had not moved, she seemed to want to sink into the earth.

Nora ran through the crowd and held her by the shoulders. "Aria!" concern colored her voice. "Are you hurt?"

It took Aria a few blinks to focus on her. "I..." She looked at her hand. "I..." She finally looked up at Nora. "I don't know."

This answer gave me some sort of satisfaction. She truly had no idea what just happened. It could mean only one thing. Whatever I saw...

It had confused her just as much as me.

I sheathed my sword. "Take him to the healers," I commanded.

The guards did not hesitate. They rose obediently, though before following the others, one of them glanced once more.

Not at me.

At Aria.

There was no fear in his eyes any longer.

Just confusion.

The crowd started dispersing, but the murmurs grew even louder.

"She's human."

"Humans don't have those abilities."

"Maybe she isn't human."

Aria heard those words as well.

I saw her shoulders stiffen. Her hands fisted into shaking fists.

The crowd continued to murmur softly. Some regarded her in awe, others in distrust. A handful of them had already started to take slow, wary steps away from her as if anything that happened could happen once more.

She observed them.

My jaw tensed.

I couldn't understand why. She wasn't my problem. She wasn't one of my warriors. She wasn't even one of my kind. But my very nature rejected the way they viewed her.

And I wanted them to stop.

It made me angry.

Why did I care what strangers thought about some other stranger?

When had I ever walked up to anyone without making sure first if I should? For some reason I did not understand, I took one step towards her. An urge to tell the people to look away from her came out of nowhere and surprised me.

It was not in my nature to feel like this.

After all, I barely knew this woman.

She was a guest in my realm.

That was all.

However, to see her surrounded by the attention of a hundred curious gazes caused an unpleasant feeling inside of me.

It was strange.

Protective.

Disagreeable.

I frowned at myself.

When had I begun feeling other people's unease? Something had shifted beneath that willow tree. I did not know what exactly.

But as Aria finally raised her eyes to look into mine, I understood this wasn’t the first impossible thing to happen tonight.

Indeed, two impossible things had taken place tonight. The first thing was the ability of a person to calm a raging wolf. The second thing was something that I had not experienced for years now.

I had spent almost an entire evening not thinking about my curse. My thoughts were someone else’s.

Someone who had beautiful eyes.

Someone with a gentle smile.

But with way too many secrets.

And what unnerved me most wasn't the damage she'd avoided by helping the young warrior.

It was the damage she had unwittingly done to me.

Since our encounter under that willow tree, something within me had changed.

For the first time in ages, my mind wasn't fixated on my curse.

I wasn't counting down the hours before the next round of agony would come around.

I wasn't pondering for how long my body could continue bearing up against the agony.

I was pondering...

Just who the hell is Aria Ashwood? And why, of all things, did it suddenly feel like fate had put her in my way?