The Alpha's Ruthless Luna

Chapter 13

The next morning, Diana was brought back into the mansion.

Aiden had promised himself that she had learned her lesson and would be a better Luna to him.

Unfortunately, he wasn't aware of his mother's visit to Diana.

She was standing in his study, her hands folded against her chest like she had a lot to say, especially judging by the way her chest heaved and the wrinkles on her forehead deepened.

"How was your night?" he asked her, a certain amusement hidden beneath his tone as he expected her to be filled with annoyance and jealousy.

Diana didn't know what to say to him.

The smug look on his face needed to be wiped off.

That was all she could think about.

But then she thought about Aiden's mother last night and her comforting words, and she found herself calming down and smiling.

"Amazing, actually," she said with a genuine smile. "I made a friend. I mean, number one was a real pain in the ass, or rather, experienced a lot of pain when she fell face-first onto the ground. Oh my goodness, you should have seen her."

Aiden's smug expression was replaced with a frown as he tried to figure out whether she was lying.

Actually, he was disappointed.

He'd thought Sheila would have taught her a lesson, that the girls would have made her jealous or something.

He'd expected much more.

Was this a joke?

Now he was annoyed.

And making a friend?

That was impossible.

Those girls gave every new girl hell for at least one week, bullied the life out of them, and put them in their place.

He'd expected Diana to be in tears this morning, begging to be an obedient Luna.

But it was Diana.

If something that small could break her, then she would be boring.

This was a woman who had challenged him.

There was no woman in the Silver Moon Pack like her.

Damn it.

He was impressed.

"Interesting. Perhaps you wouldn't mind if you slept there tonight as well," he told her, wanting to see her reaction.

And to his horror, she shrugged.

"I don't mind moving in with the girls," she said with a confident smile.

One that actually creeped him out.

He was mad.

Ready to dial his ruthlessness up a notch.

She would go back tonight, except she would not go alone.

He would have his pleasure night, one he'd not had in a while, and he would make her watch until she went crazy.

"I wouldn't recommend that. You're my Luna. You will stay in the mansion."

He paused.

"But since you love the girls so much, we could go back there tonight, together. There's going to be a party, and I already got you a dress."

No, he didn't.

He had just begun scheming in his head.

"I'm not going to the party," Diana told him bluntly, her face holding a certain disgust that got to him.

Aiden sighed.

"You stress me out. Why can't you just obey me?" he muttered the last part, not intending for her to hear.

"You stress me too." She said with a squeezed nose and crossed her arms in sheer annoyance.

"You know what would be better for both of us?"

Aiden wondered what she had in mind.

"Humour me."

"Absence."

She made a dramatic gesture with her hands, snapping them away from each other.

"From each other's lives. Release my mother, cancel the agreement between you and my father. Then I disappear, and this time you don't try to find me."

She smiled.

"Imagine that."

She prayed that he would take her words to heart for even a second, especially with how intensely he watched her speak.

"Absence," Aiden repeated.

She really humoured him.

"I should let you go so peace can reign. Is that it?"

She nodded enthusiastically.

"Indeed. You would have your girls. Sheila, in fact, will be the perfect Luna. Amazing leader, obedient. You should see what she'd done with numbers two to five."

Aiden squinted in confusion.

"Numbers what?"

"The other girls." Diana rolled her eyes as she explained, her voice dripping with low sarcasm.

It was hard not to laugh.

He had to keep a straight face and watch her blab.

"I'm sorry, Diana. It's impossible."

His expression became more serious.

"Do you even have any idea how that contract happened?"

To Diana's horror, his voice suddenly became gentle. It was like he had been possessed by someone else.

This person...

She did not trust him.

But she wanted him to remain like this for a while.

"My dad probably gambled my life away for some change."

She shrugged carelessly, as though it didn't affect her.

Meanwhile, she tried not to think about it each day because it hurt too much.

He sold her.

The same way he had sent her away as a child to live with his human best friend, allowing her to become so interwoven with humans that she had almost forgotten her own existence.

"He was trying to protect you." Aiden sighed, remembering the night so vividly.

"I mean, yes, he's a deranged gambler. And he gambled with the wrong person."

Diana looked at him.

"It was luck that drew me into the club that night. Or a woman, if you desire the details."

He paused.

"He had gambled everything he had, including his house."

Aiden's expression changed slightly.

"And some sort of necklace. A locket that had your photo."

He still remembered that night.

A cold and lonely night in the gentleman's club just outside the pack's territory.

He was indeed supposed to meet a woman, someone who might have given him a memorable night because she had been called Camilla.

Weird.

But yes, he had been emotionally attached to that name.

It had been the name of the woman he once loved, the one who had turned him into a version of himself he now didn't recognise.

But he had been disappointed by how vague this woman had been.

Too vague.

Too dumb, he realised after having one drink with her.

She was actually a gold-digger too.

It annoyed him that she was so different from his beautiful, smart, firecracker Camilla.

He had paid for their drinks and excused himself, only to catch, from the corner of his eye, his brother Carlos grabbing an older man by the collar after throwing enough punches to destabilise him.

"You will give me everything, or..."

Carlos ripped the man's necklace off, causing the man to let out a fearful shriek, like he'd rather die than have anyone take his necklace.

Aiden thought, Interesting.

Seeing that it was a gambling table, he tried not to concern himself with the outcome of the situation.

Until his brother actually got hold of the necklace.

It was a locket.

"No! Give it back!" the older man screamed, fighting helplessly to snatch it back.

He only ended up looking stupid as Carlos opened the locket and became mesmerised by whatever he saw inside.

Aiden could no longer sit.

His curiosity had gotten the better of him, so he got off the bar seat and headed towards the centre of attention.

"Hey, brother! Quit bullying the man now, would you?" he said rather calmly, almost like he didn't care.

When Carlos saw his brother, he let out an annoyed grunt but tried to maintain a respectable demeanour because he was standing before the Alpha.

"Brother, he has decided to take me for a fool."

Carlos held up the locket.

"He made a bet with the most precious thing in his life, only to lie that it was his house. Trust me, he made the bet. It had absolutely nothing to do with me."

Aiden scoffed.

"Then I win, and he says he doesn't even have the papers to his house. So I want something else."

His eyes dropped to the locket.

"And I see something else."

Carlos laughed mischievously.

Aiden wanted to roll his eyes so badly.

"Hmm. He doesn't seem to want to give you this 'something else.' What is it? Let me see..."

Carlos was reluctant to show Aiden, but when he finally did, Aiden understood.

He opened the locket.

Inside, he saw a child. A young girl.

A redheaded child with the most beautiful smile, one that affected his heart warmly.

It was like looking into a beautiful sunset.

He was mesmerised.

The older man saw it too.

Even Carlos.

"I want her," Carlos said.

"I'd rather die." The man swore, baring his teeth.

Aiden found the older man's voice annoying, especially considering that he had promised the most precious thing in his life so cheaply on a gambling table.

Carlos laughed.

"Haha. Do you know who I am? I could throw you into the dungeon and—"

"I promise her to the Alpha for my life and position in the pack!"

The words ran out of the man's mouth so carelessly that Aiden became really angry.

"Selling to a different master, I see..."

Aiden's voice was cold.

"Okay. I'll take her." He looked at the picture again.

"But as what? She's too young..."

"Oh no, she's of age. This is her picture as a child."

The older man quickly explained. "She's a beautiful young woman."

Carlos felt like he was being overlooked.

"Brother, this is my win! You cannot take it!" he snapped.

Aiden simply smiled. "I can." He took out his wallet, pulled out a check, wrote something in it and smiled gracefully. "And I have."

He looked between the two men.

"Dispute settled. Let's say I'm buying her off you. Five million dollars." He offered Carlos the written check.

Carlos stared at him for a second, hesitant, feeling insulted, but Aiden was offering something worth his while, so he took it.

"And for an emotional settlement, brother, this man shall be ostracised from our pack for trying to sell his daughter twice."

The older man cried and begged.

But Aiden did not agree.

The next day, before the ostracism, the agreement was signed.

And Diana was contracted to be his.

So yes...

He would claim her as his.

Regardless of how stubborn she proved to be.