The Alpha Luna's Veiled Emotions

EIGHT

THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS GRAPHIC SCENES.

I watched Alex fade away after he accepted my promise, his warm eyes closing. The grip he had on my wrist grew slack until his hand thudded against the floor. Despite everything, he looked peaceful. He believed in me. Why, I didn't know. I hadn't planned on leaving Blood Moon. I knew Kane wouldn't;t let me go. I didn't think I wanted to leave - not really. A part of me had still held on to the fact that maybe someday he would change. But the Blood Moon Beta, one of my only friends here, had used his dying breath to tell me about his son, and a way to escape this place. Suddenly, I was itching to leave.

And I was angry.

"Well, what is this?" Kane said, and I heard his heavy footfalls hit the landing, "My sweet pet. Why is that traitor's head in your lap?"

My eyes flashed to his, and I tried to pile all these emotions behind the dam. I couldn't just go blurting things out. Not now.

"He showed up in my office, bleeding to death, I'd hardly call that traitorous," I responded, my voice quiet.

Kane chuckled like he always did, and the sound that once could bring me to my knees instead made my blood boil, "We were on a raid, and he attacked his own pack mates. Certainly traitorous if you ask me."

A raid? I hadn't heard anything about a raid. Raids were acts of war. And Blood Moon, though menacing, and large, hardly had the resources to start an all-out war.

"Maybe he thought you, my mate, would be able to protect him from my wrath," he said darkly, looking over his body, and gesturing slightly to his head warrior who stood menacingly behind him, "Alas, it looks as if he couldn't escape death anyways."

The big brute trudged forward, and I realized he had a silver knife in one hand. My eyes widened, and I leaned over him protectively.

"What are you doing?" I growled, the sound slipping from me.

Kane narrowed his eyes and shot forward. He yanked me up roughly, my tired arm screaming in protest. I heard Alex's head hit the ground with a sickening thud.

"Why the f**k do you care, little mate?" he growled, his fingers digging further into my arm.

I yanked away from him, despite my arms protesting, "There is no reason to use silver on a dead man."

"Well, of course, there is, he was a traitor. He will have his canines removed," he said frankly.

My stomach lurched. No. No, no, no. If a wolf had his canines removed, he wouldn't be able to return to the Moon goddess's eternal hunt.

"You can't do that," I cried, taking a step toward the warrior who was now kneeling next to Alex, "He needs to go to his goddess! His mate is waiting for him!"

This time, Kane's growl rocked the floor, and if I didn't have Alpha blood myself, I would've cowered. He lunged at me, pulling my arm with one hand, and fisting my hair in his other.

"I asked you a question," he growled through his teeth, "Why do you care?"

I couldn't avoid his eyes where he held me, my scalp pleading for him to let me go, but a question bubbled up anyways, "Where did you raid?"

Beta Alex may not have agreed with Kane, but he was a good Beta. I saw no reason that he would attack his own packmates, some of which had been here with him before, if not for good reason. A sick smile spread over Kane's face, his pale eyes looked empty for the first time. Vicious.

"We were dealing with a threat to the Luna," he said smugly, before giving my hair a yank, pointing me to face Alex.

The warrior had his jaw pulled down, one hand holding it like a handle, the other fisting the silver dagger. A threat to the Luna. A threat to me. I wasn't even the actual Luna yet. Who would threaten me?

"Were you f*****g him, little mate," Kane hissed into my ear, "Is that why you defend him for killing your people? Your pack?"

"You would know if I was f*****g him," I breathed through my teeth, closing my eyes to avoid the gross sight in front of me.

Kane didn't like that response. He roughly pulled my hair again, his hand gripping into my forearm hard enough that I was worried my bones would start to crack.

"Open your goddess-given eyes!" he growled, but I protested, keeping my eyes tightly shut despite the tears rolling down them.

Kane threw me on the floor suddenly, and my head bounced off the floorboard with a painful smack. I cried out in pain, but I was hardly able to catch a breath before Kane flipped me over, right in front of his men, and the Omegas that were watching our exchange.

"No. No, no," I mumbled through tears, kicking my legs and flailing my arms to get him off of me.

But Kane wasn't giving in. He growled again, yanking up my skirt, and ripping my panties off, exposing me to everyone. I pleaded with him, thrashing about. A moment later, he forced himself into me, and I cried out again.

"Shut your mouth, or I'll let my warriors put something in it," he growled above me, thrusting into me meaningfully.

Fear flared inside me, and I shut my mouth tight, tears streaming down my face at the humiliation.

"Now, watch," he growled, grabbing a hand full of hair and forcing my head down to look at Alex's face.

His thrusts didn't slow. He pounded into me again and again while I cried quietly on the ground, watching the warrior gouge the knife into Alex's jaw. I watched every agonizing moment, and I was suddenly glad he was dead. He didn't deserve this. I sent up a silent prayer to the Goddess, praying that he would find his mate again. That the Goddess would recognize this for what it was. That she wouldn't keep him from her hunt. My wolf growled and whined in my head. She was in agony over the situation, just as I was. When the deed was done, Kane thrust into me a few more times, before he finally came with a groan. He peeled himself off of me. I could hear him pull up his pants, and secure his belt. I couldn't tear my eyes away from Alex.

"Get her up," Kane said coldly, and I felt myself being lifted off the ground by two warriors I didn't recognize.

They each held an arm behind my back, facing me towards Kane. He eyed me curiously, and I was thankful that my skirt had at least fallen down again, covering the important bits. For the first time, I realized that he looked at me like a piece of meat. My wolf whined sadly.

"Would you like to know who threatened you little mate?" he asked, c*****g his head at me, "Would you like to know the task that this piece of s**t Beta couldn't complete?"

"He was a good man," I whispered, meeting Kane's eyes with strength.

Kane scoffed, "He was a nobody. I had to pick someone though, and after I landed that scar on him, he looked scary, didn't he? Too bad he was just some i***t Omega."

I choked back a growl, trying not to anger him, but I could feel the pure rage rolling off of me. He was the one who had hurt Alex? He had killed his wife, maimed him, and he had still served Kane?

His son, I realized at once, he did it for his son. He did everything to protect his child - the child I had promised to save, but knew nothing about.

"He will be easily replaced by Marcus here, who will do what I need of him, and not get in the way," he said gesturing towards the mohawked monster, "He had no problem killing several of those Rising Sun wolves."

I stilled, my blood running cold. He had raided my pack. He had killed my people. They wouldn't threaten me, but I wouldn't put it past Kane to frame them somehow. My wolf cried out inside of me.

The dam broke.

Kane was expecting tears. He was expecting me to dissolve, but I was no weak pup. I was an Alpha. He wasn't expecting me to lunge forward, letting my wolf break the surface just enough to extend her claws. The warriors behind me weren't expecting it either, and I easily broke free of them, crashing into the Alpha before me. My mate. I tore at him, but I felt the stab of silver in my thigh, and collapsed in pain, looking down to see the silver knife lodged in my pale flesh. It burned me from the inside out. I reached down, plucking it out, and threw it onto the ground, but the warriors gained on me. They held me back despite my struggles.

Kane stood, seething, and I could see the large gash that ran along his neck, where I would've marked him as an expression of love someday.

I hoped it scarred.

"Put her in the silver room. She'll come to her senses eventually," he hissed, clutching his neck tightly.

"I will never not hate you for what you've done," I whispered, crying in pain, and devastation.

"You can't help it can you? You don’t even know you’re being selfish," he said, echoing over my tears, my arms held behind my back by the two Warriors flanking me as I cried out, "I did everything I was supposed to!"

“Get her out of my sight,” he said quietly, his voice like a velvet bullet, cutting through me in a way that hurt so good, “I’m sick feeling like I could’ve had better than you.”

“I’m sick with everything you’ve done to me!” I screamed suddenly, fighting my captors again.

They began to drag me back, my entire body on fire as the distance between me and my mate, the one that was supposed to protect me grew wider, the bond stretching thinner and thinner.

He turned his cold, calculating eyes on me, and I hated the way my heart fluttered.

“You’re a monster,” I whispered, arms burning from the force of the warriors gripping me.

The wolf inside of me howled a final plea of pain, but I forced it down. Forced out the hurt, the betrayal, the brokeness. All that was left was numbness and anger. The mate bond between us snapped like a twig.

“I am a monster,” he said, my last ounce of willpower going into my aching arms before giving out, “The monster that you made.”