His High Priestess Luna

3

Asher

The smell of blood hit my nose before I even got to the cells. The smell of death mixed in with blood, urine, vomit, and unknown bodily fluids overwhelmed my senses. It had been a year since I was down here last. The memory of what happened the last time I was here pushed at the surface of my brain, wanting to come out, but now was not the time for that memory. Swallowing hard, I ignored the instinct to vomit from the smell surrounding me and the memory that wished to be free and pushed forward. My father wasn’t a patent man and wouldn’t wait for long. Forcing my feet to move, I ignored my wolf as he complained in my head about the smell that surrounded us. “Ah, it’s about time, boy. Come, come here. It is time for you to learn a valuable lesson and prove yourself to me.” My father waved me to him. He stood in the door of one of the cells. In his hand was a silver knife already covered in blood. As I got closer to him, he moved back into the cell, meaning he wanted me to join him inside that particular cell. As I passed the one next to it, I could see the poor soul he had locked away in there was the decaying body I could smell. Ignoring it, I stepped into the cell my father was in with a blood-covered man he had chained to the far wall and looked to have beaten until he was unrecognizable. A large smile spread across my father’s face. “Today, my boy, you will execute your first traitor.” He held the knife out to me. Looking from the knife to the man chained to the wall in the cell, I looked at the guy closely and realized he was not just any random guy. He was a member of our own pack. In fact, he was the pack's beta and my father’s younger brother, my uncle. Confused, I looked back to my father. “What did he do?” My father shrugged. “I already told you, he is a traitor to this pack, and you will carry out his sentence.” Again he held the knife out for me to take. I shook my head. “I can’t just kill the beta of our pack.” Anger filled my father’s face. “You can and you will, or you will be stripped of all rights to my pack.” I shook my head. “You can’t do that.” Dropping his hand that held the knife out, he growled at me, taking a step in my direction. “As your alpha, I order you to kill this traitor, or I hereby banish you from Steelclaw Pack, and the title of the future alpha of my pack will go to your brother.” Clenching my jaw, I looked from my father over to his beta and brother back to my father and shook my head. “I need to know what his crime is. I get he is a traitor, but what did he do?” Growling again, my father turned from me, taking the knife and thrusting it into his beta’s chest before turning back to me. “How dare you question me. You are not fit to be my son nor my heir. I will give you one hour to get out of my territory. If you are not gone by then, you will share the same fate as this mutt.” I watched as he stormed out of the cell, leaving me to take in the fact my father had not only just killed his own brother and beta of his pack but my uncle. Stepping out of the cell, I took a moment to take in the body that lay in the cell next to my uncles and realized it was the body of my cousin and next in line to be beta. The two of us had trained our whole lives to take over the pack. The only difference was neither of us, along with my uncle, were willing to kill someone simply because we could. My younger brother, on the other hand, was much like my father. I was not at all surprised that my father was finding a way to remove me as his heir before he had no choice but to hand everything over to me. Closing my eyes, I pushed back the overwhelming feeling to mourn the loss of two important people to me. “I am so sorry. You both deserved better. I will make it up to you one day.” Opening my eyes, I ran as fast as I could to my room, gathering a bag of clothes and cash I kept hidden in case something like this ever happened. I knew it was a possibility. After my mother died a year ago, my father would find some way to remove me as his heir. I knew he wouldn't kill me. He would give me the chance to leave, and I was ready for it. I would have to wait from outside the pack until the day came for me to challenge my brother. If I decided to even do so. Wasting no more time, I left, leaving everything else behind. I didn’t even say goodbye to any other member of the pack. I knew it wouldn’t matter what I told them. They would never believe my father would simply banish me from the pack because I wouldn’t kill our beta. No, I am sure my father will have a whole story to tell them that would paint me out to be the bad guy. 

Taking my time, I made my way out of Germany and to the States. I found a nice area to live off the grid while still keeping track of my father and brother. It wasn't the easiest of tasks, but I had my ways. Being an alpha by nature, I tended to attract other rogues, and over the years, I befriended many of them. In fact, over the years, I was able to help many of them by connecting them to me, keeping their wolves from going mad as so many rogues tend to do. Wolves, by nature, are pack animals. With no pack, a wolf could go crazy. When this happened, they could lose control and found themselves attacking the closest pack simply out of frustration. But with being connected to an alpha, even if they didn't live close by, their wolf would feel content. By connecting rogues to me, I created my own pack of sorts. We didn't have a specific territory that we called our own. I didn't force those that wanted to follow me to stay in one spot. I was simply there to help them should they need it. In return, I was able to use them to help keep an eye on my father and brother, along with keeping me in the know with other packs around the world.

It took me nearly all of the four years after being banished by my father to gain enough followers to have spies everywhere. Because of this, I learned my father had failed to tell anyone that he had banished me and I was no longer his heir. I also learned that he and my brother would be in the States in the coming weeks because the alpha of The Nightmoon Pack’s daughter is turning eighteen on the next full moon and would shift for the first time. With my brother having turned twenty recently and having not found his mate, I am sure an alpha’s daughter was something the two of them hoped for, for him. If this girl was his mate, I felt sorry for her. If she was not and was as strong as they say she is, I am sure my father will try and make a deal with her father to mate the two anyway. In that case, I really felt sorry for her. Everyone dreamed of being a princess or the alpha’s daughter, but really it was a curse for the girl to be in such a family. Even if she did find her mate, it didn’t matter to her father unless the pairing meant growth for his own pack. And The Nightmoon Pack was only second in strength and size to The Steelclaw Pack. In fact, if the two packs were to fight each other, it would come down to the alpha’s, I am sure, on who is stronger or capable of outwitting the other. I didn’t know the alpha of The Nightmoon Pack, but I knew my father would do anything and everything to ensure he was the victor, even if it meant cheating to win. Either way, for now, it was not my concern. It was not my place to stand in my brother’s way if the girl was his mate or if my father made a deal with her father for the two of them to mate. Actually, the two mating would work in my favor. My father was ready to step down, but his heir needed to have a mate if he was to retire early. And since he decided to give my brother the title, he would have five more years to wait unless my brother could produce a future luna. Then my father could petition that his heir was ready to take full control now, and there was no point in waiting for him to be twenty-five. The council would, of course, grant it, and like with any turnover for a pack, anyone was allowed to challenge for the position on the day the new alpha was to take over. The current alpha, should he still be alive, would not be able to stop the challenge, nor would he be allowed to deny the victor the position should he win. And I had no intention of losing. I have every intention to win and take my pack back and set it back on the right course to being the greatest pack in the world and not the most feared for all the wrong reasons.