Luna of the Golden Moon

the Ceremony

The first girl to start moving was a brunette. She looked confident when I didn’t; I was still shaking, seeing her face morphing, her dark eyes glittering with streaks of blue, showing me no mercy in my lack of experience.

“Look at you, Delta trash! whatever the Alpha ever saw in you, making it even worth giving you his mark, I will enjoy biting off that neck of yours!” She was linking me when I leaped back, almost scratched from her sudden attack, leaving me no room to prepare or even take a breath from the angry girl in front of me.

She made another swing; this time, I wasn’t fast enough, feeling the sharp sting from my arm where her claws had scratched me. That insane b***h!

“I’m his natural mate, and there is nothing someone like you can do to change that!” I growled, feeling my eyes shift from the cold blue to the bitter green and gold. I had it up to my neck with people trying to tell me that I wasn’t good enough for my mate, and it hadn’t even been more than a day of being in a mateship with him!

“Someone like me!? Do you even know who you are talking to!? I’m a born Beta, and you are nothing!” she sneered it back to me when she made a surprisingly gracious leap in her high heels, landing on top of me with a loud crash when we had knocked over the décor behind us, leaving shard all over the floor.

She pushed her hand down my neck, trying to claw when my heart rate was going faster, making me feel like I would die even before she could kill me. Before realizing that she was going after my mark!

“Get off me, you stupid b***h!” I wrapped my hands around her wrist, forcing them back when she made a scream from getting angry when I wasn’t the pushover she thought I was. Yeah, she might be a Beta, but I was an Alpha!

She stumbled back a few steps when I was up again, giving me a scowl when her arms were bleeding, making Caleb smirk when he saw me growl louder, taking no chances that she wouldn’t try to attack me again!

“You are going to regret that! I was going to take the mark away, but now I’m going to kill you!” the angry brunette growled back. She was starting to shift when I looked back up at Caleb, who was standing on the balcony looking down. He didn’t look worried, but he was. Was this even fair? The girl that was half-shifted, and I was still human!

“Alpha?!” Caleb said it with a slight accusation when the man standing beside him made a slow hand movement as if he was okay with what was happening. I was shocked at how cold he really was.

My uncle would let me die because if I didn’t shift, my opponent's wolf would kill me!

“Father, this is….” Caleb started to speak, only to be silent, with a growl back from his Alpha, who wasn’t hearing it. He made my mate do a real scowl, looking back down on me, our eyes meeting. I was scared, and he knew that.

“Don’t be afraid. Being the wolf isn’t everything. It's just a tactic, baby…” Caleb tried to sound sweet when I couldn’t answer back. My words stuck, seeing the brown wolf that had gotten up.

She was snarling at me, jaws snapping, and only waiting for a signal from the head Alpha, who still looked like he didn’t care if I lived or died. So much for taking care of me!

“Emilia, I’m not letting you die! You are better than her; control your emotions, and let them see you are a wolf worthy of being their Luna and equal!” Caleb was leaning forward, his big hands grasping the same rail I had left scratch marks into. He was just as scared as I was, if even more!

“She will go for your legs first, trying to bare your neck to make it fast. Katerina isn’t that good of a fighter like she wants to make herself be.” I was breathing faster, hearing his worried voice. So he knew her then?!

“Yes, she was my chosen mate before you.” Caleb's voice in my head was gritted, breaking my heart. He had told me that he would say everything to me, and still, I was staring at the wolf of a mate he was supposed to have before I had shown up!

“What!?” I turned my head, glaring at him when he looked back into my eyes. I was suffering over that, and I was angry. Well, of course, I was! He had a mate before me, and she was here trying to kill me!

“That doesn’t matter anymore. She doesn’t matter to me, only you, my Luna!” He was trying to convince me that I was the only one. Here she was, someone he had loved before me, and it was hurting me more than I ever thought was imaginable when the wolf attacked me, and I didn’t stand a chance, never did.

“Luna!” Caleb was roaring it all over the room when I was knocked down again; it wasn’t even hard for the giant wolf to take me down, over my chest, squeezing down her crushing weight a little at the time I was squirming underneath her paw.

“Alpha!” I was taking shallow breaths, feeling the weight increasing, the wolf huffing in my face, leaving drool when I was staring up at my mate struggling not to shift and save me; I couldn't see him blocked by the brown angry beta that was going to make a show out of taking me down!

“Alpha, please!” I was calling out to his wolf. I didn’t care that it was shameful or forbidden. I didn’t want to die; it was scary, and the panic inside my chest made me sip, about to pass out from not being able to breathe!

“Emilia, try harder! You are not a Delta; show them!” Caleb growled over our bond link when I made a crying sound, still trying to push off the giant wolf. How could I show them?? I wasn’t allowed to shift; honestly, even the thought of shifting now scared me because the wolf pinning me down would have killed me before I was done!

“She has a weak spot, broke her leg a year ago, and if you hit that hard enough, she should back off!” Caleb was still staring at me intensely, his eyes yellow, and he looked like he was with his mind power trying to get me to win; that was it then. I was dead.

“Stop that! Stop acting like you can’t take her! I felt your wolf, and she is powerful. My mate is powerful, Luna!” He was scolding me again while I fought for my life, that selfish jerk!

Caleb didn’t answer that, just made another inpatient growl that was meant for me, and I knew it when the wolf over me looked up at him, same as me… oh goddess…. She loved him, didn’t she?

I stared at the wolf's eyes and back up at my mate. She was hurt like me…. I stopped struggling when Caleb stared back at her, not an ounce of love in those yellow eyes. He didn’t feel anything for her anymore. It was killing her, just like it was killing me that he loved another girl.

“I’m sorry for taking him from you….” the brown wolf snapped her jaws down at me like she was trying to figure out if I was mocking her. Well, I wasn’t!

I made a soft sound of apology to her confused face; she wasn’t expecting me to stare back into her blue wolf eyes that were pinning me down, the same as her heavy body.

“Silence!” She sneered back when I was full wolf to gazing into her eyes, not even batting an eyelash. She was hurt, and I wanted to help her. No matter what had happened, she was a part of this pack, and I …... yeah, I still didn’t know, but I didn’t want to fight her, not for this, not over Caleb. He was my mate, and no way would ever change, killing me or not.

“You will find him, your own mate, Katerina.” I was linking her, not knowing it had happened when my eyes were gold-green, and she flinched like I had really attacked her leg instead of just linking her still over me. She was the one that needed help, not me.

“Enough!” Alpha Terrence was the one to speak when the girl backed off more, still whimpering like she was hurting when I finally could breathe again, feeling like I was a soda being crushed underneath a steamroller.

I could see my mate, his eyes glowing full yellow, locked on me, and I didn’t know If he was scolding me or being proud seeing that slight frown on his face. I was getting up slowly from the cold, hard floor covering me in blood. I guess now I knew why the higher ranks wore no color.

“It’s against the rules shifting, and even if a Delta is nowhere near a worthy opponent, she is the following Luna and has the next heir.” Alpha Terrence made his statement loud and clear.

The brown wolf shifted back. She was crying when Caleb finally came down the stairs, running, suddenly not caring that it was terrible to show emotions when I was lifted, feeling his skin against mine where my dress had been ripped open by the jaws of his former mate. That one still hurt.

Alpha Terrence watched us as Caleb walked back up, holding me bridal style before anyone could see. It was weird to see the envy in the eyes of different girls I had never known, knowing that if the head of my pack hadn’t stopped more challengers, I would be dead.

“That wouldn’t have happened. I would never let you die, Luna.” Caleb's voice was stiff in my head when I made a soft nod back, not really believing his words when I had called out for him, pinned down. He hadn’t done more than just yell at me over our bond link when I was downed and had his former mate at my throat.

Caleb huffed back, telling me to be quiet, and I didn’t respond. He wanted me silent, and I was more than happy in the unforgiving world of the higher ranks.

“Delta Emilia Jackson, do you solemnly swear to be the Golden Moons pack Luna, mate to the future Head Alpha Caleb?” Alpha Terrence didn’t even give me a minute to get my bearings when I was put down carefully on the same spot on the balcony by my stiff mate, who still had a blank face from the second I was in his arms; this was my worst nightmare.

“No, I don't want this...” I said before I realized what had happened. I didn’t want to be the Luna over the Golden Moon pack! I would never understand how these people could stand and watch this bloodbath occur. I was Caleb's true mate, and I still had to defend myself from rivals wanting to take me down. That was ridiculous!?

“Luna, are you insane!?” Caleb was scolding me again when he gripped my wrist, trying to make sense of what I just said, that I had rejected the oath to him and this pack. Yeah, well, I just did!

“No, you said that I could reject you, and I don’t want to be part of this; it's insane, not I, mate!” I was trying to pull my wrist back, leaving the room stunned. The blood still on Caleb and me was grinding all his anger down, trying not to snap and shift for what I had just said to his face.

“Take her back; it's not like she has a choice in the matter….” I snapped my eyes back to Alpha Terrence, who had spoken out loud, making me lose whatever calm I had left in my body. No, I was not going to accept this! I had a choice, and I had made it, no matter what I felt for the guy holding me, too scared to let me go and lose his face before everyone who had come to see me.

“You are in so much trouble, Luna, so much trouble….” Caleb growled, eyes dark and sparks of yellow everywhere when I didn’t have a choice being dragged back towards the hallway we had come from, hating that the touch of his fingers around my wrist made me want him close again. Stupid matebond!

“Yeah, it's stupid, alright!” I was back inside the bedroom. Caleb had locked the door, giving me snarls. He wanted to shift, and I wouldn’t stop him. He had watched me almost die and didn’t do anything to save me, and I was not going to accept that!? I loved and trusted him, my parents being exiled, and this is how he repaid me with nothing!

“So stupid that I don’t want any other males to come for you and to want to show the pack that you were my mate, no matter what people said, you are being a Delta and my cousin, Emilia!” He was roaring, making me fall back onto the bed, the sheer force pushing me back, so he was angry? Well, so was I!

“Why can’t we tell them!? I’m not your cousin, and I am your Alpha mate. What is so wrong with that!?” I growled back, still on the bed, watching him pacing the floor barefoot and the gashes over his back starting to close up. He really was an Alpha then. He was made for this, the whole life of fighting and dying, and I wasn’t!

“Because they will use you; that is why, Luna!” Caleb stopped while he was still yelling at me, my chest heaving up and down fast, the same way it had when I didn’t believe him.

“Emilia, please listen to me. I know you don’t understand… but trust me when I say that not everyone would love the idea of a mate that could match them in strength and aggression.

A lot of us…. We are made for this, and we don’t want anyone to break the ways of the past….” He stopped giving me weird feelings of sadness and anger, all mixed together that I didn’t understand.

So the truth was that the Alphas didn’t want mates who could take them down, lead the pack if they needed, more than just being a substitute for the future heir taking over.

“Yes, and that is why I can’t risk you being out there in public. You don't know what could happen if someone got their hands on you! For all I know, you could just be chained to a room and used for breeding….” He stopped talking, feeling the horror that was spreading around in my chest. What!?

“You heard me, breeding. Not every Alpha out there would take you as their mate. They would lock you up while they had some Beta female as their chosen mate; as I said, Emilia… you don’t know anything….” He was staring at me now, still shocked over what he had told me.

everything I had ever known about honor, Alphas, the way packs worked, and…yeah, nothing was true… nothing… I made a sound that I didn’t even know what it was, wanting to cry again, pulling my knees up in the ripped black dress.

The blood-soaked the white sheets underneath me; this was a nightmare, and I wanted nothing more than to go home again.

“Please… please, I just want to go back home, see my parents, and….” I started to cry, not being able to say the last part. I wanted to not be his mate anymore. I hated myself for even thinking it, but this was too much.

He was right; I didn’t know anything, and here I was, stuck in mateship with someone who would rather watch me die before his eyes than break tradition.

“Watch you die!? Are you insane? I told you that I was never going to let that happen! If my father hadn’t stopped me, commanded me to stay put with all his force, I would have come down and killed Katerina in a heartbeat for even breathing the same air as you!” Caleb wasn’t angry anymore; he was hurt, and I felt the curse of having the mate bond. I could feel how upset he was hearing me say he abandoned me when I needed him most!

“I don’t believe you.” He growled, hearing my words back, and before I knew what had happened, he had turned, slamming the bedroom door hard and making me flinch before crying even louder. I wished that I had never met him. I hoped this stupid mate bond would snap, and then he could be with that girl who had tried to kill me!

“You should.” He answered back when I got silent, scared that he had heard me, and it was frightening me even more, hearing his tone changing like he was tired of my constant struggle against him.

“Caleb, please… don’t leave me…” I was begging him to come back, I didn’t even know where he was, and I felt so alone in this bedroom, still covered in blood all over my body, knowing that I had just told my own mate that I didn’t want him.

“… Get out of there, take the first right, and shift. I will see you outside…. Luna…” He sounded the slightest better, not dead. He was seconds before when I nodded back in the link between us. Yes, I was coming to him. I didn't want to be alone here, even if he was still angry at me.