Chapter 8
3210 Words
Chapter 8
Third Person
“She’s my mate,” Josh finally relented and told the truth. He looked at his best friend, also his Beta, and admitted that Kalea, the girl the pack had tormented, was his destined mate.
“WHAT THE F*CK!? HOW LONG HAVE YOU KNOWN!?” Harper shouted in disbelief.
“Since the night of my coronation. It was her 18th birthday.”
“Wait, wait, wait, hold on one f*cking minute. Then what the f*ck is Cora!?” Harper questioned, afraid to hear the answer. Josh knowingly froze upon hearing the question. After rejecting Kalea that night, Josh sought out Cora and did the deed with her, not knowing that it would start the endless days and nights of pain for Kalea. His reason for seeking out Cora? He needed to release the frustration over Kalea accepting his rejection without attempting to fight harder for their bond. It hurt like hell for Josh, but even more so for his wolf, Fenton, who had withdrawn himself from his human counterpart after that night. Josh had been leading his pack with his Father’s aide for three years without his wolf. Fenton rarely came forward—only to run in wolf form, train, or fight.
Josh had decided to take Cora as his chosen Luna, not knowing the ramifications that would follow. Even though Cora had yet to find her own fated mate, she had promised to reject him for Josh. So, Josh and Cora lied to the entire pack that they were fated mates and named her his future Luna. However, they had yet to hold her Luna ceremony because Josh couldn’t find it within himself to do so.
Cora had been relentless and would constantly question why her ceremony hadn’t been held, but Josh could say he was busy with pack business. Although they had yet to have her coronation as the pack’s Luna, it didn’t stop Josh from marking her and her marking him in return. Unfortunately, both of their marks became highly infected only days later, and neither wound healed properly. It took a few weeks for the wounds to heal; however, they were shocked when they saw what their marks had become.
Usually, the mark borne by one’s mate is beautiful, unique, and intricate. Theirs, however, were ugly, black, and had crowns of spikes around them with droplets of blood.
“YOU NAMED CORA LUNA WHEN SHE’S NOT EVEN THE RIGHTFUL LUNA!?” Harper shouted at Josh at the top of his lungs.
“Will you keep your f*cking voice down!?” Josh shouted back. Luckily, they were the only two in Josh’s tent, or so they thought.
“How about you keep talking?” Josh and Harper snapped their heads toward the tent entrance to find Mr. Scout staring daggers at Josh.
“Mr. Scout? What are you doing here? And what the h*ll are you wearing?” Harper asked.
“I said, keep talking,” he replied with gritted teeth. “Who is this Cora creature you’re speaking of?”
“She’s the Luna of our pack,” Josh answered. “How do you not know this?”
“So, you rejected your rightful Luna and took a chosen one?” Josh was surprised to find out that Mr. Scout had heard their entire conversation.
“So what if I did!? Kalea didn’t have a f*cking wolf! She’s a f*cking nobody that was brought in off the streets! My pack would have laughed at me had I accepted her as my mate and Luna! I was thinking about the good of the pack!” Josh defended himself and his actions. “THAT SHOULDN’T MATTER!” Harper snarled at Josh. Harper’s outburst took Josh aback. Harper’s anger was coming off him in waves, and Josh didn’t know how to react. “I may not have been the nicest to Kalea, but had you been truthful with me from the beginning, I would have respected her right then and there! Regardless of who she is or where she came from, she was chosen for you by our goddess! But you shunned her and took Cora, the biggest wh*re in our pack and Kalea’s biggest bully, as your chosen Luna? And you wonder why no one in the pack respects her? SHE’S NOT OUR PACK’S RIGHTFUL LUNA!” Josh was dumbfounded by Harper as he had never once seen him so angry and worked up before. Harper was usually the silent, angry type. He was the silent type in general unless he was behind closed doors with those he was the most comfortable with.
Harper knew deep down something was amidst when Josh suddenly announced Cora as his mate. Even more so when he witnessed how their marks didn’t take like most did. Josh noticed that Mr. Scout was still in the tent, but what he saw had his blood boiling.
“What are you smirking at!?” Josh snarled.
“You.”
“What?”
“I’m laughing at you, you impotent fool!”
“What did you say to me!? Know your place! I’m a f*cking Alpha!” Josh hollered.
“So? You’re not my Alpha. Your aura does not affect me. I answer to someone with much more power and status than you, and that power protects me.”
“What?”
“You rejected the most precious gift the Moon Goddess could ever bestow upon you, and now, you will never find her.”
“What do you mean I’ll never find her?” Josh questioned.
“Where is the Luna?” Harper asked, genuinely curious about Kalea’s whereabouts.
“I’m right here,” an unwelcoming voice answered. Everyone turned their heads to see Cora in the entryway of Josh’s tent.
“Where the f*ck were you!?” Josh snarled when he saw that she was completely unscathed.
“In the bunker, duh.”
“You hid in the bunker? Instead of helping us fight off the rogues!? You’re a trained warrior!” Harper shouted at her.
“No, I’m in the Luna of this pack. I’m the most important person in this pack. I can’t be fighting and risking my life,” Cora self-centeredly answered.
“You’re no Luna. A true Luna fights with her people! A true Luna fights to keep them safe and away from harm. Even if you weren’t out here, you should have been helping the elderly and the young pups get to the bunkers first!” Harper outright shouted in her face while grabbing her arm with so much force you could hear her bones breaking.
“UNHAND ME! YOU’RE BREAKING MY ARM!” Cora screamed.
“Gladly.” Harper pushed her away, making her stagger. He turned his hateful gaze to Josh, who couldn’t look him in the eyes.
“You’re going to pay for that, Harper!” Cora cried as she looked at Josh, wanting him to punish Harper. Josh met Harper’s eyes, but he saw nothing short of pure hatred and disgust directed towards him and Cora. Without warning, Harper extended his claws and clawed his chest.
“HARP, WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?” Josh exclaimed. Mr. Scout looked on in horror. What is he doing? Mr. Scout thought to himself. Josh jumped out of the bed and grunted in pain. He saw that Harper’s wound was more profound than he thought.
“I, Harper Calhoun, denounce my loyalty to the Silver Moon pack.”
“Harper, what the f*ck!?” Josh hollered.
“I will no longer serve at Beta, nor will I serve Alpha Joshua Harding. I denounce you, Joshua Harding, and you, Cora Jones, as my Alpha and Luna for treason!” Josh felt the bond between him and Harper snap like a twig.
“Harper, what the h*ll!?” Cora shouted.
“Harper, why!?” Josh cried out in dismay.
“You betrayed this pack when you rejected your destined mate. In doing so, you betrayed me. You know better than anyone that it is a Beta’s duty to protect the Luna of his pack. And that includes protecting her from the Alpha as well. You rejecting her was not only selfish and immature, but it’s the reason why our pack fell today. Had you taken your fated mate, you know damn well that she would have been out here with us fighting to the death! At the very least, she would have made sure those who couldn’t protect themselves would be safe first. Not running away like a little b***h!” Harper spat his last words directly at Cora, making her flinch.
“So, what? You’d rather go rogue and throw away our lifetime of friendship over some wolfless orphan!?” Josh questioned.
“THAT WOLFLESS ORPHAN IS THE RIGHTFUL LUNA OF THIS PACK! AND BECAUSE OF YOU, SHE’S F*CKING GONE!” Harper snarled in a way Josh had never seen before.
“Wolfless orphan?” Cora questioned. “You mean that stupid c*nt, Kalea!?” she asked and started to cackle like a hyena. “That … stupid … piece of sh*t!?” she laughed even more, hunching over, holding her stomach. “She’s not the Luna! I am! Josh chose me! And if you ask me, he chose correctly! Look at me! I’m beautiful, I’m strong, I’m smart, and the pack loves me!”
“The pack doesn’t love you. They despise you. You’d know had you actually paid attention to the fact that no one bows to you,” Harper hissed.
“That will change the moment we have my ceremony!”
“You can’t have a ceremony without an Elder,” Harper sneered.
“What?” Josh and Cora gaped.
“All of the pack elders are dead, including your dad! Your mom is comatose at the loss of her mate! She’s going to die eventually, and guess what, you’re going to be all alone!” he annunciated the word ‘alone.’ Josh looked at him, confused. “Gamma Bullis and his entire family were slaughtered. And since I’ve denounced myself from this pack, you have no one except for this f*cking w***e next to you. Good luck building a pack with no ranked members or elders.” With those, Harper stormed out of the tent. Mr. Scout soon followed.
“Young Beta, I think you and I need to talk privately,” Mr. Scout said to Harper, catching up to him. Harper paused momentarily, looked at Mr. Scout, and nodded.
Josh fell back onto the bed, trying to ascertain what just happened. He couldn’t believe that he lost his Beta and best friend. And over Kalea of all people. When Hailey burst into his tent, Josh was still reeling everything in, attempting to recover from the initial shock.
“JOSH!” He sighed in relief, seeing that she was relatively unharmed. But before he could tell her how happy he was she was safe, Hailey slapped Cora with so much force Cora fell to the ground.
“Hails!” Josh exclaimed.
“YOU … SELFISH B*TCH!!!” Hailey screamed at the top of her lungs directly at Cora, who was still holding her cheek. “I COULD HAVE F*CKING DIED BECAUSE OF YOU!”
“Hails, what are you doing talking about? What happened?” Josh asked her as he held her back from attacking Cora again.
“Your MATE,” she spat with so much venom in her tone, “nearly got me killed! I was this close to getting to the Alpha bunker when she shoved me out of the way and locked it!” Josh looked at Cora, who diverted her eyes to the ground. “A rogue chased me, and I was this close to being killed had Harper not saved me!”
“Harper saved you?” Josh asked with shock. He would have to thank him, but then he remembered that Harper was no longer his Beta.
“Where is he? I wanted to thank him,” Hailey said, looking around.
“He’s gone,” Cora spat and stood up.
“What do you mean he’s gone?”
“Do you want to tell her, baby? Or should I?” Cora asked while caressing Josh’s arm. Normally, Josh would accept her touching him, but she suddenly repulsed him.
“Tell me what?” Hailey asked. Josh bit his tongue. He couldn’t muster up the courage to tell her the truth.
“He’s gone. Harper denounced himself from the pack and his loyalty to us,” Cora sneered, crossing her arms.
“What!? Why!?” Hailey couldn’t believe what she just heard.
“Because he felt sorry for that stupid c*nt, Kalea,” Cora snapped.
“What does any of this have to do with her?”
“Oh, you don’t know?”
“Know what?” Hailey asked, looking between her brother and Cora.
“That orphaned b*tch was apparently your brother’s true mate. He rejected her, rightfully so, if you ask me, and took me as his chosen Luna. So, being the goody-two-shoes that he is, Harper decided to side with her than with us,” Cora flatly stated. Hailey’s eyes bulged out of her head in utter disbelief.
“Josh, is that true? Was Kalea your fated mate?” Josh gulped and then nodded in confirmation. “And you rejected her?” Josh nodded once more, and before he could comprehend anything, Hailey punched him square across the face, taking him and Cora by surprise. “ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR F*CKING MIND!?”
“Why are you so mad, Hails? You hated her, too,” Josh stammered, holding his jaw. Had she punched him any harder, she would have broken his mandible.
“I only hated her because you did, Josh!”
“What? What are you talking about? You bullied her more than I ever did! You actually hit her! And then you tried to get her to lie for you!” Josh defended, calling out Hailey’s bullsh*t.
“I only did that because that’s what I thought you wanted! You bullied her more than the whole f*cking pack combined!” Josh pursed his lips because he knew deep down that it was true. He had been Kalea’s biggest tormenter. If there was one thing that I will admit to, it’s that I wasn’t nice to her. I was a b***h to her. But when you look up to your big brother because he’s the future of your pack, you look to him for his lead. I followed your lead, and now, I’m kicking myself for it. I cannot believe that you rejected your goddess-given mate.”
“Would you have actually accepted her?!” Josh asked in disbelief at Hailey’s reaction to everything.
“Not right away. But I would like to think that I would have eventually.” Josh blinked rapidly, taken aback by her response.
“You’ve got to be f*cking joking me! I’M STANDING RIGHT HERE!” Cora screeched.
“SHUT THE F*CK UP YOU F*CKING POSER!” Hailey roared again and looked at Josh once more.
“Why?” Josh asked.
“Why what?”
“Why do you believe that you would have accepted her?” He asked more clearly.
“Because, you i***t, she was chosen for you by our Moon Goddess. A mate is a precious gift. Even if it doesn’t make sense, Kalea was chosen for you by the goddess herself, and you rejected her. You rejected our goddess’ gift to you. Do you not remember what Dad told us when it came to mates? No matter who it is, as long as our mates are our fated, it is for a good reason. Why do you think Dad always put up with Mom? Mom was stupid and a ditz, but Dad loved her with everything he had. He may have insulted her occasionally, but if you ever saw them behind closed doors, you would see how much love he had for her. Dad died tonight, protecting Mom, who was fighting by his side. They kept each other safe until they couldn’t.” Josh was speechless. He had no idea that their Father loved their Mother so wholesomely. “I would have accepted her because deep down, she would have loved you the way Mom loved Dad, and she would have been out here fighting with us. Not hiding away like some scared little girl. If there was one thing that I actually did hate about Kalea, it was her fighting spirit.” Hailey sighed deeply and bent her head back before signing again. “I hate to admit it, but Kalea would have made a bada*s Luna.” She turned her heel to leave, stopped, and looked Josh dead in the eyes. “What happened tonight was your fault, Josh. You pissed off the goddess, and she punished our pack.” Her words hit him like a ton of bricks. With those final words, Hailey walked out of the tent in sheer disappointment.
Cora huffed in annoyance. She flipped her hair while cursing out Hailey under her breath, but loud enough for Josh to hear. Fenton, Josh’s wolf, was snarling in the back of his mind, but not at the disrespect of Harper and Hailey. He was growling at Josh. Once again, his wolf had turned on him because of the Kalea situation.
“Can you f*cking believe them?! The nerve!” Cora continued to ramble about the disrespect and audacity, but Josh eventually tuned her out. Hailey’s last words played in his on repeat. What happened tonight was your fault, Josh. You pissed off the goddess, and she punished our pack.
Meanwhile, Harper and Mr. Scout had walked about a hundred feet away from the tents to escape prying eyes and ears.
“What did you want to speak to me about, Mr. Scout?”
“Given that you have denounced yourself from the Silver Moon pack and that sorry excuse of an Alpha, I think it’s only right that you know the truth about Kalea. Especially if your loyalties lie with her, I will need your help tracking her down before it’s too late.”
“Truth? What truth? I thought all back there was the truth?” Harper said in confusion as he pointed behind them from where they had just come. “What do you mean by tracking her down before it’s too late?”
“Josh admitting that Kalea was his mate was only half the truth. What I am about to tell you cannot be repeated to anyone. If anyone finds out, I will know that it was you, and I will not hesitate to kill you myself if your actions put Kalea in danger.” Harper gulped in fear but nodded in understanding.
“Yes, sir.”
“First things first. Kalea is not wolfless.”
“What!?”
“Kalea has a wolf, but she is still dormant.”
“But why?”
“It is because Kalea’s bloodline restricts her shift until she is twenty-one years of age, not eighteen. It is that way for all purebloods.”
“P…Pure…Pureblood!?”
“And not just any pureblood … A royal pureblood.”
- Writer
