The Alpha's Retribution

Chapter 4: Luna

JAXOM'S POV

Suddenly, Eisen was beside me, his hand anchoring my shoulder even as my muscles quaked beneath it.

“Not now, brother. Not here. Think of the girl,” he commanded with a Beta's tone of authority. “You don’t want to scare her and you can’t help her in this state. We need to go.”

Go? Go where? Trinity Ahtone was the only place in the world I wanted to be. I loved her, worshipped her. I’d known my mate for all of three minutes, two of which she’d been threatening to kill me. And I loved her. f**k, if that wasn’t terrifying.

“I can't just leave her like this!”

Eisen’s jaw grew taut, his human eyes shifting to the golden ochre of his beast’s. "I’m not asking you to abandon her. I’m telling you to take a step back before you do something that you come to regret.”

My wolf didn't want to hear it, but I knew my brother was right. Unleashing my second nature would only lead to disaster. I needed to prove that I was more than a monster if I held any hope of earning Trinity’s trust.

I nodded, and with weighted limbs, rose slowly to my feet.

“I’ll come back for you. I won’t leave you here to die,” I assured the girl, already knowing that my words were dust.

“Come here again and I’ll shoot you on sight,” she grit out through clenched teeth, the gun still aimed at my head.

A lone tear slid down her cheek. Maybe because she was in pain and scared shitless, or maybe because she didn’t really want to shoot me. In the end, it didn’t matter. Seeing Trinity cry was enough to send me tumbling over the edge.

Another jolt of adrenaline shot down my spine, stronger than the last, and I stumbled from the bedroom without a backward glance.

“What the hell did you do?” Donovan shouted as I pushed my way through the ongoing vigil, but there was no time to answer. My wolf was breaking free, and he was out for blood.

As soon as my feet hit the dirt, I was on my knees, raking desperate fingers over my scalp. I threw my head back with a terrible howl and my body erupted into its truest form. Bones cracked and skin roiled, a thick, gray coat unfurling from the c*****e. With my paws up under me, I took off running, the Ahtone's trailer fading to a distant speck on the horizon.

My wolf form bounded swiftly over the rolling scrubland, kicking up a cloud of red dust as it fled. It didn’t stop until it reached the towering buttes and carved canyons of Monument Valley. With no one around to bear witness to my grief, I shifted back into the broken man I had become.

“NO!” I shouted to the wind. “Where are you, goddess? Where the f**k are you?”

The only reply was my own harsh voice, echoing back to me across the vast emptiness. “What did I do to deserve this? Why her? Why my mate? ANSWER ME!”

“Jaxom.”

I spun on my heel, half expecting to face the moon goddess herself. Instead, it was my brother’s pale eyes that stared back at me in silent scrutiny.

“How did you know it was him?” I roared, closing the distance between us.

“If you're not going to be reasonable-”

“You’re goddamn right, I’m not! But you knew that and you tracked me down anyway. So, as your Alpha, I’m ordering you to answer the f*****g question! How did you know it was Warren?”

Flecks of gold flared in my brother's eyes, but they cooled just as quickly as they appeared. His gaze dropped in submission and he whooshed out a sigh. “Because of his teeth. It was in Warren’s file. Dad had the pack keep tabs on him ever since he was exiled from Dustmaw land. After the Extraction, Warren had implants put in to replace his missing canines. We were able to trace him by his dental records. The fanged veneers were a match to Trinity’s wounds.”

“You knew. You knew how bad off she was and you didn’t tell me!” my wolf lashed out in accusation.

“I had no idea the girl was your mate! How could I have ever anticipated that? She’s a human!”

“So what if she is? What difference does it make if she’s a human, or a werewolf, or a goddamn jackalope? You may not have known that Trinity Ahtone was my mate, but you sure as hell knew that she would need my blood to be healed!” my voice cut through his excuses like a honed blade.

I hadn’t seen wounds like Trinity’s in eighteen years. The last girl to bear them had been Warren’s first victim. Grace Smith’s trembling form was still branded in my mind’s eye, her body burning with the same blood infection that now seared through my mate’s veins. It was one of the side effects of a forced mark, a damnable offense among werewolf kind.

Just like Trinity, Warren had tried to take Grace as his own. Marking an underage female was an act of defilement against the goddess, the same as marking one against her will. Grace’s body had rejected the mark, just as Trinity's was now. The difference was, while Warren had only given his first prey a single bite, he’d given his second a dozen over. Trinity’s body was being overwhelmed by an infection that only a King’s blood could cure- my blood.

“And if I had told you that from the beginning, would you have come?” Eisen asked pointedly.

I opened my mouth with a swift rebuttal, but the words hung in my throat. My brother was right. If I had known he was dragging me out to the middle of the desert to save some nameless human girl, I would have fought him on it, tooth and nail.

“Is that what this is?" I cursed at the sky. "Some kind of moral punishment? I’ve displeased the all-powerful goddess, so she's taking my woman- my mate- as f*****g collateral?”

The goddess had been called many names over the passing years. The Greeks had named her Selene, the Romans, Luna, but rarely had I heard any wolf name her cruel. We were her creations, so why would she seek to chastise me through the abuse of an innocent girl?

I turned to face my brother, and when I spoke, my voice sounded small, wrecked. “Am I being punished?”

“I’m not the one to ask, Jaxom. You know my thoughts on religion. But if you’re trying to blame yourself for what happened to Trinity, I’d tell you that was a stretch.”

I nodded. Eisen had never kept to the old ways. Instead, he followed his human mother’s Catholic faith, attending Mass with her every Sunday. It had been my father who had instilled in me a respect for the mother goddess.

Throughout my childhood, he’d brought me up on stories of our line’s ancient origin. Werewolves were the descendants of Luna, goddess of the moon, and Mars, the god of war. Their fateful union had produced seven male offspring, the first lycanthropes. The Lycans were lesser gods, blessed with the ability to transform into the supernaturally strengthened form of wolves.

In adolescence, the brothers had begun to grow restless, unable to find their female equals among earthly women. Anxious to see her sons happy, Luna had sought the aid of the goddess of love, Venus. Together, they had selected seven mortal women to raise up as mates for the Lycans.

Unfortunately, not all of the brothers were satisfied. Some of them were poisoned by jealousy- fighting and vying to mark each other's mates. Angered by the greed of her children, Luna cursed them. The Lycans would bear only mortal children, and only the original mated pairs would be fruitful. Werewolves were born into the world.

To maintain order among their children, each of the Original Seven had named an heir apparent, a King or Queen to govern over their prospective pack. From this system of order, Alphas, Betas, Gammas, and Omegas emerged. The modern Kings and Queens were all direct descendants of the original lineages, myself included.

Trinity’s affliction went all the way back to Luna's curse. Any pair that tried to defy the goddess’ will would suffer the consequences of her wrath. Only a member of the direct line, a King or a Queen, could vouch for a pack member’s innocence, by way of a blood offering.

“She’ll have to take it,” I agonized, pacing the canyon’s edge. “I’ll make her if it comes to that. I won’t watch my mate die in front of me. She’ll just have to hate me for it.”

Beneath all of my bravado, I knew she would reject me. If I forced Trinity to take my blood, she would run at the first opportunity that presented itself. I could hardly blame her if she did. The only thing that would hold her to me was the bond. Did she even feel one? She hadn’t looked affected by my presence- not in any good ways, at least- but maybe…

“Hey, you don’t know that it would even come to that." Eisen gave my shoulders a squeeze. "Let me speak with Donovan, with the clan. They want to see Trinity cured just as much as you do.”

I nodded halfheartedly, staring out at the rough terrain in resignation. “How did you survive it?” I asked after a while. “How did you find the will to live after your mate’s rejection?”

A shadow crossed my brother’s face, and his lips curled back into a sardonic sneer. “Alcohol,” he replied shortly, clapping me on the back. “Which you’re in sore need of, brother. Unfortunately, the Navajo Nation is dry. You up for a run?”