Without, perhaps, the need for a mate,
I turned and rushed toward Kaius’s office, fear and uncertainty propelling me forward. I needed to hear the truth from him, needed to see his face when he told me what had happened.
The guards outside his office tried to block my path. “The Alpha is in a private meeting, Luna.”
‘I don’t care.” I pushed past them, throwing open the heavy wooden door without knocking.
Three faces turned toward me–Kaius behind his desk, expression unreadable; Frost standing beside him, alert and watchful; and a woman I recognized as Ophelia, Kaius’s mother. Her beauty was still evident despite her age, her features bearing the same sharp elegance as her son’s, though softened by feminine curves.
“You told me you wouldn’t…” I began, the words tumbling out before I could organize my thoughts.
“Maybe you should take a seat,” Kaius said, his voice startlingly gentle.
I remained standing, my gaze shifting between the three of them. Ophelia’s eyes were red–rimmed, her normally perfect appearance marred by signs of recent tears.
“I would have preferred to say this in her absence,” Ophelia said, her refined voice carrying a hint of steel beneath its melodic Leadence.
“She is the Luna of this pack, so anything you have to say, I would advise you to speak up before I have to investigate it all myself.” Kaius’s tone left no room for argument.
Ophelia straightened, drawing herself to her full height. “Okay then. killed my mate, the Alpha King, and also your father. I am Alaric’s murderer,”
Her confession stunned me completely. Not Kaius. His mother. I sank into a chair, legs suddenly unable to support me.
“You see, l’had been thinking about this for a very long time,” Ophelia continued, her voice steady despite the enormity of her confession. “Alaric had gotten worse over the years; I had always known he had been unfaithful countless times, but I thought it was alright for an Alpha to have that; he was man after all, he had urges.
She laughed, a brittle sound devoid of humor. “I had been foolish, thinking all that nonsense about Alphas needing more than a single woman, and I happily played my role, entertaining the idea that I was special, I was his mate–I was his Luna. But deep inside, we both knew I was nothing.”
Kaius remained silent, his amber eyes fixed on his mother with an intensity that was almost physical.
“I had cheated on him too, which isn’t something I am proud of, but he had gone overboard with his punishment.” Her gaze flickered to Kaius briefly. “He hadn’t been exactly merciful to both me and my son, but I was his mate; despite all our shortcomings, despite all he had done to me, I was still bound to him.”
“Yesterday, I happened upon Alaric’s chambers. Purely by chance, you understand,” she said, ‘a humourless smile touching her lips. “I only meant to speak to him. But when I slipped inside, what I found well. He was savaging some poor girl, barely more than a child. Ripping into her like she was nothing. She wasn’t just crying; she was making these awful, choked whimpering sounds And him? Utterly lost in his disgusting rut, grunting and slobbering. The great Alaric, so consumed he wouldn’t have noticed if the room caught fire.”
She paused, her eyes hardening. “That look on her face… it was me. All over again. As if time had rewound and spit me back into that nightmare. And I thought, ‘Oh no, not again. Not another one. Not while I draw breath.”
1/2
The Alpha’s Borrowed Luna
