Filed to story: Confirming His Luna by Eyes Novel >>
We’re making a scene, and I can’t afford to let this escalate into a confrontation. Even if my father loved a wolf and his court is willing to accept a half-breed as their princess, vampires, and werewolves are ancient enemies. It’s in their nature to despise and destroy one another. Right now, my father’s affection for me and his clan’s respect for their king is the only thing stopping this room full of nightwalkers from descending on my friends.
“You have to leave,” I whisper to them, letting the urgency show in my voice.
“Like hell we do. I don’t care if you’d rather be the Night King’s diamond than the Rovers’ flower,” Mark retorts angrily.
“It’s not that simple. You’re not safe here. You need to go,” I insist, and Nico takes a step closer to Mark as he realizes how many nightwalkers are watching us. The music is still playing, the celebration still afoot, but even those who aren’t looking in our direction are probably aware of what’s happening.
Everyone is waiting.
I anxiously glance over their shoulder and lock eyes with my father once again. He arches a single brow in question.
‘They’re my friends. They just wanted to make sure I’m safe,’ I tell him through our mindlink.
‘They don’t seem very friendly.’
‘They’re just confused. They don’t mean any harm. I’ll get them to leave; just let me talk to them. Please.’
From across the hall, my father nods almost imperceptibly, and his attention moves away from me to survey the other guests. The tension in the room is palpable, but he won’t let anyone in his clan hurt me. He won’t let them interfere.
‘Thank you… father.’
“Mark, we’re not welcome here,” Nico says cautiously. “Maybe we should carry on this conversation elsewhere.”
“There’s nothing more to say,” I insist. “You’re leaving, and I’m staying. I know you don’t understand, but this is how it has to be. Tell… tell your Alpha I’m sorry.”
“Tristan,” Mark says sharply, the world like a blow across my face. “His name is Tristan. And he’s not just our Alpha; he’s your mate. You’re betraying your mate, and you can’t even say his name.”
“I am not betraying him,” I snap back, surprised by the sudden edge behind my voice. “I can’t explain it, but this is what’s best for everyone.”
He huffs, and Nico places a hand on his arm as if ready to pull him back if necessary.
“Tell that to the man who’s been losing his mind trying to find you. He would risk everything for you, and you’re just going to abandon him. I won’t allow it.”
“Why?” I ask with exasperation, louder than I intended. “The only reason he sought me out was to fulfill Sophie’s prophecy, and that already happened. The Rovers now know about the nightwalkers, and I know where I belong. There’s no reason for me to go back. It’s not like he believes in the mating bond anyway. He never wanted this. Hell, neither did you!” I jab a finger against Mark’s chest, a storm of exasperation, despair, and sorrow brewing inside me. “You hated me from the moment you laid eyes on me. You never wanted me in your home, and now you won’t have to live with me anymore. You should be happy.”
“That’s not true,” Nico pipes in. He stops surveying the crowd that surrounds us long enough to meet my gaze. “Tristan cares about you. We all do. That’s why we came all this way to bring you home.”
I shut my eyes and chose my next words like a weapon, dealing the final, desperate blow.
“I’m already home.” I force myself to open my eyes again, swallowing down the heartache. “You are not my pack, and you are not welcome here. Leave now and never come back. “
The shock and hurt in Nico’s bright blue eyes makes my chest ache, but Mark only squares his jaw, shoulders tense.
“Tristan gave orders to find you and bring you back, so that is what I’m going to do. Whatever it takes,” he says without wavering, and he reaches out to grab my wrist.
But Amara taught me well.
I twist in his grasp, digging my elbow into a pressure point in his forearm as I wring my hand free of his iron grip. He grunts from the sudden pain of my jab, but as I take a step away from him, I’m reminded that we are not alone.
Before Mark can even think twice or try to come after me again, my father is standing in front of me.
One second, Marco was on his throne, and the next, he’d crossed the hall as fast as a flash of lightning. He was so quick I didn’t even see him move, but now he looms in front of me, one arm protectively extended as Nico comes to stand by Mark’s side in a defensive stance.
“Please, we don’t want to fight,” Nico says, his eyes darting between Mark, the Night King, and me. I can all but see the gears turning in his head as he tries to figure out how to talk his way out of this mess. “Flower, just come with us. Let Tristan see that you’re safe and unharmed. If you want to leave and come back here, I’m sure he won’t stop you. But talk to him. Please. Otherwise, he won’t stop searching for you. He won’t give up on you as easily as you gave up on him.”
His words cut deep, but that’s precisely what I cannot do.
Because the truth is nothing about this is not easy. This is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do, and I’m afraid that if I go with them and see Tristan, I won’t have the strength to do it.
“I can’t,” I whisper, choking on the word. I don’t have it in me to say anything else. Any lies or excuses would feel like shards of glass in my throat. I hate hurting them like this, and I know they don’t understand. But if they knew, would they still fight for me? If any of them discovered the truth about what I am, would they still be willing to risk anything for me? Would Tristan risk his own life to be with me?
There is no right answer, and there’s no way we’re all coming out of this without getting hurt. But at least if I push them away, they will be safe. At least if Tristan hates me, I can’t curse him as well.
“You are a long way from home, pup,” my father says suddenly to Nico, his cold and commanding voice cutting through the chaos of my thoughts. “Best be on your way.”
“We’re not going anywhere without her,” Mark growls at him, and he steps forward to grab me again, but my father splays his hand across the other man’s chest, pushing him back before the Beta can reach me.
Oh shit.
My father’s gesture was meant to protect me, but he doesn’t know Mark. One shove is all it takes to ignite the anger that’s been brewing in him, and his own defenses take over. Mark’s wolf form tears out of him, and he shifts in a matter of seconds.
Around us, the crowd shifts, and my blood runs cold as dozens of vampires turn their crimson gaze on the wolf in front of me with a feral hiss. The color drains from Nico’s face at the sound, and I nearly stagger back at the sight of all those glistening, elongated fangs.
“Stand down,” my father says slowly, and the nightwalkers obey, backing away and parting until a space has been cleared around Marco, the two Rovers, and me.
The clan will not interfere without the king’s command. He is standing completely still, an unnatural calm washed over his features, and I suddenly understand why he calls me child. This man is ancient and deadly, more than I could even imagine. He could not save my mother, but he would slaughter kingdoms to keep his daughter.
Mark bares his teeth, hackles raised, and black fur standing on end. Terror holds me in a place like an icy grip, but I have to do something. I need to stop this before they tear each other apart.
‘Father, please, don’t hurt th—’ I try to send a telepathic plea to the Night King, but before I can finish forming the thought, Mark pounces at him.
Everything happens so quickly.
My father moves so fast I can barely see what he’s doing until Mark is thrown across the air. He lands on the ground with a yelp, sliding across the marble floor. Nico springs into action, shifting into his own wolf form and lunging in between the Night King and his injured packmate.
But he’s so small.
Lucy once joked that Nico looks more like a scrawny fox than a proper wolf. I know he’s quick and agile, but it won’t be enough. Mark is already struggling to his feet, ears slicked back against his head. But in that moment, in a hall full of old and deadly creatures that would pounce on them in a heartbeat, the two wolves seem so… fragile.
Something buried deep within me snaps.
Marco is my father, but these two stubborn idiots are my family too.
In a single second, a thousand thoughts flash through my mind. The little apologetic smile that Mark reserved only for Amara when she scolded him for his temper. The unyielding loyalty the Beta had towards his Alpha and what that must mean to Tristan. The way Nico’s cheeks turned red when Lucy caught him staring at her, or the friendly smile on his face when he called me flower girl for the first time.
I think of the Albion pack and how Ector loved Elaine even after she betrayed him and the fact that she had to stand by and watch while her lover killed her mate. I think of Vanessa Massen dying alone and afraid after giving birth to me, away from the man she loved and abandoned by her own family. Did she see the Goddess’s mark over my heart and know that I was damned? Did she fear what kind of monster her hybrid child would become? Or did she love me in that short time we had together?
Feelings and memories flood me faster than I can process them, and they all consolidate into a single thought that consumes me.
There has been enough killing. No one dies today, not because of me.
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?