one
The Luna
*ROSEA*
Iloved Jordan Bryce with all my heart.
When he stepped foot into the ballroom my father rented for my eighteenth birthday, and I laid eyes on him, I was done for.
When I realized my wolf was calling out for his.
When I saw his crooked smile and felt his hand around mine.
I gave my heart away to him immediately, to my mate. It took me only a couple of minutes to fall head over heels for him. Jordan was a warrior of high rank who accompanied his alpha that evening, but it didn’t matter to me that he was no alpha’s son. No matter who he was, he would be good enough for me. Besides, I had a pack and a future. As my dad’s only child—as analpha’s only child—it was, in fact, considered good that my mate wouldn’t be an alpha heir himself.
Jordan immediately began courting me. Doing it all the proper way, by introducing himself to my father first and asking him for his ‘Okay’. It was a mere technicality to do that, but Dad was impressed by his manners. Even my mother liked him.
Everyone liked him.
He was a strong warrior from a good family, with the proper drive to lead a pack, and with me by his side, he was an alpha’s daughter’s mate.
“I was so stupid,” I mutter.
We weren’t stupid,my wolf Alora says.He was our mate. It wasn’t our fault for trusting him.
Maybe, but we were naïve. Rory warned us back then; he never liked him. If only he were still around…
My cousin Rory, an orphan who grew up with me, was the only one who didn’t buy into Jordan’s bullshit. Back then, everyone thought he was jealous, envious, that he wanted the pack for himself, but now I know better.
I wish he were still alive. I know that despite all his disappointment in me, he would be at my side.
I don’t know what to do, Alora.
Alora stays quiet. While I wish she would say something, I also know there isn’t muchtosay because there is nothing we can possibly do. My mate is the alpha of my former pack, the pack that was actually my heritage. It’s his now. I gave it to him, or rather, my father did, believing he would forever watch out for me and for this place. Little did Dad know that it was all a farce. I glance at the mirror in the corridor, noting that the bruises on my face are gone, and only some around my neck are still there. Grabbing a scarf to wrap around my neck, I finally make my way outside.
Good thing my father isn’t alive anymore – this would have broken him.
Raise your head,Alora says.
You don’t need to tell me twice.
I am an alpha’s daughter. Even if hell freezes, even if Jordan burns my pack down, even if he beats and humiliates me, even if I die at his hands, I will always be an alpha’s daughter.
Nothing will change that.
“You are late,” Jordan snarls when I enter the dining room for breakfast. It’s nothing new to me that he does it in front of the pack. I have endured his humiliation for long enough to have gotten used to it.
Keep your head up high.
“Well,” I say, nodding at Beta Clemmens, who offers me a seat. “I had duties to attend to.” I take my cup of tea, making sure not to show an ounce of weakness or fear at the dark glare he is shooting me.
“I don’t know what type of duties a spoiled princess may have to attend to,” he says. He keeps his voice low and calm like he always does, and I hate that he does it. If he showed open aggression, the pack might have been more sympathetic to me, but the way he has been doing it for years, they have just started to believe him. He always goes with the half-truth. It’s true that I am an alpha’s only child; maybe I grew up as a princess with privileges and love, but it’s not true that I never learned or studied, that my parents didn’t teach me anything. In fact, my father was always adamant about me knowing everything about the pack.
And I was a fast learner. I might have been naïve as a teen, like most of them are, but I wasn’t dumb. I loved studying; I eagerly sucked up everything my parents taught me. I learned how to handle difficult political situations from my mother, as well ashow to carry myself with grace in a room full of alphas who might look down on me.
Thinking of her now makes my chest clench. I miss her so much; I miss both of them. Knowing that without their previous guidance, I would have been completely lost and maybe already dead makes my chest ache even more. I didn’t realize how much they taught me until I needed it.
“Good morning, Alpha,” one of the warriors says while approaching us. He briefly gazes at me. “Luna.”
