Alpha Vaughan

Chapter 11

He drew level with me, then began that unnerving circling, his hands folded at his back.

"I spoke with your father this afternoon," he told me. I already did not like where this was going. "Told him I'd found my mate in his daughter," he continued. "He was amenable, ecstatic even, to the news. And there lies the problem."

He came to a stop before me. I watched him, waiting.

"I am cursed," he stated the obvious, "and my reputation precedes me. Any father who truly loves his daughter wouldn't give her up to me."

My heart clenched at the implication of his words; I lowered my gaze.

My eyes widened when he touched my chin, lifting up my face. His whiskey grey eyes sucked me in, and his deceptively gentle voice lulled me into hypnosis. "You belong here with me. I could give you a home. Be mine a--"

I tore my face away from his hold. "No," I said resolutely. "I can't be your mate." For so many reasons.

"Your disagreement on the matter would hardly sway m--"

"I'm Latent okay?!" I bursted out. I heard a gasp in the bushes but my anger and wariness soon overrode the memory of it. "I. Am. Latent. I cannot turn into my wolf. I would be a liability--a disgrace!--to your pack. You deserve someone better. Someone more fit to be a Luna than I could ever be." After my tirade, I suddenly felt cold and exposed.

At length Alpha Vaughan did something I thought he wasn't capable of.

He laughed.

It wasn't merry or happy. It was wretched, dripping with bitterness and self-recrimination. Some part of me started to feel pity for him.

What he said next however erased that feeling.

"Isn't it just my luck?" he asked no one in particular. "Just when I think the world has ceased to delight in my pain, Fate decides to give me a f*cking Latent for a mate. A weak, powerless, v--"

Not wanting to hear anymore, I snapped, "Reject me then!" Tears stung my eyes

He stared at me blankly, "Reject you?"

Dread filled me when he started prowling towards me, pure menace radiating off him. I held my stance for so long, only to crack and stumble backwards when he neared me.

He slowly bit out, "If only it were so easy. You're Latent, you would never know to what depth a connection between two mates truly runs, would never feel for me as deeply as I could for you. On your part, rejection would be easy to take. On mine, unbearable. It could sever my last tie with humanity."

This would've seemed like some sort of declaration of his feelings for me, if they weren't nonexistent; and if he didn't sound so repulsed by his own words.

My back connected with a tree bark. "So it's all about you then?"

"Rest assured, it will never be about you," he said. Then added, "I will never love you, Hilda." My name rolled off his tongue the same way the rest of his sentence did: softly, yet venomously.

An odd emptiness travelled allover my body, an ache so deep digging into my chest. A tear slowly dribbled down my cheeks. "And I will always hate you, Vaughan."

His eyes blazed, and at the sight of my tears a broken expression infiltrated his eyes. As if he couldn't help himself, his hand rose to clean it away.

I averted my face, and he fisted his palm, drawing away from me. I watched as he walked off, disappearing into a corner of the maze.

I didn't know how long I stood there staring into the darkness, the sound of fireworks and lively chatter drifting into the back of my mind. My eyes watered and I slowly sank down to my knees, a sob escaping me.

Dragging in shaky breaths, more sobs left me. And as I felt someone hesitantly approach me and cover my form with a warm jacket, I thought, this would be the first and last time I ever cried because of Vaughan Lupus.

  
                            __         

Packed and ready to head back to my former pack, I stood beside father the next morning as he excitedly spoke with Beta Alister, assuring him that he would return with me as soon as I retrieved everything I owned from the Stillmoon pack. So that I could assume my duties as the Luna of the Beastclaw pack.

The news had travelled through the pack quickly enough for the werewolves here to start giving me lingering looks. I could feel their gazes on my neck even now. I turned and caught sight of a tall girl sizing me up. Could she see the wariness in my eyes? The unwillingness and dread I felt towards being their Luna?

Beta Alister's voice drew me out of my thoughts. "I bid you a safe trip on your journey back home, Miss Hilda."

They would all address me as Miss Hilda, until after the coronation. Then it'd be Luna Hilda. A lump clogged my throat and I nodded at him in thanks.

As we headed for the garage, I spotted Nayla rushing towards a group of other Omegas, and a hazy memory from last night filled me; of her leading my crying form back to the pack-house, of her gently running a comb through my hair as she sang a soothing foreign song. A warm feeling suffused me: I quite liked the girl.

We all got into the car and rode to the airport, five of Vaughan's men joining up with us. To protect me? Or ensure I didn't try to run away? There was no need for that, because doing that would automatically make me a rogue. And I wouldn't make it past a week in the dangerous wilds, where Hunters and other immortal beings preyed on rogues.

As I settled into my seat on the plane, I stared out the window. Alpha Vaughan couldn't be bothered enough to come see his mate before she went off to the airport this morning--I dimly wondered what the whole pack translated that to mean. That he wasn't on board with the pairing? Or that there was something deeper at play?

Something like my being Latent. They didn't know about that yet, but I gave them just two days, or even less. In my mind's eye, I could foresee days filled with cold stares and even colder treatment.

The plane rode down the runway at full speed and then took off, its nose lifting higher and higher and higher...

Throughout the agonizingly long duration of the flight, I thought about anything and everything, stared at fluffy clouds, and drifted in and out of consciousness; snapping awake when the control tower finally announced we'd landed.

The chilling morning air welcomed me back to Alaska.

As we drove well into afternoon,  I spied familiar sprawling mountains covered in snow. Natives all bundled up in heavy clothes walked to and fro, some rode bikes, while some stuck out their thumbs for one to hitch-hike on. 

When we stopped before the pack-gates, it was opened to allow us pass through. The first person I caught sight of was Jim, Eunice's boyfriend, and I immediately thought about her. How would she take to the news of me being Alpha Vaughan's mate?

She'd be ecstatic, no doubt.

But not until I told her about Vaughan's reaction to me being Latent. And for that, I couldn't wait to confide in her, couldn't wait to hear her cuss him to within an inch of this life, couldn't wait to hear her reassure me that I'll do extremely well as a Luna, couldn't wait to hear her hatch up a plan about following me back to Beastclaw. To sum it all up, I couldn't wait to see my best friend.

I was still lost in my thoughts when we all alighted. And just when I spotted Eunice's thin form excitedly approaching me, I heard it. The terrible sound of our pack walls exploding into bits.