The Royal Alpha, & Loyal Luna

42. You're Not Supposed To Like War .

"Gio, do me a favor and take Augustine for a walk around the perimeter. The guys need to know the smell of wulphed. Mine wouldn't do them justice anymore."

"And why is that?" He asked knowingly. "Is the poison in you no longer the same as theirs or something?" He seemed to tease, but I knew the question expected a more serious answer.

I quirked an annoyed brow. "Are you my alpha, or?" I gestured between us.

He chuckled like the asshole he knew he was. "Say no more.. Goddess."

I hit him. "Keep that to yourself for now." I warned. "I don't need to freak everyone out all over again, got it? It's Luna or Nova, nothing more. Not yet." I knew I would have to talk to them about it sooner or later, because even if the wulphed was miraculously washed from my system, I would still have a part of the Moon Goddess within me.

"Alright, alright. Don't chew my head off." He rose his hands. "I'll patch him up and take him for a cruise to meet the boys." When I was sure he was gone with Augustine after a few minutes, Gabe looked to me.

"I would make a joke right now, but I have a feeling you're about to ask me to do something far from funny." He took a seat. "I think I should sit for this."

"Since the day you came back to the packhouse with me, I knew I could trust you. When you were honest with me about something you knew I wouldn't agree with, you knew you could still trust me. Now, I'm asking the same of you in return. And apart from watching over Tino, I have one last thing to ask of you."

His eyes grew darker as the mood turned more serious.

"Minette will want a life in return for me taking Tino, maybe even two for me keeping Augustine away from her. If I know my mother, she'll play it smart, but not smarter than me."

"What did you have mind, Luna?"

"She won't outright choose me in order to return the girls, that'd be too easy and she'd know we'd have a plan for me to escape."

"So what do you think she'll do?"

"She'll want Grey. She knows I'd go willingly to keep him out of her grasp. The only way I can know for sure she'll leave him be is if my life is threatened. As much as she's done to me, she doesn't want me dead. Not yet at least."

"I hope you're not proposing you die." He eyed me, no hint of a smile. "Because if you are, and you're about to ask me to have a hand-or rather in this case, a fang-in this, I'll finally have raised my fist to a woman." He leaned forward. "You're out of your godforsaken mind."

"I can swear it on all boots that are combat, you won't face any repercussions if that's what you're worried about."

"One, no. Two, combat boots? Really? Those damned things we can never steer you away from? Three, you can't assure me anything after death. And four, no."

"Trust me."

"You're saying it as if you have some plan behind it. There's no plan behind it, because there's no plan behind death. Don't get me wrong, my loyalties are to you and Tino, but I'm questioning your decisions right now.. Luna. You want me in on anything, you'd better have damned good backup plan. I'm not dealing with your Alpha if all goes to shit."

"If you haven't realized, Gabe.. I'm an illegitimate royal luna, whose mother is a damned there rogue princess, who's dead-set on having me be her poisoned puppet, while her daughter, and that'd be little ol' me, is even more dead-set on her staying dead.. all has already gone to shit."

"Staying dead?" He shook his head, not understanding.

"I've mourned her for almost four years now. I don't have anymore energy in me to grieve. I never thought I'd say this, but my mom.. the world seemed to be better without her in it. Every life she's been in, she's ruined. I won't let her ruin anymore. This time, her death will be for real, and it'll be an open-casket service to make sure of it."

"You really want to do this?"

"Only if I have to."

"If I were to feed from you. Do you know what that will do?"

"You gain blood, I lose it. So?"

"So?" He scoffed. "You, a wolf, and I, a vampire. Have you not heard the tale?"

"I don't have time for stories."

"Oh, I think you'd better make time for this one." He indicated for me to sit down. "You don't have to be one of us, a wolf or vampire, to know we're basically opposites."

"Your point?"

"What makes you think nothing bad will come from the transaction, alone? Forget that I'd be surrounded by nothing but wulphed-driven wolves out looking for blood as well as Aureate Moon." He stood from his seat. "You and I, we won't just be opposites defying the odds to attract, but we'll-"

His sentence stopped so abruptly, I thought something had happened to him. "We'll, what?" I found myself leaning forward.

His eyebrows furrowed as he made it a point to look square in my eyes, no trace of humor, no joking, all seriousness and straight business. And then, reluctantly, he said it. "We'll never want to be apart."

"I.. Well.. We.. You.." I couldn't stop stammering like an idiot. How the hell was I suppose to respond to that?

"You see, Luna.. the composition of what makes us what we are tells us to repel against each other, naturally. But if I were to feed from you, to do the one thing our instincts tell us not to, which is to get so close to one of you enough to want your blood, then that would change the balance. We would not repel, but we would very much attract, it is a forbidden bond within my kind. To be bound to a wolf in such a way. I blame both our ancestors."

"Does that.. scare you? Being bound to me?"

"What the fuck? Nova, of course it- A kiss here, a bit of stolen time within each other's company there, was the most a relationship between a vampire and a wolf ever got, until it became too taboo to even think of enjoying their company now." He shook his head when he seen that nothing of what he said made me budge. "Are you crazy?"

I sat back, scoffing myself. "I have two voices in my head, one screaming at me enough to almost make sense and the other having an insanely calm back and forth with themself, so.. you really have to ask?"

He stared at me for a moment, blinking only once before shaking his head and tugging at his beard. "I don't like this."

"You're not suppose to like war, that's why it's war."

"It's not the war that scares me."

I turned my head sideways in curiosity.

"It's what'll happen when either you.. or Minette dies."

"All you need to do is worry about staying alive. If Grey does happen to get there and get mixed up in Minette's games, then that's when you'll do it. And if you have to, I'll have already made arrangements to have my friends from another pack take you in and keep you hidden, that way it'll give my cousins in France some time to set up for you. I hope you're a fast learner, cause French is a m*therf*cker."

He chuckled, but it was dry and almost sad. "I can't believe this is happening. I finally make decent friends and they happen to want to be got damn martyrs."

"Decent?" I stood, punching his arm. "Who the hell else is as cool as the Royal Slayer?" I flexed an arm. "Point them out to me right now and I'll eat 'em." I growled, smiling.

He hugged me to him and I stopped smiling from being surprised by his sudden embrace. "I'll only drink until your heart warns me you've had enough. I promise. I won't kill you, you can't ask that from me." He said just above a whisper.

"Then it's settled. You, me, and Gio will leave before the sun rises and not a moment later. Until then, if you believe in anything of a higher being, better go and make some peace with them now."

I walked off, praying to the Goddess for countless lives to be saved instead of sacrificed. Rescued instead of slaughtered. Protected instead of poisoned. I prayed for my girls' safe return, for Gio and Gabe to make it through this and lead the lives they want whether that be with the pack or not. I prayed for my father's safety and to live for many more years without pain. I prayed for the Goddess to grant me favor in battle against Minette.

And most of all.. I prayed that if things went wrong, Greyden would still be able to live a long, happy life and move on to find peace.. for the both of us.