Alpha Begged, Luna Walked Chapter 04

Alpha Begged, Luna Walked Chapter 04

I drifted to the pack house like a ghost.

Through the glass, I saw her. Eden Farrow. The woman Magnus claimed he’d transferred.

Her desk was covered with moonflowers.

She saw me watching. No surprise,only that slow, deliberate smile. She raised her left hand. The ring on her finger caught the light.

My ring. The mating band I’d chosen.

I grabbed whatever my hands found,papers, a lamp, a ceramic vase. I threw everything I could reach at that window, at her, at the sight of my future wrapped around someone else’s finger.

Magnus burst out. His palm struck my cheek before I could flinch.

“Who let you in? This is the pack house. Take your tantrum home.”

I held my face and stared at the disgust in his eyes.

How did we end up here?

When the scandal broke, our prospective allies went quiet. They knew Magnus was Alpha,but the Council answered to me. If Nova Greer stopped backing her mate, the deals withered on the vine.

Magnus ordered me to fix it.

“Public statement. You were delusional. Jealous. Everything you said about Eden was fiction.” His gaze dropped to my stomach, deliberate. “Or you’ll never see this pup.”

My silence told him everything.

He smiled, satisfied. “I want that statement before I leave for the northern hunt. Eden’s been stressed. She needs the trip.”

I packed my mother’s painting and the small urn. One last stop.

The pack cemetery.

My mother was the first wolf buried here.

Today was the anniversary of her death.

I scattered my son’s ashes into the wind. “I’m leaving, Mama. Maybe I’ll wander. Maybe I’ll start a new pack. Take the elders with me.”

I held up the painting,her hands, her strokes, the boy she’d once believed in. “This is the portrait you made of him. He wanted to give it away. I fought to keep it.”

“I won’t take it with me. Let me burn it for you.”

The canvas caught fire. Magnus’s face warped and blackened in the flames.

I watched until there was nothing left.

Then my wolf seized control.

Silver burned through my shoulder—wide, wrong. I’d already moved, but not fast enough.

Rogues. Dozens of them, crawling through the cemetery walls like rot.

“How did you get past patrol.”

Their laughter cut me off. “Alpha blood. Remember seven years ago? You hunted us to the edge of the territory. For him.”

A pause. A grin.

“He doesn’t remember us. But we remember you. His mistress let us in.”

Eden.

“She said to say hello.”

Magnus Vancroft was en route to the airport.

He answered emails on autopilot, but his wolf wouldn’t settle. Something gnawed at the base of his skull.

Beside him, Eden was peeling an apple, smiling. She knew he didn’t like apples.

Nova did.

He rubbed his temples. There was something he was forgetting,something important.

He called her anyway.

“Nova?”

A long pause. Then, faint—like waking from a dream, “…Mm.”

“Eden’s trying to kill me. Rogues. Come back”

His jaw tightened. “Nova. That’s enough. Eden is right here.”

Eden gasped. The knife had slipped. Blood welled from her finger.

Silence on Nova’s end.

His unease curdled. “What is this? Another trick to make me come home? Is today supposed to be special?”

He strained to remember. Nothing.

“Your birthday?”

A soft exhale. Almost a laugh.

“You forgot. I don’t celebrate anymore.”

Right. She’d stopped after the pup.

But her voice too thin. Too far away. “Where are you? You sound strange.”

No answer.

She was angry. He’d fix it when he got back.

He softened his tone. “You’ve been good lately. The statement helped. You don’t need to compete with Eden for anything. I promised your mother I’d take care of you. That hasn’t changed. It never will.”

Another breath. Even quieter this time.

“…Okay.”

Then,nothing.

She never hung up on him.

Never.

The wolf-tooth pendant around his neck, worn for twenty years, snapped clean in two.

His vision bled red.

Nova’s tooth. The one the witch had spelled. The one that only broke when its owner died.