My Alpha Rejected Me for a Dare, So I Walked Away Chapter 09

My Alpha Rejected Me for a Dare, So I Walked Away Chapter 09

A Real Luna Walks In

“That’s right.”

Helena goes silent.

She’d never heard of Kael personally – but she knew the Nightridge Pack. Everyone in the werewolf world did.

The Nightridge territory stretches across half the western ridgelands. Alliances with a dozen Alpha bloodlines. Their young Alpha – Kael – had spent years abroad consolidating power in overseas packs before returning home to inherit.

In two years he’d turned the Nightridge Pack into the single most dominant pack on the continent. Every Alpha with half a brain was trying to court an alliance with him.

Helena had been one of them. She’d been pushing Logan to arrange a meeting with Nightridge for

months.

The woman who’d sneered at me two seconds ago now stands frozen, blinking like a stunned pup.

“Clara.”

A warm voice behind me. I turn.

Margaret Nightridge – Kael’s mother

beelines straight for me.

She grabs my hands.

Kael’s mother – has just walked in. Her eyes are full of worry, and she

“Are you hurt? Did they hurt you?”

I shake my head. “No, Margaret. You didn’t have to come back.”

She’d been traveling on the eastern coast. She must have turned around the second she got the

mindlink.

“Of course I came back. The second I heard. Or else every little alley–wolf would think she can bare

her teeth at our Luna.

Her eyes cut across to Helena. Sharp as a blade.

Helena’s head drops, just a bit. Like a stray caught in the glare of a lioness.

Helena forces a nervous smile. “Apologies, Lady Nightridge. This was all a misunderstanding.”

Margaret turns her head slowly and lets out a cold, thin laugh. “Misunderstanding?”

“There’s no such thing in my pack.”

“Anyone who lays a paw on our Luna – *anyone* – pays. Dearly.”

She looks at Helena. Then at Logan. Long and slow.

Helena pales. She looks at me, voice going soft and pleading.

“I’m sorry, Clara. I lost my head. I was wrong before. Please – don’t hold it against me.”

My wolf lets out a low, scornful huff inside me.

The former Luna of the Blackthorn Pack. The she–wolf who’d never let me sit at her table for three years. Begging me.

Margaret’s power hits different.

A small smirk curls my lips.

“I never thought I’d see the day you’d grovel at my feet.”

Helena’s smile flickers.

–

“I’m a very forgiving she–wolf. But with you I hold grudges.”

Helena’s face freezes solid.

I loop my arm through Margaret’s.

“Let’s

go home, Margaret. Let the advocate handle this.”

Kael calls to his advocate: “Anyone who tries to sneak this case through the back channels is declaring war on the Nightridge Pack.”

Helena doesn’t say a word.

Behind us, Vivian is crying – that pitiful, desperate whimper.

“I didn’t mean it! Please! I don’t want the dungeon! Helena – Helena, help me!”

The next few days, Helena waits at the Nightridge border. Gifts in hand. Begging the warriors on duty to grant her passage.

Logan is the Blackthorn Pack’s only heir. If he goes to the dungeon, the pack is leaderless.

But more than that – Helena is terrified that Kael will move to crush the Blackthorn Pack entirely.

So she drops every ounce of pride she has and kneels in the dirt at the border line. She waits there; on her knees, for three full days before Kael finally gives the order to let her through.

She’s escorted straight to the Nightridge pack house under guard, and the second her paws cross into the main hall, she collapses again.

“I’ll do anything. Anything. Just spare the Blackthorn Pack.”

Margaret sits above her, expression carved from stone.

“This is Clara’s decision. Not mine.”

“Whether she forgives you – that’s up to her.”

I sit beside Margaret. She pats my hand and gives me a warm little smile.

Three years living in the same pack house. We’re as close as blood.

She’s been kinder to me than she is to Kael sometimes. I’ve never understood why.

…

CJ

She’s been kinder to me than she is to Kael sometimes. I’ve never understood why.

Coming into this pack, I was terrified all over again. Low–ranked she–wolf marrying into the strongest pack on the continent – I thought Margaret would hate me.

She didn’t.

I asked her once, why. Wasn’t she bothered by where I came from?

Her answer, soft and steady:

“I love Kael. And I know – when he’s with you, he’s steady. He’s at peace.”

“You give him peace. You make him feel safe. As his mother, I’m grateful to you for that.”

“If he loves you, I love you. I’d never do anything to hurt him.”

“He’s my only heir, the last of the Nightridge bloodline. I’ve cradled him since the day the Moon Goddess brought him.”

“He’s always been wise. He’s never chosen wrong.”

“So I trust him.”