LUNA ASTERBELLE’S POV
Alpha Shin’s statements always seemed to get the best out of me. Maybe, just maybe… if I was actually born and raised in the Blood Moon Pack, there’s a chance that I’d accept Shin’s proposal that we should be mates; if so, then I wouldn’t be able to find any other reason to reject him other than his random ruthlessness.
"Are you for real? You’re telling a hoax just because I did? I didn’t know you were the type to be hungry for paybacks." I moved away from his tight and warm embrace. "You probably talked the same way to these other creatures and women. Don’t think that I’d ever fall for any of your traps anymore."
He shortly laughed, which was immediately replaced with an annoyed emotion. "You’re no fun. But still, I want you to be my mate and officially be my Luna. That’s your fate right from the very beginning."
Shin turned around to head out of the underground, so I followed him before he even thought of locking me down there and never coming back to release me.
"Your motions are getting quicker. That’s a magnificent improvement over such a short period of time," Shin complimented me, as if he did plan to leave me all by myself.
I ignored him the moment I sensed that someone was watching us from above. I tilted my head upward to see who it was and had my eyes wide open when I saw Dawn over there. I raised my eyebrows to attempt to ask why he was there, but I couldn’t risk that he might get seen by the Alpha.
"He didn’t leave, did he?" Alpha Shin suddenly asked.
I heaved out a short sigh. "As expected of the Alpha." I gestured to the king that he could come down. "What were you doing there? Didn’t I tell you to get out of my sight?"
"I know, but—"
"Once you’re on my pack’s premises, there’s absolutely no way that you can still get out without MY permission," Shin cut him off.
Even though it wasn’t my intention to bring the king here, I still felt kind of guilty that he had to be stuck here with me. I couldn’t even muster up the courage to look him directly in the eye. I was hoping that it would either be Jerome or Eman, but since it’s now him, I have no other choice.
I was about to escape from the two, as I didn’t want to be the reason for their argument over and over again, but King Dawn prevented me as he blocked my path.
I clicked my tongue. "Now what? Are you still going to insist that I’m being hypnotized by Shin?"
"The way you speak and act is literally different from how I met you," Dawn mumbled with a bit of concern, then turned his gaze over to the Alpha. "Are you sure that you’re going to have her as your partner? Someone who’s not worthy to be yours? Weren’t you searching for a woman who was rightful and had the same level as you?" he consecutively questioned.
"Don’t let your greed show too much, Dawn." The Alpha smirked as if he was purposely provoking the king to have a fight with him. "Shall we have a duel to settle this once and for all? I heard from Nero that my dead Luna intervened between the two of you."
I knew it was going to reach this point, so I decided to flee without leaving a trace behind. I could do anything if I put my mind into it.
"You’re that girl who stole my dress," Yuki uttered as she crossed paths with me.
I didn’t have any reason to talk to her, so I purposely walked past her, but she was the one who approached me first, so I had to give her a response. "I’m pretty sure that you already talked this through with your brother, Alpha Shin."
She placed both of her hands on her waist as she slightly blew a bit of air that was enough to make her bangs flow upward. "You could’ve just bowed down and apologized. Why are you still trying to insist that it really was Shin who gave you the dress?" Yuki questioned me.
My eyes traveled to the other direction where I came from and saw that the Alpha and the King were together side-by-side, so I grabbed her by the wrist without any second thoughts. Yuki was trying to resist my grip, but I was too forceful.
"What’s wrong with you?" she asked at the same time I released her. "What are you running from... my brother?"
"Yes."
Yuki’s inner eyebrows suddenly slanted as she heard my reply. "Are you not on good terms with Shin and Nero?" she inquired, which made me think that she was actually soft-hearted.
I shrugged my shoulders. "For now, I guess. They didn’t really show me such a great impression from the start, so I wasn’t that comfortable with them," I answered as I leaned my back on the wall, which she also did. "Can I ask?"
"You’re already asking, but go on."
"Why are you not living here? As far as I can remember, the Alpha mentioned something about dorms."
The two of us decided to take a short detour while she was telling me about her past.
Yuki Holmes was the third child of the legendary Alpha, who has been missing for decades. The Blood Moon Pack generally didn’t have any leaders for years, which brought them the unfortunate event of having a deadly virus.
Nero Holmes wasn’t the type of person who could lead a whole pack. He only had his mind filled with thoughts of killing, as he believed that it would be the key to achieving much more power than he currently had.
Which explains why the rank of Alpha was given to Shin Holmes, who had no interest in it from the beginning. However, his principles changed when he discovered that all his mates ended up dead at his hands. It was the same reason that motivated him to find someone who could actually bear the pain of the virus and be invulnerable to any sort of disease.
And that’s when Shin heard about my existence.
"Was it true that Alpha Shin wanted to have me as his chosen mate, or does he simply want to make use of me and my blood?" I asked out of pure curiosity, considering that Yuki won’t lie to me.
Yuki shook her head as she stopped her tracks to face me.
"Shin’s using you. What made you believe that he’s actually interested in having you as his partner for his entire lifetime?"