Zuri was breathing raggedly when she could feel the pleasure she rode mixed with the pain from the mark on her neck. She gasped and moaned at the same time, all the while trying to endure the pain that kept twisting her insides, as Alpha Xaden’s canines dug deeper into her flesh.

“It hurts…” Zuri was breathless, she wanted to push him away from her, but their bodies were quite slick, as a layer of perspiration covered them after the deed that had been done.

However, Alpha Xaden growled, he gathered her arms above her head and deepened the mark, as if he couldn’t care less about her pleas for him to be less brutal with this mating and marking process.

Zuri could only grit her teeth and accept her fate. This was expected, the pain was not something that she had never heard of, but this was beyond anything that she had ever felt.

Not even the beating from her father…

It felt like an eternity had passed before Alpha Xaden finally deemed it was enough. He released both of her hands and moved away from her neck, before he pulled out of her.

Zuri felt beaten and used by the time it was finally done.

Alpha Xaden said something when he got off the bed and cleaned himself, but Zuri was too spent to grasp what he was talking about. Sleepiness engulfed her and she felt this darkness shrouding her, swiftly pulling her away from reality.

But the next day, she couldn’t find Alpha Xaden. Or the next day. The third day wasn’t any different either.

“It has been a week,” Zuri muttered to herself. “Where do you think the Alpha has gone?” She asked one of her personal maids, who was assigned to help her.

“I don’t know, Luna,” Esther replied, but she looked nonchalant. She couldn’t care less about the new mistress that she served. “The Alpha must be busy. He must have something more important to handle.”

“More important than his mate?” Zuri’s brows knitted together.

“Probably,” Sarah muttered under her breath. She lowered her head to hide her defiant gaze.

Both of them, like the rest of the omegas, didn’t like this luna and Zuri was not a fool to not notice that.

However, she was not in a position to confront them about it.

“You can leave,” Zuri said. She didn’t want to make them stay even a bit longer if they didn’t want to spend a second with her. She knew how it felt when someone didn’t want to be in your presence and she had mastered that pretty well.

The two of them didn’t need to be told twice, as they immediately left the room, leaving Zuri alone with her own thoughts.

It was only after a month that Zuri finally managed to get a hold of Xaden. He just returned from a long campaign to hunt monsters on Mountain Ave and nobody told Zuri about this, even though she was the luna of the pack.

By this time, the wound on her neck had almost healed and she was bearing Xaden’s mark.

“Where have you been?” Zuri asked when she saw Xaden enter their bedroom. She looked at the alpha, trying to hold back her emotions.

Xaden glanced at her briefly and then walked away, he didn’t even say anything or give her any explanation for his disappearance.

However, Zuri held his hand to stop him from leaving, she used her body to block him from going out of the room, standing right in front of the door.

“What do you think you are doing?” Xaden growled. He disliked this kind of act, as if he couldn’t topple her over easily.

“We need to talk.” Her voice was tight.

“I have mated and marked you, what else do you want?”

“Explain to me why you left me alone in your pack for a month without any explanation.”

“Everybody knows where I have gone. What else should I explain to you?”

Everybody knew, except Zuri, his mate. Therefore, the alpha didn’t believe that she didn’t have any idea where he had gone.

“No. I don’t.” Zuri said the truth, but it sounded like a lie. “I don’t know. Nobody told me.”

Xaden scoffed. His handsome face twisted, he looked at her with disgust. “What a little liar you are.” He walked away from her, but she grabbed his hand again. In return, he pinched her wrist, which made her hand turn numb.

“Let’s be honest with each other. Why are you treating me this way?” Zuri felt this lump in her throat.

“We both know that we don’t want this union,” Xaden said darkly. “Don’t even think you can gain anything from this union,” he said under his breath, holding Zuri’s hand too tightly, which made her uncomfortable.

“If you don’t want me, you should tell them.” Zuri tried so hard to hold back her tears. His words were so hurtful.

“Don’t try to be smart here, you know that’s not possible.” Alpha Xaden glanced at her with disgust. “Let’s be clear here, I don’t want you. You are not the one I desire.”

That was it.

Zuri had been warned that she was not desired by her own mate. Alpha Xaden was the alpha of the Blackthorne pack, the biggest pack in Celeste kingdom, while Zuri hailed from the River Creek pack, the richest pack, the pack that shouldered the economy of this kingdom.

Therefore, the union between the two packs was keenly awaited, as their marriage alliance would strengthen the kingdom, since Alpha Xaden was part of the royal family. He was the king’s younger brother.

But, the problem was, Xaden had met his destined mate. She was an omega. Someone, who was deemed unworthy of Xaden, as it would ruin the royal bloodline to have an omega’s blood mixed with them.

That explained why the servants didn’t like her from the get go.

“If you don’t want me, just reject me.”

Zuri had heard about Alpha Xaden’s destined mate being an omega in the pack, but she also heard that he had rejected the poor girl, so this marriage could happen in the first place.

“There is a conflict of interests I’ll have to think about here if I reject you now. It will not benefit either of the packs.” Xaden was talking about superficial things, while Zuri wanted to talk about her feelings. “It already happened. You will be at a disadvantage too if I were to reject you. Nobody will accept a broken thing. A rejected woman, who had already been mated and marked. So, let’s make a deal between the two of us instead.”

Zuri wriggled her hand that was still in his grip. This time, Xaden let go of her, but for a moment, they just stared into each other’s eyes with mixed feelings.

“What deal do you want to make with me?” Zuri gritted her teeth. She felt humiliated and didn’t know what to do anymore. She was trapped in this pack.

She thought she could finally be free from her father, but even the mate that she thought would love her ended up hating her with passion even though they had only met a handful of times.

“Mind our own business.” The words came very light, but Zuri could grasp the heavy meaning behind his intention. “Live this life as you want, as long as you don’t tarnish the pack name, I will let you have anything that you want and I will not interfere with your life. Ever.”

“You just want to get away from me.”

“Yes, that’s exactly what I want.”

“So, you can go back to your omega mate that you have cowardly rejected because she has no benefit to offer you?” Zuri didn’t know where she found the courage to say these things, but she found herself staggering back when she saw unadulterated fury erupt in Xaden’s eyes. She could feel how strong the hatred the alpha had for her right now was, as if he wanted to kill her and skin her alive there and then.

“That’s none of your business.” He gritted out the answer.

“Of course, that’s my business, because by doing so, you will humiliate me and by extension, you will be the one to tarnish this pack’s name.” Zuri lifted her head and looked him in the eyes, the alpha’s blood ran in her veins too. “I am the Luna of the pack, I have every right to protect the pack’s good name now that I belong to this pack.”

“You have a way with your words.” Xaden glared down at her and then walked away from the room, he seemed not to want to spend another minute with Zuri.

And the moment he stepped out of the room, Zuri’s legs gave away, she felt her heart beating so fast when she felt this emptiness without his presence.

The mate bond between them worked wonders, but unfortunately, Xaden was hellbent on denying it. He refused to let the bond control him.

Therefore, it left Zuri with this pain.

She clutched her chest and started to cry. The rejection was so clear, even though he didn’t say the words and rejected her directly. Severing the ties between them.

“I can’t do this…” Zuri shook her head, she tried to stop herself from crying, but her heart was broken into pieces when Xaden didn’t even deny it when she asked whether or not he would meet with his omega.

Meanwhile, outside the door, the alpha didn’t immediately leave. He could hear her cries from behind the door and stood there for a while, before he decided to leave. He had important things to handle and the alpha meeting was around the corner. He was going to leave the pack again.

Later on, Zuri slept throughout the night, she skipped both lunch and dinner, while breakfast was long forgotten. She woke up with a headache and called for Esther to bring something for her to eat.

“You look awful, Luna,” Esther said, but Zuri didn’t say anything. “Do you want me to prepare a bath for you?”

“Yes, please,” Zuri replied. She ate her meal and then dipped herself in the warm water to relax her muscles. She felt drained and sleepy. She didn’t want to wake up.

“Luna, do you want me to add more warm water?” Sarah asked.

At this moment, she had dipped herself for more than two hours.

“Yes, please.” Zuri liked this feeling of warmth, because she couldn’t get it anywhere else. Her life was too cold. “I want to stay for a while…”

Zuri felt sleepy, she started to drift off, but was suddenly woken up when boiling hot water was poured on her shoulders. She was too stunned to scream, as the pain rendered her unable to breathe.

Her skin was burning, her ears were ringing and Esther and Sarah freaked out, screaming for help.

“No…” Zuri said weakly, she curled herself inside the tub, trying to hide her nakedness when Esther and Sarah called the guards to help them to get her out of there. “No… don’t call them.”

It was a humiliation for them to go into her bathroom and find the Luna naked like this. No matter how painful it was or how panicked they were, they shouldn’t have called the guards to come and help her when she was naked.

“Help! Come here! Hurry!” Sarah urged the guards to enter the bathroom, but the two of them immediately halted.

“What happened?” They asked vigilantly. They didn’t want to see something they shouldn’t.

Meanwhile, inside the bathroom, Zuri cried because of the pain and the impending humiliation. The two guards were only a few steps away from seeing her naked. She was unable to get herself out of the tub, her shoulders and chest were burning, it would take some time for them to heal.

“No… don’t come. Don’t come here…” Zuri said weakly.

“What happened here?!”

All of them were startled when they heard this familiar voice boom inside the room and the alpha’s figure appeared before their eyes.

Sarah and Esther hurriedly lowered their heads, looking afraid when they noticed the alpha’s eyes fall on them.

“Why do you want the guards to enter the bathroom?” Xaden asked, his voice dripping with venom. Not to mention Zuri, even the guards knew it was something inappropriate to do, let alone the alpha.

Despite their conversation the other day, he was not going to let anyone tarnish the pack name and he had made himself clear about that.

“The Luna is inside the bathroom? What are you doing here?” Xaden didn’t raise his voice, he didn’t have to, because they could feel his wrath as clear as day.

“Alpha… this…” Sarah then explained what happened, how she accidentally poured the hot water on the luna and now they needed to ask for the guards help to carry the luna out, because there was no way for the two of them to do it by themselves. “I didn’t mean it, Alpha. I am sorry. I am truly sorry.”

Sarah and Esther immediately knelt down, they begged for the alpha’s forgiveness instead of the true victim, who was still inside the bathtub.

Upon hearing that, the two guards looked mortified. They thanked the heavens that they didn’t immediately barge in and had been cautious enough.

“We didn’t think straight, Alpha, we are very sorry for what we have done. Please, forgive us…” they said in a small voice full of remorse.

“Leave,” Xaden said in a deep voice. “Call the healer here.”

The two guards immediately went out of the room, scolding Esther and Sarah on their way out because the two of them almost made them get killed by the alpha.

“There is no way the Alpha will kill you,” Sarah retorted quickly once they were out of the room and the alpha couldn’t hear them. “The Alpha doesn’t care about his mate. He doesn’t love her. Don’t you know? The Alpha actually went out of the pack for a month right after their ceremony!”

“That’s because of the monster hunt.”

“Yes, but after that, they had never shared a bed,” Esther chimed in.

“You should be careful with what you say, or else, you will be punished for that loose tongue one day.” The guards looked at them disapprovingly, but Esther and Sarah scowled at them and walked very slowly to call for the healer.

The guards could only shake their heads to see the way they treated their luna.

Meanwhile, Xaden went into the bathroom and found Zuri was still inside the tub, her shoulders looked very red, as she curled herself up, trying hard to hide her nakedness.

“No…” Zuri said weakly, thinking it was the guards. “Get out of here… get away…”

“It’s me,” Xaden said. His deep voice made Zuri open her eyes and she stared at the cold alpha, but there was no word that was exchanged between them, as Xaden grabbed a towel and carried her out of the tub.

This was not the first time he saw her naked body, therefore, there was no need to be embarrassed about this, but still, Zuri couldn’t help but feel exposed under his sharp eyes.

“Why are you here?” Zuri asked, after Xaden helped her to wipe her body and put on some clothes. The burns on her shoulders and chest were still visible, though. It would take some time for them to heal.

“This is my room too,” Xaden replied nonchalantly.

Not so long after, Sarah and Esther came with the healer, she checked on her, while the two maids immediately knelt down again to ask for the alpha’s forgiveness.

Zuri’s eyes turned cold at the sight of them. Instead of asking for her forgiveness, since she was the victim here, they were conveniently asking that from the alpha.

At this point, she wouldn’t be surprised if they actually did that intentionally and wanted to harm her.

“Shouldn’t you beg for the Luna’s forgiveness instead of mine?” Xaden narrowed his eyes at the two of them, he could smell something was fishy here. The way the two of them acted was too strange.

Sarah and Esther immediately apologized to the luna, but it didn’t sound genuine after their apology to the alpha.

“I am really sorry, Luna. I didn’t mean to pour the hot water on you.” Sarah lowered her head, she didn’t dare to look in her eyes.

“Yes, I can understand, you can mistake my head for my feet. It happens.” Zuri replied coldly, her words dripping with sarcasm.

Meanwhile, Esther didn’t say much, instead, she let Sarah do the talking.

“That’s foolish of me, I am really sorry.”

Xaden said nothing, so didn’t Zuri. She didn’t make them stand up either, nor did she say that she forgave them. She would deal with them later.

However, aside from the burns on her shoulder and chest, the healer had something else to announce to them.

“I will give you an ointment for the burns on your shoulders and chest, Luna,” Sera, the healer, said. She looked so young, probably only two to three years younger than Zuri. “But…”

“But?” Zuri narrowed her eyes. “Is there something wrong?” She knew that no wounds could leave scars on a shifter’s body, so her own body wouldn’t have any scars either. If the opposite was the case, her skin would be littered with them by now.

“Let me check more thoroughly this time,” Sera said. She looked more serious, her brows squinted and her eyes narrowed.

She checked on Zuri for less than five minutes before her eyes lit up and she looked at Zuri, beaming.

“Heavens!” She exclaimed, excited. “Congratulations, Alpha! Congratulations Luna!”

Zuri’s heart skipped a beat when she realized what the healer was going to say and she was right about that.

“Luna! You are pregnant!” Sera announced it excitedly, as she smiled ear to ear.

“What did you say?!” Faye screamed when she heard the news that Sarah just told her. “How… how could she be pregnant?! Didn’t you take care of it? Didn’t you give her that drink to prevent that?!” She was screaming right now.

Faye was the woman that was supposed to be the alpha’s mate, but because of her low status, she couldn’t be with the alpha. Not only that, she had been rejected by the alpha as well.

However, they still met here and there and she believed that she could win him over again. After all, they were destined mates for a reason.

“I have given the drink to her, but I don’t know why she is still pregnant,” Sarah said. She was also equally mortified when she learned about this.

For now, the alpha and the luna wanted to keep this pregnancy a secret, until they were ready to announce it, but of course, Sarah and Esther immediately went straight to Faye to inform her about this.

“No way… there is no way this would happen…” Faye was in denial.

“There is a possibility that she can still be pregnant after she drinks the potion, but…” Esther’s words hung in the air and this made Faye become impatient.

“But, what?” She narrowed her eyes on her.

“But, there is another possibility too…”

“What is it?”

“Probably, she got pregnant after she drank the tea that could prevent the pregnancy.”

“There is no way that could happen, the Alpha went to hunt the monsters the very next day of the ceremony.”

“In that case…” Esther didn’t continue her words and this let their imaginations run wild.

“No way. That woman had tricked the Alpha.” Faye immediately stood up and wanted to meet with Xaden right away, but Sarah and Esther stopped her, because they would be in great trouble if the alpha learned Faye knew about Zuri’s pregnancy.

“We need to know who the man is first…” Esther suggested instead.

“What now?” Zuri asked, she stared at the floor, her head was spinning.

They only did it once, but she didn’t think she would get pregnant right away like this, therefore, she didn’t know what to do, not to mention the relationship between her and Xaden was not good at all.

“Keep the baby, that’s not even a question. The baby will be my firstborn. There is no question in there.” Xaden changed his clothes, he came here because he had to go somewhere else and he needed to change his attire.

“That’s it? That’s the only thing that you will say to me?” Zuri lifted her head to look at Xaden, she bit her lip.

“What else should I say?” Xaden turned around and looked at her. “I have made it clear before. You can do whatever you want as long as you will not tarnish our pack name, I don’t mind it at all.”

Zuri bit back her words, she knew there was no point in talking to this man right now, but her heart hurt so bad in the face of his ignorance, not to mention how callous he was.

“Where are you going? Will you meet with that omega again?” Zuri asked sharply. She couldn’t hold back her anger.

“That’s none of your business.”

After saying that, Xaden walked out of the room, leaving her alone there, but he glanced at her neck and saw his mark there. The skin around her shoulders, neck and chest were still red, but it would heal in a few days based on what Sera said. There was nothing to be worried about.

With that being concluded, Xaden left the room.

Later that night, Sarah and Esther came again to bring dinner for Zuri, where they apologized to her again and acted very remorseful.

“It’s okay,” Zuri replied, because she was tired, while they kept pestering her to forgive them when she didn’t feel like it.

However, they assumed Zuri’s curt answer was a sign that she forgave them, thus they dropped their sad expressions and started to pester Zuri to take a walk in the garden.

“It will help with your indigestion. It will help with the baby too,” Esther persuaded her.

Zuri was too tired to argue with them, more so she felt like she needed some fresh air, as she felt stifled to be inside her bedroom all day long.

She felt sad for her baby because of the unstable relationship between her and her mate. More so, the thought of Xaden being with another woman and thinking about his destined mate only suffocated her.

“Here, you need to wear this cloak, the wind outside must be pretty cold.” Esther was being thoughtful. She draped the cloak on Zuri’s shoulders, even though she knew that she was just injured there.

However, the pain was more bearable now and Zuri was in dire need to be away from this room that felt like a jail to her right now.

After that, they walked aimlessly in the garden, they watched the beautiful moon in the night sky, enjoyed the flowers and the sweet scent that the wind carried.

Sarah and Esther would talk to her from time to time, but it was easy for Zuri to tune them out, because most of the time, they just talked to one another.

Zuri was quite enjoying this walk, she would do it more often, but when she thought it was enough, she decided to go back to the bedroom.

Esther suggested they take a different route.

“You have not yet seen the magnolia flowers over there, Luna, let’s go there.” Esther tugged her hand, so did Sarah.