Aria's POV

My mate's once proud, vibrant eyes turn completely cold and unyielding.

"And how did she do that," He says in response to the allegation. Everyone's eyes turn towards where the voice came from, which turns out to be Alicia.

"Well how is it possible that she won, Jessica," she continues with arrogance. "She is nothing but a wolfless Omega." A loud growl rumbles in Kael's chest, it does not seem to stop her though.

"Come to think of it, how did the so-called 'Luna's' abilities surface just now? It does not make sense to me at all." Loud murmurs fill the training grounds, Alicia sports a smirk on her face, probably happy she has successfully planted doubts again in the minds of the pack members.

"I am still waiting for the foul she committed that you can prove," Kael says impatiently.

"I just told you, it is impossible a wolfless wolf should have such strength, she probably had some witch place a spell on her so she can be this strong." She utters with conviction. "Jessica is a fully grown and trained warrior with Beta blood, a measly wolf has nothing on her."

"Let me come out and show her how strong the 'witch's spell' made us," Willow growls in annoyance." A low chuckle passes my dry lips.

"Usually when a witch places a spell on an individual, she leaves a mark behind her ears. I will give it a check so we can see." My mate then walks towards me and pushes each ear slightly forward to show. Loud murmurs filled the air once more, and my heart beat hard against my chest. Did they see something?

"As you can all see my mate is by no means a deceptive person, you will all do well by respecting her and acknowledging her as your Luna." Kael's authoritative voice resounds through the training ground.

He then gives Alicia a deathly glare, "Also if anyone dares to accuse my mate of anything without proof no matter how small will face my wrath." Her face turns completely white with fear. My mate can be scary when he wants to be, in fact, he always looks scary.

"Now back to training," Gad orders, Anita then walks up to me. My mate gives me a long stare and then heads towards the pack house.

"You were pretty bad-ass Luna, I was so happy you knocked her out. It will shut her loud mouth a bit." I give her a bright smile in response.

"It felt so good, I can hardly explain it." We burst into fits of laughter.

She then looks behind me briefly, "I think we should start training, Gad is on his way here."

I throw a light jab to her belly, and her eyes widen in surprise. "Not bad, I like the idea of using the element of surprise." She then gives me a sly smile. "But do not expect it to work on me again."

"That's better I thought you two got distracted talking rather than training," Gad finally arrives behind me. Surprisingly I heard him approaching though he was light on his feet. It seems as though my senses are sharper than I thought.

"Try picking up her technique or any weak points you can see," Gad says, testing my skills since I could take Jessica out.

I take a deep breath, this time relying on my keen senses. I saw the hit before it came, smoothly evading and then landing a light surprise blow to her neck, cutting her air supply. She chokes lightly, coughing.

"Good work, you're free to go now. Enough practice for one day." I give him a nod while gently patting her back. She soon stops coughing.

"Do you feel better now?" I ask with concern.

"Yes, I do Luna, hopefully, we are paired permanently." She walks into the crowd and then screams after me, "See you tomorrow."

"See ya," I answer softly, hopefully she hears me. 

Everyone else seems to still be practicing so I can not wait for Martha. My feet hit the hard forest floor, and I walk briskly toward the pack house. My entire body is sore from today's training. Immediately I step into the dark hallways leading to my room. The air feels heavy making me uneasy.

It seems like someone is here, but I can not pinpoint where exactly. I take a pause and look around.

"So the little trick was real," the familiar masculine voice of my ex-mate resounds behind me. If this was another time I would have been overjoyed that he was paying me a bit of attention. But the attention he is giving me irks me to no end.

I spin and fold my arms giving him a look of disgust. "What do you want, Alpha? Ooo wait I meant Omari." I say with sarcasm, his eyes darken slightly. I can not keep allowing past fears to creep in and make me scared whenever he appears.

"It sorta skipped my mind that you are nothing but a regular wolf, since your inability to keep your pack safe." I taunt.

"You seem to have forgotten what happened last time if not for your nosy little friend, she is not here now." He threatens with a glint in his eyes.

"What do you want?" I repeat with indignation.

"Why did you not inform me that you saw signs of your wolf surfacing?" He says accusingly.

"Why should I? After everything your pack did to me, you expect me to tell you something so important."

"When did your wolf surface, Aria?" 

"Unfortunately for you and fortunately for me, you can not make me tell you, I am now your Luna remember?"

He then gives me a condescending look, "This same pack you are talking shit about, saved you and helped you survive. Without us, you might have been as good as dead."

"You made me wish I should have died for so long, you were supposed to be my mate, the one that would save me from any harm. I prayed to the moon goddess daily that my mate should come and rescue me." I scream in anger.

"Just when I thought she answered my prayers, you ripped that away from me by choosing Alicia and rubbing her in my face. Sleeping with her time and time again knowing it hurt so bad. Finally marking her as yours. Your cowardly pack does not deserve the least bit of kindness from me." Tears trickle down my face. His eyes widened in shock, I never stood up for myself and have always let them trample on my emotions continually.

"I hate you with every fiber of my being. Do not ever think for a second that I am that same weak wolfless omega. You people even referred to me as a human to insult me. If you cross me again I will make you regret it, including that daft mate of yours."

"You look so hot right now," he says, his eyes seeming dilated. In a second he pushes me harshly against the wall. He takes advantage of the shock just as I was about to push him off, a growl makes us both freeze.

"What the hell is happening here?"

Alpha Kael's POV

Omari turns slightly towards me, still hovering over what's mine. He then gives me a sly smirk. In a split second, I pick him up and fling him hard against the wall. A loud crack follows then complete silence. 

Aria stares at me with wide eyes, she shoots Omari's still body a swift glance and then stares at me. I growl at this. Why would she spare him a glance, does she still care about him? My large body steps in her line of sight blocking him off completely.

"Come and pick this filth from here," I order Aldin through the mind link. A loud chuckle follows. 

"Hello to you too, Alpha," he answers. "Who is this 'filth' if I may ask?"

"He's in the hallway," After this I blocked him out, hovering over my mate. She staggers backward slightly, her are filled with fear

"Y..your eyes are o...orange," she stammers in fear. I smile at her obvious observation.

"That should not be the problem right now, right?" I say a little too calmly, I'm sure my eyes look lethal. 

She drew in a sharp breath. "It's not what it looks like, Kael." 

"What am I supposed to believe mate, you didn't even tell me about your history with him," I growl holding her possessively.

"And worse, I saw you in a compromising position with him, what would have happened if I hadn't shown up?" I ask fury leaking from each word.

"I promise nothing is going on with him, nothing would have happened, I'm done with him." She pleads. 

I know I shouldn't feel like this, but the jealousy is eating me up. I have been taking it slow with her because I didn't want to scare her off or lose her completely. Here, she was basking in the arms of another man, letting him touch her. An overwhelming urge to mark her overrides my senses.

"Mark her, and make her ours," Alec growls possessively in my head. I land a hard blow on the wall until my arms bleed to distract myself with the pain, from those thoughts.

'We can't hurt, mate," I retort. He then growls in response and goes silent.

"Kael, please stop hurting yourself," my Kitten's soothing voice echoes in my ears. I can't stay here, my teeth are already protruding and my eyes keep veering toward the delicate part of her neck.

I take a sharp turn and leave, ignoring her so I can control myself. I then hear her loud sobs echo through the hallway. It takes every ounce of control I have to stop myself from going for her.

"Martha, please take my mate to her room and stay with her a bit, I need to go for a run," I  ordered through the mind link to my cousin.

My feet hit the wooden floor, leading outside. As soon as I make it in front of the pack house I shift mid-air, my paws hit the hot sandy floor. Most of my pack members litter all over, once they sense me they steer clear of me. 

I could barely make out the trees as I zoomed past them. I know every part of my territory like the back of my palms. I head north to a cliff where I can think with no interference.

"Your mate is worried sick that you probably don't want her anymore, I'm pretty sure that's not the case." Martha says irritated.

"I'm coming, I just need to clear my head," I explained, as I arrived at the cliff up north. 

Martha then screams, "I don't care about all that, why did you block her out. She says she has been trying to reach you using the mindlink."

"I need to be away from her for now, for her own good."

"You know she will never have anything to do with that low-life, Omari. Please don't push her away, she needs you now more than ever, cuz." 

"I know that, bye for now," I block her out and everyone else.

"I thought we had overruled our feral side?" I ask Alec.

"No one has ever been able to do that, I think we just tamed it a bit but not completely."

"I guess you're right, mate just seemed so scared, you remember her incidents with the rogues which may be traumatizing." I answer, feeling horrible for scaring her.

The scene at the hallway replays in my head and I feel almost ashamed of myself. Instead of me comforting my mate I had accused her and pushed her away. Worse thing is I would have even forcefully marked her. I need to beg her even if it means groveling on my knees so she will still give me a chance. I overheard a part of their conversation which was how I figured that Omari was her first mate.

A faint scent pulled me from my thoughts, it smells like Jasmine mixed with an earthy scent. It is so similar to Margaret's. My head shoots up and I sniff the ground following the scent's trail which ends in a dead end. I think this whole situation is messing with my head. Margaret is gone and now the moon goddess has given me a beautiful gift in the form of my Kitten.

"You know something weird that I have noticed is that the pull I felt with Margaret is nothing compared to what I feel for Aria," Alec says thoughtfully.

"We'll figure everything out slowly," I murmur. "I should head back and talk to my mate."

I head back to the packhouse in a jug, my powerful strides hitting the bare floor and causing small prey to take flight. Soon I got close to the pack house, I picked up some shorts lying on a tree by the pack house with my jaws. Shifting in split seconds, I pull on the shorts racing towards the pack house.

My palms get sweaty and my feet jittery. I slowly approach her room door, taking a deep breath and knocking on the door. 

"Coming," Martha answers, the pity patter of her feet approaching the door. She pulls it open, and gives me a look of disdain.

"I should head out, call me when you need me, okay," She tells my mate soothingly and walks past me, without saying a word.

I walk in and shut the door behind me. She looks at me with pleading eyes, that are red and puffy from crying.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't tell you, It's just that I felt like I should leave everything in the past." I pull her into my arms, getting comfortable on her bed. "I thought the more baggage you knew about me the more reasons for you to leave me."

"Shhhhh, it's okay," I say with a soothing voice. "I should be the one apologizing, you were not at fault and I know for a fact that you didn't enable the nonsense he did." 

She then gives a look of doubt. "Then why did you hurt yourself and leave?"

"Because I know I don't deserve you, I'm ill tempered, possessive, and maybe overbearing. I was so jealous and I let it cloud my senses. I'm so sorry, Kitten."

She makes a sigh of relief and hugs me tight with her tiny arms.

"I'd like us to talk." I say as she slowly traced the scars on my face in silence.

"Go on."

"You remember when I told you that I had feral episodes after losing my first mate?" I ask.

"Yes I remember."

"Well, even though I have been able to suppress most of it. There are still traces of it when I am in a state of rage." 

"I didn't want to scare you off seeing the bad instances you have had with rogues." I finish looking deep into her eyes.

"I know you won't hurt me physically, Kael. You have shown me how much you care about me, even your wolf. I trust you, you've earned it."

"Thank you so much, Kitten. You mean the world to me." I say with a smile.

"I am so happy that you have forgiven me at least, because if you hadn't I'm pretty sure that my cousin would have had my neck by now."

Her innocent giggles fill the air. "I sure know who to scare you with."

I give her a playful glare. "Don't you dare."

"Watch me." I place her gently against the bed and begin to tickle the life out of her. Her laughter echoes across the room. 

"I want you to mark me," she says, my hands freezing at this.

Aria's POV 

What?" his voice resounds, he's completely frozen, shock written all over his face.

"I said, I want you to mark me, or don't you want to?" I tease with a faint smile playing on my lips.

"O..of course I do," he splutters. "Are you sure? Because there's no going back after this. Even now I can't let you go, marking you seals your fate with me mate." he finishes, with a deep reverberating voice, Alec is definitely surfacing.

"I have never been so sure of anything else in my life, you have successfully started breaking my walls. Thank you for making me feel so loved." I explain.

"This will hurt a bit, sorry mate." His teeth elongate slightly, leans towards the delicate part of my neck and sinks his teeth in slowly.

Excruciating pain shoots through my neck. A silent plea escapes my lips. He pulls his teeth out, then gently laps at the open wound.  The pain eased slightly, to the feel of a slight burn. After a while of his soothing actions, my eyes droop uncontrollably. My eyes flutter shut, everything faded instantly.

***

My light footsteps echo faintly in the hallway. I am late for training again. It's been two months since Kael marked me. A sweet smile pulls at my lips, the memory sweet and worth it. I woke up in his arms the morning after, he took care of me even though I was completely fine. Our relationship has bloomed into something beautiful. I'm just so scared, as if something bad happens and ruins everything. 

Lately I have been dealing with a lot of nausea. I can hardly stomach much, I have been able to successfully hide it from my mate. I feel it's nothing serious so telling him will only make him worry unnecessarily about my health. 

"I'm surprised, your lap dog is nowhere to be found." Alicia's awfully sweet voice stops me in my tracks.

"I don't have time for whatever this is, Alicia," I answer, barely sparing her a glance. She then steps right in front of me. I step sideways, but this doesn't stop her. It seems to have infuriated her, she intercepts me again.

I  take a deep breath, "What is it you want, Alicia." I say exasperated. "I'm pretty certain you don't have anything reasonable to talk to me about."

"You have truly grown wings. My mate was hospitalized because of you. I'm pretty sure you had something to do with it." 

I raise a brow in response.

"He chose me, get that into your thick skull. This won't go down just like that. Watch your back, and I mean it this time." She says with a sneer on her face, hits my shoulders and walks past me.

I shake my head at her foolishness, I have better things to do than trade words with an air-head. Sun rays hit my face as I step outside, I race towards the training grounds. I see my partner, Anita standing alone observing others as she waits for me.

"I need to stop covering for your lazy ass," She mutters, clearly sensing me behind her. 

I give her a light jab, "You know you love me too much to tell on me." I tease. Anita and I have become fast friends, I have made a few good friends in the pack but it seems I would have to earn my place with most though. They feel I may not deserve the title.

I lead Anita towards a clear side of the field, so we can spar. I have improved a lot faster than anyone anticipated. Anita throws a neat blow at my face, taking me unawares since I was distracted. My face whips to the side, I close my eyes for a while to clear the dizzy feeling threatening to take over.

"Are you good?" Anita asks with concern. "You seem a bit under the weather these days?"

"I'm good, it's just stress."

She gives me an unconvinced look. "Sure, but I'm here to listen to whatever problems you may be having."

I give her a little smile and nod. "Come at me again, you  won't be so lucky this time." I say to end the awkward conversation. I'll always respect Anita because she isn't unnecessarily vicious on the training ground which makes her a perfect sparring partner. 

She rushes at me swiftly, I block her paying attention this time. I land a kick, in turn making her land on her back. "Good, you're getting too good at this. I miss always winning." She teases as I give her a hand.

We go for each other again. We are able to intercept each other's attacks then she says something slowly. "You should be careful of Jessica."

I crease my brows in confusion. "Is something wrong?" She gives me a long look, breathing hard.

"She seems hell bent on winning the tournament, and with the comments she is making, she can do anything to get what she wants." She is able to  sweep me off  the floor.

I landed rather clumsily, since I was getting tired. These days I easily get tired. She lends me  an arm.  "Thank you for telling me, I'll be very careful."

"It's no......" A loud commotion pulls us out of conversation, we then walk towards the middle of the training grounds.

"I won't take your degrading words any longer, Valec," A lanky teenager with lots of freckles littered all over his face screams in the face of a large wolf twice his size.

Anita then curses under her breath. "You know what's going on?" I ask sparing her a short glance, distracting myself from the altercation in front of us.

"Valec is a bully, he picks on smaller wolves that are smaller than he is. I'm pretty sure, Gad isn't here and he saw it as a perfect opportunity."

"Is nothing ever done about it?" I ask in surprise, since I've been treated with a bit of dignity since when I got here, unlike back in Blood Moon.

"The Alpha doesn't tolerate bullying, even Gad, but they can't be everywhere at the same time." 

"Fight, fight, fight," echoes round the  training grounds. This will definitely not end well for the smaller wolf. Valec or whatever he calls himself, is definitely stronger. I am pretty sure those chanting this were troublemakers.

"Well I won't  ever back out from a challenge." Valec taunts with so much arrogance. I am pretty sure I didn't hear the smaller wolf challenge this wolf, he just stood for himself. 

"Gad," I call out using the mindlink.

 "Yes, Luna." he answers, surprise evident in his tone.

"There is an issue here,  please can you come."

"I'll be on my way, Luna, I am finishing up a discussion with the Alpha." Hopefully he makes it on time before the younger wolf gets hurt.

Valec picks up the wolf and flings him hard against the bare floor. The smaller wolf winces in clear pain. He is able to maneuver and slip from Valec's tight grip which infuriates him, a growl escaping his lips. He lands a bone cracking blow to  the smaller wolf's jaw, standing atop him he begins to hit blow after blow. Without giving it much thought, I sprint towards them before Anita could stop me.

I reach out and expertly climb onto the larger wolf, able to roll him off. I then stand between the two opponents facing off Valec. "Little Luna, you dare interfere into what does not concern you?" He spits with anger. "You will surely regret this," he finishes.

He comes at me with so much ferocity, I am able to expertly deflect most of his advances. I take a few hits though. I see an opening, he is fighting angrily so I take advantage of it. I am able to drop a round kick with precision and stamina, sweeping him off his feet. Shock is written all over his face and murmurs echo through the training grounds.

I give him a stern look, "The Cantara pack is powerful for its might to protect not oppress, you're not fit to fight if you don't care for fellow pack members. We are nothing if we turn on each other just for the fun of it." I say my voice resounding with so much authority. The training grounds grow silent.

Valec looks at me with indignation, obviously not remorse and stands up swiftly, coming forward to attack me. To my surprise an unfamiliar man stands between us, facing him and says, "You'll have to go through me to hurt Luna." My eyes widened in surprise.

Another comes forward, "Me too." Numerous voices resound around me saying the same thing. It sounded like almost the entire members of the pack stood up for me.

"Luna, what is going on?" Gad sprints towards me, trying to make sense of the scene in front of him.

"It's all sorted out. Can you please ask someone to take this wolf to the infirmary, he's hurt."

Gad looks at me in surprise, then peers at the wolf sitting on the ground holding onto his face.

"Yes, Luna." He surprises me, when he picks up the wolf and rushes towards the infirmary.

"I, Wendy Snow, renounce my challenge for the Luna position at the Luna Trials, and accept you as my Luna." A loud feminine booms in front of me, bowing her head slightly in respect.