Chasing the rejected Luna

39: Mating ceremony

Alpha Ryven smirked, letting his hand fall away from my face. I watched him as a hawk would watch a fish; with so much concentration. I didn't want to miss anything. Not even an expression on his face.

He scooted away from me as if the question had somehow made him uncomfortable. But I knew that wasn't it. If he wanted to come to me telling me to be his Luna, I was sure he also had an excuse to follow up with whatever questions I threw his way.

"What do you think I'm afraid of?" He threw the question back at me and my hands fisted on my nightgown. He knew what he was doing.

"I won't mate with someone I'm not in love with. I promised myself I would live the rest of my life with someone who cared and valued me. A lot. Even if that is hard to find, I'd rather be single than live the rest of my life with someone who thinks less of me."

"What if I tell you I don't think less of you? And that I'm the perfect man for you?" He asked me while he watched me.

There wasn't a trace of a smile on his face. He was like he wanted to say something more. To spill the truth. I could see the way his eyes hardened when he knew he couldn't do so. And every part of

me also knew he wanted to lure me into a bait.

"I won't believe you."

"Why? I have proved my love for you by bringing you here to this pack and also choosing you to be my Luna. Do you have any idea how many girls would wish to switch positions with you right now?" He asked me and I sneered at him. But I wasn't foolish enough to let it show on my face.

"Then I would gladly switch positions with them."

"So bad that won't be happening. I came to tell you so you prepare for it. You do not have a choice here. The mating ceremony is taking place two days from now. You better get some rest," he said and smiled when he saw the horror on my face.

"You are cruel! How could you do this to me?!" I yelled, standing up and glaring down at him. I didn't care what happened to me when I tried that on him before. My anger was making me brave. Braver than I could ever imagine.

He stood up and I realized how short I was compared to him. I was barely reaching him up to his chest.

He smiled down at me, the mirth back in his eyes in full force. "I can do anything I want with you. You belong to me. And the earlier you start acting like it, the better for us both." He patted my head and walked out of the room.

Angry tears began to leak from my eyes while I glared hard at the door he walked through. I knew it. I knew he was lying when he said all those things to me. What hurt the most was that I almost fell for it.

A small part of me believed him even when I knew how big of a liar he was. Where was the man I met weeks ago that had me up on my toes for days? He was gone just like the wind. My subconscious said to me.

As hard as that was to believe, I knew it was true. And I couldn't run away. Where would I even start from? Alpha Ryven had guards all around the pack house day and night. It was like he was expecting an enemy. And the pack was always in a tense atmosphere. Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

I picked up the pillow and hit it hard until I lost all my energy and plumped down on the floor and cried. I cried over everything that had happened to me.

For once, I thought the moon goddess finally smiled down at me. But I was wrong. Just like I had been wrong about so many things in my life.

I always trusted the wrong people. If there was anyone I should blame for my ill fate, it would be me. I never learned and I doubted I would be able to in the future.

A future I didn't look up to. I dreaded it. Not because I was spending it with Alpha Ryven but because I knew I would never be happy here. I didn't belong here. I belonged in my old pack.

But soon after the news Alpha Ryven broke to me, I began to doubt where I truly belonged. What would my parents have wanted? I didn't know. I felt guilty that I couldn't remember them. They were blurry figures who had eroded from my memories with time.

It pained me that there was nothing that reminded me of them. The last remainder was the old house we stayed in my former pack. But Alpha Ryven had unknowingly stolen it away from me. He stole my past just like he is about to steal away my future.

"Ma'am, you look beautiful," the maid who was assigned to dress me up for the ceremony gushed at me from behind me.

I couldn't feel her enthusiasm. If anything, I felt like I was about to be taken to the slaughterhouse to be killed. However, I was about to be mated to the Alpha of their pack.

The maid noticed I was moody. I guessed she thought it had something to do with me missing my family and friends from my old pack. It had something to do with it but that was just a little part of the numerous reasons.

A lot of what-ifs swam in my head as she put more pins into my hair. I knew I would look beautiful, better than I had ever looked in my life. But that didn't prepare me as I looked at myself in the full- length mirror in the bathroom.

"You look lovely. I'm sure Alpha Ryven wouldn't be able to recognize you," she said again and I smiled but it didn't reach my eyes.

I was wearing a full-length red dress which covered my feet. It had a low neckline that showed the upper part of my cleavage. My neck was pale, and the skin was smooth and bare except for a necklace that hung around it almost in a chokehold.

When I asked the maid why it was so tight, her answer was along the lines that it was what most girls wore these days. So I kept mute since I had zero to no knowledge about fashion.

The hand of the dress stopped just below my elbows in a flare way. The dress did little to hide my curves as it hugged me like a second skin. Just below my knees, it gave way to a huge flare which was designed with little silver stones. The dress was beautiful but why did I feel that ache in my chest?

"Yes, it's lovely," I said when I saw she was still looking at me.

"If you're worried that no one will be here for you, I will be in the crowd cheering you on," she spoke behind me and my eyes looked to her in the mirror.

All I saw in her eyes was sincerity. How did she know I worried about that? None of my family or friends were here, which happened to be one of the most important things to happen in a girl's life.

I missed my parents so much as I stared at my reflection. My eyes which were bigger now because of the eyeliner and mascara on them glistened with tears. My lips had been painted to a bright red, to match the color of my dress.

I wanted to hug the maid or tell her something that would let her know how much her words meant to me. But in Alpha Ryven's pack, it was forbidden for a maid and someone higher in status to form

a bond.

Two days ago, I learned her name is Louisa and she had been living in this pack since she was little with her family. They were poor which made her work as a maid for the pack house to be able to put food on the table. But what mattered most was that she was happy.

I was given everything yet I wasn't happy. I didn't have the one thing I needed the most. And that was my loved ones around me.

As I stood at the podium with Alpha Ryven in my left hand, I could barely register what the man in charge of the ceremony was saying. I was overcome with sadness.

But what I noticed the most was how happy Alpha Ryven was. It was like he won a lottery. If he noticed I was sad, he didn't say it.

After doing the rites and being given a bitter liquid to drink, we spun around and faced the mass of people below us.

A lot of unfamiliar faces stared at me. Some with expressions of joy. And I could recognize the ones with such expressions. They were the ones I healed in the hospital. While others had expressions of

hurt, vengeance, and jealousy.

They were the ladies. Who would believe me if I said I didn't want to be in that position?

The ceremony passed in a blur with people coming over to congratulate me with faces filled with happiness or the ones masked with it, behind laid bitterness. But I paid them no heed. I did my best to pretend like I was happy.

And just like Louisa said, I spotted her from the crowd of people as she came to congratulate me with a gift. It was a basket filled with fruits and my heart warmed.

I was now their Luna. That word kept ringing in my head as I prepared for bed. Now the real mating ceremony is about to be completed. I was to be marked tonight and have sex with Alpha Ryven for the mating to be completed and I would be a full member of the pack.

As I lay on the bed, waiting for him to come, my headache ate away at me. I knew I couldn't finish the mating process tonight no matter what the traditions said. I needed to rest. And soon, my feet found their way to Alpha Ryven's office.

Pushing open the door, I was met with silence. He wasn't there. What did I expect? It was his mating day. And he was supposed to be with his mate - me. But something caught my attention. It was a white folded paper on the floor close to the waste bin.

I noticed it because of how out of place it felt. The room was clean and arranged to a T. Only the paper felt odd.

Following pure instincts, I walked up to the paper, closing the door with a soft click. On the paper was the crest of my former pack. I would recognize it anywhere as I have worked in the pack house.

And on it was a name I never thought I would see again - Alexander.