THE ALPHA WHO REJECTED HIS LUNA

Kade let out a roar that shook the chandeliers. It was not a word. Every wolf in the ballroom felt it in their bones. This was the Alpha's call, a call that was ancient and absolute. In a few seconds, four hundred guests ran to get into a defensive position. It looked like they had practiced this before. Tables were turned over. Glass was broken. A woman. Was pulled to safety just in time as the terrace doors were about to be broken.

Luna did not move. She stood still next to Kade, watching Priya smile as she stood on the lawn with thirty Draven wolves. The moon was shining on their fur, making it look silver.

"You brought them into my territory. This is during a pack gathering. We are under a truce banner." Kade said in an angry voice.

"There is no truce banner tonight. There has not been one in months. You just did not know to look for it." As she spoke, her body started to change. Her bones were shifting under her skin. Priya said.

"Kade, she is not a wolf. Look at her eyes." Luna said, and Kade looked at Priya's eyes. They were not gold like a natural wolf's eyes. They were black, the black that Luna's eyes had turned twice that night.

Luna said, "She is like me.. She is like what they wanted me to be."

"You are a girl. Draven did not just experiment on you, Luna. You were the one they tried it on, and it worked. I am the one. There are others. We all answer to the same person." Priya said

"Who is in charge of this?" Kade asked

Priya. It sounded strange. "You will meet him enough. He is very eager to meet Luna. He says she left before they finished."

These words hit Luna hard. She felt like she had been punched. "What does that mean?" she asked. "What did they finish?"

"The bonding. They did not just change your body, Luna. They tried to break the mate bond so you could never love anyone again. A weapon does not need a weakness like love." Her black eyes looked at Kade. "It did not work fully. That is why you two still feel it. That is what he wants to fix tonight." Priya said

Kade's body became stiff with anger. "You are not touching her," he said, his voice of command.

Priya said, "I do not need to touch her. I just need to keep you two until the others arrive."

One of the Draven wolves ran at them. Kade met it in the air. The two bodies crashed into each other. Then the night became chaotic. The Ridgeback wolves ran out of the ballroom. The Draven wolves scattered to meet them. Priyas laughter cut through the noise like a knife.

Luna felt the change happening in her body again faster than before. The black was taking over her vision without any reason. It was like her body knew what it was doing.

Kade shouted, "Luna, stay back!" as he threw off a wolf that was twice his size.

Luna did not stay back. Something took over her body. She moved faster than any wolf in the yard. She closed the distance to Priya in a few steps and pushed her to the ground with a force that cracked the stones beneath them.

Luna snarled, her voice sounding strange and wrong. "Where is he?" she asked. "Where is your master, Priya? Tell me now."

Priya looked up at her with eyes, and instead of fear, Luna saw something worse. Satisfaction.

"You are doing what he trained you to do, " Priya whispered. "You want to know something? That voice you are using now? That is not your anger, Luna. That is his command, buried in you eleven months ago, finally answering to a threat. You are not fighting me now."

"Then what am I doing?" Luna asked.

Priyas smile was almost pitying. "You are following orders," she said. "You just do not know whose orders yet."

Behind them, over the sound of the battle, someone was clapping slowly and deliberately.