The Luna Awakening

Lucien's pov "Mate," Aria utters, with her gaze pierced at me. Her blue eyes sparkling under the glow of the Silver Full moon, hair neatly packed in a bun, with a front cut out that gives her face a soft look. The Diamond accessory on her sparkles, catching the light from the surrounding area. Gosh, she is beautiful and with the Moon glow over her, her beauty radiates even more. I feel a tingling sensation inside me, just having her near me. A warmth soars through me, it's calm and peaceful all at the same time. Rex leaps for joy inside of me because he had seen his mate. His happiness couldn't be contained at this point. She was real and standing right in front of us. "Claim her," he says, not hesitating for a second, while howling in excitement. My gaze is still locked in on her beautiful blue eyes, Rex howls once more. "Claim her, she's our mate Lucien." I peel my gaze off Aria and unto the werewolves in the hall spectating this event. Rex keeps up with his protest, but I push his protests aside. The truth is that I couldn't claim Aria even if I wanted to. She is my mate, which is an undeniable fact; but Aria is an Omega, knowing very little in combat and also still learning. She has to be strong to be my Luna, and she's far from that. My fingers clench into a fist by my side, while the thought of rejecting my mate settles in my mind. I know I'll regret doing this, but the pack had to come first. I needed a strong mate for Luna and Mara fits perfectly into that perspective. Rex begins to throw a fit, his beastly instincts slowly kicking in, but I shut him out in my mind. The room starts to grow worried and so is the look in Aria's eyes. I swallow hard, with my eyes staring straight at hers. "I ALPHA LUCIEN OF THE SILVER MOON PACK, REJECT YOU OMEGA ARIA PRINCESS OF THE SILVER MOON PACK AS MY MATE." My chest tightens, jaw tenses as I feel the weight of my own word crushing down on me. The room erupts into shocked gasps, a murmur swarms up among the crowd. The happiness in her face crumbles like dust and her eyes don't lie; the hurt in them is undeniable. She glares at me broken and clearly disappointed, before dashing out of the hall sobbing without a word. "Aria." I hear Chloe, Raymond and Mum all call out to her. But she doesn't stop, nor does she get into any of the cars. She runs away into the depths of the night, with no trace in sight. "Aria." I call out to her, but she doesn't respond. Fvck, I can't let her get away like this, I quickly go after her. Once out of the packhall, the surrounding atmosphere looked foggy, rendering my vision a bit blurry. "Rex." I call out to my wolf shut out in the back of my mind. He growls, clearly angry and pissed at me. "Do you know where our mate is?" He growls again but soon picks up her scent. "She's getting closer to the woods," he says, and I quickly hurry in that direction; I hear muffled voices, I presume, are calling out to me from afar. Rex starts growling at me. " You shouldn't have rejected her. If anything happens to our mate, you'll be blamed for it. As much I know I'm in the wrong, I couldn't keep hearing Rex go on and on about my rejection of Aria. I push him to the back of my mind, locking him out; he's a beast and acting based on his animalist instinct. As I get closer to the wood, I pick up her scent. She is around there, and soon I hear the sound of someone's sniffles. I listen carefully as I close in on her, I grab her just when she sights me. She tries to free herself from my grip, but it doesn't work. She spins in my direction and I can see her face drenched in tears. "Let go already, Lucien." She says, eyes swollen and voice shaky from crying. "No Aria," I say, kicking against her protest. "Have you lost it? Where did you think you were heading to." She stares at me with tears rolling down her checks before answering. "Why do you care?" You rejected me in front of everyone, Lucien, don't try to act all nice all of a sudden. " She pauses, a sniffle escapes her before she continues, "It's not like you even care if I was your mate or not. So why is where I'm heading a big deal to you?" Her words pierced through me like a sharp sword, her tone is rimmed with pain and just seeing her in this state makes my heart beat painfully in my chest. I move my other hands to clean the trickle of tears, rolling down her cheeks, but she stops me right in time. "Aria, let's leave. We could talk about this when we are back at the packhouse," I say, but she doesn't answer, rather she sobs silently. I hate myself, for having to put her in this state. Every gentle sob that escaped her, breaks me even more. Just then she quiets down and all I hear is the sound of her sniffles. I move closer to pull her into my embrace, but stop when I hear the rumpled sound of dried leaves coming from the wood. At first, I think it's just us, but then I hear it again like someone is getting closer. I put my hands over Aria's mouth to suppress the sound coming from her. She flashes me a confused look and I go head to gesture to her to keep mute. Slowly I put her behind me, while sucking in breath; the sound kept drawing closer. As I move a bit closer to confront what ever it is, just then a huge beastly figure like a wolf hurls at me, grazing against my arm in a fierce manner.