Chapter 7

• Earlier.....
• Lachlan POV
• “What the hell was with that speech?” I growled at my Beta. “Two years?! Did you have to put a time limit on us in front of everyone?!”
• Nilo stares at me in confusion, trying to loosen my grip on the collar of his shirt. “Alpha, I showed you my speech beforehand. Just yesterday you said it was okay. You even said to make sure the pack knows that this is only temporary. That you will find your true Luna once this bullshit with Alpha Wayne is over.”
• Shit. I did say that. I remember now. I even held a special meeting between my most trusted subordinates and ranked Lycans, telling them to keep their eyes on Elelira, to be wary of her and that she was not to be trusted. I truly thought Wayne was using her to trap me in some way.
• I release Nilo’s collar, pushing away from him, cursing under my breath while I pace, running my hand through my hair.
• “Alpha?” Nilo watched me carefully. He probably thinks I’ve gone crazy. Maybe I have. I just know I can’t let things continue the way they are. I will never earn her trust if history repeats itself.
• “She’s my Luna, Nilo. She’s my….” my throat burns, the blood promise preventing me from saying it; saying she’s my mate. I can’t reveal that myself until the day of her 20th birthday.
• Her birthday…..
• Shit. That’s today. Today is her 18th birthday. That’s why her uncle chose this day to begin with. I had forgotten.
• “She’s your what?” Nilo disrupts my distressing thoughts of forgetting something as important as her birthday. “Are you saying she’s your mate?”
• I swallow, anticipating pain, but luckily, when I nod my head in answer, I don’t feel anything indicating I’m breaking the terms of the contract. I can’t tell him, but he can guess. Good. That’s good to know. It should be the same for Lira then. I can get her to guess that I know we are mates....if I can ever get that close to her to have those kinds of conversations.
• “Holy cow. She’s your mate? Is that why you were so nervous during the ceremony? I thought you both were acting weird. You must have been uncomfortable because of the bond and not being able to just mate her in front of all those people. How are you holding yourself back from taking her now?”
• Killian growled at the crassness of his question. We don’t yet feel the bond. That’s how we are able to hold ourselves back, but I can’t say that to him now. My throat burns with the mere thought of telling him.
• When I first felt the bond right before she rejected me, it was like gravity was pulling me towards her, but I soon went crashing back to earth as the rejection left her perfect lips. The pain in my heart was so great, and Killian was tearing me apart on the inside, blaming me for his loss of her.
• His growling turns into whimpers at the memory.
• “Hell, I thought she was glaring at you. I guess she was just overcome by the bond too and was trying to hold herself back. It looked like she hated you. Imagine being used as a pawn by your own family but the marriage turned out to be with your mate. She must feel so relieved.”
• I flinched at his words. “She hates me,” I mumbled.
• “Hates you?” Nilo questions. “Why would she hate you? Because of the rumors about you? Well….I guess you do spend a lot of time at the brothels. It's widely known that you’re the cold-hearted warmonger who likes to keep his bed warm with women. This is going to break several ladies’ hearts. They were expecting you back tonight on your own word that this was just a marriage on paper.”
• “Shit, will you stop,” I groaned. He doesn’t know when to shut up. “I’m never stepping into a brothel again. There will never be any other woman but Lira again, okay? So don’t say anything to anyone to suggest otherwise.”
• He holds his hands up defensively. “Hey, I get it. You should tell this to Cherum and Meldec as well as the rest of the commanders. You told them all not to regard Wayne’s niece as Luna, since she would be gone after two years. You even told the servants in the packhouse to address her only as Lady Elelira and not Luna. You told them not to regard her with favor since she was only here temporarily.”
• He’s right. I remember once saying all those awful things. I need to fix this situation now.
• “Tell the staff she is their Luna, and to treat her as such. Now. I will not tolerate any disrespect towards her. None. I want her to feel welcomed and treated like a princess.” That’s what she is. She just doesn’t know it. I will never treat her as anything less.
• “What about her room? You had her placed in the tower furthest from your room. Do you want me to tell the staff to move her?”
• I was hoping we would share my room from this day forward, but with the way things turned out, that isn’t possible. I couldn’t even dance with her, knowing how uncomfortable that would make her feel.
• The first reception we had, Nilo teased me after his speech by calling us to share our first dance. I stopped him before he could do the same this time. After that slap, I don’t want to be on the receiving end of her anger again. I won’t touch her again until she is ready for it. She doesn’t trust me now, and I won’t earn her trust by going against her wishes.
• The room I had her put in was the least desired room in the castle. Less so than even the servant's quarters. It is drafty, making it humid and hot in the summer and freezing in the winter. Even the fireplace does little to fully warm the room.
• “Change her room. Move her down to my hall, as close to me as possible. Have Niomi start tonight.”
• “You got it, Alpha. Anything else?”
• I look towards the reception hall and the people there celebrating our wedding. Killian is urging me to return and check on our mate, worried about how she is being treated in our absence. With the way I spoke to my men in the past about Elelira, I don’t think any of them would be looking out for her, or making sure she was treated well. I can’t even remember how she was treated at our reception the first time around.
• I had sat with her out of obligation, but spent all my time ignoring her until Nilo’s speech and that blasted dance. Once that was over, I excused myself, then retreated to my bedroom to rest before my night in town. I didn’t check on her once, though I do remember dreaming about her during that nap, which frustrated me to no end.
• What did she do after I had left, I wonder? I avoided her like the plague, and didn’t have a proper conversation with her once. Besides Niomi, who was the most disposable omega in the castle, which was why I originally assigned her to Lira, I don’t think she was close to anyone else.
• Niomi had passed away before Elelira rejected me. I asked the other omegas about her and how she passed her time, but no one knew. They didn’t even know who was helping to manage her room or look after her.
• A stableboy recalled seeing Elelira wandering into the forest, up the stream about once a week. Was she meeting someone then? A friend? I never found out.
• She was completely alone in the pack, it seemed, which is why she had no qualms about rejecting the pack and her position as Luna. The anguish the pack felt as she severed her ties to everyone was my fault. I treated her like an enemy, so they did too. Many of the staff and warriors grieved for a long time about their treatment of their true Luna. Their regret and guilt deepened mine.
• I won’t have my pack members have those same regrets.
• “It’s her birthday,” I told my Beta.
• His eyes grew big. “You’re right! I had forgotten that was the arrangement made by Wayne. He had to wait until today so she would no longer be a minor.” He then made a face at me. “You cradle robbing tramp. She’s -”
• “It’s not that much of an age difference. Seven years is a common age gap,” I growl.
• “If you say so,” he shrugs, still looking disgusted.
• I’ve been alpha since I was 18, thanks to my father and then mother dying in the war. I then spent the next 7 years in constant battle and war with the North. I may look much older than her, but her radiant beauty would be hard for anyone to match. I look a lot less used and worn out than I did before coming back. The time I spent searching for Elelira and then meeting all her father’s terms to bring her back weathered my appearance greatly.
• “So, what do you want to do about her birthday? Do you want me to send out for a gift? I can tell the staff to embellish her new room with flowers and have gifts delivered by the time you both retire to your rooms.”
• “Do it,” I ordered, not knowing what else to do for her.
• “You could start with wishing her a happy birthday,” Killian mutters, “And apologizing for the kiss. If she is comparing the current you to you of before, give her a reason not to. Start with not abandoning her at our wedding reception.”
• He’s right.
• With a final run-through of the plans for moving her room, Nilo walks off to carry out the tasks, and I hurry back to the reception hall.
• When I got there, I didn’t see her at our table, and with a quick glance around the room, I could see she was no longer there.
• “Alpha! You’re back! I thought you had retired for the evening to get your rest before we head out tonight!” Cherum came up from behind me, slapping me on the back in the cheerful way he used to.
• I haven’t seen him like this in so long. He’s my Delta, and he’s supposed to be the Luna’s aide and protector. Because of my order to not treat Elelira as the Luna, he neglected his duties, snubbing her off completely. He may have been the only one who came close to feeling as bad as I did when everything came to light.
• “I won’t be going out tonight, or any night from this night forth,” I told him in a terse tone, “Have you seen my wife?”
• “Your wife?” he questions me, “I figured you sent her away. I saw her leaving not long after you left the hall with Nilo.”
• My eyes grow big and worry hits me. “She left?”