Page 179 of His Fated Luna

He looked around the empty room as if expecting a ghost to show up. My heart sank as I realized that the ceremony wouldn't work because I wasn't mated to the alpha of the pack.

"Sometimes, they don't answer,” I said hastily. "They're not exactly a help-line for me," Iconfessed quietly.

Alistair crossed his arms. He peered at me speculatively as Istood up, brushing away dust from my slacks. Suddenly, he had me pushed against the wall, his hands vice-like clamps around my upper arms. Alistair's eyes glowed yellow. His breath blew into my eyes as he breathed harshly.

"Maybe I should mark you, just to make sure you're telling the truth," he threatened.

I felt the pounding of my heart. The deafening roar of blood as cold fear clawed inside my belly.

"You...you could," I managed to choke out, preparing myself for the worst. "But it still wouldn't make them answer my call until they are ready."

I froze when I felt his big hand trail roughly up my shoulder to close around my throat. Was he going to kill me now? But he didn't apply pressure. Instead, his thumb grazed over the hollow of my throat as he swallowed. I noticed his Adam's apple bobbing up and down and a smirk was playing on his face like hewas toying with the idea of strangling me. Then Alistair let me go, pulling back to glare at me.

"What exactly do you mean, answer your call?" He tilted his head to the side.

Mind games.I knew he was playing mind games with me. Hoping to scare me into becoming obedient. He was using my fear for him as a weapon. I realized he thought my character weak enough to fall for these ploys. If he thought I was weak, he would underestimate me.

I hugged myself, exaggerating a wince over the pain in my arms from where Alistair had gripped me. There would definitely be bruises from that.

"I don't know the exact logistics,” I whispered, deciding this was a safe topic for now. "But it's like they're asleep or...or maybe in heaven, if there is one for werewolves. I don't know. But when I do the ritual, it's almost like it wakes them from their slumber. They...they come to me, talk with me. Guide me. Give me advice." I passed a tired hand over my face.I'd had this discussion with Aiden before. In this very temple. I missed him.

"So they don't know any more or any less than they did before they died?" Alistair pressed.

I looked at Alistair. “Unless I pass on new information, they are not privy to the new developments in our lives. But,” I began, hoping Alistair would be wary of the way he treated me, "they can sense things with me. They can tell if I'm trying to hide something or lying or if there's something wrong with me." I wasn't sure if what I said was entirely true, but it seemed like it since they could sense when my wolf hadn't mated with Aiden's.

Alistair's eyes narrowed. "So they wouldn't cooperate with us if they thought you were being...mistreated,” Alistair concluded.

My shoulders sagged with relief. He'd said “us”. It meant he thought we were, to a degree, working together.

I shrugged my shoulders. “I don't know.” My voice rang with the sincerity of my words. "I'm only telling you my own personal theories from my experience with them." It was the truth and as I looked in the eyes of Alistair I realized he had believed it.

The older alpha heaved a sigh, massaging his graying temples before looking back at me with a pointed look.

"You don't have to worry about me forcing myself on you. I like my women willing, older too, but that can't be helped. The mate bond should pull you to me soon enough. It probably is already since you've been so cooperative." His lips curled up in a sneer as his eyes trailed my body. "Wish I could say the same for myself. You reek of your previous mate."

Alistair turned on his heel, motioning for me to follow.I followed his command, worrying my bottom lip was between my teeth as I tried to decide on my next course of action. I'd bought myself some time. He didn't know it, but my pregnancy was probably the one thing that kept deterring Alistair. Wolves instincts were always to mate for the goal of impregnation. I was pregnant and on a biological level, his instincts had probably picked up on it. His wolf wanted a fertile wolf to plant his seed into. There was no point in mating with me when I was already pregnant.

It wasn't like he loved me, it wasn't like Aiden who took me multiple times and enjoyed every aspect of it. Aiden who enjoyed doing things to my body which lay outside the need to impregnate me...

A chill went up my spine as I reasoned that, at some point, Alistair's wolf would finally realize I was pregnant. There was only so long I could keep this up...

Chapter 56

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” ? Martin Luther King Jr.

Rose's POV

"There's got to be a way to get our allies to help out,” I pleaded with Dad.

Alistair had left me alone at the alpha residence, coming to take me to the pack office during work hours and then dropping me home. Lexia was nowhere to be seen and I had to assume she'd left after getting the antidote to Dylan. Alistair had talked with Lexia a few times on the phone in front of me, asking her how classes were going.

Alistair would touch me sometimes, probably trying to experiment and see if it sparked anything between us. His hand would go to my lower back likeAiden's had so often done and it was all I could do to not cringe away from him. Or he'd place a hand on my thigh while Isat going over account books in the company office while he sat watching me.

Of course he didn't understand whatI was doing. I knew he wanted access to the pack funds. He planned to bleed them dry since he'd asked me the process for transferring the funds into his own personal accounts. So while Isat, working my way around the numbers, I did something I could never ask our pack accountant to do. I tampered with the information, depicting the funds to already be a vague shell of what they actually were so that the alpha couldn’t access them. Maybe if he thought the pack was in trouble financially, he'd leave. Because it was becoming clearer and clearer to me that Alistair's main motive was not land, as he'd previously stated. It was money. I had tried to bite back a sneer of my own at the realization.

How typically human to sell your soul all for vast amounts of wealth. This man had committed atrocious acts, all for money. And sons. That was all too clear especially when earlier today he'd asked me before Igot out of the car to go inside my home,

"When's your next heat?"