Page 6 of Into the Grasslands

“You didn’t have a confirmed Luna then,” Ashton spoke up. She was the female who had a pup to care for. Her mate had been killed while she was still carrying their young, and this was her way of feeling useful to the pack. She offered to warm my bed for meuntilI found my Luna.

“I still don’t have a Luna,” I argued.

Ashton shook her head back and forth while biting nervously into her bottom lip. “You do,” she dared to disagree with me. “I don’t understand how you could turn your moon-blessed mate away.” A tear dripped down her cheek and fell to the floor. I could have sworn there was an audible sound to accompany it. “Every day, I wish for one more moment with my mate. Every night, I cry that he's missing from our den. You should go after her, Alpha. Don’t let your chance at happiness slip away.”

“I’m not letting my chance at happiness slip away,” I argued. “That’s why she’s going to Mirage Island for a while. You can leave and go cry into your pillow for your lost mate, and don’t bother to come back.” It was an order, full of alpha magic, so Ashton didn’t hesitate to leave in tears.

“Alpha!” The bark from over my shoulder came from our Delta, my Uncle Drayton.

I spun and glared at my father’s younger brother. “Something to say?” I asked.

“Has the madness set in so quickly?” His face, pulled tight in anger, made him look so much like a younger version of my father that I had to do a double take. It felt like my father’s judgment sat heavy on my chest.

“What did you say?”

“You heard me, boy.”

How dare he disrespect me this way. Looking like my father or not, my uncle was out of line to question me, especially in front of other members of the pack.

“Is that a challenge?”

“Might as well be. I’d rather die today knowing that at least I spoke up about this nonsense, than to allow it to happen and not take a stand. The way you spoke to that woman, the one who lost her mate, was heartless and not becoming of any Alpha I want to serve under. But the way you spoke to your own mate was unforgivable. You think you only sent Nika away untilYOUare ready to claimher, but she won’t come back to you now. There were no lies extolled by the woman who should be our pack’s revered Luna.”

“Our Luna will change her mind in time,” I sneered at my uncle.

“And how can you be so sure?”

“Because I am Alpha here, and I have a plan.”

My uncle scoffed at me. The man looked dangerously close to losing his fucking head. “You have a plan to get a female to change her mind about being mated to a man who locked her up on a prison island, so he could fuck a harem of she-wolves who are so far beneath her they might as well be dirt?”

“Careful with your words, Uncle. Those females can still hear you and they are pack members.”

“And all of them should know better than to be involved in this tainted display. The only one I didn’t feel that way about was Ashton. As a widowed wolf, who told you that once you had a mate, she could no longer be a part of your harem, she was the only one who didn’t set out to disrespect someone else’s mate. You know, the same woman who left here in tears and only signed up to be a part of this monstrosity because she’s desperate to care for her young. At least she has a reason to debase herself that isn’t purely selfish.”

Some of the females behind me began to cry in earnest at my uncle’s chastisement. “Apologize!” I growled at him.

“I don’t apologize for the truth, Aiden. You know that.” He shook his head at me. The disappointment that dripped from his eyes nearly undid me. Then I remembered how Nika spoke to me, and I thought better of it. If nothing else, she deserved this punishment for how she dared to challenge the Alpha of our pack in front of others. Our argument could have been taken to a private space.

“Our pack’s Luna will never forgive you, Nephew. That means our pack no longer has a Luna. Even if, for some gods-forsaken reason she chose to mate with you after the way you treated her, how will the pack ever respect her when you taught them that she deserved none? Either way, how long before our pack falls due to your selfish behavior?”

“You will have a gods-damned Luna!” I yelled. “She will be given far more supplies than necessary for the first few months while she’s on the island. She’ll share with the others, since there will be so much. They’ll get used to it, expect it even. Then, I will slowly taper off those supplies, until there is barely enough for her to get by on her own. The others will be angry with Nika for no longer sharing. They’ll want her gone. Nika will want to come home because a starving wolf is desperate, as you just pointed out.”

“You have already gone mad,” my uncle declared as he stared at me in gape-mouthed horror. “You said months. How long do you plan to trick and trap your mate in this game you’re playing? How do you think she’ll survive when desperate, angry, female wolves are after her just as much as rogue males who will take her for themselves, whether they should or not?”

“Don’t worry yourself over my mate, me, or this fucking pack any longer, Uncle. You are free to go, but you aren’t free to come back.”

“Are you banishing me from my birth pack?”

“You banished yourself when you challenged your Alpha. Be glad I don’t kill you where you stand.”

“Your father will blame himself for stepping down before you were ready. We all told him he should wait for your mating first.” Uncle Drayton turned and left the room without another word.

I couldn’t deal with any further dissension in the ranks and left as well. My uncle was right about one thing. I had to come up with a bigger plan to make sure that my mate did not come to harm during her year on the island. I knew the rules. An alpha could temporarily set aside his claim on a Luna for up to one year after discovering who she was. After that, she was free game for anyone. Until then, she was untouchable.

I’d add a little security to the mix, to guarantee that no one ever messed with her. “Get our top performing female up to my room immediately,” I ordered one of the men as I walked out.

“She won’t agree to be a member of your harem,” he explained quickly.

---