Alba's pov

Chapter 3

Alba's POV

“Don’t push your luck, Alba! You never know when I reach my limits!” Dante snapped the second he heard my words about wanting to reject him.

He left the suit he had been trying to wear, leaving Veronica aside as he walked towards me.

“You’re indebted to me! Don’t forget that without me, you’re nothing! How dare you!” he snapped.

“How dare you, a wolfless thing, think of rejecting me, an Alpha?” he added, his pride seeping through every word.

“Isn’t that what you and Veronica have always wanted? Isn’t that what you particularly wanted so that you could mark her and make her your official Luna? Why are you acting so disinterested now all of a sudden?” I asked, staring at him. And then at Veronica, who stood behind him, looking confused.

“ I'm only together with him because I missed how close we were before, Alba. Stop accusing me of things I’m not guilty of,” she said with a childlike whining tone, like she always did whenever she wanted to accuse me of things I wasn’t guilty of.

Things Dante always took her words for, ignoring mine and then calling me, the woman who built his empire, useless.

“Did you hear that, Alba? She doesn’t wish to see us broken apart! Quit acting like a mistreated woman and return to your chambers! This was exactly the reason I didn’t want to attend today’s ceremony with you. You have a knack for causing unnecessary dramas wherever you are at,” he added to further buttress Veronica’s claim.

I’ve always known that she returned to the pack with plans of her own but those plans were still what I was so unsure of. She didn’t seem to want to become Dante’s Luna and at the same time didn’t wish to leave his side. If not, why wouldn’t she jump at the opportunity of being with him when I suddenly wanted to reject him?

But Dante was too blind to see it and even if I wanted to force him to, I knew he wouldn’t listen.

Two guards walked into the room. I saw from Dante’s gaze that he had sent for them through the mindlink. I hadn’t heard because he didn’t initiate me into it. Having no wolf, he had stated that it was useless for me.

“Let me go!” I snapped at the guards, causing them to pause.

“Alba!” Dante shouted, as if that was supposed to make me keep silent while he planned on parading another woman as his Luna.

“Have her arrested and locked up in her room if she doesn’t want to follow you willingly! I’ll be sure to decide a befitting punishment for her once the ceremony is over.”

“Let’s see how you’d be able to do that after I report you to the Alpha Council, Alpha Dante! Let’s see how you keep refusing for us to go our separate ways after they’ve heard everything you put me through in this pack all these past four years!” I added.

“What are you waiting for to arrest her?” he snapped at the guards.

“Have her mouth tied up as well. I do not want her making distracting noises for my guests!”

I didn’t let him finish when I ran away from the room, my thoughts focused on how I was supposed to escape him and especially this night.

I knew what he was capable of, and I knew that if I stayed back in this pack this night, without looking for a way to save myself, once he was back from the ceremony, it was going to be worse for me.

I took the hallway that led towards the hall where the ceremony was taking place. If only I could meet someone, if only I’d see anyone who was from the Alpha Council, then it would be easier for me to plead my cause.

“Don’t let her reach the hall! Hold down that mad woman!” Dante screamed as he chased after me with his guards.

I kept running. This was for my safety. This was for my future. This was for all the efforts that have gone down the drain since I got mated to him, unappreciated.

This was for my dreams I had left behind, all because I wanted to be a dutiful wife and Luna to him.

My body collided into someone as I was running, lost in thoughts. The oak and sandalwood cologne hit me first before his aura. There was only one man with such aura.

And when I raised my head up, I was staring directly at him. Marshall Bloodrose.. the Alpha King, the Alpha of Alphas whose pack was double of all other packs combined.

He stared at me, confused why I was running, dressed up as well.

I felt embarrassed. I had put effort into looking good for today’s ceremony only for what had happened…

Only to have my mate’s mark on my neck, redder than it normally was from his constant humiliation. Marshall’s gaze was on my neck and I knew without being told that it was the red mark he was staring at.

“Get back here, Alba!” Dante snapped but the second he saw the Alpha King, he paused, bowing his head down in reverence before him.

Both of them were staring at me but in different ways. Dante was staring at me with rage and anger, a malicious intent as if he wanted me dead on the spot. Whereas the Alpha King looked at me with curiosity. As if I was something porcelain he was seeing for the first time.

“Do you know this man?” he asked me, ignoring Dante’s greetings.

I hadn’t answered when Dante responded on my behalf… like he always did whenever I was asked something by another man.

“This is my mate, Alpha. She is Alba, the Luna of Moonstone pack,” he said firmly.

I scoffed. “ How ironic,” I muttered to myself when Veronica arrived beside him.

“I was discussing important pack matters with her before she left. If the Alpha doesn’t mind, I’d like to return to my chambers with her,” he added almost immediately.

Alpha Marshall stared back at him and then the guards who were behind him. Clearly, he didn’t seem to believe him.

“Do you know this man, Luna Alba?” he asked me once again.

Many people had begun to come out of the ceremonial hall following the ruckus at the hallway where we were at.

“I do know him, Alpha, but right now I do not wish to do so anymore!” I answered.

“Alba! Behave yourself! This is the Alpha King and he shouldn’t be troubled with your nonsense!” Dante snapped.

“I do not mind being troubled, Alpha Dante. I was merely interested in knowing why a pretty Luna as Alba would be running away from her own husband and in his own pack,” he quickly added.

Dante’s hands folded at his sides but he controlled his rage and jealousy, especially at hearing him calling me pretty. He hated when other men complimented me.

“I’m running because my mate doesn’t want us to get a rejection, Alpha. I was looking for an elder to mediate on my behalf and grant me the rejection I wish for.”

There was a ripple of murmur from the crowd as many couldn’t believe what I had said.

Rage contorted on Dante’s face. This was exactly why he wanted me locked up so I do not expose him. But I had no other choice, this was the only way I could get the rejection I wanted.

“Why would you want to reject your mate and Alpha, Alba? Why would….” the Alpha King hadn’t finished when Dante cut him short.

“She’s merely bluffing, Alpha. She’s an omega and sometimes she tends to have some tendencies that make her say things she doesn’t mean,” he said quickly.

Alpha Marshall shot him a glare and he immediately kept silent. I answered without even backing down.

“I want to reject him because he is impotent. I want to have a child of my own and become a mother, but being with him clearly can’t ensure that for me in this lifetime,” I said immediately.

“What a shameful thing to say about your mate, Alba. I thought you were a woman with dignity!” Veronica snapped in Dante’s defense.

“How dare you, Alba? How dare you choose to humiliate me this way before everyone?”

“What you should be explaining is whether or not you’re impotent or…” The Alpha King began but was cut short once again.

“How can I be impotent when Veronica is pregnant with my heir?” he snapped but the second the words left his lips and a gasp tore from the crowd that had already gathered, he seemed to regret it.