Alpha Luke and His Unwilling Mate
Chapter 15

~Nyla~

I literally had to push Luke out of the door before getting some decent rest. Not sure where he got this idea that the best way to protect me was by staying stuck to me all day.

Reading his thoughts isn’t helping at all because they are filled with so many emotions of l**t, affection, and things I don’t want to know or feel. They are manipulating my vengeful intentions.

I slept almost all day after kicking him out; long naps before and after lunch to recover from the over-exhaustion. Ari was my alarm clock, and we both slept once she was fed.

After stepping out under the full moon and feeling alive for a little bit in the morning, staying in bed all day was suffocating now. I unlocked the door to step into the balcony and have some coffee before getting dressed for the stupid ceremony.

The moment I opened the door, I ran straight into the muscled back of some burly man dressed in all black. I was short by no means, but this guy made me feel like a Tyrion. He turned around to glare at me with a hardened face while I rubbed my nose.

His gaze and frown morphed into something less scary once he saw me. I heard another deep voice from behind me and jumped in my place. I was guilty as charged and feared getting taken to the dungeons at any moment. Maya does these things like breathing air and would not bat an eye while I get consumed by feelings of wrongdoing and sin.

“We are sorry. Didn’t mean to scare you.” The man with the deep voice and less intimidating face said.

“Who are you people?” There were four armed hunky men, standing tall and looking down at me.

They rearranged themselves to stand close to the door, two on each side.

“The Alpha has appointed us to be your bodyguards round the clock on this floor.”

What the f**k?! How in the world was I ever going to accomplish my late night activities if these men watched me like hawks? The balcony I used earlier to jump off from is straight down the hallway from here.

I have a full month to come up with something to get rid of these savage-looking wolves. If I risk using magic in these buildings, Luke will get hold of me before I even walk to the balcony.

This can wait. I forgot to ask Ren for coffee and just walked over to the balcony. Facing the bright blue skies and high tide, I mulled over another issue of immediate concern… My eyes! They glow without my control sometimes. I’m sure they will do the same when they watch Luke take over the title from his dad.

Not sure why they didn’t glow when they saw him for the first time. Or maybe they did, but he ignored it? I was too lost in pain over losing Wyatt, my wailing baby in his gamma’s hands, and Maya almost dying because of Ryder’s attack. I didn’t pay attention to Luke’s thoughts when he carried me to the rooftop.

I needed a pink eye to justify wearing sunglasses at twilight. I ran back to my room and opened the laptop.

‘How to make your one eye look bloodshot?’ I asked google and closed the window immediately. What if Luke is monitoring my browsing history? He will look for search words like ‘How to kill your mate?’ or ‘How to fight the fatal attraction towards a handsome devil?’

I did search for ‘Ways to make your mate reject you ASAP’ a few days back.

I opened an incognito window and retyped the thing about bloodshot eyes, and the search results were irrelevant. They told me how to cure pink eye. Obviously, no one would write a post about how to get conjunctivitis to justify wearing sunglasses when there’s no sun.

Ren knocked on the door and showed up with some coffee and cut fruits. I eyed the grapes and wondered if this was enough to irritate my eye. I grabbed one muscat grape and squeezed the juice into my eye while looking at the mirror.

Bloody hell, it hurts! This Luke will make me do many crazy things for sure.

While I was fighting the urge to rinse my burning eye, Ren came back with a dress. A beautiful purple dress and shoes in champagne color embellished with rhinestones.

“Is everything okay?” She set the dress on the bed and approached me.

“I’m fine. My eye has been itching since this morning.”

“You are coming down with something viral. You barely ate anything today and sound hoarse. I have to let the Alpha know and get you a doctor.”

“Don’t bother him now. I’ll see the doctor after his ceremony. So, why do I need a new dress when I already have a closet overflowing with stuff?”

“The Alpha didn’t pick those for you. He asked me to have someone buy them and make it look like you were his mistress to his dad and the others.”

Ren was the easiest to extract information from.

“So he bought this for me by going to the store?”

“I think so. He had to pick a few things for himself yesterday.”

“Purple is my favorite color, Ren.” I was more excited about him buying me a dress than the color of the dress, but Ren didn’t need to know that.

“Oh, no! Your eye. It looks terrible!”

Perfect!

“Really! Crap! Can I skip this ceremony? I must be contagious?” I ran over to the mirror, like a teenager fussing over their first pimple.

“The Alpha will be very disappointed. Unless you are very sick, he hopes you attend.” She had already checked my temperature when I was coughing this morning and again during lunch.

She walked over to my closet and looked for the place where there were a dozen pairs of sunglasses.

“This will go really well with your dress and your oval face.”

“Hmm… I guess this will work. Let me go shower and change into it. I don’t need any help.”

I wanted to make sure my eye didn’t heal before leaving. More grape juice and no maids and stylists. I put the purple dress away and picked a wine red high low gown with halter neck from the closet.

I was still doing my hair in a neat bun when one of the bodyguards knocked and asked me to leave with him soon. Ren came with the wet nurse and took my baby away. Apparently, I don’t have a child and was not supposed to bring Ari up in my conversations with anyone.

Ren gave me many more instructions to maintain a low profile and not catch unnecessary attention. Everyone stared at us as we walked down the stairs and stepped out into the garden. My sunglasses were attention seeking enough, but they were better than eyes glowing golden. Maybe people were just curious about their new Alpha’s new whore.

A haunting wolf song filled the air with its intertwined melody as darkness slowly engulfed the landscape and the string lights wound around the trees came alive. There were firepits setup every few feet to counter the temperature drop as the sun went down and the ocean waves got louder. The most beautiful sight was the colorful lanterns reflecting in the meandering lake water.

I was not new to these celebrations and ceremonies because Wyatt’s family loved to honor a lot of things by going all out: The Naming Ceremony, First Kill ceremony, Alpha Ceremony, Death Ceremony, and of course the Mating Ceremony. The most common and least exciting one is the Full Moon Gathering where the pack just meets.

At the Red Crescent Pack, I knew everybody, and the love and affection from my family were palpable. I was a stranger here. Ren left me once we reached the venue, and the one bodyguard who accompanied us also stepped back to allow me to join the others.

The peaceful ambiance with just a few pack members was all gone when the food arrived and crowds came with it. Everyone howled in excitement as the new Alpha walked over and stood before his pack. With rippling muscles and a dazzling smile, he oozed dominance, built to be the strongest.

Luke’s dad was proudly giving a speech, while Beta Ryder, Gamma Finn and other high ranking wolves stood close behind.

Any member of the pack who was against Luke stepping up as their Alpha was welcome to challenge him at this point. If the challenger loses, some packs turn the defeated wolf into an omega or banish them from the pack. I’m sure Luke’s pack just kills them.

The full moon peeking from the woods distracted me. Luke seemed to be standing right in front of it as the moon was racing towards the horizon. My pendant, which I hid well under my dress, was basking in the moonlight and trying to absorb as much energy as it could.

Luke stole a quick glance at me, and I was sure my eyes glowed for him at that moment. He turned to face the Mage who set up some protection magic over his position. The pack howled again and stretched their arms towards their Alpha as if sharing energy.

The wolf song started again along with the Mage’s incantations and the pack’s frenzied howls. Power coursed through my veins and just like everyone around me, I found myself kneeling down and looking up at the mighty Alpha and the surrounding aura.

His beta and gamma stepped forward as the Mage’s incantations came to an end. Amidst loud cheers and all the wolves moving forward, Luke shifted into his wolf form followed by a few others.

Rex turned back to look at me, but only for a split second. I’m sure he could feel my eyes glow. I saw his pupils darken before he turned away and disappeared into the woods as the last beams of moonlight faded away.