Page 35 of Lunar's Ruined Alpha

Over in the corner, Rowan is helping Noah with his math homework. The scene is so simple and sweet that it makes my heart ache.

I’m trying so hard to hold on to my hatred for him. Unfortunately, every new piece of evidence that presents itself proves that Rowan has never had malicious intentions toward me. When he rejected me, it was for the good of the pack. And, if he is to be believed, he hasn’t touched another woman since me.

Which, for a man in his twenties, is really quite an impressive feat.

“I just don’t understand why you didn’t stick around, babe,” Zahra continues after a minute, glancing over her shoulder toward Rowan. “He’s gorgeous, and he clearly makes a decent father. What was the problem? Is it that he’s an Alpha?”

I swallow hard, avoiding her eyes by diligently wiping down the already-spotless bar.

“The problem is that he rejected the Mating bond.”

“But why?” Zahra presses without missing a beat. To her credit, she keeps her voice low, but this is still not the time and place to have this discussion. “I mean, I noticed the way he looks at you. That’s hardly the look of a man who wants to reject you.”

“He looks at me the way any Alpha looks at his Mate. It’s instinct, and he can’t help it. It means nothing. It doesn’t change anything.”

Zahra purses her lips. She’s sipping a mug of black coffee. She has dark circles under her eyes, proof that her role as one of the pack’s healers has been taking its toll recently. The elderly must be fading at a faster rate. Or maybe there’s something she’s not telling me.

“It’s just…it doesn’t add up,” Zahra murmurs, still stuck on the same topic even as my mind starts to wander toward other things. “You came stumbling through the forest ten years ago, weak and hungry and pregnant. It’s the sort of thing that suggests the father of the child was a bad man. Mom and I didn’t want to pry, but we assumed that you’d escaped an abusive situation, Lina.”

“Rowan isn’t abusive.”

“Clearly.”

I sigh loudly. “Listen, Z. I don’t really know what to tell you. It’s complicated, and there’s a lot of stuff that’s tied up in Greenbriar history. Stuff you might not understand.”

“Try me.”

“Not right now.” I know I can trust Zahra, but I don’t even know how to begin describing the mess that I’m tangled up in where Rowan is concerned.

She huffs, but she lets it drop. Zahra is never truly frustrated with me. That’s just who she is. Quick to temper, but also quick to calm.

We lapse into comfortable silence. I keep an eye on Caitlyn, who is doing a decent job dealing the handful of occupied tables on her own. She hasn’t had a nervous breakdown since Henry Whiterose’s appearance, though I can tell that she’s skittish around Rowan. Infact, I swear she’s even been skittish around me over the past few days.

It’s not like I think Henry is a gossiping old man, but word spreads fast in small towns. It wouldn’t surprise me if the news trickled fast through the Whiterose pack. The real question is how people will respond when they find out that, this entire time, I’ve been Rowan Greenbriar’s estranged Mate. Or how they’ll respond when they discover that Noah was born a prince.

Hopefully, it won’t cause too much trouble. I’ve given no indication that I’m interested in stirring the pot here in West Pond. I’m not going to challenge the leadership structure, nor is Noah. As long as the Blackburns don’t start a war, I’m confident that everything can continue on as normal.

Maybe that makes me delusional, but now that I’m thinking about the Blackburn pack again…

“Hey, Zahra?”

“Hm?”

“Rowan mentioned something to me. About the Blackburns. He said that they were pressing into territory on the western border. Is that true?”

Zahra furrows her brow, cocking her head to side. “He said that?”

“Is he correct?”

“I have no idea.” She does, in fact, look thoroughly confused. “I mean, I know that there was a small skirmish that resulted in the border trouble with the Greenbriars, but I haven’t been made aware of anything serious with the Blackburns. If there’s trouble, the Alpha is probably keeping it to his inner circle for now.”

“Right. I see.”

“I haven’t been called out to the western side of our territory to tend to any of the sick people who live there, so I wouldn’t really know.”

“Got it.”

Still, Zahra seems puzzled by the topic. As if it never occurred to her that something so serious might be kept quiet by Henry Whiterose.

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