Page 69 of Lunar's Ruined Alpha

I pull her along beside me. We jump into my truck. My blood rushes loudly in my ears as I perform a vicious U-turn in Alina’s front yard, tearing up her grass in the process—and then we’re on the road headed back to Greenbriar territory.

Keeping one hand resting firmly on her leg, I try to keep the wolf within me tamed enough that I don’t lose control and shift suddenly behind the wheel. Alina is a live wire, tense and coiled with synapses firing.

She hasn’t been home in ten years. Now, she has no choice but to return.

“I wish this could have happened differently,” I tell her as I swing the truck onto the main route connecting the domains of the Whiterose and Greenbriar packs. “I wish I could have brought you back there with me on your own terms, Alina, with Noah by our side. I wanted that for you.”

She’s quiet for a moment, so stiff that I have to glance over at her a few times just to confirm that she hasn’t turned to stone.

“It doesn’t matter,” she says through gritted teeth. “It is what it is. I’ll do whatever it takes. But, Rowan…”

“Yeah?”

“What if they shun me? What if this is the moment Kseniya warned about? What if this is the catalyst for how I ruin you?”

I squeeze her thigh with reassurance. “I couldn’t give less of a shit about that prophecy right now. I never should have cared about it.”

Alina doesn’t say anything. Instead, she stares fiercely out of the windshield with her jaw clenched tightly.

I haven’t had the chance to tell her what happened with my parents at Kseniya’s cottage.

“Bring her home. Tell her that she has always been one of us.”

That’s what my mother said. It was encouraging, to say the least, to know that the current Greenbriar Luna will welcome Alina back home with open arms. But I left before my father finished meeting with Kseniya inside, so I still don’t know what came from the scrying bones.For all I know, my father will take one look at Alina and command her to stay away.

But, no…he wouldn’t do that. He’s too reasonable of a man. Too honorable of a leader. He’s also too determined to ensure that I become Alpha next, and he wouldn’t do anything to hurt me by hurting my Mate.

“Everything is going to be okay,” I tell Alina.

I’m trying to convince myself of that just as much as I’m trying to assure her.

Still, she says nothing.

The only source of comfort to me for the remainder of the drive to Greenbriar land is that Samson Blackburn won’t be stupid enough to kill Noah. It’s not that he’s above murdering children, but more so that the son of an Alpha is not very useful if he’s dead. He’ll keep my son alive to taunt me, to try to ensnare Alina.

I barely register when the aroma in the air shifts, marking the passage into Greenbriar territory. Alina notices it immediately, though. I can tell by the way her body somehow grows even more tense, and yet there’s a release in her shoulders that tells me she’s instinctively settling back into her rightful place even as the human side of her tries to resist it.

Ten minutes later, I’m speeding right into the middle of the main town square, right outside my father’s house.

The Alpha himself is outside, along with several of his Betas. I also spot Cal, who whips his head around and stares wide-eyed at my truck as it growls to a halt in the driveway. Heads turn in my direction as I throw myself out of the cab and leap across the hood to yank open Alina’s door.

I hold out my hand for hers. Her breath catches as dozens of gazes fall upon her. It’s been ten years since any of these people would have seen her, but she has the sort of beauty that’s hard to forget. That golden hair and those dark caramel eyes.

Not to mention her scent. It’s the feminine twin to mine, sweet and thrumming with power, while mine is a rumble of thunder.

Alina inhales sharply and then places her hand into my waiting palm.

She slips out of the truck.

The silence in the town square is unnatural. Even my father, watching with a cool and unreadable expression from the top of the steps of his house, doesn’t say anything.

Taking her hand, I lead her up to the Greenbriar Alpha. The crowd parts for us.

My mother, standing just behind my father, smiles at us. Alina’s breath stutters so quietly that I’m certain I’m the only one who hears it. But it is my father who must be given respect in this moment. Both of us know that. Alina has run from the pack, and I have clearly been keeping a huge secret.

In unison, we bow our heads to my father.

“Father,” I murmur. “I would like to introduce you to my Mate.”

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