Alpha King Chases Abandoned Luna

The Alpha King is unavailable 73

Memories flashed back to when I was eight years old. I followed my adoptive mother-a pack healer-back to the Stone Estate with Matriarch Evelyn Stone.

The elderly Matriarch had treated me like her own granddaughter. Her kind amber eyes-the same eyes her grandson would inherit, though lacking the warmth hers contained-made me feel safe.

"She looks like a little lost pup," Matriarch Evelyn had chuckled. "We'll have to fatten you up, won't we, dear?" But Eleanor Stone, Ethan's aunt, had watched from the shadows. Her cold eyes followed my every move.

"Another stray?" she'd muttered. "This house isn't a charity ward.”

Matriarch Evelyn had silenced her with a single look. "The child stays, Eleanor. That's final"

For weeks, I'd been safe under the Matriarch's protection. Then came the night of the full moon ceremony. Both my adoptive mother and Matriarch Evelyn were required to attend, leaving me alone in the vast estate.

Eleanor seized her opportunity.

"Come here, girl, she'd called, her voice falsely sweet. "I have something to show you."

Naive and trusting. I'd followed her to a heavy wooden door. Before I could react, she'd pushed me through it. I tumbled down stone steps into darkness.

"Perhaps some time alone will teach you your place," she'd sneered, slamming the door.

The bolt had slid home with a sound that still haunted my nightmares.

I'd screamed until my throat was raw. The darkness pressed in, suffocating in its completeness.

Then came the sounds-tiny claws scratching against stone. The soft squeaking that signaled I wasn't alone.

I'd sobbed, pressing myself against the wall. "Please

found me. I'd been

covered in rat bites.

been terrible to behold. "How dare you?" she'd thundered at Eleanor. "This child is

protection!"

fear of dark, enclosed spaces-and especially of rats-had been

that same nightmare. Betrayed by the very person who

door. "Ethan!

felt like

to a whisper. "I didn't do anything wrong. I would never hurt

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The shades t

grew louder, more insistent. My entire body

again, weaker now. Remember when you found me in the alley? When

the floor. The cold stone seemed to leach the warmth from my

heart leaped with desperate hope. "Ethan? Is that

but I could sense a presence on the other side of the door. Someone was listening

retreated, growing fainter until they

the cold stone floor, despair washing over me in a crushing wave. My body curled instinctively into a tight ball, knees

countless times in the orphanage. When trying to protect

(Ethan's POV)

phone vibrated against my hip as I paced the corridor outside Emma's