Ronan's POV“What? Did you think you'd be left off the hook just because you're not the Alpha?” He asked. “You seem to have forgotten that you're also supposed to choose a suitable mate as soon as you can.”I rolled my eyes. “Let's focus on my brother first,” I replied. He trained his intelligent blue eyes on me. “You already have eyes on a certain woman right?” He queried. I shrugged. “I'll take that as a yes. I'd love to meet her,” he said, a bright smile on his face. “You can't meet her now.”“Why not?” He questioned. “It's complicated at the moment. Something close to unrequited love,” I answered. “You know you can have any woman you want right? You're a great catch. You don't have to pine after a woman who doesn't return your affection.”I closed my eyes and released a frustrated sigh. “But I don't want any other woman.”He shook his head. “You're just as bad as your brother.”“No, I'm not,” I disagreed rather vehemently. He looked taken aback. I took a deep breath and c
Malia's POV“Well, I deduced that they were crazy in love from what your brother told me,” I replied. His eyes hardened. He turned away from me to face a vampire sculpture. “So my brother has been telling you family secrets huhn?” He asked, his tone laced with barely controlled anger. I kept mute unsure of what to say. The room had grown deathly silent and the only thing I could hear was my own breathing. I exhaled a breath and moved closer to Ryder. “You seem angry. Why?” I asked. I got no response. Not even the slightest movement to show that he had heard me. “Ronan didn't tell me anything that I do not need to know,” I said. Frankly, I thought he was overreacting. It wasn't like they had some deep dark secret they were covering. Or did they? His silence was beginning to irk me so I said something I knew would make him react. “You didn't tell me you had a sister.”I was right. I saw him stiffen before he turned to face me. His usually cold green eyes had become even col
Malia's POVI willed my brain to work really fast. “Honestly, I have no idea why. I was just his sex slave.”“I would've said that maybe he thinks I'm going to rat him out and everyone would finally know what a disgusting man he is but who would believe the word of a servant over an Alpha?” To my credit, there were real tears in my eyes probably because I was damn scared and was remembering again how horribly Zade had treated me by sleeping with his ex-girlfriend. Lucien's eyes narrowed. “Or maybe you stole something of value from him.”“I beg your pardon. I'd never do that,” I replied with indignation. He was beginning to piss me off. Ryder squeezed my hand gently and I inhaled deeply. “She's not a thief. In fact, I was the one who found her in the woods quite far away from here, surrounded by rogues. She had nothing with her apart from the clothes on her back.”“If you don't believe me you can ask the guards I went hunting with together. They helped me fight off the rogues,” R
Ronan's POVI was filled with a fierce protectiveness towards her. Her blue eyes were filled with fear and sadness and I squeezed her hand gently to offer comfort. She might think she was being a burden but she wasn't. She was worth every shred of loyalty. She was worth dying for. There was no way I'd allow anyone to take her back to her former pack. Except if she was willing to return. My heart ached at the thought of that. “There's something I need to tell you,” she said. I could tell through her eyes that whatever she wanted to say was pretty serious and she was only telling me because she felt she could trust me. She suddenly looked so fragile and vulnerable and I wanted to wrap my arms around her so badly. She licked her lips and gave a tiny shake of her head and I wondered if she had changed her mind about whatever it was she wanted to say. I released a sigh and slowly moved to position myself right in front of her. “You know you can tell me anything right?” I said, cu
Ronan's POVI would have gone back to Malia's room but I thought I heard her chatting to someone, most likely, Penelope. I noticed that they were becoming closer by the day. I was still kind of surprised by Malia's humility. Even though she had been a Luna, she didn't choose her friends according to status. I could not imagine someone like Lila becoming friends with a servant. I made my way to my wing and lay down on my bed immediately I got in. My mind went back to the discussion Ryder and I had just had. He made it seem as though I was the one who didn't want our sister to return to the palace. I didn't remember ever saying anything like that. Maybe he was just trying to mess with me or shift the blame on me. Maybe he had also shared our father's thought that she was the cause of our mother's death. I sighed and tried to lull myself to sleep. After a frustrating hour of tossing and turning on the bed, I accepted defeat and threw the covers off me. I decided I needed to tal
Ronan's POV“We should start heading back to the palace. I promised my wife I'd be home early for dinner. I don't want to risk offending her again just after I cut her vacation short,” Lucien said.“I was hoping I could challenge you to a duel. I need to be very exhausted. It's the only way I'd be able to sleep tonight,” I replied. “Just thirty minutes,” I added when I saw the hesitation in his features.“On one condition,” he said. “When we're done, you'd have to follow me back to my chambers to explain to my wife that you're the reason I'm late for dinner.”I nodded. “Consider it done.”He gave me a wolfish grin. “I'm going to have so much fun beating you.”“We'll see about that,” I replied with a smirk. We ended up dueling for an hour and by the time we finished we were nearly totally out of breath and our muscles had turned jelly. The only thing we could do was plop down on the ground. “Admit it,” I said panting, “I've become so much better.”“Don't look so smug,” he replied.
Malia's POV“Now who told you that?” I asked Penelope. There was no point in saying that it was Lila that the Alpha wanted to crown as his Luna. That would be a lie and I didn't want to lie to Penelope. Her eyes glittered with mischief. “I swear this time I didn't mean to eavesdrop. I was just passing through when I heard the Beta and his brother talking about it.”My eyes widened in surprise. “Ronan knows?” Penelope nodded. “I guess he didn't tell you either because he didn't want you to know due to the way he feels about you, or because he feels it's not in his place to tell you about it,” she reasoned. “Whatever it is, he's my friend. He's not supposed to keep something like this from me,” I grumbled. “Do you want to become Luna for the second time?” Pen asked. “Hell no! I can't risk Lila suffocating me to death in my sleep,” I said and she chuckled. “Perhaps Alpha Ryder might insist that you move into his chambers once you're crowned Luna. No one would be able to hurt you.”
Ronan's POVI awoke sometime before the devil's hour. I knew I had been dreaming about when I was younger but the more I tried to remember the details of the dream, the more they eluded me. Hunger gnawed painfully at my stomach and I remembered that I had gone to bed with an empty stomach. I walked into my kitchen to prepare a quick meal. I settled on pasta and a simple sauce but first I poured myself some cereal and milk into a bowl and ate greedily. It was then that the details of the dream hit me and I realized that it wasn't really a dream but a memory that I had managed to bury in my unconscious mind. It was immediately after my mom had delivered my sister. My father, Ryder and I were pacing anxiously in the hospital building. Not far away from the room where the Luna was in labour, trying to bring another pup into the world. We heard the wails of a baby just before the pack doctor came out of that room and we all hurried to meet him halfway. “How are they?” My father had