LUNARIS POV

I had watched her every day till she finally recovered, and I did not expect her to be so vicious. She had a commanding tone like every alpha should, but her voice was soft underneath all the harshness. I left her with Katherine to finish her treatment and recover. I had wanted to stay with her, but I didn't want her to feel uncomfortable.

“Hey, bro”. Zack suddenly barged in without thinking if I was busy or not. He was my crazy half-brother who was the opposite of everything I was. I thought the concept of the Lycan kingdom was useless, and we didn't have to sustain any balance. He had even tried to kill a witch once after he ordered her to break the balance.

“Why are you here, Zack? And that's not the way to treat a king or an alpha,” he scoffed and eyed me

“Oh come on, Lunaris, we both know you'd change your fate if you could; you wished you weren't the king of this creepy ass kingdom, and you also wish there were things you could do to change it, so don't give me that lesson on respect about your title.”

“Is that all, Zack? If that is all, then you can leave my study now,”

“Okay, calm down, big bro, we really should start getting along; we can't keep fighting; by the way, who is the newbie?” I knew who he was referring to, but I acted uninterested.

“I don't know who you are talking about.” he closed the book I was reading, and I was losing my temper.

“Come on, brother, you know you've always sucked at lying. I guess I could approach her and find out myself; she seems interesting.”

I dashed toward my brother and pinned him on a shelf. The books flew around, and I saw a glimpse of fear in his eyes.

“Stay the fuck away from her, Zack; I won't repeat myself.”

“Woah woah woah, you're going to fight with me because of a woman you just met. Now, this is getting interesting.” I heard the door creak, and she stood at the door's entrance. I immediately let go of Zack.

“I'm sorry if I was intruding. I heard a crashing sound, and I thought I should check.”

“Oh, you aren't interrupting anything. It's just a little love show between brothers. I'm Zack, what's your name? I watched Zack walk towards them as he stretched his hands; she took it and smiled.

“Eve, my name is Eve, and it's nice to meet you.”

“The pleasure is all mine. Do not hesitate if you need anything from me; it's been a while since we had such a person of interest, and I will do my best to entertain you while you are here.” He kissed her hand lightly and winked at me before stepping out.

“I am sorry you had to see that,” I apologized as I picked up the books that had fallen off the shelf, and she joined in.

“It's fine; you are lucky enough to have a sibling you can play around with; all my life, I was alone; I didn't get such luxury.”

“Half brother, things would be so much easier if Zack was not around.”

“He's that much of bad news, huh?”

“Yeah, and you'll be doing yourself a favor if you steer clear from that one.”

“I don't know if I can; he's the only person who has offered me a little bit of fun since I got here, and it's a hard offer to overlook.”

I looked at her as her eyes glowed with mischief. I had been lost in her eyes all afternoon while I spoke to her, and I wondered what she was thinking while staring at me like that. I was trying so hard to stay away from reading her mind instead.

“Ahem, I should probably return to my room; you've been kind to me, and all I've done all day is complain.” The sudden softness she spoke with perplexed me; whatever happened to the sharp-mouthed vicious Alpha from earlier this afternoon?

“Follow me.” I held her hand and pulled her with me before she could refuse.

“Where are we going?” she demanded, and I ignored her. “You can't just keep pulling me; what if you are leading me to my death?”

“You and I know if I wanted you dead, you would be dead by now, so quit talking and follow me, okay?” she nodded, and we continued to walk in silence. We finally got to a door secluded from the rest of the house. I unlocked it and entered, with Eve following me behind.

“All I can see is darkness, so if I'm supposed to find this interesting, you are doing a terrible job.” I turned on the light, and her reaction was to die for

“Oh my days, what is this place??”

“This is what I call Havana's haven”. It had been named after my mate before she died. She enjoyed nature so much, and she dedicated her time to tending to every flower in the garden; she had seeked help from one of her witch friends to create a new type of plant; she had named it “the glimmer plant,” and it was one the things that gave this place its uniqueness.

“It's amazing; I have never seen anything like it.” I watched as she walked around the garden carefully, trying as much as possible not to trip over any plant.

“You don't have to worry about stepping on a plant; they don't die.”

“So they are immortal? Does that not go against the rule of balancing nature? That's what Lychan is all about, is it not?”

“There is always a price to pay; I learned the hard way.”

“And what price was paid for this to happen?”.

Havana, who was my mate, had tampered with the order of creation; it was one of the things that led to her death, and it took me a long while to get over it. I banned anyone from talking about it or bringing up anything about it. Coming here with Eve triggered the memories I had fought so hard to bury. I didn't want to think about it further, so I decided it was safe to change the subject.

“Have you decided what you will do to your Mate?”

“I haven't given it much thought; maybe I must stay away from there for now. I could use a break from my duties as Alpha.”

“You could do just that, as long as you stick to the rules that guide the Kingdom.”

“Following rules are my thing,” she smiled. “Ive not seen an overprotective female hovering around you, so I am guessing you are without a mate?”

“What if I have a mate, but she is not overprotective?”

“Any woman will be overprotective.”

“So if you were to become my mate right now, your first duty would be to hover around me?”. She stared at me without saying a word before blinking and turning away

“I could lie, but you'd probably just read my mind anyway.”

“I have not read your mind all evening.”

“Why?”

“Because it is an invasion of privacy, I learned that today.”

“Well, you are a fast learner then, but if I had such cool power, I would be in your head all day.”

“Should I take that as a compliment?”

“Take it as whatever you will be, Lunaris.”

I loved how my name sounded when she called it. I was sick of the usual girls faking their respect for me by calling me Alpha Lunaris. She was different, and I loved that about her. I was about to ask a question when a female voice called my name from behind us.

“Alpha Lunaris, I didn't think I would find you here.”

“Goodness, where did you resurrect from? It's so good to see you, Kara. To what do we owe for this visit?”

“I couldn't have missed my big brother? I was homesick and decided to stop by”. Kara was never interested in Lychan's affairs. She had insisted on leaving the kingdom and focusing on her job as a lawyer among humans. She had fallen in love with a human, and I knew it would end wrongly, but I couldn't deprive Kara of her happiness.

“Oh, could on Kara, whenever you are around, it's obvious there's something wrong; what have you done this time?”

“Could you at least introduce me to the new girl? She keeps staring at me like I came to take something that belongs to her.”

“Shut up, Kara. Meet Alpha Eve of the Heart feral Clan.”

“An Alpha, now that's my kind; hey Eve, Kara here, Lunaris younger sister, the good one, by the way; you'll meet the other soon enough.”

“You can call me Eve; it's a pleasure meeting you. Don't worry, I won't be here for long; I should be gone before the other you speak about arrives,”

“Oh, I doubt that; you just might become Lunaris Luna. Can you see how he looks at you? I haven't seen him look that way since Hav….

“Could you give Kara and me a little time, please? I'll join you in my quarter soon.”

“Yeah, that's alright.” she gave a quick smile and hastily walked off

“You seem mad. Did I disrupt something?”

“Why are you here, Kara? I missed you, but you only stop by if there's trouble, so spill.”

“You are running out of time, Lu; you have less than six months to live….”