CHAPTER 1

CHARLENE’S POV

 

Without a pause, I continuously ran towards what seemed to be a dead end. I gulped in fear that the Alpha would catch up to me soon. A drop of sweat fell from my forehead when I saw his golden eyes that met my gaze even from the other side of the hallway.

 

"A-Alpha… Let’s talk about this once we get home, o-okay?" I couldn’t prevent myself from stuttering.

 

His aura was identical to when I first met him. He possessed the scent of someone who could make every other living creature tremble to the depths of their soul.

 

"You’re not going to get away with this one as easily as you could imagine, you traitor," he coldly said. His saliva almost fell from his mouth due to the excessive urge to take a feast out of me. The Alpha suddenly moved at an inhumane pace, then swiftly grabbed and pulled my hair upwards.

 

Strangely, I didn’t feel any sort of pain from it.

 

"I gave you two options: kill the child yourself, or I’ll be the one to take his life in your stead."

 

I screamed my lungs out as I attempted to remove his grip on me. But before I even pulled his arm away, I stood up from the ground out of the blue.

 

"What the fuck are you yelling for?" Jaxton asked.

 

My vision went blurry for a few seconds until my tears streamed down my cheeks as soon as I got back to the reality that Alpha Jaxton was guarding me in my room.

 

Alpha Jaxton’s my mate, and we’ve been living together in his hometown, the Vicious Shadow Pack. We’re mates, but we’ve never had the chance to be mated. He hasn’t even marked me over the past years that we’ve been destined by the moon goddess.

 

To him, I was merely a childhood lover.

 

He was the one who set me free from the trauma that was caused by my parents’ consistent abuse. Since the day that I was born, I’ve always been treated like a monster by my parents, Alpha Clayton and Luna Ciara of the Mystic Moon Pack.

 

I don’t know what would’ve happened to me if I met Jaxton at least a day later.

 

But that’s all in the past now.

 

"I-I’m sorry, I had a dream… a scary dream." I tugged up my legs together, then embraced them as I buried my face on my scraped knees. "It was the same dream where you kept on ordering me to kill our child," I added.

 

Jaxton chuckled like a demonic beast. "That’s not a dream, bastard."

 

My eyes widened in shock as I tilted my head upward to check if he was only kidding around when he called me a bastard. His deadly glare gave me chills.

 

"Y-you don’t seem like the Jaxton who promised to make me his luna anymore. D-do you still love me?" I asked. My voice completely cracked when I thought his answer would be 'no’.

 

Jaxton went directly in front of me with one of his knees knelt to the ground. His huge hand instantly reached the back of my head, where he pulled my hair. "You don’t have the right to talk about love, slut." He began to place more of his brute strength on his dominant hand. "You couldn’t mate with me, and yet you had the audacity to satisfy your heating phase with another man?"

 

I bit my lower lip to let the pain in my head subside. "How many times do I have to tell you that it was a misunderstanding?!" I unconsciously raised my tone, which only made him more agitated.

 

It’s true that it’s not what he thought it was. I would never dare give my first to someone who’s not blessed to be my mate.

 

I was literally sick to death when my friend brought me over to his hotel room that night. 

 

We planned to meet up, as he's scheduled to train me how to properly wield a sword since I wasn't knowledgeable enough. I had to prove my worth to the head of Snow Academy, and Xavier was the only person I could rely on, considering how skilled their pack was with those.

 

And before I was able to demonstrate what he taught me, I passed out on his bed. 

 

My friend, Xavier, was a mortal that belonged to the Scarlet Edge Pack. He was the one who called Jaxton over to his place, believing that Jaxton would be worried about me.

 

But when Jaxton arrived, he saw how Xavier was replacing my silky dress, which got dirtied over the training grounds.

 

Jaxton stood up without letting go of the strands of my hair. I prevented myself from flinching until he stopped walking as soon as he reached the balcony of our room. He intentionally lifted me to its edge, which let the cold breeze of the wind brush through my bare skin. 

 

"Say that you’ll abort that child right now," he said with an authoritative voice at the same time that he slapped the shit out of me, which made me sob.

 

"No!" My tone was a bit hoarse. "Beta! Delta!" I kept on screaming in hopes that someone among the pack would notice what their Alpha was doing to me.

 

It was a futile effort, as no one bothered to check on us, despite the huge mass that I sensed just outside our room.

 

Isn’t there anyone left who can save me?

 

One wrong move, and I’ll seriously die. Even with quick healing from the pack’s doctor, there’s no way that I’d survive a fall from a place this high.

 

He placed his other hand on my neck, then pressed his fingers on it. As I was struggling to breathe, I still tried to pull both of his hands away from me. 

 

How did I even expect that he’d make me his luna if I was this weak? Jaxton’s not even using fifty percent of his power.

 

"J-Jaxton, stop… You’re going to get me and the child killed with your own hands." I begged for our lives to be spared as the lower part of my body had turned numb; I could barely sense my feet.

 

I'm about to lose consciousness.

 

"That child’s death doesn’t concern me. Even if it dies inside your belly, I wouldn’t even shed a tear," he said with a straight face.

 

I took a deep breath. "Would you still be able to say the same thing if you knew that you’re really the father of this child whom you want to be gone?"

 

His slow gulps didn’t escape my vision.

 

I knew it. Jaxton’s not fully convinced yet if he’s actually related to this unborn child or not. I’m certain that his own emotions were playing with him, and only his wolf was the one who knew the truth.

 

The alpha loosened his grip on my neck, which set me free. I coughed numerous times as I finally got the chance to catch my breath. Jaxton had his eyes fixed on the ground, probably thinking twice about the decision that he was forcing me to make.

 

I unconsciously stepped forward to cup his cheeks in both of my palms. I saw the way his black eyes turned gold. His wolf is probably reacting to my touch, and Jaxton’s serving as the hurdle. 

 

"If you still love me deep inside, I’m begging you to take back what you’ve been telling me to do these previous weeks. It’s not too late yet to start anew together with our child, Jaxton…"

 

My hand moved on its own, gently trailing the back of his head until it reached his nape, which I tenderly caressed. Jaxton tightly gripped my hand out of the blue, like he had the intention to break all of my bones. The only thing that I could do was wince in divine pain.

 

"Love? Starting anew? What the fuck are you blabbering about?" Jaxton hysterically laughed, with one of his hands covering half of his face. "I hate you, Charlene. I never needed you in my life, and I’m absolutely disgusted by the mere fact that you’re my first mate. I should’ve rejected you right from the beginning."