Prologue

The Silver moonlight gleamed on her already fair enough skin making it shine like a star itself, and she looked more beautiful than ever. 

In the murky darkness of the night and the dim sheen of the moon, they promised each other through their eyes not to think about anything else but the affection they had for each other. 

She managed to smile slightly under his passionate gaze, his hands lifted her and made her sit on his lap. 

Her bare back smashed with his hard chest, sending shivers down her spine. She bit her lower lip in the realization that he was the Alpha King, the descendent of the Moon Goddess so his body would be as hard as wood.

He glided his finger down to the only clothing stuck on her private parts and her skin met to the chilly winds. 

The desire emboldened in both of their bodies and hearts, she forgot her anguish under his touch as he caressed her back and shoulder by his fingers and then, his lips. 

Her head fell backward on his shoulder in pleasure, giving him more access to her body to trace every inch of her neck along with her jaw. 

"You're so beautiful, Harriet." He whispered in her ear and licked her lobe of the ear before gently nibbling on it. His hands grabbed the perfect rounded mounds in his broad palms and she moaned, "Ah-mmm". 

She felt his hard nipples brushing against her back and the only thought of licking it made her wet. He groaned when he smelled her aroused scent, he twirled her to look into her beautiful hazel eyes. 

She lowered her head, not having enough courage to look into her mate's eyes. She knew the consequence of mating with him but her wolf couldn't resist their mate making love to her. 

Her wolf reprimanded her for thinking of leaving him, she blocked her barrier and decided to tell the truth to her mate, the Alpha King.

"Alpha..." 

He circled his arms around her hips, pulling her closer. "Don't address me as Alpha, Harriet. Call me Arthur, call me anything else that you would have called your mate." 

"But you are the Alpha King, not an ordinary werewolf, My Lord." She didn't raise her head, the tingling feeling of his hands cupping her naked waist and hips was too much to remain in control. 

"I'm Alpha King for everyone else out there, but not for my mate. If you're calling me Alpha, you're hurting me." His heart stung whenever she called her Alpha, he was the ruthless Alpha King, but for once, his heart wanted to be the most gentle and loving man to his mate only.

The fear of him in her eyes broke his heart, he didn't want to see fear in his mate's eyes. He dreamed of seeing love, passion, and desire in her innocent eyes. 

His wolf wanted nothing but to worship their mate's body until dawn. He was restless since he found her sweet pine scent, it was being tougher each day to resist her for both of them. 

As soon as the war with rogues ended, his wolf insisted on going to the north lake behind the raspberry cliff with their mate. 

Arthur shifted into his wolf form and carried Harriet on his back to the lake, knowing she couldn't run faster enough to match his pace. 

"I'll never want to hurt you, Arthur." His name from her raspy voice aroused him more. She was so insecure about her being, she thought that she would never be good enough for her mate to keep him with her forever. 

There was a mystery about her forefather that made her insecure, apprehensive, and hopeless to ever find love. 

"The moment I saw you at your pack's Alpha's wedding, I wanted to…" he couldn't say that he wanted to take her right there behind the tree, it would frighten her more and he would seem like a satyr to her. 

She raised her head to find guilt or anger in his eyes. "To reject me?" The words escaped her mouth and the next moment she found his wolf's golden eyes flashing in, his eyebrows arched in fury.

"Why on earth would I reject my mate? Do you want to reject me? It makes sense, that's why you chose to stay in a different chamber after coming to our pack." The sharp pain stung in his heart as he evaluated the possibilities of the reasons for her staying away from him. "You never wanted me, did you?" 

The only thing he wanted was to love his mate and here, his mate didn't even want him. This could be the thing only if she had a lover already, he thought, and he was ready to kill him as a monster as he was. 

Her fingers couldn't resist him anymore, her wolf was ready to take over her and love their mate, she cupped his cheeks before meeting his nosogenic eyes, the fear of losing her flashing through his jade green eyes. 

"I want you but you won't, I will never reject you but you will," she said, her gaze falling to his lips once before lowering her head to the surface. 

He held her chin high and his lips grazed her throat along the skin of her shoulder, something changed his mind so he stopped and rested his head on her shoulder, in her hair, inhaling her scent to calm him down. 

His lips parted and brushed against her ear, she felt him breathing heavily but she knew that it wasn't her, it was the effect of mating bond, pretty ordinary among werewolves. "I will never…"

The moon's silhouette in the lake flamed around them, the sound of rustling dry leaves and cool wind didn't subside the voice of their heavy breathing.  

"Harriet, I'll never reject you. I want to cherish you, love you, keep you beside me forever. Trust me, I hate seeing you scared of me," he trailed her jawline, sparks between them on its vastest. 

Giving a small peck on her nose, he rested his head on hers. "I'm not afraid of you, I'm scared of my curse, a curse that can never let us be together." Her eyes glinted with strength, seeing his soul directly through his eyes. 

At that moment, he wanted to kiss her so passionately that all her fears would be substantiated irrelevant because he could fight against anything or anyone for her. Let it be a curse rather than a lover, then, he thought.  

"I know that you can't reject me because you're the descendent of the Moon Goddess and no one has rejected their mates in the history of your family but I won't be able to give you an heir to your throne," she stated and bit her lower lip to fight with the tears which were brimming in her eyes. 

His thumb pulled on her lip to make her stop doing that. The tears burned her cheeks, she couldn't bear it. 

An heir to his position was something that would be any other King's primacy. But it didn't lessen the worth of his mate for him. 

"Harriet, my dear, even if I wouldn't have been a descendent of the Moon Goddess, I wouldn't have rejected you for it." He kissed her cheeks to taste the saltiness of her pain, it brought tears into his eyes, too. 

The Alpha King who never shed a tear, not even when his grandfather was killed, was crying due to the pain of his mate. 

Before she could decipher the meaning of his words, the touch of his lips put her body on fire. She closed her eyes in relief, the curse was a mystery, she could never tell him about it even after living at his mansion. 

Now when she finally told him, she felt relieved and ecstatic. Her mate didn't reject her though she won't be able to give him an heir.  

He palmed her face, looking into her eyes. "I was thinking that you had a lover so you won't accept me as your mate." As soon as he finished, she chuckled at his foolish conclusion, he smiled, too. 

"You know, you look breathtaking when you laugh like this and I feel proud to be the reason for it," He said, and wasted no time in claiming her lips. 

She kissed him back with the same amount of passion and affection, making him groan. He nipped her lower lip to seek entrance into her mouth, she moaned and his tongue explored her delicious mouth, savoring the sweetness of her lips and mouth. 

His kiss left her breathless, she moaned in his mouth to catch a breath. He parted his lips from hers, discovering the marking spot between her neck and shoulder by his lips. 

He smiled against her delicate skin before bestowing wet kisses on it, her nails dug in his back as the sensations washed over her. His sharp fangs carved into her flesh, making her moan louder. "Mine," he growled after marking her. 

His lips craved the sweetness of her lips, a neuro-crying of an infant startled them before they could mingle beneath their desires. 

They shifted into their wolf forms and trotted in the direction from which the voice was appearing. The dry leaves created a roost on the ground, the intense moonlight devolved on the baby through the bough of an oak tree. 

Harriet looked around before shifting into her human form back and taking the baby in her lap, trying to shush that crying infant by singing a lullaby. "Aww, whose baby is this, why did her parents leave her alone in the woods?" 

"They must have been killed by rogues, the despotic rogues are up to something, they are killing many werewolves," Arthur said, walking to take a look at the baby who was sleeping peacefully now in Harriet's arms. 

His heart thawed at the scenario of his mate holding a baby, how happy she looked! He would never be able to give her that happiness. 

"Um, what will we do then? Can we-" her lips turned into a thin line, brows furrowed as she sighed. 

"Maybe she is the gift of the Moon Goddess for us, we would raise her, she'll be ours from now on." 

"Really?" Her eyes sparkled with hope and joy. 

Arthur closed the distance between their thirsty lips, giving her a small pack on lips. "Ain't I lucky? I got my mate's love and a beautiful gift from Moon Goddess in just one night. Her name will be Elara, she looks as lovely as moonlight." 

He stroked the baby's tiny head and kissed her forehead before going back to the conquest celebration and officially announcing Harriet as the pack's Luna Queen amongst the pack members, and Elara as their princess and the heir to the throne. 

All the pack members couldn't be happier than that occasion, they finally met their Luna Queen and a little princess. They gladly welcomed them, not even bothering to emphasize that their Luna Queen was just an Omega and their princess wasn't the real daughter of their King and Queen, but an orphan baby found in the woods.