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Chapter 016
Last Updated:
2024-08-05 00:05:37
VictoryAnne ViceThe chapters are currently up to date at this point. If you are reading this, you are seeing where I left off. More changes to come.
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The Alpha and the Rental Luna Chapter 017
[Sylvester]As she takes his hand and they walk up the stairs together, my stomach sinks and my heart feels like it has stopped. As I move towards the car, my leaden legs resist moving away from the place where I held her in my arms, the smell of our mixed scents calming me, relaxing something deep within. “We need to go get her,” Rufus insists. “She needs us.” “Maybe she doesn’t need us” I push back, “Maybe we are the ones who need her.”My phone rings. It’s the council. I don’t want to answer it, but I know that if I don’t they’ll make trouble for me one way or the other. Their message for me is brief, curt, and on the nose. They have a solution to all my problems. I just need to present myself IMMEDIATELY to receive their justice. Well damn. Calling Rudy, I asked him to pick me up and to bring the file he prepared earlier today. "We need to convince them that Apple is our best option," I explain.Rudy sends a car and the ride is silent as I make my way back to Sterling Inc. I'm
Last Updated : 2024-08-06The Alpha and the Rental Luna Chapter 018
[Apple]I couldn't sleep thinking about the look of dejection on the werewolf's face. Why should I care how he feels. He means nothing to me. He's just a potential employer with an overactive possessive streak. When I finally crawl out of bed the next morning, Hazel is already awake and is in an overly happy mood. “I taste change in the air,” Hazel announces as she enters the kitchen and pours herself a cup of coffee. “Can you feel it?”Oddly enough I can. As the Autumn winds blow through our open window they feel electric, alive with possibilities. Today is my first full day of classes. Classes I wouldn't have been able to attend if it wasn't for the Alpha's generosity. As Hazel walked me from class to class, making sure that I "wouldn't get lost," we discussed the night before. "Werewolves can be funny, sometimes, about the people they chose to protect," she explains. "I know it might not seem like it, but I think the alpha might care about you."How can the alpha have any type
Last Updated : 2024-08-06The Alpha and the Rental Luna Chapter 019
[Apple]The Alpha is looking at me like something sweet to eat and I find it very unnerving. As he approaches, I take an involuntary step backward and his eyes go from smoldering to sad in a blink. "You're hurt," his tone is soft, almost gentle. The deep bass of his voice rumbles through me, soothing my frazzled nerves."Why are you here?" I question him. "I was invited," he says nonchalantly as if the answer should be obvious. "No, I mean in this bathroom." I point towards the door. "It's a women's bathroom."He shrugs. "You are hurt. Besides, it's just you and me. I made sure to lock the door."I gulp. I'm locked in a bathroom, bleeding, with no way to escape.He takes another step forward and my back hits the wall my heart beating rapidly. He could do whatever he wanted to me and nobody would know. I'm so insignificant, he could get rid of the body and it wouldn't matter."You shouldn't be here," I glare at his smug expression and his fancy suit. "Your date is probably wondering
Last Updated : 2024-08-07The Alpha and the Rental Luna Chapter 020
[Sylvester]"Alexis," I close the door behind me, shielding Apple from view. "Why are you hiding in the women's bathroom," she raises her eyebrow before leaning in closely. "And why do you smell like someone else's blood?""I don't need to explain myself to you," I push myself into her space using my Alpha energy to make her take a step back. "I am Alpha. You aren't even my Luna." "Yet," she challenges me, meeting me eye to eye. "But I know you need me, Sylvester. My uncle brought me back because you're so desperate." She flashes a little fang as she licks her lips, pressing her chest against mine. "I don't know why you are fighting me. I know you want me, Sylvester. We work so well together. Just think of what we could do if we just combined our strengths." My heart thumps in remembered pain. I loved her once, and once, her please would have been enough to make me want her again.Once.But now, it just reminds me of everything I lost. Growling, I push her away from me. "Know your
Last Updated : 2024-08-07The Alpha and the Rental Luna Chapter 021
[Apple]Alpha Sylvester turns me away from the lights of the party down a quiet street. The moon is rising to the east, full and bright, over the hillside dotted with expensive homes. In the quiet of the moonrise, he goes over his situation, telling me his dilemma. The council is forcing him to get married. Having a Rental Luna is no longer good enough. He wants to change the offer, to change the original contract.Alpha Sterling needs a fiance."So are you asking me to be your girlfriend?" I question him, not quite understanding what it is he is asking for. "Your pretend fiance.""Yes," he confirms. "There would still be the contract between us. I need it to be on record that you were my Rental Luna, to confirm our backstory but..." I'm still confused. "Why me? Wouldn't a real wolf be a better option in this case?"He shakes his head. "I want you for the same reason I wanted you to begin with. You aren't demanding anything of me, you don't want to be my wife or my mate. This is jus
Last Updated : 2024-08-08The Alpha and the Rental Luna Chapter 022
[Apple]"No," Rufus, his wolf, replies. "It has to be you. It must be you." "Why?" I ask his wolf directly. "Why does it have to be me? What makes me so special?""Because you are you, and you smell like home." He takes a step closer and I find myself mesmerized as he stalks me, his movements more graceful and dancelike, edged in promised passion. "You taste like trust, and you look at me with eyes that are full of respect and honor." "Your words are very pretty," I blush. My body reacts strongly to Sylvester's charms and his wolf, with his confidence and passion, is even more irresistible. "But I need more than pretty words to keep me safe."The way his body makes me hum when he looks at me with his shining eyes frightens me. I know he is hunting me, even now as he is speaking to me calmly. I am prey to him. Something to use or consume. "I will keep you safe. You are mine and nobody touches what is mine," he growls. "Sylvester is too stubborn to admit it, but you are the one we nee
Last Updated : 2024-08-08The Alpha and the Rental Luna Chapter 023
[Apple]"A date," I say a little louder than I intended. A few people turn to look, but then smile and go back to their pizza. "Like a date, date?" "Well, yeah," he smiles, touching my hands without holding them, uncertain of his welcome. "I like you and I'd like to get to know you better." My mind immediately flashes to Rufus, Sylvester's wolf, and the way his eyes glowed when he said I was his and that I belonged to him. The last time I spent time with Thorne, the Alpha nearly took his head off and we had been with a group of other people. It didn't matter to him, however, he had sensed that Thorne might want more than just to be friends.But can I trust Thorne any more than I can trust Sylvester? "I don't know if that's a good idea," I explain as I move my hands away from his. Yes, Thorne is handsome and kind, and maybe I feel a bit of a pull towards him as well, but that doesn't mean I want to be involved with him. I have enough on my plate with a jealous alpha breathing down
Last Updated : 2024-08-08The Alpha and the Rental Luna Chapter 024
[Sylvester]The Board of Directors is unhappy that I reprimanded Alexis at the gala. "If she is to be your Luna, you will need to handle your private issues in private. What you did was an insult to the other packs as well as Silver Crescent."I was ordered to "play nice" and "make a good show.""I have no interest in mating, marrying, or marking that bitch," I scream loud enough that a few employees passing my office windows jump. "Just take her out to lunch and make sure the cameras see you," Beta-Emertis Clancy insists, "You haven't officially declared anyone your new Luna. Rental Lunas don't count, not unless your relationship shifts to something more meaningful." His sneering tone oozes through the phone. I wish he was here so I could punch his canines in. "Unless you were planning to propose to your Rental Luna? Where has she been by the way? She has been noticeably absent.""She needs some private time to adjust to the pack," I lie smoothly. It isn't a total lie. I intend to br
Last Updated : 2024-08-09
Latest chapter
The Alpha and the Rental Luna Chapter 108
[Apple]I should have known he’d be the one who would find me first. Of all the wolves in Crescent City, he has always been the one looking out for me. From the very beginning our bond has been strong.He really is the very best Beta a pack could have.“Luna,” Rudy gasps, doing his best to bow while holding his side as he leans against a wall. “Thank Goddess I found you!” Stepping out of the shaddows of the alleyway, the first thing I notice is that Crescent City has changed. Since stepping through the portal to arrive in my great-grandmother's shop, I've spent all my time back here underground in Haven. Haven, if anything seems even more bustling than normal, full to the brim with witches wanting to keep their families safe with the disaster happening live on TV. But here on the surface, everything is unnaturally quiet and still. The shop fronts are abandoned, stuck in a state of unchanging, forever trapped in sales from last month. The streetlights are blinking red and a few pie
The Alpha and the Rental Luna Chapter 107
[Apple] No. I can't breathe. There is no way that anyone in that room is going to survive. I'm going to be a widow before I have a chance to be a wife. The wolves holding whips jump to the front of the line at first, swinging like mad until one by one they begin to fall, and the remaining defenders, afraid for their own lives, turn tail and run in the opposite direction. But the cowards soon discover that all of the exits are barred, the bodies of the living dead, wandering, mindless rogues poisoned by some drug, push at every door and window. The courtroom is like a box of cookies, and the rogues already have their hands inside. It's only a matter of time before they are all consumed by those wolves' insatiable hunger. "This is April McKaine coming live to you from the courthouse," the frazzled reporter whispers into a camera whose cameraman has either fled or fallen. The camera is tilted to the side as she hides under a bench, her fine white suit blemished with dirt and bl
The Alpha and the Rental Luna Chapter 106
[Sylvester]The sting of Chancy's whip burns more than just my body--it sets fire to my mind, searing my soul as I fall into memories from an almost forgotten moment of my childhood. [18 years ago]We were a small collective, just twenty wolves. No alpha and no lands, so we couldn't be called a pack. We were all rejects, wolves that didn't fit anywhere else, so we were forced to wander from pack to pack, begging for whatever charity they might have. For lack of a better term, we were rogues. My mother tried her hardest to make the best of things but I could see it wearing her down. My father had been her fated mate, as unfortunate as that was for her because he was an alpha and could afford to reject her. She, on the other hand, couldn't handle the separation, and while she kept up a brave face for me, after three years away from our pack, a place I can't even remember, she had withered, her omega body unable to handle the strain of a broken connection. So like many of the other ro
The Alpha and the Rental Luna Chapter 105
[Apple] Every day I watch my mate dragged into that courtroom and placed on that podium, center stage in a ridiculous farse of a fair trial. Sylvester never stood a chance of defending himself. His fate was sealed before he stepped foot in that room. Despite Sly Sterling being a werewolf, all of Haven is watching the proceedings with bated breath, and while there have been some comments about how the wolf "deserves whatever foul future he receives," there are more voices saying "His mate is one of us and he stood by her." When I walk around town, people recognize my face from the proceedings and bow in reverence. The girl who is a witch and dared to love the Alpha King--Granddaughter of the Coven Mistress and a Thorpe! Such a prestigious background with such powerful allies. In a way, he's become a bit of a hometown hero. One of Crescent City's own defending the rights of all of us, not just wolfkind. "It's time," Thorne, turns on the television. The screen focuses on a
The Alpha and the Rental Luna Chapter 104
[Alexis]I've been trying to keep him safe, and still, he chooses her. That weak, sniveling, useless girl. She doesn't know how to be a Luna, she hardly knows how to take care of herself. What is the use of having so much power at your disposal if you cannot use it as it is intended?I can't let my uncle see the rest of this footage. "Erase it," I tell my old delta, "Wipe the record clean. Nobody should see this...ever. Do you understand?""Yes Luna," he bows, still loyal after all these years away. "As you command."I have given Uncle Chancy an edited version of the tape from the clinic where the botched procedure created the opportunity we needed to finally topple Sylvester. The footage shows Apple strapped to the table. It shows her idiot human boyfriend demanding that she be cut without anesthesia. Fool. If he had just been more patient, and let things happen as they should, she wouldn't have awakened. The light that shone from her immediately grew so bright that it blinded the
The Alpha and the Rental Luna Chapter 103
[Sylvester]The first day of the trial was long and ardorus. I am exhausted mind, body, and soul. Several alphas came forward, each with their own evidence against me. The first, of course, was Clancy, who presented the case, standing up in court declaring he had proof of my guilt, that I've broken my bond as Alpha. His testimony was followed by the head of Rental Luna and the Alpha from Arc de Lune. All saying the same thing. "Alpha Sterling forced us to lie. His Luna isn't a real wolf." My status as Alpha is tenuous at this point, awaiting the end of the trial. Although nobody in the courtroom doubts the conclusion--I will soon be a rogue again. The march back to my cell was solemn. The room that they placed me in was in the basement of the city center, where all the criminals were housed as they awaited trial. Due to my status, the guards shoved me into the corner cell, one that looked more like a room and less like bars and bricks. "For privacy, " the guard explains, "Due to yo
The Alpha and the Rental Luna Chapter 102
[Apple]“What is it, child?” Araminta stands, setting the book down beside me. “Calm yourself and come in. Tell us what it is.”Thorne walks across the room and removes a decorative piece of fabric on a high shelf to reveal an old TV covered in dust with a small remote control on the platform next to it. As he presses the small silver button we all stand back. Slowly the screen comes into focus. We don’t need to search to find what we are looking for because what we need to see is on every channel. A trial, not just any trial, but according to the news “The biggest trial since the War Crimes Tribunal” after the Witch Wars. A small, mousy blonde with large eyes and a larger mouth dominates the screen as she gazes directly into the camera. She is wearing a yellow suit dress that contrasts brightly against the cool gray marble of the Moon River City Courthouse, her hair pulled back from her face in a tight bun. On her hand is a large ring, signifying her pack status as a Luna. Very lik
The Alpha and the Rental Luna Chapter 101
[Apple] The dusty old tome creaks as the old witch opens its worn, leather spine. "As Coven Mistress," she pauses to explain, that as the elder-most witch in the collective, she is the one the rest turn to in times of need. "I keep track of the lineages, or what's left of them since the war. Before we started killing one another, wolves and witches intermarried and raised families together in large, joint communities. At our core, we witches and wolves aren't so much a different species but two sides of the same coin, genetic siblings. It wasn't so uncommon once for witches to be born with a second form, or wolves with the ability to cast marvelous spells." The nostalgia in her eyes has me wondering again just how old she really is. How long do witches live? Is it that much longer than humans? "But then things started to change," the old witch sighs. "As they always do. We didn't need places like Haven, and they didn't always live in massive packs--that's something that came later.
The Alpha and the Rental Luna Chapter 100
[Apple]"I miss him." Blinking awake, I stare up into the faces of my friends, Hazel and Thorne, who look at me with a mixture of relief and deep concern before looking up at one another and sharing the non-verbal communication of expressions and gestures I've grown familiar with after being around the twins for so long. They're both worried about me. Not just worried, terrified. How much did they see? Do they know that I tore those men apart?"Apple, how do you feel," Hazel places a tentative hand on my forehead, her cold knuckles tapping me gently as she checks for a fever. Everything hurts. My hands, my back, my legs, and my heart. I tell them as much and their worried expression deepens. Hazel looks over my shoulder and I turn to see Araminta standing at a cauldron like a classical witch, mist billowing around her shoulders as she stirs something hot in a deep cast iron pot. Seeing me watching her, the corners of her eyes crinkle as the light twinkles off a pair of half-moon s
