Chapter Two: Trouble Comes In Pairs

Zira’s POV

I rubbed my temples as I tried to push back on the headache I felt coming. The past two days had passed in a blur of activity. Not only had I been ditched on my wedding day, but I had also gone from being the bride to the alpha to having to help his new bride get ready for their wedding.

I should have been hurt, angry, and somewhere away from the pack where I could get my emotions straight. Instead, father and Killian had tasked me with watching over their little, fragile Leah as she got used to living in our pack.

But deep down, I felt a bit of relief. Both families had carefully monitored the past eight years of my relationship with Killian, and although I had gotten used to loving him, the way he left me in a moment had been an eye-opener.

There was no way I could claim I knew a man that had not hesitated to push me aside just to rush toward his mate on our wedding day. More than that, since that day, Killian had treated me like air and had insisted on getting married to Leah two days from now. That was more than enough to convince me that there had been no deep-rooted love between us. At least on his part.

Now, my biggest challenge was acting like I was fine in front of their public display of love. It was also tiring, as Leah wanted a wedding three times larger than what I had planned for mine.

“How can you lose so much weight in two days?” Sandra exclaimed as she stood and quickly led me to the sofa. “You are even starting to have eye bags; just how little sleep have you been getting?” she asked, and I shrugged. The days had passed in a blur, and between waking up panting from my wedding nightmare and helping Leah run around the pack while she entertained me with her dreams of becoming the luna, I was nothing short of miserable.

Before I had a chance to answer Sandra, the door swung open, and Killian and Leah walked into the living room. Leah was sobbing, and Killian had his arms around her, doing his best to keep her under control.

As soon as Killian locked eyes with me, his expression turned stormy. He pulled away from Leah to meet me. “I know you are jealous about Leah becoming my wife and luna, which is understandable, but you can’t use such low methods to act against her.”

“Act against her?” My mind tried to think about what could have happened in the short time I had left her alone. It had barely been five minutes since she insisted on heading to see what a small crowd of people were doing. I had left her because I was so worn out and needed to come back and relax.

“Don’t act like you don’t know what you did!” he shot back and then released his alpha suppression. It pressed down on me like a huge rock.

“I did nothing bad to her!”

He scoffed, eyes filled with indignation. “How can you say you did nothing to her, regardless of anything we shared? Leah is my mate from the moon goddess. I’ll do anything possible to protect her,” he said, and I felt the urge to roll my eyes.

He had once said similar words to me, yet, when I needed his protection, he had turned his back on me like I didn’t matter.

“I don’t know what happened with you two,” I said, “but if leaving Leah alone for less than twenty minutes to get some rest means acting against her, you might want to get a guard for your mate, Killian!” I had never spoken to him like that before, but I was exhausted and infuriated at that moment.

Was I supposed to babysit her the whole day? In the past few days alone, Leah had already caused problems within the pack more than three times, forcing me to guide her actions.

Couldn’t she think at all?

Killian shot me a hard glare and stormed out of our house. As soon as the alpha suppression wore off, I let out a sigh of relief, even though I had dared to give him a reply. Years of being his girlfriend had been part of what fueled it, and even with that, my entire back was drenched in cold sweat.

“Sister,” Leah called out softly. She had remained silent during Killian’s attempt to shift responsibility for whatever she had done to me. Yet as soon as he was gone, she wanted to talk. Talk about what?

Thankfully, the door opened, and Dad rushed in, panting heavily. “You two get packing! We have to make an urgent trip to the capital now,” he yelled.

Capital?

“Is everything okay? Why are we suddenly going to the capital?” Going to the capital was not a trip that just anyone could take.

That was where the real royalty lived, and that included the Lycan king and his family. Most of the packs that stayed close to the capital had very strong and impressive wolves with powerful alphas.

On top of it, the capital was quite unsafe at the moment as the Lycan king had just passed away, which made the powers unstable.

“A new Lycan king is to be crowned,” my father replied impatiently. “We will be representing the pack with our attendance.” With that, he left.

“What’s dad saying?” Leah asked carelessly, still not standing up from where we were.

“That you should get your ass up and pack for a light trip,” I said, without waiting to see if she got the point. Then I went to my room to pack.

I was no stranger to journeys like these. Since I was chosen to be the next luna, Killian had been sending me on practice missions alongside him. Sandra followed me to my room, murmuring and scolding Leah and Killian every step of the way.

“Sandra, you’re unleashing so much unnecessary anger at them. I’ll be fine. I just need their wedding to be done, and I’ll be fine,” I told her, dragging out a travel bag.

“Are you sure? You’ve never really talked about it,” she said softly, and my heart melted at the deep concern in her eyes.

It was good to see that despite everything happening, there was someone who was still on my team, regardless. Few in the pack were since my supposed wedding day. There was a drastic difference between the treatment I received when people thought I would become the next luna to the treatment I received since that was no longer the case.

Now most of the pack went out of their way to get on Leah’s good side—unless she was crossing lines she shouldn’t cross. I didn’t blame them for that.

Within thirty minutes, I finished packing for about three to four days. For the crowning ceremony, I included the ball gown I had prepared as a change of clothes for my wedding day.

“You should use this eye mask so you don’t ruin the fame your beauty has given you,” Sandra joked as she passed me a gel-like eye mask. I threw it in my bag. I couldn’t afford to use it at the moment. My father had allotted little time for us to reach the capital city, and we had an hour drive ahead of us.

Dad was already there when we came downstairs. I sat across from him while Sandra made her way back home. Leah came down ten minutes later with a strap bag and nothing else. I looked around the room, wondering where her travel bag was.

“Leah, where’s your travel bag?” Dad asked, obviously sharing my feelings.

“Travel bag? Aren’t we coming back today?” Leah asked, and I felt like walking over to give her a smack. Hadn’t she heard when Dad said to pack our bags?

“We’ll spend about three days there, so pack enough,” Dad said and sat back.

“Three days? My wedding is in two days, and we have a trip for three days?” Leah shrieked as she shot me a gaze filled with accusations.

“Leah, you are already Luna,” Dad said in a patronizing manner. “The wedding is just the process, and going to the capital is one of the first signs to let the pack members know you are now Luna.”

“What of Killian? Is he coming?”

“No, he has something urgent to handle and will meet us there instead,” my father replied patiently, which was quite surprising as that wasn’t one of his strongest suits. But I guessed it could be when he wanted something.

“Then why is she going?” Leah asked a little harshly.

“Unlike regular pack members, you can’t afford to make even a single mistake. Otherwise, even the pack won’t be saved, so we have to make sure someone is escorting you,” he explained.

Oh great! Now I had to be an official escort.

Satisfied with his explanation, Leah gave me a look and then went back upstairs. She returned a few minutes later with a bag that appeared to be made for a month’s travel.

The trip to the capital was quick with no glitches, and Father said we arrived early enough to have dinner with the pack representatives before the next day’s crowning ceremony.

I sighed in relief as he handed me my room card. I had been worried that he would want us to pair together.

“Zira,” I heard a familiar and sickly sweet voice call out from behind me.

“Fuck! I thought my day couldn’t get any worse.”