Chapter 17: Chapter 17

“She’s coming with me,” Cahir enunciated his words to the room. Kade, Warren, Aristo, my father and I, listened as he spoke but the men of Silver Moon bristled with obvious indignation.

“Sihana is a member of my pack and I’m not releasing her to you,” Kade leaned back into his seat with a pronounced glare at Cahir. To my surprise, rather than get angry, Cahir smiled with a relaxed posture. My gaze bounced between him and his Beta. Aristo looked as confused as I did.

“You’re still trying to fight me for my mate.” Amusement sounded in Cahir’s tone as he stared at Kade with an unflinching expression.

“I told you –“

“Ahem!” My father cleared his throat with a sudden loudness that startled us all. No one had been paying any attention to him until he inserted himself into the conversation with a loud throat clearing.

When I looked at my father then, taking a good look at his features, I was surprised at what I saw.

His skin looked chalky with sunken eyes and huge, dark eye bags. He wrung his hands together and his usual put-together demeanour seemed to have fled, replaced by a man unsure of himself.

“Sihana is my daughter so I think I have a say in all this –“ He started but Cahir cut him off in a tone cold enough to freeze.

“You don’t.” Those words shut my father up in an instant.

Warren shared a look with my father as a secret conversation passed between them. The longer they spoke through mind link, the more wretched my father became while Warren reddened in the face as if he was going to explode.

“Alpha Cahir –“ Warren turned to my mate with a saccharine smile on his lips. It would always surprise me how fast this man’s expression could change. He could go from looking murderous to holy in the blink of an eye. “There are a lot of women in Silver Moon pack. How do you feel about us hosting a ceremony for you to meet someone – more befitting of your status?” He grinned at Cahir as if he was offering him a business deal too mouthwatering to be refused.

“Yes,” Cahir started with a cruel laugh, “A lot of women, something Alpha Blood knows nothing about.” He sneered.

“Excuse me. Excuse me!” Aristo leaned forward in his seat, his voice pitched high in a dramatic fashion. “Why in fucks name should my Alpha choose another woman when his mate is sitting right next to him?” In truth, I wasn’t sitting right next to Cahir, I was half atop him, my legs across his thighs.

The men of Silver Moon turned to my father. All these seemed too rehearsed. They spoke in turns as if they had concluded what needed to be said and who would say what before they called for this meeting.

Most of the people in the pack were still asleep as the ceremony of last night lasted into the early hours of this morning. Even I was still asleep when Cahir entered the room this morning to tell me my Alpha requested a meeting with him and he wanted me to be there. When I entered the room flanked on both side by Cahir and Aristo, it became clear to me that I hadn’t been invited.

Did these assholes really invite my mate to a meeting by nine a.m to try to get him to leave me!? I knew Kade was a possessive little shit who would try to hold on to me for as long as he could, but it made no sense for his father and my father to join him in trying to trap me here. They hated me and considered me a waste of space so they should be jumping for joy that I was leaving.

“Sihana is not cut out to be a Luna. As her father, I know her the best and I can assure you that she is not the woman you think she is. She is a weak and pathetic thing who clings to men with power to feel a bit of relevance in her life.” My father took a breath as he continued his speech. My eyes bulged out of their sockets as he continued to speak of a Sihana that wasn’t fit to be a Luna because she was a weak slut who ran after powerful men.

What the hell was this and why did my father feel the need to tell such lies against me? I had never been with anyone in my life and I sure as hell had never followed powerful men to feel relevance for myself! All I ever wanted in life was to please my father and my pack. When I realized I could never please people who hated me for situations I could not control, I started to dream of being free from them.

Who the hell cursed me with these kinds of people? Would I really be stuck in this pack? Did they hate me so much that they would not want me to find happiness with my mate after all they put me through?

“If she likes powerful men, she is in luck then, don’t you think?” Aristo asked with a predatory smile pulling at his lips. “She won’t find any man more powerful than Cahir,” he concluded.

“That’s not - That’s not what I meant!” My father’s pallid skin darkened to a deep red. “Don’t you think your Alpha deserves better than a woman who is only attracted to power!?” He snapped.

“The goddess is at work here!” Aristo called in a boisterous tone. “He mated a power-loving woman to a powerful man. It’s a perfect match if you ask me.”

The room went silent after that with my father opening and closing his mouth, trying to find words that weren’t forthcoming. A muscle ticked on Kade’s jaw as he rolled up his sleeve, his lips in a thin line and face red.

“She is not fit to be Luna,” Cahir said in a quiet voice that still managed to resonate around the large office that belonged to the Alpha. “Beta Markus, do you think I am stupid?” His deep baritone carried a slight growl as he turned his gaze to my father who stood stock-still “Alpha Cahir, perhaps we have offended you,” Warren jumped in with an easygoing smile on his lips. If I did not know Warren better, if I did not see the small and flitting look of distaste in his eyes before he smiled, I would assume he meant well for all of us sitting in his son’s office, but I knew Warren.

Kade and Felicity had such nasty attitudes because of this man but unlike their father, they never learnt to mask their unpleasant sides. Alpha Warren was the most pretentious man I had ever had the misfortune of meeting. He could feed a person poison while consoling them as they breathed their last, and then he would come out to proclaim he would care for their family after their demise.

If two-faced had a dictionary image, it would look like this man smiling at us.

“We are only trying to ensure the best for you,” Warren told Cahir. “You taking a mate from Silver Moon pack would be the utmost honour for us but it will be –“ He looked at me with a flat expression, “it will be a disgrace to us as a pack if one of us becomes your Luna and ruins everything you have worked so hard to achieve.”

“Kade, what do you want with my mate?” Cahir ignored Warren's sugar-coated insults at me.

“She’s not your mate!” Kade exclaimed with a ticking jaw.

“Yes, she is not my mate, she is yours.” The men in the room wore matching looks of surprise for a split second before they schooled their expressions. “She is not fit to be my Luna but she is fit to be yours?” Cahir snorted without humour. In fact, he seemed to be boiling with anger on the surface but looking at his face, he looked bored and uninterested.

Did I feel his emotions so candidly because of our proximity or was it possibly because of our mate bond?

“Only a foolish man would take a woman like Sihana to be his mate!” My father exclaimed, desperation ringing in his tone and shining in his eyes.

“Beta Markus –“ Aristo’s words held a tone of warning.

“Yes, only a stupid Alpha would take a healer as his mate.” My eyes widened. “You want to keep the healer in your pack, don’t you?” He smiled a smile that chilled me to my bones.

By the look on their faces, he was right.

Fuck! How did they know!?