Chapter 8

DarkBeauty357

The sun was shining brightly in my room. Even though my eyes were closed, I could feel the pressure that signaled it was morning. I needed to remember to close my blinds next time. I stretched out my arms and attempted to move my feet, but a heavy object weighed them down. I pouted and sat up. It definitely wasn’t Logan because he was on the floor sleeping, instead, it was Alec. When did he get in here? I knew for a fact that I went to bed alone last night. Alec was curled up at the bottom of my bed and his head rested on my feet.

“Alec?” I nudged his shoulder. He didn’t move, but he started twitching. I wiggled my feet to wake him up. “Alec! Get up.”

Suddenly, Alec jumped out of bed with glowing eyes. I leaped to my feet, startled, because of the sudden movement. Within seconds, Alec harshly pinned me to the wall and snarled. His glowing eyes triggered fear inside of me. His grip on my arms became extremely painful.

“WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER!” Alec yelled.

“What?” I asked confused. Was he even in control of himself?

“Fuck you, Crow! I WILL KILL YOU!”

“Alec! What the fuck is the matter with you! You are hurting me!” I yelled. From the look in his wolf’s eyes, he didn’t even recognize me. “Snap out of it!” I pushed him away from me with my feet.

Alec stalked closer to me, but before he could do anything, Damon burst into the room with werewolf speed. He pinned Alec up against the wall by his throat and they both growled at each other. I stared wide-eyed at them. “Alec! Get in control of yourself. That’s your mate!” Damon nodded over my way. Alec’s glowing eyes met mine, I stared into his glowing eyes as he stared into my green orbs. I visibly saw Alec relax and his breathing calmed as he stopped struggling against Damon’s hold on his neck. Whatever happened with him scared the shit out of me, but it wasn’t over because his wolf was still in control.

“Let go of me!” Alec growled.

“No. You need to calm down buddy, give us Alec back.” Damon talked to Alec’s wolf.

“Fuck you.”

“Lucian. You need to go calm down.” Damon said. Alec closed his eyes and reopened them. He glanced my way before he ran out of my room with such speed and force that my door slammed shut.

“What the hell?” I whispered and looked out my window. I saw Alec shift in the front yard, then he ran into the forest. I glanced at my aching arms and realized there were black and blue bruises. “What was that?”

“Um, I have a lot of explaining that might make some sense.” Damon sighed while running his hand through his hair. We walked out of my room to go to the kitchen.

“Is Lucian his wolf?” I asked referring to Alec.

“Yes. A very confused, angry, and twisted wolf.” Damon answered as we sat on the barstools. “He won’t be back for a couple hours.”

“What even was that? Alec didn’t even recognize me. He even called me Crow.” I asked.

“I can tell you a couple things, but not all. The rest you’ll have to get from him one day, but I can tell you what you need to know.” Damon offered.

“That’s the same thing Rem said about the war. Why can’t you tell me whatever it is that you know? How many times do I have to tell you guys I am his mate!” I was getting aggravated. Regardless of the fact that I’m not a wolf anymore, he was once my mate.

“Because Leah, I’m not even supposed to know myself. He was drunk one night and all he told me was some stories of when he was tortured during the war. That’s all. I imagine you would want him to tell you that on his own time because it is very graphic.” Damon said.

“I can see your point,” I said. I knew he was tortured due to losing his eyesight, but I didn’t know all the anguish he went through. All I saw was his scars. The aftermath of what happened to him.

“But I can tell you this. He does have PTSD.” Damon spoke.

“Post Traumatic Stress Disorder?” I asked. I knew some information about the psychiatric disorder due to my Uncle Jared. I knew that his pack went to war a couple of years ago because his younger sister was killed in front of him.

“Yes, Do you know what it is?” He asked.

“Yes, but I never noticed it from him before. He was just abusive a lot. That’s all.” I told him.

“Many people handle PTSD a lot differently. Statistically speaking, Domestic Abuse is more common in a relationship if the significant other has PTSD.” Damon stated.

“So his PTSD made him lash out on me all the time?” I tried to comprehend all of this.

“Well, it makes sense if you think about it. For example, he told me what the alpha did to him, the one that took his eyesight away when they went to war. Alec felt powerless, and any alpha hates feeling powerless. When Alec finally escaped he craved power, and Domestic Abuse is about having power over your significant other.” Damon explained.

“So in order to have that power, he became abusive,” I whispered.

“Exactly. I’m not saying this to justify what he did to you. Ultimately that was wrong, but maybe it could help you understand why he did it.”

“Do you know when was Alec was diagnosed with PTSD?” I asked.

“A couple months after the war, that’s what Alice told me. Honestly, I’ve heard stories from how bad and traumatized he acted after the war, and he acted the exact way after you died. I think it only made it worse for him.”

“Does the pack know about me dying?”

“No, from what I heard everyone still believes he is mateless. His actions didn’t help that either.”

“What was the name of the Alpha that took his eyesight? Wait- What do you mean his actions didn’t help that?”

“His name was Crow. After you died, he went through women left and right.”

“Ew. Are you serious!” I gasped in horror.

“Every guy handles heartbreak differently. You did technically die.”

“Are you defending him!” I crossed my arms.

“No, I’m snitching on his ass,” Damon smirked and I chuckled a bit. “On the bright side, when the pack meets you, I think they’ll be pleased.”

I blushed at his compliment. “I hope they will like me.” I wasn’t sure how they would react to not having a wolf as a Luna, if they ever found out, but as long as my scent was masked they wouldn’t know. “Wait, I already met the pack before. Once during a tournament.” I remember that was the first week I arrived at his pack.

“When was that?”

“Like the first week I was at his pack. So about a year ago.” I answered.

“I don’t think they would notice.” Damon brushed it off.

“So does he have a lot of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder episodes?”

“Frequently yes, but I think that’s something a mate can fix.” Damon smiled. “Are you alright? You look a little pale.”

“Yes, I just need to be by myself for a while.” I went back up to my room. I opened my door and saw Logan sitting on my bed while he was wagging his tail. “Logan!” I squealed. He bolted up and jumped on me. I gladly played with him, until he started whining. “What’s wrong? You wanna go outside?” I asked. As soon as Logan heard that he instantly started to howl and whine louder. Before I took him out I needed to change. I pulled out my new pair of shorts and a tank top that Insuvai bought me. Then, I put the harness and leash on Logan.

As soon as Logan and I went outside, he immediately went to the bathroom. After that, I decided to go on a walk with him. I wasn’t mad at Alec because he was not in control, I just hope he could explain some things to me when I see him.

While walking through the forest in the summer heat, I came to a small clearing. The clearing led me into the middle of a modern village. I’ve only seen the village circle once and this time, many people were walking and carrying on with their normal daily activities. I wanted to get familiar with the pack lands, so I walked along the sidewalk with Logan

The houses were aligned in a row, but none of them were connected. All of them were various colors and different sizes. The houses are not small, but they weren’t as big as the Alpha house. The village houses were more like a size for a family. Beautiful women were talking amongst each other and the men were playing games with all the children. There were even dogs walking around freely. It felt like paradise.

“Are you new to the pack? I have not seen you before.” One polite woman asked. She had black shoulder length hair and a young boy clung to her side.

“Yes, I am. I arrived yesterday.” I told her politely.

“My name is Valerie. I think you’ll fit in perfectly. Just, whatever you do, don’t anger the Alpha.” She warned me.

I laughed and her eyes widened in surprise. “Have you meet him yet?” She asked with curiosity.

“Of course. He is my mate.” I told her and all the women stopped chattering on the porch. Everyone stopped and stared at me, including the men and children. Valerie’s eyes widened and she stepped back.

“My apologies Luna. I was not aware.” Valerie trembled. Perhaps they did not expect me to be a nice person, after all, they probably feared me because Alec was my mate. Everyone thought I would probably be like him when I was the complete opposite.

“There is no need for formalities. I prefer to be called Leah.”

“I’m sure Alpha Knine wouldn’t appreciate that.” Valerie seemed to be nervous and scared.

“He’ll be fine.”

Valerie chuckled a little then her eyes widened with fear. She backed away and jogged up to the front porch. A warm arm slithered around my waist. My eyes snapped up to see Alec smiling softly. Whispers broke out between all the females, males, and children. I couldn’t hear what they said, but Alec let out a very small chuckle.

“This is my mate Leah, your Luna. We’ll have a ceremony next weekend, in the Ballroom, to accept her into the pack. I expect everyone to be there.” No one spoke as Alec talked so everyone was able to hear what he said.

“I need to speak with you,” Alec whispered in my ear.

“Okay. I need to speak with you too.” I replied.

He guided me back through the forest with his heavy arm. I couldn’t think of anything to say on the way back so I continued to look at everything but him. The birds resting on the trees, and the black squirrels savaging for food. I even spotted a deer grazing on grass.

“Wait. Hold him,” I said and gave Logan’s leash to Alec. I started to slowly walk through the woods. I was no longer on the path, so I had to be careful to not step on something that would make a noise and scare him off.

“Leah, he will run away. Deer don’t come to wolves.”

“I’m a special wolfy,” I told him.

I cautiously walked to the young buck. He was staring at me, not moving a muscle. “Don’t be afraid.” I soothed as I reached out to pet him. My brushed hand across his back and I looked back to smile at Alec.

He had confusion written on his face when he looked at me, but it quickly went away. “I’ve never seen a wolf get that close to a deer, except to eat one.”

I scowled, “Deer are friends, not food.”

“We should go now,” Alec said and looked at my deer. The deer looked back at him. As soon he locked eyes with Alec, he ran off.

I frowned, “I’m coming.” I watched the deer run off then retreated back to Alec.

~🖤~