Don't Poke the Luna (Xena and Ryder) novel Chapter 116

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Don’t Poke the Luna

Chapter 116

“What did your father do?” Dad continued.

“Um, he died when I was little, but my mom said he was a warrior, Viola answered, finally lowering her hands to fold them in her lap, head still bowed. I could sense her measuring every movement, afraid of doing anything wrong.

“Did you know that Darkthorn destroyed Xena’s shop last week?” Alpha Benedict asked, pointing at me.

“Um… I…” She started trembling again, glancing at me.

I got up and walked to stand in front of her. Deep inside, I felt sympathy for her situation, but also a touch of impatience. She needed to learn to live here, and that meant she needed to stop being in this constant state of overwhelming fear.

“Viola, look at me,” I crouched down, making myself lower than her eye level. Viola obeyed, looking at me. Her eyes were watery, like those of a frightened fawn.

“I want you to ignore these men,” I said. There was some uncomfortable movement behind me, and I knew I’d just irritated Alpha Benedict. “It’s just you and me, okay? You’re safe here. You won’t be punished for anything you say. No one here will raise a hand to you. I promise you won’t get in trouble for telling us anything. You’re Leonard’s mate, which makes you one of us. We take care of each other. You never have to go back there,” I placed my hand on hers.

Viola watched me speak. She really absorbed every word I said, relaxing slightly. I watched as the fear in her eyes gradually receded, replaced by a small glimmer of hope.

“Okay,” she said softly.

“Please tell me what you know about my shop being destroyed.”

“I… I was cleaning the bathroom. Alpha Tatum and Alpha Wiley walked by, and they were talking about who would be chosen as Alpha Tatum’s mate. They don’t believe in destined mates. If you’re not who they want, they reject you. Well, actually, I don’t know if he rejected her. We could hear screams from his bedroom every night. We weren’t allowed to enter his room. We haven’t seen her since he found her. Alpha Tatum… he told his father he liked you. He wanted to make you submit to him.”

Tears filled her eyes again, and nausea rose in my throat. My stomach churned with disgust, a cold anger spreading through me. But I struggled to remain calm, not wanting to frighten Viola.

“Did you hear anything else?” I asked, keeping my voice steady.

“No, once they realized I was there, they…”

“It’s okay, you don’t have to tell us,” I said. “So no females had ranks there?”

“No, not even Alpha Wiley’s mate. She was the only one who didn’t have to clean. She was in charge of making sure we finished our work. She was beaten every day just like us. If we failed, we were punished, and so was she.”

“I see. Do you know Penelope here?” I asked, looking toward Penelope.

Viola followed my gaze and nodded. “She’s Alpha Logan’s mate.”

That’s right. I’m Logan’s sister. I grew up with Logan and Leonard. Penelope has been my assistant for years. She has the sweetest soul. Penelope is learning her role as Luna, and your new role will be the female version of Leonard. Currently, he is the Gamma. That makes you the Female Gamma. In their pack, females hold the same rank as their mates, and vice versa. However, I think Logan and everyone would agree with me that you need some time to adjust to our way of doing things.*

Chapter 116

“For the first few months, I want you to do whatever you want to garden or help at the orphanage, do that. Your only job is to learn take a lot of patience and trial and error, but there’s a reason he v woman to knock some sense info him.”