Alpha’s Rue: His Shunned Luna (Athena Enchanted) novel Chapter 98

Chapter 98

AELIANA

I have a headache.

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I’ve woken up with a headache over the last couple of days, and it doesn’t seem to be going away today or tomorrow. I’ve had the same headache for three days now. Every time that I wake up, I feel like the house is swallowing me whole, but what’s strange is I’ve not had any recurring nightmares, I’ve been sleeping well, but I don’t dream either, except for the moment in which I told Kingston that I hated him, that lie has haunted me.

He believed me. He hasn’t tried to come close to me since then, but we do talk. We’ve had conversations, both of us pretending that night didn’t happen. But it did, and my chest hurts a little every time that I hear them whispering about how we argued and fucked in the hallway.

Sometimes, when I stare up at my ceiling, I see memories of my life in Clinshore. I miss that, I compare it with the life the moon goddess thrust me into, and I wonder what was so worth it about it in her eyes that she made me give the little joy I’d known over the last couple of years.

I stare at myself in the mirror before I head down to breakfast, I’ve decided to stop eating in my room, it’s about time I face the life I have now. I can’t help but sigh when I see the very prominent hickey Kingston left on my neck.

“You were never going to leave him,” Lumi says quietly. “You wanted the job, Aeliana but you want him more. There is no way you could have both.”

“I hate him,” I swallow.

“You keep saying that to yourself but it changes nothing. You have always loved him, and you know he will always be your first choice, even when you’re not his.”

I close my eyes, tears slipping free. “So why does it hurt so much?” I ask her. “Why does it hurt that I had to give up the job?”

She sighs, humming to herself before she answers. “It’s not the job you grieve but him, his words hurt you, and he thought sex would fix it.”

For a moment, it did.

Because it was just us there.

Because when he touches me the world fades, and with it everything else. I forget it all. But after? We can’t seem to stay on the same page. “He didn’t do it to manipulate you, but he still thinks he can fuck the fight out of you, instead of finding common ground and compromising.”

I swallow, wiping my tears away.

He can’t use sex against me. He can’t be like the others, he is the only man I can stand touching me, his touch has never once hurt, it feels pure, it feels every bit of right that I haven’t felt in days.

Someone knocks on my door and I wipe the tears away, I squeeze every drop out and dab my face. And just like that, it’s like it was never there, like I never cried. “Lexie?”

“Yes, Luna Aeliana.” She answers from outside. “Should I bring breakfast up here?”

“No, I’m coming down,” I say, dragging myself out. Lexie smiles when I open the door, her eyes dropping to my feet. “You forgot your shoes, again, Luna.”

1/2

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Right.

The damn shoes. Kingston got to her, I haven’t left my room barefoot in a while, and when I do, she always comes running with shoes because Alpha doesn’t want me to get hurt. It sounds sweet, right? Very unlike the man who forbade me from leaving when I wanted to.

The table is already full when I get there, as full as can be, Kingston does not sit at the head of the table, he sits next to Audrey, and on his other side is an empty seat for me. Even the sitting pattern is fucked. Rowan sits next to Maddox, and beside me is Danielle, reading her gossip papers while sipping tea. There are a few others here too, but I don’t pay them any mind, I sit down and Lexie pours me a cup of coffee. Kingston’s eyes meet mine for a moment before he goes back to looking at Ivan, one of the warriors who will soon answer to him.

They’re talking about the rogue attacks, they’ve become more rampant, and there is no telling which pack is next. So far, only one attack happened in Mooncrest but that’s more than enough. “From what I’ve heard, they’re targeting women, the woman who reported the attack here said she was assaulted by three masked men, they didn’t smell like pack.”

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