The Vengeful Warrior Luna's Return novel Chapter 11

Astra’s POV

Bekkie’s eyes burned red.

“I may be low-born,” she choked out, “but at least I know a mating bond is sacred. You—Alpha Isla, a she-wolf the whole Pack respects—sharing battlefields with another wolf’s mate, then using your war honors to push your own kind down—”

Smack!

The sound cracked through the room before I could stop it.

Kieran’s clawed hand raked across Bekkie’s cheek, five deep lines blooming in red almost instantly.

He turned on me, amber eyes burning with fury.

“This is the kind of subordinate you train? Daring to speak to an Alpha like that?”

I was already moving, catching Bekkie before she stumbled. My fingers brushed the hot swell on her face—and something in me snapped.

I whipped around, my gaze gone cold as ice, and slapped Kieran so hard the sound echoed.

“Bekkie is my friend.” I said, voice like steel, “How dare you hit her!”

For a second, he just stood there, stunned.

An Omega never lays hands on an Alpha.

Especially not in front of others.

Kieran's eyes went bloodshot. But whatever he saw in my face stopped him from striking back.

He gave me one last lethal glare, grabbed a still-stunned Isla, and stormed out, the door snapping behind them.

I cupped Bekkie’s face gently. “Does it hurt?”

She shook her head, forcing a crooked smile.

“Once the Elder sends the totem seal, we can leave this place for good.”

“The Elder said three days… so it should be today or tomorrow.” I looked toward the door, my chest aching with exhaustion. I couldn’t stand another moment here.

When Kieran first announced Isla would join the den, I’d insisted on meeting her. Not to fight. Not to beg.

“These items—war-beast fangs, coin weight, obsidian carvings—I’ve got most covered. But these few—” she tapped several lines, “—are impossible to prepare.”

Kieran’s father coughed twice. “When we took Astra as mate last year, the Hale matriarch knew we were short on funds. She only asked for a wolf fang necklace as dowry.” His eyes slid toward me, a hint of greed in them. “But Isla is a decorated Alpha warrior. If her bride price is too shabby, the other Packs will laugh.”

I sat in the corner, absently tracing the wolf-head embroidery on my sleeve.

My mother had prepared my dowry herself. Three mining rights, five hunting ground deeds. Enough to make any Pack jealous.

Those assets kept Zane Pack alive through famine, paid for Lady Mora’s costly silvergrass medicine.

Without them, Lady Mora would have collapsed in the first month after Kieran left for war.

The voices in the room rose, heated. But not one wolf met my eyes.

They all knew the truth.

Right now, the only one who could produce that dowry… was me.

The “abandoned” Hale daughter they were so eager to replace.