Chapter 4

Two days ago…

Keenan had watched with envy as the Alpha had acknowledged that Raya, indeed, was his mate. However, he had become overwhelmed with fury when the alpha had rejected her saying that he would never allow the daughter of a criminal to become Luna over his people. He had scoffed at the mockery.

If Raya’s father was a criminal, he had no idea what to call the leaders of the Dark Moon pack. The people were being governed by a bunch of hypocrites. If he wanted to count the number of persons that the people who held positions of property had murdered to cover up their evil deeds, he would lose count. Raya’s father was no criminal, and they all knew it. The innocent man had been framed by the wicked Lord Christopher, who needed someone to take the fall for his own crime.

Angrily, he stormed out of the gathering and walked back to the woods, clad in disguise as an old and poor merchant. He wore rags and a white wig and covered his face in soot and mud. On his head, he always had a large straw hat and wore a cloth around his mouth. He took a long, winding road to the outskirts of the city in which the low-blood omegas resided. As he journeyed there, he tried his best not to dwell on issues of the past.

He thought of Raya and her blonde hair, which mirrored the gold of the sun. He recalled her eyes, which matched that of the sea and could reflect both the grey rage and blue calm of the sea depending on her emotions. Her almond-shaped face complimented the whole look, and her almost elf-like ear gave her an ethereal look. If she had not been a werewolf, he was sure she would have been a beautiful fae.

Raya looked the same as when they had been children. The only difference was that she had taken on a more curvy body as she had grown, but her beauty was frozen in time. Although they had not been friends, as their fathers were mortal enemies, he admired her a great deal. She was strong for her age and had been through a lot. He remembered how broken her family had been when her mother had died. How she had tried to take over her father’s business but had failed to keep it running after his death.

Keenan did not live in the village anymore. He hated the leaders of the pack. He despised how they had accused Raya’s father of killing his father, but he knew it was not true. Lord Christopher had approached him and his mother and threatened to kill him if they said otherwise. After that, his mother had packed their things to a small cottage in the middle of the woods and they had been living there ever since.

Keenan’s mother was like no other woman. She was a complete contrast to her husband, who was lousy and mean and loved to talk a lot. Unlike his father, who was staunch, almost obese, and a weak man, his mother was strong. One could argue that her strength superseded that of the mighty warriors of the pack. It was still a mystery to Keenan how his mother had met and fallen in love with such a man in the first place.

She had taught Keenan how to fight, to hunt, to carve weapons out of rocks and wood, to melt iron into shapes like a blacksmith. She had trained his mental strength with intellectual games and taught him how to prepare meals, how to be alert, and sense danger.

When his mother passed away, he wallowed in self-pity for two days and then realized his mother would not be happy with him sitting down and doing nothing. While she was alive, he knew she had made plans to destroy the men who killed his father and arranged for the murder of Raya’s dad.

She had left several clues but they were hidden to decipher. He knew she did so so that if she died without completing her mission, Keenan would have the mental prowess to avenge those innocent deaths. He began visiting the Dark Moon pack disguised as an old man. The border patrol allowed him in because he had a scent of their members, but they did not suspect anything.

From his visits to the people, he heard every secret that the people whispered and used that to gather information on the changes in the pack.

On one of his visits, he encountered Raya. She wore a faded blue gown and walked around with a basket of leather on her head, urging people to patronize her, but the people ignored her; they had not just chosen to pretend she did not exist but had also discouraged anyone who wanted to buy her wares.

From a distance, he began watching her. At night, he would stand by her house to make sure she was safe. When she went out to hunt, he would watch from a distance and scare off anyone or animal that wanted to attack her. Sometimes, he would kill and leave it where she would find it.

It tore his heart to watch her suffer that way, so he prayed that the moon goddess would allow her to be mated to a good man. He had loved her right from the beginning of times but never wished the moon goddess would give her to him as his mate. He knew he did not have the capacity to take care of her or to treat her like a queen. He could barely get by himself, and he, who was steeped in his revenge plot, could not afford to openly love another.

As he got nearer to the outskirts and heard a voice crying and screaming the word ‘fire’ almost muffled by the sound of a laughing mob, he knew he had to act fast.