The Alpha's Luna

Charlotte’s POV

I gave my mother’s necklace one last caress and tossed it into my brown sack. I often spent an unusually long time on that necklace, just gazing at it, muttering to the Moon Goddess to always be with my mother and help me daily.

My wolf, Nala, purred softly inside of me. She missed her too, my Mom. The connection between Mom and I was more than just a daughter-mother connection. She was my everything.

I am an orphan. My parents died a few years after I was born, and my upbringing fell on the shoulders of my Aunt and her mate. We were a small pack, an Autumn pack. This was where I had been raised from birth. It will always be my home. Always...

I had two sisters, Nadia and Faith. They were aunts, but I regarded them as my sisters. This was the only family I had left after the demise of my parents. I loved them, and I was grateful that they took me in. Life would have been horrible and unbelievable without the shelter and food that they provided me with. The Moon Goddess had indeed been gracious.

“Lotty! You stupid cunt! Won’t you fetch my porridge already, or are you gonna let it burn first?!” My Aunt’s mate, Corie, yelled from the front yard. My daydreaming was cut short, and in a rush, I threw my sack to the edge of the wall in the room I stayed in and ran to the kitchen.

The porridge didn’t burn. Thank the Moon Goddess. That would have led to another series of whip lashing on my back, and I wasn’t sure how much more pain my frail body could take.

This was a good family, yet it wasn’t the family I would have picked if I had a choice. My Aunt was rarely around, and in her absence, I had to constantly evade the beatings and torture from her mate, his sexual attempts at me, or both. Faith and Nadia didn’t go to school or work. We were too poor to afford it. That was what saved me on numerous days—that Corie’s kids were at home all the time, and it wouldn’t be fair if they had to watch or hear their father sexually molest their sister. Nadia couldn’t care less what happened to me, but Faith...Faith had my back. I knew she kind of understood what was happening, and that was why she hardly left my side. She was always around to help me and save me from her father.

I wiped my face with the back of my hands. This was definitely not the time for tears. If I didn’t want any more trouble, I needed to go get Corie his porridge.

I served the food in a bowl and placed it on a tray. Then I picked it up and went to the front yard. It was empty. Corie had yelled from this same place a few seconds ago. I gazed around the small garden that beautified the front of the house. He wasn’t in sight.

“In here, Lott.” I heard him call from inside the house. I turned and walked back in. He must have gone into his room. I took the stairs by the side of the sitting room and climbed until I got to the room he shared with Aunt. There was a huge Christmas ornament hanging on the wooden door from last season. I had to take that down. This was definitely not a festive period.

I balanced the tray of porridge on the one hand and lifted the other to the door.

I knocked softly.

***

Alpha Thor’s POV

The Royal guards opened the doors and ushered me into my mother’s room. I took a left turn to where her huge bed was situated. 

Her room was one of the biggest in the entire castle, naturally. Now it was hers; before, it was hers and the previous Alpha’s. 

I called him the previous Alpha because that was what he was to me—the previous Alpha. He was my biological father, but I never regarded him as that, not once in my life. Growing up, I had watched him do one and only one thing well—abuse my Mom. She had silently and openly suffered his torture, coupled with the embarrassment and humiliation that being married to a drunk, cruel, and frustrated came with. 

He was never a father to me, nor a husband or mate to her, but she loved him with all her heart and served him till he took his last breathe on the outskirts of Cordena during a rampage and war with Giloed, his rival, and Blue Moon’s greatest enemy.

The Alpha’s demise had broken my Mom, shattered her heart. I was 17 when the news of his death was announced in the royal courtroom, in the presence of the pack leaders, priestess, and a few other people I didn’t know. 

My Mom crumbled to the ground and wailed till her voice cracked. I ran to her and hugged her tightly. I didn’t care that my old man had been killed, torn to pieces. I didn’t care that it meant the pack was under a great threat, and we had reasons to be very worried. I didn’t even realize that his death meant I would unanimously become the next Alpha of the Blue Moon pack, even though I was unprepared and unexpectant of the role and responsibility. In fact, I was happy that day.

I was happy that, finally, my mother would be spared further suffering from that cruel man, as I fondly called him when I was young. My focus was now on my mother. She became ill, and her health deteriorated following the Alpha’s death. 

I gave all my attention to her, determined to nurse her back to health while taking control of my pack’s affairs and security. Nothing else mattered to me as much as my mother did.

It took several steps to get me to my mother’s side. She was sitting up and helping herself to her bowl of soup. She looked up when she noticed I was the one that walked in and smiled warmly. I couldn’t help but return her radiant acknowledgment with a smile of my own.