Read The Half Blood Luna by The Black Daisy
Chapter 40
Ella’s POV:
As I laid in my bed, closed my eyes, and tried to sleep, I realized that alpha Klaus was occupying a big part of my mind. Although my muscles were screaming in pain after the intense training session with Linda and all I wanted was to sleep, I found myself thinking about him.
He was in a very bad position, stuck between two horrible options only for him to choose the pack over his own happiness. It showed how much he really cared about his pack, cared enough to sacrifice his life for them.
I was so angry. Angry at him and angry for him. Angry at him because he still looks at me and sees a murderer’s daughter and not Ella. He always made me feel responsible for what happened although I had nothing to do with it. Angry for him because no one deserves to marry a woman he doesn’t love and be f0rced to have se.x with her just so she could become pregnant. Even the woman he chooses will be unhappy too. He will never let her in, never let her sooth him or heal him. Never be intimate with her because he has real genuine feelings for her. No woman deserves this.
Gosh, what if he never finds a woman that will agree to have se.x with him just enough to become pregnant then spend the rest of her life with him like a stranger? No one would agree to that, no one who wants a husband and an intimate life would.
I would. I swore off having an intimate life with any man after what happened to me. If I marry him, we will only need to have se.x until I become pregnant and then we only need to live together and pretend to be married in public.
I was utterly surprised at myself for thinking about it. A part of me was willing to do that for him. Willing to sacrifice my happiness at always being single and free to marry him, have se.x with him, and carry his child. It was my guilt over what my father did to his family. I refused to believe that it was because I had some feelings for him. No, those feelings were shoved away in a box and were never coming out. I wanted to help him because I will finally redeem myself from the constant guilt and shame that I am a murderer’s daughter whose father completely shattered his life. Another part of me was completely angry for thinking about doing this. Why would I need to ruin my life for him? He did nothing but wrong me from the beginning. He still looks at me with hatred even though I am completely innocent. He might even be disgusted by the idea of touching me. I don’t want to get married. I don’t want to be f0rced to have se.x again. I don’t want to have a child. The idea of another man touching me like this, made my skin crawl. Se.x meant intense pain. Se.x meant utter disgust and humiliation.
I pushed the idea out of my mind. I don’t think I will have the courage to offer myself to him. He still has two months to pick someone. If he finds one before the time is up then good for him, if he doesn’t find someone, I will talk to him then.
With that settled, I felt myself drift to sleep.
It felt like only minutes before I found myself being chocked by that man, struggling against him, trying to scream. I felt a shake in my whole body before Stephanie’s voice pushed the image of that man and his hands around my neck and made him disappear.
I opened my eyes in panic. I was sweaty and shaking violently gasping for air that was never taken away from me.
“Ella! Are you okay?” asked Stephanie in an alarmed tone.
I managed to nod, while trying to calm myself.
“It’s okay. It was just a nightmare. You’re safe” she said while hugging me.
I hugged her back tightly, desperate for a little comfort.
I saw her face full of concern for me and said lightly, trying not to make a big deal out of it “You will need to get used to this. I have nightmares every night”
“Is it because of that man that attacked you at your old pack?”
“Yes” I said without elaborating on the fact that the mysterious man was not my only source of terror and lack of sleep.
We ended up on the sofa together watching a romantic movie based on her suggestion. I found myself so hooked to the story, so touched, that by the end of it, I was crying my eyes out for the characters. Their ending was so sad and heart breaking.
I had a little bit of sleep after that before my alarm went off, and I started preparing for a new day.
I got out of the bathroom and found Linda sitting on the sofa instead of Stephanie. Apparently, they switched while I was in the shower.
“Good morning, Linda.”
“Morning. How was your night with Stephanie? I bet you missed me” she said with a wink.
I laughed and said “It was nice. She’s really great. You both are, I couldn’t ask for better guardians”
Just then, I heard a knock on my door. I went to open it, but Linda motioned for me to stop. She opened the door and her lips instantly pursed at the sight of Jake.
“Morning. I brought my id with me today, do you want to check it out?” he said cheerfully.
She rolled her eyes, let him inside, and said “No need”
“Morning Ella. How are you?” he said as he went straight to sit on his usual chair.
“Good morning. I am good. How about you?”
“I’m fantastic” he said with a grin.
Well, he wasn’t that cheerful in the morning until he met Linda yesterday, I noticed. He definitely likes her.
Three hours later, just as we were about to finish with our session, my phone pinged indicating a message.
I looked at Jake, who nodded his head in permission.
It was Sara. She was telling me to be ready in five minutes.
I sighed as I hit reply with the word ‘ok’.
I looked up at Linda who was playing on her phone the entire time.
“Linda, Sara and I are going dress shopping in five minutes. You can come with us if you want. But if you have better things to do you can go. I will be okay with Sara”
She looked up and said immediately “No I will go with you. I don’t really have anything else to do”
“Dress shopping for the alpha ceremony?” asked Jake in curiosity.
“Yeah, Sara is making me buy a dress even though I told her that I am not attending” I said miserably.
“Why aren’t you attending? I thought it is mandatory to attend” he said in confusion.
“It’s… a little complicated” I said hesitantly.
“Damn. I was really looking forward to asking you for a dance” he said sadly.
I smiled as I didn’t believe he was really sad for me, but sad for missing a chance to ask Linda for a dance. If I didn’t go to the ceremony, she will have to stay with me. I didn’t really feel that guilty for making her miss out. Especially after she told me that she wasn’t interested in another man after her mate.
“Well, it is a good thing that I am not going to be there, because I would have probably turned you down. I don’t know how to dance”
I saw his eyes sparkle as an idea came to him.
“I can teach you how to dance. We can have another session right after we finish studying. It will be so much fun I promise. I know a lot of dancing styles. And you never know what will happen in two weeks. Maybe you’ll change your mind only to have to say no to anyone who asks you to dance with him because you never learned”
From the corner of my eye, I saw Linda look at him in suspicion.
My god he was desperate to spend more time with Linda. I couldn’t bring myself to say no to him. He really was interested in her.
TWO WEEKS LATER
Two weeks have passed in the blink of an eye. Today is the alpha ceremony. Also, today happens to be my birthday. I am officially eighteen. But I didn’t tell anybody about it.
It has been two weeks since I saw alpha Klaus. I never ran into him after that day in the training room. I never heard anything else about him. I don’t know if he was able to find a wife or not. Joseph and Sara never mentioned him in front of me. But whenever I sneaked a look at them when they weren’t noticing, I would see their deep worry and concern for him. Sara never pushed me into changing my mind about going to the ceremony, neither did Joseph. That was one of the many things I liked about them, they always respected my decision even if they didn’t agree with it themselves.
It has also been two weeks since Jake decided to give me dancing lessons after our study sessions. Those were the highlights of my day. We had so much fun during that time. He taught me the pack’s special dance that must be danced at the beginning of every ceremony they have. It was really nice and enjoyable. Then he moved on to other styles. He was a great dancing teacher. I was able to learn so much moves with him. He also said I was a fast learner.
Whenever he wanted to teach me a new move or dance, he would ask Linda to dance with him, to show me how the move worked. Linda was an excellent dancer. She didn’t warm up to Jake’s intentions at the beginning. But day after day, the pursed lips that she used to greet him with everyday slowly turned into a smile, then a grin.
She was starting to like him, I could tell. And Jake… well Jake was falling hard for her from the beginning.
Jake and I were just about to finish with our dance. We were performing some kind of ballroom dance with lots of turns and spins. We ended up in each other’s arms with our faces close enough to k!ss. It meant nothing to me, nor to Jake for that matter. But damn! We nailed the dance perfectly. We let go of each other and high fived while laughing cheerfully.
I turned around to ask Linda about our performance, and froze in my place.
Alpha Klaus was standing in front of us, watching us with a very sharp look.
When the hell did he get here?
And why was he in my room for God’s sake?
“Can I talk to you privately please?” he said in a tight voice.
Jake and Linda didn’t wait for me to give him an answer. He was the alpha, no one denies the alpha’s request after all.
He kept staring at me sharply, after they left us alone and closed the door behind them.
If I didn’t know any better, I’d say he felt jealous when he saw me dancing with Jake so happily. But I did know better, there was no way he was jealous. There must be something else on his mind.