Eero’s perspective
“You know that you don't really need to do this, right? I can walk on my own,” Alpha Claudius asked me to stop walking over when his incoming footsteps halted.
“You can barely walk on your own, Alpha. Let me just help you, okay? I don’t want others to see you in this condition.” I asked him.
“I need to talk to my loyal deltas and warriors,” he said to me. I looked at his face. My eyes asked what he was trying to imply.
“And punish those that helped Killian usurped my throne,” he added. I nodded my head at him. I was about to help him take another step, but the Alpha didn't budge. Instead, he glared at me.
“You can do that later. Let me help you treat the wounds.”
“No!” He said, his voice slightly louder than usual. Alpha Claudius looked around before he dropped his eyes back to me.
“I am not going to let you use your power. You are still weak, Eero. I’m afraid that using it in your current condition will put you in danger.”
My heart stopped beating for a moment and blood started to flush on my cheeks. I bit the inside of my cheeks.
“Aww. You are worried about me?” I teased him, which earned another glare at me.
I rolled my eyes at him.
“Did you know that I am not that scared of you anymore?” I told him.
When I saw how he cared for Averi, when he protected me before we jumped off the cliff, and when he didn't let me fend for myself… From all these moments, I saw the goodness in him.
Claudius isn't a vicious beast like everyone depicted him to be. Yes, he was ruthless, but that side of him only happened to those who deserved it.
“Really?” He hummed the question as he moved his face closer to me. I stole a peck on his lips and then quickly took a step away from him.
I ran towards one of his deltas and asked him to bring the Alpha to the main house.
“What did I just do?” I whispered to myself while holding the very same lips that I used to kiss the Alpha.
I shook my head.
“It's nothing. I should not make a big deal out of it. We are now each other's mate, and we had done more than just kiss,” I said, trying to calm myself down.
Before I could turn to the left to take the shortcut towards Averi's family house, I bumped into a delta.
Rubbing my forehead that clashed with his chin, I looked up at him.
“I-I am so sorry. I didn't mean that.”
“No. I-It's okay. I wasn't looking at where I was headed. It's partly my fault too.” I was about to leave him behind when he called my name, making me stop.
“Beta Caspian was looking for you. He needs your help to burn the house banner of Gamma Killian,” he said.
“Why would he need my help to do just that?” I asked him, but the delta only shrugged his shoulders.
“Should I just tell him that you refuse to help?” He asked. I changed my mind immediately after hearing these words.
“No. I will go to him. Where is he?”
I knew that the beta was still mad at the Alpha's decision to mark me. I would use this opportunity to talk with him.
“He was at the heart of the greenery, burning the house banner together with Gamma Killian's disintegrated body.”
“Oh, okay.”
The delta gestured the way towards the greenery, which was at the back of the village. I heard from Miss Cielo that the greenery was the place where they usually burned the bodies of the dead members of the pack.
I can already saw the greenery the delta was talking about. My eyes landed on the chimney of the greenery. Not seeing any smoke come out of it, I knew that no one was using it at the moment. This was quite weird.
My footsteps became slower as the delta and I got closer to the greenery.
“Are you sure that the beta was here?” I asked the delta. As I turned my head to look at him, he hit me with a rock on the back of my head. I lost my consciousness immediately.
“Wake up, Eero. We are here. We are back home.” The very same delta that lured me to the greenery said in a low voice after he poured cold water on my body.
I looked around, only to realize that I was back in the forsaken territory of the Moon Rivers Pack.
The door to the pack house opened. Alpha Ameo and the mistress of evil came out.
I still felt dizzy because of the big wound at the back of my head.
The traitor pulled me out of his pickup and pushed me to the ground.
“Welcome back home, our dearest,” Alpha Ameo greeted with an evil smirk on his lips.
I look up at the delta that betrayed me.
“You will pay for this! Alpha Claudius will kill you.” I cocked my head to the spot where Alpha Ameo and his wife were.
“The Alpha would come for you, and he will wipe out this forsaken pack!” I shouted at the top of my lungs.
I only stopped screaming after Luna Vera slapped me with the back of her hand. She then caged my jaw in her fingers.
“Oh, we knew that he will. That is why we built a barrier that would make our territory invincible to anyone from the Blood Moon. He won't be able to find us anymore,” she said before she chuckled evilly.
Alpha Ameo on the other hand gave the traitor delta a thick envelope filled with money. Our eyes met and he only grinned at me.
“I am sorry, Eero. I hope you don't take this personally. I really need this money.”