Eero's perspective
My feet moved on their own to take a step back from Claudius.
This was him. This was the vicious Alpha that everyone was afraid of. This side of him was the reason why he was tagged as the “cruel Alpha”.
Hurt. That emotion crossed in his eyes, but he had managed to shut it off, right before I could confirm it.
“I know that look. Even before I became an Alpha, I had been familiar with it. It's fear. Panicking because you don't know how you will keep yourself safe from this monster standing in front of you.”
I bit my lower lip. I would never deny or try to argue that he saw it wrong.
“I never hated someone for looking at me that way, but I do now. You know that I’m not like a beast that everyone believes I am, Eero.”
Claudius tried to come near me, to hold me. But my fear got the best of me and I flinched at his touch. He let go of me immediately.
“Let me go! I would never do it again! I will apologize to Eero—Luna Eero, I mean. Just let me live!” The pleading voice from the greenery snapped me out of the fear for Claudius.
“I was an honorable man. I was loyal to the pack. It's just one mistake that I can still straighten if only you would give me another chance.” That voice said again.
The familiar rage that I felt when I killed Trevor was back in my system.
That voice. It was from the delta who betrayed me and sent me to Moon River Pack in exchange for a considerable sum of money.
“You can't go inside or stop us from what we’re doing now. Let me just finish this and we will talk, Eero.”
I peeped at his hand on my arm before withdrawing it from his grasp.
“I’m not stopping you from punishing that despicable man. I just want to do it myself,” I said to Claudius, blinded by my anger.
I’d had enough of people betraying me. It was about time. I would make them pay.
“He owes something to me. It's only right that he pays it directly to me, right?” I asked the Alpha.
Claudius finally allowed me to go inside the greenery.
My eyes quickly found the traitor kneeling in front of Caspian. The Beta of the Blood Moon Pack was stunned to see me inside the greenery. I caught him stealing a gaze at Claudius, who was standing behind me.
The traitor, whom I didn't wish to know his name, crawled towards my feet, almost kissing it, like I was the personified Moon Goddess.
“Luna Eero, I begged you. Please forgive me. Forgive, for I have committed a grave sin. I don't deserve to live—”
“You said it yourself. You don't deserve to live after what you have done, so why the hell would I listen to your begging? And spare you?” I asked.
The traitor's jaw dropped on the dirty floor of the greenery. Not just his, but Caspian's too. Claudius, on the other hand, was smirking like a proud Alpha.
The traitor cocked his head towards Caspian and then back at me.
“Please spare me. Forgive me, Luna. I will do anything and everything for you.” I stared at him coldly. But when I leaned closer to him, the traitor felt like he stood a chance, that I would change my mind about killing him.
“Anything and everything? Are you sure? Because you know those are big, big words.” He nodded his head eagerly. By his attitude, one could think that he was capable of moving a mountain if I asked him to do so, as long as I could forgive him.
“I want you to get inside that iron casket,” I said, and glanced at the device the pack used to cremate all the dead bodies.
“You want me to do what? If I do that, I would die. You would burn me a-alive?”
“Uh-hmm. That's precisely what would happen to you. But if you miraculously survived from being burned alive, then you are forgiven and you'll get to live.”
“Alpha Claudius, Luna Eero please. I will do anything else beside that.”
“And who do you think you are, to demand more from your Alpha and Luna?” I caged his jaw inside my finger, crushing his bones with my newly acquired strength.
“Have you forgotten what I told you, Ameo and Vera back in the Moon Rivers Pack?”
He took a moment to recall what I had said. After my words flashed in his head, fear emerged more in his eyes.
“I know how to keep my words, so you will really die screaming.” I stood up straight and looked at Caspian.
Just like that. He already knew what I wanted to happen. He opened the iron casket. With Caspian’s strength, although the traitor tried to fight back, he still ended up inside the iron casket.
My eyes stayed on it until Caspian started to set it on fire.
Claudius encircled his arm around my waist.
“Let's get you out of here," he said to me. I shook my head at him, watching the fire dancing in the iron casket.
It gave me satisfaction when I heard the traitor screaming as he got burned inside the iron casket and slowly died.
Since his job was done here, Caspian excused himself, leaving me and the Alpha behind.
We stayed in the greenery, until all that left was that traitor’s ashes.
“You are about to turn twenty in a few days, aren't you? I think I know why your wolf is trying to challenge and dominate mine.”
I turned to face Alpha Claudius finally.
“I’m not a daughter of an ousted she-wolf. My father was the true Alpha of Moon Rivers and my mother was a Luna.”
“You have a blood of a powerful Alpha in you, and it's starting to come out. Looks like I’m not the only cruel Alpha in town, Eero.”