Eero’s perspective
I could hear my heart beating as if it were placed next to my ears instead of in my chest.
My fingertips touched the doorknob of the room where Soleil would spend the night. It opened before I turned the knob, which spooked me.
“Luna Eero, are you here to check up on your friend?” Caspian asked.
“What are you doing here?!” I asked, thinking that Caspian might have done something to Soleil. I grabbed him by his collar, pushing him against the wall.
“What did you do to Soleil?” I growled at him. He held out his hand, gesturing me to calm down.
“I didn't do anything to her, Luna. What do you take me for? A rapist?” Slowly, my fingers let go of his collar.
He quickly fixes his shirt while I back away from him.
“I-I’m sorry. I thought…"
“It was Soleil who asked me to stay with her. She can't stop crying. Now she finally fell asleep.”
I wanted to hear no more or of it. With a careful footstep, I made it inside of her room.
“I’m so sorry, Soleil. It was an accident. I-I didn't mean to kill or even hurt your mother,” I whispered to Soleil when she was deep in a sleep. My guilt bugged me even more as I saw her swollen eyes.
In the end, I pulled the comforter and kissed her head goodnight before leaving.
“You took Meredith's body here, right? Where is it?” I asked Caspian. He was standing outside of Soleil's room, waiting for me.
“It's in the greenery. I told Cielo to give her the best funeral dress she can find per your command.”
I moved my head once, asking the beta to call it a day through mind link.
At the door step of the greenery, every bit of me felt guilty of what happened. I closed my eyes to calm myself.
“But you didn't mean for that to happen, and you know it.” I convinced myself before I finally got inside the greenery.
In the very same iron casket where I burned my traitor alive lay Meredith.
“I won't be able to pay for the life that I took from you, but I swear. I'll do it some other way,” I said, silence slowly filling the property.
I chuckled bitterly after I realizing that I was like a mad woman, waiting for Meredith to say something back.
“Don't worry about Soleil. I’ll keep her by my side. I swore to protect her. This is the only way I can repay you.” Closing the casket, I set it on fire, and then spent a few seconds watching it burn before turning around to leave.
“Oh my…" I shut my eyes and managed to sigh after I saw Claudius standing outside the greenery.
“So, you did kill her?” He asked me and I stared at him in shock, finding no words to defend myself.
“How did you know it?”
“I smelled the scent of Meredith's blood in you.” Fear quickly clouded my heart.
“Soleil doesn't know. I’m the only one who can tell,” he cleared, which plucked out a thorn out of my chest.
“Don’t be afraid, Eero. We’ll be through with all this together.” The Alpha took me into his arms, and then led me back home.
***
Back in the pack house, we had a warm bath together, wishing to get relaxed a little bit from all the mess that's running in my head.
“This is the first time that we are naked together, but not fucking, you know? It feels like a different kind of intimacy with you, Alpha.” I giggled as he suddenly grazed my boobs.
“You don't have any idea how much I want to own you right now, but I am stopping myself.”
“Why? Why is that?” I asked, but he didn't say anything, I rested my head on his chest, making myself more comfortable.
“Because I think what you need most now is talk, not fuck.” The Alpha teased, trying to get me relaxed so that I could let out all the mess in my mind.
“Alpha, I think there is something wrong with me, with my wolf.” I started, gathering courage to pour out what was on my mind. “I know I’m supposed to control my wolf, but I can't. My wolf is filled with rage, and it's getting out of hand. It's making me—”
“Ruthless?” Claudius offered the word I was looking for.
“What happened to Meredith was an accident, yes… but I did something else tonight, more terrible, I’m afraid.”
He remained silent, letting me take my time as I tell.
“I asked one of your deltas to rape Serra. I stood there and watched it happen. It pleased me, Serra being violated while I watch, and it soothed my anger.”
“Serra deserves it. You just gave her a dose of her medicine. Remember how she got countless women in your pack raped?”
“Y-Yes. This is her karma for it. I was telling myself that I only avenged myself and those innocent she-wolves, but what if Serra was right?”
“Hmm?” Claudius hummed.
“What if I am really a monster? I feel like I’m becoming one. If I can't tame my wolf, it will make me one.”
“A ruthless Luna for a ruthless Alpha sounds like a fair deal to me,” he said, chuckling.
I lightly hit his arm for not taking me seriously.
“Did you know that having an Alpha's blood means having cruel tendencies?” He asked when I looked at him.
“When an Alpha's child is born, the world holds its breath as the child grows up, waiting for what the child would be...he'd be a great ruler that everyone loves, or a ruthless one that everyone fears.”
“I don't want to be the latter,” I said.
Claudius laughed. “I’m fine with either of it as long as I’m an Alpha.”
I turned around, facing him. “Our children, I wonder what they'll be like?” I said.
“They can be ruthless or well-loved. It doesn't matter to me, Eero... I just want them to be the most powerful Alpha," he said.
I suddenly recalled the old woman's prophecy about the realm and how no men would rule it.