26. Bloody Jaws

Selene rewarded Altan and Elio with enough money to buy their mother Aura Baran her own house, granting her release from the harem as she would no longer bear pups—if Aura so desired. She accepted but begged her twins to come with her, to no longer be bound to Kiran. Eternally grateful to their mother and their Luna, the sons declined in favor of continuing their mission.
“A Moon never quits,” Elio said to both females as they gathered in Selene’s office.
The twins were sent by Kiran as the distraction to breach Castle Night while he kidnapped Seff. No one else knew they were Moon spies, so their own kith attacked them in defense of the castle. His eye was still healing from the scratch from one of Selene’s lesser Alpha sons.
“We’re loyal to you,” agreed Altan, his bite mark already healed, “and to Seff. We’re sorry, Mom.”
Aura was rightfully distressed but had no choice but to let them return injured to the Keep with the embarrassing news that they were overwhelmed—the real reason being that Selene called off her lessers, despite their protests that all Sun needed to be eliminated for their offense, to hide the twins in her office—and that tragically and truthfully, Selene did kill the third lesser Alpha out of blind rage.
Selene didn’t want a war—start one or engage in one for several reasons. One being her assuring that she would win. Others included not wanting to lose her Omegas and jeopardize the Contest, and didn’t feel like having to spend money on anything the Sun wolves destroyed. She didn’t want death. She didn’t want more orphans. And she didn’t want Kiran to kill a second lover.
She would not play his games, but she could pretend to.
And so would Seff it seemed.
Selene didn’t hear from her, Kiran, or Altan and Elio for two weeks. The pile of letters began to stack higher on Selene’s office desk for Altan to relay them. Her schedule Omegas knocked on her door, whimpering that they needed to be satisfied, their heats too strong to bear. She hadn’t even bedded her five Chosen to officially claim them as Moon pack. She knew Kiran had only taken Allium Ren. And it was all because of Seff Bleize.
Altan knocked on her door with a letter exactly two weeks since they slept together. All it said was,
*I’m staying with Kiran to protect more wolves than one. Please respect my decision.*
Selene kept promises, but only the parts that she deemed worth keeping. Seff’s words were meant to be an encouragement to continue with their lives without worrying about the other. Selene would do the first but not the second.
She sent Altan with the message,
*Play your game and not his. Trust your instincts. Please write to me often and I will respond promptly. Be safe.*
She made it seem as if they knew each other for years. Selene hoped the informality would bring them closer without the awkwardness of tiptoeing around how to proceed.
She sent the letter off with Altan, instructing him, “Make sure she writes what happened the past two weeks. And control yourself around her.”
He flushed, nodding, and scampered out. Selene didn’t need another Alpha jeopardizing Kiran’s trust in him and risking exposure, much less getting into Seff’s panties.
Lona entered her office a moment later, crossing her arms when she saw the stack of letters that she didn’t give Altan. “Are those just rejected love confessions?”
Selene rolled her eyes. “Do not provoke me, Lona.”
“This is ridiculous, Selene. Focus on the future of the Moon pack, not this one female. We need to solve why and how Kiran killed Ahana without our knowledge. She was found half-buried in the forest from a shredded throat. Luan deserves closure.”
It was an utterly gruesome death. But the wet dirt had masked the scent of any perpetrator. Since no one was allowed to leave Apollo’s Keep, Kiran was the automatic suspect. Unfortunately, it was the second time a Moon Omega was targeted by a thief in the night.
Selene met her Delta’s blue gaze. She was a triplet from a Lovell pack Alpha and one of Selene’s female Omegas, making her more than just one of Selene’s *very* few friends, but her granddaughter. She was very intelligent, a female after Selene’s own heart, but Selene was still smarter, and smarter still than Kiran.
“He isn’t the killer.”
Lona blinked. “He isn’t?”
As if on some cue, one of the Omega females burst into her office.
Selene bolted to her feet. “Is this some new trend?” she barked.
Then they heard the ruckus—snarling, shredding of fabric, whimpering. Selene shielded Lona and the Omega behind her as she flung open the door to the harem living space. There were ten consorts huddled in the far corner, two pregnant Omegas shielded by the rest. Selene scented their terror and fueled her rage.
“Kiran!” she roared, feeling her wolf starting to tear away from her human flesh.
The Sun Alpha was in his gold-furred wolf form, shredding pillows and blankets in his jaws as he whipped his head back and forth. He brought two lesser Alphas that were prowling toward the Omegas, clicking their teeth and chuffing laughter.
Selene Shifted and launched herself at the lessers, skittering between them and her harem, expanding her chest and rising above them in physical height and the overwhelming power of an immortal Alpha. The two males sired by Kiran bared their teeth, but their ears went flat and their tails tucked between their legs. Luckily they were not Altan or Elio.
Selene pulled her lips back in a snarl in warning. *Don’t you dare.*
The males lunged.
But she was much larger, and they much younger, and her jaws clamped around one’s neck. His yelp echoed through the room, shifting while he was still in Selene’s grip. Hot blood erupted in her mouth, staining her face, spurting into her eyes.
She dropped the male and whirled on the second and he dove for the Omegas. She slammed into his body with hers, knocking him into the wall with a crunch of bone. He yowled and collapsed. He Shifted a moment before Selene left a gash in his shoulder.
“Lona,” Selene barked as she licked her chops. Revenge tasted sweet, but Sun pack blood was foul.
Her Delta Shifted and herded the Omegas out along the perimeter safely. Selene turned to face Kiran, who sat on his haunches in the middle of the couch pit surrounded by the fluffy white guts of the pillows and couches, wagging his tail one thump at a time, looking *amused*.
When he spoke through his gnashing teeth, he was anything but. “I demand a change in the Contest.”
Her ears swiveled back. “No. All rules were finalized two years ago—”
“Not the *rules*,” he snapped. “The *prize*.” Kiran’s tail stopped wagging and he Shifted into his human form. “Whoever wins gets to have Seff Bleize.”
Selene’s veins were filled with not blood but outrage. “How dare you,” she snarled, leaping into the pit and threw herself at Kiran, knocking him to the ground so his head banged on the floor. He grunted but didn’t react when her thick teeth were an inch from his face. Not even when drool and the blood of his sons spattered onto his golden skin. “How dare you treat her like an object in our game.”
“Am I supposed to treat her as if she’ll ever love me?”
Selene’s laugh was a wolf’s harsh bark. “I would say yes, but perhaps her loving *me* instead because of how much she hates you will work in my favor—as it already is.”
“You’re right,” Kiran said, his lips wet with red, “she’ll never love me *if I don’t try*. Which I *have*, these last two weeks. Don’t get cocky. She doesn’t love you either.”
Selene stepped off him when her weight started to crack his breastbone. Not that she would be upset by that, but she wanted to face him in her human form to argue. The fact that they were naked was the last thing on their minds.
She crossed her arms, also ignoring how bloody she was. “The hours we spent inside each other’s bodies say otherwise.”
“You think tumbling around under the sheets counts as falling in love?” Kiran asked in sarcastic incredulity. “After what, three, four, days of meeting her? Please.”
“She’ll remember me before she remembers you, Kiran.”
He flung up his arms. “What if she never remembers us? What if it isn’t possible?”
Selene’s jaw worked, biting her lip hard enough to draw even more blood. She didn’t want to admit that there was the possibility of truth to his words. She didn’t want to believe it. “Calla remembered.”
Kiran’s eyes flashed dangerously at the name. “That was seventy years ago,” he struggled to say calmly. “There was only thirty years’ difference last time. What if too many years passed?”
“We can’t know, but we can hope. Damn it,” she cursed at him, “why are you making me sound like a hopeful pup? And why are you using your last brain cell on this? And *why the fuck* did you attack my harem?”
Kiran’s usual empty-headed pride returned in the form of his shit-eating grin. He looked over his shoulder at his lesser Alphas and jerked his head toward the entrance, giving them the signal to leave. But Selene Shifted and blocked the way. The two males automatically Shifted back to their wolf forms and bowed in submission.
Kiran growled in disapproval, but he said, “You want to accuse me of that when you killed one of my Alphas?”
The two in front of Selene whimpered a bit dramatically. The small compassionate part of her allowed her to sympathize that she did take a sibling from them. Killing a member of the opposite harem was unforgiven and punishable by revenge—an eye for an eye—and death. But so many—more than even Kiran cared to admit—died at each other’s jaws that the punishment would cause more harm than fix anything.
Long ago they settled on simple financial compensation. Material, unsympathetic.
“Send a memo to Lona. She’ll write a check to their mother.”
“Let my sons leave,” Kiran warned. The two males ears’ perked, gold eyes widening slightly, as if they were never claimed that way.
That annoyed Selene. “Your heartlessness never ceases to amaze me,” she told him, stepping aside for the males. Despite causing them injury, she didn’t miss the flash of gratefulness from them.
“Same goes for you, Moony.”
She Shifted back into her human form once again, turning to find him a foot away. “Don’t call me that,” she said with a forced smile.
“Those were my seventeen-year-old triplets. The third you took from their *father*. Bold of you to assume gender.”
Selene was tired of banter. “Let’s address your original intent. Why do you want Seff as a prize?”