Alpha's Cursed Luna
13

ELEANOR

Ares kept groaning and muttering something incoherent in my head, then complaining over and over about why I went with Adrian rather than his brother, Alexander. Ares felt comfortable being with the alpha, saying she can feel kindness from him and even a sincerity towards us. I say she's getting way too comfortable and accepting with everything in our enemy pack, as though she's completely forgotten our main goal once we got here.

To escape and go rogue, or maybe live as a normal human being in some place far away from the werewolf world. Get a job I don't know. Pay for an apartment and such. That's what I'm seriously looking forward to. Not how to be a part of the enemy pack, to which my father threw me in like garbage he didn't need anymore.

I walked silently side by side with Adrian, who was leading me somewhere I couldn't care much about.

Honestly I had wanted to go with Alexander at first, but after he mentioned the thing about a mating ceremony taking place, and not just any ceremony, but a freaking mating ceremony that will be held for him and me! I opted out. That's the last thing I have in my mind. And I hate that his position as the alpha gives him the right to decide my fate, and who I'd be mating with. Not that it really matters, because I won't be mating with nobody as long as I'm cursed.

"Sister-in-law, I suddenly feel jealous of my brother. Tell me are you really his mate?" Alexander's brother, Adrian asked, pouting and whining like an overgrown child, which shocked me.

Adrian looked much more mature on the outside, with his strong, sharp features and cold blue eyes, but I would have never expected his personality to turn out to be so carefree and playful.

What he asked though had me biting my tongue in surprise. Then I remembered Alexander's secret, which he openly revealed to me yesterday in my room when he told me his true mate died.

I stared at Adrian's expectant face feeling conflicted. It doesn't seem like his own brother knows about Alexander's dead mate, because he's actually asking me if I am Alexander's real mate, which I know I'm not.

He stopped and looked at me in the eye. His face suddenly went from cheerful to serious as well as his aura. Now I felt like I couldn't breathe because of the heavy stench that was in the air. The type of stench that would send shivers snake down your spine.

"Words caught in your throat?" He asks.

I gulped, shaking my head.

"No, no. Alexander is really..."

Not my mate.

"My mate."

"Oh." He says, looking away from my face and fixing his eyes on the wall.

The next moment I instantly regretted what I said. Should I have told him I wasn't Alexander's real mate? Perhaps. But it's too late to change that now.

Adrian's face was whipped to the side so that I couldn't see him, and I bit my lip.

Great. Now what?

Then I was abruptly pulled out of my thoughts when Adrian placed a hand on my shoulder lightly. I stared at his hand then back at his handsome face, smiling gently at me. His face was beaming with a light that radiates a hint of friendliness and admiration.

I don't know why but I felt my heartbeat quicken a bit seeing his smile. Like I was seeing him move in slow motion even as he opens his mouth to speak to me.

"Sister-in-law, it's fine if you're really my brother's mate. I get it. He's always been the lucky one, so it's no surprise.” He said to me and looked down at the floor.

I nod and we continue walking down the hallway.

I couldn't help but somehow feel like I was being watched. But when I look around, there was no one there. So I shrugged the uncomfortable feeling to glance at Adrian, whose eyes were fixed at a door in the far corner.

In the following minutes of our journey to the halls he showed me all around the packhouse. We went by a couple of rooms, then the living room, the fireplace, treasure room and yes, he even showed me just how many bathrooms can fit an entire house packed with werewolves can possibly have, which was thoughtful enough for him.

And then we found ourselves standing in a large room surrounded by an abundance of paintings. For a moment I was astonished at how these art pieces were crafted exquisitely and with finesse. I couldn't quite take my eyes off one of the paintings of a partially naked woman, and a nightshade black wolf both covered with blood lying lifeless on the ground. Everything about it somehow brought out the sorrow in me, allowing me to symphatize with whoever the painter was. The background was visibly gloomy, and I can tell that the painter was heartbroken, desperate to let his own sorrow out through this image he had created in his head.

Adrian seemed to have noticed me staring at it as he stopped then spun around with a small melancholy smile plastered on his face.

"Sister-in-law, do you like art?" He asks.

I whip my head to look directly at him, forcing a smile of my own.

Nodding, I reply, "Il do”.

His gaze then shifted to the painting I was just staring at. There was a hint of sorrow and...desperation in his eyes I couldn't quite grasp the meaning of.

"You and my brother both. He painted all these” He threw both his hands into the air, and my eyes instantly widened as I looked over each and every painting around me in disbelief, but also in wild amusement. He...did all this? I don't know if it's the fact that I had not expected Alexander to have such an artistic side to him at all, or the insane reality that every one of them were extraordinary and breathtaking, that really left me stunned with eyes and lips wide open for a long while.

It was Adrian's soft chuckles that pulled me back to earth and recover from my shocked state.

"You two really are mates, aren't you?" I can't help but notice how his eyes always disappear on his face every time he laughs heartily like what he's doing now.

I raise an eyebrow at him, wanting to deny that remark but couldn't. I was vaguely aware of my lips parting to speak but then stopped as soon as Adrian's next words echoed inside my head.

"These are our parents. Alexander painted it, showing the exact same picture of the day they died ten years ago because of that fucking war" He spatted, his mood once again changing too fast and I felt unable to keep up with his mood swings. Nonetheless, I focused on the painting and saw that the beautiful woman in the painting resembled Alexander and Adrian's faces so well

"Is that.your mother?" I ask with a cautious tone, not wanting to provoke any more of the anger nor grief within him any more than I already have.

He nods, his eyes returning to mine and we shared a moment of silence.

Suddenly, I felt guilty. Even though I have had absolutely nothing to do with this, still. I felt like it had something to do with my pack, if not my family. We've long been enemies after all, I thought. If I remember correctly, I had heard my parents talk about a great war many years ago. It happened to us with the Red Silverwood Pack, but we were the ones who suffered greater loss and it took our pack a long time to recover from the damages done from the previous war.

"They were killed by members of the Blue Mountains Pack.” Adrain looked at me coldly, but such coldness in his tone, voice and eyes only lasted for a split second as he quickly masked his face again with a cheerful expression he's been putting up since the first time we met.

Did I just see wrong? Or was it all in my imagination?

I thought I'm going crazy because of his fast mood swings that was making my head spin all day.

I suddenly felt awkward so I dropped my eyes to the floor.

"Oh" was the only thing I came up with to say. Why do I get the feeling Adrian was looking at me so coldly? I find myself sighing inwardly, groaning.

It was because out of all the countless paintings that was hung here in this large room, I just had to point out the only one that would reawaken their feelings of a horrible past.

"Now don't go cold on me like that. Just because you're from that pack doesn't mean I have to hate you for it." He says, making me look up at his face abruptly.

That's exactly what I thought. I laugh to myself, though on the outside, I was expressing a more worried expression. Worried I might have reopened his wounds from the loss of their parents in their dark past. I was ignorant of all this, and I seemed to have forgotten that is precisely why I have to always keep my mouth shut.

“Let's just be more careful next time, Eleanor’ Ares spoke, and I nod inwardly for acknowledgement. Looking up at Adrian, I was slightly taken aback that his gloomy expression just now was quickly replaced with a cheerful, smiling face.

"Adrian! How many times did I tell you not to wander off into this room!" I heard the sound of loud footsteps approaching at us, forcing me to spin around to look at whom such threatening presence might belong to.

My eyes widened upon seeing Alexander walking towards us with a frown on his handsome face, looking unhappy as though he caught us doing something we weren't supposed to be doing. Taking two steps back, I accidentally stumbled and fell on something warm and firm, that sure as hell isn't the floor I'm sitting at because it would have hurt my butt even if it was just for a short while.

Alexander's footsteps stopped as he looked at me, a gasp escaping his lips. That was when I forced my head to whip around, only to realize that I was sitting on...

Adrian's lap!

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