Moon Marked

5| Mark of Tension

I tried to get him out of my head as I tossed and turned in my sheets, staring out the window at the moon and praying to it. But time was passing by too slowly, and even as he no longer stood in front of me, the Alpha was still holding me hostage and hounding the honesty of my thoughts. There was nothing I could do to stop the way he was infiltrating my waking desires—nothing I could do that didn't involve running back to him.

Instead—I closed my eyes and pushed my hand between my thighs, and in the deliriousness of my dreams, he was right where I needed him to be.

***

I awoke when the sun had fully risen, groaning as I turned in my bed.

The aches of last night still clung to my skin with a vengeance even after everything I had done to try and remedy them.

The scent of my desperation was still heavy in the air, undiluted and angry as I stretched. I felt the remnants of my yearning body and the new bruises I had gained from when Meena had pulled me from the ledge of the roof, trying to hide me from the Alpha that had now managed to dig himself under my skin.

The first of my sins felt minuscule compared to everything I had done in its wake.

The panic and pain sprouting in unison as I pulled myself up from my bed, turning to the clock on my side cabinet.

Oh no. Oh no, no, no.

In the three years that I had stayed in this sanctuary, I had never once missed the morning rituals and now here I was, a mess in every single way. The accumulation of all my problems leading back to the Alpha who had seen the crack in my armour last night.

I moved quickly, grabbing my robe as I shook the sleepiness from my system.

Morning rituals were not an obligation, but on a morning like this— everyone would have already gathered in the dining hall to eat breakfast by now, arranging their ceremonial plates and having conversations as if they would be their last. Ever since the girls in the sanctuary had turned on me a few years ago, I had made it a rule to myself to be the first one there—to hide in a corner until the time of the claiming ceremony came, but this time there would be no hiding.

It wasn't their fault really. Emotions were always high this close to the ceremony and their wolves saw me as a threat, so they ridiculed my misfortune and believed the curse they had all made up in their heads.

I rushed to the bathing room, letting out a shriek as I smacked into someone just as I made it past the entrance.

"You missed morning prayers, I thought for sure that the matrons had caught you last night—did they let you off?" Meena's hands were on my shoulders as she stopped me in front of the sinks, her nails digging into my skin as she proved her fear for me.

"There's nothing you need to worry about, the matrons are none the wiser of what we got up to last night," I assured her as she pulled away from me with a sigh of relief.

Meena didn't look like she had gotten much sleep worrying about my predicament, her eyes ringed with red and her skin far too ashy considering her golden complexion.

"So, the Alpha hasn't said anything then?" She whispered, almost as if she was speaking to herself, the frantic pace of her heart slowing to a lull for a moment.

"He isn't going to," I assured her again.

"And how can you know that? Maybe he is waiting to see if you are his so that he can punish you himself—either way, when he leaves with another girl you will still be disciplined by the matrons." She said, working herself up all over again.