The Luna's Revenge: Chosen as his breeder, Born to rule

Tessa’s pov

Being banished from Winterwood was the worst thing I had ever experienced in my life ... and I had lived every single one of my years inside those borders.

But apparently, it was about to get worse.

Because in Winterwood, banishment didn’t just strip you of your title. It marked you. Branded you in ways that followed you past the gates and into whatever was left of your life. You stopped being desired the way you should be. You stopped being seen the way you should be.

A place I had grown up in, built myself inside of, poured every version of myself into ... abandoned, because I slept with a beta. And whatever other charges they decided to pile on top of that.

I had done far less than half the wolves in Winterwood who walked around untouched and unpunished for far worse. I just had the misfortune of getting caught.

Lucky me.

That was genuinely how I chose to see it. I called myself a lucky one and I meant it, because the alternative ... collapsing into bitterness and self-pity on the side of the road ... wasn’t something I was built for. I refused to be pessimistic. I refused to let this be permanent in my mind even when everything around me screamed that it was.

There’s light at the end of the tunnel ... that’s what people said when they wanted to dress up hopelessness in something prettier.

But out here, beyond Winterwood’s walls, there was no light. No tunnel. No sign that either one existed.

Kael was with me, which was the one thing making this marginally bearable. He was just as screwed as I was, which at least made us even.

We walked out of the Winterwood gates side by side, and the guards ... the same ones who wouldn’t have dared hold eye contact with me a week ago ... stared openly. One of them looked me dead in the face and laughed.

”Luna my foot,” he said, and then spat on the ground.

I stared back at him. Said nothing.

Another one couldn’t resist. ”The Luna likes a premium dick,” he called after us, laughing at his own joke.

I almost laughed myself ... not because it was funny, but because of what I was going to do to all of them once I reclaimed my standing. And I would reclaim it. Tessa in any position was still Tessa. That had never changed and it never would.

I would show them exactly what that meant.

”Don’t follow me, Kael,” I said once we were far enough from the gates.

I wanted to be alone with my thoughts. He ignored me completely and kept walking at my side.

”Are you mad?” I turned on him. ”I told you not to follow me ... if we were still in the king’s...”

”But we’re not,” he cut in, calm as anything. ”And besides, it’s not safe out here.”

He was right, and I hated it. The sun had already set. It was dark, and the thicket we were moving through wasn’t exactly welcoming.

But did he have to interrupt me to make his point?

”Stay far from me, then,” I said, and we walked on together through the dark like the two completely displaced, formerly powerful wolves that we were.

”This is so not Luna and Beta lifestyle,” I muttered.

Kael laughed.

”What exactly is funny?” I asked. I genuinely couldn’t figure out what was amusing him.

”You,” he said. ”The way you’ve been complaining since we left Winterwood.”

”And whose fault is it that we left Winterwood?” I shot back.

”My dad always told me we should take responsibility for our own actions,” he said.

That one landed somewhere it shouldn’t have. I smacked him across the back before I could even think about it.

”Oww ... what was that for?”

”For being such an asshole,” I said.

We kept walking.

The dark got thicker and the path got harder to read.

”Are we just going to keep walking and hope something useful appears out of nowhere?” I asked.

”I could keep walking,” Kael said. ”But you know what ... let’s light a fire here.”

He crouched down and started gathering stones from the side of the path, scraping them together to get a spark going. It didn’t come quickly. I dropped down beside him and joined in because I was already cold and I needed that heat more than I needed pride.

I had never lit a fire intentionally in my life. Back in Winterwood, the males handled that ... camping trips, outdoor gatherings, all of it. But I tried anyway, and we kept at it until something finally caught and held.

I peeled off the first layer of my dress to get closer to the warmth.

”Look away, you fucking...” I started, catching Kael staring.

”Anything you say, my queen,” he replied.

My queen. Was that sarcasm? I couldn’t tell with him. I stared at him for a second and then let it go. He had seen me bare more times than either of us were counting, so the outrage felt a little performative even to me.

”If we don’t die of cold,” I said, settling closer to the fire, ”we’ll definitely die of hunger. I’m sure Lucian would love that.”

”Don’t say that,” Kael said.

”Why not?”

”Because I just spotted a rabbit, that’s why. Shush ... let me catch it.”

He stood up slowly and moved through the dark without a sound. A few seconds later, he came back with the rabbit, neck already broken cleanly, and placed it over the fire.

”Proving you’re an alpha male, are you?” I asked.

”You’re welcome.” He sat back down beside me. ”And am I not?”

”No one said you weren’t. Fuck you,” I said.

He laughed again. And this time, I almost did too.

”We’re going to be alright, Tessa.” His voice dropped, quieter now. He must have heard the exhaustion I was trying to keep out of mine. ”This is only temporary. We’ll get through it.”

”By temporary you mean five years?” I asked.

”No. I mean soon.”

I didn’t answer that. The rabbit was ready by then and we divided it with our hands and ate without speaking. It wasn’t much, but it was warm, and warm was everything right now

We lay down on the ground once the fire started to die. The cold rolled back in the moment the flames dropped low, and it came back meaner than before.

”Hold me,” I said to Kael.

He didn’t just hold me. He pulled me in close and curled around me, and the cold retreated. His chest was solid and warm against my back and for a few minutes I just let myself breathe.

Then he started moving against me. Slow and quiet, just the gentlest press of his hips against my ass, like he wasn’t sure he had permission.

He kept going, and then he stopped.

”Why did you stop?” I asked.

”I didn’t know you wanted it.” His breath was warm against the back of my neck, low and careful.

He started moving again, slow and deliberate, his lips finding the back of my neck, then my shoulders, trailing down with patience I hadn’t expected from him in the middle of a dark thicket with the cold creeping back in from every side.

I had never felt warmer.

I reached back and wrapped my hand around him, feeling just how ready he already was.

”Raise the skirt,” I said. ”And slide into me.”

He did exactly as I said.

He took me right there in the dark, and I let him, and it was everything I didn’t know I needed. The moans that left us both were the most honest sound either of us had made since we walked out of those gates.

It wasn’t hope, exactly.

But it was close enough.