The Alpha King's Contracted Luna

Chapter 1

Ava’s POV

Concealers.

Scarfs.

Smiles.

None of them were enough to mask the shock I still felt as I stared at the screen before me.

I saw my husband, Dylan, his hands gripping Crystal’s neck in pleasure unlike the way they always gripped mine whenever I spoke out of turn. He kissed her with passion, leaving red marks on her naked back, different from the bruises he gave me, which came from his anger whenever he punched me for any slight mistake.

Quickly forcing all thoughts out and wiping away the tears that were seconds from falling, I focused on the door.

The only solution to stop this constant pain was right behind it and all I had to do was turn the knob. But then the door suddenly swung open just as I reached for it forcing me to collide with a wall.

I stumbled backwards, my legs giving out and I crumbled to the floor looking up to see the wall.

Then I saw him.

The answer.

His cold gray eyes stared back at me pinning me to the ground. It didn’t matter how many of his pictures I had seen, I was not prepared to be physically hit with how beautiful he was.

Grayson Blackwood.

The Alpha King.

His eyes locked onto mine, and for a split second, everything stopped. The world around me faded, and all that existed was his gaze—sharp, assessing, and impossibly cold.

With the last ounce of strength I had, I bowed my head, kneeling at his feet. “Please,” I rasped, my voice raw and broken. “Please, Alpha King… help me.”

“Ava.” I heard Dylan, my husband growl from the side, stepping towards us and I couldn’t help but notice the stark difference between the two men before me.

Dylan’s stare, though equally cold, burned with an intensity that made me want to shrink back. It was the kind of look that held a thousand unspoken threats, and I knew each one by heart.

Grayson Blackwood’s gaze was different.

Detached, like he was observing something insignificant, something beneath his notice. I could hardly breathe under the weight of it, and yet, there was something else there too, something that made my heart stutter in my chest.

How could someone so beautiful be so utterly terrifying?

His presence was magnetic, drawing me in even as my instincts screamed at me to run. He stepped back, retreating into the hall, and I forced myself to my feet, my entire body trembling with the effort.

The eyes of every pack member in the room were on me, and I could feel the weight of their judgment like a physical force.

“What is the meaning of this?” Dylan’s voice was laced with fury, but I ignored him, my eyes locked on the Alpha King.

He still hadn’t looked away, his gray eyes piercing through me as if he could see every secret, every lie, every fear I had ever buried.

Dylan’s voice rose, sharper, angrier. “Stop embarrassing me!”

“Who is she?”

It took me a moment to realize Alpha Grayson had spoken even though my eyes were focused solely on him. His voice was so low and silky. So alluring that it seemed to seep into my bones.

Dylan’s jaw clenched, his teeth grinding together as he spat out the words. “She’s my Luna.”

Grayson’s eyes flashed with something for a fleeting moment—interest, maybe?—but just as quickly as it appeared, it was gone, replaced by the same detached indifference. He turned to Dylan, a slight arch to his brow. “I thought you said your Luna was on a business trip.”

Dylan opened his mouth to respond, but I couldn’t let him take control of this situation, not now. Not when I was so close. On instinct, my gaze traveled to Crystal narrowing on the bruise on her neck.

The one she wore around the pack house proudly and there was a flicker of a taunting smile on her lips making me grind my teeth in anger.

I tore my eyes away and turned to the Alpha King. Then I bowed my head before him. “Alpha Grayson, forgive me for this intrusion, but this was my only option. I’ve been backed into a corner, and I had nowhere else to turn.”

“Enough,” Dylan snapped, his voice cutting through the air like a whip. “Ava, go back inside. You’re making a fool of yourself.”

Alpha Grayson silenced him with a single, frigid glance. “Quiet.”

The command was soft, almost too soft to be threatening, but the power behind it was undeniable. Dylan fell silent immediately, his mouth snapping shut as though he’d been physically struck.

My heart pounded in my chest, a wild, uncontrollable rhythm as his gaze shifted back to me, trailing down my body with a leisurely indifference that made me feel exposed, vulnerable.

“Naked,” I thought.

I felt naked under his scrutiny.

The moment passed then after what felt like an eternity, he spoke again. “Go on.”

The words were simple, but the command in it was absolute. My voice wavered as I forced the words out. “I want you to end my relationship with Dylan.”

One of his eyebrows lifted slightly, a silent question yet no words left his lips as he waited for me to continue. From the corner of my eye, I saw Dylan tense, his entire body coiled with barely restrained anger.

I didn’t care anymore.

I was done pretending.

“I’ve been living in frustration,” I continued, my voice gaining strength with each word. “I want a family. I want to be loved but ever since we were mated, Dylan has refused to touch me. He’s denied me everything, every right I should have as his Luna.” I paused, my heart racing as I prepared to drop the final bombshell. “And I have reason to believe that he’s impotent.”

Gasps echoed around the room fading away under the sound of Dylan’s growl which erupted like a thunderclap, and I saw him move, his hand raised to strike me. I braced myself, my body tensing in anticipation of the blow.

“Touch her, and you’ll lose that hand,” Alpha Grayson’s voice cut through the chaos, calm and cold.

The room fell deathly silent, the only sound the rapid pounding of my heart. Dylan froze, his hand hovering in the air, his face contorted with rage and humiliation.

I could barely process what had just happened, my mind reeling as Alpha Grayson’s gaze returned to me. “Why do you believe your mate is impotent?”

I hesitated, my eyes flickering back to her. She was staring at me with pure, unfiltered hatred, her lips curled into a sneer and before I could find the strength to speak, Dylan’s voice sliced through the thick tension like a blade despite the Alpha King’s warning. “I’m not impotent,” he spat out, his tone dripping with indignation, as if the mere suggestion wounded his pride.

I turned to face him fully now, “Then say it, Dylan. Say why you’ve refused to touch me. Say why you’ve denied me the right to carry your pup. Why—” My voice cracked, but I pressed on, my eyes boring into him, demanding answers that had been withheld for too long. “Why have you treated me like I’m nothing?”

The room was heavy with the weight of unsaid words, the air thick with expectation. I could see it in the eyes of those watching—the pack, the council members, the Alpha King himself. They were all waiting, hanging on the precipice of a revelation that would shatter everything.

And so was I. This was it.

“It leaves me with no choice but to believe that you are—“

Dylan’s voice erupted like thunder, desperate and raw, cutting me off before I could finish, “I’m not impotent because Crystal is pregnant with my pup!”

Chapter 2

Ava’s POV

The silence crashed over the room like a tidal wave, drowning every sound as all eyes turned toward Dylan. I could see the panic in his eyes, the way his mouth opened and closed like a fish gasping for air.

The realization of what he’d just confessed was sinking in, and it took everything in me not to let a smug smile slip onto my face.

He wanted to speak, to take it all back, but before he could utter a word, Alpha Grayson’s voice sliced through the tension, “Another woman is pregnant with your pup?”

Dylan’s lips moved without sound. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of Crystal. The confident smirk she’d worn moments ago was gone, replaced with sheer terror. She was trying to fade into the background, to disappear, but it was too late for that.

The replay of the video that had shocked me suddenly hit me and it felt like I was watching it again.

Dylan’s hand tangled in her hair as he drove into her, their bodies colliding over and over. Crystal’s eyes were locked in the direction of the camera like she knew it was there, her lips parted in pleasure, while he continued his betrayal right in my matrimonial bed.

“You knew.”

The words jerked me back to the present, my gaze snapping to Alpha Grayson. His eyes, once cold and indifferent, now held a sliver of curiosity. He wasn’t asking a question; he already knew the answer. I nodded, a slow, deliberate motion that felt like it took an eternity.

Dylan’s voice cut through the silence, harsh and desperate, “For how long?”

Alpha Grayson’s gaze darted to him, a warning clear in his eyes. “If you speak again, it will be your last act.”

He turned his attention back to me, his eyes tracing the outline of my figure with more interest, lingering in a way that made my skin burn, “How did you find out?”

Why was it suddenly so hot in here?

I drew in a shaky breath, the words heavy in my chest as I began to recount the nightmare of the last few weeks. “I first noticed his scent on her about a month ago. I didn’t think much of it at first. I just figured they’d been in close quarters. But then, I started seeing bruises on her neck, and I had been a victim of it to not recognize the marks.”

I let out a sigh, wiping the tears I didn’t realize were falling down my cheeks, “I really thought he was hurting her too but then her attitude changed. She started acting like she was better than me, like she had something over me. I suspected something, but I couldn’t catch them in the act.”

My gaze flickered to Crystal and I held her terrified gaze, “A week ago, I set my phone to record and left it in the corner of the bedroom. That’s when I finally saw them together—what they did in our bed.”

My voice broke as I finished, my gaze returning to Dylan. Locking on him. His face was flushed, a deep, furious red, and I forced myself to keep speaking, “We both wear bruises but while mine are marks of his anger, hers represents his betrayal.”

Alpha Grayson’s gaze slid from my face to Dylan’s “There are many things I find trivial but a man hitting a woman is not one of them.”

Dylan opened his mouth to explain, before he could get a word out, Alpha Grayson’s tone dropped to something glacial. The air around us seemed to thicken with his power, an aura so suffocating that it made my knees weak. “Do not ever try to speak when I’m speaking.”

Dylan shrank back, and I could see the fear creeping into his eyes.

“The alliance is dissolved,” Alpha Grayson announced, his voice cutting through the room like a knife.

Dylan’s entire body stilled, the words leaving his lips in stutter, “The papers—they’ve been signed… You can’t do that…”

Alpha Grayson’s eyes narrowed, his gaze deadly. “Say another word in my direction, and I’ll show you why I’m the Alpha of all Alphas.”

I could feel myself trembling, my body reacting to the sheer force of his presence. Then his eyes slid to me, pinning me in place with an intensity that stole the breath from my lungs. His expression was unreadable, cold and calculating, as if he were deciding my fate right then and there.

“And as of this moment,” he continued, his voice carrying the weight of a final judgment, “your relationship with Dylan is over. You are free.”

For a moment, I couldn’t process what he was saying. The words hung in the air, almost surreal. Dylan, who had been silently seething, suddenly snapped. “You can’t do that!” he yelled, his voice cracking with desperation.

I didn’t get the chance to react before a man in a suit; someone I hadn’t even noticed was on Dylan, twisting his arm behind his back with a brutal force that made me wince. The sickening sound of bone cracking filled the room, and Dylan was forced to his knees, his face twisted in pain.

He struggled, but it was useless. The man held him firm, and then Crystal finally broke from her stunned silence, screaming Dylan’s name as she rushed toward him.

Alpha Grayson’s head snapped toward her, a single look freezing her in place. She stopped dead in her tracks, her eyes wide with terror. His attention shifted back to Dylan, who was panting heavily, his face a mask of pain and rage.

“I’m not one for unnecessary bloodshed,” Alpha Grayson said, his voice calm, “I could easily make an exception.”

Dylan’s eyes were filled with hate when they settled on me even while he struggled and despite the warning, he spat, “You think you’ve won but you are nothing but a fool and you are banished—“

The temperature in the room plummeted so suddenly that it felt like the air had turned to ice. My breath caught in my throat as I noticed Alpha Grayson’s eyes turning pitch black. I took an instinctive step back, fear prickling along my spine as his gaze settled on Dylan.

“I dare you to finish that statement,” His voice was dangerously soft, each word laced with a threat that made the hair on the back of my neck stand.

“I… Alpha…” Dylan’s voice faltered, the arrogance draining from his face.

“Get out. All of you,” Alpha Grayson commanded, his voice a low growl that rippled through the room with a power that left no room for argument.

In seconds, the room emptied. I barely registered the men leaving Dylan, Crystal rushing to his side, helping him stumble to his feet before they both vanished like smoke.

Move, Ava.

The thought echoed in my mind, but my body refused to obey. I was rooted to the spot, my heart hammering in my chest. Then his voice cut through the silence again, sharp and precise.

“Stay.”

I froze, my pulse quickening as the realization dawned—I was alone with the most powerful man in our world. His eyes, still black as night, bore into me, and I felt a heat rising beneath my skin, a mixture of fear and something else I couldn’t quite name.

“When did it start?” His voice broke the silence, the question loaded with more than just curiosity. I instantly knew what he was asking.

When did Dylan start hurting me?

The words trembled out of my lips on autopilot, “A month after he marked me.”

Another wave of silence followed. He kept staring at me, a sharp, assessing look as if he were trying to piece together the full picture. “Did you plan for this to happen?”

The question hung in the air, heavy with implication. I shook my head, the truth slipping out before I could think it through. “Dylan refused to let me divorce him. He said he wouldn’t allow me to ruin his reputation. The idea of exposing him had been brewing for days and I knew how much he carried his pride which was why I called him impotent.”

I sucked in a deep breath before continuing, “I didn’t know what he would say but I knew whatever it was, it would be enough for the pack to know. That he is a cheating and lying bastard.”

Alpha Grayson didn’t say anything. He just stared then as if the whole situation suddenly bored him, he turned his back on me, walking away without a second glance.

The moment he stepped away, it felt like I could finally breathe again, the oppressive weight of his aura lifting off my chest followed by the settling realization.

I couldn’t stay here anymore. I was now homeless.

In my desperate need to escape Dylan, I hadn’t thought that far ahead. He was right. I had nowhere to go. My parents, ever the perfectionists, would never take me back after this disgrace.

I had no money of my own. Dylan had made sure of that, reducing me to nothing more than a trophy Luna.

Now, I was truly alone.

I stared at the ground just as panic started to creep in, making my hands shake.

What was I going to do?

“Why are you still standing there?”

His silky voice drawled, yanking me out of my spiraling thoughts. I snapped my head to Alpha Grayson’s direction, blinking in confusion, not sure if I’d heard him right. “What?”

A faint smile tugged at the corner of his lips, so small that I might have missed it if I wasn’t staring directly at him. There was something deadly in that smile, something that made my heart race for entirely different reasons.

“You are coming with me,” he declared, his voice steady and commanding, “From this moment, you are under my protection and you are an official member of my pack.”

Chapter 3

Ava’s POV

The man who had brought Dylan returned the moment Alpha Grayson disappeared from the room, not giving me a chance to process the words with his stern face giving nothing away. “Alpha Grayson doesn’t appreciate his time being wasted. Grab your essentials. We are leaving. Now.”

My feet moved on autopilot, the urgency in his tone propelling me forward. I glanced one last time at Dylan, who stared at me with a fury that could have set the room ablaze. I could feel his hatred, but I had no time for it. I turned away and raced up the stairs, my heart pounding with each step.

I unlocked the door which was meant to keep me in, throwing it open. The room was in a blur of disarray as I grabbed whatever I could—clothes, a few mementos, and anything else I might need.

My mind was spinning.

I wasn’t just packing up my belongings; I was about to drop my entire life behind and step into the unknown with a man I didn’t know.

Every fiber of my being wanted to pause, to consider my next move carefully, but there was no time. I had to leave Dylan and his world of superficial perfection behind. I could deal with my parents’ disappointment later. For now, I was running toward something, or rather someone, who commanded respect from every Alpha.

The bag felt heavy in my hand as I dashed out of the mansion, my breath coming in sharp gasps, and into the waiting convoy. I didn’t look back. The only thing that mattered was getting as far from Dylan and his pack as possible.

I had never even felt like I belonged.

As the car sped away, the world outside became a hazy blur of lights and shadows. My heart raced, not just from the speed but from the anticipation of what lay ahead. The car finally slowed as we approached the gates of a grand estate, and my breath caught in my throat.

I had no idea that he lived in the same city.

The mansion was breathtaking—more opulent than I could have imagined, even in my wildest dreams. The car came to a stop, and the door was opened by a man in a perfectly tailored suit, his eyes blank, “The Alpha King wants to see you in his study.”

I nodded numbly, two questions going through my mind.

Did no one smile around here?

And how did Alpha Grayson get in his study so fast?

The scent that hit me the moment I stepped into the study was a blend of chocolate and rosewood, rich and intoxicating. It stirred something primal within me, making my wolf stir restlessly.

Then I saw him.

He sat behind a large, imposing desk, his gray eyes locking onto mine with an intensity that made my knees weak. We stared at each other for what felt like an eternity before he calmly drawled, “Sit down, Ava.”

The command was simple, but there was something in his tone that made it impossible to refuse. I took a deep breath, trying to steady my racing heart, and sank into the chair opposite him.

His gaze never wavered, and a small, almost imperceptible smile touched his lips.

“How did you know my name?” I blurted out before I could stop myself.

The smile widened, a dangerous glint in his eyes. He didn’t answer the question forcing me to take another deep breath, trying to calm the storm of emotions swirling inside me. “What do you plan to do with me?”

His eyebrow quirked, a touch of amusement in his eyes. “Do with you how?” he asked, his voice dripping with a suggestive undertone that made my breath hitch.

He leaned back in his chair, his posture relaxed yet commanding. “Your parents are the best medical practitioners on paper in the country. Is this true in reality and did you inherit any of their skills?”

The question was completely unexpected, leaving me momentarily stunned. I didn’t answer, my mind racing. How did he know about my parents?

He seemed to sense my confusion. “I came to inspect Dylan’s pack due to the alliance. I like to be well-informed about the people I align myself with. That’s how I knew your name. I know everything there is to know about you, Ava.”

Ava.

My name had never sounded more perfect in my ears.

I saw his eyes flicker with irritation at my silence and I felt a shiver run down my spine under his intense gaze. “I’m sorry,” I finally managed, my voice trembling. “I didn’t mean to stay silent.”

Alpha Grayson let out a sigh, more tired than irritated. He ran a hand through his hair, pushing back the strands that had fallen into his eyes, but they simply fell back into place. The movement was both casual and commanding, and it only made his striking features more pronounced.

His jawline was sharp, his eyes a piercing gray that seemed to see right through me, and his beautiful lips were set in a firm, disinterested line. I felt my cheeks flush, the heat rising as I forced myself to look away and focus on my trembling fingers.

He was too beautiful for this world.

The silence stretched, and I could feel the weight of his gaze on me. It was uncomfortable and with another sigh, he broke the silence, “You still haven’t answered my question.”

His question?

I snapped back to reality, remembering his earlier query. “Yes,” I rushed out, “my parents are indeed the best in the country. They taught me their skills, but Dylan—he made me stop. I had to become his trophy Luna.”

Alpha Grayson nodded slowly, as if processing the information. He reached for a document that had been sitting in front of him, unnoticed until now. His hand brushed mine as he passed it to me, and the contact sent a jolt through me I wasn’t prepared for.

I quickly pulled my hand back, trying to steady my breath.

The document trembled slightly in my hands as I tried to regain my composure but before I could even glance at it, his next words hit me like a lightning bolt, leaving me momentarily stunned.

“I want you to be my contracted Luna.”