Wolf Dominion
Chapter 38

I place the blanket over Skye, who is sleeping deeply after his fit. Looking into his younger face, I feel sad that I can’t say I’m his Luna. Vastian is close behind, his hand on my shoulder, turning me from his brother toward him.

I breathe in his quiet and large presence. Despite Vastian’s seemingly placid temperament, I can’t even look him in the eye, I feel so unsure about… well, his way of approaching me.

Two fingers lightly graze my chin, forcing me to look up and meet his gaze.

Vastian is full Genesis, and his age suits him. This man has lived through things I can’t imagine, and seen things I’ll never know. But still, he’s starkly handsome like Skye – without the scar on his upper lip and without a hint of softness in his eyes.

His eyes are just a stark ice cold Alpha blue – judging me.

I feel, under his gaze as if I’m really just a pointless pet… but somehow I am also a worthy Luna. I hated not understanding why.

Vastian holds my elbow – pulling me away from Skye.

I follow on instinct, and he takes me from the residence.

Vastian decides to show me to his home, so we can talk further. I just don’t expect it to be a hole in the wall. Almost a closet. Okay, that was a slight exaggeration. But it was a tiny.

I stand back, shocked it’s simply one honey comb square with a gold raw rock sparse floor, smoothed over… and a flatbed in the middle. A small space for a bed. Vastian heads over and sits on the low lying sheet of a bed.

Surely slaves had seen better accommodation.

“There’s nothing in here,” I murmur suspiciously, while standing by the closed sealed door, arms crossed over my chest.

Vastian happily sits with his elbows over his knees as he stares at the door and ponders over some thoughts… about me I guess.

“Ryder, you can relax, we’re here for privacy,” Vastian motions to the floor, “Mediation is a powerful tool when guiding Skye in ruling my planet,” Vastian speaks calmly, “You can sit down, those weights look heavy,” I can’t complain, so I plop my butt down onto the floor and lean back against the prized gold solividian that made up this Dominion including his little hole. There was something disturbing about what it said about Vastian’s inner workings, but I let it slide for now as he keeps talking for the moment, “Let me clear some things up,” Vastian nods at me, now that we’re at eye level, “Being Luna is not what you think it means.”

“Tell me more,” I whisper, feeling unworthy even trying to consider what I thought it meant; helping to rule the planet.

“Calm in the face of violent death, cruel authority, vile threats and sometimes imminent disasters… anything horrific,” Vastian holds my gaze steady, while he speaks without intense emotion, “You will remain calm. As I can. It’s not something to be proud of, it’s something to monitor very carefully. In absolute war, the leaders choose who will live, who will die. I advise Skye but I also submit to him.”

“But you trust his advice over your own? I don’t understand that mentality,” I admit, “It’s confusing to me if you know you are the ‘true’ Alpha.”

“It’s simply that I don’t trust myself with that kind of public position, I need a wall up around me at all times. I focus my private time on knowledge. Research. The military is my speciality and my passion. Raygar and Mila are also highly specialised in combat. Skye is the exception – he also has extra senses. A human heart. He is able to realise more as being something that is not born completely within Genesis code, his instincts are therefore broadened, and he’s confident, rather than arrogant. And while Skye represents true confidence, I can assure you… I represent true arrogance,” Vastian is dark with his conclusive statement but at least he’s honest.

“Well, you speak very quietly from the back of the room for someone who is proclaiming to be arrogant,” I add, just inquisitive, “Aside from what I saw in the Ward with the Shades.”

“I only share my arrogance with those who threaten my family or my values,” Vastian is still straight forward, with little emotion, “Ryder, I’ll never stop questioning your motives.”

Okay. I point to my chest for good measure. My body is still smudged with the sexy charcoal. The only slip I have on for my panties becomes uncomfortable with Vastian’s quiet consideration of deciding to never trust me.

“Why me?” I ask, “I’m loya–”

“It bothers me how many times you declare loyalty in words,” Vastian admits, “Do not give me a reason to show you my arrogance. I know no mercy. None, Ryder. I am not like Skye.”

“I think I understand that mentality,” I really did on a deeper level, however, because what he was saying spoke directly to a voice inside my chest. The voice of revenge and a need for what is right. I felt it for Human Kind. Vastian felt it for Genesis – his own breed, “I do want something else cleared up, Vastian, if you will.”

“My Luna,” Vastian doesn’t guess correctly, he just knows where my mind wanders. I blush a bit with the sentiment, reading too much into it.

“Yes, um, what does it mean –” I can’t even finish.

“For you and me? Stay out of my step,” Vastian breathes a bit heavier on the exhale with this statement. I read him well… he has a passion that is hard to mask completely. But something triggered him now, I just can’t pinpoint what and why.

“I meant, you know… how do I phrase it, doesn’t it mean we’re mates or something?” I ask it with an awkward grit to my teeth, trying to be humorous, but it comes out very uncomfortable.

Vastian drops one leg and he looks to the golden left, a bare wall, and I wonder if he regrets choosing such a space where we are forced to get to know each other. After an awkward pause, he glances back to me with a knowing.

“Alpha and Luna rarely get along,” Vastian also tries humour, but he’s too serious to pull it off and it sounds just as dry as me, “As for you, I’m not fond of you. But I might like you… just a little bit –” he’s turned on a soft note of seduction, but my brain catches onto a different thread.

“You’re not fond of revolution either,” I let it out before I can contain myself, with an edge of vehemence.

Vastian was the one who gave me the idea. I say it as a threat. I’m testing him out.

Will he read me well enough?

I was still curious what being a Luna really meant to him.

Vastian chooses a heavy silence before his seemingly light response, which he forces out, “Careful with me, Luna.”

I however, choose recklessness, “Your Luna.”

“It’s me you’ll have a problem with when it comes to loyalty toward you,” Vastian smirks a little, leaning forward to challenge me with his cheeky glare, “I don’t care about Skye and you and your relationship –”

“But do you ever wish Skye would share me with you too?” I ask, boldly, “Raygar had his way three nights ago.”

“Sexual favours do not sway where my loyalties lie, nor Raygar, don’t be fooled,” Vastian seemingly tries to help me, “Sex is different for Genesis. I do see being called a Luna has already transferred straight to your ego, Ryder. I’m not surprised.”

“Well,” I shrug, nonchalant, “It’s…. pretty advantageous,” and I feel smart saying it like that.

“Dangerous is the word you’re looking for,” Vastian abruptly pulls off his military jacket and folds it to the side. I watch him shuffle backward and sit cross legged while offering a spot in front of him, “Sit across from me,” he stares at the sheets.

I stand up and take a few steps over.

I sit down, only covered in black paint and the slip between my legs, barely covering my pussy with my legs now crossed.

In close proximity, Vastian snatches up both my hands and holds them, while we lock eyes.

“…what do you want?” I murmur, confused by our positions, as his face gets closer to mine, but it’s not sexual.

“We’ll lay our foreheads against one another,” Vastian explains, ice cold, “And I will read every thought you’ve had – since you are hell bent on loyalty. Allow me to see where your true heart lies. A simple trick with Transcendence will work and allow me in.”

“Um,” that sounded invasive, “If I refuse?” I have to ask.

“Either way, Ryder,” Vastian explains calmly over my eyes, while trying to keep in a smile… and that is a vicious smile, the kind I have only seen on Hades, “I’ll kill you if you don’t obey,” I hold my breath, because it’s not a lie.

I obey.

Jawkin. Lemeri. Others. All say to obey in times like this. In this very specified instance, I feel I have no choice but to show I understand I can do nothing but accept the power dynamic.

I look down and submit. There is a warmth in his hands as they hold mine firm, and his forehead leans into my own. Face to face. A very small part of me is oddly excited to finally share my feelings with another. Even though the outcome can’t be good.

An imminent disaster is more likely.

But what could I do?

I close my eyes as he closes his.

Vastian transcends immediately into my brain, to read my soul. I feel the slightest weight on my mind. A pleasant intrusion almost.

Then he starts to dig.

First it’s just feelings brought to the surface. Trauma. Pain. Loneliness.

Then it’s specific memories, shuffling through. Starvation. Running. Hiding. Death. The morning sunblast burning me on one too many occasions as a child.

Next, most prominent desire. Safety, my number 1 priority. I didn’t even know that, but he helps me dig it out by almost controlling my thoughts to face things I didn’t like, but knew deep down.

And then Vastian focuses on my most rehashed, replayed dream.

There were violent truths in dreams that we sometimes didn’t consider as possible reality, but still wanted oh so badly. I almost feel he thinks that, within my brain. We’re really one in this. It feels like water replaceing more water – not an intrusion, more a relaxed reunion.

I love it a little much, sharing with him my mind. It’s special.

But then I see in great detail; the dream.

It’s vivid and it’s splashed across my imagination.

Skye, he is torn apart, blood paints his office, while humans run a muck in Wolf Dominion and take over while the emergency intercom is controlled by me, declaring the Alpha is dead. I was able to kill him, and in doing do, power and justice and vengeance were exacted in that moment.

A silly vile fantasy, but extremely vivid for how many times I had imagined it before even meeting him.

Now, I thought of it in different terms.

Now it was worse. Now, betrayal was added in.

Because we had something together. Love.

B-but, they were also just thoughts. Nothing real. Just thoughts construed into a silly dream.

The Transcendence cracks apart violently as Vastian’s forehead lifts from mine.

I blink multiple times to focus as my brain shifts with the release of him, and I can’t breathe as I realise what this means.

My deepest secrets are now his.

I am heavy with resignation, but I don’t freak out. This was just how it was now. Vastian… he looks different. Distant, but in control as he observes me, “You don’t love him as much as you think you do,” Vastian’s answer is cold, “You love him because he’s closer to your human fulfilment. You’re loyal to Wolf Dominion because you feel that is your way… of replaceing justice. One step at a time. Until our downfall. A Luna. An infiltrator… but also a lost Luna because you’re young and naïve about what those deep desires really mean for you and your future in Wolf Dominion.”

“Maybe I am all that, maybe I have no idea – you can sense I am confused,” I beg with him now, but Vastian looks down on me with a still pose.

“Sure, if it helps you feel better. You may be confused how to best harness your position to feel fulfilled… you place value in revenge. That is all I see. Majority of it. It’s revenge. Not even so much as power. Just a feeling of spilling blood to calm a deep seated rage about a loss of control you’ve had as a child. Losing both parents.”

“Is this the part you tell me you’ll kill me for treasonous thoughts?” I ask, a sick part of me almost hopes for it.

“This is the part I tell you…” Vastian leans in, to relay my punishment, “…you have only one option left, to be honest. You must tell the truth. And nothing but the truth. Not to Skye. To me. And you can remain in Wolf Dominion, even at Skye’s side,” Vastian is not phased.

Not even a little bit.

“…I… can remain…?” I whisper, “B –”

“Luna, a burning hot need for revenge can be directed into other feelings that come from the same flame, it’s all a drive… to have a purpose,” Vastian smirks and lets go of my hands, “Return to Skye.”

“I have not even said I will be honest yet, you trust already that I will trust you to hear my truth,” I am completely flustered as I stand up and take a step back away from him.

Vastian also rises, looking confident in my direction… away from him.

“From the other things I could see… I know you’ll tell me everything I need to know,” Vastian smirks a bit, “You’re fond of me. That’s good.”

Apparently it was.

I take in his wild eyes and the happiness I see there.

It’s a shock to see that emotion now. After what he saw.

“I…” and I guess I was fond of him, I hadn’t thought about it too much but just a feeling… I mean, a feeling of – safety. With him. I really hadn’t pondered it too much, it was just something I knew. I –

“Go, Ryder,” Vastian watches me with amusement as I try to remember how to turn and walk off.

Were we…somehow allies… almost behind Skye’s back?

I seemed to have that effect on people. Jawkin. Raygar. Lemeri, almost. Xrat. Skye.

Now my secrets, within Vastian.

My core truth, hidden within and behind Wolf Dominion’s true Alpha.

Vastian was very peculiar to me – but not in a funny way.

Arrogance from a Genesis so quiet was unnerving.

So was his confidence in knowing my loyalty would undoubtedly favour himself; Vastian. Because I didn’t even know that. So… he was assuming.

Except… it felt like death of… my rise to any more power.

Not a bad thing, I think. But it is a solid hold upon me, a tight understanding, a bond, oh –

Mates? Vastian and I. Vastian didn’t deny it. He just said Alpha and Luna rarely got along.

And I still feel unexplainably safe with him – even though he is the very one I should be wary of.

Either way, I don’t like the juxtaposition of my feelings and what he’s done to me. I think I’d willingly stay out of his step, as long as he stayed out of mine!

But my dream.

Now I had to really be wary. But I was safe. But he knew –

Fuck.

Vastian was in control of me.

My future.

Everything about me.

I shouldn’t feel safe.

So why the fuck did I?