The Wolf God's Unwanted Luna

Zaliver’s POV

I felt them before I heard them, two wolves approaching my office, their scents carried on the stale air like a warning. I exhaled sharply, my thoughts reluctantly pulling away from Vivian. The heaviness in my chest tightened into irritation as I leaned back in my chair. The moment the door creaked open, Albericus entered with Hogan at his side.

Hogan had been with me for about two decades, picked out of the sea of hopefuls for his precision and work ethic. He always looked put-together, the kind of professional presentation that should’ve inspired confidence, black slacks, deep purple shirt, sleek black tie. His neat brown hair matched his steady brown eyes, though today those eyes were avoiding mine. Arms crossed, shoulders tense. He knew he’d messed up.

Albericus closed the door behind them and stepped quietly to Hogan’s side. He gave me a look. The kind that said you’re not going to like this. I didn’t need the warning. I could already feel my temper building beneath the surface.

I nodded once, silently urging him to start.

"I did the interrogations like you ordered," Albericus said carefully, "but no one admitted to sending anything outside the island. Still, while going over the administrative files with Hogan, we found that one person submitted a request to leave within the last two weeks."

I stiffened, foot beginning to bounce restlessly against the floor. Departure requests weren’t uncommon, but this was not the time for standard protocols to go unexamined. These were details I had trusted them to manage.

"Was it a temporary departure," I asked, voice low with irritation, "or were they asking to leave for good?"

Hogan finally spoke, his usually composed voice just a shade too rough. "Permanent."

My gaze snapped to him. He shifted under the weight of it.

"You authorized it without looking into the reasons or the timing?" My voice dropped into something cold and quiet.

"I, I checked," he stammered, already cracking, "but—"

"But what?" I ground out, fingers digging into the armrest hard enough to leave dents. Albericus instinctively stepped a few paces away from him.

Hogan swallowed. "The request came from someone who wasn’t under any sort of watch. I assumed it was routine."

He had the nerve to look guilty after the fact.

Before I even processed the decision, I was on my feet and my hand was at his throat.

I lifted him effortlessly, his feet leaving the floor, his hands clawing at my grip. He tried to push back with whatever wolf strength he had, and it did nothing. I brought him close until we were nose to nose.

"I don’t care about your assumptions," I said, voice a low growl. "You don’t get to assume when the safety of this pack, when she, is on the line. When you speak to me, Hogan, you come with facts and logic, no hesitations, no vague excuses. I don’t have the patience to drag answers out of you."

I dropped him.

He crumpled to the floor, coughing, hands going to his throat. I turned my back and returned to my chair, deliberately slow.

He wheezed behind me. I didn’t look at him.

"Start over," I said, clipped. "Everything this time."

Because one mistake was already too many, and I wasn’t about to let anything else slip while Vivian was out there unaware of how close everything was to unraveling.

"He had a mate," Hogan blurted, voice trembling, one hand still at his throat like he wasn’t sure he’d be keeping it. "He said he couldn’t stay on the island with the one who killed her. Said it didn’t matter who you were."

I stiffened.

Albericus turned his head toward Hogan slowly. "Who?" he asked, voice low and edged.

Hogan stared at the floor, refusing to look at either of us. This was always why he was third-in-command and not Beta. Good with logistics, reliable with paperwork, but there was a hesitancy in him when it counted, a reluctance to hold conviction under pressure, that kept him exactly where he was.

"Martha," I said, as the pieces aligned.

Of course. It had to be her. She was the only one I’d killed recently. That troublesome little she-wolf who’d been more bark than damage, and somehow even in death she was still managing to cause problems. My beast snarled inside me.

Albericus frowned. "That girl who tripped you during training? I thought you said she didn’t have a mate."

"She didn’t," I confirmed. "Not officially. The bond had just formed. Apparently she wanted to feel him out first, wasn’t sure he was worthy."

"She didn’t think he was worthy," Albericus repeated, scowling at the ceiling like it had personally offended him.

Hogan finally raised his head, eyes fixed somewhere over my shoulder. "That’s what he told me. They were going to take it slow."

I clenched my jaw.

"So let me understand this," I said slowly. "You let a man walk free, a man whose newly-found mate I killed, because you felt bad for him."

Hogan went pale. "I—"

"Did it not occur to you that he might want revenge? That he might be looking for the perfect opportunity to come at me through something I care about?" My voice rose. Teeth grinding. Claws pressing against the inside of my fingers.

Albericus muttered something beside me. My focus stayed on Hogan.

"What was his name?" Albericus asked, already pulling out his phone.

Hogan hesitated. "I, I don’t know."

My eye twitched.

"You don’t know," I repeated, perfectly flat.

He wiped his forehead. "I didn’t give him clearance to leave, if that helps."

That brought both of us to stillness.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

Hogan fidgeted. "That same day you had me compiling pack progress reports, internal and external. So I told him he’d have to wait for an official decision. One week, standard protocol."

The thing that moved through me then wasn’t nerves. It was something much closer to satisfaction.

My voice dropped. "Are you telling me he’s still on this island?"

He nodded, looking sheepish and also relieved that my full attention had moved somewhere else.

"Name. Now."

"Jack Ruston."

The moment the name left his mouth, I reached for my magic. Out of the thousands of sparks I held awareness of across the island, one flared brighter than the rest. My instincts locked on immediately. I could see where he was. Where he was hiding. He wasn’t moving, not yet. He was waiting, biding his time, hoping the storm would pass him by.

It wouldn’t.

I’d found him.

And he wouldn’t be leaving. Not alive.

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