Alpha King’s Wolfless Mate by Scarlett Higgins

Chapter 89

**Margot POV

Being back home felt so strange after the extended stay at the castle. I was honestly surprised that I had been allowed to remain with Graham and Kelly. I thought for sure that they would have sent me home right after the Lunar Festival, but I was grateful that they hadn’t.

I had learned so much during my short time at the castle.

Blake was a fantastic leader, that was clear in the prosperity of his pack and in their attitudes. Everyone was so happy and comfortable, even in the presence of the Alpha and Luna. It was amazing to see.

It wasn’t the same here in Lanecreek.

I watched the pack pups shrink nervously from Kelly as she stood with her hands on her hips and

stared down at their chubby baby faces with a pinched look on her face.

Kelly certainly wasn’t a natural when it came to this aspect of being the Luna. She really didn’t like children.

“And that location,”she continued.“How lazy to hold the festival in thegarden! As if those stinking, half dead flowers were nice enough to count as decorations. They must really be struggling financially if that’s all they could afford.”

I shrugged.“I thought it was nice,”I said softly.

Kelly laughed out loud. It was a mean, cold sound and I saw one of the pups jump in fear before running to hide behind his older sister.

“Of course, you would think that,”she scoffed.“What do you know about royal celebrations?”

The comment stung, but I did my

best not to let it show on my face. Kelly was obviously jealous of Nora, despite all of the trash she talked about King Blake. I had seen the way she had looked at him when we first arrived at the festival.

The dress she had worn left very little to the imagination, and plenty of men stopped to stare at her, but Blake hadn’t spared her a second glance. He had been focused on the proper reception of his guests. I knew that it made her blood boil to be ignored.

“And that mousey little Luna ofhis,”she sneered.“What kind of ceremony was that? The Lunar Festival is supposed to be all about the Luna! She must be some kind of religious fanatic to turn it into a big boring church service,”

“I thought it was nice to keep sometradition in place,”I muttered.“And it only took a few minutes.”

“I thought I was going to fallasleep,”she complained. If she had

heard me, she didn’t care enough to respond to me.

One of the pups started to cry suddenly. Kelly’s shoulders went stiff and she grimaced.

“Loud mouthed brat,”shegrumbled. “What the hell is it crying about?”

I grimaced back at her. I knew that not everyone was good with kids, but it was just plain mean to talk about them like that.

“I’ll take care of it,”I said.

I hurried over to the crying child and knelt in front of her. There were big tears in her eyes and her face was turning red with the force of her crying. She looked at me and held out her hand, but couldn’t calm herself enough to speak.

I looked to see a shallow scrape on the heel of her hand. There was a little blood, but not enough to even warrant a bandage.

“Did you fall?”I asked softly.

The girl nodded and sniffled in an attempt to calm herself.

“I hate falling down,”I repliedearnestly.“It’s scary!”

She nodded in agreement.“It hurt,”she said in a wobbly voice.“I hurted my hand.”

“I see that,”I answeredsympathetically.“How can I make you feel better?”

She looked thoughtful for a moment, then stared at her hand. “Kiss it better?”she saiduncertainly.“Mommy k*sses it better, but it might not work if you do it. You’re not a mommy.”

I couldn’t hide my smile at her words.“No,”I agreed.“I’m not a mommy now, but one day, I will be. So, I think it will work. Should we try it?”

“Yes, please,”she stated. She heldher palm up toward my face.

I k*ssed just above the scrape with an exaggerated l*p smacking sound. The girl looked down at her hand critically for a few seconds then smiled widely at me.

“It worked!”she shouted happily.“You’re going to be a really goodmommy. Thank you, miss!”She jumped up and hugged me tightly.

Before I could return the hug, she turned and ran off to play with her friends again.

I stood and watched her for a moment. I hoped that she was right about me being a good mom someday. I always wanted pups of my own.

After watching them play happily for a few minutes, I turned and walked back to Kelly. I didn’t want to hear more of her complaining, but I was only here to help her, so I couldn’t exactly ignore her.

“Thank you for dealing with that,”she said with distaste clear in her voice.“I don’t see why this should 6/10

fall into my lap. I’m the Luna, not a damned babysitter.”

“The Luna is responsible for thepups and families of the pack,”I answered simply. Kelly knew that. Everyone knew that, it was the most basic of the Luna’s duties.

“That shouldn’t includebabysitting,”she complained. “Graham doesn’t treat me like aluna, he treats me like an errand girl. He’s not going to get away with this once the ceremony is complete and I’m officially the luna.”

“I hate to ask,”I said honestly.“Butif you don’t like the way Graham treats you, why are you going through with the wedding?”

“Obviously because I want to beLuna,” she said in disbelief. “Graham is the only eligible Alphain the kingdom that’s worth my time. Everyone else is either already mated or far too old for a catch like me.”

She stared past me at the children,

who had started a game of tag and were running and giggling loudly.

The look of disgust on her face deepened.

“Once I am the Luna,”she began.“I’ll make sure you’re rewarded forbeing loyal to me. At least you understand that all of this is beneath me. If you weren’t here, I’d actually have to talk to those snotty, d*rty, stupid little whelps.”

“I’m glad I can help,”I answered.

It was true, but not because I wanted to help Kelly. I was just glad that the pups weren’t left alone with such a mean, selfish woman to look after them. I could only imagine how she would behave if she was actually left alone with the little ones.

“It won’t be much longer now,”Kelly said.“I’ll be the Luna and then we’ll show those bastards that rejected me exactly how badly they screwed up.”A cruel smile crossed her face.“Blake could have had me,

but he chose that scrawny b*tch Nora instead. I’m going to show him exactly what he lost out on.”

The sound of a thud and crying drew my attention back toward the pups.

“I’ll take care of it,”I said quickly.

I didn’t pay attention to Kelly’s response as I rushed away from her.

I was almost glad that another of the pups had tripped. It got me away from Kelly.

When she had first arrived in town, I had felt sorry for her. I thought that her cold demeanor was just a way of hiding her nerves. Now I knew that it was only covering up the hateful bile that actually hid inside of her.

There was nothing I could do to change the situation, though. Graham had chosen Kelly as his mate and Luna. We were going to be stuck with her.

All I could do was volunteer to takeover for her when it came to the duties that actually mattered. If I could shield the pups and the pack mother’s from her, then I would.

I scooped up the crying pup and rocked him gently.

I couldn’t help but wish that Graham was a little more like his cousin.

Maybe then he would have found us a Luna that actually cared about the pack and not a spoiled brat that just wanted to wear expensive dresses and br ag about her social status.

What a-