Chapter 16: Unknown Beings
Vivian Grey’s POV
And still, Zaliver said nothing. He didn’t bark orders or shout commands like other alphas might have. He didn’t need to.
His word was command. No one questioned him. Not because they feared punishment, but because they wouldn’t dare. His power was something ancient. Something more.
Something godlike.
And I was standing right beside him, trying to figure out what being his Luna really meant.
"Zaliver, can we talk?"
I didn’t expect him to react so quickly or so sharply. His blue eyes snapped toward me, and for a second, they looked darker, heavier. Like storm clouds gathering.
"About what?" he asked, voice dipped in something low and husky that sent a shiver straight down my spine.
I opened my mouth and then promptly forgot how to speak. "Uh, well, uh..."
Brilliant.
I cleared my throat, trying to shake the fog his voice stirred in me. Why did he always manage to short-circuit my brain just by talking?
"About all of this," I finally managed. "I don’t know what’s going to happen next, but I’m not okay just blindly following you around. You told them things I wasn’t ready to hear, and I’m standing here totally in the dark. I deserve to know more."
Without a word, Zaliver reached out and grabbed my arm, pulling me against his chest in one smooth, confident motion. His arms wrapped around me, firm and warm, and suddenly my palms were flat against his chest. My heart practically launched itself into overdrive.
Too much. Too close. Too everything.
He felt like a wall of heat and muscle, unmovable, unstoppable. My entire body was buzzing.
"Hold your breath," he said suddenly.
"What?" I blinked up at him.
"Just hold your breath." His voice was serious, but calm.
Suspicious, I narrowed my eyes at him. "You better make this quick," I muttered. "Or I’ll either pass out or die from the fact that your abs are too close to my face."
"Good," he replied, completely ignoring my rambling.
The world shifted.
A sudden gust of wind whipped around us, wild and powerful. My hair went flying, slapping across my face. Instinctively, I clenched my fists in his shirt and pressed into him to stay upright. His chest vibrated under my hands, he was either laughing or purring. I honestly didn’t know which I wanted more.
"Breathe."
I sucked in air like I’d just been yanked out of a pool. Not at all attractively, by the way. I probably sounded like those dramatic fans gasping after hearing Zayn left One Direction. I’d literally witnessed that exact meltdown with Mila earlier.
When the dizziness passed and I stopped gasping like a fish out of water, I realized something strange.
We were no longer outside.
I stood very still for a moment, just blinking. The temple grounds, the night air, the wolves, all of it was gone. In its place were familiar walls, the sleek black couch, the too-expensive everything of his living room. My brain tried to reconcile what my eyes were seeing with what physics said should be possible, and came up completely empty.
"What? Wait." I spun around slowly. "We were just outside. In the middle of a forest. With an entire pack. How are we suddenly in the living room?"
Zaliver walked over to the couch and sank into it like a king on his throne, legs stretched out, looking far too comfortable after teleporting, or whatever the hell that just was.
"I ran," he said with a shrug. "Some pack members were trying to eavesdrop. I didn’t want them hearing this."
He said it so casually. Like running fast enough to blur reality was just something he did on a Tuesday. I stared at him for a long moment, mouth slightly open, then decided I didn’t have the bandwidth to unpack that right now.
He leaned back, resting an arm over his head, and that’s when I noticed.
His biceps.
Dear Luna. I was definitely looking longer than necessary.
Focus, Vivian.
I crossed my arms and stood over him. "So, are you going to answer my questions now? Or should I just start interrogating you with a frying pan next time?"
He sighed.
"Fine," he muttered. "The way I see it, you’re mine. So you stay with me. I’m not letting you leave unless I’m with you. Your life is here now, on this island, with me. I’m not going to lie or sugarcoat things. I don’t know what the gods had planned when they sent me a mate, but I do know one thing."
He paused.
"I’m stronger than them."
That made my blood boil.
"Than them?" I snapped, fists tightening at my sides. "Who the hell are you talking about, Zaliver?"
Rage built inside me, hot and sharp. I was so done. Done being a piece in a game I hadn’t agreed to play. Done being handed from one set of hands to another, gods or otherwise, like I didn’t have thoughts and feelings and a life I’d been in the middle of living. I had a mother who’d kissed me goodbye in the dark and told me to run. I had a cousin who’d been attacked because of me. I had plans, a future, things I wanted, and none of them had included being claimed by a six-hundred-year-old god on an island hidden inside the Bermuda Triangle.
"I had feelings," I said, quieter than I meant to, the anger dropping into something rawer underneath. "I have a voice. And I am so tired of being kept in the dark like I don’t matter."
He growled softly, frustration rippling across his face as he closed his eyes.
"They," he said through gritted teeth, "are known to you as Fate and Mother Luna. That’s all I can say. Because that’s all you know of them."
Fate. And Mother Luna.
I reeled.
That was not what I expected. My jaw nearly hit the floor.
If anyone else had dared to speak of our gods so casually, with that much cold certainty, I would have been furious. Disgusted, even. The Moon Goddess wasn’t just a deity to us. She was the source. The reason any of us had wolves at all, the reason mates existed, the reason I’d spent my whole life believing the bond was sacred.
And Zaliver had just named her like an opponent.
But this was Zaliver.
My mate.
The one who stood above alphas. The one who had three temples on a hidden island and a pack that bowed without being asked. The one whose power was old enough that even the gods had felt the need to wipe his memory clean.
And suddenly, I wasn’t sure who I was more afraid of.
Fate and Mother Luna, who had apparently been moving pieces around a board I couldn’t see.
Or him, who was apparently strong enough to move back.
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