The True Luna's Forbidden Temptation - Chapter 60: Chapter 60

SEBASTIAN.
“Fuck!”
I slam the glass down my leather-top desk, the expensive whiskey sloshes dangerously close to the rim.
The liquid burns in my throat, but the pain is nothing compared to what I feel right now.
Julian drinks his own whiskey, silently watching me.
“I did not handle that well,” I admit, breaking the silence in the room.
Julian rolls his eyes. “You think?”
He leans against the bookshelf, a good distance away from me. He’s been my second-in-command, my confidant, my best friend for over a decade. He knows better than stand next to me when I’m in this mood.
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” he says. In fairness to him, I do not feel like he was judging me. He was simply saying, ‘I told you so.’
I sigh. “I just thought I’m over this. It’s been years, man. I severed those mate bonds almost a decade ago.”
Julian lets out a humorless laugh. “For Analise? You’re a fool if you think that you have control when it comes to her.”
The truth in his words stings more than it should. I turn away, facing the floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook the city. Lights twinkle below, so many lives continuing on while mine feels suddenly derailed by a single dance, a single scent… one woman. The same woman I’ve been tied to for years.
“You rejected her. You cut off the bond. But she has always been the trigger to your emotions. You knew that.” Julian heaves a frustrated sigh. “You’ve always been in control of your emotions. But when it came to her, you always, and I mean, always, lose it!”
"I thought after all these years..."
"What? That you'd be immune?" Julian shakes his head.
“Yeah.”
“Maybe the mate bond has a way of resurrecting itself."
Resurrect?
I don’t think that’s the right word. Because—what if it never died at all?
I remember that doomed day in the church when our parents marriage transformed what should have been my declaration of love into something forbidden. The irony doesn't escape me—a wolf who can command others with just his voice, who can manipulate shadows with a thought, yet powerless to control what he feels for the girl he liked since he was a teenager.
"Tonight I felt..." I pause, searching for the right words. "Too much. Emotions I thought were long gone—when I rejected her, through years of separation, through years of practice controlling my wolf. But I was wrong."
Julian's silence encourages me to continue. This is why he's my beta—he knows when to push and when to listen.
"When I saw her walk to the dance floor with that stupid ex-husband of hers," I nearly growl the words, "I felt something I never felt before. A deep sense of possessiveness and… jealousy!”
The memory floods back with perfect clarity—a curse of my perfect recall.
When Analise walked onto that dance floor with her ex-husband sliding his arm around her waist with a familiarity, I want to jump down that balcony and tear his limbs off his body, violence be damned!
“I bet that when Lewis put his arms around as if she still belonged to him, you wanted to transform… right in front of everyone.” Julian laughs.
I take a swig of my whiskey. I don’t have to answer. We both know that was exactly what I wanted to do.
Julian crosses the room, refilling my glass. "But you didn't. So that means you still maintain some level of control. You’re not entirely hopeless, after all.”
“But I can’t say I’m entirely proud of myself. Usually, I would think transforming for something so petty is such a waste of energy.”
“I know. You used to be so—care-less. Literally. You usually don’t give a damn.”
I stare at the view before me. I recall when I watched them dance. It was the longest song I’ve ever had to listen to in my entire life. It was excruciating.
“Did you try to listen to their conversation?” Julian asks.
I don’t answer.
He laughs. “I know you won’t be able to resist.”
Yes, I did listen to their conversation. Sometimes, supernatural hearing can be a curse.
But I can say that she really made me proud.
“I don’t hear regrets in her voice,” I tell Julian. “Just pride—and that hunger to finally put Tyler in his place.”
She must have been holding back for so long.
My lips curve into a smile as I remember the scene in the balcony with her former mother-in-law.
“I followed her in the balcony because I was just being big… brotherly.”
Julian raises an eyebrow, unconvinced.
"Fine. I couldn't help myself." I drop into my chair, the leather creaking beneath my weight. "And then I saw Tyler's family follow her out there. The way they cornered her, the look in their eyes—I couldn't take it anymore."
"The Lewises have always had it out for her," Julian notes. "They never thought she was good enough for Tyler.”
"They don't know who she is," I remind him.
“I bet if they knew before that she was the real daughter of Peter McGregor, they would kiss her feet and worship the ground she would step on,” Julian scoffs, shaking his head.
“Such horrible people,” I remark. “I can’t help putting Vivian Lewis in her place. I mean, I am all for hard labor. I don’t even have anything against strippers. They’re all just trying to make a living. But to mock and belittle another person despite her history? I cannot get that.”
“You put them in their place.”
"I have no doubt that she could take them on," I say instead. "Analise has never been defenseless. But I wanted to make sure she knew she wasn't alone. That I'm here for her."
Julian sits in the chair across from me, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. "After thirteen years of silence?”
Each question is a knife, precisely aimed. I wince.
“That’s just not it. We had a bit of a fight.”
Julian raises a brow. “Oh! Having a bit of lovers’ quarrel, huh.”
I stare at the empty glass in my hand, watching how the crystal catches the light. "She hates me."
“For what?”
“For the secrets. The cryptic messages. For the all the signals I’m sending, and the truth I couldn’t tell her.”
"Can you blame her?"
"No." The admission costs me nothing; it's a truth I've lived with for years. "But you know I can’t tell her about us. I’m not even sure she could take it. I mean…”
I realize there’s another big reason why I can’t tell Analise about my real identity. About my world.
“Fuck!” Julian curses. He realizes it the same way I did. “You’re afraid that she won’t be able to take it. That if she found out what you really are, she would be terrified of you.”
Exactly!
And I could take it if she hated me. But I don’t think I could stand it if she would be dead scared of me.
From the moment I first scented her at fourteen—too young, much too young—nothing about our connection has been simple. When the realization hit me that she was my mate, I'd been ecstatic. I had plans. I would wait until she was older, until she was ready. I would court her properly, introduce her to our world gradually.
Then our parents met. Fell in love. Married.
And overnight, my mate became my stepsister.
And then the fucking council found out that their future Alpha has a human mate and all the more things got fucked up for me! I couldn’t even escape with her and choose to live as a human. An Alpha doesn’t have that choice in our pack.
"You have to remember," Julian says, breaking into my thoughts. "You're part werewolf, part human. Your nature is divided."
I look up at him, suddenly alert. This is familiar territory—the duality of our existence. The constant battle between instinct and reason.
"So even if you severed the mate bond on your wolf side," he continues, "Have you ever thought about what you have done on the human aspect?" Julian pauses, meeting my eyes directly.
“What do you mean?”
Julian downs his whiskey completely. Then he looks at me apologetically.
“As a wolf, you’re no longer connected to her. But as a human—” he pauses dramatically. “You’re still hopelessly in love with her. You always have been.”
I stare back at Julian, realizing that what he said is actually true. I don’t bother refuting them. I can’t even deny it.
I have been training and living to be the strongest, most powerful wolf in the country, that I forgot one vital thing about myself.
I am half-human.
And humans don’t sever bonds. They hold on, even when it kills them. And if I’m half-human, then maybe—just maybe—that’s why no matter how far I run… she still owns me.