The Heartless Alpha’s Beloved Luna

Chapter 178 Avery's POV "You look more glum than usual." My ears perked up as one of the pack members stepped behind the counter where I knelt, stacking pallets for the grocer who maintained the pack store. I knew he wasn't talking to me. No one did. But still, I couldn't help strain to hear the grocer's response. Now that I was persona non-grata within the pack thanks to Dierdra's punishment, I found myself yearning to hear news about what was going on. I wasn't quite listening at keyholes yet, but I did find myself paying close attention to the things that pack members said around me.

And also, to what they weren't saying. Thad fallen far from my former privileged position as Luna. Now Iwas no one. A downcast wolf who was considered too hazardous to be allowed out into the village without an escort. Where once I had been invited to pack events, now I was specifically excluded. No one wanted to be seen socializing with me, even if Dierdra, the current Luna, had allowed it. I supposed in a way, it was nice to know that the guards were supposed to prevent others from talking to me.

It allowed me to ---- pretend in my head that was the reason no one had tried to approach me in weeks. I could blame their interference, instead of facing the truth. That I no longer had allies in Nightwolf pack. That I had been rejected by the Alpha, and that his Luna was out for vengeance and wouldn't rest until she had secured my permanent eviction or death. "Well, these are hard times," came the grocers response, and I felt a small inner spark of hope.

my crime meant that I was often performing manual labor in the civic centers of the village. I worked the fields, gathered garbage, cleaned latrines, did maintenance of

me the tiniest bit of insight as to what was happening in the pack as a whole. "Hard times, I agree," the villager continued the conversation as

to know what she's talking about when it comes to pack business," the customer complained, " Comes across a bit chaotic, if you ask me." "Well now," I saw

In practice, experienced tradesmen like these villagers were known to drag their heels when they received a command that didn't make sense. Their balking was understandable, they knew their trade and the new Luna did not. When I had been Luna, I had