I arrive home after a long drive. I was able to hitch a ride with a few humans. I was so lucky they were going in the direction of my old pack. I open the house door, expecting to smell mom’s scent, but I don’t. She has been gone for too long that her scent has faded away. The whole place is turned upside down. The living room looks like someone was trying to tear it down. There are pillows everywhere, and the TV is even broken. Did they fight in here? The kitchen is like the living room, but my breath catches in my throat once I see blood on the kitchen counter. I smelt something weird on my way to the kitchen, but I did not know what it was, and now that I do, I wish I didn’t. Please, I hope it’s not Mom’s. I sniff the blood to find out if it has the scent of mom, but I can’t tell because the blood seems too decayed to say. This also causes me to empty my stomach in the kitchen sink. The blood smelt so bad, and I think it’s been here for days. The amount is also tiny, even if I can’t tell who the blood belongs to. I feel little comfort knowing that if it belonged to mom, she did not bleed a lot.
I walk upstairs to check the state of the rooms, and unlike downstairs, which looks like it was used for a WWE match, the rooms are intact. I can’t help myself and think about the horrors mom might face wherever she is once I get to her room. Her room still has her scent, and I am sure it is because of her clothes. I try to push back the tears as I think about it because I need to be strong right now. I can’t be crying every time about everything. I need to shower, visit our Alpha, and find out how the search for mom is going.
After I finish showering and cleaning up the house a bit, I walk outside to the packhouse. The second I step inside, all eyes turn to me. I am a little confused as to why everyone is looking at me. It’s not like I am a stranger here. A girl around my age who I hardly speak to because we dislike each other walks towards me with the worse fake smile plastered on her face.
“Oh my God, Ana, I can’t believe you are back.” She says, pulling me into a hug, but I don’t hug her back. I wonder why she is talking to me like we are friends.
“Kimberly, are you having memory loss? Why are you talking to me and hugging me?” I say, releasing myself from her arms.
“My memory is fine; I just missed you and can’t believe you are back,” She says in that annoying high, pitch voice of hers that I don’t like.
I’m not too fond of Kimberly for so many reasons. She is the pack slut, but always called me the slut because I dated a human that I regret dating after what he did to me. I pray when I go into the city, I won’t run into him. A lot of werewolves frown upon wolves dating humans. Kimberly always expressed hers by calling me a slut even though dating a human does not make you one, but tell that to Kimberly.
The second reason I hate her is that she is the girl that slept with Matt. After hating me for dating a human, imagine my shock the day Chloe told me on the phone that they started dating as soon as I left. Apparently, Matt has been cheating on me with her even before the night.
I caught him. Even though I have found my mate and my feelings for Matt are almost gone. It does not change the fact that I was betrayed by someone dear to me.
“Kimberly, I don’t know why you are acting like we are friends, but we are not,” I say and walk past her.
I walk to the Alpha’s office and knock on his door once I arrive. It is noon, so he should be in his office. I turn the doorknob once he tells me to come in.
“Ana, sorry, Luna Queen; I can’t believe you are here. The Alpha king did not notify me you were coming,” My old Alpha Steven says before I even fully walk into the room. One of the downsides about being a werewolf is that everyone knows you are coming before they even see you because we can smell each other’s scent. I can’t believe the Alpha I grow up bowing my head to is bowing his head to me. I realize that I am truly the Alpha king’s mate even though he does not take me as his mate.
“You don’t have to call me that Alpha Steven, and he must have forgotten” I lie because the minute Steven knows I left without my mate’s approval, he will tell Theo that I am here, and I don’t want that. I am even surprised he has not asked Steven to check if I am here. He honestly does not care about me like he has been raving about.
“I can’t call you by your name any longer, but let’s put that aside. I know why you are back. Don’t worry, we are doing everything we can to find her, and hopefully, we will soon.”
“I am so grateful for that, and do you even know why my mom was kidnapped.”
“I don’t know why.”
“Could she have had any enemies we don’t know about?” I ask, curious to find leads to why mom was kidnapped.
“Not that I know of, but she could have some that we don’t know about.”
“That’s possible,” I say and try to think about if mom has ever mentioned someone she hates or who hates her, but I come up blank. Mom has never been one to socialize a lot. She does not have a lot of friends talk less of enemies.
“We are searching the whole state for her. Your mom is significant to this pack, so we won’t hesitate to do our best to find her.”
“Thank you, and can I help with the search?”
“I don’t think you need to, but if you insist, some of our best trackers are leaving tomorrow to the north side of the city. You can come along with them and look for her around the area.”
“Thank you so much, Alpha Steven,” I say, smiling for the first time in a while. I was a little worried he won’t allow me because he might not want to put my life at risk. After all, I am the king’s mate.
“It’s nothing, and see you tomorrow Luna Queen,” He says, and I walk out of his office to get ready for my trip tomorrow.
The following day, I woke up early to get ready for the trip to the city’s north side. I already packed my bags last night. Alpha Steven said we would be staying for a week, so I packed enough clothes to last me. We will be staying with another pack while we are there. I just finished having breakfast, and I am walking to the packhouse to join the other trackers coming along.
I walk over to the car, where I see Alpha Steven standing.
“Good morning Luna Queen,” Alpha Steven says, bowing his head to greet me, and so does everyone around. They are about three male wolves and two females.
I feel a little shy about how everyone bows to me and gives me so much respect. This is not the first time I have been called Luna, but it’s different this time. Its people I know and grew up with that are calling me Luna. I wish they would stop, but I know better than to tell them they shouldn’t. It will only lead to people finding out the relationship between the Alpha king and me, and I don’t want that.
“Good morning, everyone,” I say, trying to hide the red stain on my cheeks. I hope no one saw it.
“We are ready to leave; we are just waiting for the last female tracker,” One of the males says, and if I remember correctly, his name is Mark.
“Alright, and who are we waiting for?”
Mark is about to speak when that familiar high-pitched voice I hate is heard from behind me. You have got to be kidding me.
“Good morning, everyone,” She says, walking towards where we are. “I am sorry, I am late.”
“It’s fine, Kimberly, and I hope you have everything you need.”
“Yes, I do, Alpha,” She says and grabs my hand. She pulls me closer to her like we are best friends. “Don’t worry, Ana………..”
“Don’t call me Ana; it’s Luna Queen for you” I cut her off before she can finish talking. I don’t like being called Luna Queen because I am not used to it, and my mate does not make me feel like I deserve the title, but if it would get Kimberly to leave me alone, I will gladly use it.
“I am sorry, I actually forgot you have a mate, given the fact that you came back to our pack. I actually thought you were rejected,” Kimberly says with an evil smirk, intentionally trying to hurt me. She knows very well that I am back because I want to find my mom, but she just wants to get on my nerves.
“My mate did not reject me. I am back to find my mom.”
“Oh, yeah, that’s true. Your mom is missing,” She says, acting like she forgot. She is standing here to go on a trip to find my mom, and she is acting like I just reminded her.
“Why is she coming, please?” I ask Alpha Steven. I can’t imagine going on this trip with Kimberly. I am a nice person, but she just brings out the worse in me.
“I know you and Kimberly have your differences, but she understands we need to find your mom and is one of our best trackers.”
“Don’t we have anyone else?”
“We don’t right now,” He says, and I release a sign. The hatred between Kimberly and I is not a secret to the pack, so for Alpha Steven to ask her to come along, we must really need her.
“Don’t worry, I am going to do my best to find your mom,” She says, smiling, and I say nothing but shake my head. I don’t know how I am going to survive a trip with her.
We arrive at the crescent blood pack after driving for an hour or so. They are the pack we will be staying with while looking for mom. We all step out of the minivan, and we are greeted by their Alpha, a good friend of Alpha Steven.
“Welcome, Luna Queen; it’s a pleasure to have you in our midst,” He says, bowing his head once he sees me. How did he know what I looked like? Did pictures of me spread with the news of the king finding his mate? I doubt, but I wonder how he knew it was me instantly.
“Hello, Alpha Mark, the pleasure is all mine, but I have to ask. How did you know I am the Luna Queen?”
“Alpha Steven told me you were blonde.”
“Oh, make sense since I am the only blonde one here.”
Thank God it was not because my picture spread with the news of being the mate of the Alpha King. That would just be horrible. I know I am not ugly, but I don’t pride myself on being the prettiest girl out there. I can’t imagine the whole werewolf clan knowing how I look. I won’t be able to stop thinking about how people would judge me.
“Yes, it does, and let me get you guys settled in so we can discuss how we will search the area. This way everyone,” Alpha Mark says, leading us to a mansion which I am sure is the packhouse.
He shows us to our rooms for the week before taking us to his office to discuss how to search the area. We left very early to start looking for her once we arrived. He divides us into groups of two and gives us places in the city to search. Kimberly, not surprisingly lately, wanted to be paired with me, but I ignored her. I paired with another girl from our pack who won’t give me a headache every time she opens her mouth. Her name is Riley, and she seems nice.
Riley and I search the town together. We ask everyone we see if they have seen mom using a picture of her I got from my laptop. It’s been hours, and no one has seen her. It’s getting dark, and Riley is hungry, so I tell her to go back to the packhouse while I search the woods if I can pick up her scent. I also brought a few of mom’s clothes for them to sniff while searching for her.
By the time it’s fully dark, I feel so disappointed because I could not find her or find anyone who might have seen her. I walk back to the packhouse because I am hungry and tired. I hear some movement while walking in the woods but ignore it because I don’t pick any human or wolf scent. I smell something terrible, but pay no mind to it and continue walking.
I am about to walk out of the woods but stop when the horrible smell becomes stronger. I turn around to find out what, and I wish I just minded my business and walked out of the woods. Standing a few feet away from me is the only creature on earth that would ever challenge a werewolf-the most hated enemy of werewolves.
“Hello princess, I hope you taste as sweet as she did,” He says, with a full grin that shows those fangs of his that must have been sucking the life out of the poor girl he just tossed away like trash.
I freeze in my spot as I look at the blood around his mouth. I have only heard tales of them but never met one. I can’t believe they actually exist. I blink my eyes, and he is beside me sniffing my neck.
“I hear werewolf blood is amazing. I can’t wait to taste yours,” He says and deepens his fangs into my neck.
A piercing scream erupts from me as he sucks the life out of me. I can’t believe this is how I die.