Ember
There it was. The question I had been asking myself ever since I saw them shift. I had to ask them though. I needed to make sure I was sane or just losing my fucking mind.
” Werewolves. Alpha’s to be exact, ” he said. I read about werewolves and shit in fantasy novels, but seeing some shit like this in real life. There was not even a word for it.
I looked out the window next to me.
” This is your packhouse?”, I asked him. He nodded.
” Originally, this packhouse belonged to Seth’s family. The lightwood. Seth and my pack family line merged after our most recent war with our rival pack. Both Seth and I come from powerful alpha lines. Pure blood alpha lines, but we are different from other wolves.
“How so?”, I asked.
” We were born on the blue moon. The supermoon eclipse,” he said. I nodded. I knew what the blue moon was. ” Wolves born on the blue moon are born with abilities, such as immunity to silver, extra strength, and extra speed, extra stamina. We even have immunity to wolfsbane. A toxic plant that can feel like razors in the veins of a normal wolf.
” Who is the wolf that tried to attack me? Was that your pack member?” I asked him. I needed to know who tried to kill me.
” Those are what we call rogue wolves. They are wolves who have not learned to control their animal instincts. They shift and are unable to shift back. They lose all sense of what is right or wrong. They seek to kill anything in their way, wolf or human. One slipped through and had gotten into the forest. Why did you go into the forest anyway?”, he asked me.
” I’m not sure. I remember waiting by your car, then I smelled honey and felt a pull. Like I felt something hurt. ” I explained, although I was probably sounding stupid.
” You smelled Seth. We both have a mate scent. He was leading the fighting in the forest before I could arrive to help him.
“But how can I smell him, or you?” I asked.
” You’re familiar with my scent?”, he asked me, smiling. I tried not to blush in this awkward situation.
” You smell of citrus. I smelled it the day I met you”, I told him. He looked happy to hear it.
” Mates are always able to scent each other when they meet. Smelling you was the first sign that you were our companion. Seth and I realized it the day of your interview. You smell of fresh apple pie to us. That was why it was a shock to meet you.
” I keep hearing the word mate being thrown around. What is a mate? Why is it so significant?” I asked him.
“Our moon goddess, Selene, grants a wolf or wolves if they are siblings, a soulmate. Normally, it is just another werewolf, but in some instances, the mate can be human. In Seth and I’s case. It is you she chose. ” He said.
“Why me?”, I asked. He shrugged.
“We never know why she does what she does, ” he said. I found myself getting upset.
” So, this Selene just expects me to do what? Bow down to you or something. Force me to submit to you and Seth like some slave?” I said, angrily. He stood up and kneeled in front of me. I hadn’t even realized it, since it was so fast. He grabbed my hand, and I felt the tingles as I looked into his blue eyes.
“She grants a mate, yes, but it is not to serve us. It is actually the opposite way around. We live to serve you, or it is the way it is supposed to be. The mate bond can be rejected. You only need to say your name and then ours, followed by I reject you, to complete it. It will sever the bond and you will feel nothing for either Seth or I.” he explained. I thought about Seth. If this is what a mate bond is supposed to be like, he was failing miserably at it.
“Can I reject Seth?” I asked Carter. His eyes turned sad.
“Because Seth and I are both mated to you, we share one soul. If you were to reject one part, it would not only weaken our power but our wolves as well. You would feel nothing, of course, because you are human, but Seth and I could lose our positions as Alpha, leaving it open for our beta to take over. ” He explained. I sighed.
” Don’t give up on Seth. It is not your fault he has a vendetta against humans. I think something happened to him. Something he does not want to talk about. Maybe you can find that out for yourself” he said to me. I nodded.
“What is a beta?” I asked.
” So, the way the packs work is like a hierarchy. There are the omega wolves, which are the lowest rank of our pack. They are the regular families that live on the grounds. The top three ranks keep the ground in order though. The third rank is the gamma. They are third in line for the Alpha title, if the beta and alpha should ever die. They will command our pack. Our gamma’s name is Marlon. You have not met him yet, but if you choose to stay in this world, you will meet him. Next is the beta. He is my second in command. He will take over as Alpha if Seth and I die and Marlon will take his place as the beta. His job is to help keep order in the pack. He also has the most important job of all. That is keeping Luna safe while we are not home. ” He said to me. I was putting pieces together. Holy fuck.
” Your beta is Jax, isn’t it?” I asked. He sat beside me.
” You’re quick to catch on, I see”, he said. I thought to myself.
“So, his friendship. Getting to know me. That is all what? Ploys to get to know me. Report back to you?” I asked. Had I been used?
” Of course not, Ember. I asked him to keep an eye on you. It was his choice to get to know you. Believe me when I say I do not abuse my power as his alpha. Anything you have discussed with him; he has not told me. I took in and realized he called me Luna. The same name Jax would sometimes call me, though I thought it was just a nickname.
” Luna? What is Luna?’ I asked him.
” Just like an Alpha runs the pack as the man in charge, so will Luna. Her responsibility would come in helping to protect the pack as well. She is like the mother of the pack. The head woman in charge, if you catch what I’m saying”, he explained. : I wasn’t surprised when I met you to realize you already possessed leadership skills. It was even more evident today, when you let Ivy explain things you already knew, or took control in the kitchen today.
My pack members were stunned, because no one other than myself had ever taken control in the kitchen that way, and you seemed to be a natural at it. Not only that, but you helped the other’s finish as well. You were being a Luna without even realizing what you were doing. ” He said. I felt a bit proud of that. Wait. Pack members? In the kitchens?
“How many of your kind are there?” I asked.
” I am not sure. Here in my pack, we are almost five hundred strong, but there are many packs around the world. You even lived with one, though you did not know it, ” he said.
“Ryder”, I exclaimed, and Carter growled. But I did somehow know it. Deep down, I had always known something about Ryder was more than met the eye. The growls. The howls I sometimes heard at night. His eye color changed. Oh my God.
“My mother. It was him, wasn’t it”, I said out loud, but I wasn’t really speaking to Carter. More to myself. Of course, it was Ryder. No normal wolf would have left such a mess anywhere. It was a warning, to not fuck with him and I had gone overboard by arguing and pointing a gun at him. I felt my heart pounding out of my chest. I was hyperventilating.
As if he knew where my mind went, Carter pulled me into another hug. I never knew how, but these hugs always had such a calming effect on me. He just held me until I started to cry. I processed the information he had given me. How stupid was I? I lived with a sick werewolf monster. Lamonte knew it. That is why he shot himself. We both knew what Ryder was capable of.
“Ryder is our number one enemy. Unfortunately, his family and ours have a pact to never cross the grounds of others, or we will be killed on the spot. It was a pact forged by our grandfathers after the last war in Florida territory. We heard he had taken a human girl as a lover. Forcing you to mate with humans is punishable by werewolf law, but there was never any proof of you when we first looked you up. We had your name wrong. It wasn’t until we caught one of his spies on our land that we were able to figure out he was currently looking for you.
He has spies all throughout Miami with your picture with them. They are in order to bring you back to him.” he told me. I finally realized just how much danger I was in. Ryder wouldn’t stop until he had me. I doubt even a treaty would prevent him from finding me. It was only a matter of time. I stood up.
” I have to leave Florida. You may know about him, but you do not know him like I do.” I said, fear evident in my eyes.
” He will not have the chance to find you. Seth and I have already made sure of it.”, he said. I raised an eyebrow.
“How?” I asked.
” The traitor spies in my pack have already been dealt with. You are safe, Ember, as long as you remain with a member of the pack. We will watch you while you are here, and Jax will protect you when you are home. Think of him as your personal guard,” he said. I shook my head. Wolf or not, there was no way I was putting Jax in danger.
” I can’t ask Jax to do that. My life is not worth anyone else dying for. ” I said. He stood up and grabbed my shoulders gently.
” You are Luna. Or will be, if you accept the bond with us. Jax is a soldier and will lay down his life if it means keeping you safe. Nothing you do or say will change how he feels about that. It is the pack’s duty to protect their Luna. You would have a pack of five hundred wolves to protect you, myself and Seth included. You need to believe me when I say you truly are safe”, he said.
” And what if I choose not to accept the bond? What then? Will you hand me over to Ryder?” I asked him.