With my wolf being as needy as ever, I had to stick to Alex’s side all through the bonfire. He didn’t mind but I wanted to mingle with the pack, and thus I had to drag him from corner to corner with me. He had a proud smile on his face through it all.
“What are you so smug about, Alex?” I demanded, my eyebrows shooting up in my hairline as I turned to face him after having a talk with Eli.
“What did I do now? I didn’t even breathe a word,” he countered in a light tone.
“You didn’t have to,” I looked at him sideways, my eyes narrowing ever so slightly. “Don’t take me for a fool.”
“I would never, love,” he said at once in earnest. “I’m just proud that my mate decided to mingle with her pack. You’re slowly but surely becoming the Luna you are meant to be.”
I let out a stunned oh at that, even as I blushed furiously. I couldn’t find the adequate words to tell him as I realized I had jumped to conclusions about his smug expression.
“You’re compassionate and yet strong,” he let out. “Stubborn at times too. And I wouldn’t change you for the world.”
“Ooh, love is in the air,” Luc sang as he came to stand next to Alex. “We can see it, feel it, and hear it too. I never thought our alpha capable of such amorous words.”
“Shut up,” Alex grumbled, giving his friend the stink eye.
I pinched the flesh of his arm and chastised, “Is that any way to talk to your beta and friend?”
“He treats me so poorly, Luna Jade,” Luc sighed dramatically, his hand clutching his shirt above his heart. “Being a workaholic himself, he thinks everyone should work the same hours as him…”
“Call me Luna again and you won’t have my backing,” I threatened, eyes narrowed in a mock menacing manner.
Luc looked at Alex who just raised an eyebrow at him challengingly.
“I’ll have to risk it, Luna Jade,” he said after gulping down his dread. “In public, you both are my Alpha and Luna, and I ought to address you accordingly.”
“And in private?” I asked, a smile tugging at the corners of my mouth.
“You’re my precious friends.”
Trevor soon came to join us, but he didn’t appear to be in a merry mood.
“Something the matter?” I asked, tilting my head to the side in a perplexed manner, wondering what could put a frown on the usually smiling third-in-command.
“Looks like we either have a traitor among us or just someone far too talkative for their own good,” was his cryptic reply.
“What happened?” Alex asked in a serious tone of voice, long gone was the easygoing alpha.
“I just got off the phone with my cousin from Midnight Moon pack,” he said in a hushed tone of voice, “And word has reached them somehow that we have found ourselves a born healer.”
“What did you say to that?” Luc then asked just as seriously as Alex.
“I played it cool, neither denying nor confirming his suspicions,” he shrugged.
“Do you think he bought it?” I asked, feeling more anxious than I had been in weeks all of a sudden.
“I am not sure to be honest, Luna,” he said with deference.
“Who could have leaked the news?” I wondered out loud, thinking of all that awaited us if people were to get any kind of confirmation.
War could very well be brewing, and we would have been none the wiser, had it not been for Trevor talking with his cousin.
“That’s what we need to find out,” Luc observed pensively.
“Gather all those who are in on the secret,” Alex instructed. “I am finding the mole tonight.”
“On it, alpha,” both Luc and Trevor said in unison, and with that, they left to do as they were told.
I must have been frowning for Alex soon enough poked my forehead gently. “Don’t worry.”
“How can I not?” I sighed, eyes taking in the merry atmosphere that could very well turn into a bloodbath at any given moment. “I don’t want the pack to be in danger, because of me.”
He merely smiled at me before asking, “Do you trust me?”
“Of course,” was my immediate reply.
“Then, trust me when I say that I have no doubt the pack would willingly fight for you,” he said simply.
I mulled over his words for a moment, and though they were soothing and meant to console me, I didn’t appreciate what my mate was implying. It was as if he was saying there was no avoiding the damned war.
“But I don’t wish for a war to start,” I grumbled in a whiny tone of voice while doing my best to keep my tears at bay.
“That might be out of our control, love,” he told me in a soft tone that did nothing to appease my fears.
I could already imagine our fallen pack members’ bodies scattered across the territory, their families mourning them with loud cries, and cursing me to the moon and back.
I could picture all too well the blood smearing the soil, and could almost smell the distinct scent of decay permuting the air.
War wasn’t meant to be pretty or pleasant, and I didn’t think I was ready for it.
“Let us head to my office,” Alex soon enough announced.
“Have they gathered everyone?” I asked.
“You bet,” his smirk was almost unsettling, and I could picture him wanting to tear into the flesh of the far too talkative pack member.
I didn’t believe we had a traitor for I saw first hand how loyal the pack was to Alexander. But then again, Alexander was a fair leader and did his absolute best to ensure his people’s safety.
I stuck to his side, determined to calm him down should he decide to resort to fists before asking relevant questions.