A Chance Encounter

Jenn’s POV

My heart ached with Wade’s choice, but I couldn’t let it get to me. I was still the Luna of the pack and I couldn’t let a stranger come in and destroy everything. My hand unconsciously stroked the mark on my neck where Wade gave me the mate bite.

Even if I wasn’t his mate, he’d seen it fit to mark me, claiming me as his own. Now it throbbed with the pain in my heart.

I turned to walk over to the pack house when I saw Alva, my childhood friend, coming over to meet me.

“Hey, Alva,” I greeted her

“Oh my God, Jenn are you okay?” she fretted, “How can Wade do such a thing to you, I mean you two have been together for so long” she cried.

“Morgan is his fated Alva, anyone would do the same as Wade, I just don’t trust that Morgan of a girl, but we always figure things out don’t we?” I said “There is no need to be worried about me, I'll be okay, I was on my way to the pack house, let’s talk some other time” I said to her.

“Please be careful,” Alva cooed.

“Of course, I will,” I smiled at her.

I left her standing there staring at me as I walked into the forest. It didn’t take long for us to get to our favorite spot – it was a clear lake, far enough from the pack house and quite close to the territory’s borders. The Alpha King’s territory was just some miles away.

Since he recently took over his father’s pack, I’d never met him before, but we’d always heard rumors of the things he did. From those rumors, I knew one thing. He was a ruthless man.

Taking off my clothes, I dipped into the crystal, clear water, it was chilling but exactly what I needed to calm myself down. As the full moon shone on my skin, the water sparkled like crystals, when I felt a dominating and powerful presence, and it wasn’t Wade’s, which made me alert.

I carefully looked around when I spotted a silhouette of a huge wolf on a raised landscape on the other side of the lake across the border. He was dark but the moon made his fur shine, probably sliver or grey, and his eyes were glistening a bright red.

“This isn’t good.” I said to myself. I immediately went underwater, swimming to the shore as fast as I could and ran for my life. I dared looked back but the wolf wasn’t following me, only his loud howl followed me piercing the quiet night.

I was back at the edge of the forest in no time, and took my clothes from where I’d hid them. I pulled on my dress and tried to do the zipper at the back but my hands weren’t reaching it, I cursed and strained trying to get it done but it was no use.

“Let me help,” I heard as I felt two cold hands touch my back and helped me with the zipper, I turned to see Beta Simon.

“Beta Simon” I called wondering if he has been here the whole time, but it really does not matter as we werewolves are used to naked bodies. “What are you doing here?” I asked him

“I have been waiting for you,” he said with a blank expression, “I found your clothes and knew you were on a run, wanted to make sure you’re okay.”

“Oh yes I needed it to clear my head and be okay” I said “but that’s not important, there was an intruder at the Lake, send wolves to check it out.”

“Of course, Luna.” He said and his eyes closed in for a moment as he gave orders through the mind link.

I slowly started walking towards the pack house, leaving Simon behind me, but he quickly caught up and moved ahead to pull the heavy door open.

The warm glow from the chandeliers inside washed over me as I stepped in, but it did nothing to chase away the chill still clinging to my skin. My heart was still racing from the encounter at the lake.

“Beta Simon,” I said as we walked side by side down the wide hallway, “did you… did you inform Wade about the wolf I encountered at the lake?”

His steps slowed slightly. “I attempted to,” I noticed how he was trying to pick his words carefully. “But the Alpha had urgent business to attend to and could not be disturbed at the time.”

Urgent business. If it was pack business, I get why he’d put it first before me. Besides, I could take care of myself. Wade knew that.

I nodded. “So he doesn’t know yet?”

“No,” Simon replied. “But patrols are already on their way to secure the area.”

I nodded again, trying to steady the strange mix of relief and disappointment in my chest. Of course Wade would be busy. The Alpha King. The ball. Morgan. Everything was chaos right now.

“Well,” I said softly, lifting my chin, “if it was urgent pack business, then it must be important.”

“Yes, Luna,” Simon agreed.

We reached the front entrance of the pack house moments later. The large double doors were already open, letting in the cool night breeze. Simon stepped forward first, preparing to clear the way to my bedroom, but I froze in my tracks.

Because Wade was standing right there.

And so was Morgan. Except she was in his arms.

She was cradled close against his chest as if she belonged there. Her head was tilted slightly toward his shoulder, one arm loosely wrapped around his neck. Wade’s hands were firm around her back and beneath her knees, his posture tense with concern.

For a second, I couldn’t breathe.

“What… is going on here?” my voice tightened and came out rougher than I intended.

Wade looked up sharply at the sound of my voice, surprise flickering across his face, followed immediately by an emotion I didn’t catch. “Jenn,” he said. “You’re back.”

Morgan shifted slightly in his arms, her eyes lifting to meet mine. A faint, almost victorious smile tugged at her lips.

“She had a fall,” Wade said quickly. “Nothing serious, but she was shaken. I just brought her back from the infirmary.”

A fall.

That was the urgent business he had to attend to. The business that was more important than me. His Luna.

The world seemed to tilt beneath my feet.

“She stepped out to familiarize herself with the territory,” Wade continued, as if explaining would soften the blow. “She didn’t realize how uneven the ground was near the southern ridge.”

My hands slowly curled into fists at my sides. I had just encountered a massive unknown wolf at the lake. A stranger. A possible threat. Something powerful enough to send my instincts into a frenzy.

And Wade had been in the infirmary.

With his supposed ‘fated mate’.

“I tried, but you couldn’t be reached,” Simon said quietly beside me, clearly sensing the shift in the air.

Wade’s gaze flicked to his Beta, then back to me. “Is something wrong?”

I couldn’t answer. I could only stare at him. At the concern in his eyes. By the way his arms were still wrapped protectively around Morgan. I opened my mouth, ready to say something I might regret for the rest of my days. Ready to put an end to Morgan and her shenanigans forever. But the only words that came out were…