Chapter 7- Sophie and Cherryl

Savannah Pack

As she unpacked, Sophie stubbornly declined to acknowledge the lump in her throat. The assignment was completed quickly. She had hurriedly packed a holdall with a few items of clothing and personal belongings, but it wasn't much.

They constituted the bulk of her possessions from the apartment she previously shared with a few friends, or had two days earlier.

The employees at the patrol boundary building hadn't wanted her to come back at all that day, but she eventually got the go-ahead grudgingly for 30 minutes with what they called a discreet enforcer security presence, which ended up being a team of four big, dark-suited werewolf men.

While packing and writing a message to her phone for her flatmates, who were both sleeping after a hard night shift from the busy day in the pack clinic.

Sophie had just enough of her innate sense of irony left to ponder what non-discrete looked like. Two of the silent, unfriendly security  had been staring straight ahead. She definitely didn't want to find out what the other two minders had been doing when they were "securing the exits," as they had phrased it. Although she lost any sense of humour, she would have found it in the circumstances as she began to realise that soon this bizarre would become her usual.

When it came time to say goodbye to the research unit at the pack clinic, where she had worked for just over a year, she decided to try a different approach. Instead of asking for permission, she just announced her desire the following morning. No, it already happened this morning. It was difficult for her to maintain any sense of time in this sped-up version of her own life because things were occurring so quickly. When the plan succeeded, she kept her amazement to herself. Maybe she should stop saying please in the future and just demand?

Being the future Master Luna or the queen of the kingdom had to have some benefits but it was scary as hell.

You're moving too quickly, Sophie. Not even a Luna yet, she chastised herself.

She grinned ironically, but it didn't last long because she was about to be.

Sophie assumed that she didn't really have the right to be so astonished because it wasn't particularly noteworthy, but it had previously been a far-off thing. There was no longer any pretence that her life was normal because everything was now so real.

She interrupted the self-pitying train of thought as an expression of impatience spread across her heart-shaped face, firming the lines of her delicate jaw and softening the fullness of her lips.

Sophie severely scolded herself, "It is what it is, Sophie, so get over it," as she shook out the silk blouse she was clutching and hung it up.

Was the effort of unpacking really worth it? She pursed her lips and gave a big sigh.

This wouldn't be her home for very long with the way things were going right now. They discussed a March wedding. The next total lunar eclipse, and therefore the next blood moon. Not months or years, but weeks. She ignored the flutter in her stomach once more, this time feeling more like a buzzard's wings flapping in the pit of her stomach than butterflies.

As she pulled out the final item, her resolute poise and lower lip trembled. Her deep, dark eyes welled up with heated tears, blurring the outline of the white lab coat she held up.

She hurriedly ran a palm across the dew on her cheeks and forced a deep blink as her mind kept wandering back to when her coworkers from the previous year had thrown her an unplanned farewell party. An outburst from the security men led to one of them throwing her to the ground after some party poppers from the New Year were dutifully popped.

She didn't even know the name of the person who was prepared to stand between her and a bullet. She could see how hard the bizarre realization struck her companions as well as herself.

They then presented her with the lab coat, which had a crown emblem stitched onto the breast pocket, while passing out sausage rolls quickly purchased from the 24-hour mini-mart around the corner amid the accompanying sombre party mood.

She had tried her best not to think about how much she would miss her coworkers in the clinic as she accepted the parting gift and hugs from them, but she had found it difficult to grin at the joke. She would also miss the challenge of her job because, unlike the challenges that lay ahead, it was one she had chosen.

Despite the hugs, she could tell they were viewing and considering her in a different way. She had been upset but not startled by the realisation.

Besides, she'd learned to expect nothing less. It was why, when she had the option, she had never published her title or background. She'd hoped to be welcomed for who she was, without prejudice. According to her pack's rules, she, the oldest daughter of the alpha and luna, must marry the oldest son of the neighbouring pack in order to unite the treaty that had been in place for years and maintain the kingdom's unity and peace. Her fate had already been written; she was supposed to be the master Luna, and she couldn't change it. For decades, she and Landon would control the land.

She would always treasure her time at university, both as a medical student and then as a staff member at the prestigious research unit in the pack clinic. Dr. Savannah was a title she had earned and was proud of.

Future Luna Sophie, daughter of the Alpha Alexander and Luna Ally of Savannah Pack, was simply an accident of birth, the same accident that would see her promotion to Robinson Luna and one day Master Luna, or the Queen of the soon-to-be-reunified werewolf kingdom.

She had relished the opportunity to be judged for her ability and not for who her parents were. She had liked that when humans had asked her where she was from, Savannah had drawn a puzzled frown and an inevitable, where is that? Or, don't you mean in the supernatural region?

There were significant advantages for someone who did not enjoy the attention that came with being a royalty in the supernatural land from somewhere so remote, the main one being that a second-division werewolf pack royal did not require strict security of those things she was learning that you did not fully praise until it vanished.

Werewolf politics had looked a long way away for the previous few years, and she had kept it that way, enjoying her independence and her taste of real life.

Sure, she could hear the clock ticking, and the knowledge of what was ahead had never left her, but she had always understood that her parents would make sure she was eased into her new position gradually.

But there had been no progressive easing, just complete immersion. A crash course on what it meant to be Master Luna-in-waiting.

Dr. Savannah, an unseen white coat at a clinic, had strolled out into the street the next morning to shouts of, 'Luna Sophie, when is the wedding?'

As she touched her arm, where the impression of his fingers was beginning to fade from black to a more mellow yellow, her eyes were clouded with recollections. She forced her eyes shut, but she couldn't block out his face, her guilt, or the pit of her stomach as she remembered how Beta Sage's mouth had felt on hers, his taste, and the raw sexual energy he emanated.

She lifted both hands to her head and yelled, "Go away!"

"Why? What have I done?" Sophie's eyes flew open as her sister walked into the room and flung herself face down on the bed.

"There's a wasp. Do you mind?" Sophie said, pretending a crossness she didn't feel because she was glad to see her sister. She eased a dress out from under Cherryl's prone form. "I am wearing this tonight."