Chapter Five-Unknown POV

“This is where the cast members will have most of their meals so we need to make sure there’s never any sticks or leaves laying around, got it? We don't want to look messy on TV." I nod along as the producer of the show, a woman named Laura explained to me my duties around the set.

This was my first day on set and my first day working a job like this, period.

The truth is, I’m hiding. 

Three months ago my father, the current Alpha of our pack, fell ill. It started slow; it seemed just like he had a bad cold, but within days he was bedridden and I was taking over his duties temporarily as Alpha. 

We all thought he would get better, but one day he asked to speak to me and my brother alone. 

He laid in his bed propped up by a stack of pillows so he could look at us as he talked. That was how weak he had grown; he couldn’t even sit up on his own now.

He had told us he could feel his time growing short, he knew he was going to die within the year. When we asked how he knew he said he just did. 

He told us we were both great, strong men. Both with our own strengths and areas we flourish in. But he also said we both lacked a certain degree of warmth and empathy, something he said was important if we were to be fair leaders. 

My brother had rolled his eyes, become dismissive at once. He was always kind of like that. Flippant, more than a little arrogant. It had annoyed the crap out of me growing up but now, it was working to my advantage. My brother was older than me and therefore, should have rights to the Alpha title. But nothing was set in stone, my father had every right to deny him his claim and pick someone else. And because of the way my brother had acted throughout his life it looked like my father was questioning if he was really the best fit for Alpha.

I however, hung onto every word my father said. He told us the brother between us who had a real mate in six months, when he would be making the official announcement for the next Alpha of our pack, would be the one to get the title.

We had both thought it was a little silly, because why does that matter? My father had ruled without a Luna for the last ten years, since my mother was killed by rogues. He had done a fine job and we couldn’t understand why we needed a mate. 

He wouldn’t explain why he thought we did, just said it was important for both of us to find someone who really, really loved us. 

At first I had gone the typical approach, bars and clubs, just trying to meet women. 

And meet women I did. 

Tall, short, skinny, curvy, blonde and brunettes, powerful women dripping in diamonds, women who served in kitchens all day and had twenty dollars to their name.

As different as they all looked, they all acted the same. 

They’d learn who I was, learn what power I was up to bat for and I could see that hungry look take form in their eyes. They’d start laying on the flirting, batting their eyelashes and doing everything to seduce me. 

But they were all wrong for me. All cold, greedy. None of them were women I wanted by my side, ruling over my pack with me. I wanted someone like… like my mother. Someone who’d let me lay my head in their lap after a long day, someone who’d ask if I’d eaten or how I slept. I could tell with one hundred percent certainty none of these women were that way.

My father’s right hand man and Beta, a man named Cooper, had pulled me aside one day to tell me about a potential opportunity to find a mate. 

I had been invited to join the cast of some show called Luna’s Choice. At first, I brushed it aside. I wanted no part in something like that. There was no way any of the contestants on the show would make for a good Luna. 

But as the weeks passed and I continued to come up empty handed, my mindset changed quickly. There was no way I was going to lose this chance to run my father’s legendary pack just because I couldn’t tough it out and go on a few dates. I had plans, things I wanted to change and do for the good of our pack.

I had fully planned on joining the regular cast of the show until I went to the interviews. 

I had gone on set where quite a few other people were waiting to be interviewed for the show as well. 

We had all sat in a room together waiting to be called one by one. I had listened to their conversations as we sat and quickly felt like I was already defeated. 

None of these people were even worthy of being in my pack, let alone helping me to run it. 

They were all vain, full of themselves. 

I had actually been about to get up and leave, say screw it, I’ll take my chances at the bars, when a girl walked in. 

She had white blonde hair, sea foam green eyes surrounded by thick, curly lashes. She was wearing jeans, a thin pink shirt, and flat brown sandals. 

Her eyes widened as she walked in the room and took in all the characters sitting there already. I could see her swallow thickly, looking around nervously for somewhere to sit. 

I catch her eye, and tilt my head a little for her to sit in the empty chair next to me. 

“Thanks.” She mutters gratefully as she sits down. Her smell washes over me as, and it takes everything in me not to close my eyes and inhale deeply. Honeysuckles, vanilla, sunshine. It was warm and comforting, especially compared to the sharp perfumed scent I’d come accustomed to smelling on women. 

“You look nervous.” I comment, glancing down at her leg that’s bouncing up and down. 

She laughs awkwardly, reaching up to play with the ends of her hair. “Yeah, I’ve never done anything like this before. I’m definitely out of my league here.” My lift lips up in a smile at the sheepish smile she gives me. It was easy to tell that she was completely unaware of how pretty she was, how good she would look on camera.

The other women in the room were already glaring at her, whispering to each other while shooting daggers at her. She didn’t even seem to notice though and I bet that bothered them even more. 

“Angel?” The casting woman calls a name.

“That’s me.” I hear her sigh. Of course her name is Angel. She looks just like one, after all. She gives me a small, soft smile before walking to meet the woman who’d been calling us back at the door and they walk off together. 

I let out a breath I hadn’t known I was holding once she’s finally gone. 

Now that was the kind of woman I wanted leading my pack by my side.

As I’m about to accept I’m going to have to get on this show if I want a chance at getting closer to her, a man comes into the room. 

Everyone glances at him at first, but they all quickly lose interest when they see him moving to replace the water jug in the corner of the room. He was just a regular worker and they all deemed him unworthy of even a second look. 

I tilt my head a little as I watch him. 

That gave me an idea.