CHAPTER FOUR

RILEY

“What? Why?” Stefani questions for the both of us.

We had gotten to the entrance of the Alpha’s base and an angry looking Gamma had told us to hold on.

It seems he had been told to man the gate, judging from his stance and the dismissive voice he had used in telling us to wait.

“I…I was told to come. The Beta told me to come.” I try staring into his eyes as I say this. Well, since I’ll soon be the Luna of this pack, might as well start brushing up my nerves and guts.

“I am aware of that.” The sternness on his voice didn’t reduce as he says this, staring right back into my eyes.

He wins the face off.

I put my face down as my nerves fail me.

“So?” Stefani asks, her hand never letting go of mine. “You still won’t let us through? She’s going to be your Luna soon.”

The little rays left by the setting sun makes me see him look at me, right from my head to my toes, back to my head.

Then a smirk appears on his face.

“Are you aw…” Stefani begins, but pauses once she feels the squeeze I give her palm.

Stefani’ Pa is a Gamma, so she is a Gamma too. In hierarchy, she has every right to speak to him in any way, as they were of the same rank.

But.

Commotion, bantering, make me uncomfortable.

“Let’s wait a little. I believe there’s a reason for all this.” I offer her a small smile.

“There better be.” Stefani mutters under her breath.

Just then, a group of four giggling girls waltz to where we stand, obviously heading into the Alph’s Base.

Their giggling stops on sighting us. And we move from the path, to avoid being bumped into.

I feel all their eyes on me as they pass. I even hear a laugh and a ‘that’s her’ as the man moves to let them through the entrance.

I had never gone for one of those age group meetings held three days before every full moon. Not because I didn’t see the importance or the need to. But I am always busy.

So its no shock that I don’t know any of those girls. But it is that they know me.

Nobody knows me.

…well, except Stefani.

“Good.” Stefani says. And when I turn to look at her, I see a huge grin illuminating her face.

“Hmm?” I question. It’s good that they all know. There’ll be no need for any introduction.”

I have my reply right at the tip of my tongue, when a loud cheer interrupts and takes up our attention.

“ALL HAIL THE ALPHA!”

This comes from the base. And with the reverberation, it is obvious it is coming from almost all the members of the pack.

The ceremony has just began.

Will everyone be there for the ceremony?

Is this real?

What should I do now?

Do I look well enough?

A hundred and one questions fly around my head like fireflies attracted to fire.

Silence has fallen in the space, but an almost audible authoritative voice can be heard, probably speaking to the crowd.

We remain there for a while as it gets dark and my feet hurts from standing in the low heels I and been able to recover from my Ma’s belonging before Pa burnt all she owned in one of his drunken feat.

It was a silver colored pair of heels and I had at that time seen anything of its kind or anything that had that color, so I hid it for myself.

Why?

I don’t know. It was just pure instincts.

But I had smiled at myself when Stefani complained about having no shoes to suit the dress, because, of course, I had the perfect pair.

On putting it on, Stefani had complimented in between smiles that I look like the queen of a jungle.

If that was a good thing, I don’t know. But I took the compliment greedily.

“…on the LUNA!”

This jolts me back to reality.

A reality filled with cheers coming from the Alpha’s base. Cheers coming from a lot of people I don’t know. Cheers that make my heart race, like a sheep going in for slaughter.

“You can go in now.” The man leaves the entrance for us to come through.

In panic, I look up at Stefani. And I am not shocked to see excitement written over her expression.

“You got this, my Luna.” Her grip tightens. “Let’s go.”

“That’s not possible. Just her for now. You,” the man points at Stefani, “go in later.”

“Why? No.” my panic comes out as words.

I had felt almost like I can do the walk down in front of all those people because I thought Stefani would be going with me.

But now…

“Princess, you can do it.” I don’t know why Stefani says this, but I’m sure she is aware of what that name does to me. I had bragged to her, one day, that my Pa used to call me Princess, and she had laughed, so I never expected her to use it.

At least not like this.

We stare into each other’s face. Communicating without words.

Then she releases my hand.

I notice that the cheers has begun to reduce.

There and then, I make the decision to be Green Creek Pack’s Luna. A strong and bold Luna for Pa, Stefani ad Me.

I turn, adjust the hands of my dress and walk into the space, head held up high.

The row of lit red candles line up to create the part I presume I should walk on. Dried leaves that make a crunch sound as I step on them are scattered on the path. The fire from the candles attract a lot of fireflies.

And all these add to the beauty of the scene and the ground which I keep on walking on. Diligently following the row of candles.

I feel peace inside. I feel happy and celebrated that all these were prepared for me to walk on.

Slowly, a smile begins to form on my face.

It stops when I look up.

I expected this number of people, and all eyes on me, but the reactions on their faces wasn’t expected. Disdain, jealousy, pity, envy, confusion, curiosity, all written boldly on their faces without any hiding.

I halt in my march, taken aback by the look on everyone’s faces. I had expected some kind of excitement or something.

Aren’t these the people that cheered when I was summoned?

Or wasn’t I expected?

I hear some whisper, ‘an omega?’.

I stare back into their face in panic. Frantically searching for any face that would give me the go ahead to move on.

Just anyone.

As my eyes wander towards the platform where the Alpha stands, it catches a set of deep blue eyes fixed on me. And…

He has a smile on his face.

At me.

No, not of mockery.

He is smiling at me, with interest in his eyes.

There and then, right on that spot, I fall deeply in love with the owner of those deep blues.

“Come forward.” A voice calls and I turn to seek the owner.

It was the Alpha’s. As I stare back and forth between him and those blue eyes, I see an uncanny resemblance.

Thank goodness. Without words, those blues began to pull me closer, drawing me forth to the platform. My concentration on those eyes block all side whispers and blurs out all expressions.

As I get to where he is, I stand, staring in awe at how just a pair of eyes could be so captivating, so soulful and as deep as the sea.

My breath hitches in my throat as he takes his eyes from mine and turn his head and whole body towards the stairs. And I almost pass out when he get to the last set and stretched out his hand towards me.

“Come.” He says in an almost whisper as his eyes gets transfixed on mine again.

I stretch out my shaky hand and take his. As mine sweaty palm comes in contact with his hard calloused one, I feel a ting the lower belly.

I walk up the tree stairs to stand on the platform, right beside my love.

As I take my place beside him, facing the whole pack, I feel comfortable. Probably from how hefty he is or how deep his voice had sounded, but I feel protected. My anxiety, gone.

“As you all must be aware, I have decided to step off from being Alpha. And my great son here, Jude, is willing and capable, and of course liable by birth to take up his place as Alpha.”

I look, and a small smile begins to appear on his face as the whole crowd cheered at that news.

“But, following the laid down rules of our pack, he cannot become Alpha with having a strong Luna beside him.”

Strong?

No cheers.

No reactions.

Just stares.

“We have been putting off this coronation, as there was no Luna for Jude, but two days ago, the seer knocked on my door with good news from the moon goddess. Our new Luna has been chosen. So great and good men of Green Creek Park, I present to you the Alpha’s mate and our soon to be Luna.”

I feel the stares intensify and begin to bore holes in my skin.

“Smile.” A soft order came from beside me.

Not Again.

I move my gaze to his, and notice that his beautiful and consoling smile has been replaced by a forced one. But those blues are still on me.

So I do what I do best.

I give out a bright smile for him first, then for the crowd.

But draws, still, no reaction from the stone-faced people that stare back at me.

Without saying anything like a warning, Jude turns and takes both my hands into his. Then we lock eyes. My blues to his blues.

No one told me I would fall in love this way. No one told me I would fall in love today. But as I look deep into his eyes, I see a universe where only the both of us exist, outside the noise and prying eyes, and I fall in love again.

Then his face begins to get closer to mine, in a very slow pace.

What?

Already?

My heart rate spikes up, my lids bat repeatedly and my panic returns for a very different reason this time. But while feeling this way, unconsciously, my lids flutter shut, and I stand waiting for the expected.

One second.

Two.

But nothing came.

No kiss.

Instead, I feel his breathe on my neck, then his voice in my ear.

“What is your name?”

And like that, I am aggressively thrown down from my high.

My eyes fly open and an involuntary “hmm?” escapes my lips.

Who knows? I must have heard wrong. Like I’ll be his Luna. I’m his mate. I can feel our mate bond like a strong pull towards him. I even anticipated his kiss.

And he doesn’t know my name? I definitely heard wrong.

He pulls back, and now I can see his face. His eyebrows pinch together...in confusion? Curiosity? Worry? I don’t know.

“Your name. What is it?” He asks.

Yeah. He doesn’t know my name.

I’m sure they all don’t.

I clear my throat before responding. “Riley.”

Can be just my imagination, but I see an unmistakable look of surprise flash through his face. But his expression immediately returns to his neutral state as he takes a step back, while still gripping my hands.

“Riley Green.” I am not surprised that he knows my full name, as all members of this pack go with the name of the pack as their names, but what throws me off guard is the loud voice he uses in calling it.

I flinch, then realize that we are still standing in front of a crowd, and he has to raise his voice, so they can hear whatever he is about to say.

“As we begin this journey as mates and as Alpha and Luna, I promise to take care of you. To cherish and hold you and this pack as my priority in life. I’ll be loyal, honest and be a pillar that you can lean on. All these would I do. Just for you.”

Maybe it’s the effect of the night air, maybe I’m affected by how good he looks, or it could be that the words falling from his mouth are words I always wanted to hear someone say to me, maybe. But I feel goose bumps on every part of my body.

“I should at least do all that as an appreciation to the moon Goddess for giving me such a mate,” a broad smile comes to his face as he lets go of my hand and turns to the crowd. “Right?”

He begins to laugh. And of course the pack join in on his laugh.

He moves to go stand on the Alpha’s Stand where his father has just vacated. It is a platform higher than the one I stand watching from.

“Esteemed people of Green Creek Pack, being born as the next Alpha has put me in a position where by I have lived all my years in rehearsals and training for this position. I, Alpha Jude, will live, fight, die for this pack.” He ends this by hitting his fist hard on the lectern in front of him.

Poor thing.

“ALL HAIL THE ALPHA!”

This shout comes from mostly the men as they lift their fist in the air, while the women clapped and cheered. The pups, those little creatures, just looked.

Silence returns and I watch as my husband’s eyes move upward, staring at the sky.

My Husband.

That sounded awkwardly nice, even in my imagination.

The whole pack mirror his action. So I follow suit, even though I have no idea what we are searching for in the sky. But we all look up in deafening silence.

Then I see it.

The moon which had been hidden behind the clouds, slowly begins to come out in it full glory.

I had forgotten that today is a full moon. And I am on one of Stefani’s favorite dresses.

On full moons, I endeavor to stay hidden behind the house, naked, in other to avoid shredding any of the very few dresses I own during my shift. But now, I’m Luna, and going naked in front of my pack isn’t an option.

I hope Stefani doesn’t mind.

“Hunt for whichever meat you can acquire.” The light from the full moon illuminates his face. “Let the celebration begin!”

A celebratory hunt?

Cheers and grunts fill the room followed by the cracking of bones.

I watch in awe as the skin begins to turn to fur, fingers into paw. I have never seen such number of people shift at the same time.

I stare on, till I feel a snap in my spin.

My cue to shift.