Chapter 2— Far Away.

Morgan's POV:

Werewolves weren't obligated to attend college.

We didn't exactly need degrees to survive.

Our communities were largely self-sufficient, and there were plenty of ways for a wolf to contribute to the prosperity of a Pack without ever stepping foot inside a university.

But Crescent Moon had always been different.

Our former Alpha, John, and his Luna, Gloria, believed that successful wolves created successful Packs. And judging by what Crescent Moon had become, they were fucking right.

Education was one of the greatest investments our Pack made in its people.

If a family couldn't afford to send one of their pups to a prestigious university but that pup showed exceptional academic potential, Alpha John and Luna Gloria made sure money didn't stand in the way.

The Pack sponsored them.

Full scholarship.

Tuition, books, housing—whatever was necessary.

Several wolves had benefited from the program over the years, and many returned after completing their education to serve Crescent Moon as physicians, attorneys, engineers, accountants, teachers, researchers, and business professionals.

Others went on to serve throughout the Eastern Kingdom.

That made me ridiculously proud.

Because Crescent Moon wasn't successful merely because we had money.

We invested in our people.

And college wasn't the only path.

We had one of the most respected trade schools in the Eastern Kingdom.

Agriculture.

Animal farming.

Electrical work.

Construction.

Machinery.

Those trades kept our Pack functioning every fucking day, and our programs were so highly regarded that we regularly accepted students from neighboring Packs.

But our crown jewel was marine engine mechanics.

Very few Packs offered the program, and apparently everyone and their damn cousin wanted in.

There was always a waiting list.

The training was hardcore too. Nobody walked into that program thinking they'd spend a few months playing around with engines and leave with a certificate.

Crescent Moon didn't work that way.

You earned your shit here.

Maybe I was biased.

Fine.

I was absolutely biased.

But Crescent Moon was one of the strongest Packs in the Eastern Kingdom.

And one of the wealthiest.

That success had only grown over the past two years under our new Alpha.

Usher.

My brother's best friend.

And one of the biggest pains in my ass since childhood.

Usher had taken over the Pack two years ago, and from everything Alex told me, he was doing a hell of a job. Trading was his specialty.

Crescent Moon had always traded with neighboring Packs, but Usher had expanded our operations significantly. We now held contracts across multiple territories, with trade relationships extending nationally and internationally.

In two fucking years, he'd nearly doubled the Pack's profits.

Even the royal administration had noticed.

According to Alex, Usher was being considered for an award that would be presented personally by King Khallowells.

Yes.

That King Khallowells.

Mr. Hot-As-Fuck-Magazine-Cover himself.

Not that I cared.

Obviously.

Kira snorted.

"Shut up."

"But I didn't say anything."

"You didn't have to."

Her amusement lingered in the back of my mind.

Annoying little brat.

Usher didn't accomplish everything alone, though. He had an entire trading division working beneath him and one particularly important wolf standing at his side.

My brother.

Alexander.

Usher and Alex had both studied business, although Alex never completed his certification.

Life interfered.

More accurately...

death did.

After Mom was killed, everything changed.

Not all at once.

That would've almost been easier.

Dad tried to keep going after losing her.

For Alex.

For me.

For the Pack.

But Mom hadn't simply been his wife.

She had been his fated mate.

His Goddess-given other half.

And apparently there were some wounds even a werewolf couldn't heal from.

At first, Dad continued performing his duties as Beta. He attended meetings, trained with the warriors, stood beside Alpha John, and tried his damnedest to convince everyone that he was going to be okay.

Especially us.

But Alex and I lived with him.

We knew better.

We watched our father disappear a little more every day.

He became quieter.

He stopped eating as much.

Stopped laughing.

Some days, he barely left his room.

His wolf weakened along with him, and eventually the powerful Beta I'd known my entire life became almost unrecognizable.

That's when Alex started coming home more often.

First, he missed a few classes.

Then a few more.

Eventually, school simply wasn't important anymore.

Dad needed him.

The Pack needed him.

And whether I wanted to admit it or not...

I needed him most of all.

Alex never went back to finish his certification.

He never received the piece of paper proving what he knew, but anyone stupid enough to think that made Alexander Miller less qualified had clearly never sat across a desk from my brother.

He could negotiate his way out of damn near anything.

And if negotiations didn't work?

Well...

He could probably beat the shit out of you too.

Very versatile man, my brother.

Between Usher's instincts for trade and Alex's talent for administration, the two of them had pushed Crescent Moon into an entirely different league.

They were the perfect team.

Which wasn't surprising.

They'd practically shared a brain since childhood.

When Dad became too weak to continue serving as Beta, Josh temporarily stepped into the position.

Then Dad died.

Eighteen months after Mom.

As if some invisible thread connecting them had finally pulled him back to her.

I hated thinking about it that way.

Kira didn't.

She believed there was something beautiful about a love so powerful that even death couldn't completely separate two mates.

I wasn't so sure.

There was nothing beautiful about burying both of your parents before you'd even figured out what the hell you were supposed to do without them.

When Usher eventually inherited the Alpha title, Alexander took Dad's place permanently.

Our father's title.

Beta of Crescent Moon.

And if anyone had been born to serve beside Usher, it was my brother.

A Beta wasn't simply the wolf who stood behind an Alpha looking intimidating.

Although Alex was exceptionally fucking good at that.

He was second in command.

The Alpha's right hand.

His most trusted adviser.

When the Alpha couldn't be present, the Beta spoke with his authority. He helped enforce Pack laws, oversaw training and security, handled disputes, mentored younger wolves, and—if necessary—stood between his Alpha and death.

Loyalty wasn't optional.

Neither was strength.

Thankfully, Alexander had an obnoxious abundance of both.

My brother specialized in martial arts and had spent years perfecting his combat skills. According to Usher, Alex was an even better fighter than he was.

Naturally, Alex made sure everyone knew Usher had said that.

Repeatedly.

For fucking years.

I doubted my brother would ever actually need to die protecting his Alpha.

At least, I prayed he wouldn't.

I'd already lost Mom.

Then Dad.

I wasn't losing Alex too.

Not to an enemy.

Not to his position.

Not to anything.

Maybe that made me selfish.

Fine.

When it came to my brother, I could live with being selfish.

Mostly because whatever poor bastard tried to get through Alex would probably regret every decision that had led him to that particular moment.

Usher and Alexander had been inseparable for as long as I could remember.

Alpha and Beta now.

But before the titles?

They were just two idiots who couldn't go twenty-four hours without seeing each other.

I used to get jealous.

Seriously jealous.

Usher spent more time with my brother than I did.

They trained together.

Studied together.

Went everywhere together.

They were like fucking conjoined twins.

If Alex turned around too quickly, I expected Usher to come flying out of his ass.

Kira burst into laughter.

"That's disgusting."

"But accurate. And you know it."

Eventually, I stopped being jealous.

Because somewhere along the way, Usher stopped being merely Alex's best friend.

He became my brother too.

Which meant I had two overprotective assholes instead of one.

Lucky me.

They teased me relentlessly when we were younger.

Scared away boys.

Threatened boys.

Interrogated boys.

And probably committed several crimes against boys that I was better off not knowing about.

But when shit went wrong?

They were there.

Always.

Together, they were my shield and my armor.

But the two amigos had another best friend.

Ryan.

Ryan joined Crescent Moon when he was nine years old and somehow managed to squeeze himself into Alex and Usher's little bromance.

Not completely.

Nobody could accomplish that miracle.

But close enough.

Ryan was only a year older than me and two years younger than Alex and Usher. Despite the age difference, he'd trained alongside them for years and eventually earned his place among the Pack warriors.

When Usher became Alpha, Ryan was appointed head of one of our border warrior divisions.

And from everything I'd ever known about him, he'd earned it.

Ryan was brave.

Strong.

One hell of a fighter.

And as far as everyone in Crescent Moon was concerned, loyal to the bone.

I'd never had a reason to believe otherwise.

He was also very handsome.

And...

He was my boyfriend.

Kira immediately stirred inside me.

"Don't start, Kira."

"I haven't said anything."

"You were about to."

Silence.

I knew my wolf too damn well.

Ryan and I had known each other most of our lives. We'd been friends long before either of us entertained the possibility of becoming anything more.

And I liked him.

A lot.

There was no hesitation in admitting that. I wouldn't have agreed to date him otherwise.

Ryan made me laugh. He made me feel safe.

Or maybe it was more accurate to say that I'd always felt safe with him.

There was a difference.

I'd known Ryan since we were kids. He'd grown up beside Alex and Usher. He knew my family, understood my grief, and had been part of my life long before everything in it went to shit.

Why wouldn't I trust him?

So yes.

Ryan was my boyfriend.

I had chosen that for myself.

What I hadn't chosen was everything Ryan seemed to believe would eventually come with that title.

There was a difference.

A very fucking important one.

Lately, our conversations had begun changing.

What started as I can't wait until you come home gradually became when you come home.

Then when we're finally together.

Then little comments about our future.

Our life.

Our home.

Always when.

Never if.

And every time he said something like that, something inside me tightened.

Not enough to scare me.

Not yet.

But enough for me to notice.

Ryan was moving faster than I was.

And I was beginning to wonder if I'd made the mistake of assuming that when I said boyfriend...

Ryan heard something entirely different.

Then little comments about our future.

Our life.

Our home.

Always when.

Never if.

And every time he said something like that, an uncomfortable knot formed in my stomach.

It wasn't because I didn't care about him.

I did.

And it wasn't because I regretted becoming his girlfriend.

I didn't.

But Ryan was moving faster than I was.

Much faster.

And in our world, there were certain decisions you couldn't simply undo because two people woke up one morning and realized they'd made a mistake.

Becoming someone's chosen mate was one of them.

And this was the part where Kira was completely disappointed in me.

Ryan and I weren't true mates.

Not Goddess-given mates.

Which made our relationship complicated because, theoretically, I still had a fated mate somewhere out there.

Somewhere.

I had serious doubts about the bastard's existence at this point, but Kira didn't.

She swore he was out there.

"He is," she corrected immediately.

I rolled my eyes.

"You don't know that."

"Yes, I do, Morgan."

"And exactly where is he, then?"

Silence.

Exactly.

I smiled smugly.

"That's what I thought, Kira."

She growled.

The truth was, I secretly hoped she was wrong.

And yes, I knew how horrible that sounded.

Most wolves spent years dreaming about the moment they would finally meet their Goddess-given mate. Some females probably planned their mating ceremonies before they even knew the male's fucking name.

Me?

I was perfectly content never finding mine.

My brother, however, thought I'd lost my damn mind.

Alexander had been furious when he discovered I was dating Ryan.

And when I say furious, I mean furious.

Which was ironic considering how much he loved the guy.

He trusted Ryan with his life.

Fought beside him.

Considered him family.

Apparently, none of those qualifications made Ryan good enough to date his little sister.

Especially when Ryan wasn't my true mate.

Alex wanted me to wait.

For the recognition.

For the bond.

For whatever wolf the Moon Goddess had supposedly chosen for me.

My terrifying, martial-arts-trained Beta brother was secretly a hopeless fucking romantic.

And I would never let him live that down.

But Alex's objection went deeper than his obsession with fated mates.

Ryan wasn't dating me just to see where our relationship went.

He'd already decided where he wanted it to go.

Chosen mates.

He wanted me to be the woman he eventually marked. The one he grew old with.

The problem?

I'd agreed to be his girlfriend.

Nothing more.

Not yet.

And Ryan knew that.

At least, I thought he did.

His situation was also very different from mine.

According to Ryan, the Moon Goddess had appeared to him in a dream on his eighteenth birthday.

That wasn't unheard of among our kind.

When a wolf's fated mate died before reaching the age of recognition—sometimes even before meeting their own wolf—the surviving mate could be left without ever knowing who had been intended for them.

In those circumstances, the Moon Goddess sometimes appeared in a dream.

She would tell the surviving wolf what had happened, release them from the bond that could never be completed, and grant them a second chance.

Permission to someday choose another wolf to love.

According to Ryan, that was exactly what had happened to him.

His fated mate had died before they ever had the chance to meet.

At least, that was what he'd told us.

And why wouldn't I believe him?

I couldn't imagine what that must have felt like.

How do you mourn someone you've never known?

Someone whose face you've never seen?

Someone you were created to love but would never get the opportunity to meet?

Ryan rarely talked about it, and I never pushed him.

According to him, the Goddess had released him.

He was free to choose again.

And eventually...

He chose me.

There was only one tiny problem.

I hadn't been given the same permission.

Ryan was supposedly free to choose.

I wasn't.

Somewhere in this enormous fucking world, the Moon Goddess had already chosen someone for me.

According to Kira, anyway.

Which meant I had to be careful.

Very fucking careful.

Because girlfriend and chosen mate were not interchangeable words.

Not in our world.

A chosen mate meant commitment.

Permanence.

A future we'd deliberately selected despite the mate the Goddess had originally intended for us.

Ryan was ready for that future.

I wasn't.

Not yet.

Maybe not ever.

Kira stirred unhappily again.

"You're playing with fire."

"I'm dating a man, Kira. I'm not sacrificing a virgin under a Blood Moon."

"That's not funny."

I bit my lip.

It was a little funny.

Although Kira did not agree with me.