Chapter 24

OAKLEY

Melissa, her mate and I entered the dining hall where there was already a huge crowd of people. Thankfully the dining hall was also very big. On one wall was a set up of a few long tables that had a variety of foods and drinks on them, at one end was bowls, plates and utensils. It was set up buffet style, which made sense with the amount of pack members there was. along another wall was a table with chairs that overlooked the rest of the room, it was raised up on a platform so the rest of the room could be seen while sitting. That was reserved for the higher ranking pack members, including a chair for the alpha and luna in the very center. My guess what that alpha marks mother sat in the Luna seat and his father on her other side as she was the acting Luna until he found his mate. In the middle of the room was rows of tables with some comfortable looking chairs. Some pack members were sitting down, a few standing around chatting here and there and kids running around chasing each other and laughing. I was standing chatting with melissa and her mate when serenity walked in with two friends who looked like they followed her and did her bidding. she spotted me, glared and marched over to where we were standing.

“How dare you show your face here after what you did to me!” She snarled at me.

“All I did was a training evaluation. I wasn’t trying to make you look bad. It was just a sparring session.” I said to her. I was confused about why she was so angry at me.

“You should have lost. Or pretended to lose! You don’t beat the daughter of the head warrior! You made me look bad and you will pay for it.” She growled at me. Her friends standing behind her, their arms crossed. I took a moment to really look at her. She was average height but had on bright red heels, she had on a black mini skirt and a red tank top that showed far more cleavage then was appropriate for being around kids. Her sandy blonde hair was straightened and went just past her shoulders. there was far too much makeup on her face and I wondered how much time she spent actually doing it. Her friends behind her were looking pretty similar to her only one had on blue and the other green for their tops and heels.

“What do you want serenity. There isnt anything that you can do about it. Why don’t you and your minions move along now.” Melissa said. She grabbed my arm and dragged me away from them, not that she had to try very hard I was pretty happy to get away from them. I saw my grandparents enter the room and when they spotted us they came right over. They greeted us and hugged us. We all stood there chatting and waiting until it was time to eat.

Even though we weren’t near the door I knew when he walked in. I could smell the mate scent and feel his presence. I turned just in time to see serenity and her minions approach him.

“Oh this should be good.” Melissa whispered at me.

“Alpha Mark, there you are. I haven’t seen you since you came back from the council and I have missed you.” She purred at him in a sickly sweet voice. She had always been trying to get him to take her as his chosen mate even though he had never once given her any indication he would. In fact he tried to avoid her as much as he could. he took a step back from her which didn’t go unnoticed by her. His eyes scanned the room until he found me. He started to walk towards me when she stepped in his way.

“What is going on? Why are you ignoring me suddenly?” She asked in a pouty voice. He looked at her with ice cold eyes.

“I am not all of a sudden ignoring you. I have never once shown you that i was interested in your in any way at all. In fact, I saw the little stunt you pulled this morning during that evaluation and we will be having words about that later. As for what’s wrong, you have stopped me from getting to my mate so kindly move out of my way.” He growled out to her. Those who were standing by heard him say his mate and there was a lot of whispering going around at that. He stepped around her and made his way towards me. She had turned around to watch him and see who his mate was. When he approached me and pulled me into a hug, rubbing his face on my neck to leave his scent, she glared daggers at me. If looks could kill, I would be dead.

“Are you ready for this? Quite a bit of them heard that exchange and now know that I have found my mate.” He whispered to me. I just nodded at him. I was nervous. What if they didn’t like me. My grams gave me a reassuring smile and melissa gave a thumbs up with a grin. we walked up to the platform that had the table for the higher ranks and stood in front of the table holding hands. The room went quiet and they all bared their necks in respect to their alpha.

“Hello everyone! I will keep this brief as I know that you are all hungry and the food smells fantastic.” A few of the members laughed at that.

“As I am sure some of you have heard and can see now, I have found my mate. Everyone meet Oakley.” He said as he went from holding my hand to putting his arm around me. Everyone clapped and cheered. Except serenity and her minions. After everyone settled down he spoke again.

“I know you are all very excited to meet her but please do not overwhelm her. And do not ask any questions about what happened in her previous pack and why she came here because I know you all know that she joined the pack while I was away and I hadn’t even met her yet.” he addressed them.

“Well then how do we know she wasn’t exiled from her last pack? How do we know she didn’t do something horrible?” It was serenity who asked the question. Mark sighed. He was about to say something when I stopped him.

“Are you sure?” He asked me. He knew I was going to tell them. I just nodded at him. Then I turned to them all.

“Alpha Mark is my second chance mate. I was previously mated to the beta of my former pack. And while I thought every thing was great between us I was wrong. He has been sleeping with my half sister throughout our entire relationship. She sent me text message proof that I have. I was also being abused by my step mother and half sister when my dad was away at work. They wanted me to pretend like everything was going well and that it was my fault when he took my sister as his chosen mate and rejected me. As most of you know, my mother was born into this pack. I came here to stay with my grandparents. It wasn’t my original intention to actually stay. I was going to come up with a plan, find a pack that was far away and move on. But then I found alpha mark and discovered him as my second chance mate. I was unsure at first because of what happened before but now I feel as though the moon goddess did what she did for a reason and I am very happy to be here. I will do my very best to be a good Luna.” i explained to them all. There was a lot of chatter after that and it made serenity look like more of an idiot. I knew she was going to attempt some revenge on me for this but I wasn’t worried about it. Mark dismissed everyone to eat and then pulled me into a hug.

“That was very brave of you my angel.” He whispered in my ear. it made me shiver. We got our food and sat down at the table. It was great to see everyone enjoying themselves. Every so often someone would come up to introduce themselves and say hello. I was very happy to be there and knew I had made the right decision.