Chapter 13 Lucien

The sun was barely over the horizon and I was already on my third whiskey. It wasn’t like alcohol gave shifters a buzz, it was just the symbolism of the quantity that pissed me off.

Then again, over the past week, everything pissed me off.

All because of that Wane girl. What was she thinking? There’s no way the Alpha line can mate with a Wane. Her line couldn’t be verified; the Council would never approve an unknown.

I was much better off with Vanessa.

Her Pack was strong in both numbers and money; her grandfather invested wisely and Ravenhall Pack would be solvent for generations.

Not to mention, she was drop dead gorgeous. I had to adjust because of the bulge I got just thinking about last night, and what a little hellion she was.

The bonding ritual with Vanessa went much better than the one with the Wane. She and her wolf both anticipated the rite and approached it with a lot more excitement than the anti-bonding rite.

Even though we didn’t feel the burst of the bond, Selwyn assured me it would be subtle given the small window between the two rites.

A second or third attempt might be warranted as well. He even gave us herbs to light at night to ensure the bond took hold and got stronger.

But the Luna Bond was there, that’s what mattered. Selwyn assured us it was present. The Pack would now reap the benefits from having a Luna.

Something that had been missing from our lands since my mother passed on.

Behind me, Vanessa moaned softly in her sleep, the sheet wrapped around her hips, leaving her ripe, full breasts exposed and waiting for my teeth to nip at her puckered nipples.

The Pack accepted her last night as my chosen Luna. The new matriarch for Silverpine. The elders were right, they needed that confirmation, the consistency of pack succession before we sent my father down river.

The squeal of brakes below snapped my attention back to the pack and the preparations for my father’s funeral.

My Beta, Kane, got out of his SUV and made tracks for the pup that wandered right into his path. The look on his face said he was ready to give that youngling a lesson he would remember for years.

“Kane.” I said in a loud but low tone. Shoving out a small bit of will.

Kane stopped dead in his tracks and looked up at me. He’d been surly since the Bonding Ceremony. Another year and he still hadn’t found his mate.

I shook my head. He pursed his lips, looked down, looked back up, and gave me a slight nod. At the same time a woman ran out of the Pack House toward the small boy who stood warily in front of Kane’s vehicle, his bottom lip trembling.

The woman reached him, and frantically turned him toward her, her fingers moving, but not her lips. The pup couldn’t hear. Once that realization hit Kane, he hung his head. Instead of forever marking the boy with fear of the Beta, Kane opened his arms and motioned for the boy to come closer.

He did, with the woman’s encouragement, until he was wrapped in the huge wolf’s arms.

I could hear Kane’s exchange with the woman. With all the activity happening, the boy slipped away. The woman kept apologizing, averting her eyes. Kane assured her it was fine, and changed the subject before she could apologize again.

Through eavesdropping, I learned that her name was Ophelia and her son was Nicholas, or Nick. He was only three, and they were abandoned by his father once he learned his pup was deaf. Alpha Corren took them in, and they lived in Wane Hall.

Kane extended his hand toward the woman; she placed hers in his and they shook. Except, the shaking wasn’t limited to their hands. Their bodies vibrated as their bond took hold. Each of them stood in awe of the other as their union solidified.

Well, they wouldn’t be living in Wane Hall after that I thought to myself as I sipped more whiskey. Maybe Kane would be in a better mood now.

They walked off together, little Nicholas walked between them, looking up from one to the other.

I turned my attention back to lumber being dragged over toward the river where my father’s body would lay on his pyre. Other pack members built smaller biers for their loved ones’ who’d recently passed.

Dad would have liked the joint send off. He also would have liked the irony having the bonding run the same night as his funeral. He always did find the humor and silver lining in just about every situation imaginable.

My father was a good Alpha, a good leader. From establishing Wane Hall for his collection of strays he took in, to his philanthropic donations to the human town bordering our land, he always had the Pack’s best interest first and foremost.

I saw a line of black SUVs rolling slowly up the hill. Other packs were arriving with their official delegations.

I downed the rest of the whiskey in my glass and poured another from the bottle at my side. Tomorrow another damned feast and Selwyn proclaims me Alpha. Once I stand and give the fucking speech I wrote, the fires get lit and we run as pack and as allies. Then they fucking go home.

Three days. I could do this.

Alpha.

I didn’t want to be Alpha. At least not yet.

My father was supposed to lead for years, so Vanessa and I could roam around the globe, making new contacts and broadening the Pack’s influence.

That’s what we told our fathers, but all we wanted was to travel and be free of Pack. We could rule when we were old, not now.

The Wane girl took that away from me too.

She fucking took everything away from me.

Now she was dead.

I was perfectly fine with that.