The Other Luna

Day 3

I woke up in a familiar room, my room. My whole body felt sore but in a good way. The way soreness feels after you know you’ve had a workout and while I welcomed the pain, I dreaded the training that I would have this morning. That's when I realized I had woken up on my own terms, and not by an alarm clock, meaning I was most probably already late.

I shot out of bed and quickly got dressed trying to make it to practice before it ended. As I was just about to run out the door, I stole a glance at the clock and noticed it was already 1 pm. My body slacked and I realized there was no need to rush because the practice was already over.

"Crap," I said out loud before taking the clothes I just put on and jumping into the shower. I missed dinner last night and breakfast this morning, lunch was at 12 so now I would have to wait until dinner before eating. I quickly changed and got out of the bathroom, wanting to find Max as soon as possible.

He was really starting to grow on me and I wanted him to feel safe and happy in the pact. Before I left something sitting on my night table caught my eye. A silver platter with a plate of eggs, pancakes and orange juice. I squinted my eyes at it until my stomach growled again and I decided to eat it, even though I didn't know how it got there or who put it there.

Someone must have noticed that I didn't eat anything for breakfast and I missed lunch. It could have been Cora or Brooke or maybe it was the cook. Or maybe it was... no, it couldn't be. The Alpha didn't care about me, but even as I thought that my mind drifted back to last night. I blushed at the thought of him carrying me back to my room and the feeling of his hands running over my face and hair.

I carried the silver platter into the kitchen, washed it and put it away after I had finished eating. Then I went to go find Max. He was near the area with the other children but stayed a few steps away from the game they were playing. Olivia was hanging around with them. Didn't she have better things to do? Like Luna things? Does she make Aiden do all the dirty work while she dances in the flowers?

When Max saw me approaching, his face lit up. He ran over to me and put his arms around my legs, then he looked up at me with big wide eyes.

"I have a problem" My smile turned upside down as I frowned at him

"What's wrong?"

"I still don't know your name" He sounded frustrated, annoyed and angry all at once.

"Mia" I watched as he looked at his hands and softly whispered my name to himself several times, trying to remember it as if his life depended on it. By now Olivia had seen me and the look on her face was anything but happy.

"You just need to ruin everything," she said accusingly. This was complete 180 from the way she acted yesterday. Yesterday she was kind, calm, and collected. Now I could see distaste in her eyes.

"Excuse me?" I raised an eyebrow.

"First my mate comes home at 5 in the morning, your smell all over him and now you've taken Max"

"Max isn't an object, he can choose who he wants to be with, as for your mate, he was with me out of free will." It took all my will power to not smile at talking about my mate, he just made me feel so giddy.

"We were making great progress, me and Aiden" She looked frustrated and disheveled and her words came out in a rush, piquing my interest.

"What do you mean?" Her face fell as she realized that she said something she shouldn't have

"Nothing, it doesn't matter" She stuttered. I stared after her as she walked back to the other children. I think I just found a crack in their relationship and maybe, just maybe, I could pry it open.

I took Max on a walk in the forest and we found a big strong tree, so we decided to climb up and talk for a little while. He wanted to know more about my childhood. I didn't have the best relationship with my parents. My brother was a few years older than me and when he found out his mate was the beta of another pack, he left us immediately to take his position in the pack. My parents were really proud of him, so they left me in the old pack to follow my brother across the country to his new one. They didn't bother to tell me they were leaving, and they didn't contact me for years until one day they showed up at my doorstep saying that my brother was killed by rogues and they wanted me to take them in. They never really explained why they left me there to fend for myself instead of taking me with them to the new pack. I never cared enough to ask. A week later they took me to a new pack, the Red Valley pack, where I am now, and I haven't seen them since. Of course, I didn't tell this to Max though. I told him stories of a happy childhood. My brother and I had a good relationship, even though my parents always loved him more.

"Do you think I have a mate" I was surprised by his question

"Everybody does"

"Oh," we sat in silence for a while until he asked another question "Do you have a mate?" It was hard to answer this question. I felt sick to my stomach as I opened my mouth and said,

"No" he stopped asking me questions after that.

I'm not really sure how long we sat there for but when it started getting dark I decided to take him back. We still needed to eat dinner. The kitchen was empty, and I decided to make us some soup. Living on my own for so long taught me how to take care of myself. I put a pot of water on the stove to boil, then I chopped some carrots and other vegetables. I put another pot of water to boil so I could make pasta to put in the soup. About 45 minutes later we had a giant pot of soup. I set the table for each of us and soon I saw Brooke walk in and stared at the large pot sitting on the table.

"What is that?"

"Our dinner" Max said happily. I had let him choose the kind of pasta that went in.

"Can I have some?"

"Help yourself" I answered. Soon more people came in and also grabbed a bowl. I had made a big pot for that exact reason. We were a big pack and for the three days that I had been here, I hadn't seen one person cook themselves a proper dinner. It was always frozen pizza, Chinese takeout, and hamburgers.

I guess news spread that there was food because soon the small kitchen was filled and people were finding new places to sit and eat, including on the fridge. People kept complimenting me on the soup and I felt a little proud. Then I remembered I was proud of making soup, and my happiness dimmed a little. At one point, I was even forced to make another to keep up with demand.

Suddenly a hush went over the kitchen and it was so quiet you would have been able to hear a pin drop. The Alpha had arrived, empty soup bowl in hand. I was sitting at the table, across from Max, who was terrified of Aiden.

We all watched as Aiden walked over to the pot of soup, took the lid off, smelled it, spooned himself a full bowl and turned to us.

"Who made this?" Nobody said anything "Who made this" He repeated himself louder this time. I couldn't really tell if he was mad or not. Once again nobody said anything, but I watched as people turned to look at me as if wanting to see what I would do next. Aiden looked at me. "Did you make this?" He arched an eyebrow and I tilted my chin up at him, defiantly.

"Yes."

"Very well" With that, he left. We all sat stunned at his entrance, but soon everyone returned to talking to one another. Max was amazed.

"He's scary!"

"No, he's not"

"I'm scared of him" No little boy should be afraid of his Alpha.

I decided to take him to visit the Alpha. I didn't tell him where we were going until we reached the door to his office.

"I don't want to go in there" His grip on my hand loosened as he tried to back away.

I let his hand go and knelt down to his level.

"He's not going to hurt you"

"But I'm scared"

"Why"

"Because he's the Alpha," he said in a "Duh" voice.

"He's actually a big softie under his scary face" Suddenly the door opened, and I was face to face with the Alpha's legs.

"What is this?" His voice was questioning, and I stood up. Max was quick to hide behind me.

"We came to visit you"

"Why?"

"Because I came to show Max that you're not scary" It was only now that he seemed to have seen Max. He looked down at him peeking from behind me. Aidan didn't say anything, and Max soon came out from behind me.

"Hi," Max said quietly. I watched as the Alpha bent down to Max’s level.

"How old are you?"

"I'm 5 and a half. My birthday is next week"

"Woah. Little man, I thought you were at least 7 years old!" Max puffed his chest out with pride at the Alpha’s compliment.

"Really?" his face lit up. The big bad Alpha talking to the little man. Aiden looked at me from his spot on the floor. He looked so handsome right now looking at me from underneath his lashes.

"What do you want for your birthday?" Aidan was staring very intently at Max, giving him his full attention.

"What do you mean?"

"Your present?"

"What present?" My guess was that his parents never celebrated his birthday, a bit like mine.

"Usually on your birthday all your friends and family have a party and give you a gift" I explained to him.

"Oh” Max shrugged his shoulders, “I don’t really need anything right now.” It was then that my eyes landed on Aidan’s wall clock and realizing that it was time to send Max back to the elders to put him to bed. I explained to him that we would talk about his birthday present another day and Max volunteered to go back by himself because he was a “big boy who didn’t need my help anymore”. With that being said, Max ran off down the hall, leaving Aidan and I to ourselves.

We looked at each other. I couldn't pull my eyes from his face. His high cheekbones, his blue eyes, his brown hair. He really was breathtaking. Seemingly sculpted by supernatural forces. His hand reached out and I held my breath as he touched my face. We were standing awfully close to each other right now. I bit my lip to try to hide my emotions. I wanted him so bad. Without realizing what he was doing he quickly put his hand at the back of my head and pulled me to him, smashing my lips to his. I guess he wanted me too. I couldn't pull away, not now, not ever. His lips felt so good on mine. I guess that's what happened when you're mates. But this wasn't right. His lips may have felt like home, but at the end of the day, he still had a Luna. A faux one, but a Luna none-the-less. I pulled away even though my whole body ached for more.

"As much as I want to undress you right now, I can't make you cheat on your Luna" I wanted to make him want me. I want to leave him asking for more. I want him to realize how much he needed me.

"Let's not think about her" He leaned down to kiss me, and I almost gave in again. Almost. I also wanted to pretend that Olivia didn't exist and to be with my mate, but I couldn't.

"I can't be the reason you cheat on her.”

"You can't leave me like this."

"You’re so determined to have both of us, but you can’t. You have to pick because we both deserve more than that. " He knew I was right, so I left before he had a chance to respond. He'd be a fool if he didn't realize how much he needed me. How much I needed him. Olivia will never be able to quench his hunger for me. He'll become more and more sexually frustrated, until he can no longer stand it and come running back to me. Or so I hoped.

I guess I didn't really think this plan through. I was in the training room when I felt a pain in my abdominal region and I immediately knew what it was. He was mating with Olivia.

It felt like my heart was tearing out of my chest.

My wolf was crying, and I clawed at myself to make it stop. I needed to make it stop. I was on the floor on my hands and knees breathing heavily, trying to keep the tears from coming.

The physical pain alone, spreading through my body was enough to have me on my hands and knees panting.

The emotional pain, on the other hand, was a kind of pain I had never experienced. My chest hurt so much it almost felt like physical pain as well and the agony of it all had me squeezing my eyes shut, unable to form sentences and follows ideas from one thought to another.

I laid on the floor like that, praying for the pain to ease and feeling nauseous. Soon the pain let up a little and I was able to slow my breathing reconnect with my surroundings.

At the moment, all I felt was dizziness and nausea and closing my eyes only made it worse, making it feel like my body was going up and down on a roller coaster.

I didn't move for a long time after that. I noticed my music must have reached the end of the playlist and stopped itself cause the room was silent now. Suddenly another sharp pain coursed through me and I let out a yelp. Not again. He was mating with her again. I begged, in what I hoped were coherent sentences for the pain to ease up. For Aidan to stop mating with Olivia. For someone to find me and give me anesthesia. I couldn’t believe he was going for a second round and putting me through this again.

This time I really did throw up and I didn’t have the energy to crawl to the bin, so I laid in my own mess. It was starting to hurt to swallow and my body was getting hot. I wouldn't be surprised if I was running a fever. I felt like the walls were closing in on me and suddenly I was claustrophobic.

I fought against my own wolf for control. She would kill Olivia without a second thought, but I couldn’t let her.

Yikes. It was getting harder to breathe. How much more could I take? I clawed at my neck trying to relieve the pressure from my throat, vaguely aware that I was tearing the skin.

I grabbed onto my hair trying to take my mind off the pain in the rest of my body and redirect it. It only resulted in a handful of hair in my hands. I was going to end up being driven crazy. Somehow, I crawled my way towards the door, unbalanced and wobbling like a limp noodle. I stopped shortly after that when my eyes got cloudy. Why was it so loud in here? So many voices. But as I looked around nobody was in the room. Someone approached me, was it Aiden? I tried to get closer to him, but he vanished. I was hallucinating. Why was it so dark in here? I couldn't see anything. Suddenly I heard a high pitch wail and I jerked, surprised at the sound of my own voice.

At then suddenly, the pain eased up and I knew the worst of it was over. Completely and thoroughly drained of energy all I could do was roll myself onto my back, feel the left-over remnants of pain coursing through my body, close my eyes, and fall asleep.