My Own Destiny

Lucian

Lucian

Sitting impatiently by the pond, I glanced at my watch again. It is almost ten after ten. It is not like Aurora to be late.

Usually, she is here sitting on the bench or lying on that large rock in the middle of the pond with her nose stuck in a book studying.

Aurora did not answer her cell phone and her mind was blocked when I tried mind linking her.

I tried not to worry but my imagination was getting the best of me. I was just about to go back to the pack house in search of her when I heard a rustling near the tree line.

I quickly stood, “It’s about time, you had me….” I stopped in mid-sentence as my heart practically stopped. Natalia emerged from the woods. She had a serious look on her face, and I knew something was wrong.

“What’s wrong? Where is Aurora?” I asked, looking behind her, expecting Aurora to emerge from the woods behind her. Maybe she decided to have her sister start joining us for training.

“Its okay, Lucian.” Natalia said, putting her hands up, like for me to stay calm. “Aurora left.” She said calmly.

“Left?!?!” I could hear my echo in the woods as Natalia flinched from my outburst.

“Please keep it down.” Natalia said in a low voice.

“Why, what has happened? Do the others not know?”

“Aurora is okay but she ran away early this morning.”

It took me a few moments to process her words, ran away….

I started to rush towards the path back to the packhouse when Natalia stood in my way, putting her hands up to block me.

“What is wrong with you?” I asked her, “We need to find her, it is not safe for her to be out there alone.”

“Lucian!” Natalia said firmly. “Aurora wanted to go alone, she did not want to put others in danger, especially you. You know if Jullian thought you were with her he would kill you.”

Natalia made a face, deep in thought, “I promised not to tell anyone, let my parents figure it out on their own. She left them a note once they go looking for her in her room, but I will not alert them or anyone else.” She said, standing firm.

“You are telling me.” I replied to her. I was trying to hide how hurt I was that she would leave and not tell me, of all people, I was her best friend.

“Aurora gave me a letter for you. She asked me to meet with you this morning to explain why she was not here and give you her letter.”

She handed me an envelope. I could already smell Aurora’s scent on the letter. I gently took it out of Natalia’s hands and went to the bench.

I sat and stared at the letter for some time before slowly opening it.

I could see her delicate hand writing and knew she had indeed written the letter.

‘Dearest Lucian –

I am writing this letter to you, pleading for your understanding. I needed to leave, but not only did I need to leave, but I needed to leave alone. I am so blessed to have a dearest friend such as yourself. You have been everything to me for so long. I have taken you for granted and for that I am sorry. I worry that anyone who accompanies me on my journey would be at Jullian’s mercy and I can not have that on my conscience. Especially if he hurt you.

I need to have time to learn who I am. I have spent so many years as the future Luna to the Crimson Moon Pack and future mate to Jullian DePont that I don’t really know who I really am. I need to find myself.

I spoke with my father, pleaded and begged, but he was determined I see through with the arrangement with Jullian and his father. As I know you understand, I cannot be mated to that male. I detest him with all my being. But….it is not just my revulsion of Jullian that pushes me forward with my decision. I must find my true fated mate. Deep down I know he exists, and I pray I will find him along my journey.

Lucian, I truly love you, but I do not think that you are my fated mate. I could be wrong and it would be amazing if I were wrong, because you would make the perfect mate and any female would be lucky to have you, but I just don’t think I am the one. But I promise you I will be back one day and if I have not found my mate, we will finally see if we are meant to be or not.

Please, either way, know I love and cherish you and always will.

Love Aurora

I read through her letter three times before I looked back up at Natalia. She just gave me a sad look as I stood.

“So, I guess I am supposed to train you.” I said, being thankful I had something that would help distract me. I wanted badly to run after Aurora, search her out, but she was right. My running after her would only make matters worse with Jullian.

As we were about to get started, I heard someone coming up the path. Natalia must have heard it as well, because she stiffened and awaited to see who had ventured out this way. I trained with Aurora everyday except Sundays and no one ever came out this way this time of day.

I was surprised to see Brutus walk out of the line of trees. He stopped abruptly, staring at us with a slightly surprised look.

“Ah, figured I would find you here.” He looked at me, then Natalia. They were quiet and I guessed they were mind-linking.

Natalia exaggerated rolling her eyes. “Of course, he knows.” She said, then narrowed her eyes, “Wait, you know?”

‘What, Brutus knows?’ My Wolf Wren yelled in my head.

“You know!” I yelled accusingly with a growl.

‘Why the F**k would he know?’ I said to Wren.

‘Good f***ing question.’

“Of course I know, I’m the future Beta,. It's my job to know what goes on around here. Just like I know you’ve been training Aurora for years.”

I could not contain my growl.

“She told you?” Natalia asked nonchalantly.

“Not exactly.” Brutus said, then glanced my way.

“I couldn’t sleep and saw her sneaking away, so we talked before she left.”

“What?” I started to charge towards him, but Natalia stood blocking me.

“You let her go!” I yelled over Natalia’s head.

Brutus just raised his eyebrow at me, “You wanted me to force her to stay? Why so Alpha can ship her off to the Crimson pack? You know Jullian wanted her to go back with him yesterday. You know will eventually Alpha would give in.”

I just glared at him; I knew he was right. I could see him shift uncomfortably under my glare.

“You both know I am loyal to our pack, all my years of growing up here I have been taught to obey my Alpha and fight for my pack…” He hesitated, then looked at Natalia.

“I still believe in all of those things, but if I have to stand against my Alpha to protect his daughter I will do so.” I could see he was uncomfortable with what he was saying.

I scoffed at him, “Why you, why all of a sudden?”

He took a deep breath, “These last few months…something is different. I see Aurora differently. I have been wondering if she could be my fated mate.”

Natalia barely got clear of me before I charged at Brutus and pushed him up against a tree.

I don’t care if we had been childhood friends, we were like the three musketeers, him, Nate and I, until Aurora got a little older and caught my attention.

“Here me out Luca.” He said, using my childhood nickname that I had not heard since we were teens children.

“I know how you feel about her, regardless if she is my mate or not, I could not bare to see her with Jullian. Do you agree?”

I growled out a “Of course.” but did not loosen my grasp on his throat as I held him against the tree.

“I told her if she does not find her fated mate once she turns 21 to come back to us, offer us the opportunity to see if either of us are her mate. I told her you and I would train together. We needed to be sure we could challenge Jullian and win if either of us were her mate.”

I loosened my grip on his throat, it made sense.

“If neither of us are her mate, then we would be prepared as the future Beta and Gamma to protect her against Jullian so she can find her mate.”

I let him go. That last part hurt more than anything, there was a chance I really was not her mate.

“Do you think in six month’s time either of would be ready to challenge and beat him?”

Brutus smiled, “With your training abilities, pffft, we better be.”

“Okay.” I nodded.

Natalia stepped between us, “I cannot believe you males, your all drooling over Aurora, like the rest of us females are chopped liver.”

“Ohh, I like chopped liver.” Brutus said, laughing.

“Wait, you're jealous?” I asked, surprised at Natalia's comment.

“No!” She said too quickly, sounding defensive, “Well, maybe a little. I mean you're all so worried about Aurora.”

Brutus shook his head no, “No, that is different, your father hasn’t forced you into an arranged mating.”

“Plus, you’re much younger than we are.” I added.

Brutus gave me a strange look then mid linked me, “Ahh you know she has a crush on you, right?”

‘Huh?”

‘Natalia has a crush on us?’ I said to Wren.

‘Huh? Her wolf Nara is hot.’ Wren said wagging his tail.

“Besides, you are like a baby sister to us,” Brutus added.

“I can remember when you were born.” I said smiling, but she only frowned.

“What? We are all close in age. We were too young to remember when Aurora was born, but you, I had just started school that year. I was like five, almost six, you were seven.” I said to Brutus.

“Yeah, we would come home and fight over who would give you your afternoon bottle. Sometimes we would be too late and Aurora would be feeding you already or she would be reading you stories.” Brutus added.

I interrupted, “Well, as good as Aurora could read at that age, she hadn’t started school yet, but she loved to read to baby Nata.’

I could see by Natalia’s expression she didn’t remember that’s where her childhood nickname came from.

“You don’t remember.” Brutus said, “She had trouble saying your full name and that’s when we started calling you Nata.”

“Then, the next fall when it was time for Aurora to start school, she cried, she didn’t want to leave baby Nata.”

I looked at Brutus, “Did you know Aurora almost tried running away then too, but with baby Nata, she talked me into going with her.

She would be the mother and I would be baby Nata’s father.” I laughed.

It was good to see a smile on Natalia’s face.

“Hey Baby Nata, you know we would do the same for you, if you were our mate or if your father was trying to do something like this to you, right?” Brutus asked, looking hopeful that she would understand.

Natalia gave us both smiles. “Thank you.”

“As it is, Aurora said Jullian asked about arranging a mating between Natalia and his future Beta.”

“Aurora did not tell me that, hell no, baby Nata is not going to anyone in the Crimson Moon pack.” Brutus wrapped his arm around her neck, pulling her closer to him.

“Well, sounds like now we have a problem. Lucian promised he would train me, but it sounds like you guys have to get your asses in shape in case there’s a challenge in your future.”

I raised an eyebrow at her, “Oh ye of little faith, I can do both. You should have seen how uncoordinated Aurora was when we first started training. With you and Brutus will be a piece of cake.”

Natalia reached out her other arm and stretched it out towards me. I moved closer and let her pull me in close, so Brutus was on one side of her, and I was on the other, almost in a group hug.

“I so love my packmates,” Natalia said giving us a squeeze.