Competing for the Luna’s Heart

Chapter 1

Alina

“Luna. Luna!”

I lifted my head, looked around and rubbed the sleep from my eyes. It wasn’t hard to remember I had been in my mother’s study, once again reading her journals from her time during her own Alpha Challenge. Callie, my best friend, had helped me find them last year after I turned seventeen.

“Luna, the meeting with your father is in an hour. I thought you might want to use the time to freshen up.” Mitchell, my future gamma, was hovering over me.

“Mitch, how many times have I told you, I’m not the Luna yet. And even if I was, you don’t need to use my title.” I frowned at him.

He just chuckled and slowly nodded his head. “Yes, but you wouldn’t wake up. It was the only thing I could think of, short of throwing cold water on you. Even I wouldn’t be that stupid though.”

I just glared at him, didn’t even hide my annoyance at his joke. I strolled past him and held the door open to my mother’s study. I gave him the “after you” gesture and locked the door behind me.

I could never think of it as anything else but my mother’s study. I knew it would be mine once I found my mate and had officially become the pack’s Luna, but to me, it would always be her’s. It was the one room that my father couldn’t bring himself to enter after her death.

It held everything that she had put in there to make it her own when she had taken the Luna position from my grandmother. When I was little, I had found the key to it in my father’s desk. I used to come in here when I wanted to feel close to her.

Sighing, I turned to Mitch and put my hand on his arm, stopping him before he could walk away. “I know what you’re thinking and no, I’m not trying to find a way out of this challenge. I just-”

“It’s ok my little star,” he pulled me to his chest and gave me a comforting hug. He had begun acting on his gamma training when he turned eighteen last year. Said he wanted to be able to get used to the role before taking over. “I know how much you don’t want to go through with this. But talk to your father. He just wants what’s best for you. I’m sure he will take your feelings about it into consideration.”

He gave me a look that said he knew more than he was saying. I decided not to push him. If he wanted to say more, he would have. He was never shy about speaking his mind. The man had no filter, unless he actually wanted it.

I inhaled deeply, taking in his scent, letting his strong arms give me the comfort I hadn’t known I needed.

“Thanks Mitch, you’re the best gamma a girl could ask for.” I looked up at him and smiled. He would be the only man who would ever be able to touch me like this and not be seen as a threat by my future mate. As my gamma, his loyalty would always be to me first, not the alpha.

A gamma protects his Luna in any way she needs-physically, emotionally, mentally and even spiritually. It was something that I had come to treasure in the recent months, knowing that an alpha, a pack elder or even a council member could not override my authority with him.

He held me for another minute, then released his hold on me and escorted me back to my room. We walked leisurely down the hall of the alpha floor. The white walls with the gold trim opened the space up and contrasted elegantly against the royal blue carpet. There were portraits of my ancestors evenly spaced on the wall, not large and tacky, but still consuming the upper half of the wall height.

I said goodbye to Mitch, and went into my bedroom. I walked over to my bed, noticed that it had been made up with new bedding and smiled at the vibrancy of it. It was a dark amethyst color, decorated with a beautiful silver filigree pattern and had matching pillows. Every few years, my father would allow me to choose new focal pieces for my room as I grew and my interests changed.

Although I should have done it when I turned fifteen, I hadn’t. Everyone had always said my mind was aged well beyond my years, but I never felt any different than my friends. I enjoyed going out, seeing movies, even playing video games occasionally-though that was usually only with Mitch. I just never felt the need to change anything.

I didn’t know where anything had come from. There hadn’t been deliveries to the pack house this last week, let alone the entire pack. I didn’t think I had seen these anywhere else either. We had the community closet, but I’d been in there thousands of times and I know I hadn’t seen anything like this in there.

We called it a closet, but it was much larger than any standard walk in closet. It was almost as large as the entire Alpha suite. It held clothes in every size you could think of, linens of all kinds, had an entire section just for blankets and pillows and even a wing with baby linens and any baby supplies you could think of. My mother had added that after a tragic fire had burned down half a dozen homes one night during a rogue attack.

I noticed that the nightstands next to my bed were different as well. They looked the same, but had the same filigree pattern trailing down the legs. Almost like someone had painted it to match. I’m sure my father had something to do with this. I’d just ask him about it when I met with him about the challenge.

Strolling over to my closet, I opened the doors and ran to the back area that I kept all of my “normal” clothes in. The front sections were full of skirts, blouses and fancy dresses. I didn’t have to wear that stuff all the time, but after my birthday last year, I had begun sitting in on meetings with my father, traveling to other packs for ceremonies and other official pack matters. I was expected to dress like the future Luna that I am.

I grabbed my favorite black leggings, an oversized pink sweater and my knee high black boots. It was fall and even though the cold didn’t affect wolves the same way it did with humans, I had always loved sweaters. I set my boots down next to my bed and laid out my clothes before heading in the bathroom to shower quickly.

The hot water quickly filled the bathroom with steam and I stepped into it, sighing as the warmth enveloped me. As I went through the motions of my quick shower, I let my mind wander back to the journal entry I had fallen asleep reading. I had read them all more than a dozen times in the last year, but I felt like the whole thing was nothing more than the werewolf version of that human show “The Bachelorette”.

I wanted to find a mate, I knew that my father only continued to live for me. He lost my mother the day I was born. It’s not unusual for the mate to follow the one they lost within a year. Ever since we were taught about mates in school, I worried for him. Wondered if I would come home and have my grandparents waiting for me, telling me he had finally joined my mother in the goddess’ realm.

I had skipped school for two days, lurking around watching him. The third day though, I had been hiding half a mile from school, watching for everyone to go inside so that I could double back to the pack house when my father himself crept up behind me.

“What are you doing my little star?” He had asked, only a small drop of disappointment laced his words.

I looked down at the ground, I had only been nine years old but I didn’t want to get in trouble. I just shook my head.

“Alina, why are you out here, hiding in the woods? Your teacher linked me and asked if you were ok. She said this is the third day you haven’t shown up for school.”

I lifted my head, only enough to see his eyes staring at me intently. I had never lied to him, and the guilt from the last two days had been growing. Deep down, I knew I wouldn’t be able to hide this from him. But my need to watch him overpowered the guilt.

“We learned about mates in school last week. Miss White told us what happens when a mate dies, that the mate they leave behind…” my voice trailed off. I couldn’t get the words out.

I saw any trace of disappointment or anger leave my father’s face immediately, his shoulders fell and he knelt down to look at me. Placed a finger under my chin, and slowly lifted my head to meet his. The cloudiness in his eyes, the tell tale sign of a mind link faded, and his voice came out much softer this time. “My little star, I won’t lie to you, I miss your mother greatly. There is not one day that goes by where I don’t think of her. But I made her a promise to never leave you. My love for you is what keeps me here. I don’t want you to worry about that. I will not leave you to join your mother. She understands and will be waiting for me when it is my time.

“Which will not be for a very long time. I have many things to do, much to teach you, and one day I will have grandpups to spoil. Your mother was the kindest woman I’ve ever known. I was truly blessed by the goddess to have her choose me. I would never break a promise to her, and she would be more than just a little angry if I joined her and didn’t have at least two dozen stories about grandpups to tell her about.”

I had made a gagging gesture and he chuckled. I didn’t think about boys like that, not yet anyways.

“Why don’t we go home, and after I go over a few tasks with Curtis, I’ll have Lucy get a picnic basket ready and we’ll go have lunch at the lake. I think you’re ready for me to tell you about how your mother and I met.”

Thinking about that day, always brought me a strange mix of sadness and peace. I knew how devastated my father was to lose his mate so early in life, but I also knew his conviction to not leave me alone was fierce. As I had gotten older, there was always a sliver inside of me that wondered if he would actually leave. Meet my mother after I found a mate so that he wouldn’t have to carry the burden of guilt into his next life.

I quickly dried myself off, braided my long pale blonde hair back, and got dressed. Slipping my boots on, I headed out of my room and downstairs to the conference room. I knew what was coming. My mother had started her journals of the challenge on this very day. The day she met with my grandparents, the pack surveyor, the head omega for the pack house kitchen, head seamstress and the witch coven leader allied to our pack. All to begin preparing for her Alpha Challenge.

Three weeks before the future Luna’s birthday. I passed a few pack members that had come in for the late breakfast service. It was usually just the warriors who were on duty that attended but occasionally on the weekends, there would be a dozen or so pack members that would wander through as well.

They all greeted me with warm smiles or a nod of the head, acknowledging my presence. It would have been rude not to seeing as I was the future Luna. I liked the modern, open floor concept of the main floor of the pack house. I could see a few pups had already wandered into the game room, but knew it would be full by the time my meeting was over.

As I approached the conference room, my stomach felt like it was growing knots inside of it. My feet seemed to feel heavier as my stride slowed. I couldn’t help but feel that my life would no longer be my own after today. After standing outside the door for a full minute, I took a deep breath and opened it, walking inside.