Claimed by the Blue Wolf

3

Caden’s Perspective:

As soon as our eyes met, I knew. I knew in that very second that this waitress was my mate. But it was strange — your mate is supposed to have such a deliciously strong smell to them that you are able to sense it from a mile away. But Selene’s was faint. It was flowery, like jasmine flowers, but faint. And also I couldn’t understand what she was, because she didn’t come from any sort of werewolf bloodline, but she didn’t smell of human blood either.

I was positive she wasn’t a witch. Because all witches, no matter how good-souled they are, have a darkness in their presence, and Selene’s presence was pure light. She was like those last rays of sunlight right before the moment dusk started happening. She was the illumination of the moon. The sparkle of the stars. And the unaffected laughter of a child.

Man, all I knew was her name, and I was already gone.

I got back in the car and handed Michael, my Beta and best friend, his sandwich and iced coffee. He started eating his sandwich right away.

Once the car started moving, I started thinking hard about what to do. We had been going through this city, driving back to our pack grounds, after a meeting we had with another pack a city away from here. Michael and I had both been hungry since we were too busy to eat anything ever since we woke up around six. That’s why I had gone into that cafe.

Samuel, one of my top warriors and childhood friend, was sitting in the passenger seat with his laptop open, sending emails to everyone I had told him to about various different solutions to several problems that were surfacing in our locations internationally.

About a year ago, we had officially become the biggest and most powerful pack in the world. It was a very satisfying achievement since I had put my entire heart into this pack for the past seven years, ever since I turned sixteen years old. Well, except for a couple of months about three years ago, when Erika came into my life.

I directed my focus to my warrior. “Samuel?”

Samuel responded, “Yes, Sire?”

“Listen to me closely. In that cafe, La Magie Cafe, there’s a girl. Her first name is Selene. She’s tall, has long dark hair, and looks to be either in her late teens or early twenties. Get me all the information you can on her by evening time and send it to me in my office. Is that clear?”

Without looking at me, still typing away, Samuel responded, “Crystal.”

I ran my fingers through my hair as Michael looked at me confused for a minute until it clicked for him. He looked up at me like a kid who just got a new toy and said, “Wait. NO. GET OUT. No way. Is she human?”

With the corners of my mouth threatening to turn all the way up, I said, “Not a word about this to anyone. I don’t even know what to do yet.”

Michael looked at me like I was stupid and said, “What do you mean, what to do? Just explain everything to her, reveal what you are, and eventually she’ll love you, Will. But are you sure she’s your mate? Remember what happened last time?”

I spoke to Michael in Mind-Link now. “Michael. This isn’t like you and Loren. This is our pack’s Luna we’re talking about. This is what everyone has been saying for years now, that I’d never find her — well, except you. My own parents have been telling me for two years to just choose someone as my Luna. Mark them, so we can at least have a Luna. But I knew that wasn’t right. I knew I’d find her one day.”

In the next sentence I spoke sarcastically. “And obviously, how could I possibly forget that lovely time in my life.” Michael was the only person I could joke with about the whole Erika situation. With everyone else, it felt bizarre talking about it. Michael gave me a light laugh. I looked at him smiling. “Also, I want you to meet Selene before anyone else. You have a great intuitiveness about these things.”

Michael’s excited expression softened a hundredfold into an understanding and serious one. Then, with astonishment evident in his eyes, he said, “Wait, isn’t today Wednesday, September 30th?”

I said, “Yes it is, why?”

Michael’s eyes went wide and he grabbed my arm and spoke out loud now. “Bro. Mercoledì 30 Settembre! Isn’t that the day The Blue Wolf will be found?”

Now my eyes went wide in shock. But I spoke in mind-link now. “First of all, when we’re in front of people, address me as Sire. Second, it couldn’t be. Could it? Could my mate really be The Blue Wolf? I’m not even sure she has wolf blood in her.”

Michael smiled widely. “I think our Luna is a Blue Wolf…Sire.”

The rest of the ride back home, Michael and I theorized ideas on how Selene could possibly be The Blue Wolf, or even just a wolf, when she most likely came from human blood.

It was around five in the evening when I got home. I told Sami to bring my siblings and parents into my office. Once they got in, my mom looked at me with happy tears in her eyes.

“Is it true? Did you really find her?”

I took a deep breath in through my nose and smiled shyly. Sophie, Nico, and my dad immediately surrounded me and gave me a ring-style group hug.

Nico spoke first. “So where’s my sister-in-law? I wanna meet her. Wait, is she human?”

I looked at my family clueless. “Guys, I don’t know anything about her yet. But she didn’t smell human, or like a wolf. But when I gave her money and our hands touched, she did gasp, so she did feel a spark.”

Sophie looked at me confused. “Why were you giving her money?”

I remembered that my family didn’t know how I met her yet. I broke down the entire event to them within five minutes and they all looked at me with theories swirling around in their heads.

My mom suddenly gasped. We all looked at her. Nico said, “What, Mom?”

My mom looked in my direction. “Wait, son, did you say she didn’t smell human or like a wolf?”

I nodded my head. My mom turned towards my dad. My dad raised his eyebrows, finally getting my mom’s point, and he spoke in Italian. “Oh mio, sì sì, Nina hai ragione. Il 30 settembre, The Blue Wolf, dovrebbe apparire alla sua Alpha.”

Nico and Sophie rolled their eyes. They both found it so dramatic whenever Dad spoke in Italian. They looked up at me, their eyes saying they wanted me to translate.

I said, “Oh my, yes yes, Nina you are right. On September 30, The Blue Wolf is expected to appear to her Alpha.”

Now Nico and Sophie gasped too. All of this was reminding me of some soap opera I used to catch my grandma watching when I’d spend weekends at her house as a kid.

The door suddenly opened and Sami appeared with a thick folder. He put it on my table, then went and stood by my office window. We all looked at Sami in anticipation.

“Sire, may I speak?”

I said, “Yes, you may.”

Sami cleared his throat, smiled a small smile, and then began.

“I found out as much as I could. It’s all in there. But a quick rundown — our Luna grew up in a town about a province away from here. She just turned twenty, very recently. Her mother and siblings left about two weeks ago after visiting her for a few days. She lives in a one-bedroom apartment alone, a fifteen-minute walk away from the cafe she has been working at for almost a year now. She isn’t married and has no kids. We had one of our warriors go and check her apartment. It’s filled with novels, her many journals, and decorated simply but artistically. She has a lot of art on her walls. She has many rings and earrings. We also photocopied all the photographs in one of her photo albums.”

Then Sami paused awkwardly.

I looked at him curiously. “Is that all?”

Sami made an uncomfortable expression and said, “There’s one more thing, Sire. She’s romantically involved with her co-worker at the cafe.”