Luna’s Soul

Wretched Adjustment

Gabriel waited for Fawn to arrive in his living room. He was wrapping his fingers impatiently on the coffee table.

He was anxious to get to Tobias and see what had happened— see how rogues had slipped through his iron tight boarders. He wanted to know what they were after that they came in on the west side. He knew it couldn’t be Lily. She’d just arrived, and no one knew of her arrival just yet. No.. it had to be something else.

Gabriel listened to the light footsteps upstairs from his bedroom, and then the quiet ease of Lily’s body onto the mattress. Oh, good, he thought to himself. She’s resting.

As he sat listening to the soft thump, thump of her heartbeat, he grew increasingly impatient. He wanted to take care of this and get back to her. He still had so much he needed to say.

The soft knock on his door had him hauling himself from the sofa to rip it open. He knew who would be on the other side— and he didn’t have time to feel guilt about it, either.

Fawn.

The tiny little brunette in front of him had been a friend of his since they were eight. They’d grown up together, trained together..

And lost their virginity together.

Fawn was his high school sweetheart. They were together until they were eighteen, when Fawn found her fated mate. He was twenty five now, so every bit of seven years ago. He’d never held it against her— he had cared for Fawn, but he’d never loved her. Young Gabriel was full of anger, rage, hormones and anxiety— he just wanted to do something to make him feel something, and that something just happened to be Fawn.

The guilt he felt now had nothing to do with any feelings he may have had for Fawn in the past— he had none now. The guilt was because he was sending her up, the woman he’d first made love to, to comfort and care for the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with— and it made him feel like he was betraying Lily. But he knew Fawn, and he knew she would be gentle and kind to Lily. He knew she would treat her with respect and gentleness.

Fawn was a tiny little thing— the only woman shorter than Fawn was Lily, and not by much. Fawn had chestnut brown hair that was cut in a Bob, swaying just below her jaw. She had olive-toned skin and warm, amber-colored eyes that were wide and shaped like walnuts.

He nodded at her. “Thank you for coming.”

She looked concerned. “What is this about, Gabe? Elliot is wondering what’s so top secret you couldn’t call me and tell me. I had to leave the kids with him.”

Ah, Elliot. Elliot was Fawn’s mate— a strong, humble man. They had two children— Winnie was two and Oliver was 4.

His eyes narrowed. “Come inside, please, and I’ll explain. But what I tell you has to stay between us, Fawn, and I mean it. You can’t even tell Elliot. Not yet. It’s not safe.”

Her eyes widened lightly, but she simply pushed past the doorway to go plop down on his lush white leather sofa.

“Okay,” she said. “Tell me what has you looking like the world is either ending, or just beginning. I can’t tell which.”

Gabriel sighed, gently shutting the front door and sitting in the armchair across from her.

He made eye contact with her, looking into her soft amber eyes that had always reminded him of what a good friend she had been to him.

“I found my mate.”

Joy spread immediately across Fawn’s face as realization hit her, and a beaming smile broke across her face. “Oh, Gabe, that’s wonderful! I always knew you’d find her! Where is she?” Fawn was looking around the room, before she looked back at him with a confused expression.

Gabriel’s expression remained stoic and even a little sad. “She’s upstairs. But Fawn— that’s not all.”

Her face fell as she read his expression. Her eyes examined his face carefully.

“What is it, then? Is she alright? Does she belong to a rival pack?” Fawn’s eyes narrowed as if she were trying to figure out the issue.

Gabriel swallowed back the fear in his throat. “No, Fawn— she’s human.”

Her mouth fell open in shock. It took her a moment to process this before she spoke again. “Human? How is that.. is that possible?”

Gabriel dove headfirst into the story then, how he’d caught Lily’s scent in town, how he’d come to bring her here, and what Lily knew so far. He could see the concern growing on Fawn’s face as he spoke— he couldn’t tell if the concern was for him, or for Lily. He even told her what he knew so far from the elders, and what little information he knew about wolves having human fated mates. She was quiet the whole time, listening intently with the same worried look on her face.

“Oh, Gabriel,” her voice was full of sorrow. “How is someone so much weaker than us, so much more fragile, supposed to accept this? Couldn’t you have gone about this in a more gentle way?”

He blanched. “Gentle way? What do you mean?”

She pursed her lips. “I mean, you just ripped this girl away from her home. Her life. The only normalcy she knew. You brought her here. Told her about supernatural creatures she had no idea existed, and how she’s meant to be with you for the rest of her life. I’m surprised she isn’t in shock.”

He groaned, and his head fell into his hands. “I didn’t know what to do, Fawn. I couldn’t just leave her there. Everything in me was screaming to bring her back here, where she would be protected in a fortress.”

Fawn looked at her hands. “She’s only eighteen, Gabe. She’s barely a woman. I’m just concerned for her, is all,” she paused. “What do you need me for?”

“Some rogues attacked on the west border. They were taken out, but I need to go look into it. I need someone to watch her while I go. I have a security team coming, but I need someone to just.. take care of her. I don’t know where her mental state is. She hasn’t eaten, and I’m sure she’d like a shower.”

Gabriel had to stop his thoughts. They were headed in a dark direction. His wolf was excitedly purring, picturing Lily’s soft, slender, young body naked in the shower. His wolf was already thinking about how it would feel to slide his d**k inside of her tight, warm p***y— to feel her grip him and feel her come apart under his hands. He thought about what he would see when her finally pulled her slender white thighs apart and looked at her most private spot—

Stop it, he sneered at himself. You have no right, not yet, not anytime soon.

“I’ll help her,” Fawn nodded. “But you don’t need to be gone very long.”

Gabriel frowned. “Trust me, Fawn, walking out of this house right now is the most difficult thing I’ve ever done.”

Fawn raised an eyebrow, raising her hands to shoo him. “Well, what’re you waiting for? Go, go. And hurry back.”

Gabriel scurried out of his friend door, trying not to think about the beautiful blonde laying upstairs in his bed.