Luna’s Second Chance

Chapter 00004

Chapter Four: Uncoupled Strings

The smell of something pleasant greeted Phil when he returned home. It must be the cook at it again, he thought to himself. This, however, didn’t smell like one of his many cuisines. He was great at making the tastiest meals, but, this had the smell of something homemade, traditional, and inviting. Phil would have simply ignored the new and improved scent coming from the kitchen, but he didn’t.

‘Humans and their ways.’ he muttered under his breath when he realized it wasn’t the Pack’s cook responsible for the appetite-inducing scents.

She turned to see him standing and staring, his bare chest dripping with pure masculine sweat.

“Good morning…um..” Vera hesitated for a while.

“And what do you think you are doing?” Phil said. In a tone that seemed to say, “You are new here and you shouldn’t even have access to my kitchen.” He was too used to being a single heartbroken wolf, and all this seemed new to him.

“I was going to ask what you prefer to be called. Husband or Phil,” Vera finally found words.

“Well, anyone works, babe,” Phil said, walking slowly towards her. He remembered that he got married to her yesterday. She was still in her nighties, and from where Phil stood, she looked as inviting as ever.

“Good morning, Vera.” He said, hands now wrapped around her waist, and a kiss on her forehead. “I see you’re already making breakfast”

In that instant, Vera felt loved. She felt lucky that he had chosen her. All of her fears about it being a trap were beginning to fizzle off. Maybe, for once in her life, Cassie did not lie about something bad being good.

“Yeah. I didn’t see you by my side when I woke up, so I figured you had gone out for a morning workout.”

Phil scratched his head. He didn’t want to tell her about his transformation. She wasn’t a full wolf, might not understand, and he didn’t want to bother her about the details.

“Umm. Yeah. Morning workout, yeah. That’s why I’m all sweaty,” Phil said, almost betraying the lie with his nervousness.

“Okay. You go ahead to freshen up while I finish fixing breakfast for you. I need my man as strong as ever. You know what they say about a healthy breakfast,” Vera said, a pretty smile plastered across her face.

Phil’s wolf celebrated within him. It wanted to mate and mark this female so badly, but it had to wait for Phil to make the move, and it wouldn’t take long now.

A few minutes after breakfast, the mating happened. And boy, did they both have the time of their lives? Phil’s wolf marked Vera gently and with so much passion. She was now fully his to protect, and as long as he remained Alpha, anything that would ever get to her must have to get through him.

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“There was another attack on our border last night,” Lord Praxis broke the silence. His words sounded more like a statement than a report.

Everyone on the Black Diamond Grand committee already knew. This was the reason why the emergency meeting was called. But they were all too short of words to begin the meeting.

Last night’s attack was the most brutal they had gotten in the past thirteen years. Their enemies were suddenly beginning to realize that Ray Hammerstock was no longer alpha, and the attack last night was a direct statement.

But, more than just an attack, someone important lost his life last night- Bradd Justin, security officer of the Black Diamond pack. He had fought off the rogue invaders with every strength he could muster, holding them off until sunrise. But there were too many, and their claws cut too deeply. He didn’t survive the attack.

“We lost a lot of good wolves last night,” Lord Praxis continued. “We also lost one of our best soldiers, Bradd Justin..”

The cloud of sorrow hung strongly within the confines of the room. Bradd Justin had been a good man, wolf, father, and security chief. At this point, Lord Praxis could no longer find his voice.

Yes, an emergency meeting had been called, but it seemed like silence was a better means of communication today.

While they were seated in the conference room, letting silence be their form of communication, Phil’s Range Rover Sport made a screeching stop at the entrance of the Pavilion building. He had driven as fast as he could to attend to this emergency. And although he was supposed to be on a honeymoon, his Alpha duty called. A wolf is first a wolf before a husband.

“Brothers!” Phil said in a high-pitched tone laced with sorrow and dismay, breaking the silence yet again. “Our border was not just desecrated this time, one of us paid the ultimate price.” He moved closer to the table and allowed his wolf out, partially shifting his hands, ears, and chest. This was the kind of speech an Alpha had to give alongside his wolf.

“We have long played the defensive. We have long waded off these rogues, letting them bring the heat to us every time, and now this.” His tone became double-pitched.

“Now this? Bradd Justin? And a lot of other wounded members of the border patrol? By rogue wolves?”

His rhetorical questions were beginning to have the required effect on the other members of the council as their eyes began to glow up in rage.

“I say we fight back,” Cassandra Alves, pack member with the loudest howl, said, banging the table and drawing everyone’s attention. “I say we fight back. We show them why you never have to cross the Black Diamond pack.

“Yes, we fight back. We take the battle to whatever rogue pack it was, and we fight to the death. Until their name is wiped from the earth’s records,” Phil said, completing the brewing rage in the room. Everyone howled in agreement.

Ray Hammerstock would have reacted in the same way if he were still Alpha. And he was proud of how much leadership his son was providing for the pack. He had heard the howls that marked Phil’s transformation the night before.

The emergency meeting ended with a series of actionable steps, and the first was to gather all the information they could about the rogue pack that invaded their borders.