UnWilling Luna

Episode Eight

After dinner, I decided to go outside. My wolf was angry at me, and even when I tried to shift to go for a run, she wouldn’t speak to me. I couldn’t shift and, for me, that was terrifying. I spent hours that night trying to plead with her to at least shift, but she refused. I understood why she was angry, but to refuse to shift was unheard of, as far as I knew.

I gave up near dawn and wandered near the end of our Pack boundaries. Part of me was itching to just run, and I could reject Blake, and the Pack, as I ran. If I rejected the Pack, since he was the Alpha, he’d be forced to accept my rejection or his Beta could throw him out. Your mate can’t be in another Pack, or lack one. You have to be in the same Pack, or be Rogues together. Everyone know that, and I know Blake wouldn’t give up his cushy lifestyle for me, or for anyone.

I stared out through the trees, down the dirt road that lead it’s way into the Pack. Humans took it on occasion when they came, though that almost never happened, and other wolves knew to take the main path if they came in peace. Every Pack has one, and we all know the rules. We all know what taking it in, and out, means.

Standing on the path, I looked out at it. If I took this, when I reached the end, I could reject the Pack and be considered non-violent. Maybe they wouldn’t kick out my mother if I was non-violent, and no one would attack me on it, even if I was leaving. It’s a peaceful path. To attack on it is punishable by death.

Blake’s scent hit me hard, and out of nowhere. My knees felt weak as I turned to look at him, standing there in the early morning sunlight. He looked gorgeous with the golden light bouncing off of his light dark. It was such a contradiction to his dark eyes and tanned skin. I’d never seen a male werewolf with blonde hair until I met Blake. It scared me at first, because I thought he was human. His scent was off too, but I chalked it up to me being young, and never being around a male werewolf child before. Now, I still think his scent is the most amazing thing on this world, but I think it’s still different than other werewolves’ scent. I used to wonder if he has Lycan ancestry, but shook it off considering that his parents didn’t smell that way.

“Hey,” he finally said, his voice making goosebumps spring up on my skin. “What are you doing?”

I shrugged, looking at him unwaveringly, despite that making a shiver snake down my spine. It felt so good just to look at him.

“Are you leaving?”

The question hung in the air for several seconds, and despite other werewolves getting up and starting their day, we stood there for almost a minute. Eventually, I shook my head before trying to walk past him. He grabbed my wrist, forcing both of us to let out a hiss from the feeling of sparks that erupted.

“We need to talk,” he tugged me towards the tree line, but an area that was still within Pack bounds.

No one came into the woods during the day because they were all too busy. The woods was almost exclusively for ceremonies and letting your wolf out. It wasn’t a law, or rule, just something we all knew, so Blake and I going into the woods was unusual. I didn’t question him though, because I was too focused on trying to keep my brain from going to mush from his touch around my wrist.

When we were several yards, maybe half a mile, in, he let go. I breathed a sigh of relief, trying to straighten my head mentally. I looked up at him, surprised by his height. We rarely stood next to each other, so it always grabbed me. As a future Alpha, he should be at least six and a half, maybe seven, feet tall, but he was barely six foot. He wasn’t short compared to the other males, but for an Alpha? Yeah, it was surprising, especially since his mother, the Luna, came from a Beta bloodline.

“Please don’t reject me,” he finally said, his voice cracking. I hadn’t realized that my eyes were trailing down his body until he said that, making my eyes snap back up to him.

It was this time he spoke, I guess because we were so close, that I smelled the liquor on his breath. I couldn’t hold back the snarl that crept onto my face as I took a step back. “You get drunk just to beg? Why do you even want me? You don’t even like me!” I shouted, glad now that we were so far from the rest of the Pack.

“I needed a shot of liquid courage,” he muttered, looking embarrassed. It made me gag.

“I don’t care how good you smell, or how good it feels just to touch you or hear your voice. You are not my mate, and I don’t want you,” I punished the last four words, growling lowly. “I’m not going to spend my life picking up after a spoiled child who can’t even talk to his mate, or even have one bloody adult conversation, without being drunk or high. If you can’t handle this hard conversation, how are you going to handle any as the Alpha?!”

He looked at me with hurt in his eyes, and it sent a pang of regret through me, but I didn’t stop, and I refused to take it back. “You can’t even talk to me, explain to me why you want me or why I shouldn’t reject you, without ‘liquid courage’? What are you going to do if there’s a war?! You can’t talk to your mate, so how are you going to talk to an opposing Alpha? You are going to be the reason that your people die. You are a weak, spoiled child and you won’t be able to protect anyone. Not yourself, not your Pack, and not your mate.”

I swallowed hard, my throat hurting from all the yelling. The tears in his eyes made my chest ache, but I wasn’t going to keep him. I thought I would, for my mom, but I can’t. He’s so weak, and still such a damn child.

“I, Charlotte DeMarie, reject you, Blake Heart, as my mate and my position as future Luna.”