The Luna’s Takeover

Meeting

~Aaron~

I could not allow myself to wallow in my misery at being practically rejected by Chase. I know she said that my confession made her happy but that was not enough, and I was beginning to realize how greedy I had become. I wanted her to be happy even if I was not involved, but even more, I wanted her to be happy BECAUSE I was involved.

I held the door open for Chase to enter the meeting hall, taking a deep breath to calm my nerves. Also to push what had happened in my cabin out of my mind. I knew I was taking too long to follow her into the meeting hall when I heard a cough behind me alerting me to the fact that I was blocking the door. Slowly, I turned around and saw Bryan grinning from ear to ear at me his arms crossed in front of his chest and an eyebrow raised in question. I groaned at the look on his face because I knew he was all too aware of what I was thinking about.

"So... was the building too hot and you were ordered to air it out?" he smirked, looking at me as my face turned redder and redder.

"I have a box of donuts... I will allow you to tell your wife that you picked them up for her if you ignore the fact that I was ogling your future Lunas Ass." I sighed, holding out the box, offering him an olive branch in the form of donuts.

Bryan contemplated the deal before taking the box and nodding. "Can we go in now or is the building still too hot?"

"I think it has aired out enough now," I grumbled quietly, letting him go inside before following. "So, is everyone else here already or are they on their way?"

"Avery and Laurie should be here already but Lilly is taking Cam back to school from their lunch date and Katie is getting changed now from her doctor’s appointment. She hates having the jelly on her belly, so she requires a shower afterwards." He chuckled at his wife’s idiosyncrasies.

I opened the main office door for him with a shake of my head, "I envy you Bryan."

"Oh yeah why's that?" He asked, grabbing a plate from one of the side tables and placing three of the raspberry cheesecake donuts on it for Katie before leaving the box on the table for everyone else.

"I envy the relationship you have with Katie. In our pack, mate bonds are something rare and when they do happen 50% of the time they are rejected and the other 50% of the time, the bonds are used to make strong offspring. I haven't seen anyone in love with their mate like you are in a very long time." I grabbed a white chocolate glazed donut and a napkin.

"That’s just wrong... I mean I get that some bonds need to be broken, like your Gammas and Chases.However, mate bonds are something that should be treasured." He put Katie's donuts on the table and sat in her chair to keep them safe. "The second I saw her I knew that she would be the only one for me and I have never regrated that choice. Seeing her makes me smile and hearing her voice makes my whole being feel so full that it feels like I may explode. Have you ever felt like that?"

I took the seat across the room from him and sighed, "Once... and she was not fated to be mine. I still feel like that, but sometimes it is not fated for you."

"Fate is something we create ourselves. The moon goddess may help some of us along the way, but that does not mean that you cannot create your own fate, my friend." He smirked knowingly as the meeting room door opened again. Avery and Chase walked in giggling at a very annoyed looking Katie.

I had to chuckle at the women who looked like a very agitated cartoon character. "Hey until you have to have that jelly on you Chase you cannot tell me I am overreacting to the yucky feeling it leaves on your skin!" She huffed grinning at the box of donuts only to get agitated once again. "Who took all the raspberry cheesecake donuts!" I swear she looked like a cartoon character with steam coming out of her ears and her face bright red.

"Well, if you give me a kiss, I'll give you the donuts you crave. Or I'll eat them in front of you." Bryan wiggled his eyebrows teasingly at his wife, moving so she could see the plate he had been keeping for her.

"You wouldn't!" she gasped in pretend horror even as she sat on his lap and gave him a kiss.

"No, I wouldn't. I learned three pregnancies ago to not get between you and a plate of donuts." Bryan turned her around in his lap and wrapped his arms around her stomach, resting his head in the crook of her neck, breathing in her scent.

I wasn't lying when I said that I envied their relationship and watching him hug her as she dug into a plate of donuts that he had saved for her proved why. They were so in sync with one another that they could predict what the other was going to do without being in the same building. It was nice to see that love like this existed and I wanted that for myself. However, above all else, I wanted that for Chase, and I wanted Cam to see that and want nothing less than that when he grew up.

~Chase~

I was talking to Avery about the boarder alerts when I noticed Aaron watching Bryan and Katie with a look I had never seen before. The look on his face was both happy and sad and I didn't understand why, but I decided that it was not important at that moment. Turning my attention back to Avery, I took the laptop from her, shaking my head, knowing that if I let her try to figure out PowerPoint, we wouldn't start the meeting for another hour.

"I do not understand why we cannot do everything on paper like we used to," Avery huffed, leaning back in her chair huffing.

"Because the last time you did things on paper the folders got destroyed when Angela blew through her diaper on the way to daycare. The last time you did it on a white board you almost killed a maintenance man when he erased it during his cleaning. The last time you just told us the information you left out the fact that the pack we were meant to help was a bunch of Sirens! Half our men were under their spell for a month because we didn't have ear plugs going in." I shook my head downloading the slides I had created last night and set up the projector.

"And you thought you weren't good for this job," She smirked as much as she could while pouting.

Laurie finally entered the room with a chattering Lilly who was telling her all the things she did with Cam during their lunch date. I groaned when hearing the words 'ant farm' and 'chocolate lava cake'. It had better not rain today because if he comes home hyper with a ton of ants, I was sending him straight to Lilly’s house because I liked my sleep. "Aunt Laurie, can we get Cam a kitten. He said he really wanted a kitten."

"No Lilly, I've told you before that we are not taking one of your kittens because you refuse to spay your cat. Either keep them or set them lose, but I am not having a litter box in my home!" I stared my best friend down and grinned when she stuck out her bottom lip pouting, since her plan was thwarted. "Oh, stop Lilly, there should be a key lime donut in the box for you. Eat it and don't bring up the kitten again."

She beamed, nodding to go get her donut and took her place next to Aaron. I couldn't hear what they were saying but an unwanted feeling of jealousy filled me as I watched them chat and smile at one another. I know that Lilly is an air head, but after that kiss in his cabin I did not like the idea of him smiling at any other female. If the growling in my head was any indication, Ash was also agitated by the scene in front of us.

Shaking my head, I cleared my throat, looking at all of them. "Are we ready to begin the meeting?"

"Don't we have to wait for Mark and Liam?" Aaron asked, raising an eyebrow at me.

"No. As we told you before, our men do not make many of the decisions here. Besides, Liam is making food orders and Mark is substituting at the school. Bryan did not have anything to do today and he sticks to Katie like he's a shadow when she is pregnant." I explained everything quickly, still a little annoyed at how he was getting along with Lilly.

"Anyways," Avery interjected, standing before us, grabbing the remote from the projector. About the only thing electronic that Avery could operate was a remote. "The outcasts have been spotted along our boarders and we have not figured out how they found our boarder lines. Our patrols have reported that they are not attempting to break the boarder as of yet, but that is causing greater concern. The outcasts are wolves that have no moral compass and attack before they think. So, the question remains, why have they stopped their pursuit? We could kill them off if they broke the boarder but with them just sitting on the edge, we cannot do anything. It is as if they know where our boarder line is."

Outcasts being stationary was a scary thought because that meant that someone was in the shadows directing them. The idea that someone could possibly be militarizing the outcasts was something that should scare all packs. It was as if someone took a pack of bullets and placed them into an automatic rifle and pointed it right at you. "We cannot expect them to stay calm for long. The fact that they have remained at the border this long is a shock but if they break into our boarders, we need to be prepared. I have already distributed evacuation routes to the schools and hospitals. The priority is the children and medics." I showed everyone the map to our underground tunnels. We hadn't had to use them in years, so many of the younger pack numbers didn't even realize they existed.

"How many warriors do you have? Are they ready for a battle of this magnitude?" Aaron asked, examining the maps.

I bit my lip knowing that I had to trust him, but finding it hard considering my past with his pack. "We have enough warriors who I have trained personally. Trust me, we have the manpower."

"I was simply asking to find out if I needed to bring in reinforcements." Aaron held up his hands in surrender, noticing that he had hit a nerve. We needed to find out why the Outcasts had made their way to our territory. However, the more important question was who was controlling them and how had they gotten power over wolves that were overrun by their basic instincts?