Their Human Mate

Moonstone

“I guess this is the part of the story where I come in,” I tell the camera. “Like Ember, I’ll also take you back to the beginning. Seth’s and my beginning. I think you will understand more about just how complicated things were when Ember came into the fold.”

Carter Moonstone

I could feel my wolf stir. Something was up. I only wished sometimes I was able to talk to it, but that was the stuff of fantasy novels. In reality, our beasts are just an extension of us. We control our wolves, but sometimes it does feel like they have a mind of their own. I suppose that’s just our nature. Let me give you more insight into who we are.

My best friend, Seth Lightwood, and I were currently going over paperwork for our pack. We are both alphas of the Woodstone pack, just as we are co-owners of the number one restaurant in all of Florida, Moonlight. Yes, you heard that right. Co-alphas and co-managers. Crazy, right? I know that in fantasy novels, typically a pack only has one alpha, and those writers are actually not far off, but Seth and I are different. We have always been different. We were known as the Yin and Yang. Twins, but not related at all. We were both born under the blue moon eclipse, 26 years ago to the date. I’ll let Seth explain why the blue moon is so special, since I don’t want to take up too much time here.

Anyway, like I said before, we run things together. Our families at the time — the Lightwoods and the Moonstones — ran two of the smallest packs in the southern part of Florida. Florida was divided by the north and south packs. Our enemies controlled the north. Eighty years ago, when they made their move to invade the south, the two smaller packs of the south, which were our families’ packs, banded together to drive them away. Ever since, our grandfathers combined our packs into one, running it as co-alphas. They had their differences, since this also came with two Lunas, but they made it work. After the losses we had suffered from the war, our grandfather decided to establish a peace treaty with the north. No matter the losses we suffered, we knew the north had taken just as much damage. Had we invaded right then and there, we may have been able to take over the north completely.

When we asked our grandfather why he didn’t press forward before he died, his only response was that he’d had a vision. It was not his to take, but ours. We still didn’t know what he meant by that at the time, but with the events that followed, we soon understood.

Growing up, Seth and I shared everything. When I say everything, I definitely mean everything — rooms, sports, even women, sometimes. That’s how we knew. If we ever ended up mated, we would most likely share the same mate. It was not a guarantee, but we are almost one soul under the moon, so to think we would have the same mate isn’t far off. I can’t wait to find our mate. Seth, however, is kind of against the idea. That’s his story to tell.

Seth and I divided our duties daily. He handles pack business, and I manage our restaurant, as well as the other restaurant chains throughout Florida — other locations we own under the same name throughout different cities. We pride ourselves on being number one, as the restaurant and the pack will be our legacy, left behind to our children when we are gone. Werewolves such as us have a longer lifespan than humans. We age slower. We move faster. We see more clearly.

We also pride ourselves on our mating. We stick to our own kind, as crossbreeding with humans is forbidden, according to the prophet of our pack. Only the chosen few would be permitted to mate with humans. It is said that the offspring of some humans and wolves can, in rare instances, create what is known as a Lycan wolf. Lycans and werewolves are alike in most animal instincts, but Lycans are far more complicated. Unlike the average wolf, they can run on their hind legs and extend their claws farther. They even have the ability to speak to their wolves, and their wolves speak back to them. Sometimes, the wolf persona can be so strong it takes over the person completely if they can’t control it. This happened a few hundred years ago, and the Lycan destroyed most of its own family. It took ten alpha wolves to bring the Lycan down, as its strength far exceeded that of the average wolf. Our scientists have never determined why breeding with humans produces such powerful wolves, but from that day on, only a chosen few would be mated to humans — chosen only by the moon goddess herself. I honestly wouldn’t mind if we were mated to a human, but I know my best friend feels differently.

Seth and I are smart. Two of the brightest students in our school. Always at the top. We excelled at university, majoring in business and minoring in culinary arts. The business side was to make us better leaders. I never minded the business courses, but I always looked forward to the culinary arts. Cooking — I feel like it is a gift I was born with. I was always in my element in the kitchen. That’s why I focus more on our restaurant chains, though I still fulfill my alpha duties to our pack. Sometimes, though, the workload can suffocate us both, which is why we put out an ad for a special kind of person.

This person would be a top chef at our restaurant, provided they could cook to my liking, which is very specific. They would also help Seth and I as an assistant with pack-related details — just the workload we can’t finish ourselves. We sent the flier to all of our closest friends and received many applicants, all werewolves, of course. The human world knew nothing of the existence of our kind, and we liked keeping it that way, which is why only our kind could see the flier. We were looking for that diamond in the rough, and we hoped to the goddess we would find them soon. Our wish came true later that day, but it came in the most unexpected way. It came in the form of Ember Maze.