The Luna Who Burned The Pack

CHAPTER 3.2

“Mira. Curran said to bring her to you. I’m off.” He says as he opens the tent and pushes me inside. The heavy tarps fall behind me with a woosh, and I’m left standing in a roomy tent. It’s like a small room, but tables fill the space up.

I see a woman bent over and putting some bottles into a basket. When she stands, she looks at me. Mira is a short stocky woman. But where you expect fat, she’s built that thick with muscle. Her face is round and looking in it makes me want to curl up in her arms. She just exudes a motherly aura.

“What is your name, girl?”

“I’m Violet.”

“Welcome to our home, Violet. I wonder where he found you, but I’m sure he will tell me later.” She walks towards me and raises a hand towards me, and I flinch.

I catch myself, but it is already too late. I look up and see the calculations running through Mira’s head.

“You look tired. I assume you’ve been on the road for a while. There's a shower around the corner there. You’ll find everything you need there. Grab a robe off the rack there. I'll be back soon.” Mira smiles at me and walks out of the tent.

I'm sure she’s no i***t. She knows exactly what my flinch meant. Well, if she’s not making a big deal out of it, I won’t either.

I strip out of my dirty clothes and go to the shower. It's a tidy room sectioned outside the tent. I think about taking a quick bath but get seduced by the lineup of bathing products. Back at Dark Moon, I didn’t get access to soap, so I had to steal if I wanted a good bath.

I have everything I’ll need right here, and who knows when I’ll get an opportunity to take a bath again? I run through the selection of products and settle on the honey and lavender products. I grab a washcloth and later it and spend the next fifteen minutes scrubbing and rinsing my body until it feels like the skin is going to fall off.

I wash my hair with a rose shampoo and condition it. My auburn hair has grown to my waist, and I love it. When I finish, the shower is clouded with steam and all the scents from the products I used cloud my senses. I love it so much. But I can’t sleep in here, so I haul my ass out.

I grab a robe and tie it around myself. It is so soft and fluffy that I can’t believe it. It seems so surreal that I am the one using it. Dark Moon didn’t allow me to dream about my station, and that station was dirt. I was dirt underneath their feet. You didn’t care about the dirt. You just stepped on it.

So far, being taken away from that pack from the most dangerous rogue alpha doesn’t seem that bad. I've been treated like a human being with dignity. No one has slapped me, punched me, or tripped me. I have very low standards, I know.

When I enter the tent proper, Mira is already waiting for me.

“Sit,” she says, motioning to a chair that is in front of a vanity. I sit in the chair, and she plugs in a blow dryer.

The hum of the dryer, couple with her hands in her hair as she dries it makes me so relaxed. I'm being spoiled. I cannot remember a time when this happened to me. If it had happened with my mother before she died, I have no memory of it.

She picks up a curler and presses it into my hair till my hair becomes a mass of soft waves falling down my back. I look in the mirror, and I am shocked by my reflection. I look... beautiful. The thought is what finally provokes tears out of me.

“I’m so sorry. I don’t know why I’m crying.” I tell Mira but she tuts me and hugs me.

“Silly child. Of course, you know why you’re crying. It is a good thing. You are safe now. You are safe.”

She keeps repeating the words, and I finally stop crying. I keep waiting for her to change and let me know much of a fool I was to think she cared about me. That anyone cared about me enough to comfort me while I sobbed.

“I’m okay now. Thank you.” Mira just smiles at me.

“I brought you some food.” She places a platter of food in front of me and my eyes bulge. A cut of steak, some asparagus and mashed potatoes. On the side, a small bowl held a fruit salad. I am speechless. Mira laughs and leaves me to it.

I am not ashamed to say that I descended on that meal with the gusto of a starved thing. After all, that is what I am.

By the time I finish, Mira is back in the tent and she’s holding a gown that looks suspiciously like it’s for me.

“Here Violet. Take this and put it on.”

I squint at her in suspicion. That dress looks very expensive. It's a color caught between white and blue and it’s layered with frills.

“What is that for, Mira?”

“The Alpha King requests you attend a ceremony tonight.”

Right, famous last words. That doesn’t sound ominous at all.

I take the gown from her and pull it on. Paired with the hairdo Mira did for me earlier, I look stunning. Huh.

“What kind of a ceremony is it?”

“Your wedding.”