Second to Luna

Madeline’s POV “Leo, do you have your outfit ready for tomorrow?” Asked mom from down the hall into Leo’s room. It’s the night before my graduation and mom is coddling my brother Leo, instead of helping me get ready for my graduation and birthday. Leo was the first born, naturally set to be alpha. Coddled by mom and trained by father into one day taking over his place of becoming Alpha of the biggest pack in the Northwestern Region. Dad being Alpha of one of the biggest and most powerful packs, was always on Leo’s a**. Making sure he followed the path that was destined for him. I, on the other hand was always forgotten about. Put the side, living a different life than my brother, Leo. Growing up, dad and mom never forgot his birthday, gave him the better presents and molded him to how they wanted him to be. I was always forgotten about. Never really receiving so much as a cake, but just a simple Happy Birthday. Him being 20, turning 21 in a month, had all the attention from mom and dad and the rest of the pack as they were getting ready for his Alpha Ceremony. Don’t get me wrong I love my brother and I am happy for him but, was I not good enough? To have one day for all the attention. Father, being the Alpha of the pack HAD to attend my graduation tomorrow to give his farewell speech, congratulate the graduates and whatever else he had to do. I doubt he would’ve gone if it wasn’t for that. “Madeline, don’t forget we have to leave here at 8:00am” said mom coming into my room as I was in bed writing in my journal. Turning 18, is a big deal in our world, and in our family not only do we get our wolf but we also receive our enchanted gift. We were not your normal wolf family. We would receive our gift after our first shift into our wolf. I was excited to say the least. However, nobody seemed to be excited for me. I put my journal away and turned the lights off, laid in bed as tomorrow would be a different world for me and my wolf. ******** Deep in my sleep, a voice startled me. “Hey, are you awake?” It sounded like someone was whispering in my ear. I got the bat from the side of my bed and turned the lights on. “What are you going to do with that bat, hit me?” said the voice. I turned around quickly, realizing no one was there. “Wow, you’re so gullible, it’s me your wolf, Autumn.” Said the voice once again. I ran to my bathroom inside my room and turned the lights on. I looked at myself in the mirror, examining any different features. “Wow, we are so beautiful” said Autumn. I smiled, I haven’t been told beautiful since I was 10 when I would go with Mom and Dad to our ally pack, Blue Crest Pack and visit this boy, can’t remember their name but would tell me all the time, but never paid any attention to it. “Autumn, is it really you?” “Of course, Madeline. Who else could it be? It’s our birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY !!!” “Autumn, it’s 3AM can you not yell in my head” “But, but, I just woke up! We have a lot to do!!” “Like?” There was silence. . . . “Are you there, Autumn?” “Yes, yes, I’m here. I’m just trying to figure out how I can keep us up.” “No, We need sleep.” “Ugh, okay” slumped Autumn. I turn off the lights to my bathroom, put the bar away and laid back down. “I’m happy you’re here, Autumn. Now that I have you, I don’t know what I’d do without you.” “You’ll never get rid of me now, Thea! We’re going to do great things, I can feel it!” My eyelids starting to feel heavier and heavier, I fall back to sleep. It’s finally 6AM and Autumn wakes me up once again and starts to yell “WAKE UP, WAKE UP, WAKE UP!” “I’m up, I’m up, I’m up! But can you not yell please, I’m still getting used to another voice in my head.” “Ohh Madi, get over yourself! If you would’ve been asleep for 18 years, you would jumping off the walls with all this energy”. I pushed her to the back of my head so I could start getting ready. I go and quickly take a shower, do my hair and make up. Put on my pink strapless sundress I got for graduation and put on my gown over it looking at myself one last time in the mirror and realizing that my life after today would not be the same, I could not wait what life has stored for me. ********* “Class of 2022, you may know move your tassel from the right to left to signify completion of your high school curriculum. May you achieve all your dreams and desires. Congratulations!” Said Principal Stevens. Everyone is start to yell, cheer and clap at our graduating class. People start to walk outside to find their family members, it’s hard to get by trying to get out side. As everyone is starting to find their families and I see them take their pictures and receive their own gifts. My family is nowhere to be found. As I am looking for my family, out of nowhere Autumn is going crazy howling and prancing in my head. “What’s your deal, Autumn?” “Madeline, he’s here! Our mate is here, I can smell him! We NEED to find him!!!” “How do you expect to do this with all these people? There’s hundreds if not at least a thousand people here!” Unknown POV Getting ready for my cousin Christy’s graduation is a bittersweet moment to say the least. She’s not the same little cousin I used to make fun of for having braces. She’s grown up to become a mature young woman. I am proud to call her my cousin as she was the graduating class valedictorian. Being Alpha at Silver Lake, neighboring Yellow stone and allies, we attend each other’s graduations, ceremonies and other celebrations. We have been allies for as long as I can remember. My dad being Alpha of our pack he was best friends with Yellow Stone’s, Alpha Roger. I considered him like an uncle to me since we were always together when we were younger. He had Little Leo and Madeline with auntie, Sarah with him all the time. I was always fond of Little Leo and Madi, I was an only child so anytime I got to spend time with them especially Madeline, i felt complete. But ever since taking over as Alpha 3 years ago, my parents passing away 2 years ago after a car accident and running a business, I don’t get to visit them as much as I would have liked to. Now the only time I see uncle Roger, Little Leo, which he’s not so little anymore, and his Beta, Chad is at our yearly Alpha summit. Uncle Roger being Alpha, was mandatory to attend but he’s brought Leo for the last 2 Alpha Summits, knowing that he would become Alpha once he turned 21. Leo is great, I know he’s going to be a great Alpha, and I’ll always be here for him. I’m sure he’ll be there for me as well. He stands 6’3” at almost 21 he’s huge! But not as big as I am. I stand at 6’4”, a good 230 pounds of pure muscle but as most Alphas, we were born naturally to be bigger than most werewolf’s. The drive to Yellow Stone is only 3 hours, I made sure to leave earlier so we didn’t hit any traffic and get there with enough time to get good seating. My Beta, Luke accompanied me so I wouldn’t do the drive by myself. We arrived before it got crowded and just like how I wanted, I got to sit not to close but not to far from where I can see Christy walk to stage and give her speech. Time passed and administration has given their speech’s as well as uncle Roger, and Christy. I couldn’t be any more proud of her. After the graduation ceremony we are walking outside to meet with my Aunt Lisa and the rest of family to take pictures with Christy. My Beta Luke, is already scouting who he’s going to take home tonight. “Can you behave for once?” “Man, can you not ruined the best moment for me? It’s fresh meat! I gotta show them she-wolfs how it’s done.” “You’re going to regret sleeping with all these she-wolfs by the time you find your mate.” “By the time i DO find my mate, all these she-wolfs will be a thing of the past, now let me have my fun for now.” Saying this never taking his eyes off of all the she-wolves walking past us, practically eye-f**king us. I go my separate way and mind-link him that we will be leaving in 20 min and to hurry up, if not I was leaving his a** here. I’ve had my fun. I messed around in high school, having s*x at the start of 16 and f*cking almost all the cheerleaders in our class and after high school all the girls wanted a piece of the future Alpha and who was I to deny their s*xual cravings. But after my parents passing 2 years ago, seeing that I no longer had my family. I devoted myself to look for my mate and create our family of own. I don’t crave that s*xual desire anymore. I am okay with waiting for my mate, my Luna. My everything. Wherever she may be. As I am looking for my cousin Christy, my aunt Lisa, and uncle Bob from all the hundreds of people. Blade is howling going crazy in my head. Then the sweetest smell hit me like a ton of bricks, Strawberries and honey. Oh what beautiful smell. “Do you smell her!?!” Yelled Blade in my head. “Yes, I can. But there’s so many people, I can’t distinguish who it belongs too!” “Mate, Mate, Mate is here! We need to find her and make her ours!” “How do you expect to do that in the middle of this big crowd?” “Let me take control and I’ll find her right now!!” Blade wanting to take control as we search for our mate. I try my best to keep him back, and suppress him to the back of my head as this is the last place he needs to be trying to search our mate. Full of hundreds if not thousands of people. I need to find her, and make her mine. Where can she be? Madeline’s POV As people staring coming out of the school gym, and are standing out side forming a crowd getting bigger by the second. I am no longer looking for my parents but I am following that beautiful smell of cucumber and mint scent. I can’t seem to find him, the smells hits me but then disappears. Ohh Moon Goddess, let me find this mate of mine. It’s been 20 min and I can’t seem to smell that scent anymore. Is this a cruel joke from the Moon Goddess, herself? Feeling disappointed, I don’t even bother looking for my family anymore. I find Gabby from within the crowd with her parents and ask her if I can get a ride with them. She hugged me closely and knew something was wrong. “Sure Mad, I’m sure mom and dad wouldn’t mind taking you home, everything okay? Asked Gabby as we walked to their truck. I faked smile and told her I was okay. “Are you sure, what’s wrong, Mad? Asked Gabby once again, knowing something was wrong while I climbed in the backseat of her dads truck with her mom getting on the passenger seat and dad on the driver. “Nothing, Gab.” looking down at the floor, feeling defeated. “I know something’s wrong but if you don’t want to talk about it, you know I’ll always be here when you’re ready to talk.” Said Gabby as she reached for my hand and squeezed it. I looked up at her and smiled softly. She’s always been there for me as long as I can remember. Going into Kinder, my mom would always forget to pack me my lunch and I always hated the cafeteria food. Gabby took pity on me and would share her food. It seemed like her mom knew that she would share her food with me because Gabby always had some of my favorite food and had double of whatever she brought. Oh, how I love Gabby and her family. She is the complete opposite of me. She is outspoken, doesn’t care what others think of her and she’ll kick your a**, if you mess with her or me. As her dad was our head warrior and head training for many years he trained Gabby and her twin brother Alex like the rest of our best pack warriors. The ride back to the pack house was rather silent and I thanked Mr and Mrs Adams and hugged Gabby tightly as they dropped me off. “Thank you Mr Adams, I’ll see you later Mrs Adams. Bye Gabby. I love you guys”. I said as I was closing the door of their truck. “You’re welcome sweetie, we love you. Tell your parents we say hi and tell your brother we can’t wait for the alpha ceremony.” Said Mrs Adams sweetly from the passenger window. Driving off I walked up the many steps to get to the front porch of our huge Mansion pack house. I stood in front of the pack house double doors waiting for Harold to open the doors. They’re huge doors that usually require someone strong to open them when someone arrived. “Hello, Ms Madeline! How was your graduation? Happy Birthday by the way!” Said Harold as he opened the door, smiling happily as he always did. “Just a regular day for me Harold, nothing special.” I said softly waking past him making no eye contact. “Ohh, don’t say that Madeline. This is a special night for you. I look forward to what the future holds for you!” Said Harold as I started to ascend the stairs up to my room. “Thank you Harold!” I yelled as i continued to climb up the stairs. Walking down the hall I see Leo’s sweet smile standing outside my room with balloons that said Congrats Grad and Happy Birthday, flowers and a card. I smiled and hugged him as I reached to the front of my room. “You didn’t have to do this, you know”. I told Leo still hugging him. Even though I was always overlooked by my parents. Leo always made sure to get me something for my birthday and always made me feel loved. “You know I wouldn’t forget my little sisters birthday! I was looking for you at the school but I couldn’t find you. I figured you had gotten a ride with Gabby.” Said Leo separating from our hug, handing me my balloons and flowers. “They’re lovely.” I said as I put the flowers close to my face. As a werewolf, our senses are naturally enhanced and I could smell the flowers from down the hall but I loved the smell of Roses, so I brought them close to my face, closed my eyes and took a big sniff burring my face into the bouquet. Smiling into my flowers. “Happy Birthday, little sister. I know they’re you’re favorite, and I got you a gift card to your favorite store, Express. So you can buy all the clothes you want for the summer.” “Thank you, Leo! I love it!!” I smiled and gave him another hug. “Listen, tonight they’re having a party at Michaels house for his brothers graduation. If you want to go with me. Chris and I will be driving together.” Chris is Leo’s best friend. He grew up with Leo and they were inseparable ever since toddlers and was more than likely to become Beta after Leo became Alpha, like his father Chad. Since Chris and Leo were best friends and my dad and uncle Chad were best friends it was only natural to follow in the same footsteps. “I don’t know, Leo. Let me think about it.” opening my door and going inside holding the door waiting to close it “Sure, Mads. But I want you to go, it might me last party before I become alpha and I have to separate myself from all that.”said Leo shrugging his shoulders. He gave me one last hug and disappeared right in front of me. My brothers gift, the enchanted gift he received on the first full moon night after he turned 18 and shifting for the first time, was teleportation. He could teleport 3-5 people at a time by holding hands to anywhere around the world, Making travel easier for us. At first it would scare the sh*t out of me when he would appear out of nowhere but now, I’ve gotten used to it. Even though there’s times when I get startled as he does appears right in front of me and I am deep in thought. I change out of my clothing, put on a loose fit t-shirt and sweats, I laid down and open my journal. I wrote about todays event and that heavenly smell of cucumbers and mint from earlier today. Who could that have been. As I wrote in my journal. Autumn whimpering in my head. “I’m sorry we didn’t find him Autumn. I tried my best.” “It’s not your fault Madeline, you did what you could in that situation. But i have no doubt that we will find him and make him ours.” Said Autumn still sad. I could feel the sadness coming from her and I wish I could help her feel better. “Im sure we’ll find him. If it’s meant to be it’ll be, Autumn.” I said trying to cheer her up. It was only 4PM when I had fallen asleep. 3 hrs later, Leo starts banging on my door. “Mads, are you awake? Let’s go. We’re getting ready to go!” Yelled Leo from outside of my bedroom door. I sat up on my bed rubbing my face trying to figure out what’s going. I stayed quiet hoping he would take the hint and go away. KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK “Mads, I’m going in there if you don’t answer!” Said Leo as he continued to knock on the door. Ugh, i rolled my eyes and threw myself back to my bed. “Come in” As soon as I finished saying “in” he appeared on my desk chair to my left. “Mads. Let’s go. We’re getting ready to go.” Saying Leo, reclining all the way back the chair allows him to go. Almost falling back. “Hahahaha, why do you always do that. You know it reclines all the way.” i told him laughing, still trying to wake up from my nap. Leo stands from the chair and brushes himself off walking towards the door the. looking back at me. “We’re leaving in an hour. Get your b*tt moving, Mads!.” I rolled my eyes once again and threw my covers over me. Unknown POV I start to follow that sweet scent of strawberries and honey and it’s like it punches me with its scent then recedes. Where is she!? As I am pushing myself through the crowd, Luke pulls me from my trans and grabs my shoulders. “Finn, where have you been. We have got to go!” “Not now, Luke! I found my mate! I smell her but I can’t find her in this stupid crowd!” I yelled, trying to push him off me. “Not now man, I’ve been trying to mind-link you for the last 10 min. But you have your block up. There’s been a rogue attack at the south border. Frank sent me a text saying that there were 3 rouges. One in custody, killed the other one and the last one got away. One of our warriors is injured, not life threatening but he’ll live. I’m sorry, man! I know how long you’ve been wanting your mate but we have got to go, now!!” Yelled Luke. “Ugh, why! Why of all days does this have to happen!” I roared. Luke and I start running back towards the Audi and rushing back to the pack. I didn’t even get to see Christy and congratulate her for her accomplishments. Whoever these rogues were, weren’t going to get any mercy from me. They’re good as dead as soon as I get back.