The Lunas Duty

Unpleasant Surprise

        ‘Mate.’ the growl ripped from deep within him.

        His nostrils flared as the rest of his body stood stiff in the doorway. He was unbelievably handsome, with his tall athletic build, glossy chocolate brown hair slicked back, with a few rouge strands escaping and falling across his forehead, his icy blue eyes were piercing as they narrowed at me from across the room. 

        This was my mate. Standing right in front of me, I can't believe I’ve  finally found him. I hurried to my feet to stand before him, smoothing out my crumpled shirt, barely able to contain my excitement. 

        His hard beautiful features contorted into a look of pure disgust, ‘Really? You?’ venom laced in each word he spat at me.

        I feel winded with shock. This is not how it is supposed to go. Your mate isn't supposed to look at you like your mere existence offends them, but that is exactly how he was looking at me. He’s supposed to look at me with love and adoration, at least that's what everybody else always says. I’m his one true partner, he was especially created by the Moon Goddess for me, just as I was made for him. How can us finding each other not be a joyous moment for him? 

        ‘Excuse me.’ I don't understand why he was behaving this way, but I wont let it affect me. I straightened my back, I wanted to show him that I am strong, that I am worthy of being his mate.

        ‘Well, this is an unpleasant surprise.’ he fumed stalking towards me, closing the space between us, ‘I don't want a mate.’ Each word drawn out to make his point.

        ‘Well you have one.’

        His eyes raked across the whole of my body, no one has ever looked at me so intently, taking in every inch of me, every tiny detail. It made me want to cover myself but I resisted the urge, I will not back down, I will not show weakness. ‘I guess you would do fine, but I'm not having you to shackle me down now. ’

        ‘There is no need to be so rude.’ I shot back.

        His eyebrow quirked up, I don't think he was expecting me to answer back. The corner of his mouth ever so slightly twitches up, it would've been easy to miss. Though it was gone in a flash and replaced by a merciless expression. His large strong hand flew up, with his long fingers clasping around my throat, leaning in with barely an inch between our faces, his breath fell heavy against my mouth, ‘If you dare speak a word of this to anyone, I promise you’ll regret it.’ he tightened his grip around my neck. ‘No one finds out you are my mate.’ I matched his glare but was unable to make a sound. He must have taken my silence as an agreement, as he releases his hand, and without another word straightened out his suit and strode out of my office.

        Well isn't this just perfect! Why did I get such an obnoxious brute as my mate? What did I ever do to deserve this? I wanted to crumple down on the floor and cry, but I won't give him the satisfaction, even though he is not here to see me, he will not get the amusement of seeing me break, I will not beg for his affections, I swear he will regret what he has done.

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~24 hours earlier~

        The office is absolutely buzzing today, everyone at the law firm is on a crazy mission to have every corner sparkling for our new arrival. Bored by all the commotion I've chosen to get some distance and take refuge in the tranquil setting of my office, at least, it was tranquil until Lexi Martins came barging in fishing for gossip.

        ‘Have you heard the news about the new lawyer coming?’ she has such a jarring voice  with its high pitched and false tone, it made me cringe, but of course I had heard. It was the only thing, and I mean ONLY thing anyone is able to talk about at the moment. I forced my mouth to turn into a smile and mentally prepared myself for the life draining conversation that is about to ensue.

        ‘Yes, it will be great for the firm to have a new lawyer, especially someone of his quality.’

        ‘Yeah, whatever, but you know who he is right?’ The accusation was heavy in her words, as if it would have been a crime not to know who he was, I am quickly losing interest in keeping this conversation up much longer.

        ‘Mr Darkmoon? He’s one of the best criminal defence attorneys around.’

        ‘That's all the boring stuff, whats important is he’s a complete god! He throws the craziest parties in the city, and anyone who is anyone is sure to always be there, they are sooo exclusive! I would give my life to attend one.’ well that seems a little melodramatic, but I am ashamed to admit that I do also know about these parties, they were infamous for their scandalous antics, not events that appeal to me, if I'm honest. She continued to babble on, ‘But he is the fittest guy I've ever seen, he looks like an absolute Adonis. I can't believe I'll get to see him every day, my god the things I would let him do to me.’

        ‘Well, if he was your mate. right?’ It is condemned to have relations with someone who is not your mate, especially for a woman to give her virginity to someone before finding her mate, that would bring the greatest dishonour to her family and pack. I know it's old fashioned but it's just the way our world is.

        Lexi broke into a mocking laughter,‘Oh, You're so pure!  Times are changing babes, you can't just wait around for ‘the one’, you gotta go out and have some fun.’ Maybe some people's opinions were changing, especially here in the city, people are moving away from the traditional practices of pack life, but I had no interest fooling around and risking my future happiness with my mate, not just for a one night stand.

         I haven't managed to find my mate yet, but as my mother always tells me, you have to have faith in the Moon Goddess that she knows what’s best, and I know that she will have chosen the perfect man for me and we will find each other when the time is right. 

        ‘I guess. I’m just not into that kind of fun.’ I mumbled.

        ‘Suit yourself. Works out for me, less competition.’ She giggled as she sauntered out the door.

        Well she’s going to be a complete nightmare when Mr Darkmoon arrives, I shuddered at the thought of  how she will behave.  

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        After my chat with Lexi the time passed by quickly with very few events of notes, and now here we are, the day of Mr Darkmoon’s arrival is finally here. 

        I have  mainly been left to get on with my own work, surprisingly being the personal assistant to Alik, the boss of the firm, keeps me very busy. He is the best boss and a great lawyer, but my god he is a total mess, he needs every inch of his life organising and sorting out. It makes me laugh thinking about it, how can a leading defence attorney need help copying a web link to send in an email? I genuinely had to help him do that, three times. You will not believe half the things I need to help him with throughout the day. 

        It wasn't my 'plan' to be a personal assistant at a law firm, I had dreamed of becoming a lawyer myself. I even studied Law with Psychology at college, when I finished I was desperate to get a job straight away, and well my dad knew Alik, so he got me the job while I ‘work things out’, now it’s two years later and i'm still no closer to ‘working things out’ since the day I arrived, besides Alik would never cope without me, at least that is what I tell myself to not feel so bad about not actually going for my dream career.

        Everyone is still exhausting completely the topic of Mr Darkmoons arrival, god knows what they will talk about when he actually gets here. I don't want to get involved in their gossip but I do have my own opinions on the new lawyer coming. 

        I know he belongs to the most powerful and bloodthirsty pack around, not only is he a part of it, but he's the son of the Alpha and heir to the Darkmoon Pack. 

        The Darkmoon pack and my own pack, Whitecrescent are allies. Allies is a kind word for it, more like they take whatever they want from us and in return they offer us ‘protection’. It's an alliance that does us more harm than good, but to break it off would be even worst, we wouldn't survive having Darkmoon as our enemies. I don't understand who would want to be part of such a pack, they are awful bullies. So I guess you could say I'm intrigued what the packs future Alpha is really like. I'm not sure we'll get on.

         Startled by a knock at my door, I glanced up to see Alik walking in, ‘Carrina, I've got a bit of a scheduling problem.’

        ‘Your meeting with Miss Gibsons and your lunch appointment?  I noticed that this morning and asked Miss Gibson if she could reschedule for 4pm, so there shouldn’t be a problem now.’

        ‘Oh that’s great, I knew I could count on you.’ smiling as he paced aimlessly around the office, running his fingers through his hair, as if he is trying to to remember something, ‘Arh Carrina, I know why else I came in, did you manage to find those files I asked about.’

        ‘Of course, Sir. I placed them on your desk, Also there is a contact Mr Blair sent,  you need to read it over and sign that as well.’ 

        ‘Thanks Carrina, I don't know what I'd do without you.’ Satisfied he turned to walk out the room.

        ‘Probably just fall to pieces Sir.’ I joked.

        ‘Probably.’ He heartily laughed before he saluted and existed the room. 

        Not a minute later he ducked his head back around the corner, ‘Oh, Carrie, Mr Darkmoon has arrived, I’ll send him in to meet you and make sure all his paperwork is in order.’

        ‘Of course Sir.’

        A short amount of time passed when my door clicked open and a tall figure appeared in the frame, as I become overwhelmed by an intoxicating scent, a growl sent a shiver down to my core. 

        ‘Mate.’