Becoming Luna

18 ~ Volunteer

Almost five years later…

It hasn’t been easy, and it took a while longer than Siena had anticipated when she started but finally, all her hard work and sacrifices are starting to pay off.

Silver & Silk is now one of the most successful and trusted brands for adaptive clothing and accessories in the fashion and even health industry.

So many late nights, anxious days, moments of discouraging events, and self-doubts have plagued the road that brought her to this exact moment. Siena takes a deep breath and smiles as she enters her new office, in what is one of the tallest buildings in the City.

She walks to the window overlooking a great deal of the historic center and closes her eyes as she imagines herself flying above everyone.

How she wishes her parents were here to see her soar! She may not have a wolf pack to call her own, but her team of humans and some beautiful creatures in between have sworn a whole other level of commitment to her and her cause, struggling together as a family, bound by common goals, friendship, and the desperate need to make the best of their second chance at life.

A knock at the open door makes her snap her eyes open and turn around, to see her secretary grinning from ear to ear while clutching a beautiful, familiar bouquet of calla lily.

“Someone’s caught up real fast. I doubt even our old post office knows where to forward our packages just yet, but of course Mr. A already has that covered,” Judith teases her as she brings the bouquet inside.

Siena grins right back as she takes it. “It’s Thursday. Of course he won’t miss it.”

The bouquet always comes on Thursdays, come hell or high water. Not once, since she started receiving them, did they never get delivered, even if Siena was overseas or out of town for some important conference or any other work related stuff. One way or another, the bouquet gets delivered in the morning, with one simple message that never changes and a signature that remains an unsolved mystery.

For the perfect luna,

A.

Siena holds the bouquet close to her nose, comforted by the very subtle scent. Most calla lilies that she knows are fragrance-free, but the variety Mr. A sends her must be one of those more expensive blooms that have a faint, sweet scent, almost buttery, and doesn’t overwhelm one’s sense of smell.

When the bouquet started arriving more than three years ago, she immediately thought it was from Andrew, given the initial and the written message, but she dismissed the idea as too far-fetched. It couldn’t be him. And if it were him, then his intentions couldn’t be good. He had a family, and if he was trying to reconcile with her and make her his side dish, then it was a cruel thing to do. She wasn’t interested.

So she ignored the bouquets. She didn’t send them back, but neither did she acknowledge them, assuming that the flowers would stop coming once the sender realized it was a pointless endeavor.

However, the bouquets kept coming, consistent, every Thursday morning, rain or shine. Never late, never a week without. And soon, Siena started to wonder again.

She decided it couldn’t be Andrew. The bouquets look expensive and the cost would have raised questions, given its weekly arrival in her office. She couldn’t help thinking it might be Xander, but there was no way to ask him, because after making sure she was settled in her new life, the man had disappeared, and she hadn’t heard from him since. His number had long been deactivated and no matter how hard she tried to find a way to contact him, there seemed to be a wall blocking her way. No windows, no doors. Nothing.

He’s just…gone.

Almost like he never existed.

Then one day, Siena simply stopped obsessing about who her mysterious suitor is, especially when other men started showing interest and asking her out. She figured that whoever Mr. A was, when he was ready to make himself known, he would simply come and introduce himself.

There’s no use trying to find someone who is hiding from her on purpose.

In the meantime, she follows Xander’s advice.

She allows her broken heart to heal. It’s a slow process, but things are definitely getting better. Therapy helps. It became easier when she stopped forcing herself to fall out of love as quickly as possible.

“The thing is, my dear,” her therapist had told her gently. “There is no shortcut to getting over somebody you loved so deeply. It’s not possible, especially if it was true love. There are wounds that only time can soothe, if not heal completely. What we can do to make things better is to stop blaming ourselves—hurting and punishing ourselves by thinking it could’ve worked out if we’d done things differently. Don’t make the mistake of drinking from that poisoned cup.” She smiled. “Instead, feel the pain. Feel it, but don’t dwell on it. Accept that it’s over, be grateful for the good memories. Understand that, regardless of how things ended, heartbreak is part of the deal and what you can do is learn from the experience. It may not seem like it at the beginning but…the day will come that it will happen. The need to cry will be less and less…until you realize that you haven’t cried in a while.”

She found her purpose in Silver & Silk, even going as far as presenting her proposal to the Office of the Alpha King. The plan was to interview and hire outcasts who have not lost their minds yet to the mysterious sickness of the Barrenlands that turn shifters into rogues—mindless creatures hell-bent on destruction and with an inexplicable desire to hurt others—and to see if they might be eligible to work for her, gradually regaining freedom once they are cleared.

Judith is one of them. And Alexa at the reception. And Cody and James in finance. And a few other misfits who found their new family in Siena’s little pack of ‘alpha-less’ wolves. Despite being cleared, they stayed with her. Because, as Judith pointed out, they might not have an alpha but they have her, which turned out to be so much better.

To the outcast shifters, she is their unofficial Luna.

To the human staff and the rest of the world, she is Miss Siena Merrick, Owner, Designer, and CEO of Silver & Silk. The Wolf Lady of the City. They started calling her that last year, quoting an interview for a women’s magazine where she was asked what would be her animal spirit and she, with an amused smile, had replied ‘Oh, a wolf, that’s for sure.’.

For now, she is enjoying her life and her freedom. She’s happy. Or at least, she’s content, which is, these days, more or less the same thing. There’s too much work to be done for her to even ask for more than just contentment. The company is doing well, and she’s helping outcasts and humans alike by employing them. She has enough savings to finally slow down a little and delegate some of the extra work so she has more time to dedicate for herself.

Her unfortunate experience with her former mate and her old pack is now just a faraway memory, like a bad dream that no longer bothers her as much as it did before. Especially because as negative as it had been, good things did happen because of it, like Judith and the others being saved from the Barrenlands before it was too late. If Siena had remained in the Borderlands, she wouldn’t have been able to understand what it is to be an outcast and she would not have the option of giving others a chance for a new life.

Of course, she tries not to think of what might be missing, focusing mostly on what she has. Time may have started to heal her wounds but she’s not in a hurry to fill that void too soon…

Her wolf has been getting restless lately, probably because Opal hasn’t been out in a long time. Siena plans on buying a property big enough to let her wolf out more often, and also those of the others.

“Is everything ready for Sunday?” she asks Judith, talking about the new location’s inauguration. “Have all the guests RSVPd already?”

“All but one.”

She sighs. “Mr. Wolfenheim, I presume?”

“You did say it’s highly unlikely he’d come,” Judith shrugs. “I’m not even sure he received the invitation.”

Siena clicks her tongue. “Oh well, it’s fine. We tried. Can you please get me the folder for the seating arrangement again? I’d like to make a few changes.”

“Sure, but don’t mess it up too much. Your party organizer is already flipping out. Let’s not push the tiny human to the edge of insanity.”

She chuckles. “That girl needs to chill. Anyway, seeing as Mr. Wolfenheim probably can’t make it, I’m adding just one more to my table.”

A very handsome widower she’d met a week ago, on her flight back from the Middle East. An interesting fellow, nephew of a sheikh or something. Obscenely rich, she would even dare say offensively so, judging from a single accessory that can probably save the economy of a small third-world country, but he was soft-spoken and appeared to be very calm.

Completely human, of course, but her wolf senses something dangerous in him—very subtle and under control—which excites her. He must be a Dominant, looking for a pet, and Siena feels like purring, reacting to an alpha figure. She has been working so hard these past few years, and now she wants to play a little.

Afterall, she’s unmated, unattached, and unmarked. The last time she had s*x, her whole world was turned upside down. That was years ago, too embarrassing to even count. It’s high time she tests the waters again. Actually at this point, she better go straight to diving in.

Siena hopes he’s still in the City. Sunday night might be her lucky night. She sooo wants to be petted…

Which reminds her…

“I better get groomed first…”

Paws and claws, at least for now. She only has time for that today. Tomorrow, she could have her waxing done. She’ll be too busy Saturday for the preparations that she doubts she could squeeze in anything else, but Sunday maybe she can have a relaxing massage just to prep her up for the evening event.

She tells Judith to get her an appointment that afternoon for a mani-pedi. Her secretary reminds her that her trusted personal driver has requested the afternoon off in order to attend a grandchild’s recital, asking her if she wants to be driven by someone else.

“It’s fine, I’ll drive. It’s not that far.”

That afternoon, feeling younger and freer than she has ever been, she gets into her car and puts on her pre-girls’ night out playlist, pumping up the volume high enough to be heard through the traffic even with her windows closed, and just loses herself in the music, singing out loud…

“...strangers to lovers, I don’t care

Gonna get me some lovin’ again

I crave your touch, your lips, your bite

Come on, stranger,

Be my lover, be my master tonight!

I’ll be your Belle of the ball,

Don’t care that you’re a monster…

I’ll wait for that last petal to fall…

Let the curse sink in forevermore!

Oh, be my lover, be my master—”

A knock on her window makes her jump in surprise. Outside, a biker astride a black Ducati and wearing a full-face helmet is signaling her to roll down her window.

She turns the music down before lowering the side window glass, frowning a little in annoyance. “Yes?”

The man leans closer, not bothering to raise the visor of his helmet, so she can literally see her face on its reflective surface. His voice sounds a little muffled but it’s audible.

“Hi, Belle…if the position is still open, I’d like to be your Beast for tonight.”