To The Moon and Back

Eric Grey

One week until my 29th birthday and my father still won’t give up his title until I find my mate. Which is ridiculous since I’m basically running this pack, just without the title. Even though I don’t really care for a mate I just hope I find her soon, all that matters is officially becoming the Aurora Moon Pack Alpha at this point. After years of work behind the scenes I deserve the recognition. To speed up becoming Alpha a few years back I traveled through all the packs on the west coast in hopes of finding her, but of course I returned back to my pack with alone. After that trip I kind of gave up and forgot about it until my father pressed the issue once again.

*knock*

*knock*

Before I could answer my door swings open and my future Beta, Zane walks into the room.

“Hey, the Alpha sent for me to find you. The Eclipse Pack is having financial and book keeping issues and they’re asking for help to get back on track. Your father wants us to head over in the morning and meet up with Alpha James to see how we can help.” Zane says stepping deeper into the room and places himself in the arm chair across from my desk.

I answer him with a slight nod and continue writing numbers onto the paper on my desk. Zane reaches over the desk and grabs the paper.

“You know, one day you’re gonna have to leave the office. You should rest before we head out tomorrow, for weeks all you’ve been doing is paper work. You don’t even show up to the pack training sessions anymore.” Zane mentions scanning the paper now in his hands. I reach over my desk and grab the paper from his hands careful not to rip it and place it in a folder and put it in my desk drawer.

“You know I have to finish these before the annual report meeting next month, our finances aren’t matching which means I have to go through everything from the past year. You’re not exactly helping me out.” I point out, sitting back in my office chair.

“Eric. We have people who we pay to all of that. Why would I do it? Come on, relax for a night and let’s go play some ball. I’ll meet you on the court in 15.” Zane smirks before rising out of his chair and heading towards the door.

“Oh and would you open your mind link, it’s annoying to have to hunt you down.” The door closes behind him and once again I’m left alone in my bedroom office.

I sigh as I rub my thumb and finger on my temples before I make my way over to the walk-in closet on the other side of my bedroom. I strip down throwing my clothes into the laundry bin and slip on a white crew neck t shirt, black basketball shorts and a pair of black basketball shoes. I step out of the closet and walk towards the bed to grab my cell phone on my night stand before I head out to the sports fields behind the pack house.

_________

I lay down on the patch of grass between the basketball courts as I take in a mouthful of cold water. I didn’t realize how much skipping training has really affected me physically until now I scold myself. Zane lies beside me and I toss him a water bottle. We’ve been playing basketball for the past three hours, and even though I haven’t been to training in weeks he still couldn’t win a single game.

“Damn dude, seriously how do you do it? You don’t even have a drop of sweat on you.” My beta tells me before dumping some of the water from the bottle over his head.

I give him a chuckle in response and take in another sip before standing up and start walking back to the pack house, leaving Zane behind to catch up. I almost make it to the pack house before I hear an annoying voice behind me calling out for me.

“Hey Eric!” The voice repeats again, this time closer. I continue towards the house and pretend I don’t hear the voice, though my wolf senses are more heightened due to having Alpha blood any smart wolf would know I’m faking, but this she-wolf was as hot headed as they get. I make it to the back porch and walk through the door of the house and head up to my bedroom in the Alpha Wing.

I make it up the staircase when I hear back door open and close, the annoying voice then asks one of the Omega maids where I went. I quickly head down the hall to my bedroom before I get inside and lock the door behind me. Damn, you’d think after years of rejection she’d take a hint that I don’t want to be with her. Allison, the current Beta’s daughter and Zane’s sister has been trying to throw herself onto me for years and each time I deny her telling her I’m waiting for my mate, which is far from the truth but she doesn’t need to know that.

I walk further into the room and throw my phone onto the bed duvet and head towards the attached en suite bathroom. After a long steaming shower I step back into the bedroom and make my way to the closet to slip on some gray sweat pants and a black t shirt. I mind link Zane to bring up some dinner and to go over our schedule for the next few days. I flop onto the bed and decide to scroll through my feeds for the first time in weeks as I wait. Ten minutes later Zane knocks on my door.

After my brief meeting with Zane we have our schedule set for our trip and I finally make my way into the large king sized bed in the middle of the room. I don’t mention Allison to Zane in hopes that she’ll finally start to take the hint. I set my alarm for the next morning on my cell phone, double checking to make sure the ringer is on and the volumes turn up before closing my eyes to sleep.

__________

“Thank you so much for your help today, I still don’t know how these computer systems work so I couldn’t have done it without you two.” Alpha James says to Zane and me while shaking our hands. James is an older man who lost his mate hours after they met, because they weren’t able to mark each other when she passed his wolf didn’t die with her. Usually when a wolf loses their mate the wolf will die with them leaving behind their human, now wolf less to slowly succumb from the pain caused with losing their mate and wolf. As far as I know Alpha James didn’t receive a second chance mate from the Goddess and unfortunately never had any pups. He has been one of our strongest alliances since my grandfather was Alpha of our pack and is highly respected throughout the surrounding packs. Soon his Beta’s eldest son will soon take over the Alpha position and his second son will become his Beta. To prepare the new Alpha and Beta for a smooth transition, James is decided to transfer the packs paper documents onto a laptop to better organize. Since he wasn’t tech savvy and his Beta and son’s weren’t around James reached out to my father for help. Typically any pack member could have helped Alpha James but him being more old school he only allows ranked wolves to handle official paperwork and with his Beta, the future Alpha and future Beta all being out of town we were the second best option to help.

I tell Alpha James I’ll return later in the evening to continue transferring documents, and that I have to make a trip into town to check up on one of our pack owned restaurants and get some of the Eclipse Pack documents notarized at the Library. I mind link my Beta who left a few James’ office a few minutes before I did to meet me at the car. I stop at the front door of the pack house and grab my rain jacket off the coat rack before making my way out into the rain.

We finish at the restaurant rather quickly as all I needed to do was check their books to make sure they matched our records. Which they didn’t and I was able to finally fix the problem I’ve been having for weeks after finding one of the restaurants food order pages wasn’t recorded. I walk out the restaurant on to the patio and light up a cigarette before heading back into the rain to start walking into the direction of the library. Zane stayed behind with the car to grab a bite to eat and flirt with one of the waitresses there today. I waved him off through the window and start my journey down the street.

Walking up the front steps to the library Cypress, my wolf start panting loudly inside my mind. I push him back not wanting to deal him at the moment and open the libraries front doors. As soon as my foot breaks the threshold I’m meet with the most delicious scent I have ever smelt in my entire life. It smells like lemongrass and lavender with a just a hint of peach. I’m left standing halfway into the library at the front door in a trance admiring the beautiful scent when Cypress comes racing forward to the front of my mind. I see him run a few laps before he gives out a joyous howl and start panting even more. I push myself back in control and start following the scent when it leads me in front of a girl sitting in one of the chairs with her legs up tucked underneath one side of her as she reads the book in one hand and continues to wrap the strand of hair that fell from the bun in her hair in between her fingers.

“Mine.*