The Rogue Luna

The packhouse was full and buzzing with unmated teens today. Tomorrow’s my birthday. And in my own opinion WAY too many people wanted me to be their mate, but I’m the alpha's daughter and everyone wants a taste of power. I’m the second child of Alpha Matthew Stevanson. My older brother is set to be the alpha of our pack, originally named the Stevanson pack. But over the years we have been nicknamed The Dragonblood Pack. Not sure why. Dragons, if not extinct, are highly endangered and hiding. Today I was hiding in my room, not only do I not like social interaction. I can’t stand to see the hopeful faces of the young ones who hope to be my mate. Some of them want the power that comes with being the mate of an alpha. Some of them wanted a mate and some of them wanted me.  I've never been all that special. I try to be nice and I think I'm pretty, but growing up most were too nervous to ask me out and the ones that did wanted to see who I would have s*x with. To some it was a game to see how many they could sleep with. To others it was reserved strictly and only for their mates. For me, honestly I didn't care. If I met someone I wanted to give that part of myself to I would. But I never have and I'm not sure if I would like my mate.  I was pulled from my thoughts with a knock at my door.  "Come in?" I called from my bed. It was almost 9 and while I probably wouldn't sleep for another couple hours, it was a good excuse to get others to leave me alone. I was surprised to see my brother pop his head in. He's only a year and 7 months older than me, but we were never all that close. While he was taught strategy and fighting I was taught law and how to protect. While I do know how to fight, it was often drilled that fighting should never be my first thought and protecting pups should be my first. “What's up?” I asked. “Um, I just wanted to give you this.” He said handing me a small box wrapped in red wrapping. “Oh. Thank you.” I smiled. I used my nail to break it to reveal a brown box. Opening it showed a small blue jewel in a teardrop shape. Pulling it out of the box showed me it was a necklace. “Oh wow. It's so pretty.” I smiled at him. “Dad gave it to me on my birthday. Said it was from mom, but its your birthstone. It never felt like it was for me.” He looked a bit nervous. I could tell he was trying to be professional in a sense, but he missed her too. “I miss her too.” I said to him with a sad smile. His smile reached his eyes now. “Can never hide that from you can I?” He chuckled a little. “Never.” I joked. He sighed and walked over to my desk and turned the chair towards me before sitting down. “Since mom isn’t here, I wanted to ask how you feel about possibly meeting your mate tomorrow?” I sighed before saying “I’m not sure, I know I’ll love him, but I can’t help but feel like its not gonna happen tomorrow. I mean you’ve been 18 a year and some now and still haven’t met your mate…” “No, but I know I will and she’ll be the best luna.” “Has dad talked to you about-” “No. But I know moms death is affecting him. Hes starting to lose touch with reality.” “Already? Its hasn’t even been 2 years-” “Doc thinks theres more to it. That he has dementia of some sort… - I’m sorry, I didn’t wanna tell you on your birthday.”  “No, thank you for telling me. He doesn’t really tell me much.” “I think he wants to name me alpha tomorrow. He keeps telling me a suit would be nice tomorrow. I think he knows something is happening, especially with how many people are here.” I swallowed a lump in my throat. I took a deep breath. Hes possible forgotten my birthday… I mean I wasn’t expecting much. But I didn’t think tomorrow would be this depressing.  “I’m sorry.” Elijah apologized. “No, really thank you for telling me. Its just a lot.” “Happy birthday Rae.” He smiled genuine. I nodded and he left.  “Fuck.” I whispered. I felt a tear stream down my face and I flopped back down on my bed. “Ismene, you there?” I thought. “Of course.” “What should I expect tomorrow?” “From what I can remember from my past, our mate smells of pine and slightly of dark chocolate. Since tomorrow is your date of birth, my connection to the moon goddess will be strongest. Only then will I be able to remember more.” She tells me. “Do you remember how many past lifes you’ve had?” I asked curious. Shes told me shes an old wolf, but never told me how old. “I do not remember.” I could almost feel her sigh “All I know is that my mate is the same soul every life.” “You must know him pretty well then.” I smiled. She was silent. “Get some rest child. Tomorrow will bound to be eventful.” I sighed again and shook my head. I couldn’t help but feel a bit pissed at Elijah. I know he didn’t do anything, but warn me what might happen, but it still doesn’t feel good.. I fall asleep imagining the smell of pine and dark chocolate. Tomorrow  I open my eyes to light shining through my window. I open my phone to have it shining telling me that it was bearly 9am. I groan and roll out of bed. I give the air a slight sniff but don't smell the pine and chocolate spoke about.  I get dressed in some simple jeans and a black tee and was doing some light makeup when a knock sounded at my door. "Come in!" I called. "Great, your awake." Said the kind voice of Gladas. An older Omega in the pack who often volunteers to cook for the ones staying in the packhouse. Though she volunteers I always be sure to pay her somehow and with how many are here today, I'll make sure to give her extra.  "Its an ungodly hour, but I'm awake." I joke. She scoffs and rolls in a cart with a tray of food. I could see some eggs, toast, bacon, OJ and a bit of sausage sitting on the cart. "You really don't have to." I told her. "Oh bish posh. I did it for your father and I'll do it for you." She said with a wave of a hand. She moved the food to my desk pushing and knocking over some of my makeup. I was gonna give her a playful glare but she had already beat me to it. Her mate died when she was 19 and after a long fought journey she earned herself role of caretaker/Cook of the packhouse. She mostly looks after the pups, but given only guests of the pack and the higher ups (Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Lead fighters) are supposed to live here. I like to think she has it easy. However in days like today it gets difficult to feed so many people. "Well thank you." "Of course. Now eat. You have a lot of people wanting to see you." I nodded and started eating. I tried to take my time, but I could hear them start chanting downstairs. "Rae, Rae, Rae, Rae!" Smiling softly walk downstairs to see my brother, dad and everyone who had been camped out standing at the bottom.  The packhouse was laid out more like a castle. The entrance is a double door with 2 long windows on either side. Right in front of the entrance is the stair case the at the top of the landing splits into 2 and goes into 2 directions, left and right. The pack house is 3 stories with the top being for the alpha family and alpha guests, the 2nd being for the beta and gamma family and the bottom being mostly only bathrooms, living rooms, the massive kitchen and a huge dining hall. Looking around I could see beds and sleeping areas piled up on the couches and the corners of the living room.  "HAPPY BIRTHDAY RAE!" The crowd screamed as soon as the saw me walking down the staircase. "Thank you everyone." I smiled. I gave the air a quick sniff but didn't smell anything that caught my attention. "You all need to shower more." I joked.  "Mates not here?" Someone asked. "No, unfortunately not." I grimaced. A groan from the crowd ensured. "What times the party!" Someone called. "Yeah what time?"  "Let's meet back here at 5pm" My dad spoke from the crowd. He took a few steps up so he was standing with me. "Happy Birthday Rae." He smiled. He gave me a kiss on the forehead before pulling me into a hug which I accepted.  "Till then I do wish everyone to take hom their beds and sleeping bags so that the house can be properly cleaned before the part." He said with slightly command in his voice. Most of them nodded in acknowledgement but some voiced "of course alpha." And they made their way out some transforming some walking down the roads. “Happy Birthday Darling.” He says nodding curtly. I nodded and sneaked away to the kitchen. As I was walking in I smelt the most delightful smell of fresh baked cookies. And I just knew Gladas was working on my birthday treat. I sighed. I wasn’t too sure what to do now. All this was so awkward and I knew that only the people who hadn’t slept over was going to be there. While our pack was fairly large there was only a total of around 200 wolves that went to school around here. Our whole pack was maybe 1,200 in total. Some of the packs around us were smaller, most were bigger. I think the biggest pack in the nation is around 20,000 and its only growing because the smaller packs are merging. From what I understand we make up less than 1% of the whole world population. Foxes and Dragons are much much less. I ignore the smell and make my way to my room to grab my purse and some stuff. Since I don’t have to be back till at least 4, might as well drive into town. Hooking my phone up to bluetooth allowed me to just relax and get out of my head. I was surprised that as I was driving past the mall that Ismene spoke up “Go there. Now.” “What, why, I hate the mall.” “Mate.” “I don’t smell anything.” I sighed as I turned and parked. “Of course you don’t.” She retorted. I got out locking my car and went to the food quart area. As I was making my way that way I smell the pine and dark chocolate smell Ismene told me about. It really was heavenly. I followed the smell into a Bath and Body works. The smells almost hid it, but his smell was so much different it was easy to lock back on. Looking around the store I locked eyes with a small girl with shoulder length short dark brown hair and tan skin. “MATE.”