The Hidden Luna

A Hidden Paradise

Arik's POV:

"The boats have been repaired and they are currently being stocked with materials for the journey to the Mainland." Arne informed me as he made his way toward my desk to file the necessary paperwork.

I sighed at this information, he was an absolutely wonderful beta, but sometimes it wouldn't hurt if he didn't fulfill some of his duties. This journey, for example, I had no desire to travel to the Mainland to Alpha Gunnar and Luna Cora's pack for their son's Rite of Passage, but it has been a long time since we have attended another pack's Alpha ceremony, and our neighboring packs were growing weary of our alliance.

My pack was by far not the largest, but we were one of the strongest. We allowed all of our pack members to fight, including the omegas and women. In a way, it was expected of each member to at least learn combat. When my grandfather was 'gifted' this island by the Lycans for helping rid the Mainland of vampires, it was overrun with ferocious beasts and vampires, and if our pack had any chance of surviving, we all had to learn to defend ourselves. My grandfather knew this 'gift' was meant to destroy our pack, but he refused to let this pack fall, so even children had to learn to defend themselves unless they wanted to perish. After we claimed this island as ours, our pack flourished. The land was very bountiful, being completely surrounded by water kept the soil very moist, and there was a never-ending fresh stream of water from the mountains. We have tried to leave as small of a footprint as possible on the land as well. We replant more trees than we cut down each year and we focus more on growing our food than hunting. In fact, I was able to begin a system of breeding animals for a consistent source of meat instead of depending on the hunt. By no means did we live in luxury like the castles on the Mainland, but our pack was happy and safe...well, as happy as any pack of wolves could be surviving mainly on vegetables and fruit.

"The only thing I have not taken care of is the gift our pack will present to Alpha Gunnar's son, Xavier. It is your duty to present on behalf of our pack so..." Arne trailed off.

"Oh for f**k's sake, why would you leave me with the absolute worst job? What in the hell am I supposed to present the future Alpha of the most pretentious and lavish pack on the Mainland?" I sat up from my couch and threw my hands up in disbelief. "If you hadn't noticed, their pack likely has anything we have and then hundreds more! Shall a coconut suffice? It's not like we have gold and diamond mines to gift them jewels they already have hundreds of!" Gifting the son of the pack that never needed to want in his life anything from our pack seemed like a complete joke.

Arne let out a laugh. "A coconut is not a bad idea, they do perceive us as primates, so they may forgive our rudeness as ignorance." he paused for a moment, placing down the quill in his hands and looking up at me. "They do not have the correct weather to grow coconuts so it may not be a bad idea to bring an exotic fruit basket as a gift... We could wrap it in our finest silk and it should be an acceptable gift given what they believe is true of our island."

I rolled my eyes and threw myself back down on the sofa. "Very well, they believe we are primates, so we shall gift like some. I trust you'll take care of this since I came up with the grand idea." I winked at him. He shot me a glare that could kill, but I knew he would do it. If he left me in charge...it would probably end with the Mainland packs thinking even less of us, which Arne preferred to avoid. No other pack had been to our island; they all believed our island was uninhabitable, but we didn't find any reason to dismiss the rumors because it kept our island peaceful. My grandfather never held a true Alpha ceremony for my father and my father never held one for me; each time the Alpha title was passed it was done so quietly with a small celebration within our pack and the Mainland was informed weeks later asking if they required any of our neighboring packs, an audience, to which we never received a reply... Again, they just avoided coming here.

Arne stood up from my desk and began filing the paperwork he completed. "If we continue harvesting at the rate we are and maintain our animal farms, we should be able to make it through winter without having to ration!" He turned to face me waving the paper in my face. I grumbled while I snatched it from him as he continued. "Truly, your idea to keep animals and raise them for meat instead of hunting was brilliant! We didn't think animal farms were possible here, but trading a year's worth of fruit last year for a herd of cows was genius. Who would have thought fruits were such a luxury for the northern packs of the mountains on the Mainland!"

I glanced over the numbers, but almost none of them made any sense. This is why I needed Arne. He should have been Alpha, but he wasn't nearly as strong as I was. I lacked in almost every aspect it took to be a true Alpha, besides strength, and my father valued strength above all else, so, of course, he forced me to train over learning any of the duties it took to run a pack. Arne seemed to have no problem with this arrangement, he relished the duties, as he was the type of man who constantly needed to be doing something. It did help his father had been coaching him since he could walk on the inner works of a functioning pack. The arrangement between my father and Arne's father had carried down to us with the only difference being I refused to have a Beta that didn't fight.

"Well, they live in the mountains. Growing food isn't an option for them, they purely survive off meat. They have plenty of animals to hunt in the mountains too, but I am shocked they had so many cows and were willing to trade so many." I threw the paper back at him and he very giddily put it in a folder.

"This means our journey to the Mainland should be a breeze and our pack should run fine without us! However, to be safe, we should leave Ulrich here. I know you usually prefer to bring your Gamma on trips and have me stay behind to keep things running smoothly... But Alpha Gunnar... " His sentence trailed off, but I knew exactly what he was thinking.

Alpha Gunnar wasn't exactly the kindest man. A few years ago, he completely wiped out a smaller pack. I believe they were called The Two Rivers pack. Not a single survivor... Alpha Gunnar faced plenty of anger and confusion from neighboring packs after that m******e, but he was able to convince all of them that the Alpha from that pack was planning to assassinate his son. He faced no repercussions for his actions that day, but it never sat right with me what had happened. From what I had heard, it was a very small new pack that had only been around for one generation. There was no reason for The Two Rivers to target another pack, especially not the future Alpha Xavier of Crimson Blade. I feel the neighboring packs didn't want to start a war with Alpha Gunnar over such a small pack, so they looked past the m******e in fear their packs were next if they showed any kind of distaste for Alpha Gunnar's actions. This wasn't the first time Alpha Gunnar had killed without reason, he was actually Crimson Balde's Beta in training, but he had slaughtered his future Alpha, the existing Alpha and Luna at the time, and his own father. He sought the power of the Alpha role and he stopped at nothing to get it. The rumor is there is only one weakness that man has and it's his wife, but no one has laid eyes on her. She is kept out of the public eye and no one questions this. His pack runs impeccably well without an active Luna, so there is no need to question his capabilities. If it weren't for Alpha Gunnar's son, some would say his Luna didn't truly exist.

I sighed and waved Arne off. "I understand. Let's get this ceremony over with so we can prepare for the trading season. All of the boats must be finished before we get back and preferably all stocked so we can immediately head north. Ulrich will have his hands full while we are away... Be sure to leave a detailed report of what needs to be done. I'm sure he is more than competent."

Arne nodded and quickly sat back down at the desk scribbling away on a piece of paper. I finally forced myself up from my sofa and decided to make my rounds. I should check on the boats, see if more wood is needed, and possibly stop by the farms. Sometimes they needed extra hands when it came to feeding the animals.

I opened the door of the hut to the beautiful sea landscape in front of me. satisfied with the simple and peaceful life the Moon Goddess blessed me with. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath of air, filling my lungs with the smell of the sea.

"Alpha!" My moment of peace was interrupted by the melodic voice of Siv. She stood at the edge of the beach surrounded by many children. Her long auburn hair swayed around her curved figure, she wore a simple dress of animal hide, and even with the distance between us, I could see her shining emerald eyes. She must be teaching the children to forage along the beach and seagrass. Most of them were jumping trying to get my attention, by holding various small objects in their hands, likely what they managed to forage already.

A small smile played on my lips and I decided to jog down to the beach to greet them. Part of me just wanted a moment to see Siv despite being surrounded by children. We grew up together and she was raised to become my Luna. Arranged mates were extremely common on the island, since finding our fated mate here was rare, most of us were fine with this, as we loved our home and saw little reason to leave. However, I was already 26 and I hadn't claimed her as my Luna. I couldn't bring myself to do it. She is nearly perfect in every way and she would make an exceptional Luna. She already helps Arne as often as possible with his duties and my people look to her to settle small domestic disputes they'd rather not disturb me with. I would be lying if I didn't find her attractive as well. I have found myself thinking of her often when alone, but she has never shown much of an interest in me. She's always been kind to me, but her actions have never been outside of what she was taught to do since she came of age. She follows her parent's teachings perfectly now, and never seems to show me her true emotions anymore. Before my mother's passing, she would tell me stories of how passionate my father and she were despite being arranged mates, much to my father's disapproval. He felt she filled my head with unhealthy expectations for my wife, and it's quite possible her stories of the love my father and mother had are the reasons Siv isn't marked, but I wanted Siv to experience that happiness more than myself. I grew up with her, I saw how strict her parents were with her teachings and slowly I was forced to watch her bury her fiery attitude away to become the perfect future Luna. I didn't want her to be stuck in a marriage that required her to hide her feelings. The reason we were so close growing up was that she was a force to be reckoned with and I enjoyed watching her talk Arne and me into doing something beyond ridiculous that we knew would land us on my father's bad side, but she had the fiercest warrior attitude I had ever seen. I wished to see that side of her again someday, but I knew it would never come out as long as she felt obligated to me.

"How nice of you to come and see us, Alpha." Siv smiled and bowed as I approached her. The children followed her lead and I gently bowed back, releasing them. "I did not mean to pull you from your duties. I just simply wanted to say hello, but while you're here the children would love to show you what they managed to find for our pack today if you could spare a moment of your time." The children huddled around her holding various things from the beach in their hands, waiting patiently for my reply.

"I'd love to see what our future warriors managed to find to contribute to our bounty." I kneeled down on one knee, allowing the children to swarm me as they shoved various fish, crabs, shells, and even spices in my face. I wore a smile and congratulated each of them for their contributions while Siv watched from a short distance with a soft smile on her lips.

"Alright, children. That's enough. The Alpha is a very busy man who must prepare for his upcoming journey. We have taken enough of his time, so let's leave him be and continue foraging, so he will have nothing to worry about once he returns." Siv says immediately, causing the children to frown, but leave my side and join hers. She bowed once again with the children following her lead. " We wish you a safe journey and a quick return, Alpha." I bowed back slightly and watched her walk off, my stomach slightly knotting.