The Little Luna

Soulmates

Luna POV:

After our talk with mom, Orion, Celeste and I watched as she left the living room and walked down the hall, entering her bedroom with a soft click of the door behind her. I knew she needed time alone, she needed to think and plan. Though what she’d plan I didn’t know and I wasn’t sure I wanted to know. Leaving Vespian wasn’t an option. We had just met, but I felt such a pull to him. Even now my body, heart, and mind were trying to drag me off this couch, out the front door, and back to the packhouse.

“What do you think is going to happen?” Orion’s voice broke through my thoughts, and seeing as how the two of them could mentally communicate, I knew he only spoke aloud to get my attention.

“I don’t know.” I shrugged my shoulders and looked over at him and Celeste, just as confused and unsure as they were about what was going on in our once perfectly happy and normal lives. We were planning our 18th birthday party this morning for God's sake, now we were learning we were another species and our mother had hidden it from us all these years.

“I suppose we could try and salvage as much of our human lives as possible?” Celeste mumbled, running her fingers through her unusually mused hair.

“What do you mean?” I and Orion asked together, we glanced at each other and chuckled at the normalcy of jinxing each other.

“I mean, we can save a portion of our normal human life before we’re forced to become something else and possibly run away and hide.” Celeste sounded frustrated, huffy, frayed. Not like her normal calm self. “We can plan our party and enjoy it. Small battles.”

“But aren’t we supposed to turn on our 18th birthday? What happens if it’s at the party? Surrounded by our very human friends?” Orion’s stress on the word human had me trying to hold back another giggle. It was odd to think of anyone as anything other than human.

“True….” Celeste trailed off looking crestfallen at the chance that our 18th birthday party may not happen. Suddenly she jumped off the couch and grabbed my hands in hers in excitement. “We have an insider! Ask Ellie!”

“Oh yeah, okay.” I nodded my head and closed my eyes. “Hey Ellie, when will we change on our birthday? Any idea?”

“You will all change at the time you were born exactly 18 years from the same time. So if you were born at 3 am you will turn at 3 am, if you were born at 6:02 pm you will change at 6:02 pm. And you will change in the order you were born.”

“Thank you, Ellie!”

“Okay! Ellie said that we will change at the time we were born. So that would be 11:43 pm for me.”

“And 11:50 for me,” Orion added

“And that makes my transformation at 11:58.” Celeste nodded “We can work with that, we’ll just leave the party by 11:30 and go out in the woods.”

“Excellent!” Orion said grinning from ear to ear, nothing like a good party to get Orion excited and his mind off of anything troublesome. 

“But where are we having it? Wasn’t mom saying this morning that she hadn’t found a venue? I doubt she feels up to it now.”

“True,” Celeste said as she tapped a pointed finger on her chin and began pacing the living room, when she turned back around to face me and Orion she had a huge grin on her face and her eyes were wide. “We’ll have it here! In the back yard, set up some tables, get some drinks and pizza. Just a good time with our friends.”

“Awesome, I’ll let the guys know!” Orion said even as he was walking out of the room.

“I’ll let the girls know!” Celeste squealed as she rushed out of the room on Orion’s heels.

“And I guess I’ll tell Libby.” I sighed, dragging my feet on the ground as I walked toward the stairs.

“And Vespian.” Added Ellie.

“Oh yeah, Vespian.” I knew my smile lit up my face but I couldn’t help it, he had that control over me already, just the thought of him had me grinning like a fool.

“Can we go see them? Vespian and Eli?” Ellie didn’t have to add the names, of course I knew who she was talking about.

“We would worry mom,” I answered nervously glancing back towards the hallway that led to Mom's door.

“Pretty sure she’s asleep.” Ellie countered. “Besides, we need them and they need us.”

“I did leave my backpack at school,” I muttered, chewing on my bottom lip anxiously,

“See, we need to go back and get it. And if we happen to lose our way and end up back at the packhouse…” Ellie’s voice trailed off in my head, but I knew exactly what she was getting at.

I chuckled as I rolled my eyes and went to grab the keys to our little red car off the hook by the door, except, they weren’t there.

“s**t, we left the car at the school too.” I thought. Oh well, all the more reason to go out.

With Orion and Celeste in “party mode” I decided not to bother telling them I was leaving, they most likely wouldn’t even realize I had left till I came home anyways.

Soon I was walking on the sidewalk beside Second Street, lost in my thoughts from the days' events. Not only did my heart and Ellie need to see Vespian, but I also had so many questions left unanswered, I was accustomed to being the know it all everywhere I went, that’s what tends to happen when spend almost all of your time reading. Funny thing, I’ve always been obsessed with vampire stories and now I find out I’m a Lycan. I wonder if vampires are real too.

I was still a few miles from the school when I heard the sound of a loud engine close behind me, multiple cars had passed already and I’d absently waved and smiled at the people I knew, but this one sounded closer. I could feel Ellie go on high alert and every one of my senses jumped into hyper mode, she was heightening my senses, lending me her special abilities.

A sky blue Chevy truck that was jacked up so high I would have to jump to get in pulled up on the side of the road beside me and turned to confront the driver, a guy from school I recognized, another Senior and one of Orion’s football team buddies. And one of the many people at school who refused to refer to me by my name since we moved to town.

Half the town has always referred to me as one of my siblings' sister or Miss Slade, or simply “that girl”. It confused me and my brother and sister growing up and honestly hurt my feelings. The same ones who never used my name were often cold towards my mother.

The guy driving the Chevy was Luca. He had always been particularly aloft when I was around, he refused to acknowledge my existence if he could get away with it.

“Luna!” Luca called out as he put his truck in park and after opening the door jumped to the ground and walked over to me. His dark brown eyes were looking around as if he expected someone to jump out from behind a bush at any minute and attack us, and his dark brown shaggy curly hair was flying around his head as he looked around.

“What are you doing out here alone?!” He said as he stepped onto the sidewalk in front of me. Everyone in this damn town was too tall, I had to look up at everyone and Luca was no different, although he wasn’t as tall as Vespian he was certainly at least 6 ft.

I raised an eyebrow at his words and folded my hands over my chest in frustration. “Excuse me? You’ve never said so much as two words to me and now you want me to explain my actions? To you of all people? Screw you Luca, what I do is none of your concern.”

Stepping around him I had intended on continuing my walk to the school but a large tan hand wrapped around my small pale wrist gently. It seemed like he was trying to be as gentle as possible while he kept me from walking away. Flipping around to stared daggers at him, I tried to yank my hand free to no avail, he was stronger and determined. As I glared at him I realized that while I expected a look of condemnation on his smug face, instead I got a look of apology and nervousness. Why was he nervous?

“I’m sorry Luna, I can’t let you walk away unescorted, it isn’t safe for you to be walking alone.” The hand that wasn’t holding my wrist captive was not sliding through his unruly brown curls in agitation. “And I’m sorry for the way I have treated you, it wasn’t appropriate.”

“Wait… what?” I’m so freaking confused. Why was Luca acting like an actual person? “Why the change of heart? Why do you give a s**t about my actions and if something is safe or not for me?”

“You are a Luna, or a future Luna at least, while I am sure that you could defend yourself against a human, I’m not so sure you could fight off one of our kind. I would not be a very good Beta if I allowed another Alphas Luna to be harmed while on our lands.”

He looked so serious. Wait… human? Our kind? Beta?

“Oh! You’re a werewolf!” I exclaimed excitedly.

“Shhhhh!” Luca hissed as he put a finger to his lip, and once more looked around frantic. “Not everyone in town knows that we exist, you have to be careful who hears you.”

“Oh yeah, that makes sense, sorry. This is all so new for me…”. I trailed off, unsure of what else to say. I knew about werewolves for one day and I was already trying to spread the secret. “I will watch what I say, promise. You can let go of me now, by the way, I promise not to run off.” I looked down at my wrist encaged in his rather large hand, his eyes followed mine down our wrists and he dropped my hand quickly.

“Sorry about that, I shouldn’t have touched you.” Luca bent his head down and ever so slightly to the side as if he were exposing his neck? Weird.

“It’s fine, you didn’t hurt me or anything,” I replied.

Relief flashed across his features. “Good, I don’t know Alpha Vespian very well since he has only been in town a few days. He seems like a nice guy, but werewolves are very territorial over their mates, and Alphas are known to be much worse. If he knew I touched you I don’t want to think of how he’d react.”

Territorial huh? Does Vespian see me as his thing?  A possession that he owned? That wouldn’t do at all…

“It isn’t like that Luna, this Luca kid just used a bad turn of phrase is all. We are Vespian entire world, his sun and his moon. You are not just a possession, I promise!” Ellie’s voice drifted through my mind, sending a warm flow of comfort as well.

“You said Beta earlier? What does that mean?” I asked Luca instead of bringing up the ‘territorial’ comments. I was really interested in how all of this werewolf stuff worked and was more than willing to get info from anyone who would share it.

“Basically, second in command. I will be Zanders Beta when he becomes Alpha, I will run the pack when Zander is away and train our packs' warriors.” Luca’s chest seemed to swell with pride. He took his future title and job very seriously already, I got the sense he loved his pack and was excited to take his place in running it and keeping it safe.

“Warriors?”

“Yeah, every pack has warriors that protect the pack from dangers, such as other packs looking to fight over land or rouges.” I heard a buzzing sound go off and watched as Luca reached a hand into his back pocket and pulled his phone out, after looking at the name he glanced at me and muttered “Stay here” before answering the call and taking a few steps away. “What’s up?”

With my hearing, I could hear the entire convo.

“Beta Luca, Alpha Vespian has left back territory and made his way onto Jade River lands, their Gamma just called to info us their Beta is currently talking to him near the border of their territory.” The voice on the other end said.

“Why is he on Jade River territory?” Luca demanded.

“Jade’s Gamma said all Vespian had said was he needed permission to pass through their lands, and that he was in a hurry and look agitated.”

“I see.” Said Luca as he glanced at me, “Tell them to Inform Alpha Vespian that I found his little mate walking down the road and I need to be advised what he wants me to do with her. That should get him turned around fast enough.”

“Yes sir.”

With that, the line clicked off and Luca slipped his phone back in his pocket and flashed me a charming smile which I immediately answered with an eye roll. “So Luna, would you like a ride to wherever we are going while we wait for your mate to join us?”

“That wasn’t necessary you know?” I grumbled, kicking a pebble with the toe of my shoe. “You made me sound like a petulant child.”

“Sorry Luna, that wasn’t my intention. But I am being serious about that ride, you either come with me and I’ll take you where you need to go and stay with you until Alpha Vespian shows up or I will walk behind you the entire way.” The set of his jaw and the determination in his eyes made me realize that although Luca had a friendly smile on his face, he was serious about not letting me out of his sight, and I didn’t feel like arguing.

“Fine, but there is no way I can get into that monstrosity you call a truck! I’m ‘little’ as you so kindly expressed on the phone.” I glared at him, letting him know I was not letting that go easily.

“Ahh, yeah, sorry about that as well. But to be fair, you’re small for human averages, for werewolf standards you are tiny.” Luca shrugged his shoulders as he turned and headed back towards his truck's passenger side where he opened and held the door open for me.

I eyes the distance between the ground and the floorboard and realized I had been right. There was no way in hell I was going to make that. But I’d sure as hell try. Grabbing ahold of the door I went to lift myself when I felt two hands on my waist hoist me up and practically throw me in the seat.

“Holy crap!” I squealed as my bottom bounced on the seat.

“Sorry, Luna! You were lighter than I expected. Watch your feet, I’m shutting the door.” Two seconds later the door slammed shut and clicked my seatbelt into place. The truck pulled to the left as Luca opened the drivers' door and jumped in.

When the engine roared to life it was so loud I almost covered my ears. Luca grinned as he turned in the radio and country music blasted through the sound system. I was going to be deaf before we reached the school at this point.