Blood Moon

Chapter 01

Chapter 01

Lucas’ POV

If it wasn’t for my mother shouting my name downstairs, my alarm would have woken me up in two minutes. And if it wasn’t her that woke me up, it would be the person who is pounding on my door.

I threw the blanket away from me, welcoming the cold chill of my room onto my skin. I didn’t see who was on the other side of the door before I spoke. “What do you want?”

My beta had his head pressed against the doorframe, his eyes heavy lidded like he was falling asleep standing there. As an answer, he points over his shoulder to the stairs where the noise of my mum calling for us is coming.

I give him a look, but he can’t see it because his eyes have fully closed.

His body jerks as I slam my door. His apology is hidden somewhere in his yawn and the sound of his bare feet against the wood of the stairs is the only thing I can hear on our way to the kitchen. Mum hummed to herself, a tune that after all these years I still haven’t placed. She held a plate in each hand, carrying them over to the table with the perfect steadiness she had gathered from doing this every morning.

She hears us at the door. “Finally,” she said turning around to see us, “I was worried you would sleep in. Thank you, Wyatt, for waking him up.”

Wyatt replied with a two-finger salute before stumbling over to the table. I sat next to him.

“Alpha Carlos has requested to meet you on Thursday. He said it was very important that you see him in person. You should also expect him to call tonight, he has a proposition.”

I mumbled a response. Alpha Carlos probably wants to call in a debt, but he didn’t need to book an appointment with me. I owe him and I’d be happy to repay in any way I can.

“I told him you might be too busy-”

I cut her off with a smile. “It’s fine, I’ll visit him.”

“Which one is he again?” Wyatt asked, muffled by a mouth full of bacon.

Mum stared at him with her tongue in her cheek. She folded her arms and narrowed her eyes, but it was all pointless because the only indication of Wyatt’s consciousness was the automatic movement the fork going from his plate to his mouth.

“You should know this by now.”

He shrugged. “I probably do. But it’s three hours too early to remember anything.”

I looked at the clock. It was ten in the morning.

Mum turned her eyes to me. A movement that says ‘get him in line before I do’ but, like Wyatt said, it’s three hours too early.  She shook her head leaving the room and raised her arms in an exaggerated shrug.

*

For once, possibly the first time in our lives, all three of us were early to our class. It wasn’t uncommon for me to be first there, and since Wyatt and I live together, we sometimes travelled together. George on the other hand, he hated being early. He hated to arrive at a time that wouldn’t allow him to blend in.

He was taller than most people, certainly the tallest person I’ve ever seen, and he was broad too. He filled doorframes with his body, took up a seat and a half when he sat. Everyone craned their neck to look at the giant and then whispered about him to their friends.

Wyatt walked up to the chair beside me. “I smell another pack.”

Our university wasn’t built in any of the territories. This was free land, so it was normal to mix with different packs and it was the only place where one pack isn’t free to kill another. No bloodshed here.

I pointed to the two people in front of us. A male and female, one of which carrying an alpha’s scent.

The scent lingered more towards the female. Like the sea at night, sweeping through the air and dominating our senses. Whilst most were slouched around her, she sat poised looking down to the front of the room. I wondered if my scent had the same imperious effect that hers did, but I couldn’t imagine it.

Wyatt’s eyes were wide as he stared at her. His voice trembled through the link. “She can’t… She can’t... She can’t.”

Just then, the girl glared at the male beside her. Piercing, cold, she could make flowers wilt before her with it, hearts would stop beating.

I replied to Wyatt’s constant chanting banging my skull.

“She is.”

His body stilled. I inhaled more of her scent, my heartbeat running as my wolf came forward to investigate.  

She turned, brown hair falling away from her shoulder leaving an unmarked neck and her coral coloured lips pursed.  When she raised an eyebrow at me, Wyatt looked like he was ready to attack her.

“Is there a problem?” she asked.

It was a shame her scent gave her away; if I didn’t know what she was and she spoke to me like that, I might have flinched. Her friend caught one look of George’s towering presence, the shadows that hung over his face from his brow and cheekbones, the blank stare of his brown eyes. Her friend’s fingers curled around the back of the chair to stop himself from shaking.

George is many things, scary being one of them, and I would have wholly believed this reaction was due to him being scared by George if it wasn’t for the way George’s cheeks flushed.

The female’s eyes still stare at me, waiting for a response. I didn’t have one to give. Wyatt, however, had many things he wanted to say and do about this. His link hummed against my skull.

“Who are you?” he demanded.

She rose one dark eyebrow, face stoic and even wolfish despite being in her human form. There was savagery behind her eyes, and it wasn’t hard to image her smile with bared teeth.

“Pardon my beta,” I interrupted before realising I didn’t know what I wanted to say to her. Perhaps I should have let Wyatt run his unfiltered mouth and let him deal with the consequences himself. “I-” had no words.

“We asked you a question.”

“And I’ve decided not to answer.”

Pride tells me I should step in a scold her for speaking to Wyatt—as close to me as a brother—with such disregard. Knowledge tells me that she had every right to do so and to defend him would be fighting for the losing side.

Her friend looked at her, but she did not look back. “Elouise,” she said in a final tone, like saying her name condemned her. “This is Jack, my beta.”

That’s what confirmed it for Wyatt. Her beta, not her mate’s. She was an alpha in every way the Moon Goddess willed it. And I should treat her as any other.

I leaned back in my chair, folding my arms across me. “What pack?”

It wasn’t often that I met someone who wanted to keep their pack name a secret. Usually, an alpha would talk about their pack until their very last breath. The pack’s history, their achievements, anything to create a big name for themselves.

Elouise made it seem like talking about her pack would curse her. “I don’t know your names.”

I forced back my smile. “Alpha Lucas.” It shamed me that knowing I was an alpha didn’t cool her gaze. “My beta Wyatt and our friend George.”

George didn’t seem interested in looking at Jack anymore. His red cheeks were replaced with a grimace as he avoided eye contact with us all. Jack continued to stare at him, his fingers trailing his mate’s mark on his neck.

“You still haven’t told us what pack you’re from.”

Jack gave her a look before she replied. Whatever it was that she was about to say diminished in her throat. “Blood Moon.”

It wasn’t until she said the name that I realised why this alpha had so many secrets. She braced herself as if expecting something bad.

“I don’t know that one,” Wyatt’s voice was hostile in my head. I’m not surprised he didn’t know it.

“The only pack that didn’t show up to last year’s gala. Or the one before that.” Elouise raised her head, eyes narrowing in a warning. “You realise it’s tradition for all alphas to attended, right?”

Her jaw clenched. “We had more pressing matters at the time.”

I couldn’t help but wonder if she would still act this way if she knew who I was. Would she keep up this guarded approach, pulling at every string available just to make us all aware that she as powerful an alpha as I was? Or would she submit, and welcome accept her place?

“Of course,” I teased. “I suppose that means you will show up this year.”

Silence. Powerful, calculating silence. I smirked.

Before she could answer, the teacher walked into the hall. Elouise and Jack sat properly in their chairs with their backs to us.