The Forgotten Luna

3 - The Storm Beneath the Summit

[Atlas P.O.V.]

The summit hall was suffocating. Every window was sealed tight against the New York snow, and the fireplace crackled like it knew something no one else did. The Alphas were already seated around the curved table at the front of the great chamber, shoulders squared, voices clipped and political. But I barely registered a word.

I wasn’t paying attention to the politics once again. I was still reeling from the bond.

She’s here. I thought. She had to be. Somewhere inside this pack, maybe even this room. But every time I tried to follow the scent or pull over the last two days, it slipped from my grasp like I was trying to hold onto a slippery stone.

Bane was pacing in the back of my mind, and I could picture him with teeth bared. He was restless, and I didn’t blame him.

She is so close. I feel her. Why won’t she come to us?

Maybe she can’t, I replied silently, my jaw tight. Maybe she’s scared.

Then we find her. We must take her. She is ours.

But I knew better than to let Bane out blindly, without more information. Especially not here. Especially not with so many eyes watching.

My Beta, Michael, leaned over. “You haven’t heard a word since Lucas started the morning address.” It wasn’t a question, but a statement.

“I have heard enough,” I muttered.

Michael arched a brow. “Let me guess. Still stuck in that bond haze?” My Beta was as perceptive as ever. He and I had known each other since we were boys. He knew me better than most others did.

I said nothing, which was answer enough for Michael. His voice dropped lower as he sobered at my lack of reply. “No sign yet?”

“No. Only glimpses. A scent near the stairwell, and I can hear her heartbeat. She is keeping herself hidden.”

Michael frowned, his thoughts almost etched onto his face. “Why would she do that?”

That was the question, wasn’t it? That question gnawed at me with every breath, along with others. Who was she? Why would a wolf hide from her fated mate? Unless… Unless she didn’t know.

Or worse, she was forced to stay silent. I clenched my fist on the polished wooden arms of the chairs. I would burn this whole place down to find her if I had to, and with my pack soldiers outside the border, I had the manpower to do it.

The summit dragged on. It was the pull of posturing and power games.

Alpha Marcus of the Southern Ridge Pack argued for expanded borders. The Alpha of the Silver Vein Pack complained about rogue activity. Lucas Williams sat at the head of the table, polished and neutral, nodding to each point like a seasoned host.

The closer I watched, the more I noticed that something was off in his expression. There was a flicker of strain around the eyes. It was a false smile.

I watched him so closely that I almost didn’t miss the door to the servant’s corridor opening, but I didn’t. My heart stopped as she stepped in, her eyes lowered. Her hands were full of papers and scrolls. A servant. No, not just a servant. I could feel her, and suddenly the bond snapped taut. Bane went wild.

It’s her. HER! MATE!

I nearly stood up from my chair, but she didn’t look up. She didn’t even glance at me. She delivered the documents she carried to Luna Arielle. I watched as she bowed slightly and turned to go.

I tensed to surge to my feet, but Michael grabbed my arm under the table. “Not yet.”

“She’s…” I started, but Michael didn’t allow me to finish.

“I know,” Michael said too quickly. “But if you move now, you’ll start a war.”

Michael was right, like always.

Every Alpha was watching. Luna Arielle was already eyeing me too sharply, and I didn’t like the way she was looking at me. It was like she knew something had shifted. I adjusted myself in my chair, forcing my breath to even out.

I would not risk losing her now, even though her scent was so enticing, I was distracted by it. I allowed it to calm me, knowing that it was only her scent that could.

The summit droned on for hours, but afterwards, I took the night to search the halls like a ghost. I waited until the corridors were mostly empty, but relished in her scent, which clung to the walls and worn tapestries.

Bane pushed against the edges of his mind.

She’s not just hiding. She’s afraid.

Afraid of us?

No. Of them. Of this place. I can feel it now. They’ve hurt her.

My hands curled into fists. The Dark Moon Pack had always been secretive. Lucas, it's Alpha, too polished, too rehearsed. But this?

Hiding a she-wolf?

Hiding someone's mate?

I stopped outside of a supply chamber and leaned my head against the wall. She was behind one of these doors. I knew it, but if I push too hard.

If I tried to comfort her now, it would expose her to a danger that I didn’t fully understand.

He needed answers first, and once I got them, I would never let her go again.

I lingered outside the hallway until the early hours of the morning before returning to bed to get some sleep before the next day.

By the time the final summit began, the tension in my chest was unbearable.

Alpha Lucas stood at the head of the room again, flanked this time by his Luna and a guest, Alpha Kayn of the Ice Howlers Pack. The man was as cold as his name, tall and broad with colorless gray eyes and a dead calm that made my hackles rise.

“I want to thank all of you,” Lucas began, “for your attendance this week. We’ve made progress that will shape our borders and bonds for the next generation.”

The room had a polite round of applause that I joined in with some hesitation, as I had been so distracted this week that I had no idea what had really been discussed this week at the summit.

“But I have one final announcement.”

I stilled, not liking the tone of Lucas’s voice.

“Given the increasing need for stability and unity between packs, I’m pleased to announce an alliance between the Dark Moon Pack and the Ice Howlers Pack, forged in the oldest of traditions.”

Michael went still beside me, as the realization that I had already come to hit him like a force. “No.”

Lucas smiled. “A mating bond. Chosen, not fated. A commitment made in trust.”

My heart started beating faster. No. No, no no…

“I present to you the bride,” Lucas said smoothly, gesturing toward the back doors. “My ward. Astrid Williams.”

The name landed like a strike on my soul, and she stepped forward.

Astrid. Her name is like music to my ears.

I stood up while every wolf in the room turned to look at her.

She was dressed in gray, looking beautiful in her attire. Her eyes were wide, and her jaw was clenched. Her gaze swept the room, and then it landed, finally, on me.

Our eyes met. The bond roared to life, and everyone felt it. The fact that everyone felt the bond was a rare bond; normally, it was a very personal matter.

Even Kayn’s smile faltered. Michael whispered, “Oh, shit.”

Bane surged forward, taking control with a growl that nearly pushed me to shift right there in the summit chamber.

MATE. MATE. MATE.

Astrid froze, and so did everyone else. Lucas’s face went pale.

Luna Arielle stepped forward like she could block the view, but it was too late. The truth had shattered the room.

I was the only one not frozen, and I took a step forward, my eyes burning with rage.

“She’s mine,” I said.