The Bounty Hunter's Mate

The Luna Suite

LEXI POV

I arrived at the gates of Riverstone Valley Pack shortly after two. It had taken three hours to drive here from the city and, even though I wouldn’t tell Alpha Luke this, I was glad he was allowing me to stay the night on Packlands. There were no small towns or any lodging of any kind that I could see between his Pack and Seattle. It was pretty isolated. I assume this is the way he liked it.

The road into the gate was treacherous and I was pretty sure my car was going to bottom out, despite its higher clearance. Hagrid was in the backseat, sprawled out. He didn’t like driving because his legs were so long and the cars were so cramped, so I tended to drive when we were together. As someone with long legs I understood this. I drove with the seat all the way back.

I hit a particularly large divot in the road and heard a muffled yelp from the backseat. I was concentrating on driving and missing the worst of the road so I didn’t even look back. “Put on a damn seatbelt,” I offered, unsympathetically.

I was happy to see the gates ahead of me and the road perceptively got better the closer I got to them. When we arrived, someone came out to the passenger side of the car. I unlocked the door and he opened it, looking at the seat that I had ratcheted as far forward as possible, giving Hagrid as much leg room in the back as I could.

“You can slide the seat back a bit, if you want,” I offered. The warrior glanced in the backseat at Hagrid and swallowed.

“No. I’ll make myself fit.”

It was almost comical but he did. Following his directions, I pulled up in front of a beautiful four-story home on the lake ten minutes later. He almost fell out of the car when we got there and I watched with amusement.

I got out of the car and opened up the back door for Hagrid and then went around to the back to pull out our overnight bags. I had to reach in pretty far as our bags had slid forward during the rough ride in. When I was pulling myself out, I smelled that amazing scent. Mate! Kya my wolf was screaming in my head. Well, good. I definitely want to interview him about Kevin. And when I was done we could reject each other and move on.

I stood up and looked over, seeing him walking towards me. He was definitely nice to look at. He was taller than me and had short cropped curly blonde hair. He had a beard, but not one of those crazy trucker beards. This was a close-cropped, nicely trimmed beard and it suited him well. I could see a bandage on his upper arm. I wondered if that was from my dagger. I felt a teeny bit bad.

“Alpha.” The warrior nodded his head at the man.

“Thank you, James. You can return to the gate.” The warrior nodded and shifted, running towards the front gate. I looked at amusement at the shredded clothing he left in his wake.

“Alpha, huh? You’re Alpha Luke?” I wasn’t expecting that but it actually made things easier. I wasn’t Luna material and anyone with half a brain would know that. There shouldn’t be any issue with him accepting my rejection.

“Yes.” He smiled. “It’s really nice to meet you, Lexi. Especially since you aren’t trying to kill me at the moment.” He reached out a hand towards me. I took it and shook it.

“Do you want to do it or should I?” I wanted to get this over with and get on with my investigation.

“Do what?” He looked amused.

“The rejection. I’ve never done it before but I know the gist. And we should feel it immediately if it works.” My wolf was howling in my head, No! No! He’s our mate! Our fated mate!

Luke looked taken aback. “Rejection? I’m not going to reject you.”

Oh, s**t. This might be harder than I thought. “Why not? Obviously, I’m not Luna material. I’m not even mate material. Aren’t you supposed to have your pack’s best interest in mind? In the best interest of the pack, we need to reject each other.”

He looked angry. “It’s my call as to what is best for my pack, not yours. And me rejecting my fated mate is definitely not in the best interest of my pack.” He turned on his heels and started walking up the steps to the front door, leaving me with my bags. “Reject me if you want. But I won’t accept it. There’s nothing you can do about that, Lexi Jones.”

Hagrid came around to my side and took both of our bags in his huge hands. “What’s going on?”

Man was a little slow and a little dense sometimes. I explained. “He’s my mate. Just found out. I’m not interested. Sounds like he wants to play house.”

Hagrid started chuckling. “You should give it a chance, Lex. He could be good for you. Only guy I’ve ever seen make you have that look on your face.”

I rounded on him. “What look? There is no look.”

Hagrid shrugged. “Whatever you say, Lexi.” He started trudging up the stairs, carrying our bags. I skipped up after him.

“There is no look, Hagrid.” He shrugged, refusing to speak. Dammit. There was no look!

We were met by Luke’s secretary, a pretty blonde named Heidi. I looked her over, wondering if Luke was sleeping with her, then recoiled from my thoughts. Why did I care? I needed Luke to reject me! It would be easier if he had a little something to comfort him at night! We followed her to the third floor.

“Mr, um, Hagrid? This is your room.” Hagrid grunted and dropped his bag with a loud thud right inside the door. I walked over to the next door, attempting to open it. Heidi stopped me.

“No, Luna, your room is on the fourth floor.”

I bristled. “I’m not your Luna. And I specifically told Alpha Luke that Hagrid and I needed adjoining rooms. I will take this room.”

“I’m sorry, Luna, but you can not stay down here. Alpha Luke had the Luna suite prepared for you. It’s on the fourth floor.”

I picked up my bag and whirled around, marching back down the hall. “Where is he? I need to talk to him right now.”