The Unexpected Luna

Chapter 5 - A Talk to Remember

Cadence’s POV

Dad and I make our way to my new office. I’ve always had one, but dad had it renovated with my ascension to Alpha of the pack. It now had a color scheme of black, with gold and white accents. My desk was made of pure black marble, with white and gold accent veins. A fancy new Mac computer sat atop the desk, with a bow on it.

A circular white rug sat in the middle of the floor. Across from the desk was a black leather couch and two black leather chairs, surrounding a black marble coffee table that matched my desk. A mini fridge was to the right of my desk, and stocked with all my favorite drinks and snacks. The walls had been demolished and replaced with full floor to ceiling windows, so I could watch the pack lands while I worked. A small remote operated the retractable curtains. Across from the couch and the chairs, a 70’in tv was mounted to the wall. A glass fireplace, operated by remote, was beneath it. Various golden art pieces decorated the table, my desk, and the top of the fireplace.

“Oh wow dad, this is excellent. I love it.”

“Good,” dad replies. “It was one of the designs we found in your mother’s notebook. I thought you might like it.” He looks at me, “I have a very important question and it is imperative that you answer honestly.”

“Ok…” I say, hoping he’s not about to ask what I think he’s going to.

“Is Saige your mate?” Straight to the point then.

I sigh, “Yes. I can feel the pull, even though she isn’t yet 18. I felt it when she first arrived at the pack house, but now that I’m 18, the draw to her is even stronger.”

“Well, at least this ensures that Saige will not return to the Harvest Moon Pack when she turns 18. Cadence, my son, you know what her birth parents did to our pack a couple of years ago, and you know I have been investigating it since then, right?”

I nod.

He continues, “As you know, I first thought this was a freak accident. Two wolves gone off the deep end who decided to make trouble for themselves. The Harvest Moon pack seemed genuinely surprised at the disappearance of their Gammas, two of the strongest fighters they had in the pack. And we’d had a good relationship with them through pack dinners and trade. I had even met Saige before. I quite liked her parents. In the public eye, there was a mourning daughter, they were sending out rescue missions, and they were offering to pay anything for the return of their pack members.

“But something didn’t sit right with me. The fight to take out the Gammas took a dozen of our strongest. I had seen those two fight before. They were not as strong as our strongest. There was something different about them. I fought them myself that night, as they were trying to get to your door. They could have killed me, son. They very nearly did.”

I nod, not wanting to interrupt my dad’s story.

“Son, when I went to the Harvest Moon pack house the night I took Saige, I had no intention of doing that. I had planned to kill the entire pack. I was not going to show them mercy. But I saw Saige that night and something made me stop. And it was her eyes. I said I had met her before, yes?”

I nod again. At this point, there is a bubble of anxiety brewing in my stomach.

“When I had met her before, her eyes were a deep, dark brown. They had changed colors. That pack did not want to give her up that night. They were willing to fight for her, until I told them I would destroy everything, even Saige. There was something about her they were trying to protect. They asked that they be allowed to invite her to the pack once she turns 18. Now, why would they want to do that? I was curious, so I agreed to that.

“Tonight was meant to satisfy my part of the agreement. But notice their reaction? They weren’t understanding at all to Saige’s side of it. They are willing to start a war over all of this.

“I asked Saige about her eyes, when I first brought her back to the pack house. She doesn’t remember. Before I let her see a mirror, I asked her what color her eyes were. She stated they were brown. When I showed her they were blue, she thought maybe they changed colors because she changed packs. I have never corrected her.

“Cadence, I love Saige very dearly. But there is something about Saige that is the key to unlocking the attack on our house that night.”