The Luna's Plight

Chapter 10.

Thomas POV.

"Thanks man, I owe you one." I hung up the phone to the airline secretary and waited for the passenger itinerary to drop into my inbox.

The Alpha was so certain that his mate had been on that same flight, despite the fact that he couldn't pick up her full scent, which was something not uncommon but not common enough to ignore. Usually, only high-ranking wolves can mask their scents and be undetected by others. The fact that the Alpha could only pick up small traces told me that his mate was probably a beta or maybe even a Gamma rank.

I hoped that we would find her sooner rather than later. The Alpha had yearned for his mate and Luna for a long time and to have been so close to her but unable to find her must have been driving him and his wolf insane. I know being away from my mate, Nora, was torture when we first found each other. It's not too bad now, because we mated and marked, plus being part of the pack, we can mind link easily. I check on her at least 4 times a day.

My phone pinged, and I began checking the names and looking at the passport photos and pulling all the female ones that the boss described. There were more than he said, but I didn't want to miss one, so I grabbed them all and took them to the boss.

There was one name there that seemed to stand out to me; Tanya Nightshade. She must have been part of the Nightshade Pack. I wonder if she was the one he was looking for, or maybe it was one of the others. I'd let him see and decide.

I took the list back to the boss' room.

Tan's POV.

I walked over to my father's desk and tried to gauge his mood. His normal stony alpha expression doesn't give way for a second, and he continues to stare ahead at me, eyes boring into my own, a bone-chilling tingle went down my spine and made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.

Something was wrong.

" Hey Dad, is everything okay?" I asked, almost afraid of the answer.

"Tanya." He acknowledged me with a curt nod. "There is something I need to discuss with you."

My wolf and I didn't like where this was going.

"What is it?" I asked, turning to look back at my mother, who had been standing by the door.

"Well, another pack has reached out to us and has offered us an alliance deal. They are a small pack, but they are strong and have access to some resources we lack here and advanced medical knowledge as well. We could use that here. But." He paused, looking past me to my mother. Who now looked like she was fighting back tears. "But, they want an alliance through marriage. Marriage to you, specifically."

My heart skipped a beat. An alliance through marriage wasn't something unusual in the werewolf community. Actually, many packs flourished from the unions, others did not. However, so now it is a bit more selective and requires an Elder to conduct the necessary checks before allowing it to happen, and it is closely monitored, plus there's the matter of either party finding their true mates. Some agreed that after an agreed period of time, if they were to find their fated mates, that the already married pair would reject their fated mates for their arranged ones, or they would agree to seperate and dissolve the marriage but not the alliance, and they would continue to support each other, especially if there were pups involved.

But, that didn't settle my heart, or my wolf. There have been cases of alliances shattering packs and destroying alliances. Arranged mates have killed the other to prevent them from leaving. Even some rumors about Alpha's trading their brides for fun or worse things.

But there was never any proof of these events taking place.

"So, you've bargained my chance to be with my mate away to be part of a deal I want nothing to do with? Potentially, to live with a pack that I would never want to be a part of?" I angrily answered back. "You haven't even said a word to me since I walked through that door, but you want me to go just as fast to goddess knows where because you haven't even told me the name of the pack your selling me to."

"Tanya, that is not what is happening here." He tried to reason with me. "The alliance will benefit both packs. We can provide them with the timber, construction, architecture and herbs that they require and we, in return, receive their medical knowledge, better access to the trading network on the western coast and increased security of our borders."

"Tanya?" My mother quietly spoke from behind me. "This is about what's best for the pack. You know as well as we do that if the match isn't a good one that the Elders won't allow it to take place. You will be back here in no time."

"Forgive me, Mother, Father. If I don't jump at the chance. What about one of my brothers? Why can't they part take in these particular matters of the pack?" I had switched off my daughter's head now and had shifted into pack political mode. They wanted to gamble away my chance at happiness, even though I did run away from him at the airport. No way.

Not without a fight.

Eden agreed.