The Luna's Revenge

Ten

Cameron’s POV

I know I promised Jake I’d give Lexi a chance, and I intended to. But then this morning, I caught her snooping in my office when she thought we were all asleep. Pretending she thought it was Jake’s bedroom. Sure.

So I called up an ex of mine who recently started seeing the Black Moon Pack’s future Gamma, and asked her to have Alpha Connor give me a call. Kierra was happy to connect us, and now I’m just outside his territory, about to meet him for drinks at a local bar.

I take a sip of my beer and glance around the room. It’s dimly lit, with a crowd playing pool in the back, and a few more patrons at the bar itself. I’m one of the only people at a table, aside from a younger woman with fiery red hair and green eyes sitting at the table closest to the door.

“Beta Cameron?” A tall man approaches my table, exuding Alpha aura and confidence. His eyes are the same bright blue shade as my own and we have similar blonde hair tones, although mine is a shaggy, messy style, while his is gelled back into short spikes. He’s wearing grey joggers and a black tee, looking slightly out of place in the otherwise well-dressed crowd.

Not that I’m going to be the one to point that out. It’s obvious from his aura that he’s an Alpha who doesn’t accept challenges from those lower than him in rank.

“Alpha,” I nodded. “Nice to see you again.”

It wasn’t my first time meeting Connor, although it was my first time meeting with him alone. We’d had countless interactions in the past, given that our packs were neighboring, but never for more than polite small talk. His dad still held the Alpha title, and I was only Jake’s Beta, so there quite honestly wasn’t much to discuss in a business sense, and we rarely made small talk. The food at a particular meeting, or sports or video games, maybe. But now, I needed other information from him.

Connor was taller than me, not by much, just a couple of inches, and though I was more muscular, he was still extremely well-built. My eyes lingered briefly on his chest, watching the way his muscles rose and fell with his even breathing, before flicking back up to meet his gaze.

He smirked at me. “Did you ask me to meet you just so you can check me out, Beta, or do you have another purpose here?”

Caught. That was embarrassing. Trying to ignore the heat flooding through me, I cleared my throat. “Your pack member, Lexi. Tell me about her.”

“And why do you want to know?” He asked, eyes narrowed. Still, he took a seat across from me, handing me a glass of bourbon and taking a drink of his own.

I took a sip while I thought about how to respond. It was good, top shelf quality.

To be honest, I had kind of envisioned myself asking him about Lexi, and the spell being broken. Just suddenly him saying he never called to identify her as a pack member, or he felt compelled to call, or something. Cooper snarled in my head, presumably at my stupidity, not liking that we were here against our Alpha’s wishes.

“As I’m sure Kierra told you, she seems to be the fated mate of my Alpha, and I want to ensure she is who she says she is. He is my best friend, and your ally, so I think we both have an interest in verifying they are true mates.”

“Do you accuse my pack member of lying, Cameron?”

I frowned. “No, I simply want to know more about her so I can fully embrace her as our Luna.”

Connor looked around, somewhat nervously.

Why is he so squirrely all of a sudden? I asked Cooper.

My wolf ignored me. He hadn’t liked the idea of investigating Lexi to start with.

Coop, I’m sorry. You know I’m doing it for the good of the pack.

Still silence. Freaking wolves and their tantrums, I swear.

Connor met my gaze again. "Look, I'll tell you the truth. Lexi is a good friend of mine because she was mates with my best friend, Tyler. He died in an accident, and it took her a while to get over it, of course, but I am not surprised to hear she's found a new mate."

I raised an eyebrow. "This accident, Lexi wasn't implicated in it in any way?"

The Alpha laughed. "Lexi? She was madly in love with him. And he deeply cared for her as well. They were the typical storybook tale of fated mates - romanticizing over each other in school only to find out the Goddess felt they belonged together, too."

"So you would vouch for her character? You wouldn't be suspicious of her in any way?" I asked.

"Are you jealous of your Alpha’s new relationship, Cameron?" Connor smirked at me.

I glared at him. This was why I never hooked up with Alphas. Such assholes, all of them. "No, I just happen to think her story was a little suspicious, and wanted to make sure we weren't allowing something dangerous into our pack."

Connor leaned across the table, with the same smug look on his face. "You know, if you’re frustrated with her absorbing your Alpha’s attention, I'm not opposed to occupying your time, if you'd like."

I felt his hand on my knee, and my breathing hitched slightly but I shoved those feelings deep down. Ugh. To think I thought he was attractive when I first saw him. All Alphas are like this. They’re always like this.

"I'll have to decline, thanks though," I replied politely. "Thanks for the talk. I'm sure I'll see you around."

Connor sat back in his chair and looked at me critically, as if considering something, his hand still on my knee. Finally, he nodded, but not before sliding his fingers up my jeans along the length of my thigh, making me growl. It was 80% angry get-out-of-my-space growl, 20% lusty do-it-again growl, and he knew it. That bastard. A devastatingly good-looking bastard, but still.

He smirked, zeroing in on the 20% part of my reaction that was lust-driven. He was obviously chalking our interaction up as a win for him.

"Nice to see you, Cameron. Please, enjoy your drinks for the night on me.” He stood up, winking at me before heading out of the bar through the front door. Asshole. I never did particularly like this pack.

Whatever, I'd drink on his tab, then. Jake wasn't expecting me until the morning, and I had nothing else to do. I ordered a top-shelf bottle of bourbon and settled into my table.

Halfway through my third bottle, and an uncertain amount of time later, the gorgeous redhead I'd spotted earlier made her way up to me.

"Hey babe," she said. "What's a hot wolf like you doing here by yourself?"

Ignoring the lame pickup line, I smiled at her and offered my hand. "Just waiting for the right beauty to come along and make my night better."

She giggled. "I'm Lacey. Nice to meet you, Beta. Care to come home with me?"

Briefly, I tried to remember if I had told her I was a Beta. I would have asked Cooper, but the stupid mutt was still refusing to speak to me, hiding in the back of my mind. I probably had told her. I had drank a lot of bourbon, and whiskey, and it was starting to make everything fuzzy.

What was not fuzzy was my need to f**k someone, anyone, tonight. That asshole Connor had been a tease, and between that and the stress of Lexi and Jake, I could use some relief. So I let Lacey climb onto my lap, kissing and nipping at my marking spot, running her hands across my thighs, and finally, pressing her lips to mine and slipping her tongue into my mouth.

"What do you say, Beta? Let's go somewhere else," she giggled again. My body was throbbing with need for her, so I set her on the ground and told her to lead the way, visions of sinking myself deep inside of her playing in my head.

* * * * *

I woke up the next morning, a little bit groggy but otherwise fine. I had made it back home sometime before sunrise, and now I was going to be paying for that all day. I couldn’t remember why I had stayed out so late, but vaguely remembered crawling into my bed as the sun started to peak through the curtains.

After a quick shower, I hurriedly got dressed for the day. There was a knock on my door just as I finished pulling on a navy blue t-shirt and jeans, and I briefly ran my fingers through my still-damp hair as I yelled for the person to come in.

"Morning, Cameron, my dearest and oldest friend," Murphy greeted me. "Have you decided you're too good to attend training now?"

"Like you've never overslept, lazy-ass," I retorted at him. "Where are Jake and Lexi?"

"They're in his office. He's gotta prepare for the summit next month, and she is keeping him company."

"Well, maybe I better go do my part and offer to entertain her for the day," I grumbled.

Murphy smirked at me. "She's not that bad, Cam. Honestly, I spent some time with them yesterday and we had fun. I think you'll like her. You can spar with her, if nothing else. She seems to love training."

I snorted. "Oh yeah, Jake will love that. Let me just beat the s**t out of his mate."

"Funny that you think you'll win automatically," he said, rolling his eyes. I shoved him in response.

A few minutes later, I was knocking on Jake's door. Cooper, who had up until now chosen to be quiet, was stirring in my mind. I felt his anxiety, and it was making me anxious.

We already apologized to Jake, I told him. Everything is fine.

"Come in!" I heard Jake yell from the other side of the door. I twisted the knob and started to walk in.

That's not it, Cooper said, now fully alert and pacing frantically. Our mate is in there.