His Possessive Luna

Concerns

Chapter 6 — Jane's POV (edited)

I pour myself another coffee and head to Dad's personal library. I need a book for my research, and this is the only place I'll find it. Past the long wooden shelves, I reach the far corner where the books on werewolves live.

Calling it a rich archive would be an understatement — centuries of pack histories, treaties, territorial records, even romance novels based on real events. We might have more literature written about us than humans have written about themselves.

A title catches my eye: The Mate Bond. The blurb promises a deep dive into mate bonds and the emotional chaos that comes with meeting one. I grab it, along with four others, and head back to my room, dumping the stack on my desk.

I go looking for my phone and find it face-down on the floor, dead. The battery must have died without my noticing. I plug it in and start reading while it charges.

The book opens with the phases a werewolf experiences as their mate draws near: first, a strange emptiness. Then fluctuating energy — bursts of joy followed by gloom. As the meeting nears, it becomes unbearable — restlessness, a gnawing void in the chest, a desperate need to find the one person who can fill it.

That's exactly what Amelia's been describing.

I grab my phone immediately. We need to talk. If she really is on the verge of meeting a fated mate while already engaged to someone else, it could set off a crisis — her fiancé is the Beta of the Opal Moon Pack. If this goes wrong, it could spark a pack war.

Powering on my phone floods me with notifications — nearly fifty messages between Ray and Amelia, twenty missed calls.

Before I can call back, Amelia rings me directly.

"Hello, what happened, why are there so many—"

"Jo's missing! No one's seen her. She never made it home!" she screams.

Shit. If Dad finds out about last night, I'm done for.

"When did you realize? Do her parents know?"

"Thank the Goddess they're out of town. If they were here and found out, we'd all be dead."

"Where's Ray?"

"With me. We just realized twenty minutes ago, when we woke up. We're coming to get you — be ready."

"I'm ready. Let's go."

I grab my jacket, toss the book on the bed, and head out. Ray and Amelia pull up just as I reach the gate. I climb in.

"How are we even going to find her? We don't know where to start."

"I saw her with some guy last night," Ray says.

"Do you know who? What he looked like?"

"No clue."

Perfect.

"It's fine, girls. We'll rescue our friend and bring her home safely," Amelia announces, like she's charging into battle.

"Lower your voice, Amelia, you nearly blew my eardrum out," I snap.

"She's been like this since she woke up," Ray whispers. "Weirdly hyped about everything. I think she's still tipsy."

I frown. I don't remember her drinking that much last night. Something's off.

"So what's the actual plan? We're not just driving around blind, are we?"

"There is no plan," Ray shrugs.

"Pull over. We're figuring this out right now."

Ray hits the brakes, and both of them stare at me, wide-eyed.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Did you just use your Alpha tone on us?" Ray asks, voice unsteady.

"What Alpha tone? I don't even have a wolf. Just listen — I have an idea."

They nod.

"Most of the people who were at the club last night should be awake by now. We ask around — someone must have seen something."

We spend two hours asking everyone we can think of. Dead ends, all of it.

"I hope she's alive," Ray mutters.

"Jo is dead? Oh Moon Goddess, she was only seventeen! Life is so unfair!" Amelia starts sobbing, fully dramatic.

Now I'm actually worried about her.

"Shut up, she's not dead. Get in the car, we'll find her ourselves," Ray barks.

Finally, someone remembers seeing Jo with a human — one of the exchange students living in the pack temporarily. We race to the school dorms. Being the Beta's daughter has its perks; no one at the entrance questions us. An admin assistant even walks us to the exchange dorm, tagging along room to room. I can't tell if it's my father's name or just me, but he's not exactly subtle about staring.

On the fifth try, the door's unlocked.

And what's waiting inside is something I'll never forget as long as I live.

Chapter 8 — Jane's POV (edited)

Clothes are scattered everywhere. The bedsheets have given up entirely and lie in a heap on the floor. Chairs overturned, table shoved sideways, books thrown off the shelf like the room survived a hurricane.

And there she is. Jo — completely naked, clinging to an equally naked boy like a baby chimp hugging its mother. Limbs wrapped around him, face pressed into his back.

The single most disturbing thing I've ever witnessed.

"What the hell happened here?" Ray yells, somewhere between shocked and repulsed.

"Seems like a lot of something happened here," says the admin assistant, still lingering.

Ray and I both shoot him a death glare. He gets the message and leaves.

"Jo! Get up, it's almost evening!" I yell from the doorway.

Nothing.

"Jo! For god's sake, get up! Jooooo!" Ray's growl practically rattles the walls. Anyone else would've jolted awake from a coma. Jo sleeps like she's been drugged by the Moon Goddess herself.

The guy wakes up instead — so suddenly he nearly panics on the spot, realizing his exposed state. Tomato red, he starts nudging Jo, trying to rouse her.

"She's not moving," Ray says, turning to me. "You shake her."

I stare at her like she's lost her mind. "Me? Look at her — we have no idea what's on that bed. Germs, bodily fluids, Moon-forbidden STDs. Hard pass."

Ray knows I'm a hygiene freak, and this is well past my limit.

"Fine, I'll do it." She rolls her eyes and shoves Jo straight off the bed.

Jo hits the floor with a thud, groans, and finally starts waking up. She squints up at us, and her expression shifts fast — rage, embarrassment, meltdown incoming.

We get her dressed and into the back seat. Ray drives, Amelia sits beside Jo, who's sitting there like a ticking time bomb.

Five minutes of silence, then she snaps.

"Seriously? SERIOUSLY? You guys just LEFT me! I was blackout drunk and you left me with a total stranger! He could've been a serial killer!"

She's screaming now, tears building.

"We were drunk too, Jo," Amelia mutters, eyes watery. "None of us remember anything."

"Don't put this on us," I snap. "You were dancing with every guy on that floor. We were all wasted. No one handed you off to anyone. And from the look of that room, you weren't exactly resisting."

"Well, I lost my virginity to a guy whose name I don't even know!" she yells. "I don't remember any of it. I was saving myself for someone, and now it's just gone. I feel disgusting."

She breaks down sobbing. As much as I want to stay angry, I feel for her. No one deserves that.

We reach her house. She storms out without another word. Amelia follows to check on her.

Just me and Ray now. Silence.

"I'll drop you home," she says quietly, starting the car.

I get home, say goodbye, and go straight for a long, hot bath. Drained — mentally, physically, everything.

Dinner. My brothers fight over food like wild animals, as usual. My parents talk pack business.

"All the arrangements will be wasted," Mom says.

"What arrangements?" I ask.

"The Claiming Ceremony," Mom says. "It's moved to New Year's Eve — the elders want it timed with a special full moon. Bigger, brighter than usual. Considered a good omen."

"That's also Jane's birthday. She turns eighteen on the thirty-first," Mom adds, smiling.

"Great. Double celebration," Dad chuckles.

"You know I hate birthday celebrations," I grumble. Same fight, every year. I always lose, because Mom is obsessed with cake and balloons and my general misery.

We finish eating and head to our rooms.

I crash onto my bed and close my eyes.

I'm back in the forest. Everything white, snow-covered, trees stretching high and frozen. A lake nearby, also frozen, moonlight dancing across the surface. Surreal — and somehow, it feels like home.

Growls in the distance. I follow the sound through the snow, and reach a clearing full of wolves and people, all snarling at each other. Tension thick enough to choke on. Then the fight breaks out.

In the chaos, I trip — and don't hit the ground.

Someone catches me. Strong arms pull me upright. I look up — tall, broad-shouldered, muscular in the best possible way. My eyes drift from his chest to his face, and I catch a tattoo on his right shoulder: a wolf howling beneath a new moon, tall trees and a lake behind it.

I'm still staring at the tattoo when—

BEEP BEEP BEEP

My alarm. I wake up with a groan.

Of course. Of course I never see his face. What kind of cliffhanger is this even supposed to be?

I slam the alarm off and sit up, the tattoo still burned into my brain.

Who was he? Why did it feel so real?

Something tells me this isn't the last time I'll see him.