Two Halves of a Whole

Chapter 21

Lugos was relieved to find Sattira unharmed until he saw three of his top female warriors all frozen mid attack surrounding her. He was furious. He had thought he had already cleared this up

“What is the meaning of this” he sent through a link he had opened with the three of them. His aura was pressing heavily upon them but in their frozen state even that couldn’t force anything from them.

He looked at Sattira’s Mother expectantly as he shifted into his human form. She caught his look and huffed but conjured him some shorts to offer him some cover for his manhood.

“Guess the basics aren’t so useless now,” she gave a small laugh. Now that she knew her daughter was safe she could afford to tease the young wolf.

“What is this. My aura didn’t even work on them.” Lugos was shocked and he didn’t bother trying to hide it.

“I was just so angry and she kept calling me names and claiming she was supposed to be Luna and that I was somehow stealing her chance. I tried explaining that only your mate could be Luna but she just wouldn’t listen and when they tried to attack I just had a strong urge for them to stop.” Sattira tried to explain as best as she could but even she wasn’t entirely sure what happened.

“Did you say anything out loud?” Lugos asked. It would be rare for her aura to override his within his own pack but it wasn’t unheard of. “Maybe use an alpha aura on them?”

“No,” she shook her head as she said the word to back up what she had said. “I just thought it, I didn’t even think it at them.”

“Can you remember how it felt when you did it?” Her mother who had been standing by listening asked thoughtfully.

“I think so,” she did indeed remember.

“Can you try it again but get them to do something different?” He mother had a theory but was not sure. She readied her magic to help her investigate how Sattira had froze these wolves.

Just sit down. She copied the feeling she had the first time. She was almost afraid it wouldn’t work but to her utter disbelief it did. All three girls sat on the ground as if being forced by a will greater than their own.

“I didn’t feel any magic,” her mother told her, slightly shocked. “Did you sense an aura?” She was looking to Lugos waiting for his answer.

“None,” he said sounding just as shocked as the mage beside him.

“Can you try it on me,” her mother asked her. “I know we don’t have a lot of time before dinner but I think we should figure this out.”

“I will try,” she didn’t want to freeze her mother in place so she tried something different. Look behind you. When nothing happened she was slightly disappointed.

“It didn’t work on you,” Sattira told her.

“Can you release those three? I am sure their Alpha will want to deal with them. And give them a command to never tell anyone about this.” Her mother was also disappointed. If it had been her power the magic would have been felt when she used it and it only seemed to work on wolves.

I release you. Forget about everything I have made you do. She watched to see how they would react.

“Oh, Lugos, what are you doing out here,” Julie asked as she batted her cow eyes at him and climbed to her feet completely ignoring the girl she had just been trying to attack.

“That’s Alpha Lugos to you. What were you doing here?” He gave her a chance to answer honestly on her own.

“Nothing, we were just walking in the woods,” she said as she tried to avoid making eye contact.

“Don’t lie to me! What were you doing here.” Lugos was done playing nice. He caught them trying to attack his mate and if he wasn’t trying to keep it a secret they would already have paid with their lives. Attacking a Luna was punishable by death.

All three wolves showed their throats in submission. “We were attacking Sattira to teach her a lesson,” they all said as one.

“Who’s idea was this,” he wanted to know who the ring leader was of this group.

“Julie,” one of her friends whimpered as if it were painful to say.

“Why did she want to attack Sattira!” He directed the question towards the wolf that had already given up her friend.

“Because she thinks if Sattira isn’t around you will realize Julie should be your Luna,” she cried. The power of the alpha’s aura causing her pain.

“WHAT?” He screamed. The nerve of this she wolf. As if he would ever have taken a chosen mate. Even if he had for some crazy reason decided to take a chosen mate it would never have been her. “What makes you think I would ever take you as my Luna?”

“I was going to drug you and sleep with you so I could give birth to your heir,” she admitted through gritted teeth. She had fought so hard to not give up her plan that there were tears in her eyes. Both her friends looked at her horrified. She had obviously not shared this part of her plan with her friends.

Lugos was visibly shocked by the depth of this girl’s insanity. To plan something so evil in an attempt to gain power. He couldn’t imagine it.

Beta William arrived with a group of warriors in answer to the mind link he had sent when they had first found Sattira with the three pack she wolves attempting their attack. He could tell by the looks of horror and anger on their faces that the Beta and his warriors had heard every word of her plan.

“Take these three to the cells. We will deal with them after we handle the other business my father gave us to deal with,” he told them, referring to the plan for dealing with the prison break but not wanting to take a chance of anyone learning about there plans.

“Consider it done, Alpha,” Beta William said as he directed the warriors to take the three wolves into custody,

“No! Please don’t do this. I will do anything,” Julie begged as she was dragged away. “I should be Luna. I worked hard, I deserve to run this pack!”

Julie was kicking and fighting with the warriors that were dragging her away. Her two friends just sobbed uncontrollably as they were escorted to the cells.

Once they were out of range and Julie’s crazed claims could no longer be heard Lugos turned to his mate. “Would you like to join me for dinner?” He looked at her with hope filled eyes.

“I think I need to get cleaned up first,” she looked down at her clothes that were now torn and dirty after she ran into the woods without care or concern.

“I can wait. I should probably get cleaned up myself,” he said as he motioned to his own state of partial dress.

Sattira looked at his bare chest then blushed and turned her head to look away. Her mother watched the whole exchange with relief at the innocent reaction her daughter had to Lugos and his lack of clothing. At least he hadn’t used the mate bond to take advantage of her before she was ready. Maybe she had misjudged this young alpha.

“I will walk you to your room while you think about it,” he offered. “I will feel better knowing that you are safe.”

“Ok, and once we are cleaned up I would love to go to the dining hall with you,” she said as she took the arm that Lugos offered her.

They were in a world all their own and had completely forgotten her mother was standing there. As they walked back towards the pack house her mother trailed behind them too lost in her own thoughts in that moment to be hurt that they forgot about her.

They both went to their own rooms once they hit the alpha floor. Lugos set out a pair of black dress slacks and a white button up dress shirt for after his shower instead of the usual jeans and t-shirt with his boxers. They were to meet with the Council after dinner and he didn’t want to have to change yet again.

He stripped and climbed into the shower, letting the water wash away all the dirt and grime from chasing his mate’s scent through the woods. He was trying to figure out if he had done something he missed that would have given Julie the wrong idea about his intentions towards her.

She had worked hard to become one of the top warriors and was a candidate for the combat courses that the pack lead trainers were chosen from. He had been impressed because she was from a family of omegas and had to work twice as hard to get where she was than most of the other warriors.

He wondered if she had gotten the wrong impression because he had been the one to nominate her. But it wasn’t like she was the only one he spoke in favor of. He was the future alpha of the pack so he was slowly picking the replacements for ranked positions held by pack members his father had picked when he became alpha who were now nearing retirement age so they could enjoy time with their families while they were young.

Werewolves live to be at least a couple hundred years old but to prevent humans from becoming suspicious they only held any one position in the pack for no longer than 50 years. After that alphas either traveled and enjoyed their retirement or they took positions on councils that didn’t deal with humans. They could travel under fake identifications so it continued to hide how long they lived.

He was still mulling it over as he dressed and crossed the hall to see if Sattira was ready to go down to the dining hall. He was not surprised when she opened the door in just a towel. He knew women took longer to get ready from the years of listening to his parents playfully teasing each other about it.

“Oh, should I dress up for dinner? I thought it was a casual event,” she was already thinking over what she had now that someone had delivered her clothes from her parent’s house and hung them in the closet for her.

She had actually been startled the first time she walked into the closet and found them hanging there as, even though she knew they had staff that cleaned her room, she never seemed to ever see anyone cleaning.

“I actually dressed for the Council Meeting after dinner so I wouldn’t have to change.” He watched her face change as she remembered the meeting she was going to attend.

“Is there a specific dress code,” she asked as she walked into the closet and started looking through dresses.

“No, everyone kind of wears something casual dress so it shows they are taking the meeting seriously.

“Ok, I think I know what I want to wear,” she said as she grabbed a sundress that was fancy enough to be dressy but casual enough to not be too over the top.

Lugos smiled thinking it was just a sign of what a good Luna she was going to make. She seemed to know what to wear without being told. The light green color of the dress made her light skin seem to glow with good health while making her dark red hair and bright green eyes pop in contrast. The length was long enough to cover her knees while still showing enough to give away how shapely and toned they were. She wore a pair of beige flats as not to be too casual or too dressy.

She ran a extra wide tooth comb through her hair and added some product to keep the large loose curls from frizzing and finished the look with a brown mascara and a light lip gloss but otherwise went with the natural look with a moisturizer to keep her skin from appearing dry.

By the time they were ready to eat Lugos was having a hard time not keeping her in her room and taking the dress back off her. They entered the dining hall and he had to fight to keep his wolf from growling at all the appreciative looks his mate was getting. He tried to remind his wolf that it just showed how lucky they were to have such a breathtaking mate.

There were members of the council seated at their usual table, some of whom Lugos had yet to meet as not all members attended the regular meetings in person, preferring to just phone in and listen to the usual topics of discussion. For something like this they wouldn’t have the luxury of phoning in, much to the dismay of some. They didn’t speak much while they ate so as to avoid talking about anything important where the pack members might overhear. Dinner was rather uneventful.