THE REJECTED FOURFOLD LUNA: FATED TO TWO ALPHA TWINS

Chapter 18—Preparations for the Luna

Celeste's POV

The door opened.

Mason stood in the doorway with a bag in one hand.

His expression took one full second to shift from neutral to something caught between amusement and mild offense.

"You didn't wait for me," he said, looking between us.

Jason did not have the decency to look even slightly apologetic. "Not everything has to be a group activity," Jason said.

"That is genuinely rude, Jason."

"You were gone too long."

I pressed my face against Jason's shoulder and laughed and genuinely could not pull it together for a few seconds.

Mason started laughing too, which made stopping considerably harder.

Mason set the bag down just inside the door and crossed the room.

All of it dissolved into the kind of easy laughter that I was still not entirely used to, even now. Not the fact that it happened, but how natural it felt.

How much space the three of us took up together without any part of it ever pressing too hard.

Mason sat on the edge of the bed and looked at me with that calm certainty of his that never seemed to waver regardless of what was happening around him.

"Two days," he said.

"Two days what?" I tilted my head back to look at him.

"The ceremony. Two days away, Celeste." He reached over and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear, easy and automatic. "Are you ready for it?"

I looked at him properly, and something in my chest settled the way it always did when Mason was the one asking the question.

I leaned back against his side and let the warmth of him settle over me.

Jason was at the other end of the sofa with his phone in his hand, quiet and present without intruding.

Outside the pack grounds were still. Inside this room everything was exactly what it was supposed to be.

I thought about that for a moment.

About how strange it still was sometimes, and how right at the same time.

This house. These men. This particular kind of easy that I genuinely did not know was even possible until I was already completely inside of it.

"More ready than I have been for anything," I told him.

And I meant every single word of it.

His arm settled around me a fraction tighter and stayed there.

I let myself stay exactly where I was and did not feel any need to move.

He pressed a kiss to the top of my head.

Neither of us said anything after that.

It was one of those moments that held itself together without needing words to do it.

***

The knock came the following afternoon.

We were still at lunch, the easy kind where nobody was in a hurry.

Mason and Jason were mid-discussion about something Voltext related. I was following about half of it, which was my usual average with tech conversations, when the knock came at the front door.

Jason opened the door.

A man stepped inside carrying a large portfolio case and the kind of professional ease that said he was used to walking into expensive homes and making them look considerably better.

"This is Darius." Jason stepped back to let him through properly. "He and his team are handling all the event decorations for Saturday. We wanted you to meet him beforehand."

Darius looked at me and smiled. "You must be the Luna herself. It is a real pleasure to meet you."

"She is." Mason was leaning against the counter with his arms folded and that particular expression of his I came to recognize as quietly proud.

"Every detail belongs to her," he said. "Everything goes through her. Color scheme, the arrangements, every detail. This is her day and we want it to look exactly like her."

I looked between the two of them. "I'm the only one choosing the colours?"

"That cannot possibly be right," I said, looking between the two of them with genuine skepticism. "You both have strong opinions about literally everything I have ever watched you encounter. The coffee brand. The furniture. The car. All of it."

"Not this one." Jason poured a second coffee and did not look up from his cup. "This one is entirely yours from start to finish. We decided that before Darius even knocked on the door this morning."

I turned to Darius.

He was already laying his portfolio open on the dining table with the calm patience of someone who watched this exact kind of conversation play out many times before and always knew where it landed.

We spent the next hour going through options together. Fabrics, florals, lighting arrangements, the colour story of the entire space.

I did not know I carried opinions about florals and lighting until a man sat across from me asking for every single one.

It turned out I carried quite a few strong ones. It felt good to have somewhere to put them.

Darius was good at his job. He asked the right questions, offered alternatives without ever steering me toward any particular one, and never once made the whole process feel daunting despite the size of the portfolio.

By the time we settled on a final palette, confirmed the layout and locked in every finishing detail, I was genuinely pleased with what we built together in that one sitting.

It felt like me. Specifically and completely like me. That was exactly the point.

Darius was zipping up his portfolio and running through his final checklist on his tablet when my phone buzzed against the table. I almost completely forgot it was even there.

I glanced at the screen.

Vaelina. I picked it up.

It was later than she usually reached out.

Vaelina was not a late night caller. She was voice notes in the afternoon, texts at all hours of the day, but phone calls almost never.

She did not call unless something was actually happening on her end that needed a voice.

I hoped she was okay.

Mason and Jason both looked over when it rang.

I gave them a small wave that said nothing urgent and moved a couple of steps away from the table to take it in private.

I answered the call on the second ring.