Moon Blessed Luna

Chapter 2 - Brianna

"Miss Brianna, you should reconsider," the old councilman is interrupted by a loud growl.

"It's Alpha Blake to you, Mr. Emerson. Or did you forget the Ascension ceremony my father organized before his death?" I glare around the table at the council members, who are all quick to look away. They were supposed to help me figure out what has been happening to the abducted teenage girls, and instead they keep trying to lecture me to pick a chosen mate.

"I called for this council meeting because you, Mr. Emerson, claimed to have a lead to the abducted girls. This has been a situation for far too long and if you think it is more important to play match maker then to find these poor children, you can walk out of that door right this instant."

Put him in his place, Bree. My wolf, Keena, sounds just as angry as me.

"My apologies, Alpha. I understand that the missing girls are the highest priority. But choosing a mate could make this pack strong again! Your father's death weakened us, and his decision to let his unmated daughter become Alpha has caused much speculation in the Elder wolf coalition."

A low growl had formed in my chest again, getting louder with every word he spoke. When he finally finished I gritted my teeth to stop myself from ripping his head off.

Killing him would stop this headache. She reminds me a little too eagerly.

Shut up, Keena. I reply, and she retreats back enough for me to speak without growling every word.

"I need you to understand something, Mr. Emerson," I tell him, forcing my voice to remain low and filled with authority.

"I am the 5th generation of first-born Alpha females. I do not need a mate to be strong. I need a council and packmembers who know their place and who help me keep our pack strong. If you will not accept that I am your Alpha, Mr. Emerson, you are not only disrespecting me and my father. You are disrespecting the moon goddess herself. Do you understand me?"

My Aura fills the room, making all the council members drop their heads and bear their necks. Emerson fights it for a few seconds, pain flashing in his eyes as I push even harder, before he also finally submits to me. A soft whimper reaches my ear and I notice that the Omega who had just walked in with some tea had dropped to the ground at the strength of my aura. I instantly release it and get up.

"All of you, get out. Report back to me when you find actual leads to the missing teenagers." The men get up and bow before rushing past the Omega out of the conference room. I walk over to her and help her to stand up.

"I am sorry, Emily. If I had seen you enter I wouldn't have pushed them so hard. I didn't mean to hurt you."

"I am so sorry, Alpha Blake. I knocked but you didn't answer and usually it's oké if I bring the tea in anyway." she looks down at the fallen tray and broken tea cups and starts to tremble.

"I will clean this up immediately, Alpha Blake. I am so sorry, please forgive me."

I sigh. My father had been pretty awful to the pack when he was still Alpha, especially to the lower ranked females. He believed that to be feared was to be respected. It was a very human way to look at the pack, something many werewolfs did. Sometimes it's hard for our human halves to listen to our wolf half. It had taken me years to convince my father that I could be Alpha without a male Mate taking over what rightfully belonged to me. And now that I had finally taken my place, I was going to do things my way.

Our way! Stupid wolf.

"It's oké, Emily. I am not my father, you don't have to be scared of me. Get yourself cleaned up first. This won't walk away."

I left the conference room after making sure Emily had gone downstairs to freshen up, and collecting the bigger pieces of porcelain onto the tray. She dropped it because of me after all, so it was only fair I helped to clean up. My office was a few doors down from the conference room and I breathed deeply when I closed the door behind me.

This room was one of the first I had redecorated after my father died, because I really couldn't spend most of my time in the dark and intimidating environment he had made it to be, and there were too many bad memories of his punishments for me linked to the dark wood and leather interior.

The large floor to ceiling window at the back wall looked out over the training fields and bookshelves covered the other walls. All the wood was a light, beachy color and any fabric was a deep blue. A door on the left led to a small bathroom and on the right was a room filled with all the filing cabinets I could fit in my nightmares. We were working hard on getting everything onto a secure computer server for easier access.

I sat down behind my desk and poured myself a large glass of whiskey. I hated that I had started drinking to deal with the stress, but as the drink softly burned it's way down my throat I felt myself relax. Being an Alpha was hard work, and I had been fully prepared to take that role. I had underestimated however, how hard it would be for the Elders to accept a female as their true Alpha. My mother had been a first born Alpha female as well but when she met my father, her mate, all her power was lost to him.

Our mate will be different! The moon goddess will give us someone worthy!

I huffed and closed my eyes, savoring the taste of the whiskey. I could lead this pack better than any male, I was literally born to be Alpha. I wasn't going to let something stupid like the Mate bond take that from me. I was fully prepared to reject my Mate the moment I saw him. Keena gives a small whimper at my thoughts and I sigh before deciding to focus on the actually important business.

The stack of files on my desk was getting too big, as word of more girls who had gone missing over the last 10 years or so reached me. They were all teenagers who hadn't shifted yet. Most of the recent cases were girls who were close to their first shifts, often only weeks away from turning 18. The older cases mentioned girls as young as 15 being taken, though they would all be over 20 years of age now. And who knows how many girls were taken without a trace, many rogues had children but couldn't report them missing to a pack.

The file on top was the most recent victim, a girl from my own pack. The file showed a picture of a cute girl with blonde hair and gray eyes. Kaylee Thompson is the daughter of one of my lower ranked warriors and her mother is one of the pack doctors. I felt absolutely useless when she sat in my office, hysterically crying for me to find her child. Even her mate couldn't calm her, and I could totally understand that.

7 months since I became Alpha, after my father was terminally injured by a rogue attack. He died 2 days after my Ascension ceremony, and left me with a giant mess. I built a wall around the village where most of the pack lived, increased patrols throughout my territory, and insisted on a voluntary curfew for all members of my pack. I didn't want them to be prisoners in their own home, but I did want to keep everyone safe. And we were. For more than 6 months we were safe.

I made alliances with neighboring packs who had also had girls gone missing, and we set up a task force to investigate it. The Elder Wolf Alliance claimed to be on top of it, but we hadn't found any useful leads. And then Kaylee went missing 2 weeks ago, she would have shifted by now she was so close to turning 18. I felt like I had failed my pack, and the Elders were convinced I wasn't strong enough to lead. I actually started to believe them for a little while, until I remembered my place.

I didn't need a Mate. I was a pureblooded Alpha. And I would figure out what had happened to Kaylee and the other girls, even if it would be the last thing I did.