As the Moon Teaches

Stressed.

Loren barely slept much that night, nightmares continuing to happen each time he would settle into sleep. Morning came slowly, but was definitely a welcome sight. Even though he was tired, he was happy that he could hang out with friends and try to forget some nightmares. After dressing, he wandered into the kitchen to find breakfast, having to fend for himself since both parents were away on patrol.

Finding cereal, Loren prepared his breakfast and sat at the dining room table. Slowly munching on little rings of fruit flavoring, he thought back to Gregory’s proposition. He wanted to be pretend best friends for their wolves, but also warned that Pelian might snap if it saw Loren with anyone. How was he supposed to accept that fate?

He barely managed to finish his cereal, but knew he would need the energy so he forced himself. After cleaning up his breakfast dish, Loren decided it was time to get Winnie to be helpful. Even though she would barely be able to help with understanding the experience he had up until finding his ‘mate.’ This time, at least there was more information on the table to work with.

Winnie welcomed Loren into her office space, which took up two rooms on the second floor of the Pack House. She smiled and motioned to an overstuffed armchair while she went and sat on a stool across the coffee table from the chair. 

“Thank you for waiting…”

“It was only a half hour,” Loren nodded, he had to wait out in the hall while Winnie finished with another young wolf that had questions about their life. “No biggie.”

“Alright, how can I help you today, dear?” Winnie smiled gently at him. She heard from her daughter, Lucy, that things had been rough with Loren’s mate. “I’ll try to help as much as possible.”

“Well, first things first, I had horrible nightmares last night… and I don’t know what to do about Gregory.” Loren settled deep into the armchair as he spoke. “I feel like Zeala is ready to go to Pelian and Gregory, but I don’t think I could handle the situation like Gregory wants.”

“Start with what Gregory wants, then tell me about your nightmares.” Winnie definitely had a feeling the nightmares were caused by the situation.

Finally, after forty-five minutes, Loren finished explaining about Gregory’s idea and the nightmares. Winnie just stared at him with shock in her eyes. She had never heard of that kind of suggestion, usually mates try to work it out, even if the other is not their preference. It usually works itself out because of the connection of the wolves.

“Worse thing is, he basically said that I couldn’t find a girlfriend because Pelian might get upset, and I think that caused most of the nightmares.” Loren sighed loudly. “If his wolf is going to be this troublesome, then how am I supposed to be okay with this situation?”

“You said he’s an Alpha?” When Loren nodded, Winnie continued. “I highly doubt the situation will be easy, because he’s probably going to be excessively dominant.”

Loren gave a louder sigh before sinking down some in the chair. “Why couldn’t Gregory be a Georgia or something? I’d gladly let a chick take control if she wanted.”

Winnie made a face that clearly said she really had no desire to hear about his bedroom activities. She cleared her throat before speaking up. “I think you need to go see him and try to find a way to make the situation work, for your wolves. It’s dangerous for you to keep separate from your mate for too long.”

Of course Winnie was right about the danger to their lives if they stayed away from each other for long. Loren just could not accept the way Gregory had handled their meeting. A refusal and then a proposition like that was like a slap in the face. He was not sure he could stay near Gregory without wanting to punch him.

He would probably not punch Gregory as he was pretty big, but Loren could want to all he wanted. He did not have to like the other young man, but he knew others were right that he would have to come to some terms with being the man’s mate.

Thanking Winnie for her help after another long half hour of talking about his dreams again, Loren decided to head out to meet up with Eric. His best friend and confidant, Eric knew everything except about the werewolf side of Loren’s life.

So everything except the biggest part of his life. Loren wished he could tell Eric everything, but he was nervous of how his friend would handle it. Also nervous of how the Alpha would act at finding out if he told a human about their world.

Leaving Winnie’s office, Loren pulled out his phone and proceeded to text Eric about meeting up. He wanted to hang out with his buddy once more before dying from Zeala’s broken heart.

Loren was not paying attention to where he walked, so he bumped into Lucy as he was texting.

“Sorry about that.”

“It’s alright. Hey, you figure out anything to do about the whole ‘mates’ issue?”

“No luck yet, thanks.” Loren sighed before looking at his phone to read Eric’s response.”Gotta go, meeting up with Eric.”

Heading home, Loren took the long way, wanting to just enjoy his walk for a little while. It was still pretty early in the morning so: birds were chirping, the sun was just getting high in the sky, and dew was on the tips of every nook and cranny of every surface.

The only thing that would have made the morning better, would have been a cute mate at his side. Zeala whined for Pelian, needing its mate close. The pain associated with not having made that important connection with their mate was starting to wear on Loren and his wolf. He really wished the situation had been different.

Checking his phone, he sent a message to Eric about needing to go to a hangout where he could forget about life for a while. He knew Eric could figure something out, being his best friend. Eric’s family had a few clubs under their name, and they were all fairly enjoyable for teens.

Loren received a response text pretty quickly, which meant Eric was probably already ready to go. A small grin turned the corners of Loren’s lips upward, Eric really was a great friend, always ready to help.

Returning home, Loren went and changed into grey denim pants that hugged his form, Black sneakers, and a navy blue button down shirt that he left hanging loose with only half the buttons done. He sat on his bed and took the time to twist his dreads into a ponytail that kept them mostly out of his face.

Moving to the bathroom, he checked himself in the mirror. Other than light discoloration under his eyes from not sleeping well, he approved his look. Muscles were teasingly barely revealed. Maybe he could find some little cutie to connect with, see if he could distract Zeala if they found the right girl.

He messaged Eric that he was ready. The response came that Eric would be there in five minutes. “He must already be in the neighborhood.”

Loren grinned. He could always rely on Eric. The younger teen was true to his friends. He had even dumped a girl for not understanding his closeness with anyone he truly called friend. Eric felt that if a friend was in need enough to ask, that it was his place to help.

Soon Loren heard a beep of a car horn, signifying that Eric had arrived. Heading outside, he got in his friend’s car. As they backed out of the driveway, Loren smiled at Eric. “Thanks man.”