The Alpha’s Hidden Luna

4

I straightened up but didn’t move from my seat. “Thank you, Fiona,” I grumbled. I didn’t remember inviting her assessment of the matter.

The woman pinched her brows together, breathing slowly through her nose. She did the same thing when I was a little boy who was getting on her last nerve. It seemed I was good at that. Honestly, I had only gotten better with age.

“I hate to think of what the other alphas might say, were you to miss it. Your poor father is probably rolling over in his grave just at the mere suggestion. His only son, and not a care in the world for tradition.”

The mention of my father made my stomach sink, as if we were still in the air and we hit a particularly rough patch of turbulence. “My father might have been a traditionalist, but not in matters like this,” I shot back, shoving my hands into my pockets. “He’d be the first to say this was a complete waste of time.” I met my mother’s gaze steadily. I could think of a hundred different things we could be spending pack time and energy on, back at home in Texas.

Fiona leveled her unblinking gaze at me. I did not waver, ignoring the air hostess as she quietly crept around whatever familial dispute she imagined this to be. The woman was clearly uncomfortable, but she’d only joined the Silverstreak pack last year. Believe it or not, there weren’t many shifters who were also trained air travel professionals.

Finally, my mother looked away, glancing out the window instead. “If that were the case, he would be denying that they worked. I met your father at such a ceremony, Remus.” She sighed, wistful. “That’s how your grandparents met, too, you know.”

It was my turn to sigh and look away. We’d had this conversation at least a dozen times already. We’d been having it for the last five years. No matter how many times my mother brought this topic up, it did not change the facts; I was not that type of guy, and my mother couldn’t see it. Maybe she was determined to see whatever it was she was missing in my father in me instead, but all I needed was a temporary liaison, at best. A weekend fling. A week in paradise. Something with a set shelf life, and no one holding any illusions otherwise. I was an adult, and I associated with other adults. It was a beneficial system, really. The idea of having to entertain the same person for the rest of my life?

Internally, I shuddered. No thank you.

My mother stood and closed the rest of the gap between us, then reached out to squeeze my hand. I tipped my head, looking over at her. The corner of my mouth lifted. “You were the exception,” I told her. Even I couldn’t argue that she and my father had clearly had a special relationship; I could see it even when I was a boy of five years.

Fiona simply studied my expression for a moment. “Remus,” she sighed softly. “Please try to remember that this is an important ceremony. A very important ceremony. It might not be your style, or whatever your argument is — don’t give me that look — but it is very meaningful to our pack and most of our people. They still believe in it, because it works. Finding a mate wouldn’t just benefit you, but it would benefit our entire pack. I know you know that, Remy, even if you won’t say as much.”

I bit my tongue before I could fire off another quip, bristling as my mother dredged up my boyhood nickname. Before I could argue, my mother continued. “I can’t expect you to understand, my love, not until you meet your own mate. You could not possibly imagine how deep the bond goes. Even I had doubts, you know, though I was a bit younger than you when I met Remington.” She paused, gaze going distant for a moment. My irritation softened as I watched her reminisce. “Your lifelines become tangled. It is the single most wonderful, intense thing — and you will have your mate for the rest of your life. Or theirs.” Her voice thickened and she cleared her throat, looking away again. I could see the hint of moisture peeking over her lower lashes and despite our tiff, I still had the urge to embrace my mother. She seemed determined to finish this talk now that she had started it. “I knew the moment he died, Remus. I wasn’t with him, but I knew. I miss that man every moment of every day, but even with this, I would never trade having known him. Having been his mate. Do you understand me, Remy? There is nothing more sacred, nothing more beautiful than that. Please do not brush it off as an old woman’s fancy.”

Fiona was just trying her best to help. She just couldn’t understand that I wasn’t, I don’t know, as old-fashioned or naive as some of the others. Still. The emotion still brimming in her voice had sucked most of the fight out of me.

“I won’t embarrass you,” I said instead of something sharp and biting, trying to placate her. I had had enough of this familiar argument for today. I certainly didn’t want my mother to devolve from misty-eyed to outright teary.

Unfortunately, my mother knew me better than that. She fixed me with a frown, her silvering brows knitting together. Her earthy green eyes searched my face and I sighed, knowing I’d been found out. “I still don’t want a mate, Mom, but for you, I’ll keep an open mind,” I said, squeezing her hand. “We’ll be the strongest clan in the southern United States regardless of my relationship status.” The pack’s stability wasn’t in danger — if anything, we were only getting stronger — but I didn’t linger on the topic, or my mother might think I was inviting another lecture. “But I will look, and I won’t say anything untoward. All right?”

“That will be all right,” she agreed, giving my hand one last squeeze before letting go. At least we could both recognize a stalemate when we reached one.

I stepped to the side, allowing my mother to gather her jacket before walking off the plane. I followed her and a moment later, my beta, Bane, fell into step behind me. Both he and my chief financial officer at Silverstreak Motors, Tala, had the good manners to pretend they hadn’t witnessed any of that conversation.

Instead, Bane stepped around me as soon as we had descended the steps, striding out ahead of me. A black limo was already waiting on the tarmac. Before I could ask, the driver opened the door and out stepped Marnet Claw and his mother, Kate. I stiffened, the hair on the back of my neck prickling as my wolf bristled. Now that we were off the plane, I quickly got the sense we were not alone, and it wasn’t just my dislike of Marnet setting off the warning flag in my head. He had wolves watching us.

“Remus Silverstreak,” Marnet drawled, shoving a callused hand in my direction. I fought down the urge to bare my teeth, even if my wolf was now on high alert. Bane had sidestepped seamlessly, suddenly at my mother’s shoulder instead of acting as a makeshift meat shield. “So glad you could make it.”

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” I replied, offering a wolf’s smile in return. Marnet’s eyes gleamed as he squeezed my hand; I gripped right back, uncowed by whatever he thought he might be displaying. Behind him, his mother cleared her throat, and Marnet finally looked away, withdrawing his hand to offer it to my mother instead.

“Fiona,” he murmured, dipping his head in her direction. “You look lovely, as always.”

My mother beamed as she leaned in to kiss both of the man’s weather-worn cheeks, using his handshake to keep him from escaping. “Marnet,” she cooed, as if he were a nephew rather than the alpha of a rival pack. “You look just stunning today. A spitting image of your father. I am sure Noah would have been delighted to see what a wonderful young man you’ve grown into over the past year.”

She sounded honest in her assessment. I glowered at the side of my mother’s head, but she’d already moved on from exchanging pleasantries with Marnet to embracing Kate. Admittedly, I didn’t have much of an issue with the Claw matriarch (outside of the fact that she had spawned Marnet, but fate could be cruel, so I wasn’t sure I could hold that against her, either), and I supposed it was good for my mother to have other wolves who could relate to her grief. My understanding was that Kate had almost entirely disappeared from her pack’s social structure after Noah died, and Marnet took over his father’s role as alpha. I had no idea how much truth there was to that, but I wasn’t sure how I felt about that…other than that I still didn’t trust her, no matter how happy my mother seemed to see her.