Luna, Make a Wish

Coffee

Emma:

“Well you see…” Darren was fumbling over his words. I’m sure trying to come up with some sort of good excuse. My wolf Serla was laughing because she knew as well as I did that we had caught him.

“Mmhm?” I took another sip from my coffee mug as I watched the color drain from his face. Huh. So, this is what an Alpha looked like when he was caught in a predicament. Interesting.

“Look.” He started with an exasperated tone. Was it wrong that I was kind of enjoying this? “Ever since I found out you were my mate, I wanted to protect you. To make sure that you were safe. I… I also wanted to find out more about you.”

“Alpha finds his mate and stalks her while teller her it’s for her own good. Now where have I heard that toxic trope before…” I murmured and rolled my eyes. I knew exactly where I’d heard it. It was a major plotline in at least three-quarters of my novels collection. The Goddess really did grant my wish of making my life like one of them. Ugh…

“N-No, Emma, you’ve got it wrong.” Darren started.

“No she doesn’t.” Lenny quipped behind him, who was quickly hushed by the faintest growl from Darren.

Darren sighed and ran his hand through his hair. “You know what? You’re right.” He held his hands up in surrender. “You’re absolutely right. You both are.” Lenny was grinning. “I---” He paused, whatever he was about to say seemed difficult for him. “I’m sorry.”

I blinked. So that’s why he was tripping over his words. He apologized. That honestly was not something I had expected. I expected him to go about asserting his power and rank and telling me that he knew what was better. Huh… Okay Goddess, you got me.

Lenny and Erik stared at him. Seems as though they were just as surprised at what had happened as I was. Was apologizing something that he didn’t do often? It would make sense, given his status and all. Hmm… this just threw a wrench in all the cogwheels I had going.

“Emma, I know that we’re fated. We can both feel it. My wolf feels it, and I’m sure yours does too.” Darren spoke again. I nodded. He wasn’t wrong.

“But…” He continued. “Times are different now than they were in our parents time, where being fated was an absolute, or it was forced acceptance. I’m leading a different pack, Emma. A pack with the current times. As much…” I could see a bit of strain in the tense posture that set in him as he spoke. “As my wolf hates me for saying this and very much wants to claim you…” He took a breath. “Lets have dinner. Get to know each other.”

Serla was prancing around me in circles. Not that anyone else could see her. She seemed quite happy about this. He was right. I could feel the mate bond. It was *strong*, and physical primal instinct absolutely wanted to take over. There was something else though. Something off that I couldn’t quite put my finger on.

“No thanks.” I muttered as I looked down at the mug between my hands. I wasn’t sure how to anticipate what would come next. Anger? Yelling? Sadness? Would he walk away? I didn’t know enough about him to even begin to imagine his response. I envisioned how things usually went in my books, but the Goddess had already thrown me for one loop. I wasn’t sure what to expect any more.

Serla had stopped dead in her tracks and was staring up at me. I could feel the anger rolling off her. Feel! Why wasn’t I feeling what Darren was feeling? Or Erik or Lenny? As the thought crossed my mind, I looked at Serla who stared back at me in confusion. She didn’t know either.

“I see…” Darren said softly. Erik and Lenna had been doing all they could to make themselves non-existant. They didn’t want to be caught in the middle of this conversation and truthfully I didn’t blame them.

I could feel his eyes on me, so I ventured a look up. Oh. He wasn’t looking at me. He was looking at my mug? My brows knit together in a confused manner.

“How about coffee then? I’ve heard that you’re not comfortable around people… so how about coffee on your back porch?”

I was shocked. This was going exceptionally well in my favor, and that made me exceptionally wary. Nothing ever went this well in my favor. Something was weird! I didn’t have much time to think about what it could be as he was staring at me expectantly.

After a brief moment of time I nodded my head at him. “Okay. My porch. ONLY coffee. Tomorrow morning at eleven am.”

“Eleven?”

“Mhm.”

“Why so late for coffee?” He questioned, and I could tell that he was genuinely curious.

“I have had a really… really weird day today. I’ve been soaked through to the bone with rain, had to put up with lightning, went to the census… which I absolutely can’t stand-“ I’d swear I saw him cringe back slightly at this. “I found… my stalker alpha mate and truthfully… All I want is to sleep.”

I blurted most of this out all at once. I hadn’t meant to, it just kind of… flowed out. Like a big pile of word vomit. It really hadn’t been a *bad* day by any standard, just weird. Especially for a birthday. A birthday which, because of the census, I never got to sleep in on. So I always did my sleeping in treat the day after. Mate or not, who was I to mess with tradition?”

“Coffee?” He asked again to be sure.

“Coffee.”