His Warrior Alpha

Preparing for Dinner

Reed’s POV

My brother stayed like that for a while, my mother gently stroked his hand in a way to reassure him that this would all be okay. After a few minutes, he tried to compose himself and wiped his face clean with a cloth napkin that was on the table. I thought it would be a good time to continue our conversation. After all, we only had 6 weeks to prepare.

“Ryan, have you talked with Quinn about the warrior trials? I may not know Quinn well, but I could tell from the talk with Melody that her mind was made up. I wouldn’t be surprised if Quinn was, too. After all, they have had a decade to think about this,” I asked. I didn’t like the idea of Melody joining either, but this wasn’t either of our choices. His body stiffened as I said that with disgust painted on his face.

“No. Because she is not joining.” He snapped back at me, rage replacing the tears. Our mother and father were taken aback by the sudden outburst. “I won’t even discuss this. I won’t let her get herself killed. I am going for a run.”

Before any of us could stop him, he was out the door and shifted. His clothes were ripped to pieces on the lawn as he hadn’t bothered to strip down before changing. His brown wolf darted off in the opposite direction of the pack house. My father sighed. “So, how do we help the girls?”

“Well, I’m not certain how much combat experience they have or if they have ever done training. I’d like to talk with Melody about that tonight but I thought we could start by pulling out some books on fighting techniques. The normal rules apply, no shifting, only 1:1 matches. From my interactions with warriors in training, they are good in 1 vs 1 fights but are a bit brutish and they will have weight on their sides. We need to focus on teaching them how to use the opponent's weight against them, how to get your opponent off balance, and how to use their knowledge to find the right moment for the take down.”

My father beamed at me, proud of my assessment. I had learned from the best after all. “Great, so now we just need to find the right books and we can discuss a training regiment tonight. ”

“I’ll prepare dinner!” My mom seemed excited about meeting her future daughter-in-law.

“Oh! Mom, it’s her birthday, is there any way we can make a cake or anything?” My mother clicked her tongue in response. As if she was missing the opportunity to bake.

“Of course I can.” I stood up to give her a hug to thank her as we headed to my dad's office to find the books we needed.

We spent the next few hours combing through my father's collection. My grandfather was a collector of books and had passed his love and his collection on to my father when he passed. As a child, I asked him once how many books he had, and he had laughed before saying, “You know how many books it takes to be considered a library? At least 1000. Last I counted, I had over 1200 books.” He had continued to collect books since then, so I wouldn’t be surprised if there were over 1500 now. As we went through books, he also pulled a few that he thought Melody might be interested in. They contained the history of the River Mist Pack.

As we continued to pull books from the shelf, I heard the door open as Ryan returned. I heard his footsteps as he headed towards the library, seeming to have calmed down a bit. I looked over at the clock that hung above my father’s desk. It was already 5:30 and I didn’t want to be late. I hadn’t realized how much time had passed. I set down my book as Ryan walked in, sinking himself into the leather couch that sat opposite my father's desk.

“You okay now?” I asked him. He simply nodded, while resting his head on his hands with his elbows on his knees. “I need to meet up with Melody by 6, do you think you could find a backpack for her to bring these books back?” I gestured to the stack of books sitting on my father’s desk. We had pulled 8 books for her to read through.

“Yeah sure thing.”

“I should be back at about 6:15.” I said, heading towards the door. I still needed to change into some appropriate clothes. My dad waved me off, he was not one to respond when he was reading.

I quickly changed into some jeans and a nice t-shirt, fidgeting with my hair in the mirror before giving my mom a peck on the cheek and heading out the door.

Melody’s POV

The moment we got back, Jeremy and Celia disappeared. Celia still seemed off so I made a mental note to talk with her when we got back. Quinn quickly became an absolute nightmare as she pulled me towards the space where they had organized the clothing. She even grabbed Melinda, who gushed as Quinn gave her the short version of today's events before insisting she help me get ready too. They both pulled out several dresses for me to try in varying colors. I honestly hadn’t realized how much clothing Quinn had collected, but then again, this was Quinn. She never half did anything.

After about an hour of trying things on, we settled on a knee-length light blue dress. It had short butterfly sleeves and a slight v-cut in the center without being revealing. The dress flowed out at the waist. I have to admit, I looked good in this dress. It matched the blue in my hazel eyes and was a nice contrast to my dark hair which currently fell in long waves down my back.

“You are so beautiful, Mel.” Melinda almost teared up looking at me. She was like a mother to me and seeing her like this made me miss my own mother. My heart ached for her.

“Thank you.” I said quietly, giving Melinda a soft smile. Quinn was already beginning to mess with my hair. “Can I put it back in a braid?”

“No, we are leaving it. I’m just going to get it out of your face.” Quinn was already forming small French braids from the hair at the front of my head, her fingers weaving quickly back and forth. Soon she had 2 braids which she pulled to the back of my head in a faux crown.

She spent another twenty minutes applying make-up to my face once done before she stopped and looked me over once more. “Wow, I am good.” She complimented herself as she handed me a mirror to look at myself. My eyes were outlined with eyeliner but she had kept most of the make-up more natural.

Melinda looked over Quinn's handy work, giving her a hug. “I think I have the perfect final touch.” She finally said. “Remember how I said to come find me earlier? I have something for you that belonged to your mother.”

I gave Melinda a curious look. How had she gotten something from my mother? She pulled out a pull string bag and emptied the contents into her hand. It was a necklace with a silver chain and a silver crescent moon that held a round moonstone imitating a full moon.

“How did you get this?” I asked, tears were already filling my eyes, but as I tried to blink them away before they could mess up the make-up.

“Quinn's mother gave it to me when she left Quinn and Jeremy that night. She said if anything happened to make sure you got this on your 20th birthday. It has been in your family for hundreds of years and is supposed to carry the Moon Goddess’s blessings to whoever wears it.” I couldn’t find the words to express how grateful I was to have a piece of my family tonight, but Melinda seemed to understand as she pulled me into a hug. “Now cut that out before you ruin your make-up.” I nodded as Melinda pulled my hair to the side and hooked it on my neck.

Quinn had disappeared to prepare herself as we spoke; she apparently didn’t want to intrude on this conversation. She chose a forest green dress that hugged her figure. She really wasn’t one to pull her punches. She was about to surprise her boyfriend by not only showing up at his family dinner unannounced but with looks to kill. She put some simple eye liner on herself but didn’t add anything else. She spritzed us both with a scent blocker, to make it easier to sneak past any patrol before flashing me a devilish grin and grabbing my hand.

“Time to go!” She happily exclaimed. I looked back at Melinda one last time and she gave me a smile and a thumbs up as we took off to the meeting spot.