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“And then you wouldn’t have lost so much time together,” he said with a sad look on his face. “Kassie and Gonzalo lost two hundred years together. What it did to them… It’s not something I wanted to see any of you go through. It’s not right. I always thought she would be yours, I should have stuffed ya both in a room during a full moon to be sure.”
“It happened however it needed to happen. What matters is that she’s in my arms and nothing will take her away from me anymore,” I said, a bit of peace settling over me when I felt the truth in my words. “She’s home again and back in everybody’s life, plus she brought James his mate. We can’t really be angry about that.”
He huffed and sat back. “No, I guess not. And that cuteness that is little Molly is in our life now too,” he added dreamily.
“I can see inside that head of yours, Cariño. We said we’d wait until Tori found her mate.” Elias came over to join the conversation.
“It’s whatever the Moon Goddess decides for us,” Adrien huffed, looking away and making Elias narrow his eyes suspiciously at his mate. I grinned, knowing that Adrien had probably already started looking.
“When is Bells coming to visit?” Adrien changed the subject, unable to hide the small blush on his face. I chuckled but played along.
“Next week as far as I know.”
“Do you guys still talk often?”
“Every day,” I smiled. “Even if it’s just to say good night.”
“I miss her sass. I thought for sure she’d end up somewhere close by.” I frowned at his words.
“So did I, but we can’t really go against the will of the Goddess. I’m sure she has her reasons and we have to trust them.” I knew the words to be true. I’d always believed them, but something in the back of my mind tingled with tiny alarm bells and I couldn’t figure out why. Maybe it was because I could hear and feel that something was wrong in my heart whenever I talked to Bells, or maybe it was that I missed her so much that I wanted something to be wrong so I could bring my sister home.
Evie turned into my neck more, seeking comfort, so I expelled a breath and changed the subject so my mate could continue with her nap.
We arrived back at the pack house around noon, and we stood at the steps while I tried to convince Evie that the information we grabbed from Vegas could wait until tomorrow. Now that we were home, Evie was wide awake and ready to get to work.
I was distracted momentarily when I saw someone fall to the ground out of the corner of my eye. I turned my attention to my left to find Chris on his knees, his hair falling to either side of him, covering his face. I told Evie to wait for me and walked quickly to him.
“Chris? Are you okay?” His head snapped up, and I could see the pain in his eyes before he cleared it of all emotion. Chris was one of my best warriors. He grew up with us. He was Gabriel and Brenda’s only child, and for a while, we went nowhere without him. Gabriel was Mom’s bodyguard, and Brenda had been ours growing up.
“Alpha!” He scrambled to stand up, allowing me to help him after his hand slipped on his thigh. “I’m fine. I just lost my balance.”
I was going to push, but I remembered how closed off Chris always was, even when we were little. He wanted to be an elite warrior like his mom and dad since he was old enough to understand what it meant. He was always the responsible one out of our group, making sure we were following the rules laid out by our parents and not getting into trouble. The quiet one. I always considered him a friend, but I knew we were more of a job for him, an extension of his parents’ responsibility that he put on his shoulders whenever we hung out together. So instead of pushing him, I clapped him on the shoulder.
“If you need anything, let me know.” His jaw tightened as he looked off into the distance before he turned back to me and nodded, then continued on his way to wherever he was going.
“Is he okay?” Evie asked, making her way to where I stood as I watched him walk away.
“I hope so. I’ll try to check in with him later. He looked on the verge of tears for a moment,” I answered, soothing her worry with a kiss on her forehead. We turned to walk back to the pack house, but stopped when I saw Mom walking out, holding Traci by the upper arm. They both stopped when they saw us, and I felt Evie tense.
“Hi, you two! Did everything go alright on your trip?” Mom asked, pushing Traci to start moving again. Traci must have been in the dungeons all this time. It was the only reason I could think of why she would be in there after I told Mom I didn’t want her anywhere near the pack house again.
“Everything went well. What are you up to?” I asked, eyeing how Traci glared at Evie and not liking it.
“Oh, we were headed out to the training fields to get some exercise. Silly me forgot all about leaving Traci in the dungeons all weekend, can you believe it?” she asked so casually, and I had to school my face from laughing. Mom never forgot anything.
They started walking away until Traci suddenly wrenched her arm away from Mom’s grip and yelled loudly. “I, Traci Henderson, challenge you for the title of Luna of Crescent Moon.”
Evie stiffened in my arms while a growl left my chest, but whatever we were both going to say got cut off when Mom started chuckling behind her. I looked over at her and saw Kara had taken over, her eyes black and a smile on her face that would make me shiver in fright if she wasn’t my mother.
“You silly fucking girl. You just don’t learn, do you? We just had a conversation about mates not fifteen minutes ago,” Kara said in an almost gleeful sing-song voice and walked around Traci to look her in the eyes. Traci paled when she noticed Kara was in control, but stood her ground. Kara rolled her eyes. “Very well. I accept.”
That caught all three of us by surprise.
“N-no. I-I challenged Evie.” Traci stuttered, taking a step back. Kara’s smile widened.
“Ah, not very smart are we? I’ll explain. Your challenge was to the Luna of Crescent Moon, which you didn’t name.” I coughed to cover a laugh that bubbled up my throat when I realized what Mom was doing. Evie was biting her bottom lip, also following along already. “While Evie is mated to the alpha of Crescent Moon, she’s not yet the luna.” Kara stopped and turned to Evie. “Celeste wants me to tell you she’s ready to meet for the planning. Send all of us a meeting invite that fits you and your mom’s schedule.” Her pleasant voice when addressing Evie turned hard again when she turned her ire back to Traci. “Evie won’t be luna until the ceremony. Technically speaking, while Markus passed down the title of alpha, Cory didn’t have a luna yet, so if we’re going through the semantics and political technicalities and all of the bullshit legalities in the council rules, I’m still the luna of Crescent Moon until the next luna ceremony.” Traci paled, her eyes darting back and forth to all of us in panic. Mom only smiled at her again. “So I accept. Let’s get this done now, shall we? I can’t wait to hear how everything went.” Mom winked at me. My mother was my fucking hero.
“No... Luna, please. I rescind my challenge.” Mom stopped, Kara still front and center as she cocked her head to the side as she regarded the panicking woman in front of us.
