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“I can’t get over how much you look like your mother. Same rare beauty. Same nice curves,” Alpha Javier said, and I growled before I could hold it back.
“Same disinterest in you as well, it seems.” Alpha Diego laughed while Celeste ignored his quips, and she continued to eat as if she hadn’t heard the man. The rest of the table laughed, and Alpha Javier grunted when Celeste didn’t bite.
‘How are you so calm?’I growled at her, not meaning to sound as harsh as I did. Celeste raised an eyebrow at my tone but sighed.
‘I spent years verbally assaulted by the unmated warriors in Blood Moon. This guy is pretty tame, even though he feels he’s bold for speaking to a luna this way. I’ve learned reactions only elicit more comments. This guy just wants to get a reaction from the mated American alpha so he can brag about his big balls to his buddies back home. Don’t play into it. He can’t touch me, and even if he tried, Kara and I would destroy him before he could.’
‘That’s my job,’I grumbled.
‘The only thing we have to worry about is not letting him near Camila before the full moon,’she reminded me, and I looked down to where Gillian was sitting a few seats down. The man looked miserable, hadn’t touched his food and kept looking at the door every time he saw someone coming through.
‘You told her where to go?’ I asked her. She talked to Camila earlier when she took her lunch, and Camila told Celeste the reason she was forced to hide. Celeste helped her make a plan to meet Gillian in the maize fields without encountering Alpha Javier on the way. Camila told Celeste that if she and Gillian weren’t mates, she would consider accepting him as her chosen mate. Celeste knew better but assured her if this was what she and Gillian wanted, we would support it.
‘Yes, she’s very nervous. Looks like he is, too. I hate not being able to tell him, but Selene made me promise.’Celeste sighed. ‘Did you talk to Evergreen?’
‘Yes, he said he’s too close to finishing. He will catch up to us after the run.’
After dinner, we stepped out of the dining room and watched our beta, and friend, walk into the maize field alone.
Let her be his and he hers.I sent a quick prayer to Selene. I believed Celeste when she said Gillian would find his mate here, but there wasn't one hundred percent certainty that it was her. We could only hope and pray as we headed to the small stage they used for the runs. Alpha Diego gave his speech, and we all looked up as we waited for the moon to reach its peak.
Celeste and I kept our eyes on our people. We were the only mated pair out of the eleven of us from Crescent Moon, and we hoped we didn’t leave the same way. A pack thrived when its members could find their fated mates. My current generation was taking a while to find theirs. However, the myth was that after an alpha and luna mated, more matings usually followed to ensure a healthy, happy pack.
The first of the wolves lifted their heads and started smelling the air, looking for that intoxicating scent that would be unique to their mate. Celeste grabbed my arm excitedly, and I followed her gaze to Gabriel. The man was stiff as a board, his eyes scanning the crowd and his nose flaring as he tried to inhale the scent around him.
“Mio,” said a beautiful, tall woman with long black hair, brown eyes, and the solid build of a warrior, standing behind him. Gabriel whipped around, inhaling deeply and stalking toward the woman.
“Mine,” he growled, smashing her into his chest. Celeste did a small happy shimmy beside me, but before we could comment our congratulations, Eddie, one of the Spanish-speaking guards we brought, jumped onto the platform in front of one of the daughters of a visiting alpha.
“Mine,” he growled when the alpha stood in front of his daughter defensively. He looked from his daughter to my guard, relaxing his stance and stepping aside when she nodded her head eagerly at her father.
I grinned at Celeste and pointed towards him, but she was looking at Diego, who was sniffing at the air, scanning the crowd intently. He was clearly smelling his mate, but by the anxious look on his face, he couldn’t tell where she was. Suddenly, we saw a pretty female running out of the pack house.
“No aguante, necesita—” She stopped and sniffed the air, looking around. Diego was in front of her in a flash.
“MIA!” he roared triumphantly, and she gasped. Her father, a man standing beside one of the visiting alphas, a beta if I remembered correctly, fist-pumped the air in celebration of the match.
Diego pulled her up to the stage before he announced it was time to shift. Everyone who hadn’t been present when Celeste shifted yesterday gasped and awed at Kara while Atlas stood proudly beside her. Her long black fur blew in the light breeze, giving people a majestic image of an Aztec wolf.
The run started, and we followed happily beside Diego and his family. Not long after the run began, we heard Gillian’s unmistakable happy howl coming from the maize fields. Kara grinned at Atlas, who nipped at her leg happily. Our ranked group was finally complete, and most importantly, my best friend was finally complete.
We were halfway through the run when Otto and the pretty wolf he had shielded the day Huitzilopochtli showed up. He fell in step with us, playing with Camila’s wolf running beside him.
I opened a link to him and Celeste.
‘I’m happy for you, brother,’I told him and saw Otto grin at our side, tongue hanging out happily.
‘I got your room ready while you were away. Diego assured me it was soundproof,’Celeste added with a giggle.
‘Thank you both, but we still need to have a conversation about how the hell you could have known about this before I did,’he warned as we began to make our way back toward the pack house.
‘All in good time.’I laughed. ‘Unless you want to spend tonight talking about that?’ I teased.
Fuck no. She already marked us. We’ve waited too long for her,Otto answered, and we all laughed. I cut the mind-link off and then opened another mind-link so we could give our congratulations to Gabriel and Eddie. I let them know they could skip their next shift. Most of the shifts here were informal and only necessary when people were visiting the pack grounds, anyway.
We were coming around the front of the pack house to shift back when I saw Evergreen coming out the doors. He must have just finished scanning because he looked tired but relieved. He handed us our clothes and waited for us to dress before he began giving us his report.
“I finished scanning. I will just need to…” He stopped and looked behind us. His eyes grew wide, and we turned around in time to see a light brown brindle wolf heading straight for him. I grabbed Celeste and pulled her from the wolf's path before it barrelled into Evergreen. “Mine,” he growled under his breath from where he was pinned on the floor.
