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“What about your training?”
“I don’t need it anymore. Selene fixed my premonitions. I will never be able to control my healing, since it only works if she wills it and…” I put my palm up and called upon the fire within me, making a small fireball appear in my hand.
“Hey! Your eyes aren’t even burning this time,” he said and I smiled. He put his hand over the ball of fire and lowered it slowly as he tentatively gaged to see if it burned him. When it didn’t, he grabbed my wrist with the other hand and tilted my hand. The small ball of fire danced on his skin as if it liked him before it slid fully onto his hand until he was the one holding it.
“How did you know that would work?” I asked, amazed.
“The day I found you, you were covered with fire. I couldn’t get you to wake up, so Atlas and I decided to touch you to see if the bond would call you back. The fire didn’t burn us. In fact, the closer we got, the happier it seemed to get like it wanted to play with us. Kara said you would be able to share your abilities with us, so I figured it might be interesting to see if we could manipulate it too,” he explained as he played with the fire in his hands until he closed one hand over the other and the fire went away, absorbed into his skin. He grinned at me. “Now that’s a cool trick.” He laughed as he kissed me.
“Are you able to make it too?” I asked after we came back up for air. He held his hand up for a minute while his eyes became unfocused as he spoke with Atlas.
“Atlas is saying we can only share it. You make it, and I can use it. It doesn’t come from me.” He blew air out of his mouth and his hair ruffled above him, making me laugh. Then an idea came to me and I jumped up and turned around to face him.
“We should train together. I make the fire and we use it together!” I exclaimed. His eyes went wide, and I saw them twinkle.
“You are a genius!” he said, kissing me hard. “We’ll have to make sure you don’t use all of your energy, but it would be good to use it in a tight spot!”
Chapter twenty-five
Markus
Wewereworkinginone of the conference rooms today. Gillian, Danny and me in one corner of the room, getting business out of the way so I could take tomorrow morning off. Celeste, Maya, Mrs Quinn and Kelly were sitting at the other end, trying to figure out the details for the luna ceremony. It wasn’t easy to concentrate on either side, with everyone’s voices flowing from one side to another, but I refused to let Celeste out of my sight. Atlas and I were still not over the two days that she was gone. We needed her near us at all times.
I already talked to Gillian about starting construction on my downstairs offices. I wanted to break a wall as soon as possible to make a bigger double office for Celeste and me. A smaller office would be added next to ours with a clear, soundproof divider that would be used when we had to deal with duties that required individual attention. The partition could also obscure when necessary to ensure total privacy.
Danny and I looked up from our work when we started hearing distress coming from Celeste and Maya. We didn’t interrupt because we knew the theme of their arguments with Mrs. Quinn and Kelly over the last week. When preparations for the luna ceremony started, Mrs Quinn, Maya and Celeste did all the planning, but Mrs Quinn requested backup last week. Celeste insisted that since Maya was the gamma female, she should also be allowed to celebrate the day with us with a smaller ceremony before ours. Danny and Maya told her it wasn’t necessary, but Celeste wasn’t budging on the point. I wasn’t against it and neither was Mrs. Quinn, but problems arose as they tried to pin down the details of the celebrations.
Celeste and Maya kept balking at the prices and ideas that Mrs. Quinn was suggesting. They thought it was unnecessary to spend so much on a one-day celebration. Mrs. Quinn kept reminding them that many alphas and lunas would be coming to the celebration and, therefore, no expense should be spared, but the girls weren’t having it. They rejected everything she suggested the moment they caught sight of the prices.
She came to ask me for help. The girls clearly liked some of the ideas she was pitching but refused them outright if it was expensive, so I brought Kelly in to help Mrs Quinn even out the discussions, but it only seemed to make things worse. Mrs. Quinn and Kelly kept mind-linking me every time Celeste and Maya would shoot something down because of the price and I didn’t know how to help them.
I sighed, not able to concentrate on the report in front of me anymore. They were running out of time and it would be a cold day in hell before I delayed her becoming my official luna.
‘I take it you’ve also not had any luck getting Maya to spend some money on the ceremony, Danny?’I opened a mind-link with Danny and Gillian.
‘Not unless I want to sleep on the couch again,’he huffed.‘Last time I tried to remind her that we have enough money to spend on this, she almost bit my head off and reminded me I already went back on my word when she asked to help the staff and then refused to let her clean the bathrooms. I was eloquently asked to keep my nose out of her business. Then she yelled at me about feeling useless enough without spending all of this money on a one-day party, threw the pillow in my face and pointed to the couch.’
‘Celeste won't even talk to me about it. She just insists that it’s not necessary and we could use the money for something else.’I sighed.
‘I don’t think you’re going to win here guys. It wasn’t that long ago that we took them from Blood Moon Pack. Celeste still looks underfed. The mental trauma of being starved and beaten for a decade isn’t something you can get out of your head as easily as putting on some weight and taking vitamins. Remember what happened to me? And I didn’t even go through anything near as bad as them,’Gillian interjected.
I turned my attention back to Celeste and Maya. Gillian was right. Celeste looked a lot better than she did when she got here, but I could still tell she was a little underweight. Maya was at a healthy weight now, but I knew from Danny that she still had night terrors and issues from their time in the pack. It really was asking a lot of them to overcome over a decade of abuse in a few months simply because they were mated to us. The mate bond wasn't a magical cure for mental health.
‘So what do we do?’I asked.
‘Well—’ Our conversation was interrupted by the sound of a chair pulling back. Celeste was standing, visibly upset.
“Luna, there are expectations that need to be met when you host a luna ceremony. You are hosting many important people. Many of them travel for hours just to witness your ceremony. They expect a certain level of luxury. We can’t just serve them hot dogs on paper plates in the same seating as the staff,” Mrs Quinn said as she pinched the bridge of her nose.
“Thatstaffis more important to me than an alpha that might find it offensive to eat with members of my pack. Why should we spend so much money and they don’t even like the pack? Markus has never had an issue eating with anyone.”
I started to get up but Gillian touched my arm.
“Alpha, may I?” he asked.
“Please. I don’t want to sleep on the couch either.” I sighed.
“Luna—” Kelly started.
