Chapter 7
He sat there the whole night telling me about his pack and what they do. He taught me how I would have to help him lead, and I would be a mentor to people. I would oversee things like the school and the clinic. I would decide what gets taught to the children.
He told me of the binding ritual that we would go through one day, so we would stand before our people and bind our souls together in their moon pool. I explained to him how different this was from a wedding and their culture. This was a very monumental moment, and our culture's half of weddings ended in divorce.
“Why would you marry someone if you’re not sure?” he asked.
“You build it up in your head, you ignore the signs because you want someone. You think you can withstand all the pressures that you face, but you don’t quite realize how long a lifetime is until you’re in it. Sometimes people are forced to marry, sometimes people lie,”
He shook his head, “ I don’t think I understand humans very well.”
“Well, we’re not all like that,” I pointed out.
“ I didn’t mean you were like that or you’re your sister, just that I know some of you can be untrustworthy and I don’t understand it, I guess,” he fumbled his words, but I wasn’t angry.
Neither of us knew anything about the other’s culture. We didn’t understand it, and we were going to have to learn. I don’t think he understood that this was a very monumental shift for me because to him, this was normal. At some point, a woman expects to meet her soulmate and travel to his pack or vice versa, but since he was an alpha meant I had to go to him.
In my world, couples fight all the time about where to live and who to be close to and what they’re going to do with their lives, but in his world, things were much more resolute and definitive. So much surety, it would be nice for a change to have a clear path.
“ I’m sorry that you have to uproot your life,” he apologized again. It seems like he did that every five minutes.
“Well, you see, my life isn’t the greatest right now. A lot of things have been uprooted for me. You’ve kind of come at the opportune moment,” I hung my head. He was expecting this great, honorable Luna here. I was passed over for promotion, broken up with my apartment was being fumigated. I was homeless and unworthy everywhere I looked.
“Trust me when I say that this will be a great boon to our pack, and I have no anxiety about how they will respect you.”
I was about to ask who made him so sure that everybody would be excited to have a human Luna, but his brother poked his head in on us.
“Sorry to break up the date, but everybody else is awake. I think it’s time we get going,” he told us.
My heart somersaulted in my chest. This was the moment I was about to pack up my life and go and move. God knows where with people I didn’t know at all because some guy decided to bite me on the neck.
I know it wasn’t really his choice and that they felt some sort of bond with their soulmates, but I didn’t understand any of it. I didn’t feel some magical pull towards him. I couldn’t hear anybody’s thoughts. I don’t know what they expected of me, but I trusted him. It was the hardest thing to say. I didn’t know much about him, but I trusted him. I felt it in my bones.
“Breakfast first,” Jess demanded.
I knew she was probably dragging her feet because she didn’t want me to go, but right now, I was going to be okay with it. I could say all I wanted that I knew this had to happen, but now that the moment was here, I was terrified.
Who knows what his pack was like? He could say that they’re good people, all he wanted, but that was from his perspective. He could say that they trusted me, and that they would respect me, but neither of us knew for sure.
We went downstairs to set up breakfast, and awkward silence loomed over us as we all scraped at our plates. I know that Jess wanted to say something. I could feel her working out a way to get me to stay inside of her head, but it wasn’t going to happen. She knew me better than anyone, and when I made up my mind, nothing could change it.
She begrudgingly guided them back to her apartment, where all my stuff was anyway. They grabbed my suitcases and my boxes with my books and my pictures and looked at us expectantly like we were just supposed to say goodbye. As if it would be see you later, not this gut-wrenching moment where we didn’t know what was going to come next.
I held onto my sister, tightly squeezing and memorizing her. How I was supposed to get through this without her next to me that we could share looks, and I could know exactly what she was thinking by just the quirk of her eyebrow. I do not know.
“ I will call you as soon as I get on the plane or wherever I’m going. I will call you when I get there. I will send photos. I will send proof of life,” I promised.
“You better,” she broke our hug and stared down Green, a hilarious sight, considering she was a full 8 inches shorter than him. “You better keep my sister safe, I found out anybody else sinks their teeth into her and I turn you into a rug,” she hissed.
Sadly, I don’t think Jess would be warming up to him anytime soon.
They loaded my stuff into the car. I didn't have to lift a finger, and when I tried, Hayley looked at me sternly and shook her head. I guess Lunas don’t carry suitcases.
I gave Jess one last hug and forced the tears to stay inside. I didn’t know these people, and I wasn’t about to cry in front of them. I did not think this is how our night out would end.
I got into the car and watched her, and we drove off my eyes locked on my sister as the car continued on. Only looking away as we turned the corner.
We tracked back towards the hotel, pulling up a familiar street.
“Why are we back at the club?” I turned to Green.
“I wasn’t there to meet you, Andre, the owner, has something he wants to discuss,” he explained.
I followed him into the club, the black brick looming in the daylight. Wolves were stationed at the door. “You got your human with you,” one of them smirked.
“Was that comment about our Luna?” Hayley stepped up to the smirking woman.
“No,” her smirk still in place. “It’s perfect timing for a human mate,” she eyed green in a way I didn’t understand.
“What does she mean by that?”