The Forbidden Mate
Chapter Six – Searching for a Luna

Alex

I have managed to delay the hunt for my Luna for two weeks, but my father is impatient and has started to plan a party to step up his campaign to find me a suitable mate. It is out in the open now, and I still haven’t told Katy.

I am a coward, and I know that each day that I delay it will get worse. That when I do tell her she will be angry that I have not spoken to her sooner, that she will doubt my motives. She will be disappointed in me for agreeing to look for my mate, when I know that she is the rightful Luna of this pack, and I still haven’t found a way to tell everyone who she really is to me.

I can’t wait any longer. The party has been announced to the servants, preparations are underway, and invites due to be sent out. If I don’t find a way to tell her tonight. Someone else will.

Katy

I have been off work for three weeks, but it is time to return to my duties at the packhouse. I haven’t told Alex that I am going back to work.

I don’t seem to be able to tell him very much at the moment. All our conversations now feel stilted, constrained by the knowledge that he is not confiding in me about the search for his Luna, a chosen mate, and the possible reasons why.

I don’t want to ask. I am afraid of what he will say, but gradually I feel the anger building inside. As my brain works out all the potential reasons why he wouldn’t tell me, and none of them are good. None of them point to us being together in the future.

When I arrive in the packhouse servants’ quarters, Mrs Welsh greets me with a big hug. “It is so good to see you back. We have all missed you.”

“Thank you and thank you for being so understanding in letting me have time off to spend with Emma” I say to her gratefully.

“And how is Emma doing, is she beginning to come to terms with the loss of your parents?” she asks me with concern.

“Very slowly. The nightmares have almost stopped, and she is more talkative, but she is not the bright bubbly little girl that she was before” I tell her.

“It will take time poor soul. She lost both her parents at once and saw the most horrific atrocities committed against her friends and family, but she is a resilient little thing and will get better” she says trying to comfort me.

“And I understand that the Alpha heir Alex saved you both. That he killed the wolf that was about to attack you?”

“Yes” I say quietly “it was very good of him.”

“We have always seen him as arrogant and a bit cruel, but he certainly stepped up during the attack and saved us from the rogues. And all the good work he has done since for us Omegas. He will make a good Alpha when the time comes, we are very lucky. “

I nod. I am proud of him. I know how good he has been, how much good he can do for the rest of the pack if I don’t stand in his way.

“I have been asked by the Alpha to arrange a large party for him. It seems that they are stepping up their efforts to find his mate. It is going to be a fabulous party no expense spared, and for such a good cause. We could do with some happiness in the pack after everything has happened. I will make sure that you get to have lots of involvement with the organisation” she tells me with a big smile.

She obviously thinks that this will be a big treat for me, something to bring a little bit of happiness after the loss of my parents. Little does she know that organising Alex’s mating ball will tear me apart. But I can’t tell her that.

I force a smile on my face, and manage to choke out the words thank you, and hope that this will be enough of a response to please her.

It seems to be good enough because she changes the subject and starts to fill me in on all that has been happening while I had been away. I am glad that she doesn’t need me to participate in the conversation that she is happy for me to listen in silence while she talks.

I don’t think I will be able to speak until I can get my emotions under control again, knowing that I am going to be made to help arrange Alex’s mating party has floored me. I can only hope that it will get easier.

Alex

I am attending a meeting to discuss the organisation of the party with the servants. My father is keen for this to be a large lavish occasion, with no expense spared, and he wants me involved every step of the way. I need to demonstrate to him my commitment to finding a suitable Luna.

I hate these types of parties at the best of times. Vacuous shewolves who are desperate to be Luna and think they have a chance with me, monopolising my time with inane chatter about their shallow lives. They don’t have half the heart or courage that Katy has, but they are thought to be eligible, while she is classed as beneath me.

I try not to zone out of the conversation, or at least not to make it too obvious that I am struggling to concentrate, when Mrs Welsh says something that grabs my attention and fills me with dread

“The party is happening at just the right time. Most of the staff who were granted leave due to the rogue attack have now returned to work, so we are almost back to full capacity. We will be able to organise the event properly.

I also think it will give some of the victims something else to think about. Take poor Katy who lost both her parents and was saved by Master Alex during the attack”, she says nodding at me. “She has returned this morning and I have already recruited her to be one of the main servants to help set up the event.”

Oh no. Katy not only knows that I am actively searching for my Luna, and not from me, but she has been asked to get involved with organising the party. This is worse than I could ever have thought possible.

…………………

I have struggled to do any work since the meeting about the party. I am waiting impatiently for night to fall so I can go to Katy and explain, but I am not sure how I am going to defend myself, how I will justify not telling her myself sooner.

I have messed up and I don’t know how I am going to make it up to her.

When I finish work, I make my way to her house as usual. I go to open her back door, but for once it is locked.

I knock quietly on the door but get no response. I knock louder this time, in my desperation to speak to her not caring if someone hears me. This makes her come to the door.

She opens it but she doesn’t move from the doorway to let me in. Her arms are folded she is unyielding, but she says nothing.

“Let me in, so I can explain” I request.

“Explain?” she asks. “How can you explain that you are searching for your Luna?”

“I am not” I exclaim. “I, I…. just have to go along with my father’s plans to stop him trying to replace me as his heir, to make Jordan the next alpha.”

“If that was your plan, why didn’t you tell me about it, why did you leave me to find out from someone else? Someone who now wants me to help plan your mating party?” she asks me.

“I was a coward; I was scared that you wouldn’t understand why I had to do this” I say.

“I might have understood if you had confided in me” she tells me with hurt in her eyes, “but you didn’t. Maybe that was because deep down you do want to take a chosen mate, someone that would be more suitable than me, someone that your father and the rest of the pack will accept.”

“No” I say vehemently. “I can’t live without you. It is you that I want by my side for the rest of my life, and if the pack knew you the way that I know you, if they could forget their prejudices against Omega’s then they would realise that you would make the perfect Luna.”

“If…..” she says and pauses for a moment. “We are no closer to finding a way for you to announce to the pack that I am your mate. I don’t think we ever will.”

“I am working on it” I tell her, but I can see the doubt and disbelief in her eyes. I move my hand to caress her cheek, but she moves her head back to avoid my touch.

“Not to night. I need to be alone tonight” she tells me before she closes the door.

I am at a loss to work out what to do next, how to fix this situation.

Ellen Graham

I have not seen Katy since the night of her first shift. I avoided her when she tried to visit me in the days afterwards. I know that she has many questions, but I couldn’t answer them straight away. She needed to come to terms with the knowledge I had given her first, before I can tell her the whole truth.

I also needed time to decide how best to keep her safe, now that my plan for her to leave the pack and attend a human university had failed. I still hope that my brother will change his mind it would be the best solution.

Then the rogues had attacked and killed her parents. She had come so close to being killed herself. If it hadn’t been for my nephew she would have died. I don’t know him very well he was always spoiled and arrogant as a child. Much like his father and younger brother, but the reports I have heard since the attack, of how he has helped the Omegas, has begun to change my opinion.

I have left it for a few weeks, but I think it is now finally safe for me to contact Katy. I can’t let anyone see that I care more for her than any teacher would for a former student, but I am all she has now, and I need to support her. We need to come up with a plan for what she will do next.

It is becoming too dangerous for her to stay in the pack. My sources have told me that this rogue attack was just the start. Lucius is about to launch a new war, and the Lunar Eclipse pack will not be allowed to stay neutral this time.

I make my way at night to the back of her house, so that I am not seen by any passers-by. When I get there, I discover that she already has a visitor.

She is standing at the door speaking to my nephew. I am shocked to see him there. I know he saved her life, and that this must have created a bond that will make them closer than your normal Omega and Alpha, but it is obvious that there is more to their relationship than just gratitude. They are not touching but there is intimacy in the way that they stand close together, the way that they gaze at each other. He lifts his hand to stroke her cheek, and even though she moves a way. It is obvious that she isn’t shocked or offended by his touch.

There is something between them. Something that cannot be allowed to continue. He is searching for his Luna and that won’t be Katy. If they are having a relationship it needs to stop now, before she gets hurt, and before this interest in her becomes apparent to the rest of the pack. Katy must keep in the shadows she cannot draw attention to herself it is too dangerous.

I won’t interrupt them. I will leave tonight, but I need to speak to her about this, soon.

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When Alex leaves, I feel so consumed by anger. I can’t go to bed, I won’t sleep. I feel my wolf below the surface, fighting to take control. To be let out. I haven’t shifted since that first time. I have done exactly as Miss Graham has instructed, and not transformed into my wolf form. Tonight, though I can’t take it anymore I have to run free.

I open the backdoor and run to the trees. I take off my clothes, close my eyes, and concentrate on the change. It comes much more easily this time my wolf is desperate to be released. The pain is not as bad, but I still feel discomfort, as my bones begin to break and re-form. My nose and mouth extend into an elongated snout. My claws break out of my hands and feet. My fur whose silver colouring will brand me as a cuckoo in this pack begins to sprout across my body.

As soon as the change is complete, I am off running through the forest, manoeuvring my way through the trees, jumping over roots, and small bushes. We run for miles almost to the pack borders. She doesn’t want to stop and neither do I. This feels amazing.

When we are finally tired, I make my way home. I have to do this again. I know that Mrs Graham warned me about how dangerous it would be if my wolf was seen, but it is torture not to be able to shift. I feel like I am losing the most important part of me.

I will be careful I vow. I will only run late at night; I will stay away from the routes that the patrols take and the areas where the rest of the pack like to run.

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