Threat

RORY

When I return to the pack grounds, my mind is absolutely spinning.

I can’t believe that the final debate tournament—the one we’ve been prepping for for months—is on the same day as my mating ceremony!

If I tell Everett, he’ll ~never~ understand what the big deal is.

He’s always thought that debate is a stupid sport.

~Life is filled with enough arguments,~ he says. ~Why bother making up fake ones?~

But if I disappoint the team, they’ll never forgive me.

In the grand scheme of things, it ~is~ just a high school debate tournament. But I made a commitment that I’d show up. And if I don’t, the whole team will be disqualified!

Freya would be absolutely devastated.

~Goddess knows if she’d ever forgive me…~

I don’t want to go directly to the packhouse. Everett would instantly sense that something is wrong with me, and I’m hardly in the mood to explain my predicament to him right now.

So instead, I just wander around, my chest knotted up with debilitating anxiety. I can never shake the horrible feeling that my two separate worlds are tearing me apart.

Before I know it, I find that my feet have led me to the front doorstep of the orphanage—the place that I always go to when I need to ease my mind.

Being around these kids always brings me a great deal of strength and perspective. In spite of their countless problems, they always seem to have a positive attitude.

I open the door and find Mama sitting cross-legged in the middle of the playroom, reading a book to the orphans who are gathered around her.

~The Ugly Duckling.~

~One of my favorites when I was a kid…probably because I always felt like the ugly duckling of the Red Moon Pack.~

Mama had been working at the orphanage ever since she moved into the Shadow Blood Pack, and I can tell that she’s totally fulfilled by it.

After all, she took me in when I was a lost orphan. She really knows how to nurture someone else’s child as if they’re her own.

When she spots me standing in the doorframe, she flashes me a quick smile. She finishes the page that she’s reading and sets the book down next to her.

“Let’s do free play for a while,” she says. “I’m going to talk to my daughter.”

She points over at me, and the kids’ smiling faces turn toward me.

“Hi Luna Aurora,” they all say in unison.

~Well…even if the council never accepts me as their luna, at least these cute kids do.~

That thought makes me smile.

“You can call me Rory,” I say to them, blushing.

My mother walks over to me and we take a seat together on a pair of undersized chairs.

“How was school?” she asks me.

“Not great,” I say honestly.

“What’s going on?” she asks, a sympathetic expression on her face.

I look up at her with searching eyes. “Between the mating ceremony and all of my school obligations, I’m starting to feel totally overwhelmed,” I say.

I pick up a stray crayon from the small table in front of me and start aimlessly doodling in an open coloring book.

“I know that it disappoints Everett that I still care about high school stuff,” I continue. “If he had it his way, I would drop out now and just be his luna. But for some reason, I just can’t let that part of myself go so easily.”

I peer up from the page to Mama, desperate for some guidance.

“The thing is, ” she begins, “you’ll never be ~just~ a luna.”

“What do you mean?” I ask her.

“Your birth-parents were gods. You were raised by werewolves. And you were educated by humans,” she says. “You have powers that you’re only just starting to understand.”

~She’s right.~

~There’s so much about myself and my birth family that is still a mystery to me.~

“I can’t imagine how confusing it all must be for you,” my mother says. “But Everett sees that you have many different sides. And I think that’s what he loves about you.”

“You really think so?”

“If he wanted ~just~ a luna, he could have rejected your mating bond and taken his pick of any werewolf girl in the country,” Mama says. “But he didn’t. He chose you.”

“What if he made the wrong choice?” I say, my voice shaking. “What if I can’t handle all this pressure?”

“You’re stronger than anyone I’ve ever known,” Mama says. “You’ve had to learn how to be strong, because you’ve always been different.”

I point over to the book that’s still sitting in the middle of the room.

“Like the Ugly Duckling?” I say with a half-smile.

She laughs and nods in agreement.

“Protect all the parts of yourself,” she says. “Even if it’s hard, it will be worth it in the long run.”

Mama always knows what to say.

I shouldn’t feel ashamed for wanting the best of both worlds.

~That decides it.~

~I’m going to attend my debate final in the morning and make it back in time for my mating ceremony.~

~It will be difficult, but I will find a way.~

EVERETT

Planning for the mating ceremony is officially in full swing, but that doesn’t mean that my alpha duties are paused.

There are still plenty of things that need attending to.

But one issue in particular weighs heavy on my mind…so I decide to attend to it first.

I walk from my office to the east wing of the packhouse, where a large, black, iron door is guarded by two pack warriors.

They nod in my direction as I approach. One of them unlocks the door and opens it for me.

“Do you want me to come down with you, Alpha?” the guard asks.

I shake my head. “I’ll handle this on my own,” I say. “Thank you.”

I walk through the door and descend the steep, dimly lit staircase that leads to our packhouse dungeon.

We have a more modernized packhouse prison a few miles down the road, but we keep our worst criminals in the dungeon where I can be sure to keep a watchful eye on them.

And the worst criminals in our possession are Nickolas and Victoria—the despicable former alpha and luna of the Red Moon Pack—who tried to kill my mate.

That’s not the only crime they are guilty of. They were also known to torture and torment humans from the surrounding area.

They are the kinds of werewolves who bring shame to the titles of Alpha and Luna…

Titles that should be honored as a huge responsibility, not brandished as a violent symbol of power.

I walk over to their adjoining cells, and when they spot me, they both rise from their cots to greet me.

Nickolas walks over to the bars that separate us. I peer into his face, and in the dim candlelight, I don’t see even a trace of remorse. He just wears a snide, sniveling expression.

“Well hello, Alpha,” he says. “Fancy meeting you here.”

“You look like shit, Nick,” I say.

“I was going to say the same thing about you!” he says.

Victoria also approaches the bars. Her usually made-up face and sleek brown hair are a thing of the past. Instead, she looks entirely disheveled, barefaced, and deathly pale.

“You know,” I say. “I have the power to do anything I want to you right now. Anything at all. That includes giving you a more comfortable cell in our external prison and increasing your food rations.”

“Why would you ever do such a thing?” Victoria asks in her trademark, singsong voice.

“Well,” I say, “I was thinking that the three of us could strike up a little deal.”

“Is that so?” Nickolas asks me.

“You two give me the names of the people in your pack who shared your malicious view toward humans,” I say, “and in exchange, I’ll make your lives here a whole lot easier.”

Nickolas laughs. It’s a dark, sinister, vicious cackle.

“Something funny?” I ask him.

“A few names aren’t going to solve your little problem,” he says. “You cut off the head of the hydra and two more will grow back.”

“Humans will never be accepted by werewolf kind,” Victoria adds. “And now you’re going to make that clumsy little freak your ~luna~?”

Nickolas grasps at the bars, licking his lips like a madman.

“You’ve angered a lot of werewolves, Everett. More than you’ll ever be able to round up and lock away,” he says. “And when the time is right, they are going to come after your little luna.

“And then, they’ll come for you.”

I reel back and drive a powerful punch onto his fingers, which are still grasping at the cell bars.

I hear the crunch of bones as my fist makes contact. Nickolas pulls back his hand, yelping in pain.

~He’s a weak piece of shit.~

But I can’t deny that his words do send a chill down my spine.

~Could his warning be true?~

~Am I really putting a target on Rory’s back by making her my luna?~