Rebel Moon

Chapter One – The Love of My Life    William  Have you ever been so completely in love with someone, that your heart just stops as soon as you look at them?  That’s how I felt when the love of my life put her chubby little hands on my cheeks, and planted a very wet, slobbery kiss against my cheek.  I scooped up my niece and blew raspberries into her neck until she squealed in delight, wriggling in my arms.  Raine was almost two, and in my biased opinion, she was the most beautiful child on the planet.  Her blue-grey eyes, so much like my late brother’s, were ringed with long, dark lashes, and her hair was a riot of black curls around her round, angelic face.  She looked like a doll, especially dressed in the frilly blue frock that her mother had chosen for her today.  “Pony!” Raine demanded, pulling on my hair.  I couldn’t help but oblige her, lifting her little body up and swinging her around until she perched on my shoulders.  I held her securely by the thighs and pranced around the room.  She held me by tufts of my hair and giggled gleefully as we galloped and jumped, and every now and then I paused to give her a little buck.  “Oh no!  Oh no, the pony’s tired!” I gasped, and I lifted her off and dumped her gently onto the couch, before dropping down to sit beside her.  At that moment the door opened, and the Luna came in.  Her hair was limp and wet with sweat, and her tank top was soaking.  I whistled under my breath.  “Whoa, Nina.  Looks like Shane worked you hard.”  She glared at me, and dropped down on to the couch beside me.  “Mama!” Raine climbed roughly over my lap, nearly crushing my manhood in her mad scramble to get to her mother.  She flung her arms around Nina’s neck and hugged her fiercely.  “Hey baby,” Nina hugged her daughter, and then pulled her back.  “And exactly what are you doing in here, young lady?  I know for a fact that I left you in the nursery with Daisy.”  Raine pointed at me.  “Weeyum!”  That was her way of saying my name, William.  Nina gave me an accusatory look, and I shrugged helplessly, “What can I say?  I’m a sucker.”  “And how did you get out of training today?” Nina asked, smoothing Raine’s dress down over her diaper.  “I’m on patrol duty tonight.” I groaned, “Thanks for reminding me.”  I stood up and stretched.  I was leading the night shift patrol, so I should be taking the opportunity to sleep.  Instead, I’d spent the last forty-five minutes playing with my adorable niece.  There was no arguing that the child had me wrapped around her little finger.  Me, along with the rest of the pack, but I liked to imagine that I was her favorite.  I was, after all, Uncle “Weeyum”  “William,” Nina stood too, and arranged the baby on her hip.  “How are you doing, really?”  “What do you mean?” I asked, even though I knew exactly what she meant.  “Do you miss it?”  Did I miss life in the city?  Did I miss my job in the club?  Did I miss the boyfriend I’d left behind?  I shrugged, and leaned down to kiss her forehead, a forehead that was wrinkled with worry.  “I’m fine,” I assured her.  Then I sniffed at her hair and winced dramatically.  “But you girl, are in desperate need of a shower.”  “Oh my goddess, I know!”  She flushed in embarrassment.  “I’m so sweaty.  I must stink!  Let me take Raine back to Daisy.”  She was too distracted to keep questioning me about my feelings.  “Oh, don’t forget, Beta William, we have meeting on Wednesday at the Black Crow.”  I watched her retreat out the door.  Nina was more than just my Luna.  She was once my sister-in-law, the wife of my late brother.  But more than that, she was my best friend.  She knew me and understood me, and accepted me like no other person ever had before.  But there were some things I couldn’t tell anyone, not even her.    I turned the lock on my door, and drew the curtains over the windows, trying to make the room as dark as I possibly could, before I pulled back the covers to my bed.  I usually volunteered to take the night shift patrol.  I’d spent the last year working until the wee-hours of the morning at the club, so it was still habit for me to sleep during the day and stay up all night.  I stripped down to my boxers and slid between the sheets.  I punched my pillow a few times and tried to get comfortable, but Nina’s question lingered in my mind.  Did I miss it?  Did I miss mingling in the human world?  It wasn’t that simple.  After a lifetime of being stifled by my parents and my brother, I’d grabbed ahold of my freedom with both hands, and had spent a year trying out a totally different life.  I’d made damn good money as a dancer at a gentlemen’s club.  I’d had a couple of relationships, but they never seemed to last more than a few months.  They were human men, all of them great in their own way... but none of them serious enough to reveal my true identity.  Let's face it, none of them were my mate.  That was the real problem.  They were fun, they were a diversion from my loneliness, but none of them were the One, and so in the end.... it wasn’t that hard to walk away from the last, Stan.     It was easy to put him aside in favor of my family, and my pack when they decided to relocate from our house in the city to this old, 200-acre farm in the wilderness.  We were slowly remodeling this big old farm house into our pack house.  I could have resigned as beta and stayed behind, and no one would have blamed me.  No that’s not true.  Little Raine would have been outraged if her Uncle Weeyum hadn’t made the move with her.  She was the real love of my life.  I sighed and closed my eyes.