The Alpha's Eluded Luna

1 Introduction

How could this happen? Why would he do this to me? After everything we've been through, after all the promises he made me. Did he mean any of it? My wolf is howling in pain in my head. How could he do this to her? I wish I had never come back. I wish I would have stayed away. I wish I had run the moment he walked back into my life. My heart is shattering over and over again each and every time the image of them flashes through my mind. My wolf is driving me to kill, to destroy everyone who knew. But I can't. I can't hurt my family. Eva is fated to be here. Dad finally has a place he belongs. I thought I did too, but he ruined that. He ruined my happiness. However much of an illusion it was, I have been truly happy the last several weeks. I thought I had finally found my home. Not anymore. I need to leave. I can't hold my wolf back from her bloodlust much longer. I must run away, again. This time, I will make sure no one can find me. I won't run away to another pack, I will run to somewhere they can never find me.

"Dani," Liam holds me close, steadying my trembling body against his, "We have to go. We don't have much longer."

Liam pulls me back and wipes the tears streaking down my face, my skin stinging from the coarse fabric of his sleeve. "Where do I go?" I whimper.

"Just trust me. I'll make sure he can never find you again."

~

“Dani, can you stop by the clinic on your way home from school today?” Dad asked me while coming into our small kitchen. He has his dress shirt and tie loose and his white lab coat open. He leans casually against the counter, after fixing a cup of coffee.

“Sure, what for?”

“Dr. Reynolds just called and asked if we could switch shifts so I’ll be working late into the night. I can stop by the ATM on my way to work and pull out money so you can go out and buy dinner for you and Randy tonight.”

“I have money, dad,” I gave him an exasperated look.

“Well, maybe I just want to see you for a few minutes,” he pouts.

I laughed at his expression. “Okay. I’ll stop by.”

“Good,” he smiles. “ Did you already eat?”

“No, but Randy picked us up coffee and bagels. He’s almost here. I warmed up a breakfast burrito for you in the microwave.”

“You mean you heated up a breakfast burrito, and then he told you he picked up breakfast so I’m being blessed with your leftovers,” Dad smirks, taking another sip of coffee.

I laugh, “Caught me.”

Just then, 2 long honks sounded from outside. I slide into my coat and lift my shoulder bag and guitar case over my shoulders.

“Love you, dad. See you later!” I called out, running for the door.

“Love you too! Make good choices,” Dad called back.

“Always!”

I skipped to the passenger door of my best friend’s old Jeep Wrangler and tossed my bags in the backseat. In the passenger seat is a brown paper bag with my warmed bagel and 2 vanilla lattes are in the cupholders between the seats.

“Good morning, sunshine. The Earth says ‘hello’,” Randy said, quoting our current favorite movie. Randy has a thing for Johnny Depp and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is the current mood for his celebrity crush.

“Mm,” I opened the bag as he pulled out of my dirt driveway and onto the road, “Thank you for breakfast. As always, you’re my favorite again today.”

“Don’t say that in front of your dad. He just forgave me for being your favorite person last Tuesday,” Randy smirks. My dad is a little smothering, but I don’t mind. If Randy wasn’t gay, I’m sure dad wouldn’t have let him drive me to school for the past 2 years. Any time a boy shows any interest in me, dad scares them away. I think it’s cute, but everyone else thinks he’s a little scary.

“I can have more than one favorite person,” I rolled my eyes.

“I think you need to look up what favorite means,” Randy retorts. “Speaking of your favorites, I heard some news at the packhouse this morning. Luna Elise was flipping out over it.”

“What?” I ask. Luna Elise flips out over everything. This is nothing new.

“One of your favorite people is coming back from the Ocean View Pack tomorrow,” Randy tells me, wiggling his eyebrows.

“Who?” I ask speculatively, not wanting to get my hopes up, though I have a rough idea of who he is referring to.

“Guess,” Randy taunts.

“Just tell me,” I bounced anxiously in my seat.

“Paul Lopez. His mom was saying he graduated a semester early so he could come back home before Christmas.”

My mouth drops. “I thought he was banished for a couple more months though?”

“I guess Alpha Lewis dropped it early. Rumor is that he’s being considered for the next alpha. You know, because Sydney is such a waste of space,” Randy explains.

“Really?” I squealed in surprise. “Is that why Luna Elise has been acting so crazy lately?”

Randy nods, taking a big bite of his bagel sandwich, “Yeah. She threw one of her gaudy cheetah statues at Alpha Lewis’s head this morning when she heard,” he tells me with a mouth full of food.

We’re soon pulling into the senior lot at the pack’s high school. The rustic buildings are bustling with students running to make it to class on time. Randy and I will have to run too if we don’t want to be late. Randy’s breakfast run cost us a good 15 minutes from our normal morning routine.

After he parks, we grab our lattes and bags and run to the performing arts building. We have a theater class together and our teacher makes you wear a tacky costume for the entire class if you’re late. She has been on a Chicago kick, and though I wouldn’t mind wearing a flapper dress and tights, Randy might be uncomfortable. Some of the other kids are mean enough to him as it is. I don’t want to give them more to snicker about.

I grab Randy’s hand and pull him into the class with me right when the bell rings. We’re both winded and stand in the doorway for a moment catching our breaths.

“Aww, look at the homo and his goody goody girlfriend. How cute,” Lisa Bauer, the Gamma’s daughter, snickers with her friends in the corner.

“What a flamboyant entrance, Mr. Petrie and Miss Lee. Now take your seats,” Mrs. Anderson tells us sternly. We sit on an old couch against the wall next to Amy, one of our few friends and Randy’s cousin. She smiles warmly at us, moving her bags she had on the cushions to save the spots.

Mrs. Anderson starts going through possible skits for the people participating in a Forensics competition this coming spring. Randy and I opted to switch to set design for next semester so we don’t bother paying attention.

I’m scanning through my chemistry notes, studying for my final next period, when I hear Lisa chortling from across the room.

“Look at the bookworm, sitting over there like she’s too good to participate with the rest of us,” she scoffs.

“Why are you always such a b***h to her?” One of the boys sitting in her inner circle asks, giving me an apologetic look.

“Because she thinks she’s better than everyone else. It’s annoying.”

“You’re just jealous,” he snorts.

“Of what? I’m a ranked female wolf. She is an orphan being raised by some ghetto nurse who probably only took her in to…”

Ruth, my wolf, growls through me, causing the whole class to turn and stare.

I’m about to let my anger get the best of me for once. Hearing her talking about me is one thing, but my dad sacrificed a lot to raise me and protect me. He's a well-respected doctor and member of this pack, as well as an amazing father. I couldn’t let her degrade him either.

Before I could say anything, an irritatingly familiar voice broke through the tension from the doorway.

“Quit being rude to my pack members,” Sydney Fellows glares at Lisa from the door. I felt no real threat behind his glare, and I’m sure no one else did either. Sydney was our Alpha’s son, but he was a real disappointment of an alpha heir. He was even banned from the co-ed training by Marcus King, our future Beta, for being too handsy with some of the girls. It was a big deal at the time because Luna Elise and Elizabeth, Marcus’s mate, got in a fight over it. Sydney was still being mocked behind his back for letting his mom defend him instead of sticking up for himself.

“What do you mean, my pack members? She is everyone’s pack member,” Lisa crosses her arms and glares back. “Don’t tell me you’ve fallen for her puritan act as well?”

“Is that any way to talk to your future alpha?” Sydney huffs, puffing his chest out to look tougher. He really just looked like he was having back pain or something. He wasn’t intimidating in the least.

“Future alpha my ass. I heard the rumors,” Lisa smirks, “You won’t be able to keep saying that after your cousin gets back tomorrow.”

Sydney glares at Lisa and the room tenses up once again.

“Oh snap,” Randy whispers to me. Amy elbows him to keep him from saying anything else.

“Um, Mr. Fellows,” Mrs. Anderson said hesitantly, “The class is about to end. Maybe you and Miss Bauer can continue this discussion in the hall?”

Sydney turns his glare on Mrs. Anderson. Her referring to him as “mister” and not “alpha” had Randy biting his lips to keep from laughing out loud.

“Actually, I was here to speak with someone else.” He then turns to me, “Uh, Dani? I was hoping we could talk?” He nervously pushes his red fringe off his forehead and gives me an expectant look.

I bit my lip nervously, not knowing how to respond. Sydney makes me extremely uncomfortable. He graduated last year but still comes to school all the time, and it seems like he just comes to run into me. My dad has already told him to leave me alone. He even got Alpha Lewis involved. Sydney is the only person in the entire pack that doesn’t respect his father, so he rarely listens to what Alpha tells him to do.

“I, uh,” I glanced nervously at the teacher, hoping she would intervene. She just stared at the ceiling exasperated that her class was interrupted. “Okay,” I answered meekly. I placed my notebook in Randy’s lap.

“Don’t leave leave with him. Just stand right out in the hall and I’ll rush out once the bell rings in 3 minutes,” Randy mind linked to me.

I nodded and got up to walk out into the hall. I noticed several sympathetic stares as I walked out from my fellow classmates.

Once out in the hall, I firmly plant myself against the wall, not wanting to go far from the door.

“Can we take a walk?” Sydney asks.

“I, uh, have a math final next period. I should probably stay here since my stuff is still in the classroom.”

Sydney looks displeased but doesn’t press the issue further. “Okay, well, I was hoping I could ask you out tonight? I heard your dad was working late and I wanted to know if I could take you to dinner? You know, so you didn’t have to eat alone.”

I rub my arms nervously, “I’m actually meeting my dad after school. You know how overprotective he is. He is still getting me dinner tonight. He was very insistent too,” I answered quietly.

“Couldn’t you tell him you’re eating with a friend instead?”

“He is expecting me and Randy to meet him. If you want, you can ask him if it’s alright to go with you instead,” I told him, knowing he wouldn’t dare confront my dad again. My dad is intimidating when he wants to be. Very intimidating. Sydney has been on the receiving end of my dad’s anger in the past and I know that's an experience he doesn’t want to go through again.

Sydney visibly shutters, but quickly recovers and pastes on a sleazy smile. “That’s OK. You should keep your plans. Don’t want you getting on your dad’s bad side.”

“Right,” I said, looking at the ground, not wanting to show him my relief.

Sydney places his hand on my shoulder momentarily, and I cringe inside. Ruth, my wolf, is shifting uncomfortably in my head.

“I’ll catch you later,” Sydney said before walking off, right when the bell rang.

I hold my hand to my chest, trying to steady my heart rate, and take a deep breath, relieved that that’s over with.

Seconds later, Randy comes running into the hall, followed by the steady stream of students flowing out and going to their next classes.

“You okay?” He asks.

I nodded and offered him a small smile. Randy pulls me into a hug and rubs my back reassuringly.

“Everything okay, Dani?” Amy asks, coming out of the room with my bag and guitar in her hands.

“Yeah, it’s fine. He just wanted to ask me something, but it’s okay now. Thanks for bringing me my stuff,” I smiled at Amy.

“No problem. Gosh, I can’t stand the guy. Why does he keep coming to school to see you anyway?” Amy asks.

“I have no idea but I wish he wouldn’t,” I grimaced.

Throaty snickers sound from the classroom door. “I thought you liked receiving all the boy’s attention. I’m sure Sydney will be sad to hear you don’t enjoy his as well,” Lisa’s snide remark causes us to look back as she walks past us down the hall. “Tramp,” she adds, shoving into my shoulder while walking off.

“b***h,” Randy hissed under his breath. “You just can’t catch a break this morning.”

“I guess not,” I shrugged.