The Alpha's Eluded Luna

4 Hesitation

If I was being honest, many of those “sacrifices” were more to run into Doctor Tyson Lee's stepdaughter, Dani. Dani was captivating. The adorable girl that first caught my eye in 6th grade was becoming absolutely beautiful as she came into womanhood. I would catch her out of the corner of my eye often. Her golden blonde french braid seemed to catch the light and hold it as she walked the halls. She had kind, big blue eyes, rimmed with thick lashes. Her skin looked silky and glowed in the sun. She had a bright smile at all times. Stunning was the best word to describe her. She left me stunned each time I caught sight of her.

Her guitar was always strapped to her back. If you were lucky, you could catch her playing to herself in the deserted band room on her lunch break. I even caught her singing softly while she played once and that was when I upped my stalking antics. Her voice called to something in me and I craved the feeling I got from being in her presence.

Her stepfather was a pediatric doctor at the pack hospital. I agreed to come help my mom read to the kids as she filled in for one of the nurses on the pediatric floor and saw Dani playing and singing silly songs with the kids. My mom caught me watching her a lot that day and started volunteering more to fill in as a nurse aide, and would always bring me. She would tell me volunteering looked great on college applications, but always had that knowing smirk. 

I never worked up the nerve to talk to Dani, just watched her from afar. We locked eyes a few times over the years, and she would always smile at me then go back to playing with the kids. At a summer camp we were both volunteering for, she did speak to me once. She was playing music with the younger kids and I was coaching sports. She was helping pass out oranges and water to us after a game of flag football and asked me in her sweet voice if I wanted some. I couldn’t find my voice and simply nodded once. Her face broke out in a bright smile before she passed me a mini water bottle and a bag of orange slices.

I never found my voice and she continued passing out the snack to the kids as I watched her like a creep. Wyatt, a 7-year-old kid with a big mouth that tended to follow me like a shadow during camps, elbowed me in my gut, breaking me out of my trance. 

“Whatcha lookin’ at? Are you mad at that girl for somethin’?” Wyatt asked with a gap-toothed grin.

“No, no. I was just thinking about something,” I responded gruffly to the kid. 

“Thinking about being mad at her? Your eyebrows looked angry again,” he wagged his eyebrows at me while popping an orange slice in his mouth.

“What did I tell you about your smart comments?”

“I don’t remember. I was distracted by those caterpillars fighting on your forehead!” he yelled the last part of the sentence before hopping up and running away before I could catch him. I started to get up to chase him but stopped when I heard the most beautiful giggle a few feet behind me.

I looked over my shoulder and caught Dani pressing her lips together trying to suppress her laughter. I couldn’t help the grin from spreading on my face and quickly turned back to catch the brat.

For years, I took every opportunity I could to run into her, but never had the balls to even say “hi”. The last time I saw her before leaving for Alpha Dennis’s was when she was playing piano in the hospital lobby. Her golden hair was curled and loose down her back. She had on a baby blue sweater and a black pair of leggings that showed off the soft curve of her hips. 

I loved how lost she could get in her music. Her eyes were closed and her head rocked softly back and forth as her slim fingers danced across the keys. I never made it to my volunteer shift that day, my mom making up some excuse for me. I sat in the corner of the lobby with a cup of coffee and just watched her for hours. I left that evening with a heavy heart.

My mom made sure to mention every time she ran into Dani while I was away. She had even started up a conversation with her once at the hospital, asking her about her guitar, which led to my mother asking her if she would consider teaching my youngest sister. After that, my mom would have coffee or lunch with Dani at least once a week. The guitar lesson didn’t work out. Not because my sister wasn’t interested. Sarah, my younger sister, was enamored with Dani the moment she met her. The problem was Sydney spent the whole time she was at the packhouse hovering over them like a fly. He snuck into our apartment several times to ask my sister and her meaningless questions, and even asked Dani to come up to the alpha floor when they were done so she could give him a private lesson.

My mom asked Dani at the end of the lesson if Sarah could try again at a later date when Marcus took over as Beta and my family moved out of the packhouse. My mom sensed Dani was uncomfortable with Sydney and Dani readily agreed. 

Over the last year, mom has been an angel and told me everything after every time they met. I learned her favorite color was yellow, her favorite food was pizza, she liked roses and would press them in a scrapbook when she found them in the wild. Mom also learned her mom had died after mating her stepfather when she was barely a toddler. She had left to go to the store and got in a car accident on her way home. 

My mom sent me pictures when she could. I had recently gotten a picture of Dani and her best friend Randy at a dance. My wolf growls every time we look at the picture, even though mom had reassured me Randy was very much gay. 

Dani’s golden hair was in a loose braid over her shoulder. Her navy blue, long sleeve dress left her shoulders exposed and was form fitting. I didn’t like the way Randy’s hand rested on her hip, or the way her dress hugged her bust and hips. It was in every sense a modest dress. It left nothing but her shoulders exposed. Even so, her figure had my wolf panting in the back of my mind one moment, then pacing angrily that others saw her in such a beautiful state and we were so far from her.

My mom never brought it up, and neither did I, but we both knew she had to be my mate. I yearned for Dani. My wolf would always come forward to hang on my mom’s every word when she talked about Dani. 

Most werewolves have a fated mate, a person who was designed just for them. Your mate was a perfect reflection of your soul. They were created to make you a better version of yourself, to give you a purpose and reason and fill a void and longing like nothing else will.

The reason I was heading back home now, having graduated a semester early, was because I was now 18. If Dani was my mate I would know the moment I walked in the same room as her. Alpha Dennis also had encouraged me to graduate early, saying my uncle was overwhelmed with Elise and Sydney as of late.

Luna Elise knew something was up. Sydney was now 19 and every time he was brought up, Uncle Lewis refused to talk about Sydney taking over the pack. She was even starting to harass my parents. 

Sydney had started attending training, according to Marcus. He was showing up, but stood on the sidelines with a superior look on his face most days. During the co-ed training sessions, he found excuses to touch the she-wolves while training. He would “help” stretch the girls, even the ones that were still minors. Marcus had to ban him from the co-ed sessions after about 2 weeks of complaints from other pack members. 

Elise lost it to Marcus when she found out. She got in his face and started yelling about how disrespectful he was being to his future alpha. She claimed that when Sydney took the pack, Marcus would be the first thing to go. Marcus calmly stood there and tried to ignore the woman screaming in his face, not willing to disrespect his Luna, but Elizabeth came up at the tail end of the rant and punched Elise in the face. Uncle Lewis defended my sister and brother-in-law, telling Luna Elise she was banned from the training grounds.

This was only last summer and in the months following Elise had become more secretive, leaving the house at odd hours and meeting with her family more often. She had even made my uncle move out of the room they shared. 

Sydney would attend training in the morning, mostly still just watching, only willing to spar with the lesser omegas on occasion. He would then be with his cousin, causing trouble around the pack. 

When Sydney came home at the end of the day, he would often take Johnathon and go to the rec room in the basement for hours. Johnathon was not allowed above the ground floor of the packhouse. 

After Uncle Lewis caught Johnathon harassing one of the live-in omegas on the 2nd floor when he was 15, they were banned from visiting the floors with private rooms. Sydney wasn’t innocent in the harassment either, but Uncle Lewis couldn’t ban his own son from coming upstairs to his own house. He was given a warning and nothing more because of Elise’s nagging. 

I finally pulled into the parking lot and started heading for my vacant parking spot at the end of the carport. It was late, almost late enough to be considered morning, and most of the lights were off in the building. I grabbed my duffel bag from the back seat of my truck and made my way to the side door next to the carport. I scanned the access card on my keychain across the scanner next to the door and opened the door once the light turned green.

As soon as I stepped over the threshold, I was hit with the most amazing scent. Jasmine and roses overwhelmed my senses and Noah stirred in the back of my mind. The scent was mixed with other smells that soon had my wolf pushing forward as a growl left my mouth. 

I followed the scent down the stairs next to the door, heading down into the basement. The scents mixed in with the jasmine and rose were catching up to the human part of my mind. Blood. And the sickening scent of something even more vulgar and horrendous. 

Noah was in total control as we dropped the bag and bolted down the corridor, following the scent into the rec room. I could hear the muffled laughter and sneers of 2 different men. Then I heard a sound that almost made me shift on the spot. A soft whimper followed by a male moan.

“f**k that was great,” I heard a voice I hadn’t heard in years. Johnathon Welsh.

“Let me have a go again now,” I heard Sydney say as I reached the door.

I don’t even bother with the knob. I slammed my foot against the door and it flew off its hinges. The sight before me makes me shift faster than I ever have before. In the room, I see Sydney and Johnathon, both with their pants undone and Johnathon with his still around his knees. There lying next to them on the ground is Dani, completely naked, blood spotting the rug beneath her, mixed with the evidence of what they did to her.

She is passed out and bruised all over her upper thighs and chest. Noah turns our head and bares his teeth at the 2 men that have caused irreparable damage to the person I treasure the most.

“You’re dead”, Noah mind-links them both before he lunges.

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