Alpha's Solace (Black Moon Saga Book 1)

Graduation - Part 1

The final days of the high school experience have flown by for both Kylie and Marc until finally it is graduation time. Though things have been a little awkward between them since Kylie’s party, with her not fully understanding why he just took off and never returned and him not knowing how to explain himself, eventually they settle back into a comfortable companionship.

She accepts his explanation for his strange and distant behavior, which he vaguely writes off as nothing more than anxiety about graduation, the future, and becoming adults, and tries to hang out with him as much as possible to hopefully help put his mind at ease. Truthfully, though, it still feels like something has changed. She wonders if he is trying to distance himself from her now so it won’t hit him as hard when she leaves for college in the fall. Maybe he even harbors some resentment that she plans to leave him.

Marc’s commencement ceremony happens on a gorgeous, sunny Saturday in May, and of course Kylie is there and makes it her mission to be his personal cheerleader. She sits with his family, which includes his dad, his grandfather, and his mother and stepfather who she just met for the first time because they live so far away. Marc did not distinguish himself much academically and is graduating without honors, but Kylie jumps out of her seat and hollers and cheers for him as he walks across the stage to accept his diploma as though he has just won a Nobel Prize.

Adam chuckles beside her, and once she sits back down, he puts his arm around her and pulls her in for a kiss on the top of her head. Like father, like son. She has always had a bit of a crush on him and finds him to be a comforting presence, so she does not mind at all when he lets his arm linger on the back of her chair for the rest of the ceremony. A sadness and weariness has crept into his eyes lately and she is glad to finally see him smile again with his eyes alight as he enjoys celebrating his son’s achievement.

The following day is Kylie’s commencement ceremony on a similarly fair-weathered Sunday afternoon. Her adopted parents, her brother, and Adam and Marc all come to support her and watch her graduate with high honors. She has performed well academically, but the Wixon-Kilcher Academy is exceptionally competitive, and she came close but did not make Valedictorian. That honor belongs to her friend Pete, and she isn’t upset about it because not only is she proud of him, but that means he gets to stress over making the speech instead of her.

The students participating in the commencement walk all had to come in the morning, so Kylie drove in separately from her friends and family. She has been hanging out at the school getting ready and isn’t expecting to see them until after the ceremony when they planned to meet for photos. Much to her surprise, one moment she is standing next to a refreshment table in the cafeteria, which has been turned into a prep area for the students to make their last-minute adjustments before the ceremony, and the next moment she is being lifted off her feet in a bear hug. She knows from experience that it is only Marc and giggles and shrieks for her best friend to put her down.

Once he obliges, she smacks him on the arm. “Hey, now you’ve gone and messed up all my hard work!”

He laughs and reaches out to straighten her golden honors cords. “Better, Princess?”

She feigns a sigh. “It will do, I guess. Hey, where is everyone else?”

“They’re claiming our seats in the gym. I just wanted to …”

Marc seems to lose focus in the middle of his sentence and is now staring across the room at the back of a tall, slim, curvy brunette with the shiniest, bounciest hair he has ever seen. He caught a scent that has been driving Toby nuts as soon as he entered the front doors of this building, and now he is wondering if it might be coming from that woman over there.

“Hey!” Kylie waves her hand in front of Marc. “Earth to Marc. Where’d you go there, bud?”

He blinks, and then returns his focus to Kylie. “I … uh … Hey, who is that over there?” He points out the brunette.

Kylie turns to look where he is pointing. “Oh, that’s Britney Saunders. She’s the class president and chess team captain. She has always seemed nice, though I haven’t hung out with her much. Did you want to meet her?”

Marc seems excited at that prospect. “Yeah, could you introduce us?”

“Sure, follow me.”

As they draw closer to where Britney is talking to some of the other students, Marc and Toby are both getting excited at the scent growing stronger. It is an intoxicating blend of cinnamon, citrus, and jasmine. He can feel Toby not just pacing but prancing in his mind.

Mate! Mate! MATE! Toby celebrates in anticipation.

Marc has always thought this school is mostly just for humans, but interestingly he is picking up the scents of quite a few types of shifters as he moves across the room. He isn’t familiar with all of them, but nearby he can smell other werewolves.

As they near Britney, he is elated to discover that not only is that divine scent undoubtedly coming from her, but she is also most definitely a werewolf. Somehow, things are finally going right for him.

Kylie steps up behind Britney and taps her on the shoulder. When Britney turns around, Kylie starts to tell her, “Hey, I know this is random, but this is my friend Marc and he …”

But then she notices that Britney isn’t even paying attention to her. As soon as she turned around, she locked eyes with Marc and now they are just staring at each other and grinning.

Britney reaches out her hand to touch Marc’s, and he grabs it and pulls her in for a full-bodied embrace, including a deep sniff of her hair.

Mate! Toby shouts in his head.

“Mine,” Marc mumbles into her hair, leaning his head against hers and closing his eyes to soak in her fragrance.

“Mine,” Britney agrees to his chest, where she has already buried her face.

“Awk-ward!” Kylie singsongs, catching the eye of Britney’s friend Maureen who had been conversing with Britney but is now standing on the other side of the new couple.

“Hey,” Maureen steps around Marc and Britney, who are kissing in the middle of the crowded cafeteria. She reaches her hand out to Kylie and suggests, “Let’s leave these two weirdos and go check the line-up to see who we’ll be walking with, okay?”

“Uh, yeah sure,” Kylie is still caught off-guard, but agrees it is probably a good idea.

She is happy for Marc that he finally found someone he clicks with, but that was certainly a fascinating moment to witness.

“Love at first sight I guess,” she smirks at Maureen.

Maureen laughs and makes a fake gagging motion. “How romantic!” She agrees, sarcastically.

As a werewolf from the same pack as Britney, she knows what happened but can also tell that Kylie is human and therefore can’t know anything about how wolf mating works, so she plays along and creates a distraction. She knows that chances are good that Britney will be wearing Marc’s mark on her neck before she leaves this cafeteria, so Kylie can’t be anywhere nearby when that happens.

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Just before the ceremony is about to start, Marc shuffles into the gym and heads to where his dad is sitting with Kylie’s family. He doesn’t even bother to try to hide the excitement he is feeling, exhilarated by his encounter with his mate in the least expected place and his subsequent marking of her mere moments before.

Adam notices that something is up with his son as Marc approaches where he is seated next to Kylie’s brother Jonah. When he sits down next to him, he immediately notices the change in Marc’s scent. He gives him a questioning and somewhat accusatory look.

Marc grins and whispers to his father, “I found my mate and she’s amazing!”

“And you couldn’t even wait until your best friend is graduated?”

Marc shakes his head. “Nah, too excited. Just kind of got caught up in it you know?”

“Well, I’m happy for you, but just make sure I at least get to meet her before we leave here.”

“Oh, I will. Actually, if I get my way, we’ll be taking her with us when we go. I’m sure her parents won’t mind. She’s going to be Luna!”

“Well, try to control the celebrating for now if you can. How will you explain to Kylie that a girl you just met is moving in with you the same day?” Adam cautions. “Do you even know anything about her?”

“Her name is Britney …” Marcus is cut off as the music signaling the graduates are about to enter starts playing. He tries to rein in his excitement and focus on what is happening now. Of course, he is proud of Kylie, but now he is feeling more anticipation about seeing his mate walk across that stage than his friend, and he can’t wait to get out of here and go see Britney again.

*************************

Only a short while after the commencement ceremony that seemed to Kylie to pass by in a blur, she is standing outside the gym waiting to meet up with her friends and family for pictures. She notices her brother first as he leaps at her for a hug.

“You look stupid but it’s pretty cool that you don’t have to go to school anymore,” nine-year-old Jonah congratulates her in his own way.

Kylie giggles at her little brother. “Yeah, I think so too. Except, I’m going to college in a couple months so that’s not exactly true.”

“I still don’t know why you would choose to go to more school when you don’t have to,” he continues, rolling his eyes.

“Because your sister is a smarty pants and can get a really good job if she goes to college,” Nate cuts in as he joins them. Directly behind him are Betsy and Adam.

Kylie looks around for any sign of Marc, but seeing none, questions his father, “What happened to Marc? I saw him in the cafeteria beforehand but lost him once he saw this girl Britney and went totally gaga over her.”

Adam looks slightly embarrassed and uncomfortable. “Uh, yeah. I think he went after her once the audience started being released from their seats.”

Kylie rolls her eyes. “Whatever. Guess I should be used to him randomly ditching me at important times now. Seems to be his new thing.”

“Sorry, kiddo,” Adam reaches out to hug her. “If it’s any consolation, I’m really proud of you. This isn’t an easy school to pass let alone excel at and look at you. Number two in your class. Congratulations, sweetheart.”

Kylie grins into his shoulder as he gently embraces her for a moment. Somehow, his recognition of her achievement does make her feel worlds better.

She leads her small group of supporters outside to where everyone is excitedly chatting to their former schoolmates and posing for pictures. She wishes she could find Marc to get some shots with him, but she has to settle for posing with just his dad instead. Then even he tells her he sees some people he needs to meet up with, and she is left with just her family.

It’s a little upsetting being ditched yet again by her best friend and now her favorite adult, but she still finds herself appreciating that she has such a devoted and loving family supporting her on this important day. Even so, she feels a pang of sadness hit when she thinks about how much she wishes her real parents could have been here too.

After saying goodbye to her family and making plans to meet up with them for a celebratory dinner later that evening, Kylie heads back to her car parked in the student lot. As she slips the key in the lock, a strong pair of hands grabs ahold of her arms from behind and spins her around. The next thing she knows, someone’s lips are on hers. It only lasts a brief moment before he pulls away, still holding her hands, and stands before her searching her face for a reaction.

After the shock of the suddenness of the kiss, her eyes focus in on her assailant, and she realizes it’s Pete who just ambushed her for a kiss. She is speechless and can’t bring herself to do anything except stand there with her mouth agape staring at him.

“Could you please say something?” Pete pleads nervously.

“I … I don’t know what to say,” she finally stammers out.

“Man, I shouldn’t have done that. I knew it, I just couldn’t stand the thought of you getting in that car and driving off and maybe never seeing you again,” he starts nervously rambling, “and I’ve tried for two years to tell you how I felt but I just couldn’t get the words out so I don’t know why but somehow it felt right to just come over here and kiss you and hope you just got what I meant by it, and …”

She cuts him off by kissing him this time. It is awkward because she has no idea what she is doing or where she should put her hands while kissing someone, but thankfully he starts kissing her back and then it feels like some sort of primal autopilot takes over.

Suddenly, they are making out in the parking lot. His left hand holds the small of her back and his right cups her cheek and tangles in her hair. Her arms wind around his neck and eventually one hand creeps up into his hair, pulling him into her hungrily.

Their make-out session is over before it really starts, though, because moments later they hear a guttural sound that sounds an awful lot like a growl coming from not too far from where they stand intertwined. Next thing she knows, Pete is being pulled away from her and is on the ground.

“What the hell?” Kylie shrieks in disbelief. She realizes the person who pulled Pete away from her is none other than Adam Brentwood.

“Why’d you do that?” she demands of the man she is usually happy to see.

“I’m sorry if that was out of line but it looked like he was forcing himself on you, Kylie,” Adam explains, looking like he is desperately trying to control his anger.

Kylie has never seen this side of him before and never heard his voice sound like that, all deep and gravelly. He is always so calm and level-headed.

“Was he hurting you?” he urges her response as he searches her face for her reaction.

“No, of course not! He’s my friend. We were just kissing!”

Now she is the one who is angry, but is also hit with a strange feeling she can’t identify, kind of like she has been doing something wrong. The hurt and anger radiating from Adam is really affecting her, but she pushes it aside to focus on the angry part of what she feels.

“What’s wrong with you anyway? That was PG compared to what your son was doing just a little while ago.”

Adam looks embarrassed and uncomfortable for the second time today, and takes a moment to compose himself before speaking again.

“I’m so sorry, Kylie. I swear that it looked bad from where I was standing, and I thought you needed help.”

He turns to where Pete is still sitting on the ground, looking intimidated.

“Sorry about that. Here, let me help you up,” he extends his hand to Pete and pulls him up. “I guess I’ll let you kids get back to it then. Forget I was ever here.”

As Kylie and Pete watch Adam leave, the tension in the air is heavy and it becomes clear that the moment they were having is over now.

“I guess I better get going. My parents are expecting me to meet them soon,” she excuses herself, not wanting to “get back to it” at all. It was fun to try out what kissing feels like, but the look on Adam’s face and how he made her feel haunts her.

“Yeah, same here,” Pete returns. “Guess I’ll see you around.”

“Yeah, for sure,” she responds, but she isn’t sure about it at all.

His timing is terrible, sliding in to tell her how he feels just as they are about to go their separate ways, and now it is awkward on top of it. She gets into her car and closes the door, shaking her head at what a strange, exciting, rollercoaster of a day she has had.

“Boys are weird,” she muses out loud to herself as she puts the keys in the ignition and starts the engine.

As Pete watches her drive away, he can’t help thinking wistfully to himself about how thanks to the Brentwoods, Kylie will never be his.