The Runaway Luna

Chapter 8

Lycan King Leonard’s POV

“The Alphas of Clear Lake and Harvest Moon are clearly still at odds, I notice,” my royal gamma Dante noted out loud at the end of the mornings meeting. “Those packs have been at war for decades!”

“True! Those two are going to make me go prematurely grey,” I reply in frustration at the lack of progress I’ve had with those two i***t alphas. “I had hoped if there was a mating contract between the two packs that relations would improve, but apparently not.”

“Well, Leo, it wasn’t going to improve any if Alpha Ross’s Luna is going to run away after only one night of being mated to him,” Dante says with a snigger. “Can’t say that I blame her, though. The alpha is an absolute jerk!”

I personally don’t find it all that funny. And I’m not sure how it could have gone so wrong! The she wolf in question was underage at the time, but my mate Queen Luna Amelia assured me it would turn out fine since apparently the couple were fated mates anyway! Amelia knows about these things because of her blessing from the moon goddess. So Amelia and I figured that even if things were a little rocky at the start, once the she wolf turned 18 years of age a few days later, boom! Mate bond hits them both like a ton of bricks. They fall instantly and madly in love. Problems are solved. Everyone lives happily ever after!

I suppose a scenario like that only works out in Hollywood movies or in fairy tales. Neither of which come close to reality.

“Has it been confirmed that the she wolf in question actually ran away, though?” I contemplate out loud. Unfortunately it wouldn’t surprise me at all to learn that she had come to a sticky end. She wolves like Julia go missing all the time. It’s sad, but there is only so much that can be done in situations like these. “Are we absolutely certain that there was no foul play involved? It’s odd that nothing has been seen of the she wolf for three years unless she was abducted or met with an accident.”

“That was our first thought as well. Alpha Ross has proof, though. We have seen security footage of the young she wolf leaving the pack house alone and shifting in the early hours of the morning after the Luna ceremony,” Royal beta Dennis adds. “She was very clearly seen to be heading west. Her phone was found a couple of days later about 15 miles away right along I-90. And although Alpha Ross was very loathe to admit it, she had called him and rejected him apparently right before ditching the phone.”

I hadn’t heard that part before. No wonder Alpha Ross was so bitter! It would have been incredibly painful to be rejected by your fated mate as an alpha. And there would be a huge hit to his pride as well, since it says a lot about the sort of alpha wolf he is if he can’t even keep his fated mate from running off.

“She was heading west, you say?” I ask Dennis for clarification, since an odd idea had just occurred to me.

“Yes,” Dennis confirmed. “I saw the footage myself.”

“Do you suppose there is any chance she may have come here?” I ponder out loud.

“Oh, she definitely came here!” My Delta Malcom says with a laugh, shocking me. “Everyone has been searching for Luna Julia Wainwright or Julia Evans. But she isn’t going by either of those last names. And luckily for her Julia is a very common first name.”

“Oh, for crying out loud!” I say, so exasperated that I give my delta a scathing look. “How long have you been sitting on this little tidbit of information?”

“Since she showed up here about three years ago asking for sanctuary and a job,” Malcom easily supplies the answer without hesitation. I have to get my jaw up off the floor at this news. Obviously I’ve been left out of the loop on purpose, and I don’t like it one bit. “I investigate all such claims and do a background check on everyone employed in the palace prior to granting any such request.”

“Well, s**t! So you’re telling me that she actually works here? In the palace?” I say weakly, my voice cracking almost like a teenager going through puberty. “Doing what, exactly?”

“She works as a maid,” Malcom replies readily. “But don’t worry, she’s working on a different floor than the one Alpha Ross is staying on. I’ve been keeping an eye on things and I made sure to keep them apart. After the story she told of her mating, I wasn’t going to take any chances. Not after the things my own mate Shantea went through with Jerome.”

At the mention of the mutually hated Jerome, Malcom and Dante do some ‘cool’ gang handshake thing and call each other “bruh”. Malcom’s mate is Dante’s sister Shantae.

“Jerome was insane,” I remind them unnecessarily. “I should know, since I had to kill the bastard. Alpha Ross is just an asshole. It’s not exactly a direct comparison.”

“Ross was fairly brutal to her,” Malcom says to defend his actions in giving the she wolf sanctuary. “Her description of a virgin being deflowered by him sounded less than gentlemanly, and then afterwards he insulted her looks and claimed she was nothing to him but a good f**k. Apparently those were his exact words, according to her.”

I suppose that probably hadn’t been very pleasant, and certainly not anything a timid young thing would want to hear upon being mated to a jerk of an alpha like Ross, and probably against her will if I know Alpha Gabe. Ross may be an asshole, but honestly, the she wolfs step father Alpha Gabe wasn’t a whole lot better. They were both cut from the same cloth. Poor Julia got caught up in the crossfire of a war between the two packs that’s been going on for at least 40 years or more.

“Are you absolutely certain that they won’t come across each other?” I ask. “I don’t want any trouble if Alpha Ross thinks I’ve been knowingly harboring his Luna all this time! Stuff like that gets around and then I’m suddenly getting pushback on most of my legislative acts to improve working conditions for lesser ranked wolves.”

“Nothings ever perfect, Leo,” Malcom tells me. “But if you’re worried, I’ll have the head of housekeeping warn her off of entering the 4th floor for a couple of days.”

“Alright, that’ll probably do for the time being,” I say, hopeful that is the last I need to know about that situation for now, and now I’m more than ready to move on. I certainly have more pressing matters to deal with at this time than a runaway Luna. “How about we break for lunch now, before the next round of meetings commence this afternoon?”