His Missing Luna

Chapter Nineteen

Peyton's Point of View

'Well you royally f****d that up, i***t!' I scolded my wolf. Stupid bloody animal. 'What were you thinking?'

'I was thinking that no one has the right to talk s**t to our Luna. Equally, no one has the right to go against Alpha's orders.' He snapped.

I sighed, Dice was completely missing the point. 'But you terrified her. How will she ever believe I didn't kill Juliet if you behave like that?'

'Well, Vae thinks I'm a hero.' As if this was all about his ego and nothing else!

'Vae?' I asked, curious at the name.

'Yeah her wolf, her full name is Nevaeh, it's Heaven backwards.' He told me proudly. 'Our mate needs us to show her complete solidarity. We have to support and take care of her.'

'Judging from what I've seen so far, she seems more than capable of handling herself.' Since the second she laid eyes on me this morning, she had been smart-mouthed and super sassy. Sure, I wished she was directing her anger at someone other than me, but still, I found her incredibly alluring.

'That doesn't mean she wants to do everything by herself!' Honestly, your human side is so stupid.'

Well, I couldn't hear that enough.

'Don't feel like you have to sugar coat things for me,' I mocked him sarcastically.

I had left the pack house for two reasons. Firstly, because I wanted to give Amelia some space. She had looked like a scared puppy approaching Dice, but at the same time her face was set with determination. She was scared, but she had been single-minded in protecting Raya. What a wolf! Secondly, I needed to check on my Beta and his mate.

I was purposely taking myself around the side of the pack house to where I knew Raya and Finn would be. I kept my feet light so as not to draw attention to myself. You learned more by waiting in the background than you did if you went in guns blazing.

"He shouldn't have done that." Finn seethed. His face was contorted with ill temper whilst he paced backwards and forwards in front of Raya.

Dice growled.

'Oh, give it a rest, will you' I muttered, tuning him out.

Raya appeared to be on the other side of the argument. "Why? I was about to go against his orders. He had every right to punish me. I should have kept my mouth shut."

"He went too far and you know he did."

Those couple of sentences gave me what I needed. This was exactly how I expected the pair to feel.

"I trust I'm not interrupting anything?" I asked politely. Ordinarily, Finn would have known I was close by, but when he got upset, he got distracted.

"Of course not Alpha," Raya replied immediately in a bright voice. Finn said nothing.

"Beta?" I questioned. "It sounds very much like you might have something to say to me."

"He's-" Raya interrupted straight away, but I raised my hand in Raya's direction to silence her. She dropped her head and took a step away from me.

Finn squared his shoulders and jutted his chin forward in defiance. "What you just did to Ray was completely un-called for, Peyton. I know Dice was in control back there, but you should have worked harder at keeping him contained."

Raya squeeked. It was very unusual for Finn to go against his Alpha.

"You're right." I agreed.

"I am?" Finlay asked in surprise. At the exact same time, Raya said "He is?"

"Yes, that's why I came out here. Raya, I owe you an apology." I wasn't the biggest fan of apologies. When I spoke the word it tasted like acid.

"You owe me nothing of the sort, Peyton," Raya replied. The tone of her voice held nothing but reassurance. As far as she was concerned, the blame lied solely at her feet.

"The hell he doesn't," Finlay argued. "He could have killed you!"

"I would NEVER have done that to Raya." I told him. "But I concede that I did use unnecessary force and for that I apologize. I'm sure that Dice will apologize to Carla as soon as he has calmed down."

'Dice will not,' he huffed. But I sensed he didn't mean that. Dice ran with Carla as much as he did Finlay's wolf, Preston.

"Apology accepted." Raya said graciously.

I stuck my hand out in front of Finn and he shook it warmly.

"Sorry man." In order to be a good leader you have to apologize for your mistakes. My father had never apologized for anything in his entire life. If you disagreed, you died, end of story.

"But can I take this moment to remind you both that you are not to talk to Amelia like that. Under any circumstances."

"But-" Raya started.

"I know it's coming from a good place, Ray. But she has to figure these things out for herself. There is so much that she needs to learn from us. She knows nothing about our wolf heritage, knows nothing about the mate bond and how sacred it is to us. She's never even had a wolf for a friend. So, whilst I appreciate your unwavering loyalty to me and this pack, I need you to show that same loyalty to your Luna. Starting right now."

The three of us had been friends since we were no more than three years old. Together with Nathan, they alone knew what I'd been through. What I'd suffered at the hands of my father. How losing my mother nearly broke me. If I hadn't seen Amelia that day, I wouldn't have continued on this earth. She had given me a reason to keep going.

"Yes, Alpha," Raya acknowledged.

"She only did it 'cause we love you man," Finn declared, slapping me hard on the shoulder.

"Quite right too." I told him, trying desperately to back out of the emotional conversation. Since Mom, well... Put it this way, I couldn't deal with these sorts of heart-to-heart discussions.

"You know," Raya started up again. The one thing you could always count on was that Raya would never run out of things to say. "It was very satisfying hearing Dice bow down to Amelia."

'I did nothing of the sort!' Dice exclaimed in disbelief.

I smiled. "Yeah, I thought so too. So are we good here? I need to get to the hospital."

"It's all fine." Raya grinned. "Send our love."

"I always do."