The Heir of Crescent Moon

Chapter 4 - The New Alpha of Crescent Moon

Corey POV

“Hurry Up, Markus! You're going to get interrupted by the moon if you're late.” I could hear my mother chiding my dad down the hallway.

I sighed. I was going to miss hearing them calling after each other and my siblings down the hall. Mom and Dad decided to move into their own house on the pack grounds. They said they wanted me to take full reign without having people doubting who was in charge. I knew they mostly just wanted to take a breather and enjoy their privacy. They've worked hard for the pack for almost thirty years. They deserved to have some time to themselves.

I checked my suit one last time in the mirror. I looked the part, but would I be a good Alpha?

We will be great. - Tenoch encouraged.

I walked down to the third floor, where I could look out over the hall. The pack house was well... packed. There were so many people here, and I knew the backyard would also be filled. I could see a disproportionate amount of women milling about, and I sighed tiredly. It had been happening a lot lately. Women came from all over just to see if they were mated to me.

You'd think that it would make me happy, having so many women come to me to see if they were my mate instead of me going to find them. But I knew most of these women only wanted to be my mate for the title, and my mate wouldn't care about that. She was out there, and I was stuck here. Now more often than before.

The worst part wasn't even the disappointment in another full moon where I didn't find my mate, but that the more time passed, the bolder these she-wolves got. Just last December's full moon, I'd found a she-wolf in my bed, naked. She wanted me to take her as my chosen mate, and she'd gotten irrationally angry when I'd politely requested she vacated my room immediately.

I was about to head down when Mr. and Mrs. Roswell hurriedly started making their way across the floor. My eyes immediately looked for her. I found her hugging Mom near the entrance. Her eyes looked around as she pulled back until they drew up to mine. I saw her smile shyly at me, and I grinned like an i***t and waved at her.

Everly had skipped one year of elementary and two years of high school. She left shortly after to go to MIT. She comes home for some of her breaks, but she hasn't hung out with us since we were sixteen. Life had just taken her in a different direction. I know she was forced to be here tonight, but a small part of me wished she would stay.

I didn't realize that I was still holding my hand up in a wave until her eyes broke contact with me to greet her parents, and I blushed when I heard some women below me giggling. I made my way down, but by the time I got through the horde of people, I couldn't see any of them. I sighed. They probably made their way outside to talk.

I walked outside and toward the gathering area when Mom mind linked me that it was time. For once, Dad ended his speech and ceremony on time. I was now the new Alpha of Crescent Moon.

“Thank you for coming, everyone. For those wishing to join us on our run, we have tear-away clothes along the makeshift changing rooms in the back. Those of you who don't wish to join, please enjoy the refreshments and food.” Once I finished, we all looked up at the moon, waiting for our wolves to recognize the other half of our souls.

I started hearing the telling sniffs of wolves as they scented their mates. I closed my eyes.

Please let her be here. I thought.

I took a few deep breaths before opening my eyes, hoping no one could see my disappointment. Another month without my mate.

“Mate, mate, mate!” I heard Areli behind me jump up and down.

“Well, at least you'll be close by.” I heard Dad say, a small sadness in his voice. I turned around to see Alpha Rhett's youngest boy, David, right in front of her, a look of adoration already in his eyes. He was twenty years old and had spent the last year going to packs abroad looking for his mate.

“I can't believe you guys didn't see each other before you left for Europe. Didn't you come to Crescent Moon for a full moon run before you left? Could have saved me a bundle.” Alpha Rhett chuckled as he walked up to the young couple.

“I'm the one that missed that one, I think. I went to Disneyland with some friends.” Areli explained sheepishly, holding hands with David as if afraid to let go.

“Looks like we're finally going to be family, Markus.” He told Dad, and both of them looked at the new couple with smiles on their face.

Bonds deepen and strengthen - Tenoch mentioned casually. I couldn't agree more. While David wasn't Alpha, his brother had promised him the beta position once he was ready to take up the post. I gave my sister a hug and let her know how happy I was for her before I left them to talk so I could lead the run.

I went to bed late that night with, thankfully, no surprises in my bed. Tomorrow would be the start of my journey as Alpha of Crescent Moon and CEO of Salonen Security Industries.

“Good Morning, Alpha.” Mr. Roswell came into my office the next morning.

“Call me Cory, Mr. Roswell. I'd like us to work closely together and for a long while longer.” I said.

“Only when you start calling me Evergreen like I asked. You make me feel very old with all of this Mr. Roswell stuff.”

“I'll try.” I chuckled.

“Can we call you Evergreen too?” James asked.

“No. It's Mr. Roswell to you.” He said, looking disapprovingly at him. James' entire face fell in dismay until Evergreen started laughing.

“I'm sorry. It was just too tempting not to do.” He said between tears.

“I'm your Gamma. I could punish you for that!” James huffed, making growl lowly at him. “You know I won't do it, but it's not a nice tease.” He crossed his arms.

“I'm sorry, James. You were always an easy one to tease. You can all call me Evergreen. I'm not one for too much formality.”

“Did you bring the applications?” Jo asked after James had stopped grumbling.

“Yes. Here.” He said, bringing out a few tablets for everyone. “The questionnaire worked for the most part. I still had my system conduct quick address mapping to make sure we had people categorized correctly. Which do we want to look at first?”

“Let's look at the ones you're wanting us to take with us first. Not that I don't trust you, I'd just like to know what and who we're dealing with. Once we have the number of people we need to replace, we can sort out the human applications down to that. Should be easiest. Then we can look at all the rest, figure out how many we take, and fill the rest with humans. “I explained.

“Why not just start with the shifters again?” Jo asked.

“Because I felt like it.” I grinned at him.” I turned back to my tablet, and my eyes bugged out when I saw the number of applications.

“Three thousand people applied?” I asked.

“Oh no. That's the number of humans.” Evergreen corrected me. I clicked a few buttons and found the full number of applications.

“Whoa.”

“That's what happens when you have one of the most well know security tech companies,” Evergreen smirked proudly. “But, if we know what we want to look for, we can filter by any questions or attributes.”

“Can we go over the people you want to take with you first? Did you figure out who you want to replace you as well?” I asked.

“Yes... I've talked to them. I don't know if they decided to apply, and now I won't be able to tell if they did until we unlock their identities.” He said. I nodded. If they wanted to get the job on merit alone, I commended them for it.

We spent most of the day going through the applications after we discussed the six tech engineers Evergreen wanted to bring with him. Four of them were already trusted pack members. For the other two, we decided to ask if they would be willing to join the pack or prefer to remain in the main building.

“I knew you'd still be holed up here,” Mom came in after supper with a couple of plates in her hands. “Evergreen, you remember what I told you?”

“Yes, Luna. 'You can't help anyone if you don't take care of yourself.'” He quoted sheepishly. “We just got carried away.”

“Eat up. I know it's your first day as leaders, but you can't get everything done all at once. Work will still be there tomorrow. I don't want all of you working yourselves to death. I need you strong.” She said gently while she ruffled Jo's hair and kissed my forehead before she left.

“I thought maybe once we got our titles, we would stop feeling like children. Your mother just showed me otherwise.” Jo said, a frown on his face.

“Celeste will always be a mother hen to everyone. I'm close to fifty, have known her as my luna and friend for almost thirty years, and I still get chided when she finds out I missed a meal.” Evergreen told all of us. “You have to remember that she spent a long time lacking basic things like three full meals and basic health care. She's healed from all of that, but there are parts of that trauma that will never go away. Making sure the people she loves are fed and healthy is the way she copes with it and shows how much she cares. Goddess willing, I will be seventy or eighty, and she will still always ask me if I've eaten, and I will know that she does it out of love.”

“He's right. Mom's the same way.” James said, for once, not an ounce of his usual comedic self. James' mom and mine were both born in the pack next door. It wasn't Guardian Moon back then. It was called Sky Moon. An Alpha came and challenged my grandpa and won through cheating. He slaughtered Mom's entire pack, except for a couple of dozen women. They were turned into slaves and treated like trash.

Mom and Aunt Maya both have scars all over their bodies due to their treatment. I didn't understand when I was little how someone could treat people that way without reason. I still feel shame to this day when I remembered asking Mom if she had been bad. No matter how much trouble they've caused, no one deserves to be treated this way, let alone before their wolf is there to help them heal.

We finished eating and worked for another hour before we called it a night. We were down to about fifty human resumes and still had to go through the rest of the other applications. I told all of them to clear their schedule of anything non-urgent. I wanted to narrow things down by the end of the week.

Over the next week, we spent most of the days making sure we looked through all the applications so we didn't miss anyone. By Friday, about two hundred applications were selected to begin the interviews for the human positions and three for Evergreen's replacement. We would be meeting with those first. Once we had a head of department, we would go over the remaining applications with them to see if they had any input and to be a part of the interview process. I wanted to make sure that everyone we hired would mesh with both Evergreen and the new head of department.

“OK. So we'll send out those interview emails and await their reply. I don't think we can move forward on anything until we have our head of department.” I said.

“Alpha, should we be removing the anonymity this early in the process?” Evergreen asked.

“How else are we going to set up the interviews?” I asked.

“We could do voice-modulated initial interviews?” He suggested.

“Oooh. Is that like the thing the Scream guy did in the movies?” James asked, bouncing on the balls of his feet.

“Yes, but nothing so crude. There are plenty of apps that let you do it. We can choose a gender-neutral voice and get it done. They should be able to understand we want to be as fair as possible and hire someone based on merit.”

"It's not a bad idea. It's a good way to avoid issues with other packs this way or other races saying we're being biased.” Jo answered.

“OK. Let's do it then.”

A/N: I'll be applying for a contract soon, so you'll have a chance to know if this book will continue on Dreame or exclusively on p*****n in the next month or so. Thank you for your patience and understanding!