Althena

10. True Luna

I dig my heels into the sand and enjoy the warmth of the sun.

"That one is sexy. I want to take him home."

I glace over and crack up laughing. "That one is checking me out. You might want to rethink that."

Chris growls. "The sexy men always go for you."

"I don't know. That blonde over there keeps glancing this way, and he's not looking at me."

He puts his sunglasses on. "Which one?"

"Blue shorts. No shirt. Amazing 6 pack. Wind blown sexy hair."

"Oh yea, I see him. He is checking me out." Chris blows a kiss. "Come to daddy."

I laugh and check my phone. "Still no message from Mike."

"Look sexy. I'll send him a pic he'll respond too." He takes a picture of me in my bikini and sends it.

"I can't believe you did that."

"What do you normally talk about?"

"Nothing. I text him something every day. If I forget, he texts me and asks me what I'm doing."

"Every single day?"

"Yea. He says he feels better if he hears from me. It doesn't have to be serious. I sent a picture of the bread I made last night. He never replied."

"What would he say to that?"

"He usually says it looks good. He likes knowing I'm ok and not dead."

"I guess that makes sense. Sometimes phones have bad signals though. Maybe he didn't get it. He should respond to that one."

"Hi, I'm Jake." The sexy blonde stands in front of us.

Chris smiles. "Hi, Jake. I'm available."

I crack up laughing so hard and fall back on my towel.

"Was that to much?"

"A little." I put my sunglasses on and laugh.

Jake smiles. "It's good to know. Can I take you out sometime?"

"For sure. I'll give you my number. I have to work tonight. I'm free tomorrow and Sunday."

"I'll text you and we'll set something up for tomorrow."

"Lovely, I can't wait to hear from you." Then he pulls at my towel. "Come on. Let's go to work."

"UGH. I want to stay here."

"Ellen won't let us work from here. We tried yesterday."

Jake laughs as he walks away.

"At least my tan is amazing." I throw my stuff in my bag and off we go.

Work is boring. Nothing exciting happens. I pass out hard when I finally get home.

Conner shows up in the morning. I make us breakfast and we go to the city center district to do some shopping. Like always, I let them do my hair and makeup. Then I pick out a dress and shoes. Conner gets a new suit. Then we have lunch.

"Why are you so quiet? You love shopping here."

"Mike hasn't texted me in 2 days. He's never waited that long."

"Maybe his phone's not working." I hand him my phone. "Swimsuit pic?"

"Chris did it."

He chuckles and nods. "It says it went through. That is weird. I'll call him." After a few minutes he shakes his head. "He didn't answer. You worried?"

"Yea. He's never taken this long. If anything, he texts me in the morning and says he fell asleep. But it's been days."

"Hi, I'm Darmon Gold. Delta for the Gold Moon Pack. How are you?"

Conner shakes his hand. "We're great. Doing some birthday shopping. Decided to stop and have some lunch."

I smile at him. He's nice looking. My mouth seems to stop working. I can't think of anything to say. My brain is silent.

He winks at me. "How old are you?"

"16 tomorrow." I smile at him again. He's nice.

"Happy birthday."

"Thank you."

"You two enjoy your time shopping."

"Thank you." Conner stares at me. Then he helps me up. "He's the prince, you know?"

"I guess that didn't register to me."

"I don't think much of anything registered to you. I'm surprised you didn't drool."

"Oh, it wasn't that bad."

"No more looking at princes for you."

I laugh and take his arm. "Thank you for this. I love shopping and having lunch out. It's so nice."

"I had an idea for your birthday, but I think we're going to do something different."

"What?"

"I'll save my idea for another time." He opens the car door for me. "Let's do something else."

He takes us to an airport. "What?"

"Let's go ask Mike what his problem is."

"Are you serious?" My mouth falls open.

"Yes."

"I've never flown."

He smirks. "2 round trip tickets. As close to woodland pack as you can get please. Add on a rental car."

"Yes, sir. How many days?"

"3." He hands over the credit card.

I am glued to the window the entire flight. I can see so much of the city. It is amazing from up here. I point out everything I can make out. Conner watches with me and rubs my back.

After we land, he gets the car and we leave for woodland packland. We stop at a few stores for some clothes. We didn't bring anything. They let us in woodland, since I have the mark on me. I get an odd look from one of the guards who asks me about having 3. I tell him I like to keep my options open. Conner laughs his ass off and drives us right to the pack house.

He opens the door for me and I step out like a million dollars. My clothes, makeup, hair, and shoes are brand new and name brand. Landon and Miles watch us walk by. I don't even acknowledge them.

The door opens and an omega smiles. "Welcome. Please come in. Who are you here to see?"

"The scout from Crimson Moon Pack is here to see Delta Mike."

"Of course, sir. Right this way." We follow her to outside the main office. "Please have a seat and I'll let him know you're here."

"So formal here today."

"You're the one laying it on thick."

"They were bullies."

He nods.

"The scout for the crimson moon pack is here for you, sir."

"He's here? What's wrong?"

Conner laughs and steps half inside the door. "You didn't answer your phone."

"ALTHENA." Millie screams from the other end of the hallway.

"MILLIE." I run and hug her. "I missed you."

"I haven't seen you in so long. You've gotten so big. You look all grown up. How old are you now?"

"16 tomorrow." I spin in a circle and show her my new dress.

"You look beautiful, sweetie." She hugs me again.

Then Mike pulls me away and hugs me. "I broke my phone. I would have texted back soon. They're sending me a new one."

Conner laughs. "You should have told us. We could have brought it with us."

His mom pulls me back. "He never answers that thing. I asked him a question 3 months ago. I'm still waiting for the answer."

Mike nods. "Nice suit."

"Thanks. We were birthday shopping." They laugh.

"Come with me, sweetie. Let's make dinner like we used to."

I put on an apron and pull my hair back. "I have had dreams about this."

"Really?" She smiles.

"I always loved this. I think I'll miss it forever. Making the food with you. Being in the garden. I will say, woodland pack has the best food from anywhere too. Nothing compares to here." I fan my eyes. I can't help but get teary. "It's hard to believe I was in the city center for lunch and now I'm here. I never thought I would be here again."

"Well, I'm glad Mike doesn't know how to answer his phone. And you can come back any time. I miss this too. I've missed you. Your little white curls bouncing around. That beautiful smile. Oh I missed it." She gives me a hug. "You're the closest thing to a daughter I ever had."

Mike leans on the door and smiles. "We are going to get hungry at some point."

She wipes her eyes. "Well, now I know, all I have to do to get you here is steal Mike's phone."

I laugh and wipe my eyes. "I guess you're not wrong."

We make a big meal and everyone eats. Then we stay in the pack house for the night. I couldn't even remember if they had guest rooms.

I sneak out early and go to momma's grave. It's been so long since I was here. I put some flowers on it. "I'm 16 today, momma. I still miss you everyday. You were right about your sister and her mate. I'm figuring it out though. Slowly finding my own way. I've made some good friends. Life surely isn't the same without you." I talk to her for an hour while I clean up her grave site. It's hard to believe she's been gone for over 2 years. "I would do anything to hear you laugh again."

After that, I go to the garden. I get the weeds out of it. Then I put the daily harvest in the baskets. They have a lot of squash ready. Oh, how I miss this.

"Should have known I would find you here." Mike tosses a squash in the basket. "You going to stay?"

"I can't stay here."

"Why?"

I start pulling green beans off the vine. "Woodland pack is so strong. The strongest pack there is. Your warriors are unbeatable." He nods. "And then there was me. I never really fit. The weakest person. The mutt. The orphan. The one who needed to be taken care of. Not even worth talking to. I'll always be that to these people. I can't live like that."

"Oh, sweetie." Millie comes up behind me and trips. I stare at her heels. "I can be fancy too... But the people here don't think you're weak. They're threatened by you. They're afraid of your strength. You never let them see you hurt. No matter what they said, you kept your head up. And look at you now. A young girl, out in the world all alone. Finding your way. Meeting everyone. The most anyone here has done is go on vacation. They're jealous and scared of you." She swats at a bug. "You're the one that's strong. You've had it backwards all this time."

"I don't..." I shake my head. "That doesn't sound right."

"You're still young." She smiles. "Someday, you'll understand. Shift into your wolf."

"How?"

"Most people can do that at 13 or 14. You should be able to."

"Nobody told me how."

"Oh. I'm sorry. I assumed someone told you. Concentrate on your feet. Imagine wolf feet then step into them."

I stare at my feet in plain brown shoes.

Mike smiles. "Close your eyes."

I close my eyes, take a breath, then take a step. I hear fabric ripping.

"Oh my word." Millie has her hand on her mouth. "You cannot shift around anyone... Ever."

I look at Mike and he's smiling. He looks proud. "Your fur is as white as your hair. A true Luna. And them bright blue eyes got even brighter."

"She's whiter than the queen, Mike. Pure white."

"You're beautiful." He pets my head.

I look at my front legs. I am bright white. My paws. I twist to see more of me and fall over.

Millie nods. "Well, the white didn't last long." Then she trips and Mike catches her.

"Mom, take off the heels. I'll just carry you." He picks me up under his arm and gives him mom his other arm. "Get you 2 out of the damn garden."

"Don't shift back, sweetie. You'll be naked. But it's the same way. Concentrate on your human feet. You'll be able to do it in your room. We'll talk more about your color later. You are a very beautiful wolf though."