Bound By Moonlight

Chapter 8: Dinner

Landon's POV

Waking up in the morning, I felt more confused and unsure of what to do than ever. Ezra first barked at me to find Quinn, but I tried to ignore him. The room was dark from the long blackout curtains I kept on the windows and doors to the balcony, so I got up to open them all and let the early morning light in. Usually, I went to the training facility first thing in the morning with Rob for a couple of hours before breakfast.

"Rob, are you awake?" I asked via mind link.

"Yeah, I'm getting stuff ready at the training facility," he responded.

"Sounds good; I'll be there in ten minutes," I told him. After opening all the shades, I grabbed sweatpants, a T-shirt, and sneakers from my closet. Tying my hair up again, I went out of my apartment and into the quiet of the pack house. It was only six in the morning on a Saturday, so most people were taking advantage of the weekend and sleeping in. This might have been something I usually would have done, but dreaming about Quinn all night, I needed to get some frustration out.

Rob was hard at work in the training facility when I arrived. He was going one-on-one with a stand-up punching bag and looked like he was on the verge of killing it. If he were human, his hands would have been bleeding from how hard he was hitting the bag; it seemed he had just as much frustration as I did. Maybe that was mostly my fault for what happened last night.

"Want a partner instead of that bag?" I asked, pulling my shirt off and laying it on a weight bench nearby.

"I guess," he said, not taking his eyes off his target as he gave it one final punch. It fell over, water sloshing on the bottom. Rob followed me to our sparring ring, and we both climbed inside. Taking a stance opposite each other, I waited for him to make the first move, which didn't take long.

"Da*n," Ezra commented after seeing how hard Rob was coming after us. "Is he really that pi**ed we ended his fun early?"

"Have you thought about what you will do about the human?" Rob asked as we circled each other.

"She has a name," I reminded him, dodging his punch and catching him in the stomach. "It's Quinn."

"Right," he gasped, clutching his stomach. "What are you going to do about Quinn?"

"I don't know. I've been toying with the idea of rejecting her, but why not give it a chance? She might not even want to be the Luna," I told him as he straightened up, and we returned to our dance.

"Why bother getting attached if you don't know how she'll react to you being a wolf? As I said, you must think about the pack and all our strong leaders so far. Would your parent approve of this?" he asked. His question distracted me for a second, and I couldn't get out of the way as his fist hit my shoulder hard.

"Fu*k," I breathed, massaging where he hit me. "I don't know what my parents would think."

"Look, just reject her and pick someone else. There are so many Alpha's daughters nearby that would kill to be Landon Harris' mate," Rob told me.

"I know that," I said, taking another swing in his direction.

The two of us trained together for a couple of hours before I went to get some breakfast, and Rob stayed to work for a bit longer. When I entered the dining hall, I saw Evelyn and Leo at a table with full plates in front of them.

"Hey, Landon," Evelyn said, smiling at me as I approached.

"Hey, Alpha," Leo said.

"Hey Leo, how's the day off treating you?" I asked as one of the kitchen staff, Reid, brought me a plate. "Thanks, Reid."

"You're welcome, Alpha," he responded with the bow of his head before heading back into the kitchen.

"It's been good," he replied, looking lovingly at Evelyn. "It looks like you were up early training." It wasn't hard to tell from the sweaty hair stuck to my forehead.

"Yeah, I just had trouble sleeping and needed to get some frustration out," I responded.

"Does a certain woman named Quinn have anything to do with that?" Evelyn asked in a teasing tone.

"Evelyn told me you found your mate and that she's human," Leo said. Leave it to Evelyn to tell Leo about our conversation last night. I shouldn't be surprised at this point; she tells him everything.

"Have you thought about what you're going to do?" Evelyn asked.

"Maybe we can keep our voices down about that," I told them, hoping the chatter of the morning crowd would disguise Evelyn and Leo's lack of discretion. "I did; it's just taking me a little time to figure out what to do about it," I told him. "Rob doesn't think accepting her is a good idea." Evelyn let out a huge sigh and rolled her eyes into the following year.

"Landon, you know he's too traditional regarding these things. His opinion doesn't matter, like I told you before. The only opinion that matters is yours and what your instincts tell you to do," Evelyn told me seriously.

"Listen to your sister; she's the smart one, after all," Ezra said with a stern face.

"I know you, Landon, and you've always dreamed of having your fated mate beside you. This is what you want; don't let Rob's opinion taint your desire for love!" she huffed.

"Even if I did want to take her as my mate, I don't know if she would accept me or even where she is," I told her.

"Once she understands the mate bond, she'd accept you. The Moon Goddess wouldn't have put you with someone that was going to reject you, at least I don't think..." she said the last part with a slight laugh.

"Even if that's true, I still have no idea where she is," I reminded her.

"Oh please, I found her last night on social media," Evelyn said, pulling out her phone. She opened a page and turned the phone around to face me. Sure enough, it was Quinn's profile staring me in the face. Her picture was cute, with her in blue scrubs next to the same woman she had been on stage with last night. Evelyn looked at her phone and said, "She works at Gunther Memorial Hospital as a nurse in the ER." Mine and Ezra's hearts both jumped when she said that.

"That's only a few miles away!" Ezra declared, jumping up and down. "We should go there!"

"She'll think we're stalking her," I told him.

"Well, we are. Come on, ask her to dinner! What's the worst that could happen?"

"What's Ezra saying?" Evelyn asked, a triumphant smile as if she knew what I would say.

"He wants us to go to the hospital and ask her on a date," I told her.

"Oh, you really should! That would be so cute!" Evelyn gushed.

"I agree," Leo added.

"You don't think she'll think it's odd the man from last night just shows up at her work?" I questioned them both.

"Possibly, but I'm sure she'll be too distracted by the mate bond to notice or think about anything else," Evelyn told me.

"Alright, fine. I'll ask her on a date, but if she screams and calls the police for stalking, I'll take that as my rejection," I laughed.

After breakfast, I went to my apartment to shower and change into something resembling a nice outfit, settling for jeans, boots, and a green and black flannel. Since she had seen me with my hair up, I decided to go for the same look, just in case she had trouble remembering me.

"I highly doubt she will. You felt that electricity when our hands touched, so did she," Ezra said. Telling Rob what I was doing would be a problem for another time. The last thing I wanted was his opinion on this. Luckily, the hospital she worked at was right in the city, and I had passed it many times.

I left my room and held my breath, hoping I wouldn't pass Rob. I think it was easier not to interact with him than to come up with some bull*hit lie about why I was dressed nicely. We were clear to the garage, and I got in my car and drove towards the hospital. It was a question of whether she was even working today; having been out last night, maybe she wouldn't be, but it was worth a shot. Pulling into the parking lot, I picked a spot in the visitor's section, noting that it was now almost eleven in the morning. Checking my hair one last time in the mirror, I opened the door and headed towards the emergency department.

"What exactly is your plan once we get in there?" Ezra questioned.

"I don't know. Walk around until we find her?" I told him, not having put that much thought into this plan.

"Are we allowed to do that?" he asked, unsure.

"I don't see why not. We could always lie and say we're visiting someone if anyone asks," I added.

"Is that something they do here?" he wondered out loud. Since we had a hospital in our pack, I had never been inside a human one. Being the Alpha, I had the power to go wherever, whenever, so this would be interesting. The double doors opened for me, and I walked into what appeared to be a waiting room. A few people were sitting in chairs, and a woman was sitting behind a desk, typing away on her computer. She looked up at me as I entered and smiled.

"Can I help you?" she asked politely.

"Sh*t! What do we do?" Ezra panicked. It was unlike him to lose his cool like this, but I guess the idea of seeing Quinn was putting him on edge.

"Calm down!" I barked at him.

"Yes, hi," I responded, standing on the other side of the desk. The woman's eyes got more prominent as I approached, and I knew she could sense the Alpha aura I was admitting. "I'm here to see someone."

"Alright," she said in a much higher voice than her initial greeting.

"Wow, your eyes are amazing," I complimented.

"Thank you," she squeaked, blushing.

"I'm not here to see a patient," I told her in a low whisper, to which this woman blushed a deep shade of red. "I'm here to see one of the nurses. Her name is Quinn Baker."

"You're here to see Quinn?" she asked. "Are you her boyfriend?" Her questions sounded surprised as if Quinn's having a boyfriend was out of the ordinary.

"Yes, yes I am," I told her, flashing a smile. "Now, I know this probably isn't something you do, but I hoped to surprise her." Leaning onto the counter, she smiled at me as she looked down at her hands. Flirting was something I excelled at. It wasn't on purpose, and I think it had more to do with the energy I gave off than skill.

"You're in luck because today was supposed to be her day off, but we called her to fill an open shift. I'm sure you already know that. I'm not supposed to do this, but everyone loves Quinn here, so I think I can make an exception for her," she told me, batting her eyelashes.

"You're amazing," I added as I straightened up.

"If you just go through those doors behind me, you should be able to find her easily," she told me, pointing in the right direction.

"Thank you." I went to walk away and then stopped. "I didn't catch your name."

"It's Lilith," she responded.

"You're one in a million, Lilith," I told her with a wink. Breathing a sigh of relief that my thought-up on-the-spot plan worked, I walked quickly through the double doors before she changed her mind. Once, I was in the emergency department; I glanced around. The scent of rubbing alcohol and disinfectant was heavy, unlike how our hospital smelled. I think it seemed very slow for what's considered an emergency room. There were only a few people in beds, and it wasn't as wild as seen on television.

My focus turned only to my mate when I caught a whiff of her delicious scent. I followed it to what looked like a portable computer. She looked radiant in her blue scrubs and soft curls pulled back into a ponytail. She had one leg crossed over the other as she chewed the inside of her cheek, appearing to be in deep concentration. It was clear once she caught my scent because her entire body stiffened, and I could hear the deep inhale that she took.

"Here goes nothing," I told Ezra.