Second to the Luna

Chapter 2 - Future Generations

JUNIPER

I knocked on Kalli’s office and waited for a response.

“Come in!”

I opened the door and instantly saw the piles of papers covering Kalli’s desk. She scribbled a few things down before pausing to look at me. “Shut the door and come in.”

I did as she said and found that I had to stretch my neck to make eye contact with her over all of the papers. “What is all of this?” I wasn’t used to seeing Kalli behind a desk like this. Even though she was the luna, she took on the roles traditionally assigned to alphas. She watched over the Moon Warriors and the protection of the pack among other things. Winston was the one to usually deal with paperwork.

Kalli pushed the papers, revealing her glowing smile. “This is information on all of the lunas of the werewolf packs under our jurisdiction. I decided I want to host the first-ever Luna Ball.”

“First ever?” I asked, vaguely remembering reading about how Luna Balls used to be done every year in the past.

“Well, my first ever. The former Luna Heline never hosted any based on my research, but I guess past lunas have. It used to be a long standing tradition” Kalli stretched her arms, stifling a yawn. Her eyes were red and irritated.

“How long have you been at this?” I asked.

“All night,” she said sheepishly. “There’s a lot to do to get ready for something like this—more than I realized. I have to send invites, decide on a theme, order catering, figure out accommodations for guests. I’m not sure I’m cut out for all of this party planning. I am much better at fighting, but I want to be a different kind of luna. I want to listen to the needs of other lunas and help them get stronger. I don’t want other lunas to suffer under the old, sexist traditions, and I know this ball will open the doors to help them. I just don’t know where to start.”

I picked up a pile of papers and started skimming over what Kalli had been looking at. “That’s why you have me. I’m good with organizing and planning.” I added under my breath, “Apparently much better than fighting.”

“I take it your morning run didn’t go as well as planned?” Kalli asked, raising her eyebrows.

I took a deep breath, knowing there was no getting out of this conversation now—not that I wanted to. Kalli would understand my frustrations better than anyone else.

“Ethan was called away to deal with rogues in the middle of our run,” I said. “I wanted to go with him, but he said no. It felt like an order, and I didn’t like it. I thought I was making good progress with my training, but he didn’t seem to think it was good enough. I’ve been working hard every day, and he even praised me yesterday, yet he doesn’t trust me enough to prove myself.”

Kalli smiled, tilting her head. “I don’t think Ethan will ever want you to fight. After everything he has been through, losing his brother at such a young age and then his mother shortly after, he’s afraid to add you to the list. He almost lost you and his other brothers several times and even had to kill his father. If I had lived through the things Ethan had, I would want to keep my mate locked away from the world just to keep him safe.”

I slumped in my chair, knowing she was right. It didn’t make me feel better, though. “I just want to be able to protect those around me. I don’t want to be that same helpless girl who had to rely on others to protect her.”

Kalli leaned forward and touched my hand. “You’re not that same girl. I’ve seen you fight, and you have made incredible progress in the short amount of time you’ve been training. I have no doubt you’ll become a great warrior if you keep up with it.”

“Ethan seems to think I’m years behind, so it’ll be years before I catch up to him—except he’ll always be ahead of me. It feels like there’s no way out.” I knew Ethan just wanted to protect me, but I wanted to show him I was capable of doing more.

Kalli scoffed and waved her hand. “He’s a man. Who cares what he thinks? I swear these werewolves think that just because we’re their mate, they have to protect us at all costs. We’re mates. We are meant to lift each other up. We’re supposed to be equals.” Kalli sounded like she was speaking from personal experience now and less about Ethan.

“I thought Winston treated you as his equal. He has even said he knows you could take him down in a fair fight.” Winston was a unique alpha. Too many of the alphas I had known treated their lunas more like an assistant than a partner, so it was a nice being in a pack with an alpha like Winston.

“Normally, he does,” Kalli said. There was a “but” lingering on the edge of her tongue.

“What happened?” I pressed, doing her the same courtesy she always did for me.

Kalli tapped her finger on the desk, pursing her lips. “We just got into a small…disagreement. Winston tried putting his foot down, like he knows best. I didn’t take it very well.”

“That seems unlike him,” I said. Kalli normally praised Winston for being a wonderful mate, and it was clear that he respected her as his luna and as his mate. He never disregarded her opinion, especially in front of others. Even when he disagreed with her, they talked through the issue until they were on the same page.

Kalli avoided eye contact, making it clear that there was more to the story that she hadn’t said. She was the type to spill every little detail, sometimes to the point that it was too much, so her silence unnerved me.

“Kalli, Winston didn’t hurt you, did he?” I hated thinking about him that way, but my loyalty was to Kalli first, and I had to make sure she was okay.

“Oh, goddess, no!” Kalli said, her eyes practically bugging out of her head. “Winnie would never hurt me. He is so sweet and gentle—well, except for when I specifically ask him not to be.”

A weight lifted off my shoulders, grateful to know our alpha wasn’t that type of guy. “Then you’re going to have to give me something to go off of. You two are not the type of couple to fight, and you are especially not the type to keep things to yourself.”

Kalli scrunched her face. “The thing is, Winston and I agreed to keep it a secret for a little longer.” She tapped her nail on the desk three times, conflicted thoughts making her face twist. “Actually, screw that! Winston should’ve known better. We’re having a baby!”

My jaw dropped, looking at the warrior luna in front of me. I knew the luna and alpha were expected to produce heirs, but I hadn’t expected it to happen so fast. Kalli was around my age, and I felt years away from having children.

“I didn’t even know you were trying,” I said.

“We weren’t not trying,” Kalli said. “We agreed that I would go off my birth control and just see what happened. It happened a lot faster than we expected.”

“But this is a good thing?” I asked.

“It’s definitely a good thing,” she said, unable to control the smile on her face.

“In that case, congratulations!” I jumped up and moved around the desk so I could properly hug her. “I’m happy for the both of you.”

When we separated from the hug, I looked down at her stomach. Her torso was still flat, but it wouldn’t be long before that changed. Werewolf pregnancies were only about five months long, so they flew by.

“We’re happy, too,” Kalli said. She placed a hand on her stomach.

“Then what were you arguing about?” I asked, still confused.

“Winston wants me to stop training and fighting until after the baby is born,” Kalli said. “But fighting is my life. I don’t know what to do if I’m not training and helping Ethan with the warriors. I know Ethan is capable of taking over for me, but I like to keep a special eye on the women. I want to make sure they have as many opportunities as the men.”

“Ah,” I said, everything making more sense. Usually Kalli was the one rushing to help with any issues on the border. “Maybe you two can come up with some sort of compromise. Like maybe you can still do your training but hold off on helping with any fights that come along?”

“That’s not a bad idea,” Kalli said, but she didn’t seem fully happy. “I still don’t know why he’s being so protective. He knows I’m a capable warrior. I wouldn’t do anything that would endanger myself.”

“I’m sure Winston knows that, but suddenly it’s not just you he has to worry about,” I said.

Kalli rubbed her stomach, and her expression softened. “You’re right. I should probably give Winston some slack. Although, I’m going to go crazy if I have to cut back on the amount of time I train.”

“That explains the late night party planning.” I chuckled as all of the pieces started to come together.

“I really do want to host this Luna Ball,” Kalli said. “This just gave me a reason to start it, but if you really want to take over for the planning, I would hate to take that away from you.” She batted her big brown eyes at me while twirling her white hair, making her look as innocent as possible.

I rolled my eyes, knowing it wasn’t about whether or not I wanted to plan this party. Kalli was my luna, and if she needed this ball to keep her sanity, then I was determined to help her out in any way possible. “Just tell me what theme you’d like, and I can do the rest.”

Kalli squealed and threw her arms around me. “You are the best second to the luna a girl could ask for!”

“I try,” I laughed.

“You know, if you tried for your own baby, then our children could grow up together.” Kalli winked at me, and my face paled.

It wasn’t that I didn’t want kids, but I also hadn’t thought much about them. I still felt like I was ten steps behind in this pack as I tried to refine my fighting skills and learn all of the tasks delegated to the second to the luna. I couldn’t imagine adding a child on top of all of that.

“We haven’t even discussed the idea of having children,” I said, hoping she’d drop the subject.

“Then start talking! It would be so cute to have a little Ethan and Juniper baby running around! Or Juniper and Axel or Asher…or Nathan.” Kalli paused. “How would that work between all of you exactly?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “Like I said, we haven’t discussed anything like that. We’re still just enjoying our relationships as is.”

Kalli pushed her lower lip out. “I hope you start thinking about it, because I would love for our kids to be best friends. The closer in age they are, the better friends they’ll be.” She winked at me, and I knew this was only the first time I’d hear her talk about this.

***

ETHAN

“What’s the damage here?” I asked, surveying the border.

“The rogues have been taken care of, Beta,” Aila said, guiding me through the scene of the attack. She was one of the best Moon Warriors in this pack, and I quickly assigned her her own team after assessing all of the warriors. By the time I arrived at the reported area of the rogue attack, Aila and her team had already taken care of the issue.

“How many injured?”

“Only two of our warriors were injured, and they were only minor scrapes. They’ll be healed in no time,” she said. “We had to kill most of the rogues, because they were being unusually aggressive. We did manage to capture two of them. Gina and Bayland are escorting them to the prison now for you and Luna Kalli to interrogate when you’re ready.”

I nodded along, knowing I made the right choice to give Aila her own team. “Great work today, Aila.”

“Thank you, Beta. I was only doing what you trained me to do.” She followed along beside me.

I wanted to tell her that if that was true, then all of my warrior leads would be as competent as her, but I couldn’t say those things out loud. It could hurt the morale of the warriors if they thought I was picking favorites.

“This is the third attack this week, isn’t it?” I asked, looking out beyond the border. The strange scent made my nose twitch. It was the lingering stench of the rogues, but something about it unsettled my wolf. It seemed to be more than just a random rogue attack.

“Yes, sir,” Alia said, looking out at the forest with me.

“How many rogue attacks were there last year?” It had nearly been a full year since I took my official position as the beta, but even before that, I often trained with the warriors. I couldn’t remember any specific rogue attacks, but I also was out of town frequently to help my father with his responsibilities. The past month has been a different story. We were dealing with rogue attacks weekly, with this week breaking a record.

“None, sir.” Her answer felt heavy in the air.

A large gray wolf bounded up to where I was standing, and I instantly recognized my brother.

I see everything has been handled, Asher linked.

For now, I said, but my gut twisted, knowing this wasn’t the end of it. “I think someone is targeting this pack.”