Page 66 of His Fated Luna

I nodded, forcing a tight smile.

“It reminds me of my dad.”

The simple admission left me vulnerable. But oddly enough, with her, I didn’t feel like I needed armor.

She settled beside me on the stool, her voice softening. “I never met him. But I heard he was a great alpha. Did wonderful things for this pack and for werewolves in general.”

I blinked at her, not missing how close she was. If I reached out, I could easily run my hand through her hair. I took a breath instead, letting her scent mess with my head. Maybe I was lowering my guard a little too much.

That’s probably why I kept talking.

“People always said I’d make a great alpha. That I’d make my dad proud. That I was everything an alpha should be. Like I should be proud of that.”

I laughed bitterly, shaking my head.

“You know, I always hated hearing that. Like it was something I earned. Like I should feel proud of something that only comes when my dad dies or can’t lead anymore. It used to make me so angry. People always saying, ‘When you become Alpha…’ or ‘After you’re Alpha…’ Didn’t they realize what they were saying? That it would only happen when Dad was either dead or too weak to continue? Alphas usually retire when they start getting old, but I could never even picture that. He was always this larger-than-life figure in my world. Always strong, always leading, always teaching me how to be better. Always my hero.”

The spoon clinked against the bowl again as I paused, realizing how much I was saying. But everything came easy when I was with Rose.

“Everyone thinks of their father as a hero. Always there to save the day. It’s normal,” Rose offered gently, encouraging me to keep going.

I nodded faintly, her words somehow giving me permission to speak the things I had never said out loud.

“I couldn’t even let myself think about what I’d do ‘when I became Alpha.’ Because thinking about it meant imagining a world without my dad in it. It meant imagining losing him. And it’s like… the more I feared that day… the faster it came.”

I finished in a quiet whisper, shame threading through the words. Like somehow, just dreading it had made it real.

“It’s not your fault what happened,” Rose said quickly, like she could see exactly where my thoughts were spiraling.

I laughed bitterly.

“We fought the night before. Lexia was over. We… I smelled like her.”

I looked at Rose then, hoping she’d understand without me having to explain every detail. The main reason wolves smelled like each other was because they’d been physically intimate.

Her eyes flickered with something—I wasn’t sure what—but after a moment, she seemed to shove it aside. Like she knew this wasn’t about her feelings. Like she understood I just needed someone to listen.

“Dad knew things were getting serious between me and Lexia. He wanted me to end it. Kept telling me to stop letting my hormones rule my decisions. He wanted me to wait for my mate. I get it now… he kept trying to rein me in because of you.”

I glanced up at her for a moment before looking back down at my cereal.

“I told him he was stuck in the old ways, that times were changing. That he didn’t understand me and was forcing his views down my throat. Now… now I realize he understood me better than I even understood myself—”

I snapped my mouth shut before the words tumbled out.

He understood you were the one who would complete me.

Even though it felt good to finally talk about the mess of emotions tangled inside me, I wasn’t about to spill everything. I glanced toward Rose; she was looking at me patiently, waitingfor me to go on. I shifted gears quickly, steering the conversation away from mates and Lexia .

“The things I’ve found… in his… my study,” I continued. “He left me notes, piles of them, all starting with ‘If you’re reading this, it means I’ve met an untimely demise.’ He wrote them all out by hand—guidelines, policies for dealing with other packs. Even… even about the foreign alliance I made while I was abroad. He left a detailed profile on that pack, breaking down why they’d be the best alliance for us.”

I blew out a breath, leaning back in my stool.

“He left me so many notes so I could keep up his work but… now there aren’t any left. The last letter I found in his study table… my study table… said I need to make my own decisions now. Pick my own strategies. He trusted that I’d know what’s good for the pack and that now that I have my luna…”

My eyes slid sideways to Rose.

“She’ll be able to use her powers to seek guidance from him if I ever need it.”