Page 9 of His Fated Luna

For the first time, I wholeheartedly agreed with him.

"Would you dare defy the will of the Moon Goddess?" Auntie Hilda whispered. "Since our pack's first alpha and luna, it hasbeen decreed that our luna is born with the phoenix mark. It tells the pack who to protect. Luna gives the alpha power and keeps him grounded. She was born on pack soil and has the power to speak with her dead ancestors. That knowledge is vital for the alpha and the pack’s future. Without your luna, Aiden, you are weak. You will never be able to tap into her latent power."

"Oh, come on! She’s part human. You really think she has any latent power?" Aiden scoffed. "We’d be lucky if she manages a decent shift." Then, after a pause, he added, "Besides, I want to choose my luna." His voice was heated. He glared at me for a moment. My face paled and panic filled my being. Shift? I would have to shift into a werewolf?! What if Aiden was right and I could never shift?

As he glared at me, his expression slowly softened.

"Can we talk in private?" he asked after a weary sigh.

I nodded numbly and followed him out onto the front lawn, anxiety still shooting through me over the prospect of shifting when I turned twenty-one.

Chapter 4

"The worst feeling is falling for someone and knowing that they won't be there to catch you.” – Rashida Rowe

Rose’s POV

Aiden was undeniably attractive. Any girl with eyes could see that. He had an air of power about him, but that didn’t mean I wanted to mate with him. This was way too much.

Taking deep calming breaths like Aiden had guided me to do earlier, I ignored my pounding heart and trailed behind him, wondering what he wanted to say.

"Look…I’m sorry if this is all too much for you." His words came quickly as we stood facing each other. I madea concentrated effort not to get lost in his eyes. "But I…I’m committed to someone else. I can’t be your mate."

"It’s not like I expect you to," I replied honestly, focusing on this one small thing that I felt I had control over. "You should be able to choose who you want to be with. I don’t know much about werewolves, but I do know what a mating ceremony is." I shuddered at the thought. "That’s not something I’d want to do with someone I don’t love."

"You know…that’s why they want to bring you back," he explained patiently,looking down at me with his hands in the pockets of his blue jeans. "They hope we’ll get to know each other and develop feelings. But I don’t want to lead you on. I already promised myself to someone else." Aiden's gaze was steady. I took in his interesting choice of words. “Promised myself” instead of “love”.

"Do you want to go back? To be with your pack and father?" He looked at me with raised eyebrows, the moonlight highlighting the angular planes of his face.

I shrugged. "I don’t know about the pack, but I do know I want to get to know my dad." I chose my words carefully. "Even if I go back, I won’t expect anything from you," I assured him. "I want to be with someone for love. I want to fall in love."

I smiled softly at the thought. Life was too precious to waste on someone I didn’t love.

For a moment, Aiden looked surprised. Then, shaking his head, he forced a smile.

“As long as we understand each other," he said.

I turned back toward the house, my mind spinning. What now? Should I join the pack and dive into this new life—or stay where I felt safe?

One week later…

In the end, my dad won out, and I found myself packing up everything with Auntie Hilda to move back to pack territory. Around that time, I finally mustered up the courage to exchange numbers with Jake so we could keep in touch. I didn’t think my leaving would bother him much, but to my surprise, he’d been visibly upset when he found out I was moving.

He’d never remotely shown any real interest in me before. But I couldn’t shake the memory of how agitated he’d been when I told him. He kept going on about how I was pretty cool for always helping him out. We had exchanged not only phone numbers but email addresses as well.

Now, as Auntie Hilda’s flashy car sped toward pack territory, I checked my email and text messages for the fiftieth time, hoping—maybe even foolishly—that Jake had sent me something.

“So all our money was actually coming from the pack funds?” I asked, sighing as I put my phone aside. Disappointment over Jake’s silence gnawed at me, but I pushed it down. I knew what I was doing. I was concentrating on Jake to quell the nerves about joining a new school. I was still upset over everyone lying to me, but that didn’t mean I didn’t want to get to know my father.

Auntie Hilda nodded enthusiastically, bobbing her head up and down with the music.

“The previous alpha dispersed funds for us. I do have my own money—that’s how I bought this baby here.” She patted the dashboard of her car lovingly. “But all of our living expenseswere paid for by the pack so we could make sure you had a good life growing up.”

A lump formed in my throat. All this time, I thought it had just been the two of us against the world. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine an entire group of people standing in the shadows as my support system.

“We’re here!” Auntie Hilda’s excited voice jolted me from my thoughts.

I swallowed hard, mentally bracing myself as I stared at the entrance to the place that was supposed to be my true home—the world I was woefully ignorant about.