Luna Rising by Sloane Murphy
Chapter Two
“Luna, it's your birthday, and not just any birthday. It's your twenty-first.” I groan at the brusque undertone to my dad's voice. We've been having this argument for weeks, and I'm so done with it. Based on the way Dad sounds, he is too. “You know this birthday means a pack gathering… If you don't want to do this for you, fine, but please do it for your mother. Or, at the very least, for my sanity.”
Breakfast this morning was just another round of arguments, and regardless of the fact that I'm just so freaking tired of it all, apparently we're going again. “Dad, I said no! I don't care what the rules say!”
The disappointment is clear in his deep brown eyes. I hate disappointing him, but I hate that he’s trying to manipulate me more. He runs a tan hand down his face, as if exasperated and searching for words.
“Luna—”
I turn and rush down the hall toward my bedroom, turning to look over my shoulder at my disapproving father as I do. “I'm only twenty! I'm not ready to be tied down with a mate bond yet.”
“Luna—” he repeats, and I pause in the doorway of my bedroom, fighting the groan that's threatening to spill from my lips. I cut him off before he can start on his next round of ‘persuasion’. “I get that they're all fuzzy and magical, but I don't want that yet! There's a whole world out there that I want to see.”
I groan as I flop down face first onto my bed, in the hopes that Dad won’t follow me in here, but I know it’s an unlikely hope. Of course he’ll follow me in here. My birthday is in four weeks, and my mother has been hounding me, literally for a whole fucking year, about this gathering.
I don’t know why, but everyone seems to hope that Maddox will be my mate. No offense to Maddox, but no. He’s my best friend, and if I have my way, he’s staying firmly in the friend zone.
“Luna, please. Your mother is driving me nuts. Just let her plan the stupid party. You don’t even have to show your face for long.”
I put my arms under my head so I can breathe before responding to him. “Don’t give me that bullshit, Dad. I am the ‘Alpha’s Daughter’. Anything to do with my mating seems to be everyone’s fucking business. There’s no way I’ll be able to just show my face and then disappear.” I feel the mattress dip as he sits on the end of the bed, and I groan again before turning around and sitting up. Am I acting like a petulant child? Yes, yes I am, but parties are so not my thing. I’ve made my wishes very clear about all of it. I’ve let them know I’m not on board with their plans. His dark eyes stare at me, pleading, and I hate it. Saying no to him is hard enough without him going all soul-eyes on me.
I really don’t care about pack standings. The fact that I’m the Alpha’s daughter… All it’s ever brought me is pain and misery. I’ve had to wear a mask my entire life, pretending to be who they want me to be, rather than who I really am. Being the Alpha’s heir is no joke, and the expectations that come along with it are almost crushing. And since the Crescent Pack is a baby-pack—in that it was only formed just before I was born—the expectations seem to be even greater.
I don’t know when the relevance to the number twenty-one started, but it is significant to every faction. A Hunter used to go through their awakening at twenty-one… at least before The Change. Dracul have their first hunt at age twenty-one, and Witches tend to get their emergence in their twenty-first year.
For a Lycan, twenty-one means we’re supposed to be able to find our mate. And because I’m the Alpha’s daughter and only heir, that’s apparently a big deal. I am in charge of carrying on the Crescent Wolves’ Alpha line. Regardless of the fact that someone could challenge Dad at any time. Or Uncle Roman for that point.
Nothing is set in stone in this world. Tomorrow is never guaranteed, and that’s why I don’t want to be tied down. I want to go out and explore the world. If I happen to find my mate, then awesome I guess, but I’m not about to go searching for them.
I’ve heard about what the mating bond does to some Lycans… That it catalyzes some all consuming need to be near their mates. Knowing my luck, my mate will be the homebody type and my wandering soul will be tied to one spot forever.
I am so not about that life.
It's bad enough that since I finished school, my whole life has been about pack life—all the way down to me training with the pack enforcers and working at the pack cafe. So far I’ve gotten away with no further pack duties, but my birthday means that will probably change. Unless I reject my birthright of Alpha. Which, much to my father's horror, is exactly what I’m planning. I guess we’ll see which one of us is more stubborn when the time finally comes.
The problem with being the Alpha’s daughter, rather than son, is that, while leading the Pack is my birthright, Lycans tend to be meatheads. The patriarchy is very, very real. Having a woman as an Alpha isn’t unheard of, but it's not exactly common either.
The last female Alpha was killed in the battle to save Auntie Remy when I was younger. There haven’t been any others since. It’s not like she purposely fucked it for us all, but it definitely made the Lycans a wary bunch when it comes to female leadership, especially when they’re already pro-peen in charge.
It’s so fucking stupid.
“Luna, I’m not going to lie, this is a big deal. For you, for your mother, and yes, for the pack. Ever since the battles when you were younger, the pack has been struggling with a return to normalcy. You're the first Alpha-born in this generation, so yes, this is a big deal.”
He rubs a hand down his face, before looking back at me. “I get not wanting it. There’s a reason I didn’t become my father’s heir, why I decided to be your uncle Roman’s second instead, but there’s just something about our bloodline.” He smiles sadly at me, and I know he gets it. I’ve heard stories of his battles my entire life, fighting alongside his life-long friend Roman. After all they've been through they're so close, they're like brothers. Which is why I call him my uncle Roman, because he's been around all my life, and why his son, Maddox, is one of the closest people to me in my life. But just because the Alpha life called my dad back, doesn’t mean it will do the same for me. “The Alpha in you won’t be able to settle for second. Just like Maddox wouldn’t be able to.”
The sympathy from moments before disappears in a flash, and my all-business father is back once more. He offers a grim smile before saying, “Let's just wait until after your birthday to worry about that stuff, though. First, just please, get your mom off my case and agree to the party. I’ll make it as painless for you as I can.”
I pull a cushion against my chest and wrap my arms around it, squeezing all of my agitation into it. Sure, I’m not acting any of my twenty years of age, but this fucking sucks. “Fine, just… fine.” I falter over my words, unhappy with giving in but unsure of what to say to express myself. It’s not like it’s mattered in the weeks leading up to now. I sigh, “Just stop talking to me about it. Both of you. Please.”
He stands, all six and a half feet of him towering over me, before leaning down and kissing me on the forehead. “Thanks, sweetheart.”
His grin tells me just how hard I got played. But fuck my life, how is a girl meant to object when her dad pleads like that? He might be built like an absolute machine, but he’s all soft and gooey on the inside.
Once he’s gone, I throw myself back on the bed and groan. What a way to start my day. Please, Fates, let today get better.
* * *
I pull my white blonde hair back into a ponytail and finish dressing for the start of my day. I try to start every day with a run along the beach. I might be a Lycan, but I still need to stay in decent shape. Training with the enforcers helps keep me in decent shape too. I’m not the type of girl who’s so obsessed with fitness and training that I have a six pack, but I’m pretty happy with my body regardless. Everyone says I’m a mirror image of my mom at this age. From the pale skin and bright blue eyes all the way down to the whiteness of my hair.
It’s only the beginning of the summer here in Northern California, and I am already so over this heat. Most Lycans don’t seem to care about the temperature outside, but most of them don’t have ass length white blonde hair to worry about tying up every day either.
I mean, that's my own fault. I could totally cut it, but I like it how it is, just not when it’s this hot.
My phone buzzes on the table, and I smile when I see my bestie's name on the screen.
Nova: Morning Bish, ready to get this run out of the way so I can sit and drool over at the training paddock?
Me: Yeah, just about. Caved about the party. Kill me? Meet you at the gates?
Nova: You did not! Well, I mean, at least we get to party I guess? We can sneak out to the beach at like nine and hide in the caves.
Me: Sounds perfect, now get your ass ready. I’ll be at the gates in ten.
I finish strapping up the girls in my sports bra and tie up my sneakers before putting on my arm band that carries my phone. I make sure my ear pods are connected before running out of my room, ignoring my parents along the way, and straight out the front door.
Running is something me and my wolf have agreed on. It clears my mind, and I don’t feel chained down. Plus, my wolf loves feeling free, and when I run, she gets that too. I had my first shift at fifteen, which isn’t too early for a shifter, but it was early enough to get me noticed. All I needed then, much like now, was more attention on me.
My first shift was one of the most painful things I’ve ever been through, but I’m only twenty, so that isn’t really saying much. Since my shift, I’ve been running every day and training with the enforcers. Dad’s been trying to stomp out some of the more barbaric Lycan traditions along with Uncle Roman, but there are still some Lycans out there who feel like a female wolf is fair game once she’s shifted for the first time, regardless of the fact that we can’t find our mates until we're twenty-one.
I shudder even thinking about it, but I’ve been fortunate enough to never experience anything like that. The thought of being forced to breed with someone just because I haven’t found my mate makes my whole body shudder. Some would say I’ve lived a life of privilege, that I have no reason for wanting to lock myself away from pack life, but they don’t really know me. Don’t get me wrong, Mom and Dad are freaking awesome, and our extended family freaking rocks, but I know way more than any twenty-year-old should.
The battles that were fought when I was younger were basically bedtime stories for me growing up, but those stories showed me just how dark the world can be. They also showed me how short life can be, and that if given the chance, people will take your choices from you. It’s why I fight so hard over every decision that affects my life.
Auntie Remy had way too many choices taken from her, and Mom went through some shitty stuff before she found my dad too. I’m trying to avoid the dark and twisty patches that I know will crop up in my own life. I know I’ll never make it out of this life unscathed, but if I can avoid it, you can bet your ass I’m going to.
I reach the gates of the Lycan compound and find Nova flirting with one of the compound guards while she waits for me. She might be a year younger than me, but she acts so much older than me sometimes. Nova is one of the best, most sunshiney yet thunder cloud people I’ve ever known. All of her snark and sass just add to her charm. Unlike me, she has a reason to be dark and twisty, and yet, she fights it every day. I’m just glad I get to call her my friend.
“Hey, Luna.” Charlie smiles down at me, but the guard’s real smile is all for my friend. He has no idea just how badly he’s barking up the wrong tree there. Nova is the ride or die type. If he isn’t her mate, she isn’t going to touch him, even with all of her playful flirting. She twirls a strand of her short dark hair around her finger as she smiles, her bright green eyes flashing up at him. I can’t help but laugh quietly. She looks like a little pixie even with her edgy as fuck bob.
“Hey,” I say before turning back to Nova. “You ready?”
The question pulls her attention away from Charlie, and she groans her protest with a teasing smile. “I'm never ready for our daily torture sessions, but sure, let's do this. How far are we going today?”
I toss a wave over my shoulder at Charlie as we move past the gates. “I was thinking we could do the entire cove, so like… six miles?”
She flourishes, pretending that her knees go weak, swooning with the back of her hand on her forehead like the drama queen she is. “Six miles? Bish, you're crazy. I love you, but shit.” I toss her a playfully annoyed glance over my shoulder, and she smirks back at me. “Fine, fine, let's do this before I change my mind.”
I laugh at her, shaking my head as I pop my earbud back in. I failed to mention the extra mile running to the beach and back, but I’ll just tell her about that later. She doesn’t need to know right now. I hit shuffle on my phone and“That won’t save us”, by Against the Current, blasts. This is exactly what I need today. I grin at Nova and take off with her running along beside me. She’s about a head shorter than me, but she’s all fucking legs so she keeps stride pretty easily.
There’s something freeing about running, but we’re pack animals no matter how much we each like being alone. Plus, a lone female Lycan isn’t necessarily a safe Lycan.
Once we hit the beach and the ground turns to sand beneath my feet, the burn in my muscles returns like an old friend. After the first couple of miles, Nova signals at me for me to go ahead. She’s never really enjoyed running like I do, and this usually happens, so I push harder, making my body sing with the burn of exercise. I make sure she’s not too far behind regularly but still lose myself to the sand and music.
Once I reach the end of the cove, I raise my hands behind my head, sucking in air like I’ll never get enough of it, and enjoy the view of the sun coming up.
It’s too freaking pretty.
Lycans might be creatures of the moon, but that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the sun. I’m just glad that my wolf is strong enough not to be manipulated by the moon. The thought of the shift being forced regularly makes me sick. That’s one upside of being from a powerful Alpha line I guess, and there have to be some upsides, right? Within the packs, less than half of us can shift specifically at will all the time. It hurts my heart thinking about those with less power who are forced to shift with the moon, especially when they already suffer enough with pack hierarchy as it is. I mean, they can shift at will too, but fuck having it forced upon you.
“You… are… a… Monster!” Nova pants when she finally catches up with me, and I merely grin at her. My smiles might not be free for everyone, but she can have them all.
“You know it.” She kicks sand up at me, and it only makes me laugh harder.
“Are you coming running tomorrow night?” she asks, referring to the full moon. Unfortunately, my beautiful friend is one of the Lycans whose shift is tied to the moon, so I try to run with her as often as I can.
“You know I wouldn’t miss it.”
She beams up at me, despite her usually pale skin being red and blotchy. “Good, now can we walk back? Please?”
“Not a chance. You can’t work your way to being an enforcer of the pack if you don’t work out, ya know.”
She flips me the bird before sucking in another lungful of air. “That was a stupid idea of mine. Really stupid. Maybe I should just be a teacher at the pack school.”
I laugh at her harder because that is fucking comedy gold. “That would require being around kids, and we both know you’re not doing that.”
“Eww gross,” she says with an over-dramatic shudder. I seem to be all laughs with her today because I can’t stop the giggle that forces its way from my lips when she continues, “Crotch goblins. No. Okay, enforcer it is. Let’s go.”
She takes off ahead of me, and I take a deep breath, preparing to jog after, and eventually ahead of, her. I get a strange little niggle in my stomach. I chance a glance over my shoulder, not able to shake the weird feeling.
Someone’s watching us.
I sniff the air and don’t recognize any of the scents, so I keep my senses ratcheted up all the way on high. I’m uneasy, so I put my earbuds back in but leave the music off and stay on Nova’s six the whole way home.
I don’t know who’s watching us, but I’ve learned to trust my instincts over time.
Nova has been through enough, and I’ll rip someone's throat out before I let them hurt her.
* * *
I’ve spent most of the morning training with the enforcers and Nova. Usually, Lycans our age don’t get to train with them. You have to go through trials and all sorts of shit, but since my dad is crazy about me being able to defend myself, I get to train with them almost daily. And since Nova is my bestie, I sweet-talked Thatcher, the bear of a man who is the head enforcer for the pack, to let Nova join me. The fact that she wants to be a badass enforcer is something I might have kept to myself until she’d already been training with me for six months.
She’s managed to wrap Thatch around her little finger, though, so I already know he’ll put her through the trials once she ages up.
I have a shift at the cafe this afternoon, so I rush home from training to shower and change as quickly as I can before work. The Alpha’s house is at the far back of the compound, and the only thing that sits behind us are the mountains and trees that make up the back of the pack lands. It’s what we use when we want to run or when shifts are forced on a full moon.
In front of the house is a big, open square that is used for pack gatherings as often as it is used for picnics or working out. Opposite the house and the square are the pack run businesses. There are a few restaurants, some small boutique stores, a bookstore, a small medical building, and the cafe. To the right of the square is the pack school, which ranges from pre-K to the end of high school when everyone should have gone through their first shift. There's also a community center and a business center where my dad has an office on that side of the square. I’ve never really ventured into the business center, so I don’t have much of an idea of what else goes on in there, but we have everything we need.
We’re essentially set up to be self-sufficient should the rest of the world blow up. There are crops behind the pack housing, the buildings are equipped with power from solar panels… If it’s something we might need, Dad’s already thought of it. I’m not outright saying it, but Doomsday Prepper much? It’s something I tease him about a lot, but I know I’ll be thankful for it if anything were to ever happen.
I enter the cafe, and the scent of coffee and freshly baked cakes hits me, making me drool. The large windows across the front of the storefront flood the open space with light. It's so warm and inviting, and is part of the reason I love it so much in here. The space is filled with several round tables, and booths line the side wall opposite the counter where the cakes and pastries are on display. The line is almost back to the door, making me wince a little. Totally my bad, Callie was scheduled off thirty minutes ago, and since I wasn’t early—which I never am—Lacey has been on her own.
Oops.
Lacey, the salt-and-pepper haired owner of the cafe, shakes her head at me as I move behind the counter. “There was me thinking you might be late today.”
I grin over at her, giving her my best ‘you know you love me’ look. “I’m never late. Just very much right on time.”
“You’re definitely something, Luna Winters.” I breeze back behind the counter and take over the coffee machine since the orders seem to be piling up already. I really should get here earlier, but then I’d have to cut training short. I am not the one who's going to have that conversation with my dad.
I jump in to help clear the backlog of orders while Lacey does her thing with all of the people, chatting away like they haven’t likely been waiting for twenty minutes already since it's the rush of the day as most people head home from whatever work they’ve been doing.
I remember Nova laughing her butt off when I told her that I was getting a job here because well, people. I might not have to earn my own money, but I’ve never been comfortable simply using my family money for everything. I mean, I get it… Everyone lives a really long time, and making money is something a lot of Lycans have become very good at. It’s to the point now that most Lycans don’t need to earn an outside income. And those who don’t have long family lines are supported by pack money, which everyone who can contributes to.
My father's rules are simple. Everyone has a bed. No one goes hungry. No killing pack members.
I mean, I don’t think it could be any simpler. Of course there are other rules because the pack would be fucking feral otherwise, but those are the big three. We might all have family lines, but pack means family, and we look after our own.
The only exception to that rule are rogues, but there haven’t been many of them in my lifetime… Not after Uncle Roman basically wiped them from existence and showed the rest of the Lycans around the globe what would happen if anyone fucked with his family ever again.
Let’s just say, I’m really glad he’s part of my family and not my enemy.
Just the thought of it sends a chill down my spine. I’ve literally never seen that side of him, but I’ve heard plenty of stories.
I get lost in the work of catching up on orders, keeping my head down to keep cranking out the tasty drinks that keep people coming back. The cafe goes eerily quiet, and I turn to try to figure out what the fuck’s happened. This place is noisy as hell all day long—the quiet is disturbing. Everyone’s turned toward the big picture windows at the front of the cafe, and I glance out to see Dad yelling in the square back and forth with a guy I’ve never seen before.
“Who is that?” I ask Lacey quietly, since I swear the woman seems to know everyone, pack or not. She shakes her head at me, shushing me in the same breath.
I hate being kept in the dark. Everyone always wants so much from me, yet they’re so unwilling to give anything back. I’m both treated like a child and then not at all within the same breath, and it's exhausting.
But whoever that is my dad is yelling at must have really pissed him off. I’ve never seen him shout like this. Not even when Maddox and I accidentally burned down one of the huts in the forest behind the house.
The guy stands there, arms crossed over his chest, like whatever my dad is yelling about is pointless. He waits to be dismissed—because turning your back on an angry Alpha is never a good idea, regardless of the circumstance—and then walks away without another word.
I’m not sure what’s going on, but maybe life around here is about to get interesting for once.
