Luna of Mine (36 page)

Present day.

T
he room was quiet as Alina closed the book that told the
story of the beginning of Vasile’s reign. She looked at the faces
around the room. Beautiful young women whom she considered her own
daughters. Just as if she had born every one of them, they belonged
to her. She had wanted to share her story, wanted them to see that
she and Vasile had not always been so in control and united. And
she wanted them to know that regardless of how their journey with
their mate began, and not matter how impossible things seemed to
appear, they would survive, grow, and learn together.

“
Why did
you not share this with us sooner?” Jacque finally broke the
silence. Alina imagined she was no doubt thinking about how similar
their situations had been―she attacked by Lucas and herself
attacked by Serghei, both marked by males that never should have
touched them.

“
The
time simply was not right,” she told her gently, hoping she
understood that Alina had not meant to hurt her by not sharing her
own experience. “I wanted you each to be able to fully understand
the dynamics of the relationship between a male Canis lupis and his
true mate, and I did not think that possible until you each had
your own mates.”

“I agree with you,” Jen
spoke up. “I don’t think there is any way to understand something
so deep without having experienced it.”

Alina nodded and smiled.
“You have definitely dealt with your fair share of Alpha male
attitude.”

They all laughed at her
understatement.

Jen sat with her legs
swinging off the edge of the couch and her back propped against the
arm. She let out a wistful sigh. “Well, all I can say is that I
hope when Decebel grows up he is like Vasile.”

This time the laughter had
Sally and Jacque tearing up and Alina shaking her head at the young
Alpha female.

“
Alina,”
Sally said after the laughter had died down. “What happened to all
those pack members? I mean I know there are still some here that
have been with you all since then, but Ion, and Nicu, what about
them?”

Alina’s lips tightened
briefly as she remembered the sorrow of some of those stories. “Ion
found his true mate, and she was in another pack. He chose to go
with her. Nicu the same. Alin perished in a dominance fight not too
long after Vasile returned as Alpha. Sisily met her true mate in
the Western Romania pack, but several years after they bonded he
was attacked by a bear. He didn’t make it, so naturally neither did
Sisily. Her parents requested to join a different pack because they
felt such shame over Serghei. We tried to get them to stay but they
refused. As far as I know, they are still alive, but they do not
leave their pack territory. Many others share similar
stories.”

“
I’m
sorry,” Sally told her. “I know that must have been very difficult,
to lose those who had helped restore your pack.”

“
Time
heals much, gypsy, you know that,” Alina smiled.

“
Well as
usual, Alina,” Jacque said as she sat up to stretch after having
been in one position so long. “You were right. You and Vasile have
had many, many adventures.”

“And you’ve saved the
world, like twice or something,” Jen tossed out. “You are totally
due a vaca.”

“
Well,
daughters of mine, with a new pup in the pack and one on the way, I
have a feeling that there will not be time for a vaca, as you call
it. The Great Luna has plans for her wolves now that we have
finally begun to work together. And anytime there is significant
change in the packs, then we should be on or most vigilant guard.
Something tells me that the pups born to this pack represent a very
significant change.

“I really don’t like it
when you say crap like that, because it usually means something
bad, or ugly, or evil beyond all imagining is going to show up on
our door step,” Jen huffed and threw her head back
dramatically.

“
So for
clarification purposes,” Jacque said as she pursed her lips. “What
I hear you saying is that there is no rest for the furry,
correct?”

Alina nodded as she
chuckled. “Very correct.”

“We should totally put that
on a t-shirt.” Sally grinned.

“
I
concur, gypsy lady,” Jen said.

“
I’ll
only wear it if we get the males each their very own― in pink,” Jen
added.

“
You are
simply diabolical Thelma,.” Jacque held out her fist to
her.

“
Okay
so, we’ve heard the love story, and we still have a night of girl
time before we have to go back to being responsible females.” Jen
stood walking towards the kitchen with her empty hot chocolate
mug.

“
What do
you have in mind?” Alina asked and, based on the groans around her,
she knew it was one of those questions that should never be posed
to Jen.

The wide grin that spread
across Jen’s face and the brief glow of her eyes was enough to know
that it was not going to bode well for them. “I am so glad you
asked.”

The End

Thank you so very much for
taking your time to read Luna of Mine! I hope that you enjoyed
Vasile and Alina’s story and that it drew you closer to the Alpha
pair. God bless!

Keep an eye out for Book 9
in the Grey Wolves Series, Book 3 in the Elfin Series and Book 2 in
the Gypsy Healers Series. Check
www.quinnloftisbooks.com
to stay informed on book releases, cover reveals, book
trailers, and more!

Now please enjoy the
following excerpt from Amy Evans.

CLICKS

Amy Evans

Website
Tumblr
Twitter

Excerpt – YA –SciFi Fantasy

CLICKS are the sounds the universe
makes to tell you what happens next. They’re instincts, truths you
hear in your heart. (Book 1)

ECHOES are louder and more dangerous
than CLICKS. They can reverberate and cause damage if ignored.
(Book 2 – available June 2014)

This is the story of Pinhold Island,
the most perfect example of nature and time and the country’s #1
surf spot. It’s home to epic waves, black sand beaches and the
friendliest pod of dolphins known to man. While sixteen year old
Cami loves her Island home, she can’t wait to leave The annual Surf
Carnival competition is her ticket, and she’s been training for
years to win it and take the gold. But as the competition heats up,
the best swimmers start going down, and it’s up to Cami to rescue
them. Can she trust her instincts to find out what’s really wrong?
Or will she lose everything important to her searching for
proof?

Want the recipe for a
great book?

Try this.

3 parts Mystery

2 parts Romance

1 part
Paranormal

3 parts
Action 

A dash of Fun

This book is best when
read ASAP.  Read until done.

Enjoy!

What are clicks?

Waves that experienced surfers sense
instinctively before they can be seen or heard. Winners trust their
clicks and get in position, dropping in on the beginning swell and
taking even the biggest monsters on a ride. Then there are the rest
of us. We wait; jump on at the wrong time. Best case, we hang on.
Worst, we’re sent crashing to the ocean floor trying desperately
not to drown.

The ocean never clicked for me. Not
like it did for my brother, or my grandmother, or the many
ancestors who’d come before. Still, they expected me to commit for
life, guarding the ocean and the land, just because I was first
born. I wanted none of it. But I let them train me so that I could
win the Surf Carnival and get the heck out of town.

So I begged the universe for clicks,
and when they came, fast, furious, I couldn’t catch them fast
enough. These waves weren’t tricks to be tamed. They were warnings
from the universe that everything would change. But I didn’t listen
with my heart or trust the messaging to stop the disasters before
they came.

And even when I wasn’t in the water,
it felt like I had drowned.

<<>>

One

When I walked out of my house, Blake
whistled.

“
Lookin’ good,” he said
with a wink of his turquoise eye. The other, his right one, was
half that same startling blue and half grayish silver, like my
own.

Ours was a small island with a shallow
gene pool. Endless summers gave everyone the same sun-kissed,
tanned glow, even before you factored in the many sets of identical
twins that comprised an unusually high portion of our
population.

Blake was the poster child for life
here on Pinhold. Literally. A blond, tan, sixteen-year-old swimming
god featured in the ad campaign for this year’s Surf Carnival, the
competitive swimming and surfing event drew international pros from
both sports to our tiny town.

Blake’s twin, Kaleb, had left Pinhold
when we were all thirteen. He’d been my best friend, just as Blake
was my twin brother Mica’s.

Blake and Kaleb were mirror
twins—identical polar opposites. Blake’s right eye matched Kaleb’s
left, Kaleb’s nose hooked the tiniest bit right, while Blake’s had
the same angle going the other way. They had corresponding crescent
birthmarks in exactly the same place on their left and right
knees.

Like all magnetic objects going in the
same direction, they repelled each other. Blake dove in head first
into island life while Kaleb rejected almost everything, especially
The Guard. He hated how Blake and Mica got serious about joining,
and blamed them for dragging me along. He never understood my
reasons were my own.

We’d all fought badly and Kaleb went
in search of trouble bad enough to get him sent off for good. He
snuck over to the tiny island to see Pinhold’s secret symbol for
himself. The ancient pin supposedly stood straight up on a tiny
tip, balanced magnetically on a rock in the middle of our
archipelago.

Only members of the island elite had
seen it, only those in The Guard, and Kaleb, who resented them
tremendously, didn’t believe in the pin’s existence, and had
attempted to see it for himself. Tonight, I’d see it for the first
time, so of course, Kaleb was on my mind.

For Blake, Mica and I, this was the
beginning of everything – the annual summer kick off called First
Night. We went to have fun, eventually, but our attendance was
symbolic.

We’d pledge our interest The Guard and
spend the next few months competing for a few limited openings.
First Night also kicked off the new season of the Surf Carnival, a
two-month competition in extreme surf rescuing. I didn’t plan to
join The Guard but I needed to win enough contests to be able to
leave the island for good.

Unlike every girl for a hundred miles,
I usually ignored the flirtatious compliments that rolled so easily
off Blake’s tongue. I was well aware that he was gorgeous,
technically. Be he didn’t attract me at all.

Still, tonight I’d worked hard on
getting the right look. I’d skipped my basic racing tank and board
shorts, pairing a white bikini and red tank with a denim skirt that
looked nearly too tight in just the right way.

“
You did not look like
that when I came home for Spring Break. No one’s gonna mistake you
for Mica again,” said Blake’s big brother, Billy, as he came down
their driveway pushing a keg. My face reddened more as the older
boy called attention to the fact that with his longish surfer boy
hair and my complete lack of girlish curves, Mica and I had passed
for identical twins, until only very, very recently.

“
Missed you too, Billy,” I
grumbled, accepting a huge bear hug. Mica and I had adopted Billy
as our surrogate big brother ages ago and I’d missed him when he
left for college. He’d come back to do his medical residency and
he’d brought his girlfriend, Celeste. “When did you get here?” I
asked.

“
A couple hours ago. I
went up to see Kaleb after I took my boards. “He wanted me to wish
you good luck for tonight,” Billy said.

“
Sure he did.” Mica
snorted, echoing my own sentiments. As Nippers, Kaleb and I had
vowed that we’d never join The Guard. I planned to keep that
promise, although Kaleb didn’t know it. No one did.

Billy looked at the pink of the sky,
picked up the keg and plopped it into the passenger seat of the
small electric vehicle. Proper cars and gas engines of any kind
were banned on Pinhold, for environmental reasons. So we got around
in dune buggies and golf carts. Billy had borrowed a golf cart with
the back of a small truck to transport the keg to the party
spot.

“
That puts you lot in
back,” he said, gesturing to the small flatbed.