Luna of Mine (6 page)

When they finally found
them, Vasile was holding his father tight against him, and he
didn’t have to pretend to be broken. He wept openly and sincerely.
He mourned for his father’s madness and suffering, and he grieved
for his mother’s sacrifice. Alin, Ion, and Nicu mourned with him.
Their howls filling the early morning air. As they carried his
father’s body back to the castle to be prepared for burial with his
mother, Vasile wondered if he would be able to fill the hole his
parents had left. Even with his madness, Stefan had been a good
Alpha. Vasile was not sure he would be able to live up to the
legacy his father had left.

“
T
here is only one village left,
Alpha.” Nicu’s voice jarred him from the memory. “It is the
furthest from the castle. If I remember correctly the most dominant
among them is Petre Sala.”

Something about the name
made Vasile’s wolf perk up, though he was sure he had not met the
man. The males that lived in the villages were not dominant enough
to be a part of the top wolves that trained as warriors on a
regular basis and patrolled the territory when necessary. The
violence that was necessary for a warrior to carry out had to be
swift and without hesitation, and often the less dominant the wolf,
the more likely the hesitation. If these males did not come to the
castle, then Vasile seldom met them, though his father probably
had. Vasile took in a deep breath, filling his lungs with the warm
night air. He had a sudden eagerness to get to this village, and he
had learned long ago not to argue with his gut feeling.

“
Hunt on
the way; I do not want us hungry and eating up all of their hard
earned food.” Vasile phased, not bothering to remove his clothes,
and took off in a run. His legs stretched and popped as he adjusted
to being in his wolf form. The wind in his face, rippling through
his pelt, was refreshing, like waking from a much needed nap. He
saw Ion and Nicu out of the corner of his eyes on either side of
his flanks. Though they ran faster than even their cousins the full
blooded wolves, their feet were light and nearly silent as they
raced across the forest. Before they hit the edge of the final
village, they had each caught their meals and devoured them,
appeasing their wolves’ desire for the hunt to continue. It was
still several hours until dawn so Vasile and his two wolves curled
up close together in the hollow of a tree. Three human males
probably would balk at the idea of sleeping so close, but wolves
were different. They thrived on touch, mate or pack. It was
necessary. He was slowly settling into the power that had begun to
fill him shortly after his father’s death and allowed it to cover
them, ensuring they would be safe while they
slept.

Vasile’s eyes snapped open
and his massive head jerked up as the light of the early morning
sun broke over the horizon and began to filter through the tree
branches. It was not the light that had woken him, it was a voice.
He waited, desperate to hear it again though he did not understand
why. He could hear the pounding of his heart and the steady
breathing of his pack mates. Leaves rustled as the wind danced
through them and critters scurried about searching for their
morning food. Still he waited. His wolf was a patient hunter, and
the man had learned to trust him during a pursuit.
There
, his wolf growled
pricking their ears up drawing his attention to a soft, barely
audible hum. Vasile was sure that not even the angels could sound
as beautiful as the quiet melody that glided through his ears and
into his soul. His lips turned up as his wolf smiled. They both
knew there was only one person on earth that could ever make them
respond in such a way.
Mate
, his wolf rumbled with a desire
that matched his own.

A
lina pulled up the sleeves of her dress as she dropped one of
her father’s shirts into the wash barrel. She picked up the bar of
lye soap and began scrubbing the material, covering it in the
cleaner. As she began running the shirt up and down the wash board,
she started humming one of her favorite lullabies that her mother
had sung to her when she was a child. She stopped humming to scrub
four times roughly, and then the humming resumed as she swished the
shirt around in the water. She repeated this several times before
she finally took the shirt out to the pump to rinse. The wisps of
her hair had fallen out of the braid she had woven it into that
morning, and she brushed them away with her wrist smearing water
across her forehead.

It was a beautiful day.
Alina smiled as she looked up to see birds twirling in the air
swooping down and snatching up unsuspecting insects. Her father and
mother had gone to one of their neighbors’ homes to check on Drist,
one of the younger males. He had gotten a poisonous thorn stuck in
his paw on a hunt not too long ago, and without a healer to dispel
the poison, they had to resort to more mundane ways of treating
him. She was lost in thought as she went about her daily chores.
She gathered more clothes to wash and hung them up as she finished
with each one. She did not hear the wolves approach as she scrubbed
and hummed her last shirt clean. She wrung it out after rinsing it
and spun around frolicking as if she were ten again and not nearly
sixteen. Her feet froze and her breath caught as her eyes landed on
the figures before her.

All of a sudden she felt
thoughts pouring into her mind that were not her own, and she tried
desperately not to reveal to the three wolves, especially the
massive blue eyed one, that she was receiving them.

Slowly, she assumed not to
frighten her, they made their way to some of the clothing that had
already dried, and each wolf tugged down a pair of trousers with
their muzzles. They started to phase right there, and Alina gasped
as she spun around giving them her back. Many of the wolves were
comfortable phasing in front of each other, but Alina had never
liked being naked in front of anyone, pack or not.

“
We are
decent. You may turn around now, female.” His rich, deep voice
rumbled, causing a shiver to run down her spine. She did not miss
the amusement that laced his tone. Alina gritted her teeth. He
thought it was funny that she was embarrassed by their
nudity.

She could feel him
attempting to communicate with her through her thoughts but she
shut him out. She was not ready for this. She tried to still her
rapidly beating heart as she turned around slowly. And when her
eyes landed on the three men she took an involuntary step back, not
because they were shirtless―and all-be-it quite nicely formed, but
because of
who
they were. She recognized the one who had given her that
cloth to wipe her eyes so many years ago, and behind the stern
demeanor, she could still see the kindness he possessed. A low
growl brought her attention back to the real threat. Their Alpha
was finally here. After weeks of waiting and fretting and yearning,
there he stood less than thirty feet away. When she looked at his
face, she saw something that she only ever saw on mated males,
possessive jealousy.

No
, she thought to herself sternly.
It
cannot be.

“
Luna.”
Vasile’s voice caressed her skin and she fought to keep the moan
that rose up inside of her silent.
“Mina.”
Her eyes widened as she
realized he had not said that one out loud.

She shook her head at him
and started to take another step back, but the one who had helped
her in the market place held up his hand to stop her. “You know
better than to run from a predator.”

His warning seemed to snap
her out of her flight mode, and she took a deep breath and steadied
herself. For now she would just continue on as if they had shown up
and nothing out of the ordinary had occurred. “My father and mother
are at the neighbor’s house tending to one of the young males,” she
explained making sure to keep her eyes from staying on Vasile for
too long. “They should be back shortly if you want to wait.”
Silently she begged them not to. “Or I can point you in the
direction of the meeting place.”

“
We will
wait, Mina.” Vasile smiled and it was
breathtaking.

Alina
decided then and there that if she never saw another sunset or
sunrise in her life it would be alright as long as she got to see
his smile every day. The smirk that over took his lips told her
that he had caught her thoughts. She tried to close the bond that
had burst open between them the minute she had seen him but he was
much stronger than her and he refused to be blocked. Irritated by
his smugness and her inability to act unaffected by him she
shrugged. “By all means, make yourselves at home.” She motioned
towards their small cottage and tried not to cringe at the idea of
him seeing just how slight it was, a house where she did not even
have her own room. She did not hold it against her parents. They
were doing the best they could and they loved her dearly. Love made
up for a whole multitude of wants that could not be met. “You will
have to excuse me, I am supposed to be meeting a friend in a few
minutes. There is bread on the table if you are hungry.” She turned
to go but had to stop abruptly to keep from slamming into the
massive man who had suddenly appeared in front of her. Her head
tilted back and she looked up to see a frown staring back at
her.
Someone so beautiful should
never frown,
she thought. His face
smoothed immediately. Now
she
was frowning.

“
I wish
you to stay,” Vasile said softly, but she did not miss the command
in it. As she stared at him―his dark hair long enough that she
could see the subtle wave in it, his high cheekbones, straight
nose, and strong jaw making him indescribably handsome―she wondered
if anyone had ever told him no before. If not, there was a first
time for everything.

“
I wish
to go,” she responded sweetly. She heard the chastising groans
behind her from the other two males. Though it was hard, she
managed not to roll her eyes.

“You know who I am,” he
stated firmly.

“
Yes,
Alpha,” she said as she lowered her eyes and tilted her chin up
revealing her neck, admitting her submission even though what she
really wanted to do was stomp his foot as hard as she could and
then run. Bearing the vulnerable places to a predator was always a
risk. He darted forward and bit down on her neck not hard enough to
break the skin but enough to capture her full attention. She held
very still. Her wolf stirred, she smelled him, and he called to
her. Alina fought her wolf for control refusing to allow her to
purr at his attention or flop on her back bearing her belly like a
love sick puppy.

She still was not
convinced, despite the connection of their minds, that he was her
mate. He was
the
Alpha, royalty, and lived in a whole different world, despite
living in the same territory as her. How could she ever measure up
to all of the grand things he had probably been exposed to all of
his life? How could she compare to the she-wolfs who did not scrub
their own laundry but instead hired pixies who had been shunned
from their realm to do it? They did not have dry skin, or chipped
nails, but she did. She could not be his; there had to be some
mistake. No matter how much she had wanted this very thing, seeing
him here in all his glory and power, she knew that she was
not
his equal and mates
were always equals.