Matt
I got into the car with my luggage, unable to shake the look on Lucy’s face. Tony climbed in next to me and with pensive look on his face.
“You too?”
Tony nodded. “I’m not sure what it is, but there’s something wrong.”
Matt huffed. “This would be so much easier if we could just… link with her.”
Tony bobbed his head before glancing into the front seat where the driver was seated.
“We’ll deal with it when we get back.” Tony sat back in his seat with a sigh. “For now, we just need to get through this conference.”
“Do we really have to talk about this?” Matt asked. “It’s like they think that the more often they talk about it, the more likely it is for us to agree.”
“That is likely their hope, but it’s more than that,” Tony said. “Holding a conference like this so soon after we’ve been mated is a political move to make us lose our shit, so watch yourself.”
I scoffed. “I’ll be too bored to get angry. Watch.”
“Or too busy daydreaming,” Tony sighed. “Do you think we pushed her too hard last night?”
I grinned, remembering. “I think she enjoyed it. Whatever is going on has nothing to do with our sex lives.”
Lucy
I watched the car leave and could almost feel the way the air shifted with them gone. They’re supposed to be gone for three days. I headed downstairs, trying to be brave when someone pushed me out of the way again.
“Out of the way half breed.”
I flinched at the tone and turned heading back upstairs. Just as I thought it would be too much to try and go down there and interact with anyone. Out the window I could see the few people I recognized hustling around.
I thought back to what Matt and Tony said about what a luna is supposed to do. If the people in Matt and Tony’s pack don’t like me, there was no chance that someone from another pack would.
As I walked down the hallway back to my room, I stopped. A door caught my eye that I hadn’t really paid much attention to before. The handle was different than the others in the hallway. I opened the door and stepped it. The room was filled with shelves of books.
I hadn’t ever liked to read, but it was better than sitting around doing nothing.
I went to the first shelf and frowned at the title. “Financial Analytics… Psychology: A History…”
I kept walking. I didn’t know what any of these books were supposed to be about, but I kept looking for something that seem more interesting and something I could understand. I heard people walking down the hall past my room.
“She can clean up after herself,” someone said.
“What I would give to have a night alone with the alpha… It’s such a waste on that half breed.”
“What is she even supposed to do? The Blue Moon Pack has been without a luna for so long, we don’t even need one.”
I frowned and kept listening as they stopped nearby.
“I heard she grew up with humans.”
One of the girls scoffed. “Then, she really doesn’t know anything. I guess she’ll do to have their kids, but what are the other packs going to think of us when our next alpha is a half breed too?”
“Don’t they get weaker? What if it’s a girl?”
“By the moon, I hope she doesn’t get pregnant.” The woman snorted. “Would prove the point, wouldn’t it?”
They laughed and went into another room, so I couldn’t hear them anymore. If I didn’t end up getting pregnant, wouldn’t that mean that we weren’t mates? What would happen to me then?
I didn’t know, but I wasn’t afraid, exactly. They probably wouldn’t kill me. At worse, they’d take me back to the human world, and then, I’d just… live. Maybe I wouldn’t get to eat waffles all the time, but I’d live.
A glint of gold caught my eye. I turned and went towards the book. As I grew closer, I realized that this whole section was made of older books. The one with the gold on the binding looked a little newer, but not by much.
I pulled the book off the shelf and frowned. “A History of Werewolves.”
I carried it to my room. It was a really thick book, so I knew that it was going to take me a few days to get through it. I’d probably get through it the day they got back.
I opened it and was a little relieved to see that there were pictures in it.
The Moon Goddess bestowed her blessing onto a small group of devout humans, giving them the ability to turn into wolves. Among them, she chose one to walk on earth as her representative. They called her the Moon Goddess.
I huffed and flipped forward. It was as confusing and ridiculous as it had been when Tony and Matt told me about this. I stopped on a page where the Moon Goddess was depicted. She was wearing a crescent shaped necklace, dressed in a simple white dress and two white wolves were curled up with her.
They made me think of Matt and Tony. I frowned and went to look for some paper to write down a few questions.
That woman and so many others seemed upset because I didn’t know anything, but maybe if I learned something, they would be less upset.
Either way, I was curious.
Why are you white wolves? Was my first question.
As I kept reading, I came up with more questions, but none of what the book was saying made any sense to me. It sounded like a fairytale instead of a history book. I didn’t remember much from school, but I remembered that there were dates and places all over the place, but here were none in this book.
Why aren’t there any dates in the history book?
I opened my door and walked out to the dining area where Tony, Matt, and I would usually eat. I sat there as it was about lunchtime and waited. No one came. I frowned, but I didn’t get up. Instead, I waited.
Ten minutes passed. Thirty minutes passed. An hour passed before I stood up and went searching for the people who usually brought me food.
I went downstairs, wandering the halls since I still didn’t know my way around very well. I ran into a group of women I recognized as the people that usually brought food. They glanced at me. Then, rolled their eyes.
“What?”
I flinched. “I just… it’s lunchtime.”
“And?” One of them asked.
“Well… no one came—”
“Why would we bother?” Another of them asked. “I don’t serve half-breeds unless I have to. Get your own food.”
I winced and turned. One of them stepped in my way. “No half-breeds allowed in the kitchens. We wouldn’t want you dirtying up the place.”
“Why don’t you go hunting?” Another of them laughed. “You can shift, right?”
“I bet she can’t.”
“What a joke!” One of them shoved me aside. I felt to the ground as the group of them headed into the kitchen. Through the open door, the only people I saw were the women who had been standing in the hallway. They sat down, laughing together as the door closed again.
I got up and headed back to my room. It wasn’t the first time that I’d skipped a meal.