12/23/2017

*Happy New Year!

"You're such a great Luna," Kayla finally spoke up, "You will be as great as Luna Rose was, I can see it already."

"I agree," Iris said, "So to answer your question about that day, when Alpha Rickard kidnapped you, the pack was unaware."

"No one knew anything was happening," Kayla agreed, "The only time we heard anything was when we all felt the loss of the Alpha."

"That must have been hard for you," Kristin said, "Even if you didn't like him, he still was your Alpha."

"Our wolves wanted to stay loyal to him," she nodded, "But also our wolves knew that what the Alpha was doing was wrong, Luna Rose would never approve of his actions."

"So when we found out he was gone," Iris continued, "We were relieved, but also scared because we heard the rumors that Alpha Gabriel and his mate were also gone."

"Soon after everything, Alpha Ryder confirmed what had happened. He had told us that his father, brother, and sister in law were dead," she shook her head sadly, "If it weren't for him stepping up to take the Alpha position, our pack wouldn't be like it is today. Without a definite leader, the pack would fall apart, even if another Alpha tried taking over."

"No one told us what had happened to you though," Kayla said, "We knew Alpha Ryder had found his mate, but you were no where to be found."

"I was kidnapped by Rickard," Kristin confirmed, sighing, "I was at the pack doctor after that for a while and then Ryder sent me back to my pack."

"You were hurt?" Iris asked worriedly.

"I'm okay," Kristin shook her head. She didn't remember any physical damage besides her stomach. That was fully healed now. The worst of it was the emotional pain from watching everything that had happened. She didn't want to think about it.

It was Iris' turn to squeeze Kristin's hand.

"Thank you for becoming the Luna. I know after everything you went through it must have been hard."

"And Alpha Ryder. I'm glad you two are our Alphas now," Kayla added, smiling.

"You guys are too nice," Kristin said, feeling overwhelmed from the kindness and support they were giving her.

Was this what it was like to spend time with the pack? She should have done this a long time ago. If only she hadn't been so afraid that they wouldn't like her, she could have been a better Luna and met everyone.

"Do you think you could help me meet more of the pack? I would love to be introduced to all of you," Kristin smiled, realizing that was what the Luna celebration was for.

Was she ready for it all of a sudden? She never imagined meeting two pack members would change her mind about postponing it.

However right now they should focus on the celebration uniting Nightfall and Spirit Moon. It was a week away after all.

"Yes we would love to!" Kayla said excitedly.

"We could bring you with us to meet the pack members near our houses tomorrow," Iris nodded.

Kayla gasped, "Will you stop by my house tomorrow Luna?"

"That sounds great," Kristin said, finally feeling like she was moving forward.

Leaving the meeting, Kristin made her way back to Ethan's office.

Despite the happiness she felt from the meeting, the pain in her chest was getting worse.

She thought Iris and Kayla talking about Ryder probably made it worse.

She knew everything they had said about him was true. She understood why they were so thankful for him taking over the responsibility of Alpha. History proved a pack couldn't function without one.

She sighed in relief when she closed the door and took a seat.

"How'd it go?" Ethan asked.

"It was great," she smiled, trying to hide her pained expression.

"Are you okay?" he worriedly glanced at her hand clutching her chest.

"I'm fine," she closed her eyes waiting for the wave of pain to pass.

"What's wrong?" he asked, getting up and walking towards her.

Kristin waved him off. "It's just the stupid mate bond."

"You two got into a fight?"

After a second he widened his eyes, "I'm sorry, it's none of my business. We don't have to talk about it."

"It's okay," Kristin chuckled at his behavior, "Yeah we did. I'm still pretty angry with him."

She kept her voice light although another shot of pain took over her body.

"I heard the bond is stronger with Alphas so it affects you more when you fight."

"Yeah that's probably true," she agreed, "There's nothing I can do though."

Ethan looked curious but didn't mention anything else about her and Ryder.

"I think I have an idea," he said, changing the subject.

"Yeah?" Kristin asked, glad he knew she didn't want to talk about Ryder right now.

"I'm guessing you've had some sort of self defense lessons with your father being an Alpha himself?"

"I have, but it was a while ago," Kristin chuckled, remembering how Allison and Logan often joined her and they would mess around instead of training.

"I thought maybe it would be a good idea to do some more training?" Ethan asked hesitantly, "I'm not saying this because you're a human, but all Luna's usually get some sort of self defense training."

"It's okay Ethan, that's actually a good idea," she nodded, "It's pretty important, plus I am a human," she added to mess with him.

"I didn't mean to—" Ethan began saying before Kristin started laughing.

"I'm kidding Ethan, I don't get offended when people call me a human."

Honestly, she used to be really defensive when people commented on her not having a wolf. Now she just learned to accept it. It wasn't that hard, her best friend was a human and not to mention her own mother and Luna was as well.

"Oh," Ethan smiled shyly.

"So about those lessons, who would train me?"

"Liam appoints one of his fighters to be in charge of training the Luna. We can go visit him if you'd like?"

"Okay." She was glad Ethan would be coming with her since she still was a tiny bit afraid of Liam.

On the drive over Kristin decided to try to get to know Ethan a bit more.

"So Ethan, I'm curious. Why did you want to become the Beta?"

"I had Beta blood," he shrugged, "And since I had decent training, the Alpha let me take the title."

"What kind of training?"

"I started training with the trackers when I was twelve. I was young and didn't have my wolf yet but my uncle was the one in charge so he let me."

"Andrew?" Kristin asked confused. He was only five or six years older than Ethan.

"Andrew's my cousin. His father was the leader of the trackers when I started training. Then the title got passed down to him when he turned eighteen."

"Oh. So you've been training as a tracker before this?"

"Well, I switched over to start training with the fighters when I got my wolf. I've trained with them for about two years before becoming Beta."

"Dang," Kristin shook her head, looking at him with a new sense of admiration.

Ethan gave her a confused look causing her to laugh.

"It's just... you're so qualified for your position and here I thought you were too young for it."

"I get that a lot," he shrugged, "But since I started young I have the same amount of training as most wolves with titles."

"It sounds like you trained like an Alpha," she said, remembering when her brother Marcus started his training way before he got his wolf.

"Kind of," Ethan chuckled.

They pulled into the fighter's training grounds and parked at the office building.

"I just mind linked Adam. He's on his way over," Ethan said.

"I'm not starting training right now, am I?" Kristin chuckled, looking down at her clothes. She wasn't dressed to train.

"No. Adam just wants to meet you and then you two can schedule a training time."

Just then a tall man walked out of the doors, over to their car.

"Ethan," he smiled, "How's it going?"

"Good," Ethan nodded to Kristin, "I brought the Luna."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Adam," the guy smiled at her.

He looked to be late twenties, early thirties. Kristin's eyes briefly looked over his muscular arms.

"Hi Adam," she shook his outstretched hand.

"So I'm the appointed defense trainer for titles. I've been teaching for six years and I've been a fighter for twelve."

"Great," she replied, "Have you by chance trained a human Luna before?" she asked chuckling.

"I haven't, but I've trained both Lunas and humans so I'm sure we could come up with some great trainings for you."

"Okay," Kristin nodded, feeling excited to have something to look forward to. Who knows, Adam might even be able to show her some moves so she can kick Ryder's—

"How do you feel about training in the mornings?" Adam asked.

"That would work."

"Okay cool," he nodded, "I'd like to train at least three times a week."

"I'm sure that'll work for me. My schedule's pretty open right now," she chuckled to herself. At least she was finally finding things to do.

"Alright, how about we start tomorrow? Eight o'clock?"

"Let's do it," she agreed, looking forward to be back training. She had ended her training at her pack almost two years ago, and she figured Adam could give her different moves and advice than her old trainer.

When Kristin returned to the house, she was surprised to see people outside walking around.

"Hi Luna," they addressed her and waved.

Despite her confusion she waved back and said hello.

She walked inside where some more people were standing.

"Luna," they all nodded and smiled at her respectively.

"Hi," she returned their smile, looking for Ryder and wondering what was going on.

"Hey," she heard a voice behind her and she stopped herself from running over to him.

Stupid mate bond.

"What's going on?" she asked quietly, as the people inside were watching their conversation.

"The Alphas' House is ready so I figured we'd move in," he shrugged, waiting for her reaction.

"Okay," she replied, "They're helping us pack?"

Ryder nodded, and she wasted no time in going up stairs.

She couldn't be that close to him or she would want to give in and things would just return to normal. She didn't want normal.

Kristin opened the door to her room, thankful that no one had started packing it up yet.

She grabbed a small bag and went to put some things inside that she wanted to bring over herself.

Before leaving she checked that she still had her ring on— it was one of the special things she wanted to make sure to bring— and she headed into the hallway.

A younger girl entered and smiled shyly at Kristin, bowing her head.

"Hi Luna. The Alpha told me to ask if you needed any help packing?"

"Thank you," Kristin looked down at the girl and smiled, "What is your name?"

"Ava," she replied softly, looking back up at Kristin and slowly returning her smile.

"It's nice to meet you Ava. I'm Kristin."

"I know," she grinned, "You're our new Luna."

Kristin chuckled, wondering how just her being Luna made everyone happy.

"Do you think you could bring this bag down?" she held out her small bag. It wasn't necessary, but she knew it would make Ava feel like she was helping.

"Sure!" Ava grabbed the bag carefully and slowly brought it down stairs, acting like it was fragile.

Kristin followed her, laughing to herself. Ava looked absolutely thrilled to be carrying the Luna's bag.

Once downstairs, Ava walked over to a woman and held up the bag.

"Look Mama I'm helping the Luna!"

The woman smiled down at her daughter, "That's nice sweetie."

Looking up at Kristin she chuckled, "I hope she wasn't too much of a bother."

"Absolutely not," Kristin shook her head, "She's great."

"Here you go Luna," Ava held the bag up to Kristin.

"Thank you very much Ava," she took the bag from her, watching her eyes light up.

Kristin suddenly felt a presence behind her, causing the mate bond to go crazy.

"Ready?" Ryder asked beside her. She had almost forgot he was there.

"Yeah," she said without looking at him.

She waved one last time to Ava and thanked everyone for helping before heading out the door.

Kristin remained quiet as Ryder drove the car, until she couldn't help but say something.

She told herself she could still talk to him even though she was being distant with him. Being distant would show him she was more independent than he thought.

A small part of her also wanted to hear his voice after being away from him all day.

She knew that sounded pathetic but she also knew how strong the mate bond could be. For Alphas it had to be even stronger, so they wouldn't be able to be apart for long. Being together made both them and the pack stronger. She knew this from growing up with Alphas for parents.

Before Kristin could think of something to say, however, Ryder beat her to it.

"So where were you today?" she could tell he was trying to sound casual.

"I'm sure Ethan filled you in," she replied, knowing Ryder had most likely checked in with everyone she had talked to today.

He made a noise in his throat but didn't press her further.

"Where were you today?" Kristin repeated his question. Two could play this game.

"I was at the fighter's in the morning and then the pack building the rest of the day," he said without hesitation.

"Mm," she murmured, "I didn't see you there."

He hesitated this time before replying, "I was downstairs mostly."

"As in the prison?" she tried not to sound too curious.

He nodded, turning into a long paved driveway belonging to their new house.

"Okay," she simply said, not wanting to press him for more information.

After all, she didn't want him to press her for more information. A small part inside of her wanted to tell him what she did so he'd be proud of her.

She did not like that part of her.

Ignoring it, she figured Ethan had probably told him what she did and Ryder hadn't brought anything up anyway.

Kristin felt Ryder's eyes on her as the house came into view. She tried to hide her reaction but it was hard considering the house was absolutely beautiful.

And ginormous.

•. •. •. •. •.

Chapter Fifty Four.

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