I AM SHIRA, HIS CHOSEN LUNA

The sun was slowly rising, sharp rays passing through the window went straight into Adira's eyes. She yawned, stretching both her hands and legs like a hungry lion as she sat up on the soft bed.

Her face looked pale, and her hair all messed up, like she had a tug of war in her hair. A little souvenir of the effects from the treatment she had the previous night. 

She glanced around, there was no one else in the room but seeing the luxurious items in the room she was surprised. Adira had been so stunned last night, she had not noticed them. 

It was like the room of a five star hotel, only without a TV. Figments of the events of the previous night suddenly poured into her head, she abruptly touched her body, searching for her injuries.

To her surprise, her bruises had all disappeared, healed overnight, like magic. She was in no pain, there was no scar, not even a single scratch on her. Excited, she called out into the room, "Theodore, I am healed!" Her face slowly drowned in disappointment as she was greeted with total silence.

Theodore was not there, despite his promise that he would be. After sitting there for what felt like an eternity, she finally got out of the bed, walking out of the thick blanket. It was at that moment she finally realized, her clothes were all gone except her pant and bra. 

"Oh my God!" She gasped. She could only remember glimpses of what happened the previous night, like the short kiss Theodore gave her before everything blacked out. Could it be that they had sex?  

Knock! Knock!! Someone knocked on the door, she gasped, hastily pulled the blanket from the huge bed and wrapped it around herself like a huge towel. "Come in Theodore.." She said, excited.

The door opened, but her face full of excitement was quickly drenched in disappointment, as a beautiful girl with red hair walked in, instead of Theodore. The girl looked no older than twenty, wearing a long blue dress, while holding a red dress in her hands.

"Whoa… Amazing!" Astonished, she stared at Adira with an enormous smile up her face. "You're up and standing, it seems the butan rose potion worked even on you, a mere human."

"I'm sorry, who are you?" Adira bluntly asked, her disappointment about it not being Theodore could be felt. "And where is Theodore?" 

The girl's face instantly went pale, all her excitement tossed down the drain. She had come into the room wanting to make friends with Adira, but greeted with aloofness. "It's Shira." She replied coldly. "Theodore couldn't be here right now…" 

"Ohh…right, Shira, the chosen Luna. I'm sorry if I sounded rude. I just thought it would be Theodore who would walk through that door. You know him being the one that saved me and all." 

"But as you can see, it's not him."

"Where is he? I need to talk to him about an urgent matter." 

"Really?" Her face straightened up as her eyes focused on Adira's face. "Well, Theodore went out searching the forest. Apparently, the patrolling unit spotted a set of humans hiking towards the pack's settlement. He went to make sure they don't find the pack and its location remains hidden, like it has for hundreds of years."

"Ohh…." Her eyes moved down to the floor.

"If it's that urgent, you can tell it to me and I'll see what I can do. I'm his Luna to be after all.." Finally she saw the opportunity to know what Luna actually meant. "I'm sorry, what does it mean to be a Luna?"

"Ohh, that's right you are human." She sneered, almost like she was now disgusted at Adira. "You wouldn't know. Well, a Luna, it's the mate of an Alpha, or as you humans would say, the wife."

Adira paused, filled with so many different emotions, some she couldn't even interpret. She'd thought it meant something else, but if Theodore had a wife to be, why did he kiss her?

Shira saw the unsettlement on Adira's face, and a smirk slowly appeared on hers. "Is that what you wanted to ask?" She pushed on.

Adira had wanted to ask about the kiss the previous night with Theodore, and if they had sex. But haven learnt what a Luna is, she couldn't possibly ask his Luna to be, if she had sex with her Alpha. 

So she forced a smile up her face, hiding all her jealousy, and emotions behind it. "Ohh, well It's nothing. I wouldn't want to burden you with such a petty matter!" 

"Really, but you said it was pretty urgent!"

"Yes, urgent but still petty."

"..." Shira opened her mouth to say something, but Adira quickly cut her short. "I'm sorry, not to be rude, but is there a particular reason you came in here to see me?"

"As much as I hate it, yes there is. Theo told me to watch you while he's away, and to lend you some clothes. I had just left to go get you some clothes, before I got back, you had already woken up."

"So what happened to my old clothes?"

"Given how messed up they were yesterday, they were taken off you, and are being cleaned up."

"Thank God….." She sighed in relief, if they took off her clothes because they were wet, that means she didn't have sex with Theodore.

"Thank God?" Her eyebrows were pulled down with her nose slightly wrinkled. "Do you miss your clothes that much?" 

"Oh, yeah… I very much do."

"Well, I do hope this works just as good." Shira handed her the red dress she had been holding. "Put it on, we are going downstairs to go meet Laura, she needs to examine you." 

Adira hesitantly took the dress, then Laura turned around for her to put it on. Laura proceeded to ask while facing the door, backing Adira; "Theodore said when he found you at the river, he was in his werewolf form. Then he shifted back to his human form?"

"Yeah… that's correct." 

"And you didn't freak out?"

"What do you mean?" 

"I mean, for a human. Seeing that werewolves exist for the first time, and then taken to a pack full of one. You should not be as cool as you are, unless there's something you are hiding…" 

"There's nothing…" She walked in front of Shira, now dressed in the red dress which extended to her knees, perfectly fitted as if it was hers, showing off her curves and matched her blond hair, with her pretty blue eyes. 

"I lived back in the human town, and I have seen my own share of crazy things. Yesterday was not the first time I saw a werewolf..." She lied.

Adira knew that if Shira, or anyone in the pack found out about her ties to the vampires. It would mean the end of her stay there, and quite possibly her life, so her lying felt justified.

"I see. Come on then, let's go see Laura for the examination. I promised Theodore I'd look after you, and this is part of it…" 

*******

Deep in the forest far away from the pack's settlement, Theodore, Liam and three other werewolves were still searching. "I thought you said, the patrolling unit spotted the humans in this section of the forest?" Theodora asked.

"That's what the patrolling unit reported." Liam replied with uncertainty vivid in his face. "Are you boys looking for me, Aurora of the conclave?" Aurora walked out from the woods in front of them along with Damien, her second in command for the daywalkers, John, and James who was carrying a backpack filled with blood bags.

Theodore and his men's keen werewolf senses instantly caught the slight smell of corpses that followed them, there was no doubt they were daywalking vampires, their mortal enemies. 

Liam and the other three werewolves swiftly motioned to stand beside Theodore to protect their Alpha, with their huge claws plunging from their fingers as they gently growled.

"Ohh calm down, I come in peace." She gestured with both hands in the air. "We already saw you coming this way about half a mile away, if we wanted to attack you we would not be having this conversation."

Theodore glanced at Liam, wondering how the vampires evaded their super senses. "What do you want!" He turned back to her with anger visible in his face. "You are outnumbered, five to four, judging by our strength it would be like twenty to four. So you best be on your way!"

"I will… but the conclave is looking for a girl, one who ran into your territory. I thought you should know that."

"What girl?" 

"Her name is Adira, blond hair, blue eyes." 

Theodore's heart skipped a beat as soon as he heard the name, why would the conclave be searching for Adira? His curiosity skyrocketed. "Adira? It doesn't ring a bell. But why do your conclave want her, ain't there an infinite number of humans out there?"

"Human?" She squinted her eyes. "I never said she was human." 

At that moment, Theodore realized he had messed up, by not quilling his curiosity. Briskly he sucked up all the emotions visible on his face and replaced them with a cold look. "What are you insinuating?" He made his voice thicker.

"I'm not insinuating anything…" Aurora could see through his charade, she knew if anyone had Adira it was him. "Just that I saw you with her, yesterday in town. Back IN VAMPIRE TERRITORY!" 

Theodore paused, glanced back at Liam, and saw the fear in his face. He had lied about his whereabouts that day, and now Liam and the others knew.

He took a step forward, glaring down at Aurora. "I haven't seen your so-called Adira, stop your wild accusations. This is werewolf territory, vampire has no business here. Leave now or you will face the consequences!" 

"Fine…. We'll leave.." She snapped her fingers as she turned around, the vampires started walking along with her. "Aurora, are we really just going to leave?" Damien whispered to her. "He obviously is lying." 

"Shhh they can still hear you!" She abruptly pauses and turns back around. Seeing this, Theodore was on the edge again ready to attack. "Just so you know, Adira is a manipulator, a liar, and most of all a vampire, one wanted by our King. Know that harboring her will only result in nothing but war!" 

Theodore gulped down a huge amount of salvia as his eyes widened, he couldn't believe his ears. "I still haven't seen her…" He shreked. "Well okay… we'll be on her way." She turned around with an evil smirk on her face and continued to walk away, along with the three other vampires following her. Now her plan was at play.

Theodore just stood there, his eyes wide open staring at them, till they disappeared into the woods. "Theo!" Liam gently tapped his arm, pulling his attention to him. "They are gone, I can not hear them again. Do you want me to follow them so they leave the forest for good?" 

"NO!" He exclaimed in fright. "We need to go back home. Adira has been lying to me, she's a vampire and we left her in our home. Oh how stupid I was, she is the enemy and could be a danger to everyone else." 

All his feelings for her instantly turned to hate and disgust. The vampires killed his father and brother, even he feared what he might do to Adira next.