Chapter 6 : The New Luna

Astrid

I heard the sound of someone clearing their throat. I lifted my head from my dad’s shoulder and saw Solomon standing in the doorway that dad had just entered through. His dark eyes met mine coldly. There was no emotion that I could read from his expression. His dark hair was slicked back and, other than some fine lines at the corners of his eyes, he looked exactly the same as he did the day I left.

“Tony, I’ll be in the study when you’re ready to get back to work,” he stated. His voice was carefully neutral. He inclined his head towards me just slightly, then turned and walked away.

Dad didn’t acknowledge him at all. He sat me down on my feet and smiled at me.

“We have so much to talk about,” he began. “I’m so glad that you came. I can’t tell you what it means to me to have your help. Besides, I want to hear all about your life and how you’ve been doing.”

“Is there somewhere we can sit down to talk?” I asked. I wiped the last of the tears from my eyes and took a deep breath to steady myself.

The rush of emotions wasn’t going to deter me from cutting my stay short. I still wanted to go home.

“Dinner should be ready shortly,” he replied. “We can talk while we eat.”

I nodded my agreement. I had hardly eaten all day, and my stomach twisted at the thought of food.

I followed him to the dining room and the smell of roasted meat hit us before we even entered the door. My mouth was practically watering by the time we sat down. It was hard to get meat so well seasoned and prepared in the city.

We spent a few minutes piling our plates with food without speaking. It was awkward, but I didn’t mind. I needed a little time to get my thoughts in order. I wasn’t sure how to tell him that I wanted to leave. He seemed so happy to see me. I didn’t want to upset him more than necessary.

I had to go home, though. I couldn’t stay here and risk the life I’d built for myself. I wanted to pretend that I could have a normal life here, but I knew that I couldn’t. I just had to think about the icy look Solomon had given me to remember how the majority of the pack felt about me.

Maybe dad wanted me around, and that was nice, but it wasn’t enough.

The longer I waited to leave, the harder it was going to be. I needed to tell him. I just needed to do it quickly and directly. It was like ripping off a bandage, right?

“Dad, I think it was a mistake for me to come home,” I said quickly.

A tense silence fell over the room as he took in my words. I watched him slowly take a drink from his beer before he looked at me.

“Why do you think so?” he asked slowly.

I couldn’t tell him about the mate pull. There was no telling how he might react to that news. He might insist that we drop everything and announce my engagement to Tristan. He might be angry. I had no idea what he would think.

“I don’t belong here,” I said instead. “I have my own life to live and I can’t leave it all behind for the sake of the pack. They don’t want me here. We both know that.”

He frowned deeply at that. “I get that things were rough when you were a kid,” he began. “But there’s no reason to think that nothing has changed. Children can be cruel, but you’re all adults now, and–”

“No,” I said angrily. “It wasn’t just kids being mean. I don’t want to argue with you about this. You don’t believe me, that’s fine. I’m telling you, I don’t feel welcomed by the pack and I’m not staying.”

“Okay,” he said calmly. “I’m sorry, I don’t want to fight with you.”

I took a deep breath and tried to tamp down my anger. This was exactly why I hadn’t come back before now. I couldn’t understand why he didn’t believe me about the way the pack treated me—then, and now. Especially his Beta. The way Solomon regarded me a few minutes ago sent a shiver down my spine, but I pushed the feeling aside and let out a sigh.

“I can’t put my life on pause for this pack,” I stated firmly.

Dad nodded gravely and looked down at the table. I took a bite of my food, just to give me something else to focus on. I didn’t really have an appetite anymore, but I needed some way to distract myself from the pained expression on his face.

Finally, he straightened his spine, grabbed his fork and began eating again.

“It won’t be for long,” he said finally. “I’ll find someone else that can fill in as the Luna. I just need your help until I’m able to find someone that I can trust with such an important job.”

I sighed. Being the Luna was extremely important and I knew that it wasn’t going to be easy for him to find a replacement. Besides, replacing mom feels wrong. I’m sure that’s the main reason he wanted me to step in—he didn’t want to let her go yet, either.

“What exactly do you need me to do?” I asked quietly.

“Meetings, mostly,” he answered dismissively. “Your mother oversaw a number of organizations in the pack. Anything that had to do with food security, education, and housing.”

I nodded my understanding. That’s roughly what I expected that he would want from me. “Are there notes or documents that go over the different projects? I need to be able to do some background research. I want to know what I’m getting into.”

“I had all of the documents from your mother’s office brought to your room,” he explained.

“Is there anything specific that you’re worried about?” I asked.

I resisted the urge to rub my temples. I had a feeling that this was going to be much more complicated than he was letting on. He didn’t really have a head for this kind of work. He always left it to mom or Solomon, so he was probably really underselling the workload mom had taken on.

“Your mother was working on a program with the university to provide on campus housing and tuition assistance for people from throughout the territory.”

My eyes went wide and I stared at him. Did he not realize how significant that was?

“She was working on an affordable higher education program?” I asked.

He nodded his head. “She was very excited about it. I didn’t really understand all of it, but she said that it would elevate the entire kingdom. She even met with the Luna Queen about it once.”

He took a big bite of his roast.

I kind of wanted to scream at him. An undertaking like that was a ton of work. The coordination between the university and all of the packs in the kingdom would be time consuming and complicated. That wasn’t even taking into account the financial aspect. The university’s accountants would have to be involved in the planning.

I shook my head and took a sip of my water. Just like dad. Some things never change.

“So, a massive multi-pack higher education program that’s not through the planning phases yet,” I noted. “What else do you need me to do?”

“It’s not as bad as it sounds,” he said with a sigh. “Your mother had a contact at the university that worked with her every step of the way. He’ll be able to fill you in on everything. I wouldn’t ask you to take on something like this with no help.”

I wasn’t so sure about that, but I didn’t say anything else about it.

We fell into an uncomfortable silence, both of us focused on our food.

It was delicious and there was a sense of nostalgia that settled over me at the taste. I hadn’t eaten anything quite this good in a long time. Farm to table was good, but it still didn’t touch the freshness of the pack’s food.

“So, what have you been up to?” he asked finally. “Tell me about your life.”

“I’m working for White Mountain Motors as an engineer,” I answered. “But I’m in the running for a big promotion.”

“That’s great,” he said proudly. I smiled. I was sure he didn’t really understand what that meant, but it was nice that he was being supportive.

“Have you found a mate?” he asked.

I felt my face drop and I sighed despite myself. “No,” I answered. “I was seeing someone, but we recently broke up. It’s fine though. I’m trying to focus on work right now. A romantic relationship would be a distraction.”

Silence fell between us again. I knew that he wanted to argue with me about it. He and mom always talked about how their lives didn’t really start until they met. I was sure that if I got married in my early 20s, I’d think a relationship was the only thing that mattered, too.

I definitely couldn’t tell him anything about feeling the pull today. I tried to shove the thoughts down. The intensity of the emotions that the pull had drawn out of me was hard to describe. I found it incredibly embarrassing.

“What about school?” he asked hopefully. “You had class today, right?”

“I did,” I confirmed. I hesitated to say more, but my curiosity won out. “I was surprised to see that Tristan is a professor now. I guess he’s been doing pretty well.”

He nodded thoughtfully. “Yes, he’s been teaching there for a year or two. He’s very smart and I’ve heard he’s a talented teacher. He’s been promoted twice already and he’s being considered as the next department head.”

I was stunned. For Tristan to reach that level in such a short amount of time was incredible. Becoming the department head after working for the university for just a few years was unheard of. Dad must have seen the shock on my face.

He laughed and shook his head. “It is impressive, isn’t it?” he said. “Especially considering everything he’s been through. You know, losing his dad and brother in the Lunar Battle…”

Dad’s face fell and his words trailed off. I knew that he felt a lot of guilt for the Lunar Battle. He thought that he should have been able to keep the pack out of the conflict, but it just didn’t work out that way.

“He’s really only been teaching a few years?” I asked. I wanted to get his mind away from the dark thoughts, and I wanted to know more about Tristan. The tension fell away from his expression and he smiled again.

“Yes,” he answered. “He’s really impressed everyone. He’s popular with the students and I never hear anything but praise from the rest of the university staff.”

“That is impressive,” I muttered.

If that was all true, then I wasn’t going to be able to avoid Tristan. As long as I was taking classes at Haronia, Tristan was going to be around.

Whether I liked it or not, Tristan was going to be part of my life for the foreseeable future. I took another bite of the food as we fell into another pit of silence. But this time, my mind wasn’t on my father, my family problems, or the pack. It was on Tristan, and how I was going to keep my wolf in check around him.

If I didn’t, it could ruin everything. And I wasn’t going to let that happen.