Chapter 5

"What?" Dante asked sitting down on a large plush couch in the room after I told him that Fiona was my mate.  Dante had a concerned look on his face and fired question after question at me.  "Why didn't you say anything? Why didn't she say anything?"  His knee was bouncing up and down with enough force to drill a hole in the ground.  It was one of his nervous ticks.   

I paced around the room and thought about why I hadn't said anything. It was a large room and looked like it came straight from a magazine.  The room was mostly white with natural colours and dried flowers spotted through the room.  There was a bay window overlooking a garden and several doors led to unknown places.  I would have to explore the room later. 

"I don't know" I admitted finally.  It shook me, I was always so confident some might even say arrogant, here in the face of my mate I froze.  I always thought the moment would play out differently.  We would instantly recognise each other,  she would run into my arms and we'd make love in the moonlight, marking each other so the goddess could watch in approval and share in our joy for finding each other.  I was a bit of a romantic.  The reality was far more confusing, one look from my mate nearly incapacitated me.  "When she didn't seem to react I just...froze,"  I said more to myself than Dante.

"You're sure she's your mate?" He asked. I nodded, there was no doubt.

"Blaze tried to shift to claim her when I did nothing," I said "He hasn't shut up since I shook her hand."  Dante's face was serious, he knew how Blaze could get when he was impatient.  Blaze was not good at waiting when he really wanted something.

"We'll figure this out," he said firmly standing up to place his hands on my shoulders. "I know how important it is to you to be with your goddess-given mate."

"Thanks," I said knowing that I could count on Dante to do anything for me.  He continued, "Maybe the King will stop this ridiculous competition when he finds out."

"More likely he will make her compete to prove herself." I sneered knowing better than to get my hopes up.  The King had his heart set on a competition to select the most viable mate. "I'm not going to have my mate fight for me, she's mine and I'm hers."

"We'll keep it a secret until we figure something out then," Dante spoke.  I nodded in agreement, I didn't want to stir anything up until I could be sure about everything.  The last thing I need was to frighten her off. I was excited to finally find the one the goddess made for me, a perfect match.  It seemed tainted, however, as my other half didn't realise it yet.  Then there was Alpha David, I didn't like the comment Beta Liz made about him.  I would need to find out what was going on there.   If I let him, I'm sure Blaze would rip Alpha David apart, just for the way he touched her earlier.

"Let's go through what we know of this pack" Dante suggested pulling out a book from his bag that held the history of the Cresent Moon pack.  "Maybe it will provide a clue." It was a long shot, as we were here to collect information about the pack, but it was worth a try.  We sat on the couch with the book proped between our knees.  The book was relatively empty.  It seemed even before they shut their borders, the pack flew under the radar.  

"Well they shut themselves off from the world for the past three years," I said "Everyone was talking about rebuilding after their last Alpha.  It was brought up a lot.  I guess the rumours of a coup were right." I didn't know who the last Alpha had been, he quietly paid his taxes to the King didn't cause a fuss, so we never needed to visit. Dante moved his finger down the page until he found a name.

"Alpha Hayden Kierran," he read  "had two children, a boy Alex and a girl..." He furrowed his brow "it doesn't have her name, just that she passed away 4 years ago at 16.  It was assumed...that she failed to shift properly for the first time."

"That typically only happens to the weakness of Omegas, not to children from an Alpha bloodline,"  I stated in disbelief.

"Maybe that's why there is no information on her.  Maybe Alpha Kierran was ashamed."  He looked at the page some more, "There isn't much on the former Luna either, maybe he mated with an Omega."  It was highly unlikely, mates were supposed to match each other, so an Alpha and Omega pairing were rare.  They did still happen though.   

"For Fiona to be Alpha," Dante said staring pensively at the page "She would have to challenge and fight both Alpha Hayden, his son and who knows how many others.  We know how those challenges end.  Either your mate knows how to make get others to do her dirty work or she is a better fighter than she looks.  Maybe both."  I sat with that thought for a moment, an Alpha's challenge was a fight to the death.  Fiona didn't stand out as a fighter, but there were plenty of warriors that didn't, often using it to their advantage.  Even the King's army had she-wolves in high ranking spots.  Her Betas were also fiercely loyal, I'm sure that we would find the rest of the pack was as well.  Who knows what lengthens they would go for Alpha Fiona.

"Well, we have our work cut out for us."  I said giving up on getting anything useful from the book or our speculation "You're good at gathering information, see what you can find." I told Dante and he nodded understanding.  I would be trying to find a way to spend some quality time with my mate.