Page 36 of Unbelievable Faith
Chapter 16
Luna sankinto Michael’s embrace. She nuzzled against him, rubbing herself all over him, wanting his scent on her and hers on him. She’d missed him today. It had only been a few hours but it was too long apart. They were newly bonded, the circle wasn’t complete, and she’d felt an ache to find him and finish it allday.
She’d enjoyed her morning with her sisters and with Zoey. She’d learned so much about the Moirae pack and about the man that was her mate. Nova had been right. Zoey’s relationship with Michael was complicated, or at least it hadbeen.
They’d been best friends since childhood. They’d truly believed they were fated to be together and then, when they’d found out that they weren’t they’d clung to each other out of familiarity and friendship. Zoey’s mating with Michael’s older brother Rafe was new and had been hard fought between the three of them. Luna could admit, to herself at least, that she hadn’t liked hearing Zoey say that she considered Michael her best friend but the more they’d talked the more at ease she’d become with itall.
This woman was important to her mate. She was a friend and confidant. She’d helped him through some of the toughest days of his life. She knew him, inside and out, but she wasn't in love with him. Not the way a mate would be. Not the way she was clearly crazy about Rafe. The redhead all but lit up at the mere mention of her mate and though her smiles were sweet and genuine when they’d discussed Michael, Luna hadn’t felt any jealousy betweenthem.
Luna had listened to Zoey’s stories of a young Michael and relished all of the new information about her mate. She’d learned that as the baby of his family his parents had coddled and spoiled him. Her heart had broken when Zoey told her about the day they’d been killed and how Rafe had fled leaving all of the responsibility of the pack to Michael. She’d wanted to find him and hug him and tell him that he was more than just Pack Alpha when Zoey called him a workaholic with a tendency to put everyone else's needs above his own. Luna had listened and she’d fallen a little bit more in love with the man that was hermate.
When Zoey had suggested they get out of the stuffy room, she’d hoped the other woman meant they were going to find MIchael. She’d wanted to see him. Needed to touch him. The pull between them was still there, would always be there now, and she’d agreed to leave the room where he’d expressly asked her to stay today because she’d only been desperate to findhim.
But Zoey hadn’t taken her toMichael.
Instead, she’d given Luna a tour of the lodge. She’d chirped and pranced through floor after floor and room after room, introducing Luna, Maya and Nova as they trailed after her like a flock of newborn chicks to each pack member they met along the way. She’d pointed out where the kitchen was and the laundry rooms. She’d waved a hand down a long hallway that apparently led to the pack offices but when Luna had paused there, sensing Michael was somewhere that direction, her sister-in-law had only giggled and dragged her towards the commonroom.
She’d said Michael was in meetings. She’d also promised that as soon as he found out Luna was out here that he’d come running. And, knowing Michael as she did, Zoey had beenright.
They’d begun a game of pool, the four of them breaking into two teams, and as they’d played more and more pack members had appeared in the doorway to watch. Luna wasn’t naive. She knew they wanted to get a good look at the woman that had mated their Pack Alpha. But she ignored their stares as best as she could and simply enjoyed the unexpected joy of playing a game with her sisters. She’d even been winning until she felt Michael’s big, looming presence enter theroom.
Now, with his mouth on hers and his hands roaming her body, she couldn’t even remember the rules to the game let alone the score. She wrapped her arms around him as well and kissed him back. She knew every eye in the room was on them and she didn’t care. Let them look. Let them see that she belonged to this amazing man and that he wanted her, no matter what her shortcomings maybe.
Michael broke the kiss after a long moment with a nip of her lip, “I thought you were spending the day in bedrelaxing?”
“Zoey thought this would be morefun.”
He chuckled low and shot a look over his shoulder at the redhead who batted her lashes innocently, “Oh, I’m just sure shedid.”
Luna scrunched her nose up, “Are youmad?”
“Not at all.” Michael kissed the tip of her nose sweetly, “I was just sitting in my office wishing I was with you. I missed you,babe.”
“I missed you too,mate.”
He made a low noise in the back of his throat and nuzzled her neck. Luna sighed and tilted her chin, giving him more room. He ran his lips over the silver marking scar he’d put on her flesh and a shiver of heat and awareness ricocheted through her body. He hummed as if he could feel it too and then kissed the mark before pulling backslightly.
It was then that Luna realized the entire room had gone deadly silent. She bit her lip and looked around. The members of the pack that had gathered around were watching them with a mixture of shock, amazement and horror. Some of them were smiling. Most of them weren’t and of that group, the majority of the haters werewomen.
Luna could guess what that was all about. She tilted her chin up and stared back at each and every one of them until they looked away. Michael growled, low in his chest, a warning to his pack members to tread lightly, but she put her arm around his waist and squeezed. He frowned but stopped emitting the warning signalinstantly.
They’d talked about this. She had to stand up to these people herself. If she didn’t, they’d continue to see her as weak. She bared her teeth at a woman that refused to look away, the hatred and disgust clear on her face as she looked between Luna and their Alpha. She was clearly one of the females that had wanted Michael for herself. Zoey had warned Luna there were more than a few in the pack. Females that would take her lack of an Alpha wolf as proof she wasn’t truly Michael’s mate and see it as an opportunity to insert themselves between them. But Luna wasn’t going to allow anything or anyone to come between them and she intended to prove it right now for everyone that waspresent.
She turned her back on the woman, earning a gasp from someone she couldn’t see. It was a bold move. Firm. A show of power. It said that she wasn’t afraid of the woman. She was leaving herself open to an attack but she didn’t think one would come, not here and not now, not with Michael holding her tightly to his side and glaring at anyone that dared look at herunkindly.
He smiled softly down at her, “Have you eaten, babe? I was thinking wecould…”
“Michael.” A woman’s voice broke into the moment a second before a hand closed around his shoulder, all but pulling him away from Luna, “Can we talk for a moment in private? Iwant…”
Luna didn’t think. She didn’t plan. She simplyreacted.
Her wolf hissed and her teeth elongated as she identified this other woman as a threat. In one move she had the woman’s wrist in her hand and she twisted. The blonde that had dared to touch her mate hissed in return but stumbled when Luna shoved her backwards. They slammed into the wall and Luna used her other arm as leverage, pressing against the woman’s throat. The woman’s eyes flashed gold as her own wolf rose in anger but Luna was well trained against Alphas and she held her position of powereasily.
“Mine.” She hissed through elongated teeth that all but dripped with the desire to tear this woman apart, “My mate. My man. Touch him again and I’ll rip your hands off.Understand?”
The woman struggled against the hold but Luna only tightened her grip. Her claws had elongated and dug into the woman’s wrist where she held the offending appendage to the wall. The blonde tried to head butt her but Luna jerked back and then slammed her into the wall again, pressing against her windpipe with moreforce.
“Understand?” Shegrowled.
