Sun & Moon

Chapter 7 - Rio

"Good morning, sunshine."

I greet Alex as he trudges into the common area of our hotel suite with a bottle of electrolytes that I placed on his bedside table last night. He looks worse than after the time we fought off a gang of vampires in Amsterdam when he'd mistakenly received a blow job—consensually—from the gang boss's girl. And here I am once again, having saved his ass from a pair of deviant witch twins.

I sip my coffee, while scrolling through some 'research' on my phone and learning that a tiger's paw can kill a man with one fell swoop.

"I don't remember a thing," he groans, pulling up a chair next to me and guzzling down his electrolytes.

"And that's why I'm always there to clean up your mess."

"I'm the worst Beta."

"You are," I quip with a grin.

Alex and I have always been more like two rowdy school boys off to adventure and stir up trouble than Alpha-and-Beta.

"Did you at least enjoy yourself, Rio?"

"Oh, yes," a smile spreads across my face in memory of last night and also in reading that tiger urine smells like buttered popcorn.

He rubs his eyes incredulously. "Am I still dreaming or did the you just say yes?"

I set my phone down.

"Alex, I met her. I met my mate."

"You met Bianca Greywood? Was she pretty?"

"I meant my destined mate."

Alex's face lights up.

"See, I knew it was a good idea to go to that nightclub. I always have a gut feeling about these things, man!"

"So, Amsterdam. You had a gut feeling about that too?"

"I knew that night was gonna be fun, so yeah." He stretches in his seat, presumably feeling better after replenishing his body. "So, what's this she-wolf look like then?"

I snort. "Not a wolf, Alex."

He cocks a brow. "Human?"

"Nope."

He furrows both brows now, mentally going through the list of known supernatural species.

"Can't be a blood-sucker so...a witch?"

"Not even close."

His brows deepen in even more mental scrutiny. He takes so long that I'm about ready to blurt it out, when his eyes suddenly widen in understanding and he's finally put two-and-two together about the geographical area we are currently located in.

"No fucking way, Rio. A tiger?"

I nod.

Yes, the very species that helped us win the Lycan War. A bit odd for a destiny pairing, but there is something to be said about being matched up with such a unique species of shifters. The novelty of it all intrigues me.

"Have you thought about what your mother might think?"

My mother, Corinthia Xenakis, named after her birth place much like my brothers and I, is what one might consider a Lycan purist. While there is not much she can do to deter the few Lycan-wolf destined mates in our small pack, she would never fathom that the Moon Goddess would unite her first son with a non-Lycan.

The ones my mother detests the most are the human mates, whom she finds would announce our existence to the whole world if they weren't so scared of the punishments behind our rules of secrecy. Wolves, on the other hand, make for adequate mates since they already understand our lifestyle, but they are, she considers, an inferior devolution of Lycans. Witch mates come few and far between, though my mother does seem to find some fascination with their innate talents.

Now, what kind of impression would my mother have of tigers?

"Hard to say," I respond after a brief pause.

"I think she'd fare well if she was a skilled fighter like Bianca Greywood was promised to be. Goddess, every time I go for a run, I still hear your mother's voice shouting at us during her gruelling training camps."

Before my parents were married, my mother was the top fighter of Midnight Shadow. And it meant that much more for my grandparents when my late father was destined to her. So, I'd imagine expectations are a little higher for me, son of the warrior Luna Corinthia Xenakis.

"I've been doing a little research on tigers and they are, unlike wolves, not pack fighters. Now, that's just regarding wild tigers, not shifters. But perhaps that translates in favor of my destined being a strong fighter. And well, she did say Bianca is her best friend."

"What's her name?"

"Astrid Lee." I smile.

"Astrid," Alex closes his eyes and puts two fingers to his temples. "I'm imagining a pale, blond Viking princess when you say that name."

"She's the exact opposite. Dark hair, dark eyes, lovely cheekbones, a slender slope to her nose, sun-kissed freckles, buttery olive skin..."

"Wow, you're so whipped."

"Hard to forget such beauty."

Alex clears his throat. "Well, then," he gets up to order room service as his stomach audible rumbles. "I assume we'll be speaking to Alpha Greywood about this new development?"

"What would you suggest, Alex? Ruin the day of or the day after the Mighty Five gala night?"

"That's tough. I would say—oh, hi, hello, I'm calling from the Presidential Suite to order a large jug of lemonade, and a large plate with lots of eggs, bacon, sausages, maybe throw in some beans and corn, oh, rice, too. A 2-person margherita pizza. Do you have lobster available at the moment? Yes? Great, some of that would be fantastic. Maybe a little salad at the end, you know, to flush down all the grease. Okay, okay, that's—yes, rice, too—yep. That's all of it. Thanks. You too." He cuts the call and comes back to sit at the table. "What was I saying?"

"Breaking the news—"

"To Alpha Greywood. Right. Tomorrow, I think, would be best."

"And why's that?"

"I don't know. Better to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission?"

My Beta looks like an adult but has the reasoning of a school boy.

"As usual, Alex, your advice is," I sigh, "excellent, however, we need to nip this in the bud."

"Really?" his face turns sour.

"Don't worry. We're still attending the gala whether Alpha Greywood likes it or not. We can't forget our duties as leaders of the Mighty Give."

His face looks relieved at this. Anything to have a good time.

"When do we meet the Alpha?"

"In an hour."