Destiny's Tethers

Chapter 7 - Cracks

A few weeks later, in the Silver Arrow Pack

"I'll take my leave, Stela. I trust that you'll inform me once my dress for the Luna Ceremony has been altered?"

Stela smiled and nodded.

"Of course, Luna Kylie."

"Good, see that the seamstresses get to it quickly. The ceremony is in a few days, and I can't afford for anything to be out of place."

Kylie turned and left the office, her omega attendant, Jessie, trailing behind her and giving a small wave to Stela.

A few minutes later, Stela filed away her documents and closed her laptop before heading back home for the day.

Upon arriving, she headed through the door, greeting her mother on her way through the living room, and went downstairs to where her younger brother's bedroom was. He hadn't been forced into the basement-on the contrary he chose to occupy it since it was the most spacious room in the house, where he could avoid disturbances from the outside world-including from their own father.

She knocked on the door.

"Cael? I'm back." She called out.

"Come in." Came her brother's distracted reply.

The moment Stela stepped into Cael's room and closed the door, she let out a sigh that summed up all the frustrations she'd been holding back for the past few days.

"I cannot STAND that woman. She hasn't gone through her Luna ceremony yet, and she's already acting like she has! She somehow talked Alpha Bradley into giving her an attendant a few days ago and the poor girl is being bossed around. You should've seen how tired she looked." She ranted, sitting on the edge of her brother's bed.

Cael briefly paused whatever programming he was doing on his computer and turned to face his sister in his chair.

"Hm. It's fortunate you weren't at home a few hours earlier then. Dad came back to get something from the house for Miss Kylie, and he and Mum got into another shouting match."

Stela sighed, taking off her glasses and massaging her nose bridge.

If there was one thing Stela was, she was stubborn and stuck to her own beliefs. So when Olwen had left the Silver Arrow Pack and Kylie had taken her place, Stela had started out thinking it was her own fault that she wasn't warming up to the new future Luna.

But as hard as she had tried to find some good in Kylie Paxton, she only ended up feeling more unsettled that she would have to work with her for a significant amount of her life moving forward.

During the first few weeks, Kylie had been in tears, consistently wracked with guilt over what she had done to Olwen and spouting a whole lot of things: about how she'd made the mistake of becoming intimate with Aaron after she was rejected, and that she didn't deserve to be Luna. It had made other pack members soften towards her, at least in public. Stela herself had almost felt bad for Kylie, but then a good question had presented itself to her.

If Kylie felt so bad about betraying Olwen with her fated mate, then why had she done it in the first place? When Aaron and Kylie were together she seemed all smiles in comparison, without a hint of regret.

And then a month after Olwen's departure, things began their gradual shift.

Claiming he was 'trying to safeguard the welfare of the next Luna', Alpha Bradley had made a warning against mentioning Olwen in public, and especially within earshot of Kylie. He'd already been very intent on clamping down on speculations regarding what had happened in the first place, only announcing that he and his son had decided that Miss Paxton would make a better Luna than Miss Adams, while Kylie had blabbed about their affair starting after she'd returned to the pack on her own.