The Beta's Heart

9. Little Luna

Tyler

The following night, I was heading up to my room for bed, praying for a nightmare-free sleep, when the alphas summoned us betas to the pack's training center.

By the time I ran there, everyone else had arrived and was waiting for me.

"Sorry," I apologized, one hand pressed to my heaving chest. "Ran as fast as I could."

"No, I'm sorry, Ty," Alpha Mase apologized. "So much has happened, I forgot you didn't have a ride."

"No worries. Running's good exercise," I waved him off with a grin. "And I could have asked to borrow the O's minivan if I'd taken a second to think about it."

Despite it being my own dumb fault, I could tell that it bothered him and the other alphas to see me drenched in sweat and panting like a dog.

"Well, now that we're all here," Matthew gave me a snide side-eye as I bent over with my hands braced on my knees to try and catch my breath, "what did you need, alphas?"

"We have some important and amazing news to share," Alpha Jayden spoke up. "We found our luna while we were at Green River."

A murmur of surprise and curiosity rippled through the room, and my heart skipped a beat.

A luna! No, our luna! It's what we - and the alphas, of course - had been waiting for!

Why didn't they tell us right away? I thought, quickly followed by, I wonder what she's like.

Wanna meet luna! River whined, echoing my own impatience.

"This is life-changing for us as well as you five." Alpha Cole looked at us. "As betas, your roles will expand. You'll act as her personal guards and confidants. You'll be her support, her strength, and her protectors."

As the weight of his words sank in, I felt a mix of emotions. On one hand, there was a sense of pride and honor. On the other hand, there was a sense of responsibility that felt almost overwhelming. Our lives would now be dedicated to our luna. No matter what she was like, her safety and happiness would become our top concern.

They already were, to be honest. Now that the alphas had announced it, each of us could feel the gentle tendrils of a bond forming with a girl we hadn't even met yet.

"Wait! You left her at the alpha house alone? Without guards?" Emerson demanded with a scowl. "I'm going over there!"

"Me, too!" I piped up, already heading toward the door with Tristan right beside me.

"No, you're not," Alpha Mase commanded with a little wolf in his voice. "None of you are. There's a guard in the house, and the gammas are stationed around the perimeter until we get back."

"A guard? Who?" Matthew demanded.

After Alpha Jay explained about Luke MacGregor, the former beta of Tall Pines, and his sister, Lilah, Tristan voiced another concern in a hard, sharp tone I'd never heard from him before.

"The gammas learned about her before us?"

"The gammas?!" Em, Matthew, and I echoed his outrage.

And rightly so. We should have been at the front of the line for introductions. After all, she'd be our one and only priority for the rest of our days as betas. Not even the alphas could override that.

"They didn't meet her, and they won't until much later," Alpha Wyatt pointed out. "She's too fragile to interact with a lot of people, especially men, right now."