The Reluctant Luna

Chapter 5

Louise returned to the pack house as the sun was making a feeble attempt to burn through the morning cloud cover. Going directly to her guest room, she tossed on a t-shirt and shorts, then went back downstairs for some breakfast with the rest of her pack.

Her position at the table was halfway down. Alpha Jax and Luna Leslie, his mate, sat at the head of the table, with Beta Jeffrey and her mom next to them. The rest of the adults spread down either side of the table by couple's rank in the pack. There was an exception this morning, as the guests were next after the beta couple.

Officially, Louise was considered one of the children, though she was one of the oldest. Greg and Allison were ahead of her, as were his best friend, Louise's half-brother, John, and his mate Misty. There was some general resentment about her taking the third position, but her dual natures were both competitive. Combined, they wouldn't let her stand down, and none of the other young members could stand up to her. She'd had to suppress her instincts not to challenge their de facto future alpha and beta, as it was.

As their guests took note of her position at the table, she heard a little grumbling that was cut off by Alpha Luca's soft growl. That, of course, didn't stop the occasional jab meant for her from the other end of the table.

"Don't forget to save the blood from your steak," one girl twittered.

"Someone's leeching off the rarest steak again," a young boy observed sagely.

"It must suck to eat steak tar-tar," another girl cleverly quipped.

Louise had learned long ago that twelve-year olds weren't nearly as clever as they thought they were. The late teen boys, for the most part, had started to realize her value to the pack as they helped with patrols. The late teen girls, for the most part, shot her glares because some of the boys enjoyed spending time with her.

She was eating an extremely rare venison steak, some lightly cooked bacon, and several raw eggs. Most of the pack would eat some vegetables, especially high carb ones like potatoes. She found them hard to stomach. When berries were in season, her refusal to eat them was one more contrast she had to deal with.

Once they finished breakfast, Louise and the rest of the kids headed off to school. The teens were responsible for driving the younger kids to school before they hit high school. Except for Louise. None of the young wolves were willing to ride with her. That meant she got to school earlier.

As the others arrived, she finally heard the grumbling from the females. Apparently, word had spread about her catching an alpha, and they were pissed. Her treatment of him had also spread.

"Ungrateful leech doesn't know how lucky she is."

"If he was my mate, I'd get on my knees in gratitude." That comment generated a lot of twitters of laughter.

"Shows how batty she is."

Despite the new fuel for snide comments, her day was fairly uneventful. Getting back to the pack house in the afternoon, she found her bedroom door was back, and her clothes were neatly put away, sorted by style, then color. Even the window had been replaced. Back to normal, she smiled to herself.

Then she realized the implications, and frowned again. "I supposed I'm going to have to deal with him, now," she muttered.