The Blood Moon Luna (Luna of the Pack Series Book 1)

by SJ Hayslett

  Yes, once she got rid of Evony and had Reed all to herself, all would be right with the world.

  "You heard me. I, Blair Jossy challenge you Evony Morris for Luna. Reed is rightfully mine."

  This really caused Evony to laugh. "How do you figure? Because you've known him longer, or because you shared a few romps in bed? I'm his true mate, I've already bonded and marked with him. He is not rightfully yours, but mine."

  "Honey, we never needed a bed." Evony's eyes narrowed at Blair, the she-wolf who dared try to embarrass her by mentioning her past with Reed. She had the audacity to try to take who was gifted to her by the goddess? Absolutely not!

  "That maybe so, but you will never have him again or be the Luna." The entire pack, including Reed watched the two as they had yet to make a move. Evony still needed to accept the challenge, but Reed knew there was no way that she could blow Blair off. Once a challenge was issued for a position, it had to start as soon as the challenge was accepted. If the person who was challenged wished not to fight, they had to bend their neck in submission. There were only a few times that Reed has seen this practice done, and that was when the previous Alpha was passing on the role to his heir or someone of his choosing.

  However, one thing he was sure of, Evony would never simply submit to Blair, especially without a fight. Evony would fight for what was rightfully hers, him and the position of Luna. For the life of him, he couldn't even figure out what was driving Blair to pursue the issue. He wasn't her true mate, and he'd never led her on that they had a future together. Blair always seemed to understand; at least she said that she did.

  However, the way a challenge ended was determined by the terms. The only choice the challenged party had been to decide if the fought to the death, or to mercy.

  "Term-," Reed started to call out but Evony quickly interrupted.

  "Submission, I accept."

  Blair wasted no time before charging at Evony. Evony anticipated Blair's charge, and ran towards her and raised her arm to throw Blair's momentum off with a clothesline. Evony was shocked that Blair hadn't shifted immediately; in fact she thought it was stupid of Blair not to shift and let her wolf take over. Evony could see, even before she accepted the terms that Blair would be too emotional of a fighter to actually do any damage. It was the main reason why she chose to fight for submission rather than put her down.

  Blow after blow, Blair tried to throw at Evony, but Evony blocked each pass. Blair continued to fight as her human, and even the crowd couldn't figure out what Blair's game plan was. It wasn't commonplace for a challenge to be fought in the human form, most started and ended with the wolf being present.

  After several swipes at Evony that went unanswered with the damage that Blair had intended, Evony could see that Blair was already tiring herself out. Blair spread her fingers apart to deliver an open hand slap at Evony's face, probably hoping to claw at her face while she was at it. But Evony was already ahead of her and side stepped Blair. Again, Blair left herself open to an attack and Evony took it by leaving a disarming punch to Blair's throat.

  Before Blair could even struggle to breathe, Evony ducked down into a sweeping kick and knocked Blair on her back. Refusing to give her the advantage, Evony jumped on top of Blair and used her forearm to force Blair's neck to the side.

  "Submit!" She screamed without using her alpha command, as it became a force of wills. Blair did her best to keep from submitting to the alpha but even she knew that it was lost cause.

  Except now that Blair was faced with the possibility of losing, Blair's wolf felt the sting of pride. Initially, she had wanted no part of the challenge to Evony and refused to shift when Blair called upon her. But nobody likes to lose, Blair's wolf included. So as Evony kept pushing forward for Blair's submission, Blair's wolf had enough and came forward.

  Finally, the gray wolf threw Evony off balanced when she shifted, shredding Blair's clothes in the process. Evony was toppled over and rolled on the ground several times before coming to a stop. Evony wasted no time to jump up at the wolf and complete her own shift mid-air.

  Reed and the crowd watched on as the two wolves snarled at each other. One for bragging rights, the other for pride. Yet, Reed knew that even though Evony was fighting to defend her honor, and his, it wasn't a boastful pride. Each swipe that Blair made towards his mate he cringed, it didn't matter that werewolves healed faster than humans to him. It was in his nature to not let any harm come to his mate, and standing by doing nothing during the challenge went against that.

  Blair jumped at Evony but miscalculated her leap, and overshot the alpha female. In a move similar to what Evony did when she fought members from her old pack, Evony swiped her paw at Blair's belly, only pulling back at the last moment so that the gash wouldn't be fatal. Blair tumbled to the ground with her wound and Evony pawed her way to stand over her.

  Defeated, Blair bared her neck in submission to Evony, who took the quick opportunity to call an end to the challenge by biting down on Blair's neck.

  Reed slipped out of his shirt and passed it over to Evony when she shifted back.

  "Can you take me to our room?" Withdrawn and no longer in the mood to celebrate, Evony just wanted to be alone. Fighting wasn't something she enjoyed, in fact she had a love hate relationship for it. Growing up, training was the only activity that she could bond with her father. It was their time to actually be with each other, and even though he was hard and pushed her to every limit, she still cherished it. But somewhere along the way, it was tainted, and Evony couldn't even pinpoint when it happened. It wasn't like there was any one single event that she could lay the blame on.

  Alpha Morris had overseen her training with the pack, and also took extra time to train her as an alpha. When she wasn't with her father for training, she hardly saw him. Yet, she always assumed that they were close. If anyone had asked her, she would have said she was "Daddy's Princess" or a "Daddy's Girl." But hindsight is 20/20 as they say, and once Evony found the journals of her late mother, she realized that her relationship with her father wasn't normal. Nor was she a daddy's girl.

  She came to loathe the one time that was reserved for just the two of them. Granted, by the time she found the journals, she was no longer in training with her father. Yet, when she thought back on that timeframe, she came to realize that her father always held her at arm's length.

  And now she's been twice forced to do something she had long since come to resent.

  "Garrett, can you oversee the cleanup for me?" Reed connected with his Beta, whom he couldn't see at the moment. He only had eyes for his mate, who by human traditions was his wife now. Garrett confirmed that he'd take care of everything, and Reed led Evony to the pack house.

  Once in the confinements of Reed's room, Evony quickly shed her skin of Reed's shirt and headed straight for the shower. The little scratches and wounds that she failed to block or avoid had already healed, but the flaked blood that clung to her skin irked her. The dried blood was the last physical reminder of what transpired and Evony was quick to want to wash away the remnants of what should have been the happiest day of her life so far.

  Reed waited outside of the bathroom with a fluffy towel to wrap Evony up in. It was obvious that Evony needed the alone time even though his first instinct was to scoop her up in his arms and never let go. But his mate wasn't someone who craved attention, which was why he didn't go caveman on her and carry her into the pack house. Reed was amazed at how in tune he was with Evony's feelings thanks to the mate bond.

  "It's because you were made for me," Evony's voice rang through their private mind link. The hot water continued to flow over her body, and after quickly rinsing off Reed's body wash from her skin, she shut the water off.

  Reed practically tripped over his feet to get to the shower and wrapped Evony like a burrito in it's warmth. Ever the gentleman, he held up the towel in a way so that he couldn't see her naked form.

  "You know my body is yours now," Evony teased.

  "I didn
't know how comfortable you'd be." Evony raised her hand to cup his face. Looking into his eyes, she was lost in the love she felt for him.

  "Thank you. Now let's get to bed."

  Evony followed Reed through the door, and to the walk in closet. Reed handed her another one of his shirts and he stripped down to his boxer briefs. Once they were dressed for the night, they went straight for the four poster California King Bed at the other end of the room.

  "You can have either side of the bed, but I'd prefer if you took the right side." Reed proposed.

  With a hint of a smile Evony asked why.

  "Because if there is some sort of attack that comes through the doors, they'd attack me first." Evony laughed at his reasoning. When she finally calmed down, she walked over to the window.

  "And what if our attackers are bold enough to come through the window? Am I supposed to defend you?" She asked with mirth in her eyes, and Reed was glad to see that she wasn't as closed off as she was right after besting Blair in the challenge.

  "I see your point. There's really only one solution then," Reed answered and strolled up in front of Evony. He grabbed onto her waist and brought her closer to him. He chucked her chin up, so that she could see him better and placed a kiss on her forehead. "You sleep in the middle of the bed beneath me."

  "But what if I like it on top?" Evony innocently asked. Well, it wasn't too innocent she supposed since she added an extra wiggle when she walked over to the right side of the bed. She quickly crawled into the bed since the shirt she was wearing didn't cover everything while she was bent over.

  Reed couldn't say a word, as he was too busy concentrating on not letting the blood flow from his brain to another piece of anatomy. He crawled into the bed behind Evony, but restricted himself from crossing the invisible line to draw her to him.

  "No cuddling?" Evony asked from her side of the bed.

  "Give me a moment."

  Evony felt bad for teasing him before they got into bed but couldn't help but to smile that she could affect him in such a way. Evony turned in the bed to face him, wanting the last thing she saw before falling asleep to be his face.

  "Reed? Thank you."

  "For what babe?" Reed watched the love of his life as she scooted closer to him in the bed. He was no longer too far-gone and made himself more available to hold onto her while they slept. Evony snuggled her head in the crook of his arm and brought her hand up to rest on his chest.

  "For understanding that I wasn't quite ready yet." Evony yawned and closed her eyes since exhaustion was content in dragging her under after the day's events.

  "Anytime, and anything for you," were Reed's whispered words to her as he sealed his love with a lingering kiss to her lips. "Anytime."

  Chapter 17

  Evony was on cloud nine by the time her week was over. She had been worried that with all of the stress of the visit from the Council and then from the unexpected marking ceremony that her studies at Harvard would suffer, especially since she had several tests to study for. However, each class that she received her grades back, everything was passing, and her lowest grade was a B+.

  Running with the club was the first casualty to her extra-curricular activities, but all of the members understood. She was their Alpha Female, since she was adamant with the entire pack that she was not to be called Luna. It was a little hard for them at first since the "title" was rooted in years and years of tradition, but the pack quickly got the hang of it and simply referred to her as either Alpha Evony or just Evony.

  Other than that hump, the adjustment period went smooth for Evony and in just the few days time she had balance.

  Not realizing that she had zoned out in her thoughts, Evony jumped on the bed in her dorm room when a text notification rang through.

  REED: I miss you babe.

  Her mouth beamed at her mate's sentiment. She loved the random text messages that he would send her throughout the week, even though she saw him every night at the pack house. She'd taken to the idea of coming home to him every night as long as there was a driver for her on her late days of school. And during the time that she was in between classes, she took that time to study in the dorm room or the library. The impromptu ceremony that Councilman Casper had performed had rushed their schedule up ahead a little. But she didn't mind since she had her mate wrapping his arms around her each night.

  "I miss you too Reed." Evony didn't bother texting back, simply relying on the mind link to carry her message to him. She quickly packed up her textbook that she was reviewing and decided it was time to return back to the pack. More and more she was meeting and learning who everyone was and how they functioned within pack life and she felt so blessed to be apart of their lives.

  There weren't too many opportunities for her to socialize with anyone from Silver Fang, back home. Her father made sure to keep her as an elitist and set apart from the pack. Evony hated it, she felt alone. That loneliness only grew when Georgia went off to college and there was no one within the pack that her father felt was good enough to be close to Evony.

  Sure she went to a human school, but by the time she was enrolled, her father had it ingrained on her that she wasn't to have human friends come over, and she'd never be allowed to hang out with them. Her only reprieve, and the only time her classmates ever got a glimpse of the real Evony Morris, was when she was playing soccer.

  With her books in her bag, Evony made her way to her Jeep, but as soon as she hopped in the vehicle, she could almost sense that something was wrong. Her leg was jumpy, as if she was anxious for something to happen, but for the life of her, she couldn't imagine what it could be. Evony bit her lip in consternation and realized that her breathing had increased.

  "What the hell is wrong with me?" She wondered out loud.

  She started the Jeep and pulled out of the campus and started for the pack. Evony was relieved that traffic leaving the city wasn't as heavy as it tended to be, because by the time she found parking in front of the pack house, her entire body felt alert. "Reed," she called when she left the SUV and practically ran to their bedroom on the third floor.

  "What's wrong baby?" Reed was in the middle of a meeting with some of the leaders of his pack, but he could hear the distress in Evony's voice through the mind link. Neither he nor his wolf cared that his mate was hurting from something. To hell with the meeting.

  "Gentleman," he waited for Evony to reply. "I have another matter to attend to. Garrett will continue the meeting in my place. Thank you for joining me and your service." She still had not answered him and this caused him to worry some more.

  Reed began to rage at the thought that somebody dared to hurt or threaten his mate. He could see her Jeep as he made his way to the pack house. Did Blair have the audacity to say something to her? He knew he should have banned her from the pack after that silly challenge, but Evony insisted that she had learned her lesson and there was no need. He followed her scent to the bedroom that they shared on the third floor. But he was in dismay that the bedroom was empty.

  "Baby? You in here?" He called out before realizing the shower was on. Unsure of what to do, he'd never seen Evony naked before, and wasn't sure how she would receive him walking in the bathroom while she was showering. Yes, they were bonded and marked, but Reed didn't want to push Evony into something she wasn't ready for. Plus, he didn't want her to feel like he was with her for the physical benefits since he dropped Blair. He didn't even want her to think of Blair.

  'Shit!' He realized, it's her heat. He marked her last Saturday, so it's about time that her first heat on. He didn't care how she'd feel, he ran towards the bathroom door and was astonished that she had not locked the door.

  Blood instantly left his brain and went to his male anatomy when he beheld the sight of Evony pleasuring herself in the cold shower. The moans and the scent of her arousal mixed in and without thinking, Reed chucked his boots off and hopped in the shower with her, not caring that he was still dressed.

  "Reed, I need you," sh
e moaned when she sensed him in front of her. Her thumb was furiously rubbing a circle around her clit while two fingers were pumping away inside her. No matter what she did, it was never enough.

  There was no hesitation; Reed replaced her fingers with his own and bent down to take one of her nipples into his mouth.

  Evony couldn't believe how fast her heat had come on and was wholly unprepared for the sensations that it brought on. There was no pain, just sensitivity that only Reed's touch could alleviate.

  While his ministrations kept her satisfied for a quick moment, she took it upon herself to undress him so she didn't have to wait any longer.

  "Reed, I need you, now." Evony dropped his jeans to his ankles and after a scorching kiss to her lips, Reed complied with her demand and guided himself into quivering slit and she wrapped her legs around his waist.

  Whole and complete is what Evony experienced as Reed paused in feeling her around him. When she turned her head to look at him and ask why he wasn't moving she saw that his eyes had darkened with lust.

  He backed her up against the wall of the shower, and crushed his lips to hers. She wanted more, she needed more, and before she knew it, she was pumping herself on his shaft. Evony used the tension of the shower wall to balance her movements as she rocked against him.

  It took all of Reed not to come right there. He could feel her clenching him, daring to never let him go, not that he would ever want her to. As frenzied as she was moving, Reed knew there was no way that just standing there letting her do all the work was going to satisfy her heat. His hands stopped her from moving any further, just at his tip, and before she could question him, he pounded back into her. Hard. Reed started off slow but soon he began pumping into her harder and faster.