His Luna’s Already A Luna
Chapter 75

Nick POV

He stood and watched her as she studied the pack model, taking everything in. really looked at it, saw her touch the area where they had sat last night down by the lake, tilt her head and allowed her eyes to move along the path to the waterfall, probably curious as if that was where they had been headed before being distracted by Mylan and Faylan.

He'd uncovered the packs surrounding area map. It had all the packs he was affiliated with on it, plus a few that were just local to the state. She had walked right over to it, he'd shown her where Half Moon Pack was, so that she could see she wasn't all that far away from her sisters.

They'd spent a nice evening walking around and curled up in bed together, slept soundly and when he'd woken up to find her already awake and sitting a little away from him on her phone. Texting someone. He'd not liked it at all, that she wasn't still in his arms. Like how she usually was. He'd never woken up after her before, she'd never been able to escape his arms before, was curious how she had managed it this morning, didn't like it.

The minute she had realised he was awake she'd put her phone down, and for a minute he'd thought she was going to come back to him and snuggle up to him. Maybe he would get the chance to play with her or even more. They had been getting along much better. But then she had gotten out of bed stating "I'm free." and had gone off to shower and change.

'I'm free' he'd muttered to himself, saying it like she was a prisoner who'd just been released.

They'd eaten breakfast in silence, mostly due to him being a little annoyed at her comment, and her distance from him hadn't helped either. She'd not offered any explanation about who'd she'd been texting that early in the morning. Could it be anyone from her old pack, he supposed, or anyone from his Unit. She has those numbers now too. After breakfast he'd brought her down to his office.

Her hand touched the old abandoned pack that Jeremy had said she'd run off too, the day she'd scented him and been unhappy about the match. A place Alpha Corey told him she went to, to clear her mind and think about things. He still thought that was odd behaviour.

She'd heard the story of it. Not surprising really, seeing as her pack was local to it. A neighbouring pack. She was right that everyone around these parts had heard of it. A pack slaughtered out of no where, no-one went to their aid. A whole pack was wiped out in a day and no-one seemed to know why.

He offered her Darwin's files, after hearing that she wasn't going to run off and find his pack or hunt him down. Just wanted to feel safe, apparently. He did believe her, sounded truthful to him.

He'd asked her to explain her behaviour and why she'd antagonised Darwin, and to his complete shock, she'd told him it was Darwin who had killed her previous Mate, her parents and her older brother. He'd not even known she'd had an older brother. That she had taken the twins and hid from Darwin, not that he'd cared about her being wolf-less and all.

Even Jeremy was shocked by the news. At least now he could understand her behaviour. Wanting to attack Darwin was as simple as revenge on her family's part. He could understand that. But again, why wasn't anyone in Half Moon Pack allowed to talk about it, under threat of punishment? Something was still missing.

Lucinda asked him questions. Which he couldn't answer himself, there was still too much information missing on the man. But he and Jeremy did agree that Darwin had not scented like or looked like a rogue, but still appeared to hold his full Alpha title. Which meant the man was either part of a pack or running a pack somewhere. Could have changed his name, Nick supposed. Though why?

Lucinda had not liked being told she needed protecting from herself. That she and Ky'ra didn't know their own limitations and till they did she needed a protection detail. The glaring at him said it all. She was very unhappy, and thought he was going to make her sit around doing nothing or just be a baby making machine. He'd corrected her on that.

For one, he wasn't allowed to even ask for an Heir, and secondly, they hadn't even gotten to that yet. He was happy to wait on her anyway, he'd told her all this before, but still it seemed she was having thoughts that was all he wanted. Too much family history and overhearing Valerie in the library didn't help. Too many things sewed doubt into her thoughts where he was concerned.

Lucinda had begrudgingly agreed to patrol with others, but then had wanted to know when she would be allowed to do so. Telling her in a few days annoyed the woman instantly. So he'd offered her training instead, even gave her the option of a morning or afternoon training session trying to show her. He was happy for her to train, and whenever it suited her. Chose the morning option, which was good as far as he was concerned, it was when he trained. So they'd get to spend more time together. But then had to go and ruin it. Saying she would train with her bow in the afternoon, she didn't ask so much as tell him. Already pushing more training at him, even though they had already discussed limiting her hours of training, when she'd been in the hospital bed. She'd seemed to agree to it then, but was now resistant to it. Felt better now, so probably didn't think it was necessary.

Also wanted to start training the teens who'd been watching their archery duel the other day. The woman was clearly obsessed with training. He asked her what it would involve. He couldn't very well say no. Everyone had heard him tell her it was a deal. Couldn't go back on it. Wasn't going to either. Just wanted to know, what it was going to involve.

3 or 4 days a week, dusk and dawn. He'd nearly yelled at her. How can she think that is acceptable, so told her as much. He was not going to let them or her, for that matter, train 3 times a day. out right refused it. He kept his anger in check but couldn't keep the annoyance out of his voice.

She'd laughed at him, clarification given that, that was not what she had meant at all. Just that training would be crossed over all these times and during different types of weather conditions, that she would organise a schedule and they would train every other day. Telling her he wanted to see the schedule and approve it raised her anger and she'd claimed he didn't trust her. Trying to explain to her that it was more about the well-being of the teens without their wolves didn't really go down so well either. Tried to remind her they still had school, and regular training to attend, that 4 days a week training with her on top of all that, would likely exhaust them, so he wanted to make sure their training wasn't too much.

He was the Alpha and had to look out for all his pack members' mental and physical well-being, was all he was trying to do. She didn't seem to get it. Or couldn't understand it, due to the way she was, the way she had trained herself.

"Do, whatever you want, Nicholas." she had shot at him, angry with him still, "Clearly, my way, is not what you intended." and then she had stalked out of his office. Woman never bloody walked away from him, always stalked.

He'd stood and stared at her retreating back. Really wanted to kick something across the room. They were back to arguing, it seemed. He took half a dozen deep breaths to calm himself. Ignored Jeremy's 'I told you so look' and walked after her. She didn't go that far, out to the fountain to stare at the Koi fish.

Trying to get her to discuss it did not go well. Even telling her he was going to let her train the teens as she wanted, that all he wanted was to make sure she wasn't pushing them too hard. She'd actually gotten it right, when she'd accused him of not believing she knew when it was enough.

Nick had seen her push herself, well past her limits, on two separate occasions now. One of those had been while she'd been recovering from a concussion.

They were yelling at each other right out in the open, right in front of the pack-house for all to see, and there were pack members about. He knew they'd be watching, if not, would definitely be hearing them. He tried to calm himself down and she'd brought up her being mad at him on that particular day, also reminding him point blankly that she had not forgotten, made him sigh. He was certain they had gotten past that. Evidently not.

Stood there and yelled at him about having trained the twins and that she'd never exhausted them, told him they were also in school. All he could do was again ask her to write up the schedule and let him look over it.

It really wasn't that hard a thing to do. Even his trainers would bring up the schedule when changing things up. For his approval. Nick didn't see anything wrong with him wanting to know what it was going to look like, or even give some advice on things if he thought it needed some adjustments. He didn't like the 4 days a week thing, that was way too much for juniors. Twice a week would be sufficient, but he did not bring that to her attention. Didn't think it would go down so well. Perhaps he could get the teens to tell her the schedule was too much.

Lucinda had told him to just leave her alone, while yet again stalking away from him. Nick frowned after her. He much preferred her locked in their suite, where she had been so bored she'd been happy to see him. They'd gotten along the whole time. It seemed having Ky'ra back meant they were back to being easily ticked off. He could only hope she would write up the schedule, then let him look at it and give some feedback, without causing another yelling match.

He let her go, didn't think she would go too far. Doubted she'd run off, the past couple of days she'd been quite affectionate, her bond with him was getting stronger, and telling Alpha Corey not to come and get her meant she was willing to stay and be with him. So he let her wander off to cool down. She'd stay away from bear country, he thought. One run in and the required days of bed rest to recover would deter her on that front.

Returned to his office, he'd not gotten to show her, her office yet. He'd have to try that again later, he supposed. Nick noted that Jeremy had updated the whiteboard with the new information she'd told them about Darwin.

"Some dates would be good, on her end." Jeremy told him.

"You might have more luck than me," Nick commented with a shake of his head.

"You knew, training was going to start an argument with her."

"Yeah! But better to get it sorted out quickly." Nick muttered, not that it was at all sorted out, not even close, he thought.

"Quickly! Where is she?" Jeremy chuckled.

"Shut it...told me to just leave her alone. All I want is to see the schedule, is it really too much to ask for?" he asked Jeremy. He didn't think he was being unreasonable. But was he?

"No Nick. You're the Alpha and it is your job to make sure everyone is safe."

"Why doesn't she understand that?"

"Who knows, maybe, just used to getting her way, all the time," Jeremy offered.

"Maybe" he didn't know, she'd told him. She'd was always in trouble since Ky'ra came along. Always in Alpha Corey's office.

The training though! It bugged him, really was bugging him. Wanted to train in the morning for herself. Practice with her bow in the afternoons as well. If this was the case? When was she expecting to find time to train the teens? If it was in the morning and her training went from 5am to 7am. The teens had to be on the school bus by 8am, to make it to school out in the human world.

It didn't make sense, there was not enough time. She'd said dawn, which was when she was supposed to train, with the adult warriors, though they only trained three times a week and several groups ran throughout the day.

The omega's generally trained during the middle of the day and the highest ranked pack members in the afternoons. He and his Unit trained most mornings and ran the junior training twice a week and he and only his unit on a Sunday morning. Pushed themselves harder that day, against each other with all their strength.

Nick wondered about all her training, and her need to train so hard. It brought him to think about her words in the hospital, and he wondered what she had meant by needing "to protect them." Her wolf was big on being protective. But Lucinda had been training for years, before she got Ky'ra and if it was the twins, she was talking about, they were in the care of the Half Moon Pack's Gamma and his Mate. A ranked member of that pack, living in a suite with a lock-down mode of its own, he imagined. That brought him to think about her previous Mate and he walked over to the whiteboard and wrote Ranked member and put a question mark next to it.

"You think Matthew was a Ranked member."

"Yes, told me." Nick smiled at the thought of the conversation they'd had "lost her V-Card in the pack-house, where else would she. Considering Matthew was the... then she stopped herself from finishing the sentence." "Interesting. How'd that come up in conversation?"

"Went for a night walk out to the lake, came across a bunch of teens hanging out."

"Ah, the make-out spot."

"Yes. It didn't escape her attention. She then casually asked if that's where I lost mine."

Jeremy smiled at him. "Good to see you two are actually getting along."

"At times," Nick sighed.

"She's opening up Nick. Just give it a few more days. Everything seems to be moving along since the hospital and you explaining about Mary. Earned some trust, I'd say."

"Hmm, I guess," he sighed. It was never just forward though, always backwards as well. "Actually, we saw Mylan and his daughter at the lake. She shifted finally. A water nymph like her father. They were both out in the lake." "Do you think she'll be like him?" Jeremy asked curiously.

"Don't know, he's not officially registered her shift yet. Probably take the man a few days. Seemed to be teaching her water nymph stuff. May have even been her very first shift."

"The next full moon will be interesting for Mylan." Jeremy laughed. "Probably hide her away."

"Likely," Nick smiled, Mylan was very protective, if she was mated off, that poor bastard had better be prepared to beg Mylan, so Faylan can be Marked by him. Mylan was likely to get between the two of them and hinder the process. "What's Valerie up too?" Nick asked. He'd not had a report this morning had been busy with Lucinda.

"Nothing on all accounts. Trained this morning. Seemed to have her eyes peeled for you though, asked why you weren't at training."

"And?"

"Braidy told her it was none of her, and I quote "Bloody business, to get back to training or I will be your partner." she stalked off and found a partner of her own."

"You tried talking to him about it yet?" Nick asked. Braidy and Jeremy were quite close, not as close as he and Jeremy, but Braidy did love to play into Jeremy's games and that had created a good bond between the two.

"Yes," he nodded, "told me you weren't the first Alpha she'd bedded, did both Liam and Alex."

Nick visually shuddered in disgust. "Yuck! I need a shower just thinking about it now."

"I honestly don't think he's pissed off at you, Nick. I think Braidy senses on some level that she is a threat. Has Alpha on the brain, so to speak."

"Still watching her, I presume?"

"Mm I believe so. But other than asking about you. She trains and works, hangs out with her group of friends, nothing out of the ordinary, since you put her in her place."

"Good. She was even making Rip nervous." Nick felt some relief.

"Made us all nervous, Nick. Why would you need the Luna's blood?"

"That is the question, isn't it." Nick was still curious about that, she'd brushed it off with a somewhat logical reason, but he didn't believe it, didn't think she was about to go and state the truth either.

Nick knew that Emerson would have a small vial of Lucinda's blood, stored away, in case of an emergency, would have kept it after cross matching it. Was the standard protocol. Made it easier for future reference to have one vial on hand with the wolf's name and blood type noted on it, than to try and recall it by memory, or to draw it up and have to cross match it during any other emergency.

Lucinda had to have a transfusion, so Nick knew he'd already cross-matched her, and he'd known how much wolfs-bane had been in her system as well, so it was clear he had taken her blood. There was no need for Valerie to try and get it. That she-wolf was up to something, but what?