The Unclaimed Human Luna
Chapter 44

Conner POV

Conner did not see much of Eliza around the packhouse, did occasionally smell her, down in the indoor pool area, late at night. His father had him out on patrol for the last three nights, rogues had been seen out there prowling around in larger numbers than normal. His father wanted a stronger presence out there, to deter any of those rogues thinking it was a good idea, to wander in or attack their pack.

He wasn’t the only one out there either, his whole unit was out there on patrol, it was their duty as the next in line to show strength and deal with any and all attacks on the boarders. He also knew that if he was out here, El was safe because Atlas was not letting anything get past him.

He was sleeping during the day and his studies had to be attended between sleep and patrol on the northern most boarders, so he’d not seen her much at all. More than a little annoying to him. But as he came off duty and showered in the mudroom, then strolled through the packhouse to get food before sleeping this morning, he could smell her.

She was still using the omega stairs, it seemed. He’d seen his entire unit stop and look at the omega stairs this morning, seems they’d all scented her and tracked it as well. He was walking behind them, as he had stopped to talk with a patrol man who was pulled up with an injury. One of the rogues had gouged him pretty badly and, though he was healing up, the wound was pretty deep. Conner sent him off to the packs hospital before going home, and looked like he was in need of a few staples.

“What are you all looking at?” he’d asked his unit as he’d come from the packhouse’s mudroom.

“Eliza is using the omega stairs.” Brayden had commented.

“And that’s an issue because?” He’d shrugged, he knew she did it, had seen her do it himself.

“There for Omega’s.” Brayden frowned at him.

“She doesn’t know what Omega’s are, Brayden. Is human remember.” He waved them on, and they all moved on. Though her scent today was stronger than normal, must have swam early this morning, not long gone back to her room.

“When is your father going to talk to her about all of us?”

“When he thinks, she isn’t going to run away, I guess.” Conner sighed “Could be a long while.”

“She signed up for Uni here.” Cameron commented as he got himself a plate full of scrambled eggs and sausages for breakfast.

“That doesn’t mean father trusts her. It just means he’s working on getting her to want to stay here.” Conner got himself juice and three bacon and egg bagels.

“You don’t think she will?” it was Adam.

“I think she’s coming around, just needs to be given the freedom of choice, father has her on a very short leash and she is not at all used to that.”

“Might be easier if he just told her what we all are and she could actually understand why she now needs to be here all the time, or close to the pack anyway.” Brayden nodded as he dropped into chair. “I haven’t seen her much lately either. Holed up in her room once again I think.” Saw him shake his head. “It can’t be good for her to be shut up like that all the time.”

“Probably not.” Conner agreed with him. Then turned to Adam, “What’s going on with Marlo and his friends? Are they not hanging out with her?” he asked his Beta. Who was finally over, Conner pulling rank on him, had returned to his normal demeanour.

Adam had let it go after going and speaking with Marlo about how his own actions with Willah had put El in danger. That Willah was so jealous she’d convinced three of her friends to go and attack El to put her in her place, so to speak, to make sure that El understood she wasn’t allowed near Marlo. That if Conner had not realised what was going on and alerted the Alpha, it was likely that El could have ended up in the hospital or worse even.

The boy had been unhappy with the news, had no idea of Willah’s actions and Adam had reminded him that she-wolves were aggressive of things they thought belonged to them. That it was Marlo’s fault for asking Willah out, once again. Only so he could use her to try and make El jealous. Had told him that if anything happened to El, and it was any of his friends doing. He would be holding Marlo personally responsible for any injury suffered to her.

“No, I passed on that message. He’s backed off and from what I can tell, the girls are all still being punished, house arrest until further notice. So, all their boyfriends are pissed off as well.”

“That is not El’s fault.” Cameron commented, “That was Willah’s doing, we all got that mind-link to remind the entire pack that El was the Luna’s human daughter and any and all threats against her would be dealt with harshly and severely. By the Alpha himself.”

That they all had, and those girls had not been allowed out of their houses since then, were all also sporting silver cuffs as punishment for their wolves who should have known better than to disobey their Alpha’s orders around El.

“It is not.” Adam agreed, “though I do think he’s tried to talk to her, and she’s shut him out. Something else happened before Willah, but I don’t know what.” His eyes moved to Conner. “Perhaps you could speak with her about it.”

“She’s not likely to talk to me, Adam.”

“Because you’re a jerk to her.” Brayden muttered.

“I’ve been better behaved of late.” Conner muttered, and he had, most of the time. Was Mated to the girl, couldn’t treat her badly or even insult the girl anymore, didn’t want to. Mostly just wanted to crawl into her bed and be naked with her. Once that full moon came in 6 days, he was going to do just that.

Pull her right into his bed and keep her there, sleep next to all night every night, once that full moon came, he would be able to make her happy. Out their relationship and she’d be more comfortable here and likely that would bring about her wanting to stay here as well. Just six more days and the whole pack would know what she was to them.

No-one was going to dare to even look at her sideways, or think about hurting her. Willah was going to be in hell for a very long time to come, especially when she realised just what she had tried to do, to her future Luna, convinced all her friends to join her as well.

That silver cuff she and her friends were all stuck wearing right this minute, to keep their wolves at bay was staying on her as punishment. She was going to find herself face to face with him and Atlas after the full moon and his claim on Eliza was made. Those girls were going to be terrified of what he and his wolf were going to do.

Hell, they would likely be terrified of what their current Alpha would do to them, for threatening the future of the pack. Might never be allowed to take those cuffs off. Or might find themselves sent off to another pack to live. He was undecided on what he actually wanted as a punishment. Other than putting them in the cells and giving them one hell of a lashing of course.

Though Willah was still only 17, some of those girls were already 18 and they should all have known better. He was surprised that all they got was cuffed with silver and house arrest. But he was not able to do anything about it yet. Had to wait to lay his full claim on her before Willah and her friends saw the real error of their ways and it was fully realised to them just how deep a hole, they had dug themselves.

He ate his breakfast and headed upstairs with the boys to rest up they still had two more nights of patrol duty on the northern border. Steadfastly kept his eyes from moving down to the western end of the building. Though he wanted to walk down there and be with her, he could not. Though he did wonder how she was doing being apart from him.

Stretched out on his bed and picked his phone up and texted her “Hi El, sorry I’ve been working nights, sleeping during the day, how are you?”

He’d never texted her before, other than when she had disappeared off to California, and he didn’t know if she’d reply to him. But she had mated herself to him, so she should want contact with him. Even if it was just a text message, it should make her happy. He was making an effort to make her feel like he wanted to be with her, was going to be working on that over the next few days.

He waited for her to reply to his message. It never came, and he sighed heavily into his room. She didn’t understand him, wouldn’t until she knew what he was. It made for a very restless Atlas, which meant he couldn’t sleep either. Picked his phone up like a dozen times in the past hour and a half to look at it, and willed her to respond to him, did not like that he couldn’t just mind-link to her.

Wondered if his father could mind-link to Brittney? He’d not asked the question, had not cared to know anything at all about his human stepmother. Now, he was suddenly curious, what if he could never do that with El? What if he had to rely on his phone and texting her or calling her, all the time? How was he supposed to let her know when he was all hot and horny for her. Wanting to send that playful growl down the mind-link to her to let her know he wanted her, how was Atlas supposed to communicate with her? It wasn’t going to be the same if he had to call her or text her with it.

Tossed his phone to the other side of the bed an hour later when she’d still not answered him and he was still laying there awake. Flung the sheets off of him and got out of bed, he was never getting any sleep and he knew it, not until he’d laid eyes on her, gotten to speak to her. He left his room and was headed for her room at the other end of the packhouse, come right across Marlo standing outside Eliza’s door. Frowned right at him. “What are you doing here Marlo?”

“I just wanted to check on El, she’s not been talking to me.”

“Can you blame her?” Conner asked him.

“Why are you here Conner?” Marlo glared at him.

“I was just walking about, can’t sleep. Saw you up here on the Alpha floor. You’re not supposed to be up here without permission anymore unless you’re going to your mum and dad’s suite. Did you get that permission from father or the Luna, permission to talk to El after what your girlfriend tried to do to her?” threw that reminder right at him, the very reason he would not be allowed up here without permission right this minute.

“She’s not my girlfriend anymore. I ended it with Willah after what she did, or tried to do, to El.”

“How’d that go down? Do you think that will make the situation worse or better?” Conner was willing to bet worse.

“What does it matter? Willah is in lock down in her family home.”

“It matters Marlo, because if anything happens to El and it leads back to your stupid behaviour with Willah. How do you think the Luna will respond? Do you think Willah will survive it a second time, and if not, who’s fault will that be?”

“I made it clear she wasn’t to touch El, go near her even.”

“Hmm, I’m betting that just ticked the she-wolf off even more. She was jealous before of El, how do you think she feels now?”

“I don’t care Conner, I only want to make sure El is okay, she’s not come out of her room and is not talking to me. It’s not like her.”

“You should care, Marlo. Hate breeds bitterness and leads to violence. Who do you think Willah will aim that at? You or El?”

The boy’s jaw was tight as he stared at Conner. “I’ll protect El.”

“No, actually you won’t. It is now my job to do that, father’s orders.” It was his job because she was his Mate, not because his father ordered him to do it. But Conner also knew that Marlo was not going to go and ask his own Alpha why he put his son, the future Heir in charge of El’s safety.

That would be outright disrespectful of a pack member, to question their own Alpha’s decisions and orders. Get himself lashed and tossed in the cells for it and he knew it.

“Leave Marlo, if you want, I will check on her and let you know if she is alright.”

“Don’t bother.” Marlo muttered and walked off away towards the stairs, “She’ll talk to me eventually, actually likes me as a person, doesn’t like you at all.”

“Watch your words, Marlo, or I might just unleash my wolf on you. You seem to forget your place, are a Beta and only a second at that. I am the Alpha’s Heir. One more time and I will put you in the cells myself for that blatant disrespect you constantly show to me since El’s arrival.”

Heard him bang right into his suite, down on the fourth floor a few minutes later, had gotten himself a suite of his own when he turned 18 as did most ranked members kids, regardless of if they were a second or third heir, and would only be able to take up their older siblings’ position if something bad happened, to their heir of their own bloodline.

Adam wasn’t likely to let that happen, he was a good strong Beta with not just strength, but he had good people skills and was well liked by most, even those in other packs, was charismatic like his father was.

Swiped his card to let himself into El’s room and opened the door. She was not in there, one glance was all it took to see that. Frowned at the empty room, if she was not in here, then where was she? Marlo had been up here looking for her as well. So, he could only presume that Marlo thought she was in her room too. But yet she wasn’t.

He closed the door and walked away, as he thought about it. Where could she go in this pack that allowed her to be alone, smiled to himself. The woods was the only logical place for her to be. She liked the woods. ‘We go find our Mate.’ Atlas told him.

‘Agreed.’ Conner told his wolf with a smile. If she was alone out there in the woods, that meant he could spend time with her himself.