~ Chapter Thirty-Nine ~

“Oh, Erika? I… I didn’t expect to see you here,” Gina stuttered, rearranging the low-hanging neck of her short navy blue dress.

I couldn’t think of anything to say, so I just stared at her in disbelief.

“What are you doing here? And with these men? I presume they’re… your mate’s?”

“Actually, we’re Luna Erika’s, too,” Dylan pointed out behind me. “It’s nice to meet you properly, Miss Morone. I wish the circumstances were clearer, though.”

Gina chuckled nervously. “Right.”

“I’m Dylan, Alpha Stone’s very close friend, and this is Taylor. He’s here as muscle.”

“Miss Morone,” Taylor greeted as he shook her hand.

Gina looked at me but I was still frozen, trying to process why the woman I’d worked extremely hard for had completely ignored my calls when she was perfectly fine - and why she wasn’t at the village, but right here where Alpha Clayton’s pack were supposed to be.

“Luna,” Dylan muttered, patting my back. “Come on, I know it’s shocking, but-”

“Why haven’t you answered my calls?” I interrupted sharply.

Dylan’s hand retracted as he and Taylor slid back away from the two of us. I stared intently into Gina’s eyes, refusing to back down from my stance.

“I’m sorry, Erika, my phone is turned off right now. I’m sort of… enjoying a break.”

“A break?! When there’re more problems with rogues than ever before?”

She sighed. “I’ve left the village in perfectly capable hands, and it’s not like I could ever abandon it all. I’ve been gathering… intel.”

My eyes flickered down to her dress. “Looks like it.”

“I haven’t told you the whole story yet, don’t get judgemental,” she quickly snapped. “Look, why don’t you come in and I’ll tell you what’s happened?”

I wanted to throw her offer in her face, to say it was useless and that we were going back to the pack, but I decided to step in anyway. My curiosity about why an entire pack had disappeared was too strong, especially now that Gina had miraculously shown up in its place.

“Boys, follow,” I ordered Taylor and Dylan, as I stiffly passed Gina into an adorable wooden living room filled with cute antiques and the smell of a fire.

Gina closed the door behind us, fleeing into a separate kitchen before I could begin my questions. I sat down on the vintage leather couch, which creaked with my movements. Dylan took a seat beside me while Taylor protectively stood behind me. I gave them both exasperated looks.

When Gina returned, she balanced four mugs of coffee on a tray, which she placed on an old, chipped, scratched coffee table. I was handed a mug with the words “Keep Calm” on the side.

*Subtle*, I thought.

“I’ll start,” Gina offered quickly, before I could say anything. “I already told you why I haven’t returned your calls - if it is something urgent, please do stop me now, but I don’t think it is.

“The reason I’m not at the village is because I found my mate, Erika. I’m sure you can sympathise with that.”

My lips pressed together.

“He came to the village, actually, looking for refuge. Something very strange happened here - it used to be his pack.”

“Is your mate Alpha Clayton?” Dylan gasped.

She smiled. “Yes, that’s him. You know him?”

“We know most alphas in the area,” Taylor answered.

“And we came here to meet with him,” I added. “Dimitri said they were supposed to have a meeting.”

Gina’s smile turned sad. “Yes, well, all of Clay’s work has been… postponed, shall we say?”

“What happened?” I asked curiously, my anger slipping away.

“We aren’t sure.” Gina took a troubling sip of her coffee. “You see, he came to me and said that his pack were attacked in the middle of the night, so he couldn’t tell what was happening. It seemed there was a big battle. And then daylight came and he saw that his packgrounds had been completely destroyed.

“A lot of his warriors were down, too, which of course worried him. Most of them were dead. He completed a short assessment of who had been killed and realised that there were nearly a hundred missing. Gone without a trace.”

My heart dropped in my chest, as I was sure the boys’ must have, too.

“He came to the village looking for help with the few warriors he had left,” Gina finished explaining. “Of course, then we met and things changed. His remaining warriors took residence in the village, and we decided to get away for a while. This is the only building still standing from the attack - I suppose no one thought it was that important.”

I gulped. “This all sounds so horrible.”

“It is but I think I’ve been able to get his mind off of it.” She gave me a gentle grin. “How about you and Dimitri? I hear you’re being called Luna now, are you…?” Her eyes were searching my neck.

“No, we’re not mated,” I answered. “It’s always a power struggle between us. The only way to settle it was to agree to make me a Luna now, in terms of responsibilities, before I commit totally to him.”

“*That’s* your arrangement?” Dylan hissed, then looked away when he saw my glare toward him.

I turned back to Gina. “It’s a complicated situation but we’re making it work and it’s the happiest we’ve been.”

“That’s good, I’m happy for you.”

“So, Clayton is… your second mate? I didn’t know that was possible.”

Gina chuckled. “Me neither, but I am so happy that it is. He’s very sweet, nothing like… some alphas. And he believes in the village almost as much as I do.”

“Where is he?”

“Currently buying us some more supplies for the remainder of the week. We were planning to go home on Monday.”

“I’m sorry we interrupted,” I muttered, “but I guess that means Dimitri won’t be making any treaties with Clayton anymore.”

Gina shook her head. “But if he were ever to have a pack again, you know I’d put in a good word for you.”

I tried to smile but I couldn’t get it out of my head that this Luna experiment had failed - more than that, an entire pack had gone missing overnight after an attack. Clayton may not have seen who attacked them, but I would be willing to bet that it was the rogues, or perhaps Roger. He was not far from this location and we hadn’t ruled out his involvement with the rogues just yet. In fact, we were counting on it.

Gina explained the story of how she and Clayton met in more detail for Dylan, who was shockingly interested in the story. I remained quiet as I listened, most of my mind focused on what to do next.

*How are things at the pack?* I asked Dimitri, trying to distract myself.

*Not good.*

*What?* My anxiety piqued.

*Busy, talk to you when you’re back.*

Dimitri closed down our mind-link, just as the cottage’s front door opened, startling me into the present.

I looked up at the man who must have been former Alpha Clayton, a gorgeous man with beautiful eyes that caught me off guard. He would look perfect next to Gina, the embodiment of what most men wanted in a woman. For a moment, I pictured what they had been doing in here, and suddenly felt weird about sitting on the couch.

But it was too late to make an escape.

“Gina…” Alpha Clayton’s voice was wary, clearly disappointed.

“Hi, Clay,” Gina replied. “Um, this is Erika Keller - I told you about her - and some men from her pack. Erika, this is Clayton, my mate.”

“Um, hi.”

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