Chapter 40

***** I just want to say thankyou to all my readers. I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments. But I am enjoying telling you this story and truly truly love to have you read my work****

**Cole**



“Where is she?! What the fuck did you do now?!” I roar at my mother.

Winter’s mind link with me earlier was cut short and I could feel she was anxious. “Cole, come to our room quickly. Your mother...” That is when the link cut off, and I rushed up here as quickly as I could. I arrived to see Charlotte being caried out by a medical team under my mother’s supervision.

“Cole, calm down. This is a good thing. You can finally see her for what she is. I told you she is a maniac. She just put a member of our pack into a coma. Charlotte may even die. Do you think the pack will accept her as a Luna when they learn she has done to a fellow pack member?”

Marcus mind links to let me know that he has just found out that my mother had Winter taken to the dungeon. This is all starting to make sense now. She arranged all of this so that Winter would look bad to the pack. She also would have known that I would find out where she hid Winter, and that I wouldn’t allow her to keep her locked away; no matter what she says about her. This has all been a big stunt to stop the Luna ceremony. Well, I will not let anything put this ceremony off. If we don’t do it now, we will have to wait until next month. Winter is adamant that it must be done under the Full moon. I can’t imagine what my mother will try to pull off to stop this ceremony again if she is given another month to scheme.

“Am I supposed to believe that you just happened to be nearby with enough warriors to subdue Winter, and a team of medics? You put Charlotte up to this. You endangered your own pack mate just to sully Winter’s name and try to stop the Luna ceremony. Whatever happens to Charlotte is on your hands. And just so you know you may have set it back a few hours, but the Luna ceremony is still on.

With that I leave the room and go quickly to the dungeon to get Winter. Along the way I mind link to the whole pack to let them know that although the ceremony has been delayed it is still on.



**Winter**



Once Cole and I are out of the dungeon, I tell him everything that happened. I'm glad to find out that he still wants to go through with the ceremony. I rush to get ready. I don’t want to keep everyone waiting any more than they already have. I cannot believe his mother. It is just ridiculous. She knew I wasn’t going to get in any real trouble she just wanted me look bad to everyone.

In no time at all I am walking past the archway and through the waiting crowd. Now that I am here, I still can't believe this is happening. I walk past the rows of pack members and guests. They are all watching as I walk past in my beautiful dress. It is very bohemian, all lace, and backless. It has long sleeves, but my skin is still visible peeking through the lace. After everything I have just gone through, and everything I have endured before; nothing can ruin this night for me. Not even the presence of Alpha Ryan. I cannot find his face in the crowd though. I was sure he would be here somewhere.

At the head of the isle there is a wonderful sexy man waiting for me. Cole’s huge muscular arms are clearly defined through the sleaves of his jacket. When I reach the end of the isle, we face each other, and Marcus conducts the ceremony.

Afterwords everyone eats and mingles under the full moon. I can sense that many pack members are feeling apprehensive towards me. I’m sure that Jade’s lies about what happened with Charlotte have already circulated around the pack. I should try to make them more comfortable with me since I am now officially there Luna.

I call out to get everyone's attention. “Thank you so much for attending the ceremony. I know that some of you have reservations about me becoming your Luna but let me assure you I intend to do all I can to strengthen our pack. I am sure that many of you have heard rumors about what happened just before the ceremony. I would like you all to understand the cause for that action. Charlotte was extremely disrespectful to the mate bond I share with Alpha Cole. She had previously been made aware of our bond and had been warned to alter her behavior accordingly. As you know we value the mate bond and hold it in the utmost respect. Her actions tonight were taken with complete disregard for our bond, and the punishment she received was the same that any of us here would give to someone who would try to break our mate bond.”

“Many of you have not yet had the opportunity to learn who I am, but I want you to know me. I want you to be able to trust me as your Luna. I am aware that the rumor mill has been spouting some things I would like to clarify. The biggest one being that yes, I was a rogue wolf for five years. However, I was driven to it by the tragic loss of my pack, not some crime I committed.”

“In my previous pack, we would frequently go on pack hunts and pack runs. I would love it if we could go on a run after this meal. I wish for anyone who wants to participate to join Cole and me in front of the packhouse in half an hour. This will become more frequent and hopefully we will be able to go on a pack hunt very soon. Thankyou”

I sit down and look over at Cole. He is smiling. He leans over and whispers in my ear “That was well said. I'm glad you spoke, and a pack run would be amazing. Our pack has never done that, but Dante is howling at the idea. I think they will love it as well both the running and hunting together. You are one amazing Luna.” He pulls me in and kisses me passionately.

Half an hour later Cole and I are standing in front of the Pack house with a few dozen others. Most of them are men witch I find that odd. Now that I’m thinking about it though, I haven't seen a lot of people shift in the pack and none of them women were women. I will need to get to the bottom of this sometime soon.

“Thank you all for coming. If you want to just drop your clothes and shift, Cole and I will lead the run.”

As I strip out of my clothes, I notice that everyone is staring at me. Have they never seen someone get naked before? After an awkward moment while I'm waiting for them in my wolf form. I notice the few women that came walk away to undress, I assume, and returned as their wolf. The men didn’t run off before they shifted but it was definitely weird of them to just stare as I stripped and shifted. Did they look at Cole too?

I mind link to Cole “Since you have never done a pack run, I am just going to say your Alpha, so you lead the run. As your Luna I run next to you as equals. If you're okay with that. If not, I can run a bit behind you.”

He minds links back informing me he thinks I'm equal to him. I love that he thinks I'm his equal. It makes me so happy. I am also excited we are finally doing a pack run. It would be better if the whole pack came but this is the first.

I still don’t understand why this pack doesn’t go on pack runs. I hope we can bring some of my traditions back. At least some of the traditions I was raised with. I will definitely have to help the women in this pack become more comfortable with shifting. I can see that most do not shift, and if they do it is only when they can shift in private. I am Luna now and it is official. I will make this pack strong in any way I can.