Chapter Twenty-eight: Picnic with the girls

I woke up suddenly, a bit disorientated. I gave myself a few moments to sit up, rub my eyes and stretch. Wow, what an amazing sleep. I can’t remember the last time I had slept that well. Even when I was with the Druida community I slept, but never for long. This…this felt like being back at home.

I take a look around the room and notice the other side of the bed is empty. I can’t tell if Lukas came to sleep next to me after being in the shower. I blush at the thought.

I look towards the window and I can see the Sun has come up, but I’ve no idea how long I’ve actually slept for. I go to stand up from the bed when I notice a small note on the bedside table, which read the following.

My Aliana,

I’ve left for training, which for the ranked males and pack warriors means a 5am wake up every morning, bar the weekends.

I’ve had an Omega bring you clothes and I’ve placed them into the walk in wardrobe. Most of them you got with Mandy yesterday.

We’ll talk later today, before the ceremony with our Elders.

All my love,

L x

I blush at the last part which puts a huge smile on my face. I wonder what the time is then. I look around but don’t see a clock. I’ll have to make a note to ask for one…..if they even use them.

I push myself up off the bed and make my way towards the walk in wardrobe. Sure enough, there’s some shopping bags and a few hangers with clothes on it. I peek into a few of the bags and can see the new clothes had already been washed and was prepared for wearing.

I choose some blue matching bra and panties, and as it’s sunny today, I’ve decided to pick out a knee-length dress, which was white but had blue little elephants on it, then also just choose a pair of blue flats, realising that everything I’ve chosen is matching and has blue tones throughout.

After getting changed, I looked in the mirror and felt quite emotional. I’ve not worn a proper dress for years, possibly not since being with my family. I smile thinking about what they’d say to me now, knowing they’d be proud I found my heritage.

I sit myself on the bed unsure what to do with myself until Lukas finished his training and whatever else he needed to do. Before I started looking around the room to see what I could find, a small knock on the door got my attention, so I went towards it and opened it.

“Hello lazy!” Mandy says before giving me a big hug. I’m taken a back for a few seconds before I reciprocate the hug.

“Hello trouble, how did you get in?” I ask, unsure how she got through the door to the top floor.

“Lukas allows us in when he wants. It’s all automatic. He told me that you’d be on your own till later in the day and has said I can take you out to wherever you want.” She says matter-of-factly. She’s got a gleam in her eyes that tells me she wants to know what we did last night but I brush it off with a question.

“So what do you want to do? I wouldn’t mind getting to know the other ranked females?” I say, trying to hint to her that I’d like to get to know the Beta and Gamma female more.

She rolls her eyes and gives a small huff, before finally throwing her hands up. “Ok, ok. I know they want to get to know you more too. How about we have a picnic with them?” She says sweetly, which makes me wonder if there’s something more involved.

I push the thought away and nod my head. We then make our way out of the sixth floor and out into the back garden, which is breathtakingly beautiful. The large garden spans quite far our and I can see there are some flowers I haven’t seen here before, some as tall as I am with bright yellow petals. Whoever the gardener is has outdone themselves, making sure the hues of all the colourful flowers are merged together without any interfering colours.

Mandy took my hand gently and led me towards the back where there was a large oak tree, which was one of the largest trees in the garden. It provided a good cover from the Sun and I could see there was already a picnic laid out with an Omega standing a few feet away. As we got closer, Mandy turned to me and smiled.

“Luckily I already knew you’d love to come and just chill out, so I already asked the Omegas to arrange for a picnic to be sorted.” She turned to the Omega who was standing waiting at the ready.

“Thank you Lilly, you can go now, I’ll make sure to bring it all back in.”

“Thank you Miss Mandy. Miss Luna.” She nods her head to me and then heads back the way we just came out of.

“Miss Luna?” I ask, slightly shocked that she’s called me Luna. I remember Lukas said that his mate would be his packs Luna, and the Elders had also said I would be Luna, but I’ve not agreed to anything yet.

Mandy sees my discomfort and motions for me to sit down.

“The girls will be here soon, I told them not to be late. I think as soon as my brother saw you, he knew you would be his Luna…one day. It’s inevitable, unless if you reject him that is. But I wouldn’t recommend that. My Mother was Luna, and she will show you the ropes when the time comes. Officially, you’re not a Luna right now, so don’t worry too much. Let’s get you acquainted with the pack, it’s members and the place first before anyone dives you into that.”

I put my forefingers to my temple and slightly massage. I already love Mandy because she is so open but sometimes she doesn’t realise she’s just bombarded someone with a ton of information. I process it all though, and only one question comes to mind.

“What do you mean by rejecting him?”

She looks at me and frowns slightly, a crease appearing on her otherwise perfect face. “Rejecting someone is where you forcibly sever your mate bond. It’s as if you’re taking a knife and cutting the bond that ties you both together. Doing this means that you both will not be able to find a mate ever again, and possibly means being lonely forever. If you were to do this to Lukas, then you would also be severing your bond to the pack, as he is our Alpha.”

I feel sad thinking about doing this, and know I would never want to do this to Lukas. I like the bond we have, even though I am learning about the werewolves as I go, I feel a pull to this place, and not just Lukas.

I don’t get a chance to think about rejection anymore as we hear a few incoming steps from our right. I turn my head to see Estelle, Nina and another face I’m unsure about.

“Hi all, come, sit round.” Mandy says and smiles whilst gesturing for all the ladies to sit around the picnic blanket.

We all greet pleasantries and Mandy then introduces the new face to me as she sits down. “Aliana, this is Loretta…the one who skipped dinner on us yesterday.”

Loretta had dark brown hair, like her Father, which she cut really short, into a pixie cut, suiting her. Her eyes were also green like Markus’.

The girl went bright red and gave her sister a small glare before turning her face to me. “Hello Aliana. I’m Loretta. Unfortunately, the youngest of the Moon’s. I was…er, unavailable last night. If I had known we were being introduced to you I would have come without hesitation.” She says with her biggest smile.

We all start giggling and she seems at a bit of a loss. I decide to take her out of her misery. “Nice to meet you, Loretta. Mandy may have let slip that you were round at Hugo’s yesterday. Don’t worry though, I’m glad to meet you out here on this amazing sunny day!”

Loretta gives Mandy a sort of death stare before regaining her composure and smiling back at me. We all fall into fits of laughter before we hear someones stomach grumble.

“Well on that note, let’s see what the Omegas prepared!” Mandy pipes up.

She and Estelle both dive into the picnic basket, which is full of sandwiches which are in foil packets. She hands one out to each of us and we all unwrap and start to munch on the sandwiches, which I can make out mine is some sort of meat and cheese.

We all sit there enjoying the food and the sunshine. Once we’re all finished, we place our wrappers back into the basket. Estelle takes out a bunch of oranges and passes one round to each of us.

We all bite into the oranges and I can’t help but moan a little. It was the juiciest fruit I’ve had since being with the elves. I adore fruit and I tried to remember what I had last, which probably as an apple as the elves house a full orchid on their grounds.

I savour every bite.

As soon as we all finish our fruit and place the peels back into the basket, I feel some stares on me from all of the girls present, and I know I’m about to be bombarded with questions.

I sit up, letting the girls know I’m ready for the questions with a smile on my face, using both hands to wave their questions forward.