“That I am,” Santo beams. “Santo Ramirez.”
“He's my beta if I win this thing,” I chuckle bemusedly as I sling an arm across Santo's shoulders.
“Yeah, I don't mind,” Santo shrugs. “But it'll only happen if I can pass Simon on the scoreboard.”
“How is it going, by the way?” Tyler asks. I've already told him how things work in Lunaris and how it differs from the Moonshine Pack.
“They're starting the barbecue,” I say as I glance at the spot where the others are gathered. Only Cecelia and Lily keep to themselves, plucking sunflowers from the water's edge. A waveof relief washes over me, as if my inner wolf is calm to see her comfortable and nowhere near any danger. She's safe, and somehow, that matters to me the most.
“Are you and Brutus in a hurry to leave?”
Tyler shakes his head. “I only came out today to see you when Alpha Sirius told us about the trials during a video call meeting with my father yesterday. He said you had the day off.”
“Let's go introduce you to the others,AlphaTyler,” I chuckle as I ram a playful fist at his firm shoulder. “I'll tell you all about the trials after.”
Tyler and Brutus meet everyone in the group, and they're welcomed warmly, except for Simon, who remains uptight as usual since he's not a close friend of an alpha from a neighboring pack. I don't let his indifference faze me, and take Tyler to meet Cecelia. The usual introductions are made before she goes back to collecting her sunflowers.
Soon, everyone is mingling around the fire as it cooks the meat from the animals we hunted on our first day in Mount Desert. Cecelia and Lily continue to keep to themselves, but even as Tyler and I stand off to the side, I can't help but glance at her every now and then.
She seems to be enjoying herself despite being reluctant to come out here today. A smile plays on my lips, but I'm sprung out of my daze appreciating Cecelia's innocent smile when Tyler slaps the back of his hand against my chest.
“So…how have the trials been?” he asks.
I take a sip of my beer and turn my attention to him, standing in a way that I can still keep an eye on Cecelia through my peripheral vision. “It's going well. I messed up the second test, but we made up for it in the third one. I'm leading.”
“Naturally,” Tyler grins. “And by ‘we’, you mean you and your partner, right? Cecelia, was it?”
“Yeah…” My lips naturally curl into a smile as my cheeks warm, and I turn to look at her as she has the sunflowers she gathered tucked in one arm, her voluminous dark curls wild and free as she gracefully strolls over to the barbecue. With the sun beginning its descent on the horizon, it adds a tinge of a golden glow behind her, her hazel eyes bright and radiant.
It's hard not to become mesmerized, and I feel my jaw lowering as my lips part on a sigh, hypnotized by her very existence as if it brings me life. Her curves flow out like a goddess with every step she takes, and I'm hooked.
Beside me, Tyler chuckles and snaps me out of my daze.
“What?” I ask dumbfoundedly, to which Tyler shakes his head as he continues to grin.
“You have a thing for your partner, don't you?”
My heart skips a beat and drops into my belly with an explosion of fluttering butterflies, and I douse the flames of being caught out with another chug of my beer. “I don't know what you're talking about,” I mumble indifferently, but Tyler doesn't stop staring at me with a keenly introspective eye.
“Nah, I know when you're lying to me, bud,” he chuckles. “You clearly have a thing for her, and you're not hiding it very well.”
“She's the omega. She's a half-breed.”
“She's part human?” Tyler asks with surprise. “Does that make any difference?”
“You don't know how Lunaris feels about humans. I told you about the uprising a few years back, when the kids wanted to attend college in the open. It was a big deal, and they all hadto sign contracts to ensure they wouldn't get mixed up with the humans.”
“So, if it wasn't for how the pack felt about humans and the omega, how doyoufeel about her?”
Tyler leaves me with some food for thought as he walks off toward the barbecue just when Santo calls out that the meat is ready. Left alone, I stare at Cecelia as she grabs a paper plate and waits at the back for everyone to grab their meals.
If it wasn't for the way the pack felt about humans, and especially about Cecelia, would I have entertained the idea of having a mate then?
It's highly unlikely, since I've always been self-reliant and never felt the need to take a mate. Even in my quest to become alpha, I see no point in having a counterpart that will only turn to a weakness once I achieve my goals.
Somehow, being around Cecelia has threatened my long-standing beliefs, and the fear of my own world being rattled and shaken to the core if I let my walls down and accept something my inner wolf has been whispering sends a cold shiver down my spine. I can't let her distract me from the ultimate goal, not when I'm so close and about to write history the way it was always meant to read.
As I watch Cecelia standing timidly near the barbecue's crackling fire, I find myself fixated on her ethereal presence, wondering if I'm the only one who still sees the golden glow around her. She's not doing anything special except waiting for her turn to fill her plate, but then Simon's partner, Amber, bumps into her, knocking the paper plate out of Cecelia's hand.
