20 twenty

Asher's mother soon barged into the cabin, with three bags of clothes and another bag full of shoes, accessories and hair curlers.

When her eyes met mine she immediately dropped the bags and ran over to me, dragging me away from Asher and pulling me into her tight grasp. She smelt like freshly picked strawberries.

I took a deep breath of her scent and spoke up, "it's good to see you again, Maria."

"Oh it's good to see you again, dear! Let me get a good look at you!" She pulled back from me and eyes me down from head to toe. Her eyes softened and she smiled.

"You look so happy! And healthy, might I say." Maria spoke and then turnt her head to Asher. She leaned down and gave him a kiss on the forehead before pointing her index finger down at him. "You better treat my future daughter-in-law rightfully, Asher."

He nodded his head quickly and we all burst into laughter.

"Now, go get ready Asher. I'll help Madison pick out some clothes to wear and get her ready to meet the pack!" She squealed and grabbed my arm, dragging me up to the master bedroom.

She stopped as soon as she made it into the room and sniffed a couple times.

Maria turnt her head to me with a smirk plastered on her face. "I see that someone is getting comfortable with their mate.."

My cheeks grew red and I avoided eye contact with her. Was my mate's mom seriously trying to talk about my sex-life?

"It's okay, dear, I felt the same way when I was your age. After you meet your mate, everything is heightened. Including sexual desires."

I nodded and gulped, "can we get back to the clothes now?" I nervously asked. She laughed at me and nodded. "I found this beautiful dress in my closet, I hope you don't mind that I'm handing my dresses down to you."

I shook my head. "It doesn't bother me. They are beautiful, Maria."

She pulled me in for another hug and I giggled at her. "I've always wanted a daughter to do all this girly stuff with, but apparently the moon goddess disagreed with me and handed me down two baby boys." She sighed and pulled away from me, looking through the bags and pulling out a gorgeous emerald necklace.

"But, I do not complain. I love my baby boys with all my heart. And I have no doubt that you will keep Asher safe, happy and loved just as I did." She continued, Maria put the necklace around my neck and clipped it in the back. "It looks beautiful on you."

I grinned at her and grabbed the short, white dress with small dots all over it. It was cute, and would go perfectly with the necklace.

Maria brushed out my hair and curled it beautifully. My mother never really did my hair with me, she was a 'get a hair tie and tie it into a bun' type of woman.

But still, it would've been nice to do that with her before she passed. I quickly wiped the frown off my face when I saw Maria was looking at me concerned.

"Is everything okay? You can always talk to me, Madison. I already consider you family." She smiled at me and rubbed my back in a comforting way.

I was glad I had Maria here with me. I know she would never replace the spot that my mother had in my life but she helped dim the pain of my lost family members.

"It's fine, Maria. I was just thinking of my mother." I gave her a reassuring smile and urged her to finish my hair.

It only took ten minutes more and I was looking like a.. Luna.

Maria's eyes watered and she hugged me from behind. "You look gorgeous! The pack will absolutely love you!"

I sure do hope so.

After Maria finished the finally touches of my makeup, which might I say took a long time, we headed downstairs to show Asher.

He was laid out on the couch reading some book, I attempted to read what the cover said but before I could he had already stuffed it behind a pillow quickly.

I didn't worry too much about it.

His eyes widened as they scanned every inch of my face and body. "Madison.." he whispered our and stood up from the couch.

"You look.. gorgeous." His jaw almost dropped to the floor.

The last time Asher saw me looking so formal was probably on the first day we met when I was at Carter's small get-together. Every other day I've just been wearing shorts, t-shirts and sweatpants. So, I could understand why he was so surprised.

He ran his hands up and down my waist and hips as he leaned in to kiss me before a voice interrupted us, "sorry to intrude on this very important moment but, the pack is waiting for their alpha to introduce their luna."

I let out a small laugh and gave him a small kiss on the cheek to somewhat calm his hormones.

His voice was immediately heard in my head through mind-link, 'just wait til' we get back to our bedroom'. He smirked at me and kissed my hand, "let's not keep the pack waiting, Madison."

We waved goodbye to Maria and headed outside. As soon as we reached the car Asher opened the passengers door for me with a goofy grin on his face.

He's been overly giddy since i mated with him. I shook my head at him, laughed and got into the car.

The entire way to the packhouse Asher rubbed my bare thigh to calm my nerves. It, non-surprisingly, worked. My head was all over the place. What would I say to them?

"Don't worry Madison. Everything should come naturally to you. You're a Luna, and your wolf is also aware that you're a Luna so, if things somehow get rough, tap in to your wolfs knowledge, okay?" Asher explained.

I took a deep breath and nodded.

In no time we reached the pack house. There were tons of people surrounding the entrance, and two scents that were unfamiliar. When I looked over at Asher he was already out of the car, rushing toward the crowd to access the situation. I quickly jumped up and walked beside him.

He growled loudly and the pack members and warriors moved by to make room for him and I to walk through. There were many gasps from the pack members that hadn't seen me before.

My chest tightened and I struggled to calm myself. When we reached the middle of the mess we noticed there were two men there, one of them holding an envelope with a dandelion on top of it.

"What's going on here? Speak!" Asher urged the men to speak. The younger one with brown hair holding the envelope cleared his throat. "We are here to deliver important information to Miss. Madison Black. From Alpha Carter."

One odd thing I noticed was that both men held sad frowns on their faces. It seemed that it was permanently plastered on their faces.

Asher growled and shook his head. "No. Carter not his men are allowed to speak to my mate. Ever again! I thought I made that clear!"

The men completely ignored Asher and stepped toward me.

"We regret to inform you that your older brother, Jospeh Black, has passed away." The man spoke.

There were gasps heard among the crowd and i couldn't believe it. This all felt like a dream. No, a nightmare.

"No.. this can't be. My brother.. my-" I stuttered out and placed my hand on top of my chest. I felt as if my heart was going to burst.

The older man stepped up and dropped his head down slowly. "He sadly passed away from an attack. Alpha Carter believes that, your mate, killed your brother when he attacked the pack."

Asher stood still. He didn't move an inch of his body, he was shocked. And so was I.

"Impossible!" A pack member called out from the crowd, "the alpha would never kill an innocent, especially if it's his mates brother!"

I turned to Asher and stared at him with watering eyes. "You didn't.." I whispered and placed a hand over my mouth. "You didn't kill my brother.." he couldn't have.

He gulped and said, "Madison.. I was angry and I didn't know what I was doing.. all I saw was red and- I don't know who I.."

With those words said, I fell to my knees and cried. In front of everyone, the entire pack would think I was weak. But I don't care. My brother, the only person I had left in my family was dead.

Murdered. By my own mate.

Asher leaned down and touched my arm, it felt like my whole body was on fire. Not a heat, more like flames of pain. And this time, no matter where Asher touched me, it didn't help. In fact, he made it worse.

I pushed his hand away and stood up, he did the same after.

I wiped the tears off my face and sniffed. "You killed my brother! For what? Because you were jealous?! Grow up, Asher! You're ridiculous!" I cried out.

"I will never, ever forgive you for this! I hate you!" I screamed at him.

I didn't want to see him again, I didn't want to be connected to him with the mate bond, even the thought of him made me sick to my stomach.

There was only one way to resolve this.

"I, Madison, reject you, Asher!" I stated. I felt the bond in my heart shatter before I ran out of the packhouse and didn't look back, no matter how who yelled for me to come back.