2 Chapter 2: The Emerald Moon Pack

Devon

I’ve spent an hour trying to get my mind off her. I’ve seen her before--after all, this is a small town--but I feel like I lose control of myself every time I’m near her.

It’s something in the way she flips her long, wavy red hair back and those stunning hazel eyes. I swear, those eyes are a different color every time I look at them. As the Alpha, I’ve always had a lot of control, but my wolf inside goes crazy every time I see her or smell that hypnotic mix of pine and wildflowers--her scent.

“Devon, are you with me here?”

My Beta, Mandy, woke me up out of my thoughts. It’s what she does best--keep me on track. We’ve known each other since we were kids, and she’s always felt like a sister to me. When the rest of the pack was killed, only a few young stragglers were left, and it seemed natural to make her my Beta. There hadn’t been a female Beta in Emerald Moon pack for generations, but well, we’re about the only generation left, so we make the best of things.

“Yeah,” I told her. “Just thinking.”

She shook her head. “You’re always thinking, Devon,” she said. “But sometimes you just need to take some time for yourself. I can tell something’s bothering you. Spill it.”

“Nothing’s bothering me,” I said, clearly lying.

“M’hmm,” she hummed, sitting down in the chair across from me and folding her legs. That was a sign that she was onto me, but I tried to ignore it.

“There’s nothing wrong, I promise,” I said. “I’m just frustrated that I haven’t had a breakthrough yet.”

“You’ve been down there in your tech room for months now,” she said, her lips pulled down in a half-frown. “Maybe you’ve got that wrong. Maybe there’s some other way besides some new technology to fight with.”

“I don’t think so,” I muttered, shaking my head at the same time. “There’s something that tells me I’m close.”

“You can’t kill immortals, and vampires are immortals,” she said, leaning forward a little and furrowing her brow. “We’re just going to have to hide out forever. This isn’t such a bad town, you know. I hear rumors that a certain redhead has been checking you out in town.”

“That’s ridiculous,” I protested, but I couldn’t look her straight in the eye, and I knew I was done for.

“So that’s it!” she said, clapping her hands together like she’d discovered electricity. Well, in a way, I did feel some sparks around that redhead, so I guess you could call it electricity after all.

“It’s not it,” I said.

“Yes, it actually is,” she said with a smug smile on her face. She leaned back and her face turned serious. “You know, you are a person as well as Alpha of this pack. You are allowed to have feelings, you know. You can’t be just all about business every single day of your life.”

“I can, and I will, so we can survive,” I said. “It’s bad enough that there are so few of us left. It’s my job to make sure the pack members survive and build families of their own so we have a future.”

“Surviving is no future,” Mandy said, going into her philosophical mode. I could never argue with her when she did that, and it was annoying. “We have to live somewhere along the way. What’s the use of existing if we’re not making our lives worth living?”

I looked up at her and furrowed my brow. “What is that supposed to mean?” I asked. “You think I’m not doing the best I can for this pack?”

“Where did that come from?” she asked. “Of course, that’s not what I meant. You work hard and do your best for us. But being a leader also means being a role model. You have to show the rest of the pack that living means spending time with friends and family, having a life, and maybe even loving a redhead.”

I felt my face heat up with the mention of her. “I don’t love a redhead,” I said as simply as I could, staring at a stray strand of carpet on my living room floor just so I could avoid Mandy’s stare.

“You keep telling yourself that,” she said.

“We’re supposed to discuss pack business,” I said. “So let’s get on with the reports.”

She shook her head. “We were discussing pack business--you,” she said. “Wouldn’t hurt to have a Luna to your Alpha, you know, to make this pack feel stronger.”

“Well, we’re not going to have a human Luna, that’s for sure,” he said.

“Why not?” she asked. “If the Moon Goddess brought you together…”

“Why are we still talking about this?!” I demanded, a little too loudly. “We were talking about the Kenner family.”

“Right,” she said. “The Kenners. Now that we know they’re expecting twins, we need to figure out how to help them out with extra expenses.”

“Right, and how to keep those pups safe when they’re born,” I added.

“That, too,” she said. “I think if we all pick up extra hours at our jobs and just dedicate that extra time to a pool of money for them, that should add up.”

“I agree,” I said. “I’m sure I can add some hours at the store.”

When we first arrived in Emerald Valley, I, along with the rest of what was left of our pack, decided to split up and blend in. We’d all live in this human city, and we’d still function as a pack, but we’d keep ourselves separate enough so that we didn’t arouse suspicion.

Unfortunately, none of us had any marketable skills for human society, not really, anyway. Sure, we were all strong and capable, so we could do physical work, but without any formal human college education, the job market was limited for all of us. So, I worked at the grocery store in Emerald Valley.

Back when my pack was together in full force, before the vampires killed most of us and burned down our small village, we all lived fairly peacefully deep in the forest of Northern California where most humans didn’t venture. Those who did were out camping or hunting, and if they came across our village, they left us alone for the most part, assuming we were humans as well.

They had no reason to think we were wolf shifters.

It’s no coincidence that this town has a name similar to our pack, because we’re from the local forest where our pack has lived through generations, for hundreds of years. The forest here is gorgeous, full of trees and foliage that’s a deep emerald green. There’s a lake right at the foot of the hills with a surface as smooth as glass, especially in the cold, quiet winter months when it reflects the deep blue sky and green, majestic trees--and the full moon and sparkling skies at night.

I love it here. This forest is my home, my pack’s home. We were born to be here.

That’s why I was so happy that there was a town nearby that we could blend into and hide, at least until we figured out what to do about the b*stard vampires who took so much from us.

Our village is gone now, but remnants of our pack are safe. As the son of the Alpha, it was my duty to protect everyone who was left, and I planned to do that for as long as I lived. I would give my life for this pack, and my whole life is dedicated to every wolf in it. I didn’t have time to deal with some redhead in a smoothie shop.

I could just put her out of my mind.