Ready for the party

"James?" Luna Layla called when she saw him spacing out. "I know this event puts a lot of pressure on you, but… It's your sixteenth birthday. You will be an adult soon. Try to have a good time while you can."

"I will keep that on my mind, mother," James responded in his official tone. He was not used to his mother… mothering him.

As far as James could remember, Luna Layla would let Alpha Edward do whatever he wanted in the name of training the future Alpha, and she never stepped in; not even when Alpha Edward punished James harshly or forced him to do horrid things.

She didn't intervene when Alpha Edward took young James to observe people being tortured. By his tenth birthday, James knew exactly where to cut for maximum pain without killing his victim.