The One 28
Chapter 28: Pack’s Reaction
Sophie
As I walk hand in hand with Hunter, I can’t help but feel nervous. I trust him. Everything he has told
me up until now, everything that has happened, has proven to me that he’s the real deal. He cares
about me, and he refuses to share me with anyone. But, I’m still walking into his pack on faith alone.
Faith in him.
I notice that Kinsley doesn’t take Lucas’ hand as easily and readily as I take Hunter’s and I think
about what Hunter told me about their struggles. I feel the mate bond so strongly, the pull to Hunter
is almost impossible to resist, I can’t imagine how. frustrating or upsetting it would be to have your
mate and not be able to trust them. Or, on Lucas’ side, to have your mate but they distrust you so
much that they don’t even want you to touch them.
I’ll admit, I tensed a moment when Hunter bent down to kiss me in front of the two of them, but
that’s all it was. A kiss. He was showing his love and adoration of me to his Betas. He has no
problem expressing his love for me in front of others, and I know that it won’t take long before I don’t
tense up and I just ept his public disys of affection, knowing that’s as far as it will ever go. He
told me so, that he has no problem letting others see our love, but he will never share me with
anyone, never share our intimacy with anyone.
Kinsley’s response, however, was telling. I heard her gasp, heard her heart rate increase as Hunter
reached down to kiss me. She still struggles with what happened to her. I don’t know if there is
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anything that I can do to help her get past that, but I will try, not only as her Luna, but also,
hopefully, as her friend.
The patrols hear us first, howling their hello for the return of their Alpha. Perhaps it’s my scent that
has the patrols continuing to head our way rather than continuing their patrol, but I can’t be sure.
When they arrive at the border, the leader shifts, but the others stay in wolf form.
The leader looks at me, quickly noticing that I’m wearing his Alpha’s clothing.
“Alpha, wee home. We smelled a new scent, and I just wanted to check to see who it was,” he
says, his eyes continuing to nce at me.
“Nathan, let me introduce you, all of you, to your new Luna. This is Luna Sophie,” Hunter says to
him and the other wolves. They shuffle around and just based on their bodynguage, I feel pretty
confident that I can tell which ones are for and which are against the public imings. The ones
who are acting excited think they’re going to watch me get imed tonight.
“Alpha Hunter will be making an announcement to the pack, isn’ t that right, Alpha?” Beta Lucas
says, stepping up.
“That is correct, and we will be having our Luna ceremony tonight. I’m going to make an
announcement in a few moments, make sure you hear it,” he says, causing the patrols to howl their
excitement. I’m pretty sure they think this means that the public -im on me will ur tonight, but
they couldn’t be farther from
the truth.
However, their howls alert the pack and as Hunter leads me farther into the packnds, the pack
begins congregating our
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way, surrounding us and murmuring about me.
I feel Hunter squeeze my hand and look down at me, smiling his encouragement. I smile back at
him, pulling on all my strength and training as an Alpha not to crumble at the pressure that I feel
building within the pack.
“Do my eyes deceive me, or has our Alpha captured our Luna?” a man with dark hair says,
sauntering out of the packhouse.
“You would be correct, Ga**a Koden, although ‘capture’ may not be the correct word,” Hunter says.
The man’s eyes look over my body hungrily. I’m thankful for the bagginess of Hunter’s clothing
which allows this man to see -nothing of me or my body.
Hunter growls a warning growl at his Ga**a. The man lifts his chin in submission, but it’s almost a
cating gesture, not a true submission.
“And do we get the name of our Luna?” he asks, his neck still raised. Hunter hasn’t released him
yet.
“Your new Luna is Sophie Reynolds.”
“Sophie…. You mean our Alpha has captured Sophie Meyers? Well done, Alpha. It’s about time.
Now we can put this so-called revolution to bed,” Koden says. His neck is still bent in submission,
and he doesn’t seem to realize that he’s only making Hunter more and more angry with every word.
Hunter releases my hand and steps up to him, grabbing him by the throat and lifting him off the
ground.
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“Now, why would you say that, Koden?”
He frowns, finally turning his attention away from me and focusing on Hunter.
“Well, you’ll im her properly now that you’ve got her back to the pack, I’m sure. Once that’s done,
the ranked she-wolves on the run will no longer have their martyr. They can all return home
back to life as usual,” he chokes out.
8 дар до
Hunter pulls Koden’s face close to his. “Do you really think that my stance on public imings will
change now that I’ve found my mate?”
“It has to Alpha. It’s thew. If you don’t im her properly, we can’t ept her as our Luna,” he
sputters.
Hunter continues to hold him off the ground as he looks at the pack members who have surrounded
us. I notice that Kinsley and Lucas move to stand on either side of me, ready to protect their Luna if
a fight breaks out. They don’t seem to understand that I’m the other Alpha wolf here. It’s my job to
protect them.
‘We should kill the a**hole. I’d be happy to, except my mate looks so s**y snarling at him,’ Hedda
says admiringly.
“You all know me. You know my stance on public imings. I have forbidden them in this pack for
over a year. My belief that the public imings are wrong and should be ouwed hasn’t changed
because I found my mate. You’re all werewolves. You can smell my scent on Sophie. She is already
imed.”
He turns and looks at me. “Show them, my love,” he says, and I pull his shirt away from my neck,
turning in a circle so everyone can see his mark on my neck.
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“There will be no public iming. will never share my mate with anyone,w or no. You have until
tonight to decide if you will give your allegiance to me and to Sophie as your Luna. If you do not,
you are free to pack your bags and leave this pack before. sundown when her Luna ceremony will
ur. If you choose to stay, you will swear your allegiance to me and to Sophie and any disrespect
to her after that will result in your death. I am giving you the choice, the choice that our ranked she-
wolves do not have. If you decide to leave now, there will be no penalty, other than you will need to
find another pack to live in. Questions?”
He still hasn’t released his G**a who has begun turning blue and is iling around, scratching at
Hunter’s hand. Hunter acts as if he doesn’t even feel it, as if holding a full-grown man off the ground
is simple.
‘For him it seems to be, Hedda purrs in my head.
‘Focus, Hedda.’
“Alpha, how can we possibly find a new pack in less than a day?”
“You knew my stance long before now. You know me. Have I ever wavered in my decisions? If you
didn’t agree with me before, you should have left sooner,” he says, resolutely.
“What about the pack? The other packs will shun us at best, dere war on us at worst,” someone
says.
“Yes, I expect a war,” Hunter says. “The war has beening for a long time, long before Sophie
ran two years ago,” he says, holding his arm out to me. I immediately walk into his embrace. He
holds me tightly to one side, still holding a iling Koden by the throat in his other hand away from
his body. “But, I don’t
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believe it will be us against everyone. I believe that there are others who will stand beside us.
Sophie and I know that we have a tough road ahead of us…”
“Tough? Try impossible,” someone says.
“I don’t believe it’s impossible. Change only happens when people make a stand. Well, it’s time to
make a stand, past time really. Our she-wolves have been making a stand for two years. Shame on
me and shame on us for not making a stand with them sooner,” he says.
“I’ve seen my share of public imings,” an older woman says, stepping forward. “Most of us have,
at one time or another.” She turns and looks at me. “Tell me thest time you saw a new Luna walk
into the arms of her mate so willingly? When’s thest time you saw an Alpha or any ranked
member’s mate look at him with love in her eyes like our Luna’s doing with our Alpha, no offense
Betas,” she says, ncing at them, then back at me. “I don’t think we have to worry about our Luna
jumpin’ off a cliff any time soon, do we Luna?” she asks me. She has a slight ent, as if her family
descended from a European country.
“No ma’am. You don’t, and I won’t, ever. I absolutely love your Alpha, my Alpha now too,” I say,
smiling up at him. “As you all know, I’ve been away for two years and honestly, I had no idea what
was going on in the packs. But now that I do, now that I’m back, I intend to stand beside Alpha
Hunter and fight this injustice, not just for me, but for all the ranked she-wolves out there. They
deserve to find the happiness that I’ve already found with my mate. I want to stop these senseless
deaths. I want everyone to have what I’ve found with my mate.”
I pause, looking at all of them. “I saw my sister’s iming. I saw
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the horror on her face and the tears in her eyes.” I look up at Hunter. “The tears that I criedst
night were the tears of love, so strong that it made my heart hurt. There was no part of the night
where I was afraid, or embarrassed. We sealed our bond, given to us by our Moon Goddess, andContent from N?velDr(a)ma.Org.
he imed me under the moonlight honoring and thanking her for this gift. We both did. This is what
it should be like to be imed. It should feel like this, like nothing in the world cane close to
comparing to your love for your mate, that nothing is more important than your mate.”
Hunter drops Koden on the ground and slides his hand into my hair. His lipse to mine and he
kisses me, his tongue requesting entrance to my mouth, which I readily give him. I know I can trust
him, and I feel his pride at my words, his need to show me how much he appreciates what I’ve said
and the trust that I’ve given him. I lose myself in the kiss, leaning into him, my arms going around
his neck as his arms pull me closer to him.
When I hear someone clearing their throat, I’vepletely forgotten that we’re standing in front of a
large group of people. Hunter pulls back, smiling down at me and stroking my cheek.
“No one and nothing could ever make me do anything that would take away the trust that my mate
has in me,” he says, kissing my nose and looking at his pack. I realize that they have all gone silent,
watching our embrace.
“Well, that was all I needed to see. I haven’t seen a love like that among our ranked members in…
well…much too long. I’m staying. I’d rather fight for an Alpha and Luna who love each other like
that, than rush to a pack with a Luna who’s constantly looking for a way to escape and is willing to
end her life to get
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away from her mate,” the woman says, turning around and looking at the pack members behind her.
“Any of you who leave, are fools. If you’re foolish enough to go, I’ll be biding my time until youe
crawling back begging for a second chance. Who do you think the ranked members are going to
come to when the ranked she-wolves are all gone? That would be our pups and our grand-pups.”
“They can’t do that. That’s not part of thew,” someone says from the back.
“Who do you think makes thews, you g**t?” she asks, her ent getting stronger with her
irritation.
“You have until sundown,” Hunter says again. “And let this be the first and only warning to you,” he
says, gesturing at Koden lying unconscious on the ground. “If anyone dares to ogle my mate again,
you won’t get off so easily. I do not share my mate. Not now, not ever. Dismissed!”
Hunter, still holding me to his side, turns to Lucas. “Get him off our packnds. He is no longer
wee here.”
“Yes, Alpha.”
“I’ll help you,” Kinsley says, walking over to Koden’s unconscious body and kicking him in the face,
breaking his nose. “Oops.”
“Kins…” Lucas says, but there’s a hint of a smile on his face.
“He deserves it after the way he looked at our Luna. Plus, I’m tired of him leering at me all the time,”
she says, lifting his arm and smashing her boot into his ribs, causing a crunch of bones.
Chapter 28: Packs Reaction
“Oops,” she says again smiling, before she and Lucas begin. dragging him away from the
packhouse, back toward the borders.