Moonlight Embrace

Chapter 1 - Mate Gathering

"I swear if I have to serve one more customer coffee, Bree," Jessica grumbles on the other end of the line. I laugh at her as I hear the water running. She must have her earbuds in. "I might punch someone. I don't even care about getting fired."

"Hopefully that doesn't include me?" I vaguely hear through static and the water running.

I hear Jessica squeak as she quickly turns the water off. I then hear her fingers take the earbud out of her ear and put it in her pocket. "Oh, my god. No, sir. I mean no Alpha Aldric. Always happy to take your order," Jessica rapidly spits out. God, girl calm down.

"Good, the usual, please," I barely make out Alpha Aldric say to Jessica.

Loud noises come through the phone as now the earbud is even with the blender. I put the phone down opting to listen to the racket from a distance while on speaker phone. It isn't long before she is talking with the Alpha again.

"Here you go Alpha. Iced cinnamon dolce blended latte," she stutters out.

"Thanks Jessica. Don't forget about the mate gathering tonight," the Alpha says in a muffled tone.

"Oh, um, yeah," Jessica squeaks again. Eventually she puts her earbud back in. "Hey sorry. You still there."

"I'm here," I say as I type out code on the computer screen. "I'm so glad I don't have to worry about running into Alpha Norris that much. The only time I see him is if he mind-links demanding why his Wi-Fi isn't working and I have to go to his office to reset the router. Any other time, I am left alone in the basement to write code for our software or keeping everyone's systems safe."

"Hey, are you going to the mate gathering?" Jessica asks and I let out an exasperated sigh. I have avoided going for the last four years. But I can hear my Gamma's voice in my head. I'm twenty-three and it's time to think about my future. Jessica whines in my ear. "Come on cuz. You can't abandon me. We'll finally be at the same gathering. Plus, what if you miss out on meeting your mate?" My head starts to throb and I lean back, rubbing my temples. "Breeeeeeeeee."

"Fine, I will go," I groan. "But I doubt my mate will even be there. Definitely not in my Blood Rose pack."

"You never know," Jessica sings. "Shit, I guess I need to leave work early to get a dress."

"We have to wear a dress?" Fuck.

"Of course silly. It's also a masquerade theme so you have to wear a mask," she replies.

"Ugh," I moan

"You need to get excited. We could meet our wolf mate," she says. Oh, you heard her right. Wolves, werewolves to be specific.

Let me rewind a bit. My name is Bree Mathis and I am a werewolf, so is my cousin Jessica Fairchild. Our mothers were sisters of the Moon Goddess pack. Hunter Mathis, that's my dad, was our Alpha's Beta for the Blood Rose pack. Alphas and their mates, Lunas, are the leaders of the pack. Alpha Norris and Luna Cleo have ruled our pack for thirty years. Betas are the right hand of this power couple.

Twenty-three years ago at a large mate gathering, my dad met my mom, Phoenix Greymark, and she came with him to Blood Rose as is tradition. I won't bore you with the disgusting details my mother would tell me as a child but it's safe to say the pull of their mate bond was extremely powerful. Then a few months later they found out they were pregnant with me. Jessica's dad, Roman Fairchild, was a Delta for the Gold Heart pack under Alpha StormShadow's and Luna Elena's rule. Deltas are the soldiers of the pack. Roman met his mate, Harley Greymark, at the same mate gathering and was pregnant roughly the same time as my mom. But I was born one month ahead of Jessica.