"The Replacement Luna..."

Control...

Ares:

"Have you lost your mind? Have you gone crazy like your father before he died?"

"I am in complete control of my mental faculties! As your Alpha you have no right to question my decisions!" I dared raise my voice at Dave who was like a second father to me.

"I have all the right to question you... this affects the entire pack!"

"Don't you think I know that? But I made a promise to Liza. I promised to love her 'till my last dying breath."

"Your Luna is gone! As much as it pains all of us, we need you to pick yourself up from this trying situation and move forward... for yourself, and for our pack. Now, more than ever... we need our Alpha." He had a point.

"How? I can't just love someone else, even if that someone holds the answer to all my problems." I dropped my weight down on my bed, feeling so tired, and remembering how soft Glare's mattress was compared to mine. But most of all, how gentle his hand was as it glided over my skin while he washed my face with a fragrant cloth.

"You have no choice. Without Glare, without a Luna... you will surely wither away and die. We can't allow that. Frost Moon, will NOT allow that!"

"I will not use him!"

"You have no choice! You must submit to the moon's command!" Dave was fuming as he paced back and forth before me in my chambers. "Remember what happened to your father... he went mad for choosing to pair himself up with someone who was not his mate. Your mother, she became terribly ill after she gave birth to Atlas and died without even seeing you both enter your twentieth year of existence."

"I need not be reminded Dave! I was there remember? I went through all the sadness and pain in losing a deranged father first, and then an ailing mother next, even before I was an adult."

"Remember the pain and anguish you went through? Now multiply that by the number of people under your care. That is how much pain you will cause your pack! You will destroy us all!"

"There must be some other way..."

"There is no other way!" Dave stopped pacing and forcefully hauled me to my feet. "Tell me you don't feel it. The pull of the Penumbra! The longing, the desire to be with him." He looked me in the eye and I could not lie to him. I couldn't even answer him.

A smile slowly crept over his scowling face. He then pushed me back so I landed with a plop on my bed once more.

"I knew it. Playing hard to get! You just can't accept how easily it was for him to weave his spell over you too. As proud as your father, but unable to lie like your mother."

"I am not under his spell. I am merely... tempted." I had to wiggle my way out of this conversation.

"You must return to him Alpha, your wounds are resurfacing even as we speak. This is the effect that being parted from the Penumbra will have on your body. You will enter a weakened state of mind and body if you do not accept the Penumbra as your mate. You must accept that he belongs to you as much as you belong to him."

"Won't he reject me?"

"With the way I've seen him looking at you, and the way he cared for you? I'd say he has fallen for you long before your sorry ass got beaten up by those Whiffs." Dave chuckled.

"Still, I don't want to force myself on him. He might still be in love with... you know who." I stared at my feet.

"That someone is married to his sister. He needs someone who will belong to him completely and solely. Now, I suggest you bathe and make yourself presentable. Make haste before the effects of being parted from him take full control of your body. I, along with the Betas, will escort you back to Rosewater Manor. There you must perform a ceremony known as the claiming."

"The claiming?"

"You must both form a union of mind and body... using your souls."

"Union of body... like? Have sex!"

"You're not a virgin now, are you? You do know how to have sex?" His smirk was back.

"Of course I do, but..."

"Excellent, then I won't need to teach you."

"But, with our souls? How do we do that?"

"Don't ask me. I've never tried it. The Penumbra will take you there... to a higher consciousness. You must submit. You must learn to release control. You must learn to... ahem... be under the moon's caress." And he winked mischievously, before giggling out of the room.