His Rogue Luna

Seventeen

Yonderly
(n.) Mentally or emotionally distant; absent minded.

As Gen had told me, Aurelius and I sat at the head of the table, side by side. It was sad how happy the pack seemed at us being mates and ruling together. Did they know their leader was a fraud?

Thankfully, I was soon distracted from my depressing thoughts by the food.

As I chewed the meal, I let my mind wander, thinking back to the interaction with the strange man that occurred only a few hours ago.

His deep brown eyes and his diamond shaped face looked so similar to Sophia and I was wondering if he was related to her.
Also, in my dream, it appeared that Cynthia was the name of of Sophia and Mica's daughter and that man had called me that.
Did that mean what I think it did?

Suddenly, I was very eager to leave the dinner and find that man. I had a lot of questions that needed answering.

"Luna, are you alright?" Someone asked.

Snapping out of my thoughts, I turned to the voice, finding a concerned pack warrior.

"Yes I'm fine. Just a little tired after the long day I've had," I was hoping to use my exhaustion as an excuse to escape this dinner.

"Tired, from doing what?" Another asked. I turned to the new speaker, already hating the smirk on her lips. She had green snake like eyes that were so full of disdain. I didn't bother hiding my irritation at her.

"That's none of your concern, Pack Member," I dismissed, enjoying how she scowled at my demeaning tone. Aurelius next to me cleared his throat, catching my attention.

Aside from occasional small talk with the warriors, he had remained relatively silent during the whole meal. I'd occasionally feel his eyes drilling into the side of my skull but chose to ignore it.

"Her name is Aerin. Her family and mine have a lot of history together," he muttered. Despite his quiet tone, everyone at the table had no doubt heard with their heightened hearing.

Aerin smiled smugly, as if that's what she wanted all along and I had to grind my teeth painfully to avoid snapping and growling at her.
Something about her rubbed me the wrong way entirely.

"My apologies," I said with an overly sweet smile. "What I meant to say was that my business is none of your concern Aerin so kindly remember who you're talking to," I smiled falsely.

Her smile vanished and she quickly broke eye contact, focusing on her plate.

"Luna," I turned my head to the voice. I looked at Zane and gave him a smile, nodding for him to continue. "We have a few more weapon prototypes developed. I would appreciate it if you could come down to see them."

I could sense Aurelius was about to snap at Zane so I placed my hand on his thigh under the table while I quickly spoke.

"I would love to. Tomorrow sound good?"

"Tomorrow it is," he nodded, giving me a quick smile.

Other pack members took that as a sign to begin making requests of me. It seemed that by agreeing to Zane's request, they were a lot more confident in asking me.

"Luna, our orphanage needs funding, please Luna, come down and visit to see it yourself," one woman begged. I frowned, a little concerned, but hurriedly agreed.  It would help to visit the orphanage myself before I called a general meeting.

"Luna, the pack school is overcrowding, we need to find a solution. Can you join us for a talk next week?"

I agreed to them all dutifully, playing the role of the perfect and attentive Luna. I couldn't help but feel guilty, that we were lying to these people. Their supposed leaders were nothing but frauds.