Kissed By The Moon

CHAPTER 19: Explanation

"We need to do research, maybe there's something about it in the Library?" Charlotte presents, looking around for reactions.

"Yes," my dad agrees, and I swear I see her sigh in relief. She's so cute. "I can hand you the keys to the archives. They consist of diaries from past Alphas, a lot of them have empty pages, but maybe you can find something that can help you understand what's going on a little better." We all nod our agreement to the new plan, and not long after, the meeting is adjourned.

Everyone makes their way out of my office, but I pull Charlotte back before she leaves and I shut the door behind us.

"How did it feel, getting involved in pack business?" I ask as I lead her around to my chair and sit her on my laps. She looks startled but quickly settles in.

"It felt weird, you know, I didn't think people would care about what I had to say. I guess that's the value in being your mate." She responds.

"Hmm, not really, people would listen even if you weren't. We value good ideas much more than good connections, and your idea was good. Now I finally get to see the archives, I've been curious about them my whole life!"

I look up at Charlotte and I see her staring at me and my smile broadens.

"Wow," she whispers.

"What?" I ask, raising a mocking brow.

"You, I guess," she raises her hand to my face and glides her fingers down my cheek. I hold my breath. Electricity follows the path her fingers take. Her emerald eyes are glued to my silver ones and I feel lost to everything except her gaze. There I am found and whole. I don't know who moves first, but the distance between us gets smaller, her eyes beckoning me to finally submit to this bond, and I can do nothing but comply.

Before we close that gap between us, I hear a knock at my door and it pulls us out of the bubble we were floating in and back down to this dreary reality. I smell Monroe, so I yell for him to come in. Charlotte makes a move to get off my laps but I hold her in place, she belongs right where she is.

Monroe comes in, and upon seeing the sight before him, looks apologetic yet determined.

"Sorry for disturbing you guys, but Amari, we really need to talk." His tone is serious and makes me straighten myself up. Again Charlotte makes to move but I hold her in place. She's my mate, he's going to have to say what he needs to say to us both. Besides, I'm not ready to feel her absence.

I nod for Monroe to sit down and he does. He has on a grave expression, and that sort of makes me anxious. He's never had that look before.

"Ames, I need to ask you something very important and I need you to be as honest as you can be. I can't really ask Alpha Nash about it, at least not right now, so I thought you were my next best bet," he begins. I nod my head for him to continue and after a moment, he does.

"Brianna told me about her parents." That's all he needed to say for my grip on Charlotte to tighten and for her to start stroking my arm in a bid to calm me down.

"There's something I don't understand," he continues, "Why the hell are they still here? Still the Gammas of this pack? Still ranked and serving the court like they did nothing wrong? That's kind of bullshit, no? What the fuck is going on? With how you and Brie are so close, I'd have thought they'd be kicked out of the pack at the very least! Why the hell do I have to see them everyday? Why does Brie have to?"

He's standing by the time he's finished asking his questions and I watch him pace about for a minute or so. He's angry, and I get it. I get why. Brianna still has those scars on her back. Do you know how deep the claws have to go and how young the pup has to be for there to be scars? Even warriors that have fought in battles hardly have scars. Even me, with all I went through, don't have a single scar. Yet Brie does. Monroe's anger is justifiable, and is in fact the only acceptable response.