Authors Note: This is a bit of a short chapter today. Don't worry, I have plenty of long ones in store. Thank you so much for reading this far. Thanks for all the votes and comments! Enjoy!
-Saturn
"Max!" he heard Tyler behind him. "Wait!"
He wanted to ignore him. He wanted to pretend that he hadn't heard him down these many long halls that the third story had. Max longed to see Charlie again. He was worried that he might start wandering around the pack house again. Maybe Max would show him a little more things that the mansion had to offer. Maybe he could introduce him to one or two more people. He knew that it wouldn't take long for the pack to hear about his mate and want to meet him. They would all be curious about their next Luna, whether for good or for bad.
But he owed Tyler an explanation. He owed all of them an explanation. So, he stopped and waited for Tyler and the rest of his friends to catch up.
"Are you insane, man?" Sam was the first to talk when they met with him. They all looked unnerved. Max hoped that Leah wasn't too worked up. She had been able to hold together through all of the stress that those meetings had and still kept her baby. Pregnancies were scary in a way, because anything could happen to make it to where you had a miscarriage. Max didn't know that until Leah's miscarriage with her first baby. She was upset for months after that.
"Probably," Max rubbed his face. He hadn't gotten enough sleep to handle all the drama that he knew was going to happen.
"Why didn't you tell us?" Tyler asked. He looked hurt. They had been best friends, and they still were even though they didn't hang out as much. Max felt guilty for not telling him, but he couldn't change the past.
"I didn't want anyone to know until I figured out what I wanted to do."
"And you decide to throw your title on the line?!" Tyler grabbed his shoulders. His brown eyes searched his for answers to questions Max didn't know yet. "I know this pack has changed a lot over the generations, but I don't know if they'll be willing to change from this tradition."
"You think I don't know what I did?" Max used his hand to comb through his hair.
"Max, I wouldn't be able to do all the duties that you're able to do," Tyler looked shocked about all of this.
"We've trained side by side our whole lives, Tyler," he looked at him with a serious face. "If there's anyone I could trust this pack with more than myself and my parents, it'd be you."
"Betas aren't meant to be Alphas," Tyler argued. "And there's no way that your cousin would ever be able to lead well either. He doesn't show any potential in it."
"Well, Liam said he wanted the bloodline to stay intact," Max gritted his teeth when he talked about his grandfather. The man that used to be full of stories and laughter in his childhood was now his main cause of grief.
"We're missing a point here," Sam cut in.
"What's that?"
"You found your mate and didn't tell us!" Sam frowned. "Do you know how long we've all been waiting for you to find your mate? Leah and I had a whole party planned!"
"Oh, he was going to tell you guys at the get-together," Ed said. He caught up with Leah next to him. He, for once, had a serious look on his face. The meeting really must have shaken everyone up. "But that was supposed to be tonight."
Leah smacked Ed's arm.
"Ow! What was that for?"
"For not telling us when you found out," she answered. Then she slapped Sam's arm. "And that's for not waiting for me!"
Sam looked like he was going to go on a whole half hour apology lecture on why he was sorry about not waiting up for her. Max normally would just walk out at this point, but he had to get all of this out of the way.
"I told Ed not to tell anyone," Max told her. She looked at him with an angry expression, but it quickly died when she looked at his tired face. She hugged him and started crying.
"I'm sorry," she cried. "You must be so in love with him. Liam is just stuck in his old ways."
Jeez," Ed rubbed his arm, "What is it with pregnant women?" he stopped talking when Sam gave him a low growl.
"As much as I hate to admit it," Max pulled Leah off him, "Liam's right. There's a good chance that the pack might never accept him. He's not going to be the only one who thinks that there shouldn't be a male Luna, let alone a human one. And, if my dad's waiting to take care of the rogues until the next Alpha gets the title, then I'm not looking at much time to convince them all."
"It didn't seem like he was trying to give you a deadline or anything," Leah said.
"Yeah, but there is one. Those rogues have been getting more confident. If we just stay back and only defend, they're going to keep trying to attack."
"Are you sure he's the one?" Tyler asked him.
"Yes," he said without hesitation. "I didn't realize it until last night, but he is my mate. I can't stop thinking about him; worrying about him. Even being this far from him is driving me insane."
"And his scent?" Ed asked. He gave an almost nostalgic smile.
"The most addicting smell ever."
"Yup," Ed nodded. "Reminds me of when I first fell for Emily."
"I still can't get over how he smells sweet," Sam said. "That's just so weird for a human."
"I can't get over how he made you laugh when we first met him," Ed elbowed him. "Now that was a feat."
"He made you laugh last night?" Leah looked up at him. She was much smaller in comparison.
"I'll explain that later, Love," Sam gave her a guilty smile.
"I can't get over the fact that you're willing to give up your title for him," Tyler said. All the light-hearted talk went right out the door. Tyler looked at Max almost like he had betrayed them all. Max knew that the pack was excited for him to take the lead. But it was then when he realized just how loyal the people who were under him truly were.
"Mates are the second halves of your soul," Max told him. "That's what we've learned ever since we were babies. Our parents told us that we will find our mates and, when we do, we will be complete with them," he looked at Tyler with sad eyes. "How am I supposed to reject the other half of my soul? I've been looking for three long years. Am I just supposed to marry someone else? Lead the pack and try and grow a happy family with someone that I can never truly be happy with? No. I can't, and I won't."
"But, the pack -!"
"If the pack won't accept Charlie, then they won't accept me!" Max yelled. This was the one time he would hold back his tears from his friends. They were always there to help console him. He was sure that Tyler saw it in his eyes though. "If the pack would rather accept you and Isabelle, then you have my blessing. But, for now, I'm going to do whatever it takes to get them to accept my mate."
There was some silence after that. Tyler looked into his eyes with a softened expression. As much as he had been trying to be the Beta for the pack, as he had always been trying to do nowadays to prove himself, he was still Max's best friend.
"Then what's the plan?" he smiled a little at him. "There's no way I'm going to let you go down without a fight."
That was a good question. To be honest with himself, Max had no idea. Charlie didn't even know what they were. He wasn't sure whether he really wanted to introduce Charlie to everyone. What if he had another panic attack?
"It might be a tad simpler than all of you guys believe," Dr. Button came from one of the hallways.
"What are you talking about?" Max said. He would argue with the doctor about eavesdropping later.
"I was a bit curious about how quickly Charlie had been healing from the bruises," Button explained. "His scent was another thing that piqued my curiosity. So, I took a blood sample and sent it in for some testing."
"What did you find?"
"Charlie is actually 14% wolf, from his mother's side," the doctor looked almost smug when he said it. He opened the folder he had been holding to show him the results. "It's not enough for him to have a wolf to shift into, but there are some traits from it that wind up helping him, especially health wise."
"He doesn't eat enough to be part werewolf," Ed joked.
"Circumstances can change characteristics all the time," Button said. "He does have a faster metabolism than the average human, and strong bones."
"That would explain the scent a little at least," Sam said.
"With a scent like that, he would have most likely been an omega," Leah answered. "Alphas and omegas are paired with each other quite a lot."
"So, tradition can still politically be kept," Sam mused.
"The pack's going to have fun with this little loophole," Ed said. "I think they'll like it better than him just being a human, though."
"He could still potentially have traits that we don't know yet as well," Button told them. "Humans with even 5% werewolf in them have been noted to be able to mind link with the pack they're in. Even if it's not well, that could be an important factor in being the next Luna."
"But there's still the fact that he's a guy," Tyler sighed. "This is going to be a challenge."
"I can't disagree with you on that," Dr. Button said. Then he looked to Max again. "The most difficult ones to persuade are going to be the rest of the elders. There are many like me who welcome change, but many of them share your grandfather's point of view as well."
"I can talk to the rest of the pack and see their standings on it at first," Ed said. "Most of them don't really think of me as too scary to tell their opinion to like Tyler," he elbowed him.
"Most of the other generations are pretty good with changes," Sam said. "This isn't going to be one that goes down smoothly, but it's a change that they could accept easier if they're given some time."
"Time is the one thing I'm not sure I have enough of," Max sighed.
"Then we'll all get to work," Leah nodded. "I'm sure the omega's will easily accept Charlie. If he's an omega himself, or partly omega, then maybe he has some of the traits of them. I mean, I know he's a good talker already."
"Actually," Sam said, "If he's got some omega blood in him, that might give him the upper hand. Omega's are great at getting people on their side. They're good negotiators."
"A unique scent in omega's also mean a strong bloodline in and of itself," Dr. Button chimed in.
"What are you talking about?" Max said. All this information was just flying in the air. Max was just quietly taking all of this in. The more they knew about Charlie, the better they would be able to convince everyone to accept him.
"Just like with alphas, every group's general trait can be heightened if they have a strong bloodline," the doctor explained. "Charlie's was, of course, watered down as his ancestors started mating with humans more, but there's a chance that the genetics of his ancestors were strong enough to pass down to him some of those enhanced traits."
"I'm not sure I follow you," Ed said. "I mean, I get the whole bloodline thing, but how does Charlie have a good bloodline if he's human?"
"His ancestor passed down a gene of that enhancing that seems to be active in him," Button explained. "It's obvious that it's active just by his smell alone. And it could easily benefit you in your endeavor to get the pack to accept him."
"I mean," Max smiled. "He got on my dad's good side in just one night."
"If I had known that pie was the way to get on your dad's good side, I would have bought one when we were teens," Sam said.
"People have tried that," Max laughed. "Store bought won't work."
"Well crap."
"We should have a party!" Leah said. "We could bring the whole pack out. Then he could meet them all in one go and we could see what the pack thinks after that."
"No," Max almost barked. They all seemed shocked at his quick answer.
"Why not?" Leah asked. She looked upset that he had talked to her like that. Sam didn't look so happy that he did either.
"Sorry, I-" Max sighed and rubbed his face again. There were too many things whirring in his mind.
"Charlie can't be around too many people at the moment," Button explained.
"What?" Tyler asked. "He was fine yesterday with all of us."
"He had a panic attack," Max said. His heart felt like it got squeezed right as he said it.
"A panic attack?" Ed looked at him, worried. "Is that why you told us not to talk about his past last night?"
"He got scared," Max explained. "I don't know much about him, but I know he has a lot of trauma in his past. When he was talking about it to all of us yesterday, I think he started to remember all of it and he freaked out."
They were all silent after that. Max let them take in what he told them. It still pained him to remember what had happened. He wanted to see Charlie again just to hold him.
"This is going to make things a little more difficult," Tyler was the first to speak. "I forgot about his reaction to the pack. We keep on thinking about the pack's reaction to him, but he doesn't even know what we are yet."
"That's another thing," Max rubbed his temples. "Now you all know what I've been trying to figure out for the past week."
"Yikes," Ed said. "That does make things a little more difficult."
"Then we can introduce him slowly," Leah said. She had a confident look to her. The one thing that Max liked about her was her resilience to obstacles. She was always good at finding a way to bounce back if her first plan failed. "We'll just start with the important ones, like the rest of the council."
"Liam's not to meet him," Max said. He almost growled at the thought of the hateful man seeing his mate. He didn't want Charlie to be subject to that ever.
"Don't worry about what your grandfather says to the pack, Max," the old man smiled. "If you want my opinion on the matter, I think the pack can learn to love Charlie naturally quite easily. He seems to have a gift for getting through even the toughest of people. The fact that Aldi talks about him in such a way is a great example. If the Moon Goddess wants it, it'll happen."
They all talked a little bit longer about different ways to approach this challenge, but they couldn't conclude on any specific plan. Max was going to have to take the doctor's advice and try to let things happen naturally with the pack. He just hoped that it wouldn't be too late when they finally did accept him.
Max knew that this would still be difficult. Everyone was wanting to help him, but he could still see that Sam didn't quite like this situation. And Tyler was loyal until the end, even if he wasn't exactly sure about whether Charlie should be their Luna. Max could tell that his friend was unnerved by it, but he didn't want to take the lead as Alpha.
The only one that seemed to fully accept the news was Ed. And that was because his brother was gay. Their family had always had a bunch of different preferences throughout history. But Max's family, and the Alpha line in general, for this pack, had always been straight.
This was going to be a difficult mission.