A Secret Alpha Mate
Chapter 56

(Isla)

I wake up and with the familiar anxiety settling in, I had better get up and replace something to distract myself.

I tried to crawl out of bed and realized that there was a large arm across my body.

I inhaled the scent of fresh pine, rain and cloves.

Oh.

The events of the night before came rushing back. I couldn't help but smile, everything was okay again. I felt excited and giddy, more so than when I first came here. I was so close to losing everything I looked at it with a new sense of appreciation. I get tugged across the bed into Jackson's chest, "Where do you think you're going?" He growls lowly, sending shivers down my spine. He was mine, all mine. I snuggle up close to him.

"As much as I want to spend all day in bed with you, my mom already mind linked me. She's heading over with brunch in an hour."

"Why?"

"You, my Luna, have a ceremony in a few days. Three days, to be exact."

I gulped. That was soon, but I was more than ready. More ready to be Luna than I was for the ceremony.

"I'm afraid you'll have to stay out of the way until then," He raises his eyebrow, "Unless you want me to throw her in the dungeon right now?" He seemed too eager.

I slap his chest, "You know everyone wants to be part of this, I wouldn't ruin their fun like that."

"Fine. But I'm coming back later to spend all day and night with you." He pulls me close and starts kissing my neck. I can't help the moan that escapes my lips.

"I won't argue with that. What's on your agenda for today?" I try to pull myself away from him but it's hard with his firm grasp around me.

"I think I'll go to training this morning, it's pretty early now. I have to meet with Cam to try to figure out the identity of the omega that visited Jennifer. I need to figure out what to do about her on our floor" Hearing her name made me instantly angry. Knowing her things were on my mate's floor, my floor. I wanted that b***h out.

"I'm not sure what I should tell her actually, so I'm going to try to avoid her."

"That would be best." I say, my disdain obvious in my voice.

He grins and pulls me in for a kiss.

"Ugh, my mom wants you ready in fifteen." He pulls away, "Of course she's a f*****g hour early. It's barely six." I laugh.

"She's just excited, and this is something I would assume would take weeks, if not months. She's pulling together this entire thing in three days." At least this would give me something to do since I was stuck inside until the ceremony then I'm sure there are a lot of decisions to be made.

"We should probably shower together to save time," he suggests,

"We have about five minutes to shower, there won't be time for any of that," I say pointedly. He puts his hands up innocently,

"I'm just trying to save water here." I laugh and he pulls me out of bed into the bathroom across the hall.

We get ready in record time, even though I had to admit trying to stay away from his naked body was one of the harder things I've had to do in life.

We're enjoying a cup of coffee in the kitchen when his mom knocks her typical quiet, yet, firm knock and opens the door before either of us gets a chance to go to it. William follows her in carrying a few boxes and bags, looking like more of a pack-mule and less of a doting mate.

"Where do you want all this, darling?" William asks.

"The kitchen island is just perfect, I do love this open floor plan." She walks to us and gives Jackson a kiss on his cheek, he has to bend down for her to do so, and then turns to me.

"Isla, you will make the perfect Luna. Thank you so much for letting me help you with this." She smiles at me, grabbing my cheeks. "Honestly, I couldn't do this without you. Thank you for putting together such a big event in a few days."

"Well," She brushes her hands together, "It will be tough work, I've never thrown an event this quickly, but it can, and will be done."

She turns to William, "First things first, sustenance." She goes to the island and starts unpacking the boxes and bags. In a few minutes, she has laid out an array of pastries, fruit, breakfast sandwiches, and these little puff pastries that smelled divine. "Can I help with anything?" I walk up to her.

"Can you replace some plates and glasses? I brought different juices, and, of course, champagne. It's going to be a long day and coffee can only do so much for your creative juices." I see Jackson and William exchange a look and I can't help but smile. "Fine," She glares at them, "I also might be a tad bit hungover, I can't drink like I used to. Now would you grab me a cup of coffee, sweetie?" She turns to her son.

"Coffee sounds great." I turn around to see Abigail and the doctor, Jim, I should start calling him Jim. I see Abigail and Jim walking into the kitchen. Jim is already dressed for the day.

"What a spread this is," Jim notes appreciatively.

"I hope you don't mind me taking over your kitchen," Gianna asks Abigail.

"Not at all, you're welcome to our house whenever you need, I'm excited for today." Gianna gives her a wide smile and claps her hands together.

"Let me shower and I'll be right back out to you," Abigail says after taking a steaming cup of coffee from Jackson.

"Okay, gentlemen, get out. We have work to do!" Gianna announces, anxious to get a start on everything. They all grab a few pastries and head out, Jackson gives me a quick kiss before Gianna shoos him out the door.

"I'll see you all this evening," Gianna says. It wasn't a question. "That is if it's okay to intrude on your hospitality for a little longer?" Gianna asks Jim.

"Of course, I love having you all here." He says genuinely. I was excited, not that today wouldn't be fun but I knew it would be a long day. Having something to look forward to this evening would make it easier.

Gianna wastes no time and sets out binders full of color swatches, pictures of table decorations, and a list of vendors. My eyes bulge, I didn't even know what half of this stuff was for. Gianna comes around and places her hand on my shoulder.

"It's okay, I emailed most of the vendors last night. I have some confirmed already, the ones that could pull something together last minute. They owe me a few favors anyways." She waves her hand at the pile of binders, "So we can narrow this down immensely and all you have to do is make a few simple choices, I'll handle the rest."

"Gianna, I can't let you do all of this alone."

"She has me, you make the choices we will do the busy work." Abigail comes in freshly showered, Gianna beams at her. I love that they are getting along so well.

"It is colder but I was hoping we could have it out back. We have most of the heaters that we need and we can rent the rest. Is that okay with you?" I nod, outside actually sounded so nice.

"So what we need from you is to let us know what kind of atmosphere you want. You can choose the colors, flowers, food, and then of course, your dress." Gianna passes a few papers over to me with way too many choices.

"I did have a Luna dress. Usually you wear white, but I'm afraid it might be a bit dated. You can see it but I'm not sure if we will have time to get it altered or changed to fit modern fashion." "I would love to see it."

Gianna smiles at me, "I'll have it brought over this afternoon with our lunch."

I look down at all the options. I didn't even realize there were so many kinds of flowers, or different variations of one color. I flip to a page of twenty-five different shades of silver.

I take a deep breath, "I honestly, don't know where to begin." I look at her, feeling completely overwhelmed.

"What is your favorite part about this pack? Besides my son, of course." She adds smiling.

"Besides you all, I love how safe and cozy this place is. Some of my favorite nights were spent right here in this cottage. It feels like a fairytale since I got here, well before that whole Jennifer thing." I can't help but say her name with malice.

"I guess it just feels like my own personal fairytale. I love this cottage especially, my library in the tower, and walking around the packgrounds looking at the mountains, I don't think I will ever get used to the sheer beauty of it all."

Gianna thinks for a second, "A fairytale, I can definitely work with that. Nothing too cliche of course. A cozy cottage fairytale. Hmm."

"What if we kept the colors simple? There is so much color already outside with the changing leaves?" Abigail suggests.

"That's brilliant, Abigail. The ceremony will start when it's still light out so we can really capture those colors, and then maybe after it gets dark we can bring lots of candles and fairy lights, maybe some outdoor fire pits? We can make it warm, cozy, but still elegant." "What do you think, dear?" Gianna turns to me.

"I love it," The more they talked about it the more excited I got, they were really trying to make it about me, for me, instead of throwing an over-the-top party as I expected.

We settled on neutral tones, cream tones that were almost white, with touches of silver. When Gianna put the samples together it clicked. It wasn't over the top at all, it would be elegant and simple enough. I could completely get behind this.

"Well, now that that's settled, that makes it easy sticking to a neutral pallet. Let's talk guest list." Gianna pulls out a long list that takes over five pages of the binder. My eyes pop out.

"Oh, don't worry dear, most of these are pack members. I like to send out official invitations. Oh, the invitations! Remind me about that and we can get those decided on to get sent out tomorrow. Of course, most of the pack will come, but I wasn't sure if you wanted to invite Alpha's from the packs nearby?" She turns to look at me.

"Is that was is normally done? I've never seen a Luna ceremony." I explain.

"Usually, yes, but we aren't really following tradition with this one. Two days' notice will be no time really, I think that we should extend the invitation and I can write a hand-written note to the Alpha's explaining the situation, vaguely, of course, I just don't want them to think they are afterthoughts."

I gulp, they probably wouldn't come anyways.

"Yes, I think that's a good idea, we don't want to get off on the wrong foot immediately."

"Alpha Benjamin and his Luna? I can't remember that t***s name, excuse my French." Gianna asks.

"I guess we have to. To keep the peace." I say, praying that they wouldn't come, even though they were less than an hour away.

We were able to pick out table arrangements easily, sticking to different heights of candles placed on raw wood blocks, with moss around them. Simple and fairytale-like.

"For the invitations here are a few I think might work with our theme." Gianna places five samples in front of me, I wondered not for the first time today where she kept pulling all these out of.

"How about this one?" I pick a simple, thick invitation with black writing in script, "It reminds me of a book."

"Ah, that is lovely. We have had it printed on cream paper to match." I nod.

"Alright, well, now that most of the decisions are out of the way, let's put this in action." Gianna divided tasks and she pulled out her laptop.

Abigail and she were on the phone all morning, Gianna added everything to a spreadsheet I couldn't make sense of.

She gave me the task of ordering the flowers and the candles and wrote down exactly what I had to order to make it easy. My task took a total of ten minutes, and the confirmation emails were already sent to Gianna and put on her spreadsheet. "Are you sure I can't do anything else?"

"Open this," She hands me a bottle of champagne and gets back to her phone call.

"No, cream, I understand the difference between white and cream. This is a slightly white cream, but not white. I don't want white it's too stark." Gianna goes on, pacing around the room.

Abigail hands me a book from the doctor's collection and grabs some glasses.

"Ah, thank you." Gianna takes a glass from Abigail, "Isla, your job is to relax, you've been through enough for a lifetime and you made the important decisions. Go start yourself a fire and drink this. I'll let you know when we need your input." She leads me to one of the oversized chairs by the fireplace.

I felt guilty but I knew that Gianna was loving this, and it would give time for both of them to bond and talk without me there. Well, I was a few feet away but still.

I lit the fire that was already set up in the fireplace and sat down on a chair by the closest window. I took a sip of the champagne and looked out the window watching the leaves fall slowly down around the cottage. I opened the book and immediately got swept into

it.

"Isla?" Gianna comes up to me and I was shaken from the world of my book back to reality, "Lunch is here, and my Luna dress if you want to try it on."

"Of course, thank you." I set the book down and stretch my muscles, lunch already? "Is there anything I can help with?"

"We have contacted most everyone we needed to, and found suitable replacements for those that couldn't accommodate a rush order. The invitations are already being printed and sent out as we speak, we omitted your name for obvious reasons." I nod, taking a sandwich from a spread, enough to feed ten people, on a silver platter. When Gianna does anything she goes all out.

"I was hoping you would let me borrow Abigial tomorrow?" Abigail looks at Gianna curiously. "I wanted to go shopping for a new dress. William and I will be there supporting Jackson, of course, and you darling. Abigail should be there supporting you. So, obviously new dresses are in order, and I would like to coordinate." Abigail beams at her.

"Is that okay, do you want me up there with you?" Abigail asks me.

"Of course I want you up there! Can Jim be there too?" I ask Gianna. Abigail's eyes well up at this.

"I think that's a lovely idea. I'll arrange the suits for the men. They will just need a fitting tomorrow, everything is coming together perfectly."

After we eat, she hands me a large white box. I carefully open it and move the paper away revealing a floor-length white silk dress with long sleeves. It was elegant and simple. The back had small pearl buttons. It was form-fitting with the slightest flair at the bottom and had a sewn cinch around the waist, nothing like I expected. I was thinking of a puffy white gown or something equally as horrendous, but I should have known Gianna's taste was timeless.

I pulled it out running my fingers across the cool fabric. I loved it. It had a vintage classic feel, perfect for a fairytale ceremony.

"Of course, if we had time we could scrap it and have something else made from the silk." She muses, "Not much we can do with it now, unfortunately."

"Do we have time for a quick hem?" I hold it up to me, Gianna is a few inches taller even without the heels she always wears, I would trip trying to wear this.

She looks at me confused, "I love it, I want to wear it. If you don't mind me taking it up a bit, I'll try it on now but it looks to be my size." I head to the guestroom and slip it on. It fit almost perfectly, besides the extra few inches of fabric that billowed out onto the floor. I love the feeling of it.

The sleeves had a little loop on them that I didn't notice before and I realized it must go on my middle fingers. I slipped the loop over them and surprisingly liked that the fabric came to a point across the back of my hands.

"Abigail?" I called, she came rushing in and took one look at me about to cry, "I'm not getting married." I laugh, "It's just a dress, I could use help with the buttons though." When she finishes the last button and I look at myself in the mirror, I loved what I saw. I couldn't wait to show Gianna.

I stepped out of the room and Gianna's eyes went wide and started to fill with tears.

"What is it with everyone crying today?" I try to lighten the mood.

"Isla, you look, wow, you look absolutely stunning. Better than I ever did in that dress. It suits you perfectly." She gushes twirling me around, "I see what you mean about the hem, I will have someone come this evening to take your measurements and start working on the dress."

"She's right," Abigail comes to stand next to her, "This dress is perfect for you. You look like you belong in some elfish woods in the 20s." She states.

"That is exactly the atmosphere I'm going for." I laugh.

Gianna wipes her tears away and looks at me with such adoration it made my heart feel like it would explode.

(Jackson)

I didn't want to leave Isla so soon after I officially got her back, but I knew she was in good hands with my Mom and, if nothing else, she would be well fed today.

I had to admit I enjoyed staying with the doctor, it felt like a little vacation away from everything even though he was a few steps from the packhouse. But, I couldn't wait to get Isla back into our room.

After training, I had Cam and Lucas and my dad meet me in my office. My dad normally wouldn't be a part of these meetings, but he was the one that discovered Jennifer's plan and I knew he was secretly loving being back in on the action again.

"Let's get to business then, boys." I start off, "Cam, this is your area." I leave the meeting open to him.

"All we could get was a grainy photo and a basic description. Light brown hair, brown eyes, a bit over 6 feet. There were no distinguishing features."

"He could be from anywhere." Lucas sighs,

"Yes," Cam goes on, "He could be, but I know what I'm looking for."

"What did you replace out?"

"He's from the Blue Ridge pack." Cam says confidently, "Ran the plates, already sent the description to the Gamma there."

"Well done," I shouldn't have been as impressed as I was, Cam was always ahead of things when it came to security, "I want to increase our gate security, as well," I add.

"Great, I have a few ideas."

We spend the next hour going over his ideas in detail and we all decided on increased security measures. Cam wanted to set up a facial recognition system for members of the pack eventually, but that would take time.

At the moment we would install better cameras and make everyone that drove in have a photo ID.

We didn't want to go too overboard as most of the people that visited were neighboring ranked members, but increasing safety was of the utmost importance for our pack.

"Great, I'll brief the team on the changes this afternoon and do some research on the best cameras." He says excitedly.

"Knock knock." The door flings open.

My face tightens before I pull it into a smile. Lucas and Cam don't have to even look behind them to know who it is.

"Hello, Jennifer." My dad says politely but lacking warmth, "Come here and sit down, you must be tired."

"William, It's so nice to see you thank you." She takes his arm for support and plops herself on the couch, surveying Cam and Lucas. "I was hoping to talk to Jackson alone." She sounds annoyed.

"We were finishing up a meeting," I say.

"I'll come back when you're free then." She makes a move to sit up, I didn't want to have a long conversation with her I knew I would blow it, it was taking everything in my power to not lose it right now.

"Wait, how about you guys take a break, I'll meet you downstairs for lunch in ten," I say, establishing a time limit so I could get this over with.

"Yes, boss." Lucas salutes me as Cam follows him out. My dad gives her a tight smile.

"We have a lot to cover today, son. Try to make it quick." I nod, thankful for him for legitimizing my excuse.

When the door shuts she pats the seat next to her, "Come sit, baby." I reluctantly get up and take a seat on the couch a foot away from her. "I was waiting for you all night." She pouts.

"I'm sorry, some pack things came up." I give her a vague excuse.

"You know I told you I would help with those." I try to smile at her.

"And I told you that your job was to relax until the- our baby boy gets here."

"It's so boring just sitting around without you, I want to help. You know how much of an asset I'll be to this pack, to you." She looks up at me through her lashes. Was she trying to be seductive?

"I'm aware, I just want to make sure everything goes right." She grabs my hand and I freeze, I hope she didn't notice that.

"I need help today too, there are so many boxes to move and the painters haven't even started. I haven't even seen them yet." She rolls her eyes.

"I told your dad I would help him move the rest once the paint was done. They should be here today or tomorrow. Once they start painting, I really don't want you up here." I could probably get the guest rooms painted anyways. I might as well if it gets her out of my

hair.

"But I'm so lonely. Where will I stay?"

"Where you have been staying before."

"I was waiting for you in your room." She licks her lips. The f**k. "Why didn't you come back?"

"Uh - I ended up falling asleep on the couch in the rec room."

She scrunches her face, "Weird, I didn't see you there when I went looking." The Luna ceremony couldn't come soon enough, not just to make Isla my Luna officially but to get her out of my hair. I can't believe she could be this naive.

"Can we just take a room on the second floor? We can kick out that old omega now that her friend is gone and we can have it to ourselves while the rooms up here are painted." I fought a possessive growl when she mentioned Abigail.

"I'll get you a room down there, but I have work to attend to for the next few days. I won't be around much. Link me if you need something." I hope I didn't sound too harsh.

"I brought something for you." She pulls out a square box from her purse wrapped in light blue wrapping paper. I take it from her and rip open the edges of the paper.

It's a dark blue frame with the picture of the baby bean child in it. She looks at me expectantly.

"This is great, thank you." I turn away from her to put it on my desk so I don't have to fake enthusiasm. To my dismay, she walks up behind me and links her arms around my waist.

"He looks perfect there." She whispers,

"Mhm." I unlink her arms and turn to face her, "Now I really do have to be going, I'm sorry. But the next few days will be crazy. I'll have a new room set up for you on the second floor, pack a small bag of things." I squeeze her arms and let them go, hoping that came across as a loving gesture. She looks slightly confused,

"Everything will be perfect, just give me a few days." I smile at her genuinely this time thinking of Isla's Luna ceremony.

(Jennifer)

Jackson not showing up last night was a disappointment. I thought we would hook up and then we would be back to normal. He accepted me as soon as he found out the baby was his. I knew he would take any excuse to leave that pathetic street dog.

He seemed a bit cold when I showed up at his office, but the picture of our baby cheered him up just like I thought it would. The future Alpha I was carrying, I almost couldn't believe this was happening. Well, I could, I made it happen.

A Luna has to have determination, unlike that spineless b***h. The Moon Goddess was obviously wrong about not pairing us together. Both of our mates being omegas was an obvious mistake. One that I had to rectify.

"Everything will be perfect, just give me a few days." Jackson smiles widely down at me, the smile that used to belong to me back. That gave me some relief.

"Okay, I miss you." He kisses my forehead and I feel butterflies, not exactly the same as the mate spark, but these were better.

These butterflies indicated that my place was secure, that I was on my way to becoming Luna of this pack and my son was already the future Alpha. Jenn, there's something you need to see

What mom?

Come here.

I follow Jackson out of the office and he leads me to the elevator.

"I'll link you when the room is ready. Let me know if you need anything." He turns away from me. Goddess, I can't wait to have more kids with him. I open my parent's door annoyed.

"Yes, Mom. What is it now?" I flop on the couch, she needed me for every incessant detail of the baby's nursery.

"I just got this." She throws something on my lap, a thick envelope, "Why didn't you tell me arms" She crosses her arm looking genuinely pissed. "Tell you what, Mom?" I sigh, tugging open the envelope. Was it a cousin getting married that I forgot to mention or some other bullshit? I pull out a thick cream card with an old-timely-looking script on it. What is this the f*****g 20s?

William and Gianna Black

Request the presence of you and your family to join their son Alpha Jackson William Black of The Moonstone Pack in welcoming his new Luna.