Dead Luna
Chapter 67

Amelia's POV

I'm disappointed that Ambrosia hasn't woken up for the entire day. It puts me an entire day and a half behind schedule, for one thing. And I missed her sassy attitude and snarky remarks.

Plus it was rather boring. I'm used to always being busy doing something. This pack had no real use for my talents outside of matching the few amenable pack members with their mates. They didn't have any gardens for me to stroll around. Their rec center was ill equipped, mainly set up for teenagers with air hockey, pinball machines, and play consoles. They had a small library, but I didn't see anything there that I hadn't read that seemed interesting to me, after a quick glance through a couple volumes.

Glen finally suggested shopping. I'm not really a fan of shopping, but I suppose I would soon need a more extensive wardrobe including more formal wear than my typical casual style. We drove to the nearest town of Toppenish. There aren't very many dress shops, as it's really a medium sized town in an area where farming is the major industry, but we managed to replace one shop with a reasonable sized selection of formal wear.

I replace a lovely cream color pantsuit, a flowy sage green sleeveless dress that falls just above my knees, and a close fitting little black dress with a contrasting white collar. Glen seems to want me to purchase even more, since once the announcement is made that I am the alpha king's daughter and heir, I will be in the spotlight. But he also says that I will probably have a personal stylist to help me put together the right "look", and whatever I'm buying today might not fit with that imagine. Which honestly kind of alarms me. "Why cant I just be me?" I whine.

"Of course you'll still be you!" Glen tries to reassure me. "But you ARE the daughter of the king, and his heir. So you'll be you, but we will try to show the kingdom the best version of you that we can! It instills confidence to our entire kingdom if our leaders show up with their best foot forward. We need to show the world that you are strong, confident, and worthy to lead. Showing up with messy hair and wearing ripped jeans would give the wrong impression, don't you think?"

I look down at the ripped jeans I'm wearing. And I recollect that I put my hair up in a messy bun this morning. I don't recall ever seeing Luna Veronica or Luna Francine ever looking anything but elegant. Even Leo's mom Deirdre, as the Gamma female of the pack, always had an air of respectability and confidence about her. Leo had mentioned more than once that I would need to work on my image before he took over as Winter Moon's Gamma. I thought he was being a bit of a jerk at the time, but perhaps he had actually meant well. Especially considering that my background at the time seemed less than ideal. Having a mate who was a bit of a hot mess didn't inspire confidence that he would take good care of the packs precious Luna.

"I suppose you're right," I agree, sadly. Hopefully whatever stylist I'm paired up with will be accommodating to my own tastes, rather than dictatorial like Luna Veronica had been. I may need a little bit of polishing, but I don't think I need a complete makeover. We were heading back to the pack when I felt Ambrosia in my head, briefly. It was like she lifted her head, took a brief look around, yawned, then rolled over and went back to sleep.

Ambrosia? Are you waking up?

Five more minutes, mom. And then nothing again. But hopefully this means she would be awake soon, and I can get back to my task.

Ambrosia still hadn't awoken by the time I went to bed that night, but the next morning just before 5 am I felt as if she was running laps in my head, and demanding to know what happened. As expected, she had a lot of choice words about what she would like to do to the assholes that had drugged and attempted to kidnapped us. She even mentioned castration by chopping off their testicles with a rusty knife as a potential punishment.

I decided it was time to get out of bed by that point, and put her excess energy to good use. I was going to knock on Glen and Jackson's door, but it opened just before I could. I suggest we get in some training before breakfast, and to let the pack know that appointments with Ambrosia would happen between 7:30 and 9:30. If all went well, we'd be on the road by 10 or 11 am to the Wenatchee pack.

With the help of Ambrosia, I was quicker and more accurate than I had been during training the previous day. I was better able to overcome Jackson, who was still trying to treat me like a delicate little flower.

"Come on, Jackson!" I shout at him, "you're acting like I'm still a green sixteen year old! Attack me like you mean it!"

And then he let me get in under his guard once again. Ambrosia wasn't going to stand for this nonsense, she wanted to whoop some a*s! I called Glen over, and began sparring with him, using a version of human style kickboxing, which I had taken a few classes in on my days off from waitressing. That, and yoga, had been my main form of exercise on the few nights that I had off. I was hardly an expert, but with my added Lycan strength and speed, the little bit I could recall was helping me along. Glen was still larger and quicker, with far more years of training than I'd been alive, but I could tell he was pleased with my progress.

We sparred for an hour before we hit the showers. Then I raced to get dressed, grab some breakfast, and replace the location where I was going to host the appointments. As I had done once before, I had 5 wolves come in at time, every half hour.

The first fives wolves went well, 2 of them had mates within the pack that were too young, 2 I was sure had mates that they would likely meet at the mating ball, and one has a mate residing in a non alliance pack near a town in the tri-cities.

The second group would all replace mates at the mating ball. The final group was 6 wolves, of which 5 had mates they would replace at the ball, and one had a mate that was too young and also from another pack in Idaho. I was grabbing my few possessions in order to leave, when another group of 5 arrived. Apparently word had got around about my morning appointments, and had thus generated more interest.

So I saw these wolves, and afterwards I saw 4 more, before I was able to finally leave.

It was nearly lunch time and I was debating whether to stay longer, until Glen says he knows of the perfect place for lunch. So we load the luggage and get underway, and within a short time we arrive in a small town near Yakima called Union Gap. There is a local drive in that has the most amazing and huge hamburgers. Glen orders us each one ultimate burger with cheese, and one large fry for us to share. At first I was disappointed that I would have to share one fry, until I saw the size of the burgers and the large fry. Despite my larger appetite lately, this burger was filing as well as one of the tastiest burgers I've had in my life, and the large fry was more than plenty to share.

Then we drove the rest of the way to Wenatchee pack, arriving mid afternoon, to a bit of a commotion. Apparently a helicopter as well as a huge limousine had arrived just before we did. And I had a bit of a sinking feeling about it having to do with the extra potential mates that my father the Alpha King had decided to add, despite my cautioning him not to.

So after being greeted by Alpha Nathan and Luna Andrea of the Wenatchee pack, I was introduced to Prince William Worthing, who was a cousin of my father and his current known heir, and also to King Henry Jordanne of Rising Moon pack, which I'm told is a huge kingdom that encompasses about 1/3 of Canada and parts of Alaska. I don't know how I was going to avoid the news of this getting out, but apparently the story that the Alpha and Luna had been told was they were here to consult with Ambrosia since they were in need of mates, and they had heard of the success that King Alexander had.

In fact, since that is the official story, I decide to play it just like that. After some light refreshments, I sit down with King Henry and have Ambrosia come forward to have a look at him.

The king looks very debonair. His dark hair is shot thru with just a touch of grey around the temples, and he has kind blue eyes. From Ambrosia's research I know he is 36 years old. And she also knows he has a mate waiting for him already.

"You need to get yourself to the Yukon pack," Ambrosia tells him. "Your mate is the half sister of Alpha Damian."

King Henry is astonished to hear this, and immediately leaves after giving his heartfelt thanks. Within a quarter of an hour his helicopter was taking off and heading due north.

Then it was Prince William Arthur Worthing's turn.