5 A Moment of Peace

————- ♔ ————-Five

♔ Eustacia (P.O.V)

Six years ago Rushing Rivers packhouse.

"Eustacia!" The voice yells at me. "Eustacia!" The voice, a man who I recognize to be my father's yells at me again.

"What," I grumble with my face still in my pillow.

"Princess Stacy come on!" My father yells impatiently.

Mumbling nonsense words as I roll over off my queen size bed that's littered with downy pillows. "Coming Pa!" I shout a minuscule amount of annoyance lacing my words. Yawning and stretching at the same time as I make my way across my modest room to my vanity mirror to get ready. Sitting down on the small white Lark Manor Letellier Vanity Stool that sits carefully lined with my Ivory Frenchi Home Furnishing vanity. The vanity has an oval mirror and a smooth desk surface and a small rectangular storage drawer on the front of the desk. Looking at my appearance in the mirror, it makes me feel self-conscience, my heart-shaped face and my plump lips illuminated by my unusually vivid blue eyes. Although I don't have blemishes because of my werewolf blood my face always has a red tint to it, as I'm always bullied by other kids who refer to me as tomato so now I try to conceal it up. As a sixteen-year-old it wasn't easy to convince my father to permit me to possess the items I do, but somehow I did. Looking closer at my image, I notice I'm the basic teenager thin hourglass figure and relatively short at a whopping 5'6.''

"'Kay Princess I'll be in the truck. Hurry up!"

Getting out of my thoughts I begin working on my makeup. Using my purple Beauty-blender Cosmetic Sponge I dab some fair foundation on my face working from the middle of my face outwards also addressing my eyes to make for an even coverage. Carefully addressing spots that need attention with a light-weight fair colored concealer so I don't use more than I need. Conclusively, I apply a luminous powder to reduce the shine dusting it on in a W orientation. Starting at my hairline on my left side, swooping down to my cheekbone, up to the bridge of my nose, back down my other cheek, then back up again to the right side of my hairline. Applying some simple eyeliner and working on a purple-white Ombre lip style. The purple lining the outside and the white filling it in I bounce off to my closet and browse its contents.

Although I like my makeup, I'm not one for fancy clothing my arsenal of fabrics includes only jeans, sweats, pajamas and various types of t-shirts. Nibbling my lip as I quickly decide on what to wear I immediately grab my white ripped Wisptime skinny jeans and pair it with my Black Cold Shoulder Bell Sleeves Ribbed Knit Top. Throwing on my clothing and leaving my raven long black hair that falls to the middle of my back down I slide my feet into some white tennis shoes and sprint down the stairs, into the living room and out the front door to the truck my father is waiting in.

My father's eyebrows turn into a scowl as he begins speaking, " we're supposed to meet the neighboring pack this morning. They're having trouble with rogue attacks and as my daughter, you're coming with me to observe the alpha way. You will, after all, be turning sixteen in a month, so you'll be shifting soon. Even though you won't be an alpha male, you will more than likely be a Luna and I'm not going to raise a naïve daughter."

"Oh," I say modestly. My father's right next month, December, I'll be turning sixteen and shifting for me is inevitable. Although he pampers me since my Ma is gone he still is grounding it into my head that I have to be a capable and independent woman.

My father starts the engine and starts driving toward our neighboring pack.

Fourty Minutes Later

After arriving at our neighboring pack's edge of their territory my father's eyes glaze over indicating he's in the pack link. Sitting in my seat of the car waiting for my father to tell me when to get out I play a matching game on my phone.

My father carefully grasps me by the cheeks to bring my eyes level with his. "Eustacia, this is very important. Stay in this truck with the doors locked and your head down."

"What's going on?"

"Just do as you're told." He growls at me softly warning me to obey.

Wanting to know more but not wanting to vex my father I soberly reply, "Yes, Pa." My father gives me a kiss on the forehead and gets out of the truck. Only do I realize something is terribly wrong when he immediately shifts into his solid black wolf, letting his clothing rip to shreds and zips off into the direction of the neighboring packhouse. Doing as I'm told I sit in the truck with the doors locked and my head crouched down. The feeling of being useless at a time like this is overwhelming.

I sit like this for what seems like forever, but in reality is most likely twenty minutes, when all of a sudden BAM! The entire truck shakes and groans as it shifts back into its sitting position, a small scream escaping my lips. Shaking with fright as to what has rammed into the truck I peak my head over the window and see two wolves fighting. One I recognize as my father, his big black wolf fighting with a gray smaller wolf. By the faint smell my undeveloped senses are picking up he must be a rogue. My father's fur is matted with blood possibly his own and other victims, baring his fangs he latches onto the back of the gray wolf's neck. The gray wolf flailing his body around like a fish out of water is able to shake my father's grip loose and latches onto my father's exposed stomach resulting in blood to begin oozing out of the wound. As a loud ear piercing scream fills the air from my father's wolf he grabs onto the gray wolf's throat and begins flailing wildly, breaking the rogue's neck. My weakened father looks back at me with his dull eyes and falls against the ground going motionless as he goes into shock from the blood loss.

End of Flashback

Grumbling as my alarm wakes me up from my nightmare I groggily get up and proceed to head out my door before being stopped by a familiar face, Gedeon.

"What can I do for you, Beta Gedeon?" I ask bowing my head in respect, I am, after all, nothing but a lowly servant now so I must speak to my superiors with titles.

"Good evenin' miss Eustacia Van. Alpha Flynn has a request for you." My stomach immediately drops at that bastard's name. He's the reason why I'm in this mess. Keeping my head bowed I brace myself for whatever it is he is about to say next. "He wants you to organize and clean the house today for his and miss Emma's courting ceremony. "Courting ceremony? Alpha Flynn is having Emma become the pack's Luna? Well, guess now I'm fucked.

Elevating my head, I beam a bland smile and politely respond to him, "yes Beta Gedeon inform Alpha Flynn I will get to it at once."

♔ Gedeon (P.O.V)

Reaching the sad excuse for a room she has to endure, Gedeon puts his hand to the door but before he can even knock the door is opened. Thankfully the door opens inwards or he would've been hit with the door. The culprit to opening the door is Eustacia a look of recognition flashed across her face and she promptly bows her head.

"What can I do for you, Beta Gedeon?" She promptly asks.

The fact the previous Alpha's daughter is bowing her head to him slightly upsets his stomach, and he wants to tell her to stop. However, he bites his tongue simply because his Alpha now would not like that fact. So quickly he states why he is there, "Good evenin' miss Eustacia Van. Alpha Flynn has a request for you. He wants you to organize and clean the house today for his and miss Emma's courting ceremony. "

She lifts her head and smiles, "yes Beta Gedeon inform Alpha Flynn I will get to it at once."

After delivering the orders to Eustacia, Gedeon takes his precious time getting back to Flynn's office. Flynn is an unstable time bomb and its only a matter of time before he explodes. Sadly being his second in command means he has to be around his bomb-ish personality often. It's almost like stepping on eggshells around him.

To the outside world, Gedeon who is a 6'5'' towering brute that always has his short black hair sleeked back and the constant resting bitch face could, and would, destroy Flynn in a fight. Flynn is, after all, a 6-foot stout guy who constantly has his medium-length brown hair covered by the bland black beanie he constantly sports. He simply just seems like a poor match against Gedeon. However, there is just one problem with that. Flynn has alpha blood from his mother's side and Gedeon does not. Although Gedeon is one of the strongest in the pack ranking system because of the Beta blood that runs through his veins, Flynn's strength surpasses him, and if a fight were to take place they would have to do so in wolf form, and that in itself causes a different problem. The strength difference is a problem but an Alpha's wolf is the biggest size of them all so Gideon's slightly above average sized wolf would still face a size difference. Sure all of that adds to the reasons Flynn would win, but the matter of fact is that Flynn is simply a ruthless bastard.

Gedeon silently shakes his head clearing his thoughts and makes his way to his room. Luckily not having to go far since Eustacia's stairs lead directly to his level in the house, the top floor.

As he opens the door to his room he's greeted by a woman, "Gedeon." The woman smiles when she sees him and the room instantly has a lighter feeling to it.

"Leah," Gedeon picks the small 5'6'' woman up and holds her close in a warm embrace and inhales deeply. "I love you." The warmth mixed with the electricity from holding his mate no doubt coursing through his body. Nuzzling his face into her blonde hair that is cut into a medium length bob cut, he slowly kisses their mate mark. The beautiful indigo tattoo-like markings form the shape of two wolves howling together in a moon. Which is barely covering the scar the canine-like bite to create the mark caused. Finished by small lines trail around the bottom of the moon carefully forming into the capital letters L and G.

"I love you too." Leah hugs him tightly and begins using their mate bond so no one else can hear them. After all the walls have ears. "What's wrong my love?"

Gedeon wasn't surprised that she knew something was bothering him. After all, they are mates so she knows everything he feels, even more so when they're together. "Flynn has decided to take the forgotten as his luna." The shock rushed through his body as he felt her reaction to it.

"He's taking Emma as his mate when he has a mate out there." It wasn't a question it was a statement, one filled with anger and pity. "Not to mention her attitude let alone the fact she's an omega. Gedeon you know I didn't want to stay after he started treating Stacy the way he did, I would've left the pack after I turned eighteen. Except I found out you were my mate when I went to tell you I was leaving." Pausing she hugs him tighter, " Gedeon if he goes through with this I'm leaving. I won't be a beta to that whore."

She's right if Emma becomes the luna she'll be forced to be her beta. The male beta normally helps the alpha while the female helps the luna. It's simply easier for them not to clash that way. Speaking up as he softly sits her back on the floor, "I'll see you later honey, we'll talk then." He smiles at her and kisses her before heading back to Flynn's office.