As my father named me the new Alpha, bowing ever so slightly to honor my new position as pack leader, my wolf growled with gratification. I was the Alpha of Starsmoon.
I turned to survey my pack from the stage, and a wave of applause erupted from the crowd. The happy, smiling faces looking up at me made my beast rumble again. I felt a surge of protectiveness steal through me as I contemplated them. I would always do what was right for them. I felt that certainty sink into my bones and settle into my marrow.
My pack. As my gaze wandered the crowd, they tracked over the faces and forms in search of what would complete my ascension to Alphahood. When my eyes eventually stopped on Cherry's form, draped in a soft pink dress, the color of cherry blossoms, I thought with fondness, and my wolf rumbled with want. Anger bristled in me, too, as I noticed she'd positioned herself at the back of the room as if she wasn't important. Well, soon, I resolved with renewed confidence, she wouldn't be anywhere but in the place of honor: at my side.
My father gestured to the pack, inviting them all to be seated again. As I admired Cherry's pale heart-shaped face, the porcelain skin of her shoulders and arms, my wolf's hunger grew, and I knew with certainty that my love for her wasn't something I could fight anymore. It was something that I was meant to submit to. The only thing as Alpha that I ever intended to submit to from now on.
My father's voice reverberated from beside me on the stage, "After the joyful ascension of my son to Alpha, I am happy to announce that he will shortly be marrying his mate, Lucy, and the Starsmoon Pack will once more be carried into the future under the protection of an Alpha and Luna."
I felt my wolf seize control of me. Since being named Alpha, it has dominated me even more. And it knew what was best for me. And for the pack. On an instinctual level, it understood what we needed. Lucy might be the daughter of an Alpha, and her bloodline, the ability to produce a powerful heir, but she wasn't my mate. The pack would only be truly strong if we followed the true will of Nuu-Chah. As Alpha, the Moon God's guidance had cut through my uncertainty as surely as a full moon through the darkness. I suddenly understood how vital it was that I sated my wolf and me. My pack and I would only be strong if I claimed the mate and Luna I'd always been destined to have.
Cherry.
My shoulders stiffened as I turned to my father. "My relationship with Lucy is unstable. We need to talk about the future Luna of the pack more, Father," I declared, a new level of confidence coating my every word. I was the Alpha of Starsmoon. My father had to yield to my command now.