Page 36 of Luna: Posy 2

Then Coal flooded her with power. Despite having alpha blood, I didn't have a pack behind me. If her own wolf was drained down to nothing, I worried Coal and I wouldn't have enough in us to save her.

My big brother, though, had an entire kingdom to draw on. I linked him for help - and Onyx sent it. The holy trinity of power zipped through me and into her, and she jerked as her wounds healed and her bones knit back together.

"Oh, Iwillbe your first and last kiss, treasure," I assured her, "but there will be at least a million more in between."

10: Those Left Behind

Posy

The day my mates left, the betas stayed, along with Peri and Ariel, Tristan's mate. They kept me busy and distracted.

The queen and Luke went over to the medical center to visit with their cousins, who were steadily improving. They were all very worried about the twins' little sister, Junia, who was Queen Lilah's best friend. All anyone knew was that Alpha Halder had taken her after leaving Zayne and Zayden to be savaged by his minions.

Since Luke and the queen were still members of Jayden's Moonset pack, Crew could link them, and they gave him updates that he shared with us throughout the day. If the twins continued to get better, it looked like they could be released as early as tomorrow morning.

Thatwas going to cause all kinds of problems. Zayne and Zayden were determined to return to Tall Pines and find Junia, and the queen wanted them safe here at Five Fangs while the king handled it.

I wanted to meet them, but I didn't want to get involved in the family drama, so I held back on asking one of the betas to take me over there.

Getting to know Ariel was fun, and she and Peri taught me how to do nails. I was okay with the filing and trimming, but was too nervous to try painting them until Emerson offered to let me practice on him first.

"It's just nail polish, little luna bunny," he said. "If you mess up, we use the remover and try again."

I got them looking fairly decent in the end. He actually liked the color and wouldn't let me take it off when I finished.

"Next time, we'll try decals," Ariel promised.

When she saw I didn't know what that meant, she borrowed Tristan's phone and googled some pictures to show me. I loved them. There were so many choices, anything you could imagine, and I pointed out a few designs I liked.

Next, she showed me acrylic nail styles, but I didn't like them at all. I decided I'd stick to my natural ones, but I did want to try the decals.

I can't mess those up too much, I told myself.They're basically stickers.

Peri convinced me to order the ones I liked, even though I told her I didn't know how to pay for them. I had the cash I'd won in our bet the other day, but how did you use that to pay online?

In the end, Tristan bought everything we put in the shopping cart, despite my protests.

"It's only twenty bucks." When I opened my mouth again, he shook his head and smiled. "Let me spoil you and my mate a little bit, luna."

I shook my head, ran upstairs, peeled a twenty off my betting money, and took it down to him.

"Luna—"

"Please, Tristan."

"No. I won't take it. Put it away."

"Luna," Ariel intervened, "could I borrow some of your clothes until I can arrange to get my own things? I'll pay you twenty dollars for the loan."

"Oh, you don't have to pay for anything. I have a ton of new stuff, way more than I need, and I'm happy to help—"

"And that's how Tristan feels right now." She gave me a gentle smile and made me take back the money.

I fiddled with it for a moment, then nodded and took her and Peri up to "shop" in my closet.

Which was a brilliant move because it gave Peri and me the privacy to find out how Ariel got tangled up with Alpha Halder.

"Bird shifters were hit very hard by the sickness," she began as we sat on my closet floor. "Of my whole flock, only my little sister, three cousins, and I survived. My eldest cousin was eighteen and took custody of the rest of us. We've lived together ever since."

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