Page 74 of Luna: Posy 2

Nothing like this had ever happened before in our recorded family history.

I was a glitch. A dud. A botch. A defect.

My family worked hard to convince me otherwise, but I knew the truth.

To make it up to them, I decided to become the flock's protector. I learned anything anyone was willing to teach me, studied languages and ancient texts, and became an expert in as many forms of combat as I could. I lived in the gym the rest of my time, hardening and strengthening my body and taking my cardio to the next level.

When there was no one left in the flock to teach me anything, I sought out others, in both supernatural and human communities, and trained with them. Guns of all kinds, swords, knives, fists, teeth, feet - I learned to fight with anything and everything.

My plan was going fine until I realized I liked guys more than girls. I'd never really paid attention to girls, too busy with everything I wanted to accomplish, but hormones kicked in eventually. For about a year, I wrestled with the decision to come out. Some of the older members of the family were very traditional, and I feared they might see it as yet another defect in Angelo Joseph del Vecchio's faulty wiring.

After the sickness swept through our flock, I was suddenly alone with four little witches looking up at me with devastated eyes. Expressing my sexual preferences dropped right to the bottom of my priority list. There was no one left to come out to, anyway.

As the girls got older, they teased me about finding a mate, and I told them it wasn't going to happen. A couple of years ago, Ariel and Sara ganged up on me and demanded to know why I thought I wouldn't have a mate, and I made up some lame-ass excuse that neither a shifter nor a witch would want someone who might give them 'normal' babies.

They'd let up after that, for which I was grateful, but I sometimes caught them staring at me with knowing eyes.

Freaking witches.

I was brought out of my depressing thoughts when the new arrivals began to move forward. One fire-haired girl broke away from the massive man she was walking with and sprinted ahead. She was breathtakingly beautiful, and I wasn't surprised when Julian caught her in a bear hug and swung her around and around.

It's good to be the king,I smirked to myself.

Since my littlestreghe(witches) ditched me, I was left to the process of elimination to find my mate.

I let my eyes go first to the guy who'd been walking with the queen. Honestly, he was gorgeous, but the dude's dominance echoed in every long stride. When Gisela collided with him and he let her tackle him down to the grass, I breathed a sigh of relief and stopped watching.

Good. Being submissive is not in my nature.

Looking around, I saw a blond kid. He was a real cutie, no doubt, but he wasyoung. I didn't think he was even eighteen yet, but knew he was a Five Fangs betas. Maybe he just had a baby face? Regardless, I hoped it wasn't him.

I may be a glitch, but I ain't into that daddy's baby boy kink.

A field of blue fabric blocked my gaze. Shocked, I realized I'd been so fixated on finding my mate that I hadn't even noticed this guy's approach. Yet here he stood, a foot in front of me, his wide shoulders level with my eyes - and I wasnota short guy.

Careless, Gelo, and careless can get you killed.

Irritated with myself, treacherous hope, and everything else now, I grabbed the dude's arm, intent on shoving him aside so I could find mypiccoli uccelli(little birds) andmakethem tell me who my mate was.

"Can you please move your giant carcass?" I growled. "I want to—"

Tingles in my fingertips turned to sparks that spread up my arm. Slowly, I turned my eyes to where my hand gripped his hard bicep.

"Find."

The sparks weren't going away. If anything, they were getting stronger.

"My."

My eyes traveled up his arm to his shoulder, then the base of his throat.

"Mate."

Looking up at his face, I fell into a pair of dark brown eyes.

"So, uh, you're Emerson, my mate. No, I mean, I'm Emerson, my mate. No, sorry,you'remy mate. So, ah, yeah." His thick eyelashes fanned down for a moment, then he opened his eyes and tried again. "Um, hi?"

Oh, yeah.A smile spread across my face as pink streaked across his.This one is mine. All mine and mine alone.

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