Filed to story: In the Shadow of the Past Luna (Lily & James)
wanted, Damon sent me two visuals: one was of my mother crying her eyes out when I was five years
I old; the other was of Charlotte, with light somehow reflecting off of her strawberry blond hair and her, beautiful face.
It was a sh&t move by Damon, but I guess I am glad he did it. I immediately cancelled the order and hung up. My moral compass may be broken, but I still have limits. I knew that I did not want Charlotte to experience the betrayal pains like my mother used to.
Sadly, my moral high ground meant that it was on me to rub one out. Not only that night, but the next couple of days as well.
By day three, I was getting frustrated. My hand was not nearly as good at getting me off as the feeling of a warm, wet pu ssy, and meeting my mate had me thinking of sex more often than normal.
I knew that I needed to find Charlotte and reject her so that I could get back to life as normal. I just hoped that she was still in town somewhere.
Then, to my complete shock, finding Charlotte became especially important when I received an unexpected but very lucrative assignment on the night of the grand opening: My customer wanted me to find a missing she-wolf. One that Charlotte seemed to know quite well.
(Derek POV)
I already mentioned that I take on side jobs. Almost all human celebrities do; that is where the real money comes from. The most common side hustle is to endorse products and film commercials, but I find most commercials demeaning, and I legit could care less about what brand of soap some f&&ing human wants to use.
After trying-and failing to fake my way through a few bullsh&t commercials, I discovered almost by accident that I was uniquely qualified for a very different type of side hustle. Even better, it pays a ton better than commercials.
Specifically, desperate wolves from around the world pay me big money to travel around human territories, enter populated areas, and locate missing (or hiding) werewolves.
Here is why it makes sense, and why I am uniquely qualified: Werewolves are inherently social creatures, and while in human territories, our subconscious tends to draw us to any other wolves that may be nearby. Given that subconscious draw and the fact that I typically go to 5-10 different cities a week for various public events and races, I have good luck just accidentally running into wolves.
Just as importantly, as a celebrity, I am considered by most to be “non-threatening.”
It is amazing the amount of information that people will voluntarily give me about themselves and others around them without a second thought. I once even had a mother give me her adult daughter’s phone and phone password within ten minutes of meeting her.
Generally speaking. I can generally locate a missing/ hiding wolf within around nine to twelve months or so… sooner if the customer can narrow down places that the wolf is likely to go. I am only paid if I am successful, so it is a risk-free proposition for the customer and the work only increases my travel slightly overall.
The only dangerous or uncomfortable part of the job is the “secure and transport”
part-especially with uncooperative targets who have been in hiding- but I have figured out reliable methods over the years. I have not lost one yet.
Anyhow, as I already mentioned, just before I left for the gym’s grand opening, I received a new assignment. This one was to keep my eyes out for a she-wolf named “Lillian, Lillibet, Lillith, or something like that”
who “looks a lot like”
a picture the customer would send me and “probably went to human territory outside of the western part of the United States”
It was very little to go on, but that was why the pay was so good. And I have worked with less. I agreed to send over a proposed contract the next day.
I was floored when the picture came through my text messages thirty minutes later. Assuming I was right, it would be the first time I found a missing wolf BEFORE I had even been hired.
I was pretty sure that the missing she-wolf was Charlotte’s friend, who had been fighting with some soccer players about not being “Daisy”
when I got to the bar. (I barely glanced at her friend as I approached Charlotte that night, but I have a photographic memory, which is another really big plus for the side hustle work.) The resemblance between Charlotte’s friend and the picture was uncanny. Unless Charlotte’s friend has multiple doppelgangers running around human territory living under fake names, I was pretty sure Charlotte’s friend was my target.
At that moment, it became even more important that I track down my mate, because she could of course lead me to her friend. That meant that I could reject Charlotte and make a ton of money all at once. Two birds, one stone.
my utter delight, Charlotte attended the grand opening event that night and ended up approaching me there. Every inch of me wanted to take her to the bathroom and ravish her, but I knew I had to be sensible about all of this. I continued to act like I was mad about the scene with Cody Wilson, and then I told her that I would only consider spending time with her if she brought her “Daisy”
friend out with us.
It sounded like nonsense even in my own head, and I had no idea how I was going to explain wanting her friend to come, but thankfully Charlotte did not ask any questions. Instead, she was ecstatic and immediately agreed to set up a double date.
The next day, I arrived at the restaurant roughly ten minutes late. I was immediately curious who
Charlotte’s friend who I was introduced to as “Lily”
– had with her. The male introduced himself not only as James Anderson, but also as Lily’s mate. He had the distinct smell of an alpha wolf, and he seemed to be a pretty powerful one at that.
I
Despite being an alpha, I could tell James was a fan of mine, and that made my ego very happy. At the same time, I was immediately suspicious about what was going on and what my customer was up to. I may locate missing wolves for money, and my moral compass may be broken, but again I have limits. do not cheat on the mate bond, and I do not intentionally break up fated mating relationships.
–
I discreetly texted my customer to get some more information about who James Anderson was. The response surprised me. James Anderson was actually Lily’s sister’s mate. My customer-who seemed surprised that James and Lily were together- then explained a little more, saying that Lily lost her wolf after she caused her sister to get attacked by a group of rogues in an effort to steal James away.
In other words, Lily was a mate-stealing b&tch. No wonder they were hunting her down. That was good news for me. It meant that I could bring Lily back to whoever was looking for her without feeling guilty.
I started taunting Lily and James about their relationship. Their weird responses to some of my taunts seemed to confirm that what my customer said was true.
Great. We were back on track.
Unfortunately, somehow during all of this, Charlotte had gotten under my skin. I tried my best to ignore
I her all night, but when James and Lily went to dance, I could not avoid her anymore. Believe me, wanted to and I tried. But all it took was one look in her beautiful, expressive eyes and one heart-stealing smile from her, and I was h ooked.
That made me even more desperate to put distance between us.
That is why I said all those things about her breasts. Goddess knows Charlotte is perfect as-is. The problem was that she was too perfect. I just said those things to make her hate me. Instead of punching me, Charlotte proposed getting breast implants. I could tell from Lily’s reaction that this was very uncharacteristic of Charlotte.
That meant that the mate bond was making Charlotte just as st upid as it was making me. It also meant that I was right that rejection was the only fair option for both of us.
Eventually, Lily and James left the restaurant early. I was not surprised that they left; I knew that I had pushed things too far. But I was also not worried; all I had to do was get the contract signed with my customer and then find out how and where my customer wanted Lily delivered.
Then, once all the paperwork was done and the logistics were decided upon, I would use Charlotte to bring me back to Lily. That meant spending a few more days with Charlotte, but I was willing to make the sacrifice.
(James POV)
Of all the f&&ing nights for Brady to show up in Ravenwood, he had to pick the night that Lily and I finally planned to mark one another.
Because of course he would. It was like something in Brady had been pre-programmed to irritate me as much as possible.
I had no idea how Brady figured out Lily’s address, and I had very little time to ask. Instead, I had to remain focused on controlling my temper and preventing Luke from taking over and doing something st upid. As much as I hated the guy, he meant something to Lily. Because of that, hurting him was the last thing that I wanted to do.
After demanding to know where Lily was -and after a few choice words with me at the door-, Brady angrily pushed past me into the apartment. I did not try to stop him; the last thing that I wanted was to get into a fight with him in the middle of Lily’s apartment complex.
I could not tell if Brady did not know how close I was to losing it, or if he simply did not care. Either way, he said everything he could think of to try to get under my skin. For example, he told me that he was there “to protect Lily”
and “to save Lily”
from me. He also repeatedly brought up the past, reminding me of my prior mistakes and the fact that I did not deserve Lily.
A part of me agreed with Brady, whereas a bigger part of me wanted to kill him, so I mostly kept quiet and let him get it out of his system. My silence seemed to inflame him more.
Then, when Brady finally noticed all the candles and roses laid out everywhere, he really began to lose his sh&t. Specifically, with his face redder than his hair, he tried to physically attack me while at the same time accusing me of trying to exploit the dangerous situation in order to “try to”
seduce Lily.
“Tell him that we have already seduced Lily. Many, many times,”
Luke begged in our link.
“Shut up, Wolf,”
I replied, as I dodged one of Brady’s attacks. “You know Lily would be pi ssed if we told him that.”
“He needs to know that Lily is ours,”
Luke protested.
“She already is ours. Mark or no mark. Brady being here does not change that.”
“Are you sure about that?”
I thought for a moment. I could not help but smile as the answer occurred to me. “Yeah… yeah, I am. Lily meant it when she said she loves me.”
Just then, I felt a punch to my face. Son of a b&&ch. My conversation with Luke had distracted me.
Now, I know said that I did not want to hurt Brady, but nowhere did I say that I was willing to give him freebies against me. F&&k that. I was faster and stronger than Brady, even with him having a special wolf.
Within sixty seconds, I had his head firmly in a headlock, fighting every instinct in my body that wanted to shift into Luke and take the fight further.