Her Promise

MISSY Azalea crushed me in a tight hug. “Oh, sweetheart, we are going to miss you so much. I hate that we won’t see you every day,” she sobbed. “I’m only in the next pack. We’ll visit, and you guys can come to see us,” I said, patting her back as I hugged her back. I didn’t let on just how nervous this all made me now that it was time. It felt weird to be leaving behind my home, even if I hadn’t lived in the packhouse with Azalea and Liam for a while. I was ready for our new adventure but still had the smallest bit of apprehension in my gut. “Come on, Little Luna. Let our girl go. Maddox will take good care of her,” Liam said. Lea smiled as she let me go, dashing a tear from her eye. Next were my siblings. Junior and Leo barreled into me hard, almost knocking me over. “I’m going to miss you guys,” I said. “You better take good care of Azly, you hear me? You protect her real good.” “Can we come stay in your new packhouse?” Junior asked. “You guys can come visit us after the Alpha ceremony,” Maddox said, joining us. He must have finished loading our stuff into the car. We were leaving a lot of things behind in the house. Emmett and Ally were going to stay there for now. “What about Miss Sol? Can we visit her too?” Leo asked. “Miss Sol left for college this morning. We won’t see her for a while,” I told him. He really had the biggest crush on her. Leo and Junior let go of me and moved on to Maddox. Last but not least was Liam. He opened his arms with a soft smile, and I let him give me one of his giant dad hugs. “You’re going to knock ‘em dead,” he told me silently. “You and Maddox will do wonderfully.” I realized that after today I wouldn’t be able to link my parents anymore. We would be in different packs by the morning when Maddox and I officially made the change. I just hugged him tighter. “Thanks, Dad,” I said. He let me go and looked up at Maddox. “You guys should probably get going,” he smiled. Junior and Leo ran back to Lea, and I moved to his side, taking his outstretched hand in mine. “Drive safely. Call if you need anything.” “We will. Thank you, Alpha and Luna. For everything,” Maddox said. “Maddox, again, call us Azalea and Liam. Or Mom and Dad!” Lea huffed. I laughed. “We’ll talk to you guys soon. Love you,” I waved, puling Maddox over to the car with me. We got into the car, and everyone waved at us as Maddox pulled down the driveway. “Ready?” he asked. “As I’ll ever be,” I said. - We pulled up to the Serenity Waters packhouse, our new home. I had been here plenty as a kid but never expected to be living here. This would be ours until we had pups old enough to take over as Alpha and Luna. “Oh, Goddess, pups,” Holland cooed in my head. “No. Down girl. I have to learn to be Luna before I think about raising someone else,” I denied her. “But they will be so cute!” she said. An odd sensation crept over my shoulders. One day, Maddox and I would have a pup, and he would become Alpha. We were literally the precipice of an Alpha line. I swallowed hard. Talk about pressure. Emma came out the door, waving to us. I could see Langston in his wheelchair just inside the door. “Ready, darling?” Maddox asked, releasing the latch on his door. I gave him a tight smile and nodded. We got out, and Emma greeted us excitedly. She and Langston had waited for Maddox and I to take a trip before agreeing to start the transition to Alpha and Luna. Lea and Liam gifted us a two-week vacation together for our graduation. Maddox and I traveled to a human city not far from the mountains where he grew up. We got to see some incredible museums and other things. We did take a few days to backpack up into the mountains and look for his former home. We never found precisely where his pack was. He seemed a little upset by it, but I promised we would come back again. “I’m so glad you guys are here!” Emma excitedly squealed as she hugged us at the same time. “We are so excited to get you guys settled in.” She smiled warmly at us as she let us go and hurried us inside. Emma was like a sweet grandmother, a little warmer than my adopted one. While Lyssa had been kind to me, she wasn’t the most inviting woman. It was obvious she had made a strong Luna, but she was very different than Emma. “Don’t pester them too much yet, Emma,” Langston smiled as we stepped inside. “Give them some time to get adjusted.” “I’ll show them to their room! Well, until we depart and they take over the Alpha suite,” Emma smiled. “Thank you, Luna,” Maddox said. “No more formalities. You two will have those names shortly,” Emma told us. “Good luck. She is relentless,” Langston laughed. He turned his chair and started to roll away. “I’ll let you guys get settled in. We can catch up at dinner!” Emma led us upstairs and down a hallway. I recognized the direction we were going as I had stayed here before. “Obviously, that was the entry hall. These stairs lead to the guest quarters and Beta quarters. Langston Beta has moved out, though. The other wing of the packhouse has the Alpha quarters and offices,” Emma explained. “This place is bigger than I thought,” Maddox said. “I believe it might be slightly larger than the Blood Eclipse packhouse, but it is a very different floor plan. We also don’t house any unmated warriors in the packhouse. There is a separate boarding house for them,” Emma explained. She stopped at the end of the hall. “This is the nicest guest suite we have. You guys can stay here until it’s time to get you set in the Alpha quarters. Missy and I will be discussing any changes you guys would like to make to that area later to make them fit you better.” She opened the door and stepped aside so we could step in. I couldn’t remember being inside anything so nice. As we came inside, there was a sitting room with doors to the left and right as well as a hall beyond it. “The master is to the left, and there is an additional room back there. To the right is an office for Maddox to make use of until it’s time for him to take over. Langston has already started cleaning up his things with Ronin’s help,” Emma said. “We really don’t need all this space,” I told her. “Nonsense. This is your home now too! If you think this is a lot, wait until you see the Alpha Quarters!” Emma smiled. “I’ll let you guys finish grabbing your things and get settled. We can do a full tour in a little bit just in case you don’t remember where everything is at.” Emma left us alone, and Maddox looked around. “This seems excessive,” I sighed. Maddox shrugged. “Alphas and Lunas are important people. It makes sense to have nice big houses, especially when a packhouse reflects on the pack’s health to visitors,” he argued. He headed toward our new bedroom, and I followed. Inside the room was a king-sized bed with a bench at the end. A dresser faced the bed; there were two doors, probably a closet and bathroom. “I think I already miss our little bed,” I told him. Maddox came over and grabbed me around the waist. “Don’t worry. I’ll still sleep close to you,” he smiled. “You better.” - After multiple trips back out to the car to bring in all our stuff, Maddox and I put everything away in the closet and bedroom. I didn’t bother hanging up any of our photos for now; we could just wait until we moved into the Alpha quarters. Emma showed us around the whole packhouse and grounds. I remembered much of it from visits, but she also showed us places I had never been to. Maddox was enjoying himself a lot. That night, we had dinner with Langston and his Beta, Joshua. He was a kind man, but I could tell he was ready to retire. He promised his nephew would be around the next day for us to get acquainted. Maddox had told me the little he knew about Ronin, and we had met him once before. Maddox was thinking about making him his Beta since he grew up in Serenity Waters. I thought it was a great idea but suggested he get to know Ronin a little before he made his decision, just in case they didn’t get along. It took me a while to get comfortable that night, but eventually, I was able to fall asleep curled up in Maddox’s back. He woke up early, intending to go for a run, and tried to coax me to go with him. “But the sun isn’t out yet,” I complained. “Yea and we live by the moon,” he said, nipping at my nose. “I went to bed after the moon,” I said, pushing him away from me. “Let me sleep a little longer.” I tried to roll over and pull the blanket over my head. Maddox stopped me. “Come on, Miss. Shift with me. Let’s start our first day here with our paws in the dirt,” he pleaded. “Ughhhh,” I groaned. I opened my eyes all the way and looked at his pouty face. “Fine. But only because you’re really cute naked.” He wiggled his eyebrows before kissing me sweetly. “Let’s go!”