Crystal Moon

Ivy's POV

It's still hard to believe that I'm living at Nate's packlands.

It's been weeks since my incident and there's been not a single sound about our departure from Red Moon, which Nate has found highly suspicious. Surely if three of your own pack members just up and disappeared, you'd look for them, no? Apparently to Cole, it's a no.

Honestly, I don't care as much about it at this point. This is the freedom that all three of us have been wishing for a very long time.

Not looking over our shoulders.

Not worried about our actions.

Not getting verbally or physically abused.

The pack has taken us in fully, and it's like we were a part of it this whole time.

Now that I've healed fully from my wounds, I've been helping Nate with his pack work, almost like an assistant or secretary. I help keep track of his meetings and help him organize his paperwork from other packs and inform him when he gets new requests, organizing them by importance and whatnot. It's been a steady pace, and I'm thankful, only because being around him most of the day consecutively makes me more obvious to my attraction to him.

I've been keeping myself in check, not wanting to make a bad impression on his pack by pining over him on his own packlands.

But oh, how badly I want to touch him.

Even right now as I sit at my desk in his office, going through papers from yesterday's meeting and typing out the minutes, I can't help but look over and steal glances at the handsome man near me, dressed in his usual black dress clothes having just finished another meeting mere moments ago. I've been feeling the pressure he's under, but I can't fully comprehend exactly how he's doing since he hasn't spoken much about how he's handling it all, and I don't want to bring it up. We've had small moments together, but nothing like how the retreat was and secretly I'm missing it.

I've been fighting with myself to help him somehow, but I'm not sure how to exactly. We may have said we were dating, but that was when we weren't in the same pack, let alone his pack. I'm confused by my feelings, but I'm still just as drawn to him as I was when I wasn't around him almost 24/7.

Just talk to him, you idiot.

I sigh loudly and he lifts his head up then and looks at me.

"You okay, songbird?"

Crap.

"Yeah, of course Alpha."

"Ivy..." He says in that all knowing tone, showcasing he knows something is up. He gets up from his desk and strides towards mine, sitting on the corner to my left.

"It's nothing, Alpha. Seriously. Just tired of typing for today."

"Then stop, it's not like you have to work all day and night like I do."

"Then who's going to keep you organized?" I say cheekily and he chuckles, reaching down and pulling my chin up slightly, towering over my sitting form in my own chair.

"Yeah, yeah. I know. Honestly, you've been a wonderful help these past few weeks. Thank you."

"You're welcome, Alpha." I smile and he goes to lean in to kiss me when there's a knock on the office door. He pulls away and sighs. "I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize. It's okay." I reach up and cup his face with my hands and he places his hands over mine. I stand and kiss him quickly on the forehead before heading to the door and opening it to reveal Tobias.

"Hi, Beta Tobias. Come on in." I stand aside and he smiles at me and walks past as I close the door, sitting in one of the chairs in front of Nate's desk.

"What's up." Nate states as he makes his way back to his desk and sits down.

"I'll leave you two to talk." I state and Tobias turns and looks at me.

"Ivy, stay. You can hear this."

I return back and stand beside Nate, and I see Tobias look between us.

"For God's sake Nate, just have her sit in your lap. You guys tiptoeing like this is driving me insane."

My face blushes crimson as I look to Nate and he smirks, patting his lap. I take a seat, feeling Nate wrap one arm around my waist to keep me steady and Tobias snickers. "That's better."

"I looked more into Red Moon as you asked, based on Ivy's admittance of the Alpha and Luna's deaths by rogues. It was never reported as a rogue incident. Only that they died in battle." He tosses a file onto Nate's desk, and he picks it up with one hand and skims through the documents within.

"That's odd."

"What is?" I ask and Nate points to the paper he's on. "Read that, Ivy."

I peer down and read the sentence aloud. "My parents died in battle fighting valiantly beside their protector and guard Ivy Pierce, who also sadly died in the same battle. She protected my parents with her life and for that I am grateful even though they are no longer with us."

"What? He said I died. How can he state that when I'm walking around perfectly alive?"

"I think it's part of whatever he had planned for you Ivy. You being dead makes it easier for him to inflict these ancient punishments on you without any interference from the High Reign Council."

Nate chimes in. "He knows it's impossible to monitor all the packs in the lands so he knew this would get overlooked and filed away since his parents were dead. All that would matter is what he did as Alpha moving forward."

"That motherfucker." I clap my hand over my mouth. "Sorry."

"Don't be. There must be a reason he did this." Tobias states softly.

I stand and pace a little. "That's why he was so opposed to me leaving the packlands at first. He was probably worried that someone from the council would recognize me and realize he lied. But if it was never officially announced that I died – which he never did; and that information only exists in that report – no one would be the wiser. The council thinks I'm dead, having not even met me, and the world can live on with me in it, no one knowing about my treatment and punishment at the hands of him for a crime he never reported."

"Why would he go through so much trouble?" Tobias asks and Nate closes the file. "That we don't know. But this is good. We've caught him in a lie, a major one at that. So, if he comes knocking, we've got something to work with."

- - -

(Later that evening)

"I'm finished with my work for today, Alpha." I state and look to Nate who is sitting in his office chair seemingly unaware I've even said a word to him.

"Nate?" I say and he looks to me.

"Are you okay?" I ask and he shakes his head.

"I'm just trying to wrap my head around all of this."

"You've thought about it enough for today, believe me I know." I say as I watch him closely, the irritation obvious on his face.

"Let's go do something to take our minds off of it."

"Ivy, this is serious. Serious concerning you." The annoyance in his tone is evident but I don't back down.

I approach and stand beside him at the desk and pull his face up to look at me. "I know it is, Nate. But without any more information or an actual confession from Cole, I would be worrying myself over something I don't know enough about, and the same goes for you. You're going to make yourself sick over this, and you don't need to."

"Why don't I need to Ivy? This is utter bullshit and doesn't need to happen." He states coldly.

"Because face it, there are more important things for you to be dealing with than my previous idiotic Alpha falsifying reports and using odd punishments. You're better off just leaving me alone." He looks at me with disbelief. "Leave you alone? You want me to?"

I glance to the side. "I'm just saying that you should concern yourself with something more important, not some wolfless girl who is struggling."

"Ivy you're wrong." He says softly, his tone calmer.

"How am I?"

"Nothing is more important than you." He states, standing up and towering over me as usual. I go to back away and hit the desk and he grabs me, lifting me and settling me down onto the desk, standing between my legs, keeping them separated.

"Nate." I say breathlessly as he places his head into the crook of my neck and kisses me softly making me shiver.

I wrap my arms around his neck, and he lifts his head up and looks at me directly, his blue eyes swirling with gold. Seconds later, his lips collide with mine, fierce and passionate. I moan lightly and I hear a low growl come from him and he presses into me more. He pulls back from me abruptly, putting space between us.

"I shouldn't keep using you like this."

"What are you talking about?" I ask, it being my turn to be irritated. I got my touch, but it was ripped away just as fast as it came.

"I'm sorry." He walks away without another word, me still sitting on his desk, utterly confused.

Nathaniel's POV

I swore to myself that I wouldn't touch her again until she knew I was her mate. After her being here around me more often, I found that to be very difficult, but I was hanging on.

I lost that battle tonight. After hearing her talk about herself as if she wasn't and shouldn't be important to me, I lost to my emotions for her.

She smelled incredible; the taste of her lips is intoxicating. I missed it. Oh how I missed it. Her.

"You need to tell her." Tobias says as he sits with me in my quarters, me having confessed it all the moment he arrived.

"I know, but how do I?"

"This is your fear talking, my friend. Just tell her. Otherwise, it's going to blow up in your face."

I sigh loudly.

How am I supposed to admit it?