At Celia's home pack

"Hello, Luna!" Greeted a well dressed woman, the even more glamorous dressed woman in front of her.

With clothes that at a glance one could tell cost a fortune, paired with flashy jewelry, and a thick layer of make up on her face, Brianna turned to the familiar voice that happily called her.

She smiled, putting the glass of wine she had in her hand on the table, before kissing the cheeks of her friend, replying to her greeting.

The woman was the last to appear for the party she had set up, so now they could all settle in the living room, gossiping about the latest news.

The dozen women that sat on the chairs and couches were good friends of hers since childhood, and as Brianna had become their Luna, the women had an even tighter friendship. Of course, it was to be expected... who wouldn't want to flatter their Luna, assuring for themselves a more prestigious position in the pack, as a consequence of their "everlasting" friendship.

Brianna as well liked their presence and friendship. The nonstop compliments they directed to her at every chance they got, and the opportunity to flaunt all she had, were the things she lived for.

"You look more and more beautiful by the day, who could tell your are already a mother? Honestly, and as usual your clothes are from this year's collection. We really can't find anyone more beautiful than you, even between the pups that are just now growing up. The alpha must love you more and more with each passing day." One of her friends immediately opened her mouth, just barely having seated herself on the couch.

Although inside the woman's mind, she was cursing at Brianna using all the bad words she could think of. The supposed Luna, who should have managed the money for the pack's sake, was splurging everything she could on herself. And, of course, she would not look like a mother, how could she? The alpha of their pack was the one who handled everything for his heir. Brianna did not lift a finger to do something for the young boy. A mother, what a joke!! Her only merit was giving birth.

Not to mention, the love of the alpha towards her... the man would not see her for days at a time. He would, from time to time, be rumored to be at the arms of a different woman. Love her? The man could not even stand looking at her. But still, as the Luna her influence was not small, even if it was only in front of the rest of the pack, and not the alpha.

"Indeed. Really, who can compare to you? I am getting ashamed now that I thought to dress myself with clothes from last year's collection and finding they looked good enough." Sighed the next girl, having similar thoughts to the previous girl.

All this time, Brianna just shyly smiled, not agreeing or denying their words, so in the end silently admitted their claims.

The flattery went on for a bit longer, as they all patiently shared similar words of praise, or at least agreed to someone else's statement.

Finally, after several more compliments, accompanied by several more curses, the girls could fortunately discuss some other things. So they shifted the subject, not expecting for Brianna to also flatter them in some way, in the past she had done so, but ever since the mark of the alpha appeared on her neck she ceased doing it.

"I got some rumors from the palace!!" Excitedly informed one of the women, looking even more eager to share the information, than she appeared previously when she complimented Brianna.

"Ohhh, what is it??" Asked the others, with the same excitement. Their friend had a cousin working in a kitchen in one of the adjacent buildings of the palace. The young woman was just an assistant in the kitchen, and was also farther away from the private quarters of his highness, but would still hear some things from time to time about his private life, and would also inform her cousin about them.

The information was not much, but for the curious women who wanted to know about the mysterious Luna that had been hidden by his highness for the past few years, it was more than enough.

The king had finally found his mate after so many years, but instead of customarily introducing her to the alphas, he had hidden her deep inside the Royal Palace, deepening their curiosity of her identity more and more as time passed.

The chattering group of friends had thought at first that the king was ashamed of his mate, and did not dare openly show her, but this rumor was soon dispersed. The hard working king that normally traveled a lot, and handled so many things by himself in the past, changed overnight.

Previously, his highness having no immediate family and no hobbies or other things he particularly liked doing in his personal time, had immersed himself in work, dealing with things even outside the scope of a king. Even smaller problems that could be handled by others, as long as he had enough time, he would deal with them himself.

But now each opportunity he got, he would delegate the work to others, and had also diminished his travels, accompanying his mate within their private quarters. Even his office was moved to his private quarters, as he dealt with the work that was imperious to be handled only by him there.

He had also lavished the woman with expensive gifts, and followed her every whim, their sources told them. Not to mention, the councilmembers had also met her and praised the woman, even though they never allowed her identity to be known.

So the rumored motive of keeping her identity hidden changed, and now it became known that the king was so in love with his mate, having waited for her for decades, thus only wanted to keep her to himself for some years before allowing others to know of her.

"It seems that his highness had found two idle maids gossiping a few days ago, as he was passing through the corridor. The two girls were talking about the Luna, wondering just how beautiful the queen is.

When they realized his highness passed by them, they froze in fear, thinking of what the king would do to them, everyone knows just how ruthless his highness is, when angered. But the king only moved normally, going on ahead as though he did not hear a thing.

Seeing him not stopping and with a face devoid of any reactions, they were finally able to sigh in relief, but their reassurance was short-lived. His highness stopped his steps just barely having walked two three steps away from their position." The woman fervently explained, stopping a bit to build more suspense.

"And then, and then???" Inquired the girls intrigued, curious of the unfortunate fate of the two maids.

The woman smirked, pleased with the attention that was on her and her words, before continuing.

"Then his highness, without looking back at the two, unexpectedly spoke.

"She is the most beautiful woman I have ever laid eyes upon, in the hundred years of my life. I hope this satisfies your curiosity." He said, before resuming his steps accompanied by his beta."

They all squealed at the information, jealous of the woman who was his mate.

"As expected of the mate of the king." Nodded another woman, firmly believing the power the queen had on the king.

"Yeah. She is surely the most beautiful woman, how could she not be perfect being paired with the strongest werewolf? Honestly, I was scared a bit five years ago when your sister accompanied the king to the winter ball.

I was afraid that she would become his lover, by taking advantage of him having no mate, and inserting herself in his life. Who knows what your elder sister would do to us, lying that we bullied her. She might have even asked the king to decimate us. Luckily, his highness found his mate soon after." Affirmed another woman sighing. Celia's position as a watcher was frightening enough, but as the queen it was terrifying. As a watcher he had rules she had to follow, and could not just come and take revenge against them without any reasons, but as a queen...

They had only joked a bit when she was in the pack. Okay, they might have also harassed her in school, but those were just small things. Being close to the king, the petty woman could have influenced him against her home pack.

"You are right. Ohhh... speaking of your sister is she still not talking with you?" Agreed another woman, then looked towards Brianna.

Brianna tried to seem calm at their words. She had felt jealous of Celia at the winter ball all those years ago, and she was angered even more when she arrived home and her friends already knew about this, but soon no more news of Celia circled around, and she finally felt satisfied.

Her older sister had only the capacity to be by the king's side because of her status as an alpha, but that advantage of hers became useless when his highness found the true Luna.

Oh how she celebrated then, happy at her misfortune.

"We know nothing of her, Celia has changed her phone number and we had no way of finding it out. Even when Daniel started going to the Academy the following year, he did not see her, because she was doing only practice drills outside the Academy. And after that, she disappeared completely, who knows where she is now. Honestly, I and my parents are quite worried about her." Brianna said with a hoarse voice, trying to sound sincerely worried.

The other girls also appeared a bit dejected, sympathizing with her. But by now, all of them knew Brianna's true personality and doubted her every word. In fact, they had long ago come to the conclusion that regarding Celia, the meaning of Brianna's words should actually be interpreted the opposite way. So if the Luna said she was worried, than she was not worried at all about her older sister.

"So another rumor..." One of the woman started to say, clearing the small supposed awkwardness, continuing their discussion.

At the Royal Palace

"Your highness you cannot keep stopping our meetings. They are most important for our race, how can you be such a tyrant in your ways?" Emery reasoned with Salas, even raising his voice a bit in annoyance.

The king had grown up in the elder's presence, so did not react at the disrespect of his tone.

"Emery, drop the subject already. The motive of your meeting was not something you should be discussing about. Seriously, how many more meetings are you thinking of holding. You should already know by now they are useless." Salas sighed.

"They are not. How could they be?" The elder solidified his stance.

"I already have my queen. What other problem could you possibly have?" The king asked, sighing again. Although he knew their motive, he preferred to act clueless.

"Finding her highness is only the beginning, of course. There is another matter that follows that!" Emery spoke quickly, before putting a file in front of Salas.

"Emery, you are getting ahead of yourself, I want some time with my mate, before some stinking brat takes her away." Salas said, before throwing the file carelessly on a nearby table. Having been annoyed only looking at the title, without opening to see its content.

"Bulletproof project for an early heir" was written in bold letters on the file. These people had nothing better to do, than mind his business.

"But your highness, it is necessary to have an heir. You are already a hundred years old!" The councilmember bawled his eyes in sorrow.

"You already have your queen, can I not have her to myself for a bit. We are in our honeymoon period now." Salas reasoned.

"What honeymoon period, you had a honeymoon period of 5 years already?!" The elder resumed asking with a tuff tone again, when he saw that Salas still was not bothered by his tears.

"No, means no. Stop it. I will not have a child yet!" Salas said, finally losing his patience.

Then opened his mouth again, seeing as the elder finally quieted down, to close the discussion between them. He was itching to go back to Celia. But he could not say anything, as her familiar strawberry scent hit his nose.

Looking towards the door, he saw the beautiful woman with tears in her eyes.

Scared, Salas was already near her in the next second.

"My love, what's wrong? What happened??" He asked gently but hurriedly, wiping her tears away.

"Do you not want to have children with me?" Celia stutteringly said. Her emotions were getting the better of her these days, and his words only made them fluctuate even more.

"Of course I want. How could I not. I just want you to myself for a bit longer." He immediately reassured her. It was all the damn geezer's fault, now Celia had misinterpreted his words.

"Really?" She asked slowly, between weeping sounds.

"Of course. After some more decades we will have some children, as many as you want!" He quickly stated.

Hearing the king's words, Emery was about to pass out, feeling faint at the mention of the word "decades'. He was already more than two hundred years old, so he would possibly not be around anymore when the heir was finally born. How could Salas do that??

Salas had thought that his words would calm the petite woman, but it only made her sadder as even more tears flowed on her face.

"W-what's wrong?? Tell me, I will immediately fix it!" Salas briskly said, not understanding what he had said wrong.

"I am pregnant! And you don't want the baby!" She scolded with a hoarse voice.

Witnessing the exchange of words, the elder screamed in joy. It seemed that the Goddess still watched over them.

But contrasting to the joyous reaction of Emery, Salas appeared completely petrified.

"See!! You don't want the baby!!" Celia said, seeing his reaction, and wanted to turn around and run.

But she managed to only turn her head to the side, and not take a single step away, when Salas swept her off her feet, hugging her tightly.

"Really???" He asked, looking at her absolutely ecstatic.

His plan had been to let Celia do what she wanted until she was thirty years old. Her dream was to be a watcher, so after graduating he had told her she could also become a real watcher.

The rest of her life as a queen would become more constricted, as she would be known by all, when he would introduce her to the werewolves, and could not accomplish her childhood dream anymore. He did not want to clip her wings, so at least eight more years he would let her live freely, fulfilling the watcher duty.

At the same time, he also wanted to keep her unknown to the public, to have her to himself, considering their time together could possibly decrease, even more with her being a queen. The watcher job would also keep her busy and away from him some times, but the queen's duty was even more time consuming.

Then as she reached the age of thirty, he would officially introduce her, and the few moments of personal time she would have after, he planned to have her all to himself for another decade or so, only after they would have a baby. This was the original plan.

But hearing her news, such thoughts flew out the window. Of course, he would want their baby, it was the product of their love.

Seeing he indeed did not resent the idea, as he kept hugging her, while placing kisses all over her face, only then was she assured he was not trying to pacify her, but he was indeed happy.

"Are you all right? How do you feel? Do you want to eat? Do you feel dizzy? Are you okay? Should we go see the doctor?" Salas immediately started to say flustered, after he kissed her a few more times.

"I am okay!"

"Oh right you shouldn't walk, what if you tire yourself out." Salas worriedly expressed, and immediately carried her in a princess embrace.

"I can walk. Wait, wait let me down!" Celia immediately struggled, embarrassed because of his actions in front of the elder, whom just now she realized was still in the room. She also felt that Salas was exaggerating, it was only a pregnancy it was not like she was injured, but no matter how she tried to get down, the man did not budge.

"Your highness, of course you should not walk. What if something happens to the heir? You must be properly taken care of. We should call the maids." No, better the doctor." The elder also immediately reacted.

She sighed and did not struggle anymore. She knew that the elder was anxious for an heir, he kept hinting about it, each time she saw the both of them together, but she thought he was more composed than how he looked now, because of his advanced age. Who knew that the elder was as exaggerated as Salas?

"I am really alright!" Celia said a bit more forcefully to get her point across, just as Salas placed her on the couch.

"Your highness, my king, then the introduction can wait no longer!" The elder realized, as he was already making plans for the future.

"Yes. It seems that we can no longer hide my queen!" Salas said lovingly sitting beside her, and placing his hand on her still flat abdomen.

"Then I shall take my leave, there are so many things to prepare! Congratulations to both of you!" Emery sincerely expressed with moist eyes, then bowed and quickly exited the room.

Finally alone, Salas hugged her gingerly, afraid to not hurt the small precious new life.

"Will you blame me? I had promised you could be a watcher until you reached the age of thirty, but now..." He slowly whispered.

"No, the time you have given me, for my selfish dream, it is already more than enough. Normally, I should have assumed my position five years ago, but even without me asking you for time, you gave it to me, regardless of the consequences. Thank you!" Celia spoke, and kissed Salas's cheek, with a tinge of red on her face.

"No, thank you for giving me a family!" He immediately interjected happily, not accepting her words of gratitude, as he slowly kissed her forehead.