Blood of my blood, piece of my soul.
I shall stay by your side, run by your side, kill and die by your side, cause' I am yours and you are mine trough all eternity.

"Oh my love..." sighed Samira with eyes pinned to the golden desert sands and hands moving lazily over her belly.

It was the begining of her tenth pregnancy month, for wolves only a bit past the half of the gestation period. It finally started showing and she could feel her child better.

It was a blessing without which she would have gone mad after Dahiru's death.

Unlike most wolves that met their mates in their teenage years or early twenties, she had to wait till she was fifty-two to find Dahiru.

Sure werewolves live longer and aged slower but the life experience they gather was the same as for humans.

She had had her fair share of fun till then and kind of liked the freedom and enjoyed it. She even began coming to terms with the fact that she was perhaps mateless and then one lazy afternoon while being shopping with her mother in the Medina she saw him.

As close as it got to a Nigerian prince, with onyx eyes and the built of a god become flesh, their eyes met and that was that. He just walked over to her, their eyes still darted into each other and they kissed in the middle of the Moroccan Medina under the scandalized looks of everyone around.

He had died to protect them from the wrath of their goddess and Samira couldn't feel anything but hate for her, as she viewed the love of her life as expendable, as she viewed their whole kind as such. She would have never expected that but in that brief moment she understood Kiril too well, him and his life wish to kill a god.

He had accomplished that but to what price, his demise and the life of the two people Samira loved most.

Neither him, nor Erik or Mila had come back, that meant they were likely dead.

What was strange was that she saw Selene dying, still the moon was on the sky like always and every full moon night they were turning as always. If Mila took indeed Selene's place, what happened afterwards? Did the power consume her? Was she swallowed by it and remained only a vesel?

In two and a half months would be the night of the Blue Moon, then she would find out. But untill then she had lots of other issues to deal with.

Akin opened the door to the living room abruptly.

"I apologize, but something happened," he said disturbed, his dark eyes lighting up.

"What?" asked Samira irritated.

"We have... company..." he said gritting his teeth and directing his eyes at the door.

A man of medium hight and slender muscular built entered the room. His hair was long and dark, even braided together it reached his lower back.
Dark brow and smooth skin was covering intense features and even more intense dark brown eyes that had a slight red shimmer. He was dressed in traditional Indian attire and wore a ring on almost every finger and a series of bracelets and small golden earrings.
Despite all that he was manly, and besides extravagant he was noticeably attractive.

"Samira Amir-Borgia, if that is not the name of a queen."

"Samira Nnama-Amir-Borgia," she corrected him with an icy smile.

"So be it then..."

"And you are...?"

"Sanjay Vengalil, Alpha of the Asian continent," he said bowing his head.

"So that is you, that claimed Kiril's scattered pack," said Samira with another half smile on her face.

"Kiril...Kiril was just an unfortunate accident that interrupted our dynasty. Luckily gone now."

Dynasty...thought Samira half sarcastic. It was indeed true that the last two Alphas of Asia before Kiril were from the Vengalil family, but she would hardly call that a dynasty. Dahiru's lineage was much closer to that, the Nnamas were the only ones to ever have been African Alphas, unlike any other continent.

The Vengalil had suffered a tremendous humiliation when the white rogue came along from among the snows and crowned himself Alpha. Niraj Vengalil was killed swift and painless and put the first stone to the wall of Kiril's reputation. He didn't had had children though, thought Samira. So who was this guy? This very boastful, proud guy.

"So what can I do for you, Sanjay Vengalil?"

"I came to ask you to be my consort."

Samira raised her eyebrows in surprise and hardly suppressed a chuckle.

"That must be a joke," she said.

"Not at all."

"You do know who my mate was and the father of my child, that I am very much still pregnant with."

"I do. I also know you do not want to be with Akin and neither does he and that you are cornered by the counsel in your pack to get a man. It also should be a powerful man because you angered many traditionalists with your behavior. There are not many options, you need an Alpha. Yarran is not an option, Nodin is weak and grieving, Angel is, well you know better, and so is Michael, even if he seems to have grown out of it and taken a liking in females after all. So there is only me left. It would be mutually beneficial if we could join our houses."

"No thank you..." said Samira very much amazed by his courage to come to her with such an outrageous proposition three months after the death of her mate.

"I didn't expect you to accept that easy. You are one of a kind, Samira and you will be mine sooner or later. I wager next year you will be carrying my son," he said bowing his head and exiting the room.

For his own good because Akin's fangs were already bared and his eyes shining ready to turn and kill.

The vila started to treble with Samira's anger.

Growing up liberal and having had the mother that she had, Samira had always been fiercely independent.

Dahiru seemed to not have had any problem with that and was enchanted by her ways and her personality. There had also been many Lunas in her generation that didn't fit the cliche of the meek, obedient mate. Katharina was one of them and Kiera and even Mei... It was certain this was a new era.

However, Lunas were always female and Alphas male, till now.

It didn't matter how difficult it was, she had to stand her ground for her, for Dahiru and for her child. The Nnama linage was not going to die only because her child was female. It was past time for that to change.

Her little girl... She was going to name her Saraunyia, 'queen' in Nigerian, how Dahiru would have wanted.

Dahiru really wanted a girl, most men want a boy to be their heir and all that but not him, she remembered him saying that it was going to be a girl as strong and beautiful as her mother. And remembering all that she just couldn't understand how she would be able to ever love again after being loved by him.

She was now aware that she had to be careful about Sanjay. The balance of power was pretty good at the moment, Michael and Angel would never turn against her and she had been good friends with Mei, Nodin's late mate. Yarran was going to be a problem though, she knew that, only after hearing how he treated Kiera, the previous Alpha's Luna.

Kiera was also hurting and grieving Cohen, but mostly by drinking and fucking her way trough the six continents. She felt for her, she and Cohen were mates since they were eighteen, that were almost one hundred and thirty years together.

There was a profound sadness in the acknowledgement that she would never love like that again. But there was a different kind of love that she was experiencing and it was just as strong.

Akin was knocking at her door, she could smell it was him. She didn't expect the boy to become her biggest supporter but he had gown up quite a lot lately, more or less forcefully.

"Hey, boy," she said smiling.

"Hey, how is my niece doing?"

"Good, wanted to blow Sanjay's head off, I guess she comes after her daddy."

They both laughed.

"I am afraid he will become a problem."

"Yeah me too. Asian Alphas seem to be problematic as a default," sighed Samira.

"You should talk to Michael."

"Yeah, he has enough on his plate, a surprise attack should not be added to that. Maybe I should pay them a visit, though I am afraid of what I will encounter there."

"Understandable. I am at your service for whatever, you know that."

"I do, Akin. We are very grateful to have you," said Samira smiling and touching her belly.

Akin smiled and walked away leaving her to her thoughts.

She truly didn't know what to do. She liked Michael, they knew each other since forever, as they were both Erik's cousins.

After Erik's death he had to assume the role of European Alpha and gods knew how much a role that doesn't fit you is chaffing. Michael was an excellent soldier but not a good commander. And the twist of fate that made Angel an Alpha too gave him the last blow, now it seemed to Samira, his life was purely duty.

She wondered if he resented Erik for the turn his life took.

As an Alpha you are more or less compelled to have a Luna. Mostly it is no big deal as Alphas naturally have a mate that they encounter pretty early on and being a Luna is one of the biggest honors there is. Michael's situation was special on many levels. She didn't know if there had been gay Alphas in the past, maybe, but they remained closeted and still took a Luna.

However, now was the twenty first century and no one but two continental Alphas were gay and probably each other's mates. Still it was largely not accepted, because of tradition, and the compulsion to have an heir and continue the linage.

So it happened that Michael bowed his head to tradition and fate and took Charlotte at his Luna, Charlotte that had been hopelessly in love with Erik for decades. Samira suspected they both agreed to that for the greater good.

But when you want to do good you can get misfortune in return as of how the universe works.

To claim a Luna an Alpha has to sleep with her. And so it happened that that one time between Charlotte and Michael became a lifetime commitment in form of a child.

Samira could only sight in compassion. Michael certainly would welcome seeing a friendly face. All packs suffered tremendous losses in that fight, everyone did, it seemed that is what happens when the gods forsake their people.

Now everything was a guarded Chaos disguised under an apparent, fake order.

"Ah I forgot something," said Akin opening the door again.

"I am hearing."

"I talked to Pavati, Nodin is not well at all. He does not exit his room, doesn't speak, barely eats... Do you think maybe...?"

Samira sighed again.

"What a day... I will call him too."

Than she thought a bit and smiled at Akin.

"You kind of like Pavati, don't you?"

He blushed slightly.

"I ...happen to like talking to her."

"But?" asked Samira amused.

Just shortly after she regretted that because Akin's eyes became sad.

"But she is not my mate. I mean... It doesn't feel like with..."

"Mila. Ah Akin, we had this conversation, Mila was not your mate, she only felt like it."

"I know it's just... That feeling, I never felt something so intense before, she felt perfect, like being born for me."

"I know boy, mate bond, fake or not can be a bitch. Don't think about it anymore and ask Pavati out."

"It's just, I am thirty-eight already, why haven't I found my real mate?"

"Would you prefer having found her and see her dying?" snapped Samira and felt right away guilty for it.

"I am sorry..." said Akin bowing his head apologetically.

"It's okay, I know you miss him too..."

"And are probably as afraid of the future as I am..." thought Samira to herself looking out the window to the infinite desert.