THE LOVE RIVAL STRIKES

After shopping, Henry met us at the packhouse door. His car was out front and he was just entering the packhouse himself. He didn't seem surprised to see us, but I noticed he pocketed something quickly in his jacket when our car pulled up.

So yes, I was watching him from inside the car (where it was safe). It's like how when I went to a zoo, and there was this huge tiger behind the glass wall, and I felt totally safe standing right up in front of it. Until the tiger roared loudly. The little kid next to me cried and ran away. I was too scared to run. I just stood there dripping silent tears until my dad came over and picked me up. Mum was laughing from behind her video camera. She thought it was too cute to see her three year old terrified to tears. So as long as Henry didn't make any loud and sudden sounds, I was enjoying the view.

He turned and smiled at us before reaching out to open the passenger door.

"Oh my," My mum stepped out, "How kind, thank you."

I wanted to mimic that in jest but stopped myself. Henry had helped my mum out and then reached his hand over to me when it was my turn. I stared at his gloved hand. That should be safe right?

But in the end I accepted the hand, not because I was sure it wouldn't spark me, but because I realized the guards on the porch and pretty much everyone was watching and I didn't want to embarrass Henry by refusing.

"Thank you." I managed as I accepted his hand.

Zing! It wasn't as bad as the shock when I touched him yesterday, but hahaha... It was seriously tingly and went all the way up to my elbow. I wanted to pull my hand away, but Henry didn't let go. Instead he leaned in closer to me to shut the door with his other hand. Without letting go of my hand, he informed me, "Tomorrow is Christmas. I will be taking you out after lunch."

Was he asking me out for a date?

And then he let go of my hand and left into the packhouse. Beta Peter was rattling a list of matters that was waiting Henry's attention while he was gone. The two men disappeared up the stairs.

I looked at Mum who was thanking Portia for the fun time out, "...and thank Mackenzie for me. Christa definitely had a nice time."

"Mackenzie and I had a wonderful time too!" Portia said, "Please do invite us more often."

I smiled, "Thank you for today Portia."

"So sweet, our young Luna." Portia made a bow and took her leave, "See you at the dinner party later."

For some reason, wolves often use the word sweet to describe me. Maybe it was a wolf thing. Like something to say because they couldn't say I was particularly beautiful or tall or anything. I was really quite normal. I wondered if that made me sweet.

Anyway, I was back in my room. Mum just remembered to tell me that Alpha George had invited us for a dinner party tonight. He had prepared a special Christmas Eve dinner because he heard about humans celebrating the occasion, and wanted to introduce his son's new Luna to various elders and upper families of the Silver Moon Pack.

Luckily we bought quite a number of dresses while shopping. Actually, Mum did, but even though I was a little taller and slimmer, we actually were close enough in size for me to share mum's clothes. Our feet were the same size too.

Very convenient when I needed nicer clothes. Very convenient when she needed an excuse to buy both items whenever she couldn't decide on which one.

Now I was definitely grateful. I mean, I had a simple black dress for any slightly more formal occasions, but that was it.

"Which one do you want?" Mum pulled out the three long dresses from the paperbags, "We need to wear dresses that go over our knees. It's cocktail formal."

I couldn't decide.

The red one plunged too low in front, the black one plunged too low in the back. The third one was very sparkly in a light peach color...

I didn't have to try a single one to realise that I shouldn't have left the shopping entirely to Mum. In my defence, I didn't expect to ever have to buy another prom dress so soon.

My phone buzzed, "You have anything to wear tonight? Wanna come over to my place for a makeover?"

I was saved by Mackenzie. I took a quick photo of the selection my mum had left on the bed and texted back: "You just saved me from this!"

Mackenzie replied, "LOL. But the pink one would be great for your date tomorrow!"

And then she texted again, "OMG."

And then she deleted the first text about the date.

And then she texted, "Meet me in the main lobby on the first floor in five. Bring the black dress. Just keep the pink one for tomorrow in case you need it."

Okay... I decided to play along and pretend I didn't see the deleted text. I typed back, "Okie dokie."

I picked up the black dress, "Mum, can I use the black one tonight? And the pink one tomorrow?"

"Sure, wait, what's happening tomorrow?" Mum asked.

"Henry just asked me for a date just now." I answered.

"Oh my god! Is he going to propose?" Mum gasped, clutching her heart.

I laughed, "Yeah, like on the third day we meet? Sure."

But deep inside I was starting to worry. I grabbed my make up pouch along with the black dress. And then my grey woolen coat.

"I'm going to meet Mackenzie now!" I said, "See you at the party!"

Okay, I should be fine. I hobbled over to the lift in Mum's new heels that I helped myself to. They were silver stilettos. Actually, they were the first box left unopened. I had seen a pair of red heels picked out by the door and assumed I was free to choose from the rest.

Date, party, Christmas dinner, werewolves, was Henry really going to propose tomorrow?

I wasn't paying attention and stupidly got out on the Mezzanine floor (The one between level 1 and 2 - I'm not really sure why). Looking around feeling a little lost, I bumped into a taller girl. Specifically, I bumped into Charbear the cheerleader and her sidekicks.

"Look what the cat dragged in." Char smirked.

Her friends stood on either side of me.

"Hi, what are you doing here?" I asked.

"We're meeting to go for a party to meet our new Luna." Char said.

"Oh." I tried to use a little bit of humor to lighten the tension, "Me too."

"What? In that hair?" Char asked.

"What hair?" I asked.

"Exactly!" Char said.

And the next thing I knew, something cold blew against my neck and they were gone. Their laughter pattering across the corridor as they left. I looked down at the mass of soft brown curls on the marble floor. Was that mine?

OMG, my hair was really nice... looked so silky... except that it was on the floor. So that meant it was no longer on my head. Oh hell. No way... no frickin way.

My phone chimed, it was Mackenzie, "Hey Luna, should I come up to your apartment to meet you?"

I replied, "I'm on the M floor. Sorry."

Mackenzie texted, "I'll be right up, Luna."

The M floor. Was this like the twilight zone? The zone where romance fiction met real life? I was seriously in the wrong story though. Like if this was a werewolf romance, why was I facing off cheerleaders?

"OH, F*** IT!" Mackenzie snarled from the lift. She was so loud my tears started falling on its own.

"Luna, are you okay? Are you hurt?" Mackenzie panicked now.

I shook my head.

"We got to get you out of here before..."

"Before what, Kenken?" A deep low growl and the smell of autumn leaves... Oh no, my hair. I used the dress to cover my face.

"Before the young alpha leaves the office..." Mackenzie admitted.

"Don't look, I dropped my hair!" I said.

"What the hell happened, babe?" This was Beta Peter and was directed at Mackenzie.

"It wasn't me!" Mackenzie said.

I burst out laughing at that. Mackenzie, the Beta's mate and female trained warrior sounded like a child caught with the broken cookie jar.

"I hardly see the humor in this." Henry growled.

I covered my face again, "Don't look... It's fine."

I grabbed Mackenzie by the arm and dragged her to the opened lift door, "See you later!"

"Luna, your hair!" Beta Peter sounded at a loss.

"Ah sorry!" My face heated up and I let go of Mackenzie to return for the pile of hair, which turned out to be a very messy task. Mackenzie squatted down next to me to help.

I heard Henry groan, and then he said, "When I get my hands on whoever did this..."

And then I said, "No! I got it. Leave it to me, I know exactly what to do!"

"What the hell..." Henry said.

"You got a plan?" Mackenzie asked.

"Something like that." I dumped the hair I picked up into the fancy metal trash can against the wall. Mackenzie hesitated and then followed suit.

"Awww man, Luna, they really took off a lot of hair." Mackenzie said.

I felt it. It wasn't too bad. Just under my ear.

"Bye! See you later!" I called out to Henry and Peter outside.

"You're still going like that?" Henry smirked.

The lift door closed before I could reply.

"So what's the plan?" Mackenzie asked.

I pressed the button to go back home, "I need a haircut. Then we go to the party and I show those cheerleaders up."

"OMG, it was Charbear? I totally should have known!" Mackenzie said, "No one else would dare to do that to Henry's mate."

"Why would Charbear?" I asked.

Mackenzie shrugged, "I only got here after I mated Pete, so I don't know that much. But Charbear, I mean Charlene is Gamma Francis' only daughter..."

Hen and Charbear were born on the same day and grew up like brother and sister. Later on, they also dated on and off.

Hen liked beautiful girls like he liked fast cars. He had a roster of them and generally used them for public functions and the like.

Kenken mated Pete like two years ago. She was new and Charbear was like a sister to her. Hen, Pete, Charbear and Kenken were a set and did everything together the first year Kenken was here.

Some people said that Charbear and Hen would be soul mates too. I think Charbear was hoping that. Then the day they turned eighteen, they had a combined birthday bash, and Charbear met her mate, a beta from another pack. They rejected each other. Charbear said why settle for a Beta when she could have an Alpha? Kenken didn't know why the Beta would reject Charbear. Maybe he simply accepted the rejection.

But Hen didn't accept Charbear. He wanted to wait for his mate.

Charbear got in a bad way after that. Kenken wasn't sure if it was the broken mating bond or anything. She tried to be supportive of Charbear but found her in Pete's office, on Pete's lap. They fought - the only two female warriors in the pack fighting.

Hen had come in and helped Pete tear them apart. After that Hen pretty much took it out on Pete. Kenken got Pete back, and they have been working things out. Charbear seemed to have settled down too.

"And that's my sob story." Mackenzie concluded, "Hey! Are you crying? Don't cry Luna."

I rubbed my eyes dry, "Don't worry, I cry all the time. Here we are. Hopefully my mum has time."

"Goodness, Chrissie! What happened?" Mum asked the moment we stepped in.

"Can you help me even out my hair?" I asked Mum.

This exact same thing happened to one of the human Lunas in the webnovel I read. What she did was cut her hair short, wear a bare back dress, and then danced with the male protagonist. The more the jealous girls bullied her, the more she got back at them by making sure they saw the male protagonist with her.

She continued this until the jealous girl lost it and pushed her into the pond, yelling all her evil intentions aloud. The male protagonist heard it all. Everyone heard it. The mean girl was put on probation, one step from being exiled and never dared to bully the human Luna again.

"So that's our plan?" Mackenzie asked. Mum had just finished cutting my hair. It was really helpful to have a Mum who was a former hairdresser.

My hair curled around my face. I actually looked really cute. Much younger too. I made a face in the mirror.

"It's just a webnovel though." I admitted, "I don't think it would play out that way."

And to be honest, now that I know Charbear's backstory, I kind of feel bad for her. Maybe she really loved Henry. I didn't want to think about that.

"Maybe the goal would just be to not let their mean act succeed in hurting me." I suggested.

"And knock Hen's socks off his feet while you're at it." Mackenzie added. She turned to exchange high fives with my mum.

Yeah. It would be nice if Henry would find me beautiful too. I mean, hearing that Henry had a roster of beautiful girls and fast cars made me understand why Charbear said I wasn't his type. I don't think I could compare with werewolves - they all looked like they stepped out of a magazine.

But I was pretty in a normal way, and if I had to be honest, I didn't want Henry to see me and think, "Why didn't I get Charbear as my mate?"

I didn't want Henry to think about Charbear or any other girl either. Love seemed to have made me a very selfish person, so I kind of emphasized with Charbear.

Maybe if I were in her shoes, I would have become a mean girl too.

No way! I wasn't going to be the kind of person who sat on my best friend's mate or cut off the hair of her rival.

Even if Henry chose Charbear, which I could barely think about without crying, I would not become a mean girl. No way!

People say tears are a sign of weakness, and I'm the biggest crybaby I know. But it's not the tears. It's the choices you make after the tears that determines your strength.

And I wanted to make braver choices. I didn't want to become a mean girl. I'm just human, a very normal human, but I'm going to take the higher ground. To be kinder. To be gentler. To do the right thing even if it hurts.

At least I'm going to try very hard. Even if I had to cry everyday, I want to be happy as me.