23 Drunken Night - Part 1

"Here, a glass for the lady of the night!" Lisa approached me and Jane while handing a glass of wine to both of us.

I hesitantly took the glass from her. "I've never drunk any before," the wine swayed side to side as I fiddled with the glass with the tip of my fingers.

"Everyone gets their first time, honey. This will be yours," Jane gulped down her own glass of wine and raised her glass to me and Lisa, "Toast?"

"WAIT!" Lisa held out her hand, "Let's have a toast with everyone." She cleared her throat with a few coughs, "Everyone, let us bring our glass on this sacred night, and give our awaited first toast to our Luna."

"You don't need to do that..." I touched her shoulder slightly. Being the center of attention was a burden for me and I didn't really want that from them.

She heaved her shoulder and smiled, "Please let us do this. We have been dying for this day. It was a tradition for us all to give a toast to our Luna at this celebration. This was a day to close our tie, the tie between the pack and our new Luna."

I stared at her uncertainly but nodded my head down. Lisa smiled at my approval, "Thank you."

"Now, to Luna!"

"To Luna!" Everyone in the room had their glasses up to the sky as they gave me their first toast. I too followed them and raised my glass up to the sky. "To our pack," I announced with a small voice, but not too small until it was unheard. Hundreds of smiles decorated their faces as we drank the wine down our throats. An unknown feeling was building up inside me as I saw the smiles on their faces. Looking at their happy faces made my chest feel ticklish and warm. It was a very pleasant feeling.

As the red liquid went inside of my mouth, the bitterness of the wine overwhelmed me almost immediately. I scrunched my nose at the bitter taste and quickly ingested it. Why do people love to drink wine when it tastes this bitter? I remembered how my dad used to drink wine alone in the middle of the night when I was secretly taking a walk around the house as I wasn't able to fall asleep.

"Don't ever think to stop before you get wasted!" Lisa exclaimed to the crowd as she headed to them and was followed by the people cheering. The formal dinner we had just minutes before soon changed into a very casual meeting where everyone was dancing wildly and drinking to their heart's content. It was such a sight to see.

The upper-class people usually kept their composure in the presence of others, but it was different with this pack. They didn't even care how bad they would look on this day and were just very loose. It seemed that Luke was a great leader to his people, looking at how close and comfortable the people were. It was like they were a real family, something that I had long lost.

"How is it?" Jane inquired while giving me another toast.

"It tastes bitter," we clink our glasses together as I gave this wine another chance to bring bitterness to my life.

A chuckle came out of her lips, "It will taste better the more you drink it." She held my hands and pulled me towards the crowd, saying, "Come, let's mingle with the others. I bet they have been dying to talk to you."

I trailed behind her and was suddenly surrounded by a lot of people. A few people tried to call out to me, but were stopped when I was pulled into a tight hug by someone. It was from someone shorter than me, so I had to bend my body slightly.

"You have finally come to us," an old lady came into my sight as she released her hug from me. "Such a pretty girl. Luke, that kid sure is lucky to have you as his mate," she said as she caressed my cheeks softly. She was a plump lady with short curly hair, which was now white in color. Her deep black eyes contrasted with her white hair, her chubby cheeks becoming more evident as she smiled.

"Emma! Don't do that all of a sudden! You surprised her!" Jane nagged the woman.

"Ssshhh, I wanted to hear this pretty lady's voice," she put her finger on Jane's mouth to shut her up. "What's your name?"

"It's Violet."

"Aaahh, Violet. A pretty name for a pretty lady," she smiled fondly. "Call me Emma." Emma took the glass of wine on the table beside us and raised it to have another toast with me, "I'm glad we have finally found someone to take Ysabelle's position."

"Who's Ysabelle?" My curious eyes went to Jane, hoping for an explanation.

"Luke's mom—our last Luna," Jane explained.

"And also my best friend," Emma grinned proudly, "Here, a toast to you."

The bitter wine made its way back to my mouth as I had another toast with Emma. The alcohol was starting to get into me and I could feel my cheeks slowly rising in temperature. I didn't know that I still had to drink more glasses of wine to finally pass this night.

...

"What is it?" I asked Jack about the things he wanted to tell me after leaving the dining hall.

"It's about Alpha Harry's pack. I think you should go there," he answered rigidly, "The attacks there are crazy. There are more than fifty deaths just this week."

My brows furrowed together as I heard the number of deaths. That was an incredulously huge number. There was no way that his pack couldn't handle the rogues' attack. Rogues are evidently weaker than those in a pack, but still stronger than normal civilians who have never trained before. I have told him to train all of his pack members to help them fight back the attacks for a while, but I guess it was not helping.

Thanks to Maggie's magic barrier, the rogues haven't been able to step into my territory. But the magic barrier will only work when the witch who cast the spell is also in the area. It was not possible for Maggie to also put a magic barrier on another pack.

"Did they say why this happened?"

"They said that the rogues have become stronger than before, even the guards are having difficulties taking them down."

Rogues becoming stronger? I've never heard of anything this outrageous before. How can they be even stronger than the pack guards? What caused this?

"And the people's hearts?"

"They are all gone," he fretted, "But this time, the bodies were not intact. It was torn to pieces."

I sighed as I brought my hands to my temples to massage them. Those rogues caused a fucking massacre of my people, but what frustrated me the most was how clueless we all were about those rogues. We have no fucking clue about them and our chase is deemed useless. Every time I send someone to chase them out, the rogues just die precipitously. It was like there was something eating them from inside the moment they were cornered to prevent them from getting caught and giving us some information. There was nothing we could do besides hold up to their attacks.

"I will see what I can do," I said to him in a pained tone. No matter which pack those casualties belong to, they are all my people, my kind. There was no way I didn't feel anything every time I heard of their deaths. I felt guilty as hell for not being able to handle this matter as fast as possible.

Jack nodded his head and bowed to me before leaving. Even if we didn't show our emotions, we could still feel the pain from the bond we had. I knew how much this attack had caused mental pain to the pack. They tried to put up a smile and never mentioned anything about this, as they didn't want to cause more pain by talking about it. I purposely didn't block the connection to feel all the emotions they have, even if they would overwhelm me. I will also feel all the pain they feel because I am their Alpha, their leader. I will bear the pain my people feel.

I headed back to the dining hall to go back to my mate, but just when I opened the door to the destination, what was inside the room made me stop in my tracks. It was hard enough to control sane wolves, but now I was met with hundreds of drunken wolves.

The sight in front of me made me finally recall what my mom told me about the tradition our pack had every time the pack found Luna. There's no way Lisa, who loves to be a drunkard, will miss this tradition. I bet it was her who started all of this.

"Eyyyy, Alpha, "I sighed as Andrew walked towards me haphazardly. "This wine is amaaaziiiing! You should try this out—" I pushed him to the side and stepped away from him. I wonder what the Moon Goddess was thinking when she put those two drunkards together.

I looked around the hall and saw Lisa, who was standing on top of the long table while singing with her wine bottle. She was surrounded by other drunkards who looked like they were actually enjoying her squeaky singing. I exhaled another sigh as I glanced at Andrew, who was now sleeping on the floor along with the other wasted people.

Where is Violet? The room was swarmed with drunkards who were dancing or jumping around, so it was hard to find my tiny mate among them. I went around the room to search for her and finally found her squatting in the corner of the room. As I neared my mate, I realized she was having a conversation with the plant beside her.

"Whaz yer nayme?" She slurred and poked the plant as she asked tipsily, "I..." She brought her palm to her chest and tapped on it a few times, "...am Violet."

She stared at the plant as if she was waiting for it to answer, but got impatient as she obviously didn't hear any answers. "Why aren't you answering meeee!!" She held the pot and shook it angrily.

"My name is Plant," I said behind her, pretending that I was the plant, "Please stop shaking my body."

"Oh!" She had her eyes open as she grinned widely, "Pleyn! Lez be friends," she held the branch of the plant, "Iz this yer haynd?"

"Yes, it is. Don't hold on to me too tightly or I will get hurt," I answered.

"Oops, sawrryyy!" She giggled as she released her hold on the branch, "Hehe I did it! I made a friend!!" She raised both of her arms in the air and swayed them. Following that, she suddenly dropped her body backward, which I caught before she hit the ground.

"Woah, there," I hunched down to level with her, "Be careful."

She glanced my way and squinted her eyes, "Who are yer?"

"Who do you think I am?" I sent her a smile.

"Hmmm," she pondered for a moment and quickly distanced herself from me before giving me her answer, "Are you a kidnapper?!"

"You think I am a kidnapper?" I laughed and pinched her nose. She looks so cute right now, I can't seem to be able to take my eyes off this drunken girl in front of me. I guess this tradition was a good thing after all.

She nodded her head, "Are you really?"

"Look clearly, who do you think I am? Hmm?" I stepped closer to her and distanced our faces just a few inches away.

She squinted her eyes again and cupped my cheeks, "Oh! You must be Sir Luke!"

"Am I?" I teased her while I covered her small hands with mine.

"Yez! I'm sure of it!" She smiled, "You are handsome."

"I know," a chuckle escaped my lips, "And I'm also yours."