The Unclaimed Human Luna
Chapter 29

Conner POV

Conner got home from university, it was raining, and he could see there was a storm brewing out there. He headed inside to replace Marlo standing with his group of friends; he’d left uni a little before they had. He’d seen the boy’s car drive on by, as they’d all been walking to the carpark themselves.

His eyes fell on the bag he was holding, “What do you mean you don’t know where she is?” he was asking them.

“She went swimming and didn’t come back. We snagged her bag and thought she’d left and forgotten it.”

Conner could see Marlo digging through the bag and his gut was telling him trouble was brewing.

“Boy’s what’s going on?” he asked as he stepped over, moved his eyes right to that bag. “Marlo?”

“El’s missing, was hanging out with Hayden and the group here, but they can’t replace her, just her bag.”

“Where did you last see her?” his eyes moved to the group of teens.

“She went swimming like an hour or so ago, never came back, maybe got out somewhere else and headed back, we thought.” Hayden told him.

“You didn’t keep an eye on her?”

“I was with my girlfriend, kinda well…you know.”

Nearly snarled at that kid, they were all too busy making out or f*****g in other words, to keep an eye on the one human girl in the pack who had a history of running away. They should all know better than to leave her alone out there.

“You’re all in trouble. Go and report to your Alpha. You were with the Luna’s daughter, so you bloody needed to keep an eye on her.” He turned his eyes on Adam. “We need to go and check the lake.” He just nodded “Did any of you take gear or were you just swimming?”

“Just swimming.” Hayden told him.

Found Marlo falling into step with him, looked right at that boy, “Stay here.”

“I’m coming Conner, she is my friend.”

“Stay here. If she comes back on her own, let me know. Wait for her here. She could well be walking back in the rain. Adam and I will go check out the lake.”

Saw him frown but nod and then step back, didn’t much look to happy about it but stayed put. He got in his car along with Adam and drove right to the shed and hooked up his trailer with his jet ski on it and they picked up Adams and loaded it as well. “Do you really think she is still in the lake in this weather?”

“Who the hell knows, with that girl. She’s outside the pack if she’s in the water, could bloody be anywhere.”

He got in the car and found Brayden jumping in the back seat. He looked at him curiously as he drove off.

“Alpha’s order that I be here, wants to know her state of mind.”

Sighed internally as he drove off down the track heading for the lake, he was going a little faster than he should with a trailer on the back but, if she was out there swimming in the lake there was a storm brewing, she could well be in real trouble out there.

He and Adam got out of the truck. The rain was really coming down now. Neither he nor Atlas could see that far out into the lake, it was choppy and rough out there. ‘Atlas?’ he questioned his wolf, that bloody beast of his could sense all sorts of things with her he was betting, always knew when she was touching herself, it seemed.

Bloody humped the door to her room last time and told him she needed them, and she had. He was hoping right this minute that Atlas would pick something up from her, something to say she was alright. He didn’t want her to be out there in the water, but he couldn’t tell, and neither could his wolf.

He and Adam hauled the jet skis off the trailer. They were already soaking wet. Luckily for them, they ran hot all the time. The rain was actually cold but it didn’t really bother him, he stripped his shirt and shoes off, and was gone out on to the lake, to search for her.

“There.” Adam yelled to him about 10 minutes into their search and Conner’s eyes moved to follow the man’s hand pointing off to the right of him.

He could see her swimming, looked tired to him. Her arms were barely clearing the water as she swam for the shoreline, wasn’t that far out. But must have been he realised. Annoyed him more than a little.

Turned his jet ski in her direction and headed out to where she was, went past her as he made the turn to come back around to pick her up, only to see the wave that came off his Jet ski, smash right into her as she lifted her head to breathe, cursed himself for not slowing right down, could see Adam pulling up slower and then she was just gone, saw her arms flail for a moment and under she went.

His heart near stopped in his chest, then he was just gone. Atlas shot him off the jet ski and dove him into the water where she had been.

Could feel Atlas freaking out inside of him at the sight of her disappearing so suddenly under the water. Even knew it was their fault, that it had been the wave off his jet ski that had put her swim stroke off and caused her to get a mouth full of water instead of air.

Grabbed hold of her the minute he found her, kicked for the surface and felt relief flood through him as he heard her cough and splutter, looked around for Adam, and hauled her towards him. He didn’t even have to ask the man to grab her, he just reached down and took her from Conner, hauled her up onto his jet ski. She didn’t weigh much.

Conner turned and struck out for his, climbed up on board and moved over to where Adam was still holding onto her, knowing the man would be assessing her condition. Pulled up right next to him and reached out to take her face in both his hands, he needed to see her for himself, those silver-grey eyes looking up at him, her hair was all messy and she looked exhausted to him, watched on as she tried to brush his hands from her face, a feeble attempt really ‘She’s alright Conner.’ Adam mind-link to him. There was no point yelling over the rain when they could mind-link clearly.

He and Atlas assessed her regardless that Adam already had. She didn’t appear to be injured at all, and was breathing alright. He plucked her from Adams lap and put her right in front of him, saw Adam raise an eyebrow at his actions. Ignored it. Yes, she was safe with Adam for the trip back, and he knew that, also knew they all thought he didn’t want her here or anything to do with her. So, it would be odd for him to do that.

But he did not want her sitting right up against Adam wearing just her bikini. Hell, even if she’d been fully clothed, he wouldn’t have wanted her sitting on that jet ski with Adam.

Eliza didn’t even argue, just leaned back against him, she was cold to the touch, and he put his hand on her stomach a couple of times to hold her to him when he knew they were going to hit a big wave. Knew his body ran hotter than hers, always would, was actually pressed right up against her to try and warm her body with his, it was cold.

He could tell she was exhausted by the sheer fact that she was leaning back against him, not something he thought she would do. He was well aware that she was avoiding him. He’d heard that she didn’t come downstairs at all until after 9am, which meant she was actively waiting for him to leave the pack before coming out of her room.

Beached his jet ski just a few metres from his parked car, got off and helped her to her feet. She walked without issue, took the towel from Brayden as he opened the back door for her to get in. It was his towel and he wrapped it around her and put her in the car, closed the door and took a minute to just breathe.

Looked at Adam, “Just leave them there,” he commented, looking at the jet skis, and went and unhooked the trailer for his truck. They would survive the night in the weather. He picked his wet clothes and shoes up from the ground and got in to drive them back to the pack. She was wrapped up in his own beach towel, pulled it all the way around herself.

He knew Brayden was there to suss her out, tried to keep his own mind off of her, she was cold and tired, it didn’t surprise him all that much and yes, she was going to go to the doctor for a check-up. Did, however, like that she was all snuggled up in his towel, pulled it around her and practically buried her face in it. She didn’t know what she was doing, but he and Atlas did. She was surrounding herself with his scent.

His hearing picked up Eliza state that she wasn’t sleeping well, to the doctor and sighed internally, that would be his fault in all likelihood. He took her back to the packhouse and knew Marlo was going to be waiting for her to arrive, reminded Atlas that they were friends, and that he had not yet scented her officially, so he was not allowed to go all possessive about her.

Heard her state she was fine, when she realised herself that she was about to get the third degree, Marlo was walking this way still had her backpack in his hand. Put his hand up to stop everyone from walking towards her “Jeanie stated she is fine, tired, needs a hot shower and hot food. Then bed to rest.”

“I’ll take her up.” Marlo stated as he walked over to her.

“I’ll be escorting her Marlo, making sure she follows the doctors’ orders.” Held his hand out for the backpack. “I’ll take that.”

Saw that boy glare right at him and raised an eyebrow at him. He was the future Alpha, the boy he handed it over a little on the reluctant side. Turned to Brittney “Hot food for her, she’s cold and needs to warm up, inside and out.”

“I can do that.” She nodded.

He nudged Eliza and she walked, headed for the stairs, he noted and put a hand on her to steer her towards the elevator. “Elevator today, Eliza.”

“Son?”

“Nearly drowned out in the lake.” He looked at his father, and shook his head slightly “Brayden can fill you in on what you want to know. I’ll make sure she’s following Jeanie’s orders till Brittney comes.”

“I didn’t mean to.” He heard Eliza sigh as she stopped walking.

“Walk Eliza, or I will carry you.” his hand dropped to the small of her back and he gave her a slight nudge in the direction of the elevator. She went without further issue. Stood in there and he watched her, was still wrapped up in his towel. Smiled to himself as he stood there watching her, he liked seeing her in his towel. Walked her all the way to her room and used that card he still had to let them into her room, he saw her frown and look right at him.

He opened the door and walked her right inside, closing it behind them. Put her bag down on the couch and grabbed the front of her towel and pulled her into the bathroom by that towel, when she stopped walking, leaned her up against the vanity and reached in to turn the shower on, stood and waited till it was nice and warm and tugged at that towel she was holding onto.

“Stop.” She held it to herself.

Looked right down at her “I’ve seen you naked Eliza.” He half smiled “Come on get in the shower.”

She stood staring at him. “Not with you right there, I won’t be.”

“I could get in with you if you like. Or you can get in by yourself. But I will be watching you get in. You need to warm up, doctor’s orders.”

Saw a little anger flash in her eyes and then she just yanked the towel off of her and stepped in the shower with her swimmers on, he smiled to himself, picked up the wet towel and walked it to the walk-in and dropped it down the laundry Shute. Then he turned his eyes to her wardrobe. Everything in here smelled of her, could feel Atlas breathing in her scent, let him. They both needed it right this minute, with her nearly drowning and all.

He’d wanted to be the one in the backseat with her, knew that if he had been, it was likely she would have been pulled right into his lap, had been half tempted to strip off and get in the shower with her as well. The only thing stopping him was that it was likely her mother was going to make an appearance at some point with that hot food.

Opened a few of her draws and found some pyjamas and walked over and laid them out on the bed for her. He turned and looked around her room. He’d only been in here twice and both times he’d been distracted by the scent of her arousal to really look at anything at all. It was not very big, he realised. His father had put her in one of the smallest rooms that were down here, shook his head, her whole room would fit inside his current bedroom. He could see the car keys to her new car on the coffee table. It had not moved an inch, she’d not once driven it yet. Likely wasn’t going to either, he thought absently.

Looked at the paperwork on the table, admission papers and on campus living as well, not filled in at all, she’d not even so much as put her name on it. He would have to question his father about the on-campus thing, didn’t know if that was wise. Could get up and leave anytime she liked if she was out there without supervision.

She had a laptop sitting on the bedside table and he saw a kickboard from the swimming pool downstairs, by the wall. That was a curious thing to be in here. Wondered why it was there and when she had gone and gotten it.

Heard her phone ring and plucked it from her bag, it was locked, needed her fingerprint to access it, big on her privacy, either that or she’d been told to do it by her friends now that they knew what he was, where she was. The caller ID showed on the screen, it was her friend Cordi, sighed heavily.

Her friends were wolves, and she didn’t even know it, but they now all knew what she was to him. Would likely be checking on her more frequently. From what Collin had told him she had no secrets from Cordi, and he didn’t doubt it either that one statement had been Collin’s way of letting him know that he knew that Eliza would be telling Cordi everything that happened out here with her and him.

Which could only mean that Cordi, as her best friend, knew everything about him and Eliza, what he’d done to her, and anything that might happen in the future. His head turned at the sound of the shower turning off, and he stood waiting for her to come out of the bathroom. She stopped in the doorway and stared at him obviously thinking he would have left by now. She was only wrapped in a towel.

Still looked tired to him, that wasn’t likely to be resolved anytime soon, “Your phone rang.” He told her when she looked at his hand questioningly and saw her phone in it. He put it down on the arm of the couch and took a step towards her.

Really wanted to just put his arms around her and hold her to his body, was going to and he knew it, only to hear the door to her room open and then see her mother was right there in the doorway. Looked from him to Eliza, poor timing, he thought to himself. Took a step back and headed for the door. “Brittney, please make sure she eats that.” He commented and then frowned down at it. “Is that soup?”

“Yes, it is.” She nodded. “Will be good for warming her, and easy to eat.”

Wolves didn’t generally like soup. He thought to himself, “I think a proper meal would be best.”

“This is a suitable meal, for my daughter, Conner.” She told him pointedly.

He nodded; forgot for a minute she was human. Headed out of the room and closed the door behind him, he left her there with her mother. Hopefully, they wouldn’t fight. Leaned on the door once outside the room and closed his eyes with a heavy sigh, without thinking about it, only to realise he was not the only one in the corridor.

His eyes snapped open as he heard a woman ask if El was alright after her ordeal. There coming down the hallway was the omega Rachelle, who likely cleaned her room and returned all her washing. She was in her mid-twenties a small woman with dark hair and dark eyes, mated to one of the packs warriors. Smiled right at him as most did, he was pretty friendly to all those within the pack, most of the time.

Pushed himself off the door hastily and nodded to her “fine, just tired.” He said and walked off down the corridor.

“It must be hard for you to have seen her like that.” She commented as he walked passed her.

Conner stopped walking and looked right at her now. “Why would you say that?”

“You and Eliza are together, yes?”

“Why would you think that?” he frowned right down at her, his brain was screaming at him, no one knew anything about them.

“Oh, um…” watched her close her mouth and not say anything.

“Explain yourself.” He snapped at her.

“I’m sorry Alpha, I just presumed well…with your scent on her sheets and well…”

f**k, he’d not even considered that the one cleaning Eliza’s room would register him in there, registered his scent on her sheets. “Who else knows about this?”

“Um, just a few of us in the laundry, Alpha.” She bit her l*p, she knew from his tone and line of questioning he was unhappy that they knew.

“You will say nothing about this, do you understand? None of you will.”

“Of course, Alpha.” She nodded.

This was not good. What if one of them had already said something, spoken about it and been overheard, if it got back to his father or anyone in his own unit? No, they hadn’t, he told himself. If his father knew, he’d have come and found him. If his unit knew Brayden would be on him so fast about what he’d seen between them, the pain she was in before she ran away. No, they hadn’t told anyone.

Wolves slept with wolves all the time; it was no big deal. He took a breath in and walked away from her room down the hall, though he was now concerned it would get out.