Becoming the Luna

I had thought that Dale had fallen asleep on the way back home but as soon as the car slides to a stop he gets out, he's still strangely quiet and I'm not sure how to ask him if he's okay.

We end up in my room, Shana and my mom following closely with worry evident in their eyes.

Dale just gently places me on the bed and gets on as well, curling around me like he's in pain, his heavy eyelids slipping close.

"Is he going to be okay?" I ask Shana who's hovering around in worry.

"Yeah." She says nervously. "He just needs to sleep it off, do you think you can come down?"

"From the bed?" I look up from Dale who cradles one of my hands in both of his, curling around it.

"Yup." She says bravely.

Dale is somehow already fast asleep like he had been holding back.

"Oh, sure?" I reply, confused, while she clutches her hands in front of her face like she expects an explosion to go off.

Carefully I retract my hand from him and carefully come down from the other side, his hair flops in his eyes and I push it away gently and the creases on his forehead ease, his lips parting slightly in sleep.

"Was something supposed to happen?" I whisper to Shana.

"Let's go downstairs." She says and we all file out, leaving Dale to sleep.

We end up pushing the center table to the edge so we could have a mini breakfast picnic because the kitchen is currently a danger zone, that reminded me…

"We need to clean up the kitchen."

Shana flops backwards on the ground. "I know."

"After we eat." My mom says sternly, spreading out the food on a small rectangular blanket which we sit around.

"Mind telling me what exactly happened back at Honey's?" I ask, eating my much cooler pancake.

"Well…" Shana murmurs, looking at everywhere but my face even my mom looks curious and it's nice to know that I'm not the only ignorant one this time.

"There are rankings in every Werewolf pack like actual wolves, well we're technically part wolf."

"Like the Alpha?" I prompt.

"Yes but it's slightly different from what I'm talking about, rankings aside there are also Castes that each Werewolf is born into, there are just three of them actually." She takes a sip of her tea. "You're either born as an Alpha, Beta or an Omega, a born Alpha isn't always the leader of the pack but there's a higher chance of them leading packs because if their dominant streak."

I forget to take another bite of fluffy pancake, absorbed in her explanation, my mom is no better but somehow she manages to wolf down slice after slice of pancake, all the while listening intently.

"It makes sense now." My mom hums. "The Alpha and born Alphas sound so similar that it's easy to get confused."

"Which one are you Shana?" I ask curiously.

"A Beta, most Weres are Betas actually, call it selective evolution, Alphas and Omegas are much rarer, maybe because they're heavily influenced by their wolves, that's a dangerous trait to have when you're trying to blend in with the human society."

"I see…" I trail off. "That still doesn't explain what happened."

"I'm getting there, Nina is an Omega and Omegas go into heats, it was most likely her first or she wouldn't have been walking around, it's pretty dangerous because every Werewolf react to an Omega's heat on some levels, it's a hundred times worse for Alphas though."

My eyes widen at this. "Dale is an Alpha?"

"Isn't that pretty obvious?" My mom huffs.

"Yep and we're lucky that Nina's heat hadn't even begun yet, it would have been utter chaos otherwise." She finishes up her breakfast and gives me her full attention. "That's exactly why there are fewer Alphas, although Betas also react to the pheromones given off by Omegas in heat, it's still harder on the male Betas, definitely a mating thing." 

I watch Shana explain in detail with amazement, I mean sure she was a Werewolf but I'm human and I definitely do not know that much about our bodily functions. "Whoa! You really know a lot about this."

She shrugs and gives me a crooked smile. "Of course, I'm going to be Nurse remember, just to Werewolves though but I still need a degree in human science for a number of reasons."

"Now back to our discussion, it's not just Omegas that have issues like heats, oh, and by the way, heats happen monthly."

"Are Omegas only females?" I ask curiously, my mom had long left the discussion, too engrossed in stuffing down pancakes.

"Mostly, male Omegas are so rare that they're almost non-existent which is unsurprising as it's a very submissive Caste, currently in my Pack, there's just one Alpha and three Omegas, all females."

I gape in suprise at these. "What? They're so few." 

"Exactly what I'm saying, why don't we move this to the kitchen, I don't think Renee would be able to join us either way."

I glance at my mom at Shana's words. "Mom!" I exclaim in horrified surprise, she lying on her side and is lazily stuffing a pancake in her mouth. "How many have you eaten?"

"W-Wha..?" She mumbles around a mouthful, swallowing after chewing briefly. "I don't know, I lost count at twenty-seven."

"Oh my god! Don't stuff another one in… mom!" I scold, scrambling around the mat to stop her but she clamps her lips shut and moves backwards still clutching one last pancake.

Shana bursts out laughing at her bulging cheeks and guilty eyes but I'm too worried to find it funny.

"Mom, give me that pancake, you're going to get sick." I stretch out a hand expectantly.

She whips the pancake behind her and starts to chew the one in her mouth, shaking her head furiously.

"Mom?" I warn, giving her a serious expression, moving closer to her.

She jumps to her feet at this and darts to the far end of the room, I'm so shocked that it takes a couple seconds for me to get on my feet and go after her.

"Mom, don't run around…"

"I'm honestly surprised she can still move." Shana quips from the mat and I throw her a glare.

Eventually I manage to pry the pancake from her hand. "That's it, no more pancakes, at least not now or today in general as a matter of fact." I emphasize, placing my hands on her back so I can push her up the stairs to her own room.

"But I had already gone halfway…" She whines, too full to resist.

"Which is more than enough, now you're going to sleep off all of those pancakes, what am I saying?" I shake my head, pushing open her door. "You're going to need to run around the park a lot of times to get those pancakes out if your system."

She just yawns when I push her to sit on the bed. "Unless, were playing tag, I'm not going to run around aimlessly." She pouts, her eyes heavy.

I smile at her and help her lie down so I can take off her socks. "Sure mom, we'll play tag." I reply to her only to look up and see her fast asleep, are arm tucked under her head.

I watch her sleep peacefully for a while, grateful to her for everything, she was my mom, my dad and even my baby sister sometimes and it was just right.