"I— I— can't," Helena managed to say.
"Why not?" Rae pouted.
"What if his mate arrives?" Helena asked. She then looked at Neil and pointed at him. "Jacks said he met his mate."
"Dad approved it," Romeo said as his eyes narrowed at Helena.
She knew he wasn't happy about her choice to ignore the fact that they had spent an amazing night together, wrapped in each other's arms.
"Dad…" Helena complained. "I don't want to offend his mate."
"Oh, trust me, you won't," Romeo said as he grinned at Helena, his gaze challenging her to say they hadn't spent the night together.
"Plus Romeo won't know for sure if the she-wolf he spent the night with is his mate yet," Alyssa reminded her daughter. "At least not till the Blood Moon which falls after the rite."
Helena pursed her lips as she tried to figure a way out of her predicament.
Playing the role of Romeo's Luna for the rite would mean she'd have to spend an unnecessary amount of time with him. Time she'd rather spend avoiding him and avoiding the topic of their night together.
"Do we really need someone to play the role of his Luna?" Helena challenged.
"We don't," Raul said, frowning at his stepdaughter. "But you know how much stronger the bond to the pack will be if someone does."
"And it can't be a relative," Rae quickly said before Helena could even protest.
"And it has to be someone with a close enough bond to both the pack and the Alpha family," Romeo added.
Helena rolled her eyes and sighed.
"I get it, I get it," she grumbled. "I'm the best option."
"Thanks for doing this, Helena," Romeo said as he pulled her into his arms and hugged her tightly.
He'd caught her completely off guard, and instead of shoving him away as she should have, Helena found herself leaning in and resting her head on his chest.
Despite being a she-wolf of Alpha lineage, Helena was not tall. She stood at 5'5" while Romeo towered her at 6'3", but what they lacked in height they both made up in speed and strength.
She took a deep breath before attempting to pull away, but even that seemed to draw her closer to Romeo. He smelled like the forest at dawn, the familiar scent that would calm her reminding her of their younger days when they'd run in the woods between territories.
"What were you saying about a mate?" Helena heard someone say as she felt Romeo's nose brush against her neck, he was also clearly scenting her.
Helena was too engrossed in how good she felt in Romeo's arms to care about what people were saying.
She tilted her head up and was met with Romeo's dark gaze, he looked at her with a hunger that she recognized, the same hunger he had the night before when he took her.
From behind them someone cleared their throat, making Helena jump away from Romeo tripping on one of her bags.
Romeo was quick to catch her, wrapping his arm around her waist and pulling her close.
'He smelled so good,' her wolf purred in her head.
"Are you okay?" he asked as he kept his eyes on her.
'He caught us too,' Hera added.
'Get your mind out of the gutter, this is Romeo,' Helena scolded.
'Romeo and Ryder,' Hera hummed.
'Is he our mate?' Helena dared to ask. Unfortunately, yet again, her wolf went silent.
She blinked up at Romeo noticing that she'd spaced out while arguing with her wolf.
"Yes," she said, pushing herself off of his chest and fixing her dress. She blushed as she realized that she was still wearing the dress from last night, without panties, with Romeo's suit jacket over her shoulders. "I need to unpack, and get settled, I'll see you all at dinner."
"I'll help you," Romeo said reaching for her bags.
"No," she said a little too sharply.
She needed to get away from him. She needed to keep a clear mind and around Romeo everything became muddled, all she could think about was spending time with him.
Helena was also certain that if he went back with her to her room they wouldn't be able to stay apart, they would have a repeat of last night.
'Last night was not bad,' Hera said barrelling through Helena's thoughts once more.
'I can't let him affect me,' she told her wolf.
"I got this," Helena said, picking up her bags and marching into the pack house.
Romeo was quick to open the door for her, giving her a sweet smile.
"I'll see you at dinner?" he asked. "With everyone, it's your homecoming dinner, I planned it when I heard you were coming home."
Helena could see the blush on Romeo's cheeks. The strong Alpha had turned into the young man she fell in love with in the blink of an eye.
"Dinner, yeah," Helena said as nonchalantly as possible before pushing forward and heading up to her room.
She had to get away from Romeo before she made even more mistakes that she would come to regret.