When The Farming Luna Returns Novel – I spent twenty years out in farm country running a small herb farm. When eight luxury cars pulled up at the gate of my little place, I froze. An older Alpha with a hard, imperious face looked me over and said in an icy voice, “As the heir to the Frostfang Pack, even if you were abducted back then, you shouldn’t have let yourself slide this far. Don’t tell me you can’t make something of yourself just because you live out in the sticks.
And you even married some deadbeat who never holds a real job. You’ve dragged the Frostfang Pack’s name through the mud.” My oh-so-loving brother pinched his nose like the air offended him and stared at me with disgust. “I only recognize Audrey as my sister. From now on, everything in the Frostfang Pack belongs to her. Don’t even think about fightin..6.g her for it.” I was baffled. Since when did growing things count as “letting myself slide”? The plot behind my house—about sixteen acres—was planted with rare medicinal plants. And that “deadbeat mate” they were sneering at—did they mean the Shadowhowl Pack’s Alpha, the one who practically lived at the research lab and lost himself in his experiments? When I returned to the Frostfang Pack, I saw for the first time how old money operated in the pack world—opulence and excess everywhere. My “dear” sister, Audrey Bennett, was draped in diamonds.
She glided over and, all politeness and poise, took my hand with a show of regret. “Vanessa, I’ve prayed day and night to the Moon Goddess to bless Mom and Dad and help them find their real daughter. Now that you’re finally back, they can have some peace.” As she lifted her wrist, the diamond-studded Patek Philippe on it threw a blinding flash. Alpha Jason—my biological father—sat at the head of the table, features carved in stone, his eyes assessing me as if I were a product that hadn’t passed inspection. “Vanessa, now that you’re back, you’re going to learn proper manners.
Stop showing up all countrified and making the Frostfang Pack look bad.” He took a measured sip of his coffee, his expression unreadable, then continued, “Back then, when you went missing, we found Audrey on the road. She’s now the mate of Dylan Price, a medicinal-supply tycoon. Even if you’re back, Audrey has been with us for over twenty years; she’s long been part of the Bennett family. Publicly, I’ll say you’re a distant relative the family took in.” “When you can carry yourself with some grace, I’ll formally acknowledge you as my daughter.” I looked at Jason Bennett calmly. Thirty-odd years of life had taught me to see the angle: test me first, and only then decide whether to claim me.
Not once did he ask whether I’d suffered or whether I’d been well. That TV-drama fantasy in which they hand you the keys to a mansion and a fleet of cars didn’t exist. There wasn’t even a shadow of it here. I smiled lightly. “All right.” At least I’d found where I came from. It was something I’d needed to settle. Everyone stared at me, surprised I agreed so easily. Sitting beside Audrey, my brother Eric Bennett finally lost his patience. Holding his temper by a thread, he said, “Audrey’s brilliant—top of her class at Columbia University. Her mate’s a big name. Even if you’re back, don’t you dare think you can replace her.
Get it through your head that you’re just a small-town nobody.” “Otherwise, the Frostfang Pack wouldn’t bother taking in a walking disaster like you.” I looked at him and caught a flicker of an old memory: him carrying me on his back, both of us laughing in the wind. Now, his eyes held only Audrey. I gave him a faint smile. “All right.” Jason Bennett’s face darkened; he set his cup down with a dull thud. “Is ‘all right’ the only thing you know how to say? Can’t you form a view of your own?” “Sycophantic and spineless—people like you will never be fit for polite company.” “I’m warning you: if that so-called mate of yours is a loser, cut him off now. Don’t bring him here to embarrass me and my Frostfang Pack.”