Stray Echo

Push Through

POV: Anonymous

The moment I see her turn the corner, she takes my breath away. She is absolutely stunning in a pink and floral dress with ruffled sleeves. Her long, brown hair cascading down her back makes me want to grab hold of it to tilt her head back, so she is looking up at me with those full, luscious lips before I cover them with my own.

I stifle a groan as my pants tighten painfully in my arousal. I can’t afford to make any noise right now. If I get caught here, I’m as good as dead if the reputation of the Blood Moon pack is anything to go by. I really shouldn’t have come, but I had to see her.

She truly looks so innocent and sweet, and it aggravates me to see Alpha’s arm wrapped around her. I can feel my wolf, Raze, pushing forward and I know if he does, he will not hesitate to attack, but right now we need to play smart, not strong.

She seemed to be completely overwhelmed at the sight of what seemed to be some sort of lunch arrangement. Goddess, I want her so badly. I give her one last, long look, committing her appearance to memory for later use. I turned away and made my way out of the pack.

POV: Echo

I quickly wiped away my tears and was pleasantly surprised when Noira bounded over and picked me up in a hug so tight it took my breath away. We both giggled when she set me down, and even at 5’5”, the average height for a she-wolf, she still towered over me.

“I am so glad you are healed and out of the hospital now!” She squealed as Blaze wrapped his arm around his waist.

“It’s good to see you looking healthy, Luna,” Blaze said, grinning when I frowned at his use of Luna, and nodding at me before gently tugging her to the side. Travis also smiled and nodded to me from where he was standing as he had seen this morning, and I knew he was glad to see me up and about.

John took a step towards me before stopping and looking down with a pained expression. His father stood just behind him and was looking at me with tears in his eyes. I knew they felt like they had failed me and that they didn’t deserve to be at this lunch with us.

I looked up at Atlas, and he leaned down and pecked my cheek before taking his arm from around my shoulders and nodding for me to go ahead. I smiled widely at him before making my way over to the ex-betas. They stared at me in awe as I approached them, and I gave them a small smile.

“John, Seth,” I started, nodding at each of them, “I am so glad you were able to come with us to Blood Moon. I don’t have words to express how much it means to me to have you here with me, or how much everything you have done over the last ten years has helped me. I don’t know how to thank you enough for all that you risked in doing so.”

“Luna, you have nothing to thank us for. I failed to keep you safe, failed to protect you from everything that happened to you…” Seth trailed off, his voice breaking, and I know he and John were filled in on the extent of abuse I faced from Alpha Brady.

“Please don’t thank me, never, ever thank me, Luna.” John whispered as his face crumpled even further into pain, “I did nothing but become the cause of a severe beating, and the threat of an even worse one. I watched things escalate for 5 years until my time as Beta and I did nothing to protect you, nothing to save you. The things he did…” He trailed off as tears streamed down both his and his father’s faces.

“No, I will not allow either of you to take the blame for the actions of a lunatic!” I said firmly, hugging John and wiping his tears, before doing the same for Seth. I could hear a low grumble from behind me and ignored Atlas and Zev’s little show of jealousy. This was more important, and I had no romantic feelings for them, and they didn’t for me either.

“Seth, you literally saved my life ten years ago. I can still see the look on Alpha Jarrod’s face before he shifted, and the look on his wolf’s face when he lunged for the kill. If you hadn’t intervened on my behalf, I wouldn’t be here now. The clothes and other items you had snuck to me were the only items anyone ever gave me that were new. I knew you cared about me and my well-being! And I also know you had no choice but to follow the orders of your Alpha.” I spoke passionately, as Seth stared at me with wide eyes. I turned to his son next.

“John, you cannot take the blame for how the Alpha and Luna responded to the simple act of you stripping your own room. Nothing you ever would have done would have been able to make them see reason, and they would have found something else to beat me for. You then stripped your own room and set the baskets discreetly in a room for me to dump from then on. It saved me hours of work sometimes. You also had to follow the orders of your Alpha. But I knew you cared about me and felt I was worth being alive.” John also stared at me.

“Knowing that there were two people, even if there were only two people, was enough for me to push through. It gave me the strength to fight, to survive. If you could both care about me and my existence, then there was hope, even if only a sliver of hope, that my mate could care too. I clung to that hope for years, even after… everything it kept me going, kept me alive. If it weren’t for the two of you, if they hadn’t killed me, I would have killed myself just to end the pain.” I was slightly out of breath by the time I finished, but I could see that they had never thought of the situation from that viewpoint before.

They both stepped forward, and I hugged them both at the same time as we teared up at the reality of the situation we’d been forced to live in for ten years. After a few moments, we stepped back, and Atlas wrapped his arm around my shoulders and pulled me into a hug. I hadn’t realized he had moved so close, but he hadn’t grumbled during our hug, so what I’d said must have affected him too.

I wrapped my arms around him and ran my hands up and down his back until he relaxed some and pulled back. He turned and surveyed the men in front of us.

“I want to thank you both for everything that you did for my mate in Red Stone. When no one else was willing to oppose their Alphas, you both, Betas at that, tried to do what you could even though it eventually got you both exiled. Thank you.” He said, and I knew he meant it. We were all silent for a moment and it was a bit tense as everyone thought about everything I’d been through. James suddenly stepped forward, clapping his hands together before speaking.

“So… about that lunch?” He asked, and we all burst out laughing as he winked at me. I nodded slightly at him, grateful that he had noticed how much I was affected and knew how to draw attention away from my past.