The Eclipsed Life of Luna Mischa

CH 8

She changed into a simple grey silk nighty. She’d thought right, this was going to be an awkward four days, and now she thought they were likely to argue between bouts of her heat. She wondered if this was how it was always going to be when she went into heat from now on.

She’d not even really enjoyed it, though she knew he had, but for her, her mind had wandered and not been on what was happening. She'd kind of just zoned out altogether, her body just knew what to do, and did it when it was required to.

That thought kind of caused her chest to ache deeply right now. A heat was to help keep a pair bonded and close together, and she’d felt none of that. She wondered now in this moment, if it was already too late to salvage anything at all between them.

Although her heart hurt, and her eyes kind of glassed over with tears. They dried quickly today, was her heart already cold to the man and wolf that were the other half of her soul. Had she actually given up for good? On what she'd once loved and cherished, thought would be hers forever.

She walked from the bedroom to the kitchen and found Anthony standing there naked with an apron on. This heat she realized was nothing like any of her past heats. She walked over and made coffee as she thought about that.

Glanced at the clock to check the time, she knew her body well, knew her own heat well, it definitely wasn’t like it had once been. Nothing like in the beginning of their Mate Bond, when everything was rough and raw, full of wanton need, and her bouts would last for an hour or more. Right now, training wouldn’t even be finished, and she’d showered and dressed after they’d argued and had s*x.

That bout lasted maybe 30 minutes, not even her heat drove them into a s*x-crazed frenzy anymore or left either of them exhausted. Just two years of Anthony having a second Mate and here it was for all to see the dwindling of the actual mate bond. Her bout of heat was over in half an hour. She wondered even if she’d not been on birth control, would she get pregnant from a heat where she just went through the motions. Likely not.

She could, in fact, recall a time when her heat had lasted for hours upon hours, and they would roll around all over the bed, on the floor, up against the wall, fight their own wolves to have control and mate each other. She'd sleep like the dead afterwards in his arms and wake up feeling content and happy.

She wasn’t tired at all, and she knew Anthony wasn’t either. Hell, they had s*x last night and it, she knew, had been longer than her bout of heat right now. That spoke volumes to her. She wondered if he realized it or not?

She sipped her coffee, as she slid a cup across the counter to him. She wasn’t so rude that she’d only make one for herself. He nodded, what she thought was his thanks to her, as she walked over and sat at the table to stare at nothing in particular.

Thinking about her heat, she always had two a year, one every six months that lasted for four days, something Anthony had always enjoyed. Even today he’d come in with a smile on his face, but now, as she glanced at him, he wasn’t smiling anymore than she was. She didn’t think he was happy to be here, and there was that ache inside her chest as she thought he probably wished it was Christy’s heat.

She sucked in a breath, and he turned and looked at her. She knew why it sounded full of pain even to her own ears, and he’d caught it, no matter whether he wanted to be here or not. No Mate actually liked to hear pain come from the Mate.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, and she caught the worry.

She rubbed her chest, which actually helped the ache, and shook her head. “The coffee's too hot, got stuck and burned is all,” she stated and put the cup down as if that was it, just sat there with her hands around it as if she was waiting for it to cool down now.

He stood watching her for a long moment and then turned his attention back to what he was doing. “How do you want your eggs?” he asked after a minute.

“Same as always,” she commented, and watched him kind of just stand there with an un-cracked egg in his hand as he tried to recall how she ate them. 20 years of knowing what she liked to eat and how to cook it, was gone. Eclipsed by his new Mate’s preference.

She stood up; He was really racking his brains on how to make her eggs. “I don’t eat eggs, Anthony, that’s why you can’t recall how I like them.” she told him “I guess Christy does.”

“Hmm, scrambled with pepper no salt.” He answered her without thinking. “Sorry I forgot you don’t like them,” he sighed.

“It happens, I guess having two Mates is difficult for you to recall what we both like.” She walked to the door and pushed it open. “Oh, I like my bacon extra crispy, with a side of Halloumi with a piece of toasted cob loaf. Just in case you forget everything about me, and please don’t fry your sunny-side-up eggs in the same pan as my bacon or cheese. I don’t like that,” she told him.

“I remember now.” He nodded but didn’t look at her.

She walked into the living area to sit down to drink her coffee in peace. They were all things he’d once known and been happy to do for her, not only over the course of her heat, but on any given day. When they had breakfast in the suite together, after he’d ditched training, just because he’d wanted to get naked with her.

She wondered as she sat there if he was at all concerned about not recalling how she liked things, that he’d forgotten her preferences in favor of Christy’s.

This she thought was just like her birthday when it had come, and he’d had to put Christy off when she’d whined about him not wanting to have dinner with her that night. Even when he’d told her it was Mischa’s birthday, she’d still muttered, 'why can’t all three of us just eat together?'

He’d sighed and reminded Christy that he’d taken her out for her birthday and Mischa hadn’t interfered or tried to go with them. Not even when they’d been gone for a full day of shopping, seen a movie and had dinner out in the city. That he would be the same with Mischa.

Mischa had refused him, to his annoyance, when he’d come to her to tell her what he was planning, because she’d seen no reason to put a dent in pack funds for her birthday.

She’d stared up at him and his plan, and then had printed out the actual bill from the day of Christy's birthday, and held it out to him, “We’ll be in the red once more if you keep letting her spend like you do, a shopping spree of 40 thousand, are you insane?” had come from her.

“It was her birthday and an Alpha should spoil his mate on her birthday.” He’d frowned

“Oh, I’m aware it was. I’ve had plenty of them over the years myself. We agreed to a nice dinner just the two of us and a single gift chosen with love, and limited ourselves to two thousand dollars for the entire day between us. It’s the same for our Mate Bond Anniversary. Do you want me to show you what you spent on your anniversary with her as well?” she’d stated, and her annoyance had showed.

“No,” he’d sighed. “I just spoiled her a little is all.”

“A little?” had come from her. “You do it again and guess where we’ll be… Back in the red once more, and I won’t help you get us back into the black. You can ask Christy to do that with you, seeing as it will be her fault we’re in the red. Doesn’t she know the pack history and that we’re not super wealthy? In the black, yes, but it won’t take much more spending like you do on her to see this pack fall back to how it was,” She’d stated flatly.

“Your birthday?” he’d asked.

“I’ll take the hit for the pack this year. A simple dinner with just you and I. No interruptions from Christy is all I ask. Not even so much as a mind-link from her to you. Let’s see if she can do it, suck up what… two hours of you and I, spending time together.”

“She doesn’t do it on purpose,” he’d muttered.

“No, never.” She’d dripped with sarcasm and Paul, who’d been leaning in the doorway, brought in by Anthony because it was in that month where she wasn’t talking to him, and he thought he might need the Gamma to charm her into sitting down to have dinner with him. Paul had snorted with amusement.

That dinner had been in the pack's private dining room and three times, over the course of an hour and half, he’d been mind-linked to by Christy. It could be no one else when they all knew better than to disturb their Alpha spending time with his Luna. She’d raised an eyebrow at him. “20 minutes is all it took,” she’d stated that first time. “I know you told her you were having dinner with me and not to interrupt. I was there, yet.” She’d waved a fork around. “You say she doesn’t do it on purpose.”

Her birthday dinner had cost the pack all of $150 because she’d selected food from the menu of the pack's dining room and only had a small cake made; that $150 had been the flowers he’d purchased for her.

There had been no gift because she’d chastised him about spending money on other gifts when apologizing for his f*****g of Christy in her bed, and to him that meant she didn’t want another one. He was right, she didn’t. She had accepted the flowers, they were already cut and couldn’t be returned, so it would be a waste of money if she’d not accepted them.

They'd not had s*x that night either, just dinner was all, and she’d walked herself back to her room because his whiney baby of a second Mate couldn’t seem to not latch onto him the moment, they stepped out of that private dining room.

He’d frowned as she’d smiled up at him. “Interruption number four. I’m going to tag along on her next birthday the way she has mine.” She’d told him and walked off to not only his annoyance, but Christy’s muttered “No you won’t be.”

She’d heard him grate out, “f**k off.” And bang into his office. Dead silence had suddenly filled the packhouse, because he’d sounded more than pissed off, and she’d know it wasn’t at her.

She’d looked at Christy’s more than shocked expression from the stairs and smiled, shaken her head and then just walked away. He had offered to take a night walk with Mischa, which she’d agree to, but then told him only if Christy wasn’t attached to his side. That second Mate had not only interrupted his trying to celebrate his first Mate’s birthday on purpose, she had effectively stopped his further plans as well.