The Healer Luna

CHAPTER TWO

FIONA

It’s a dream. A horrible, horrible dream.

Any moment from now, I thought to myself, I am going to open my eyes and find myself back at camp.

But it was not a dream.

And when I opened my eyes, I was indeed back home and my husband was still in our bed, making love to another woman.

They were so engrossed in it that they didn’t even notice me coming in so they didn’t stop. I had to stand there, frozen in shock for what felt like forever, watching them.

Damien had his back to me and so she saw me first.

With her legs still wrapped around his waist, a slow, confident smirk spread across her face. Then with her eyes locked on mine, she dug her nails into his shoulders and threw her head backwards, moaning loudly.

“Oh goddess, yes! Yes!! Don’t stop!!”

“You like that baby?” Damien growled, driving her harder into the bed. “You like that?”

It was the sound of his voice that finally broke me out of the spell.

All those months away, all those nights I spent dreaming about what it would be like to hear my husband’s voice again.

“Damien?” I called out softly and my voice, thinner than I had ever heard it before broke on his name.

He froze and his head snapped towards me.

“Oh shit.” He sighed and slowly rolled off the woman beneath him.

I don’t even notice him getting up, or his attempts to cover up. All of my attention remained fixed on the woman still lying in my bed, covering her naked body with my bed sheets and smirking up at me, like I was the intruder.

“Damien what’s going on?” I croaked in disbelief as the woman crawled across the bed to wrap her hands around my husband’s neck.

“Damien, Baby,” she pouted. “You promised that I wouldn’t have to deal with…” she paused and glared at me from head to toe. “That.”

Damien? Baby?

Am I losing my mind?

Damien, who at some point had the decency to pull on his pants, gently unwrapped her arms from around him.

“I know, my love,” He said to her, then looked at me and sighed. “I’ll handle it.”

My love?

That’s what he calls me.

I pinched my arm again, hard enough for it to hurt, hard enough to draw blood. But not even the pain of doing that could compare to the way my chest felt like it would cave in on itself.

I wanted to scream.

I wanted to rush at both of them with a knife and carve their treacherous hearts from their howl-cursed chests.

But all I could do was stand there, tears rolling down my eyes as my husband grabbed my elbow and dragged me from the doorway of my own master bedroom and out into the hallway like a stranger.

I looked up at him, so hurt and so angry that I could barely speak. My hands were shaking so hard that I had to bunch them in fists to keep them still.

Damien closed the door of our bedroom behind him with a quiet click.

“Why didn’t you send word that you were returning home?”

I couldn’t believe my ears.

Did I die and wake up in hell?

On the day of our wedding, we both swore an oath before the moon goddess, that no matter what, we would never leave each other. The seal on an oath sworn to the moon goddess was as binding as a mate bond.

Suddenly everything that happened to me at camp made sense.

The reason I felt like I was dying, the reason I had passed out, was because my goddamn husband was busy sleeping with another woman

I opened my mouth and all I could say was “Why?”

Why did you do this to me?

Damien set his jaw. There wasn’t even pity in his eyes. “You left.” He said. “You abandoned me. Abandoned the pack and for what? So you could run around playing nurse to a bunch of soldiers?”

It felt like someone was squeezing the air from my lungs.

“Damien, you supported me.” I stabbed my finger in his chest. “You asked me to go.”

Damien rolled his eyes and threw his hands in the air. “That was because I thought you’d be gone for a few days, a week at most. I thought you were bored and needed some entertainment.”

“Entertainment?” I gasped in disbelief. “There are people dying on the frontlines, warriors, some of them your men, fighting to protect our borders and you thought it was entertainment?”

“Oh there she is,” Damien sneered, moving around me. “Little miss perfect. You’re a saint and the rest of us are sinners who don’t care about the weak and helpless.”

I blinked at him in shock, my eyes stinging.

“But you said you were proud of me?”

“I did. But that was when I thought you were something to brag about. My wife the doctor. But then you left and you turned me into a joke.”

Who was this stranger in my husband’s body?

I shook my head. I wanted to stop the tears streaming down my face but it wouldn’t stop.

“Is that why you’re doing this, sleeping with some random woman, because you’re angry at me?”

“Her name is Serena.” Damien snapped.

“Luna Serena.”

I turned to see her resting against the edge of the door. She had put on fresh lipstick and ran a comb through her hair so that it fell across her exposed shoulder in dark, silky waves. A plush robe was wrapped around her curvy body and when she walked, you could see the smooth olive tan of her long legs.

Next to her, in my shirt and skirt wrinkled from travelling and mascara running down my face, I looked like a pauper.

She walked up to Damien, who wrapped his arm around her waist. She leaned into him, resting her hand on his chest before turning to look down her nose at me.

“You will address me with my proper title or you will not address me at all. Tell her Damien.”

My jaw hanging open, I looked to my husband. “Luna?”

At least he had the shame to not meet my eyes. “You abandoned your duties. Someone had to step up.”

“Exactly.” Serena chimed and it was like a thousand cuts were being made on my heart all at the same time.

“Okay.” I sniffed loudly, straightening my back and struggling to keep my voice from shaking. “Okay, I’m back now. I’m here and I’m ready to fulfill my duties as Luna, so send her away.”

Damien wouldn’t look at me.

“Damien.” My voice cracked and he still wouldn’t look. “Damien.”

Serena laughed, rolling her eyes at me. “Look at you, begging for the love a man who clearly no longer wants you. How pathetic.”

I ignored her. All of my attention was on the man who had promised me that he would never break my heart.

I clutched my hands to my chest.

“Damien, please.”

Don’t do this to me, Don’t do this to us.

Damien glanced at me, then looked away again.

“I can’t.” He finally said, his voice hard. “I can’t send her away. She lost her parents in a rogue attack. Do you really expect me to just kick her out onto the streets?” He scoffed. “And here I thought you were the kind one.”

“I am your wife!”

“That doesn’t matter.” Damien replied back coldly.

“Why not?” I cried.

“Because,” Serena pushed away from him and stepped closer to me. “I’m his fated mate.”

The words punched a whole straight through my chest and whatever air was left in my lungs was instantly gone.

I staggered back as if struck.

“Damien, no. Tell me she's lying. Tell me it’s not true.”

Serena laughed. “Of course it’s true. Did you really think a wolfless bird like you could remain beside an alpha?”

“Serena.” Damien cut in sharply. “Go downstairs. I’ll deal with her.”

Serena pouted like she was about to argue but then she turned back to him. Lifting herself up on her toes, she kissed him on his lips.

“Don’t be long, baby.” She said and he nodded stiffly at her.

She strutted past me, a smirk on her face and when she was close enough, her voice dropped to a whisper. “You should have died at that camp.”

Then suddenly she threw herself onto the floor with a loud wail.

“Damien!” She squealed. “Help me, she’s hurting me.”

“I didn’t touch her!” I yelled, moving back with my hand lifted. But Damien had been too busy trying not to look at me that he didn’t see what had really happened. Instantly he rushed to her side.

Serena clung on to him, sobbing loudly. “She tried to trip me and attack me. She’s too jealous to control her anger.”

I looked at her and something inside of me finally snapped.

“Oh, you silverbitten, den-shitting liar.” I sneered, reaching out to drag her by her hair.

But Damien was there and he shoved me away from her.

“Enough!” he yelled, glaring at me as Serena sobbed on his arm. “Serena is my mate!”

“You married me!” I yelled back, my voice choked with tears. “You married me and you promised, Damien, You promised. For f**k’s sake, how could you do this to me?”

I didn't want them to see my tears or how badly my legs were shaking but dear goddess it was so hard. So freaking hard.

Damien pressed his lip into a straight line.

“There’s something else you should know.” He said and Serena wiped her tears from her eyes as Damien looked down at her, the way he used to look at me.

Sniffing, she turned to me and ran her hand slowly over her flat belly.

“I’m pregnant.”