The Healer Luna

CHAPTER FIVE

FIONA

“The Luna will remain under lock and key until she comes to her sense.”

My entire body trembled with fear. “Damien you can’t do this!”

Damien ignored me, a triumphant gleam in his eyes.

If he locked me up my life might as well be over. I waited for the men to grab me but they did not move. Instead, they stood in a half circle in front of me. Eyes lowered, they exchanged glances with each other.

I was almost as stunned as Damien.

“Did you not hear me?” he screamed, like a toddler throwing a tantrum. “ I said lock her up.”

Still no one stepped forward and I let out a shaky breath.

At this point we had gathered more than a small crowd. Servants and other members of the pack, drawn to the sound of their alpha yelling and yet no one moved.

Then from the far end of the room, a familiar older woman pushed through the line.

It was Maria, the head cook. She wrung her hands in front of her flour covered apron, her voice trembled.

“With respect, Alpha,” She started, bowing low, her eyes fixed to the floor. “When the other doctors said my son would not see another winter, it was Luna Fiona who stayed by his side for three days straight.”

Another voice rose behind her, stronger, louder.

“She treated my maid after the rogue attack last year. Didn’t even ask for money.”

“And my mother.”

“And my sister.”

“And my child.”

I spun around, as the murmurs grew, my heart pounding in my chest and tears in my eyes.

Around me, no one would look Damien in the face, but they were testifying for me all the same. To defy their alpha for even half a second, it was almost unheard of in any pack.

And yet, they were all doing it. For me.

I choked back a sob. Damien could say whatever he liked about me being an embarrassment with nowhere to go. This was my family and he was taking them away from me too.

His face darkened. He towered over Maria, the only one who had dared to step forward.

“You forget your place, cook.” He spat. “Perharps a banishment from the pack might do you good.”

Maria shrank and I lunged forward, cutting her off from him.

“Damien, No!”

He turned on the rest of the crowd and his voice cracked like a whip. “This is not a tribunal. It is an order!”

Gently, I lifted Maria to her feet and pushed back towards the crowd. I turned to him and held my hands out placatingly, the way one would approach a wild animal.

“Damien, let us resolve this amicably…”

“Enough!” He roared and his aura flared violently. It pressed against every other wolf in the room like an invisible pressure against their bones.

They shrank back, some cowered.

He was their alpha and they could only stand against him for so long.

Damien’s eyes immediately landed on Elias.

“Elias” He snapped with a sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Take her out of my sight before I do something worse to this disobedient crowd.”

Damien’s eyes were closed so he did not see Elias hesitate. But slowly, he opened his eyes, and the look on his face was priceless.

If I wasn’t so scared for my life, I would have laughed at him.

Damien stepped closer to his beta.

“Imprison her.” he repeated, slower, teeth bared. “Your Luna has lost her reason and must be made to see sense.”

Elias lowered his eyes, looked away, and still did not move.

Elias who had always been loyal. To his alpha, to the pack, to me.

He lifted his head and for the first time, his always carefully blank expression had been replaced with something real. Doubt.

“Alpha,” he said quietly. “With respect…Luna Fiona has committed no crime.”

Damien’s jaw tightened. “You dare to question me?”

To his credit, Elias did not look away but I could see the way his shoulders tensed. The pain of defying his alpha must be tearing through his chest but his face remained perfectly still.

“I would never, alpha.” He said. “But perhaps there are ways that we can resolve this without imprisonment.”

Damien’s eyes flared. “She publicly rejected her alpha and in doing so, has threatened the stability of this pack. Do you not find that criminal enough?”

“She asked for a separation, not a coup” Elias replied tightly. “You cannot punish her for wanting to leave you. Not after what you’ve done.”

The words struck like a flint and the crowd gasped.

“Elias.” I whispered under my breath, low enough that no one would hear. “What are you doing?”

Damien’s eyes went cold.

“I am your alpha,” He said, his voice dangerously low and laced with the power of his alpha command. “You will obey me.”

Elias shrunk under the force of the words but he did not lower his gaze. He looked at me, just once and I saw the beads of sweat breaking out on his forehead.

Gritting his teeth against the pain, Elias faced Damien fully.

“I cannot.”

“You cannot.” Damien repeated softly.

“I will not imprison Luna Fiona,” Elias clarified. Despite the tremor in his hands, his voice was steady. “I will not let you punish her for defending her dignity.”

“You will not let….” Damien scoffed, too enraged to finish the sentence. Suddenly, this was no longer about just me.

Dear goddess no. I thought frantically. Damien will kill him.

Sure enough, Damien moved before I could blink. His fist connected with Elais’ jaw in a brutal crack that echoed through the hall and sent everyone else scampering backwards with a gasp.

Elias did not dodge even though he could have. He was fast enough, strong enough, and Damien was too blinded by rage to have been a hundred percent accurate.

Elias absorbed the blow fully, staggering back only a single step before straightening again, his hands collapsed behind his back. Blood trickled from a cut across his lip and yet he would not lower his gaze.

A beta defying his alpha. The Silver moon pack would be the talk of the entire werewolf world for months.

“You would disobey me, “ Damien snarled, spit flying as he pointed at me. “Would risk everything, for her?!”

Elias lowered his head, but it was not in shame. “She is my Luna.”

The sight of him standing there, bleeding and silent while Damien, moon cursed bastard that he is, huffed and puffed, ignited something in me.

I moved before my thoughts could catch up. My palm struck Damien’s cheek with so much force that his head snapped to the side.

The sound stunned even me but I did not give myself the chance to doubt it. Slowly, Damien turned his head back towards me. There was a streak of blood across his cheek where my nails had grazed him.

He lifted his hand to it and stared at the red droplets coating his hands. Shock flared in his eyes.

“You struck me,” he said quietly.

By the goddess, Fiona. What the hell were you thinking?

Too late now

I set my jaw and nodded at Elias. “You struck him.” I replied as steadily as I could.

The imprint of my hand was beginning to bloom red across his cheek and for once, Damien was too stunned to retort.

Then out of nowhere, a slow clap broke through the silence. We all turned to see Serena, descending slowly down the stairs, a gleam in her eyes like we clowns putting on a show for her.

“How touching,” she cooed sweetly, moving to stand beside Damien. “Luna Fiona defending Beta Elias so fiercely.”

My stomach turned and immediately, I saw where this was going, but I could not stop it.

Serena stepped closer and she reached out to wipe at the trickle of blood on Damien’s cheek. “My poor baby.”

I bit the inside of my cheek hard enough to taste copper in my mouth and looked way

But then she turned back to me, her voice honeyed and poisonous. “Perhaps this explains everything, Damien. A lonely Luna who never could sit still and a devoted second by her side. Maybe that is why she wouldn't even consider staying by your side.”