The Little Luna

Family

Luna POV:

Orion and I got mom into her vehicle with care. We slipped her into the back seat beside Celeste, I was careful to place my hand on her head as she ducked in so she didn’t hit her head on the frame of the car. After buckling her in I shut the door and took a deep, steadying breath before opening the passenger side door and slipping in, buckling my seat belt as Orion put the car in gear and started down the driveway.

“Why are we leaving our mate behind?” Ellie whined, her soft whimpers getting more frequent the further we got from Vespian and Eli.

“Because you may know what you are, and all of this may make sense to you, but my life is spiraling out of control and I need time to process. Just give me a human minute please.” With that, I focused on “blocking” Ellie away from me and after a moment I felt a sensation as if a brick wall forming in my mind and her whimpers faded away.

“Luna, what happened in there? Mom is acting like she saw a ghost.” Orion whispered towards me as he reached a hand up to adjust the rearview mirror, bringing Mom's face into view.

“I don’t know how to explain it, Orion. Today has been so long I feel as if it has been going on for years instead of hours. So much has come to light that I honestly never knew was possible.” I turned to look out the window, propping my elbow on the door frame and my cheek in the palm of my hand. Try as I might to focus on what mom said, the only thing in my mind was Vespian. His blue eyes, so beautiful, and filled with hurt as he watched me walk away.

“What happened when we left Luna?” Celeste demanded from the back seat, looking back over my shoulder I can see she has her hand on Mom's back, rubbing small soothing circles between her shoulders. Celeste’s eyebrows are drawn together in worry, and I understand how she feels, mom has never acted like this.

“Maybe we should call Aunt Flora?” Orion asked as he came to another dirt road. The pack was situated in a part of the forest we had never gone, a part we didn’t even realize was there. “Damn, I don’t even know how to get out of here!”

“I’ll bring up my maps app and figure out how to get home.” Celeste pulled her phone out typing in her password, hissing in frustration she threw the phone in the seat in exasperation. “Never mind, no service.”

“Go right.” Mom's voice drew all of our eyes to her. Her eyes were no longer looking into nothingness, she was looking at us and seeing us now. Mom was back.

Orion clicked the blinker to the right, even though the action was pointless, there was no one around, and pulled onto the dirt road. The rest of the car ride went the same way, we’d stop at a Y and mom would say “Left” or “Right”, but no one said anything else. Once we hit town Orion knew the way and we were home in minutes.

After pulling into the driveway Orion flicked the engine off and stepped out of the car, he was around at moms door before I and Celeste could unbuckle and climb out of the car, but mom refused his assistance, instead, she motioned for all of us to follow her into the house. The three of us exchanged a look and followed her.

When I entered the foyer I was last in so I closed the door behind me and kicked my dirty shoes off so I wouldn’t track dirt through the house. I heard Celeste and Orion in the living room ahead and to the left and followed their voices, walking into the living room just as mom pointed to the couch and told all of us “Sit. Now. I will answer the questions I can, and you will listen, carefully.”

We all sat on the couch, Celeste sitting between me and Orion as we watched him pace back and forth in front of us.

“First. Yes, I know about werewolves and Lycans.” Mom was now facing us, looking at each of us as she spoke. “Yes, I have known since I met your father. No, I am not a werewolf or Lycan myself, but your father was. A Lycan that is. He tried explaining the difference but we didn’t exactly get much time together. I thought he was crazy until he shifted for the first time in front of me.” She smiled, her eyes lighting up like she was remembering something wonderful. “I was terrified and amazed at once. Here was this gorgeous man, stripping his clothes off in the middle of the forest, convinced he was a half-wolf half-human man. I didn’t believe him until he went to bend and put his hands on the ground in front of him and before his palms touched the dirt his entire body shifted into a giant wolf. His fur was so soft and thick, and white as the moon, with a single patch of black fur on his forehead in the shape of a crescent moon.”

Her eyes filled with tears as she spoke, her fingers whiling the tears away and rubbing them on the thigh of her jeans. “He explained that when we met, that day I found him on the forest floor, he had escaped a prison where he had been held captive for longer than he even knew. He said he had stopped counting the days when they turned into months, and he stopped counting the months when they became years, and he’d stopped counting years when they became decades. He’d been kept naked, half-starved, chained up, and tortured.”

Celeste gasped and put her hand over her mouth, I saw Orion lift a hand to her arm from the corner of my eye, offering silent strength. My self, I wasn’t sure how I felt. All of this was shocking.

Mom took a few steps back and flopped herself down into a chair that still faced us. “He said that a string of good luck led to his escape and he’d run until he wasn’t able to anymore, and then he walked and finally crawled until he passed out on the ground in the woods from lack of nourishment and exhaustion. I found him shortly after and brought him home.”

“Dad was held captive?” Orion’s voice was barely above a whisper when he asked.

“Yes.” Mom answered.

“But, why? Who would hold him captive and torture him?” Orion’s voice cracked on the word torture, I don’t think any of us could fully understand what our dad went through, but just imagining it made all of us want to cry.

“He said it was because of what he was.”

“So who? The government? Were they experimenting on him?” Celeste asked through the lump in her throat.

“No, not humans, Night Walkers.”

“There is that name again, Night Walkers, who are they? What did they want?” My voice was low and husky, all of this felt like a bad dream and if I spoke too loud I may wake up without the answers I needed.

“Night Walkers are an elite group of warriors who, once upon a time, protected the supernatural world, helped to keep the balance between the forces of good and evil. That is, until they went from protecting the balance to trying to control the balance.” Sitting up and resting her elbows on her knees mom shrugged her shoulders and waved her hand in the air as if saying ‘that’s it!’ or ‘that’s all I got!’. “Your dad didn’t get to explain everything to me, that’s all he got to tell me before be suspected they had found him and he had to run. I wanted him to take me with him, I didn’t want to be separated, but he said if they knew he'd found his mate my life would be in danger, along with our pup.”

“Pup? Dad knew you were pregnant already? How?” Celeste interrupted.

“Well, wolf pregnancies are shorter than human, by 3 months, which is why you three came early but were fully developed. The fetus grows so much faster that you can test positive within a few days, and it only takes 2 weeks for symptoms to show. We found out I was pregnant the day before he ran. It was the reason he left me behind even though it killed him, and his wolf, Killian.” Mom smiled at Celeste as a tear ran down her cheek. “It’s okay baby girl, your dad knew about you, and loved you so much he risked his life rather than risk yours.”

“That answers a lot of questions mom, except one. Why do you hate Vespian so much?” My eyes met my mom's as I scooted to the edge of my cushion, imploring her to finish, to answer all of my questions.

“Because he’s one of them, a werewolf.” The last word was spat like it were a curse.

“Why does that matter? He’s a werewolf? That means he isn’t much different from dad? Right?”

“It matters Luna, because the Night Walkers, the people who kept your father captive and tortured him, the people who took him from all of us, are werewolves.” Orion stiffened and Celeste took in a sharp breath of air, both surprise and concern on their faces as they looked at me.

“But, that doesn’t mean Vespian is one of them! It doesn’t mean he took dad!” I defended as I jumped from the couch and to my feet, shocked and hurt. Had I trusted him too quickly? Had I been fooled?

“No!” Shouted Ellie in my mind, breaking down the flimsy barrier I had erected between us. “He would never hurt us! He can’t ever hurt us! We are the other half of his soul!”

“You are right Luna, being a werewolf doesn't mean he knew about your father, he’s even too young I have been directly involved. It’s the fact that he is an Alpha. One thing your father knew was that an Alpha was behind the order to have him locked up and never released, a powerful one at that to control Night Walkers. No Alpha is safe until we know which one ordered your father's capture, because they will want your deaths as well.”