The Alpha's forgotten Luna

Episode4

The packhouse was never this peaceful, not even when brewing rogues attacked the boundary. The storm in Kaelan's mind was not loud enough for a quiet night as it had consumed his whole being.

Kaelan was walking back and forth on his office floor in heavy boots that squeaked on the wood. His werewolf’s voice was breaking through his inner words every time he moved a few steps.

“Still alive.” “You got the sight and scent of her. The bond was and is always there.”

And then, her image. “This girl,” Kaelan muttered, as he hand-cropped his hair.

Ronan was just standing near the door, observing. “Chief, I have seen lots of ghostly women but not this one. She is just alive. Bleeding. Real.”

Kaelan looked sharply. “But the children?”

Ronan was hesitating. “You have seen their faces. The same eyes as yours.”

Kaelan's jaw clenched. He didn’t need any negative thoughts. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw them—the two little kids standing in her front, strong and frightened, pretending to be very much their Mom's children.

“I have been looking for her for six years,” Kaelan said softly. “Six years, Ronan. I didn’t stop even after I found she had been missing for more than a year. We didn’t find anything. The council said she was with the excommunicated loup-garous.”

“Apparently, she didn’t go to the underworld; she must’ve run there to live,” Ronan replied in a low voice.

Kaelan remained silent. A tightness was felt by him in his chest, which was strange. He still saw her eyes—icy, bright, full of rage and something else which he couldn’t tell.

Suffering. And, loathing.

“You have tried already,” she told him when he made the offer to help.

He clenched his fists.

He said, “She really did it for so long, it was as if she didn't exist at all.” No tattle.”

“She must’ve gotten some help,” Ronan said. “Or maybe she didn’t plan to be hunted.”

The remark gouged him more than he was prepared for.

Kaelan slumped into his chair. The leather gave off a protesting moan. He looked at the empty glass on his desk and did not drink. His hands were shaking non-stop.

“I refused her,” he whispered and then immediately explained, “In front of everybody. Yes, I did it in the presence of the pack, and it was before the elders. Furthermore, I cut my tie off from her.”

Ronan’s voice became mellow. “You took the course you had to take at that time. The council—”

“To hell with the council!” Kaelan’s voice was getting louder and the echo hit the walls. “They forced her from me and the treaty—or at least that was what I told myself at the time.”

Ronan was silent.

Kaelan sighed, a sigh that indicated his exhaustion. “She does not just dislike me; she downright hates me. That was in her eyes, plain as day.”

“She came back still,” Ronan mentioned. “To her credit.”

“I never did get her back.” The concluding note in his voice had a grave effect. “It was danger that she followed, not love. If there hadn’t been a rogue attack, she’d still be ‘ghosting’ on me.”

Ronan heaved a deep long-winded sigh. “What do you wish us to do next?”

Kaelan sat unmoving, just staring out of the window. The forest was visible through the very dark glass, shining with the moon's light—that was; the picture was very beautiful but, at the same time, extremely sinister. Somewhere there, Lyra and the children were being looked after in the hospital.

"I really don’t know,” a man stated. “Part of me wants to see her still. Another part knows I am going to screw everything up again."

“Well, then, why don’t you start being honest,” Ronan spoke as if he were advising the stranger. “And if you are the kids’ father—”

Kaelan’s wolf within him growled. “They are.”

Kaelan slammed the table with his hand. “Don’t even dare to utter those words!”

Ronan put his hands up in a surrenderish manner. “Ok. But others in the pack will know one way or the other in no time. Having two kids with Alpha’s eyes trotting the territory? The Luna Council’s going to want to know.”

Kaelan put back his head, massaging his temples. He had had a headache since he spotted her.

“It can wait,” he stated at last. “Nobody will offend her. Nobody will dare to question her. It is my will that counts, am I right?”

Ronan showed his agreement by nodding. “Understood,” he went to the door but turned the handle to leave. “You still love her, right?”

Kaelan met eyes all of a sudden.

Ronan had a sly and slightly bigger smile than usual. “You always did. Even when you pretended you didn’t.”

Kaelan did not respond. But his reticence seemed to be saying a lot.

Once Ronan was out, Kaelan went back to the window. The wind had become more robust, rattling the trees underneath him.

He could feel her again through the bond—though faintly, like the beat of a heart he nearly forgot.

It was flickering in the middle of his chest, faint but alive.

His wolf's rage sounded.

“Go see her.”

Kaelan shut his eyes. “Not now. I truly cannot.”

He swiveled back towards his desk but soon enough, a light knock landed on the door.

“Come in.”

Beta Ronan cautiously opened the door. “Alpha, the Luna Council, urgently asks for a meeting. They got to know the woman’s presence at the boundary.”

Naturally, the pack was always chittering.

Kaelan sounded commanding. “Ten minutes in the hospital, you know, go!”

When Ronan eventually went away, Kaelan sighed a deep breath and in a swinging motion dropped himself on the chair. His fingers lightly touched the mark on his chest where the bond had left a scar and would sometimes cause pain. Tonight it was throbbing again.

“She’s still alive.” “And she is with your children.”

Kaelan was really focused, bending with elbows on his knees and talking quietly so that no one but himself could hear him. “I won't let her go again.”

The infirmary saw the smell of herbs and smoke when Kaelan entered the hallway. The healers had cleared the place after the border skirmish—except for one room. Hers.

Two guards were stationed outside. They bowed quickly as they spotted him.

“Alpha,” one of them said, “the woman and her children are in the room resting.”

“Any trouble?” Kaelan was inquisitive.

“No, sir. However, the healers mentioned that the woman refused treatment. They only managed to bandage her shoulder.”

He was furious but succeeded in suppressing his emotions. “What more?”

He signaled the guards to remain in place and then pushed open the door.

The room was pretty dark. A single lantern was burning on the table not very far from the bed. Lyra was sitting near the window, her arm being treated, the cloak still dusty from the woods. The children of an early age still enjoyed the night deeply and were warm in their skins.

She did not move when he came in.

“You ought not to be here,” she spoke softly.

Kaelan stood by the door. “I was anxious to know you were okay.”

“I’ve been more than okay for a little over six years without you,” she replied. “One more night makes no difference.”

“Lyra—”

“Settle down; do not talk to me like that.” Her tone of voice might be powerless, but her neck stood erect still. “You gave up that right.”

There was a pausing, then he moved leisurely to the other side of the room. “Your bandage is wet with blood.”

She gave a breathy chuckle, rancorous and fatigued. “You are very poor in your pity. In fact, you should be ashamed of yourself.”

“I do not pretend.”

And with that, he stood in front, shaking his head and keeping his eyes down. "If you did not care, then you would not have humiliated me that night,"Kaelan was emotionally torn.

He sweated. “You don’t know—”

“I know exactly what you mean,” she interrupted. “You opted for authority. You picked your council. Everything you chose was everything except me.”

The expression of the words was like a sudden blow. He could not even deny it. She was right.

“I was just trying to shield you,” he said in a low tone.

“By ruining me?”

While the blue light got even closer, Kaelan himself was standing right above the girl's head. "I thought I was saving you from being involved in the council's war. They had plans to make use of you."

"But you gave in to them," she said.

He did not say a word. No explaining would have been enough to get him out of this.

A faint whining sound was heard in the silence. Liora shifted and lifted her torso. Her sleepy eyes looked at the two of them.

"Mama?"

Lyra went hurriedly and knelt next to the child at once. "Oh, hush, it's all right, baby. Just go back to sleep."

Liora rubbed her eyes and noticed Kaelan. "Is he a friend?"

Lyra just stood there. Kaelan stopped breathing.

It took a while before Lyra replied. Then she murmured, "Just a man from the pack."

Liora, half-asleep, nodded and snuggled into her brother even more.

He was eager to go down and talk, and to come out as himself, but the way Lyra looked at him stopped him short.

"Please," she said softly. "Don't. Just don't."

He clenched his hands. "They need to be told the truth."

“They need to have peace,” she yelled. “Something, you’ve never shown me.”

He shut his mouth tightly, controlling his temper. “At least, do not send them away. The rogues will not quit. You and the kids are much better safe here.”

Despite Lyra’s eyes becoming a bit softer her expression did not lose its cautiousness. “And what about the council? What will you do when they ask about the children with your eyes?”

“I will take care of them.”

“In what way?” she challenged. “By telling another lie?”

Kaelan came closer until very few meters were between them. He said, “I will do anything necessary. I will not let anyone harm you or them.”

Her throat moved up and down, anger together with something else which might be fear or even desire. “Why now, Kaelan? Why after all this time?”

He attempted to appear unaffected after witnessing but his vocal mannerisms betrayed him. “Because I was convinced you were dead. And now that I know you’re alive, I won’t—” he paused “—I can’t let you go again.”

She just looked at him. The former tight bond between them was almost pulsating and definitely it was subtly glowing in the air. Then, she looked away. “You’ve already done so.”

He let out a deep breath, the words went through him like a knife.

The rugged road, the cruel roads; the four winds dared not take him, the wise man kept his distance.

Having the light put out by him until everything was dark around him, the young man suddenly heard the chirping of the birds, signaling the sunrise.

"Sunrise!" Lyra whispered with excitement and doubt, watching the sun creep over the mountains behind their land.

It was the perfect way to start the new day.

Kaelan the hunter, an outsider and a lone warrior, was the first to be affected by the very words of what was once sent off by the greatest musician of all time.

Few of the people probably saw his change, but the gods did not let it pass.

He smiled slowly and then loudly imitated a wolf's howl.” He had loosed one arrow as his head rolled back. And another. And another. And before his head came down or the third could hit his target, the fourth had launched. And, it was true.

Into the heart of a great lion.

Outside the sound of a slight ruffle across the soccer field was caused by the wind. It was a wolf that he did not know. Not one of his own pack.

Kaelan's wolf was stirred in him, prepared to attack.

"They are observing her." it said in a blur. "Your family is being watched."

Kaelan gritted his teeth with his eyes shining with gold.

“Then they’ll regret it.”