Beatha (completed #7 of the blood moon saga)

18

“Thank you”

“Your welcome, aspen help him up”

I stand up and pull him to his feet, Luca groans and passes out, I’m itching to be by his side but Arthur needs me. I feel torn and annoyed that I need to choose but I swallow that feeling in the hopes once I get Arthur sorted I can go to him again. I give Arthur extra blankets and once he’s settled I go back to a groaning uncomfortable Luca, I run my hand down the side of his face and he moans, his body moves into my touch as it soothes his aches. I take a drink off coffee and smile at Arthur who looks at me funny.

“What?”

“It just occurred to me that you are so different from Jenna, you have 2 people to love yet you have the ability to love us both so strongly at the same time, Jenna didn’t love him even half as much as you love him. He couldn’t even be himself around her”

I shrugged and I try to lay back on Luca so he’s comfortable.

“And you? What was Eva like before she rejected you?”

He sighs rubbing the back of his neck then he rolls into a ball covering himself with the blanket

“She was beautiful, even before I found out she was my mate and even more beautiful when she didn’t talk. When she opened her mouth and talked it ruined the entire allure that was Eva, she was just so horrible and rude and I’d even class her as a bully, anyway when I went to find her to accept the rejection and I found her in bed with a man so I accepted and the link breaking hurts, I remember fisting my chest and I thought this is how I’m going to die but I didn’t. She on the other hand didn’t even feel it, after that she laughed in my face and I left so no there was no love lost between us.”

I can’t help the growl that slips out of my lips. What a b***h.

“It sounds like you got extremely lucky, can you imagine what she would have turned you into”

I shiver at the thought. I lay back on Luca as steam starts to rise from him just as Arthur starts to shiver, I get up internally groaning at the fact Arthur is out here instead of in our warm house.

“You should go inside, you need real rest Arthur and it’s cold tonight. Please I would worry less if you did”

He sighs and rolls his eyes

“Fine, will you help me up please”

I smile and stand to my feet, I pull him up and he is freezing cold, I link mum to come help him and she comes out the door smiling taking my place. I kiss him softly and step back, they go into the house so I pop a squat beside Luca, I lay in blissful silence for around an hour. The change was going steady and taking longer than I expected. But a ruckus from the direction of the new territory Caught my attention, I stand to my feet and get up as mum and dad rush out of the house looking rather sleepy

“Rogues, stay here and protect them both”

They didn’t even give me a chance to answer they shifted and ran towards the noise. I stood on the daybed to see if I could see anything but I was too short all I could hear was the ruckus. The stench in the air told me their was quite a few rogues. I was itching to join the fight and get rid of all my pent up frustrations but a noise from behind me distracted me from the burning desire to kill. Then the sound of twigs breaking on the other side had the hair on the back of my neck standing tall. I sniffed the air and I could smell them. I growled pulling Lucas' body towards the corner of the house, far enough away so when he bursts into flames he wouldn't burn the place down. Then I stand in front of him and the door. I hear a rustling again so I growl.

“I hear you, I don’t know what you're waiting for”

Me-warriors

Any free warriors get to the alphas house, I’m on my own and I am surrounded

I cut the link as 4 rogue wolves appeared at the tree line, I don’t wait, I shift on the spot with a fierce rumbling growl, I stand between Luca and the door

Me-Arthur

You need to get up and lock the doors the house is surrounded

Arthur

Fuck what about Luca

Me

He’s about to burst into flames I have him covered but I can’t protect him if I’m worried about you

Arthur

Be careful, I love you and you got this

Me

Love you too

They surround me slowly so I walk forward and they attack all at the same time I wait until all 4 grab me and I ignite my skin. They howl in pain as I spread my fire over their bodies, howls come from the clearing ahead. I just killed someone’s mate. I let my fire burn out and I take a defensive stance in front of my mate as a larger wolf comes tumbling through the trees in a deadly fury, I run at him and he jumps into the air and lands on my back, I jump and toss him off and roll Landing beside him. He growls grabbing my back leg and tearing it towards him, my hackles raise and I turn on him sinking my teeth into his back legs and tearing a lump of flesh, he whimpers Letting me go and I turn grabbing his neck and pulling his throat out, I drop his flesh and heave taking a breath but before I have a chance to relax 2 more come from the forest in front of me, they don’t even survey their surroundings they just make a beeline straight for me.

I jump into action meeting them halfway, I land on the first one and grab the seconds tail yanking him back as the first tries to tear a chunk from my side, he can’t but it doesn’t stop him grabbing my flesh and shaking me like a rag doll, I snap at his friends back leg as he tries to jump over us to get at Luca but I don’t let him making sure when I bite down that I don’t let go until I hear the crunch of his bone in my mouth. He whimpers limping away from me as the one under me continues to try Rip me to shreds, instead I pull away from him and he turns and goes to pounce on Luca so I jump on his back and tear a clump of flesh from his spine, he whimpers going down and I rip out his throat, I hear a growl from behind me so I turn just as a large red wolf jumps for me, I manage to jump out of the way and he turns tail and comes at me again, but this time I’m ready for him and I jump at him at the same time he jumps for me but from my perpetual vision I see the injured rogue run towards a defenseless Luca, I growl biting into the big bastard I’m fighting and igniting my skin just as the rogue lands on Luca, I growl as the red wolf goes down and the rogue bites into Lucas neck. I scream on the inside trying to get to him, my life flashes before my eyes at the thought of dying now after everything, the thought of Luca dying. I can’t even process the thought as my heart shatters and salt is rubbed in my wounds. I watch them as I fight my way to my man, but before the rogue could pull a chunk from his throat Lucas body explodes into flames, burning the rogue to ash as I sag to the ground in relief, I fall whimpering, overwhelmed by the fact I could have lost him too.

—————

Lucas POV

I open my eyes as a weight lands on my chest and suddenly I’m covered in flames. The pain quickly washes over my body but as soon as it starts it’s basically over. Whimpering pulls on my subconscious to move for some reason. A tugging at my heart and I just know something is wrong with aspen so I sit up and sitting in front of me, just a few feet away is beatha on fire whimpering, I crawl towards her but it’s like she can’t see me.

“Aspen”

Nothing….

“Aspen baby, are you hurt?”

I listen to her mind and I hear nothing but cries, what the hell is wrong with her? I look around and realise the wolf bodies surrounding us. Pride swells inside me when I realise she did this all on her own but the door of the house opening caught my attention, Arthur stands there looking like he’s about to collapse.

“Is she ok? I thought you died the pain she’s in, it’s like she thinks your dead”

He says clutching his heart, sweat pours from every pore in his body. I crawl towards her as Arthur steps out but leans against the wall looking around and he growls

“None of them came to her? She called for f*****g warriors and none came”

My head snapped to his and I growled, he suddenly didn’t look so sick anymore and a lot more like an alpha on a mission to put his pack in place

“What do you mean they didn’t come!”

“She put a request out for warriors, that she was on her own and surrounded”

My head snaps back to hers and anger burns through my blood. How could they do this to her? How could they listen to rumours and risk her life instead on getting in line

“Arthur if you don’t kick them into order I f*****g will and I mean really kick them in order”

“Tomorrow i'll call a meeting and I’ll kick people out for this you have my word”

I nod and stick my hand to her blazing head and I flinch kind of afraid of what the fire will do to me but it does nothing. I use my hand to rub behind her ear and suddenly beatha stops whimpering and her eyes shoot to mine

“Hey baby, look, see I’m ok? Please come back to me please”

She lunges forward and tackles me to the ground still in flames and she licks up my cheek and all over my face and head, Arthur laughs loudly pulling her attention to him, she gets up and goes to him but he steps back and she whines

“Your fire love. Your still burning”

She lets her fire burn out then she goes to his side and licks his face. He pulls back and looks at her

“Can you shift back now?”

She gives him one last lick and then shifts back. She looked to me and sagged in relief

“They almost got you, I couldn’t get to you, he had your throat in his mouth only you combusted just in time. I can’t believe It.. I just.. I couldn’t lose you both”

She falls on her knees and she cries her heart out, Arthur goes inside and comes back out with a blanket, he throws it over her shoulders as I stand there gobsmacked at just how much she cares. Arthur throws a blanket at me waking me out of my shock so I go to her and scoop her up into my arms, she falls against me crying. I carry her inside and to the patio to smoke.

“It’s ok baby, I’m here and you're never going to lose me. Not ever ok?”

She pulls me into a tight hug and kisses my neck

“Not now anyway. Not ever”

She says back, pulling away and lighting a joint that Arthur hands her. She shakes her head and wipes her tears as her parents walk through the door and come straight out to us.

“How many fought tonight?”

Arthur asks

“About 30”

Baylee answers

“Where was everyone else?”

“On standby”

Caden answers Arthur, Arthur growls a furious growl

“Get her dressed we are doing this tonight”

He says to me then looks back at her parents

“She was surrounded on her own, sent a link to the warriors for help and nobody came, Luca almost died”

Caden and Baylee gasp, Horror written all over their faces, I lift her up and walk her to the room pulling on a shirt over her head, and helping her put shorts on her bottoms half, I leave her to smoke as I pull on sweatpants and some shoes then I help her into her shoes.

————————-

Aspens POV

Nobody came and Luca could have died because of it. I was burning with anger but also with pain, pain that they hated me so much for doing nothing wrong, for being by Arthur’s side from the moment I found out he was sick and never ever letting him down. Why did they hate me so much? So much that they would let me die because of it. Luca dressed me in silence, I was in shock or maybe I was just hurt and exhausted but I couldn’t seem to get my body to move other than taking a drag of my smoke. I felt a link open up

Arthur-entire pack

Every adult in the pack needs to come to my house immediately, this is urgent and can not wait

I didn’t say anything, I just waited for Luca to carry me back to the kitchen. Arthur looked furious and it was actually nice to see him look so alive even if it was because of burning anger.

We all went back out the front as dad pulled the bodies of the rogues to one side and the place quickly filled up.

“All warriors to the front”

They all start to move at a snail's pace and Arthur growls ferociously

“f*****g move faster! you're not the one dying so you have no damn excuse so move it!”

Luca, mum and dad all snort but hold back their laughter, I’m so busy watching my dying mate be an alpha. Through everything it’s something I always wanted to see. I never got the alpha Arthur just the mate one and the sick on so to see him like this was refreshing and even kind of sexy,

Luca chuckles while he holds me obviously listening into my thoughts

“Was he always like this?”

I ask him not taking my eyes from the dominant male in front of me.

“Actually yes, he’s pissed right now yes but yeah that’s how he talked to them. Iv seen him call meetings in the middle of the night over a lot less”

I purge my lips looking at my man. He is so handsome, his eyes meet mine and desire burns brightly in his eyes and makes me shiver in anticipation. He raises an eyebrow at me as I clamp my thighs together, damn the look alone made me wet, what was wrong with me. He smirked then straightened up and looked to the crowd who were starting to settle.

“Who was fighting, raise your hand and move over there”

He points to the tree line, around 30 pack members take off towards mum and dad, the others stay where they are.

“Tonight we were attacked by how many alpha caden?”

“12, not including these 4”

“Actually there was 9, I burned 4 to dust and Luca burned the other”

Arthur looks at me shocked and then anger bubbles up and he growls at the crowd.

“My mate! Your Luna sent a link to all free warriors to come assist her because she was surrounded and as I see it only 30 of you have a damn excuse for not being here! What in the hell is going on that is your Luna, soon to be alpha. You step forward and tell me why you did not come to help her protect me and Luca who was unconscious at the time? Why did she have to fight 9 wolves on her own and kill 8?

why one of them almost and I mean had Lucas unconscious throat in his mouth while the Luna fought to protect me and him? What excuse have you got!”

The man around 30 looks to his feet, Arthur growls

“f*****g tell me why you were not here!”

He stomps his foot and the full force of his aura passes over the man. His jaw clenches and he drops to his knees, Arthur pulls the aura back slightly and the man stands forward

“Frank linked us straight after and told us not to go to her aid that she’s the reason your dying and if they kill her you will live”

I gasp and stand to my feet, Arthur searches the crowd and I hear a Yelp as mum pulls Frank by the hair to the centre of the crowd.

“Fred where are you”

“Here alpha”

Fred steps forward, he looks just as shocked as we are.

“Submit”

Fred falls to his knees and Arthur lets his aura ease of

“Did you know about this?”

“No alpha. I would never listen to that garbage”

Fred spits in franks direction

“At least some of you have some sense, you may rise. You! Why would you not come to me with this? Why would none of you tell me what he was saying?”

A younger man stood forward, Frank growls at him but mum grabs his arm and forces it up his back and it breaks with a sickening crack. Frank screams in pain.

“You can command me alpha if rather you know I’m telling the truth”

“Submit”

The boy kneels clenching his jaw, Arthur eases of

“Speak. Tell me everything you know”

“He told some warriors that he wanted the Luna to die, that if she died and you died he would become alpha, if we don’t let it happen that Luca would take over as alpha and turn this place upside down. I tried to run but he caught me and told me I wasn’t to come to you. Honestly alpha I was coming straight to you but he said he would have my mother killed. I didn’t know what to do so I just dropped it but I’m sorry Luna, I’m really really sorry”

He looks at me, my heart breaks at his face, he’s completely sincere. I give him a small reassuring smile

“Thank you Jack. You may rise”

He looks around the crowd again

“Where is Tiffany?”

“Still asleep”

Someone shouts, I roll my eyes. Of Course she is

“Go get her caden please, bring her here.”

Dad takes off towards the pack house as Frank struggles against my mum's hold, she chuckles and shakes her head twisting him awkwardly to an uncomfortable angle.

“Anything else I need to know? Actually Baylee, could you command the entire pack to raise their hand if they agree with Frank?”

“It would be my pleasure”

Her aura builds up and rolls out of her

“Submit”

They fall to their knees holding their heads

“Raise your hand if you agree with frank”

2 hands flew into the air and the air felt like it was knocked from my lungs when I realised who the hands belonged to. Greg and Susan the cook and cleaner. Arthur growled and pointed to the front

“Ask if they had an active role in slandering the Luna and Luca too?”

Mum asks them and it’s like they are holding their breath trying to fight against the command. But Susan breaks first

“Yes me and Tiffany worked on the females while Greg and Frank worked on the males, they would make us betas if we did what they said”

I growled, mum growled, luca growled and Arthur looked completely livid. I heard screaming coming from the pack house as dad walked down the path with Tiffany over his shoulder, fully dressed and kicking and screaming. He dumps her on the ground beside Frank and stands on her back with one foot.

“How f*****g dare you. I trusted all of you and you did this to my mates! You could have gotten them killed and heaven knows who else along with them. I sentence you all to death luca, aspen a little help please”

We stand and go to his side, I go straight for Susan, I liked her pissed off that she would abuse our trust like this. I break her neck so fast Greg couldn’t react. He screams in pain falling to the ground as luca goes to Tiffany

“This is for saying I came onto you when you basically stripped and tried to hump me”

He grabs her head and breaks her neck so fast Frank could do nothing but scream, Arthur steps up to him as mum holds him in place. Arthur swings punching him in the face

“That is for the betrayal”

He punches again

“That’s for believing your hoe of a mate instead of facing the facts and blaming my mate”

I smile as he punches him harder this time breaking his nose

“That’s for hurting aspen, causing her pain because of your greed”

He hits him again

“That’s for almost killing luca”

He grabs his head and lifts it so he could see his face

“This is for poisoning my pack against their leaders”

He breaks his neck as I break Greg’s, they both drop to the ground in a heap as Arthur sways on his feet. Luca catches him and holds him up.

“From now on if anyone tries to poison your mind from the ranked members you come to us straight away, from now on you will get in line and treat the ranked members of this pack and Luca and his beta Scott with respect and if they need help you run into the damn fire and you save them. I am so disappointed in all of you but I’m willing to let this slide. If you have an issue you either get the f**k of my wife’s land or you die. I am not putting up with this garbage anymore. I’m a dying man and I want my last days to be peaceful and not full of this bullshit. If you cause either of my mates pain again I will have you killed or declared as a rogue do you understand?”

“Yes alpha”

“Good, your excused, also I need a cook for tomorrow morning, raise your hand if you can cook because I don’t plan on dying early by accidental food poisoning from my mother in law”

I snort and chuckle as Arthur bites back a laugh. Mum growls at him and flips him the bird a small woman steps forward

“I can cook alpha and I’ll be happy to help”

“Good, be here before training, the rest of you are excused. Goodnight.”

I sigh in relief and go to him, he opens his arms and his entire body is shaking with exhaustion so I help luca bring him inside to his chair.

“Are you ok?”

I ask him worried, he pulls me towards him and stands me between his legs holding both hands

“I’m ok, are you?”

I smile, of course he’s worried about me

“Yes, but those were people you trusted are you sure—“

“—enough about them now love, we move on and don’t talk of them again”

He pulls on my shirt and kisses me, I moan as his tongue enters his mouth then he pulls back and yawns. I chuckle and stick a joint in his mouth.

———-

1 week later..

The week passed quickly, far to fast for my liking, Luca had decided to get plans made up for Arthur’s pub. He wanted him to see what it would look like before he was gone.

Amber had disappeared, both packs had been looking for her with no luck but all were aware she wasn’t allowed on pack land and if she was caught near the border she would be arrested.

We spent nearly all our time on the sofa or bed, Arthurs pain was increasing and my grandma decided her and grandpa should stay with us. She had to heal him twice a day now and even that was stretching it.

We didn’t mind them staying with us and they all seemed to busy themselves with the pack and the construction going on at pine ridge high during the day. Pine ridge high, that’s what we called the new school.

Arthur wasn’t up for much more than sitting or laying down and he was always so cold. It freaked me out. He was as cold as a dead body and the thought made me shiver.

Mum and dad decided to organise a family movie night and given the fact it was possibly going to be the last time some family will have the chance to see Arthur a lot of them made the effort to come. Arthur even taught me how to make his infamous poitín and I have to say it was a lot of fun.

When mum had finished organising it we ended up with Arden and fay, Paul, Jack, his mate Johnny, Luke, Ailm, isla, Megan and Brian, Scott, Fred, my grandparents

It had gotten so big we had to move it to the movie room in the packhouse. The cooks were cooking junk food and we were watching fast and furious movies because they are Arthur’s favourites.

The girls had basically moved in the last few days but we didn’t care. They were constant entertainment as long as they stayed out of my grandparents way, they seemed to have a burning dislike for the girls and it honestly pissed us all off constantly and Arthur was using them to prank all the people he cared about, he had them record their reaction in secret.