Luna Helena

1

Helena descended the stairs that led to the pack house foyer, only to find a great commotion surrounding the man who had been her husband for nearly five years. Mason, Alpha of the Moon’s Claw pack, looked up at her as she came down, and everyone around him followed his gaze, falling into a silence that Helena found almost funereal. She knew—without a word being spoken—that the matter that had summoned the most prominent members of the pack had something to do with her.

“What’s happened?” she asked, not taking her eyes off her husband.

“We’ve just received the news,” Mason replied gravely, though in his eyes there was a gleam that Helena, after almost five years of marriage, knew how to read. He was pleased—whatever he was about to say brought him satisfaction. “Your father, Alpha Tyrone, has died.”

Everyone present waited for their Luna’s reaction—expectant, silent, eyes lowered but ears perked. Helena looked around without reacting. Showing her feelings—whatever they were—had never been her way, not since she’d arrived in Moon’s Claw territory as the daughter of an Alpha who had had to sell her off to save his pack from ruin.

“The wake and the formalities of the funeral pyre are being held as we speak, in a ceremony led by your brother,” Mason added after what he considered a more than reasonable pause for his wife to process the news. “As soon as the mourning period ends, I’ve decided to formally submit the request to merge the packs.”

Mason’s final words hit Helena’s chest harder than the news of her father’s death.

“Merge? What merger are you talking about? What do you mean?”

Helena didn’t miss the discomfort her words caused among those present—all except her husband, whose hazel eyes now gleamed with even greater intensity.

“The merger of the Moon’s Claw pack with the one your father led until this morning.”

“You wouldn’t dare,” Helena exclaimed. “That wasn’t the deal. When my father... handed me over to you, the agreement was that Agus, my brother, would inherit leadership of the Moon’s Watch pack, which would remain independent.”

Mason shrugged and glanced around, as if seeking the approval of those closest to him—his Beta, Milo, among them—the only one who nodded.

“You’re the firstborn, the rightful Alpha. And as your husband, I’ve decided that the two packs will merge.”

“You’re breaking the agreement you made with my father,” Helena said, hoping her words—tinged with desperation—would strike a chord in the consciences of those listening. But she noticed that, though she was loved, respected, even well regarded as Luna, when her words went against her husband’s, loyalty rushed to his side. “I was given to you in marriage in exchange, among other things, for this not to happen.”

“I don’t make the laws of the packs, Helena. What I promised back then, I did so unaware of the regulations. But my lawyers have informed me that the agreement is invalid—it contradicts our laws. The packs will merge, and there’s nothing you can do to stop it.”

Unaware of the law?

Of course he’d known.

She might have been only sixteen when the marriage agreement was sealed, but she’d understood perfectly well what was being negotiated. She remembered—photographically—the moment her father had warned Mason about that specific condition of succession. Even if it contradicted pack law, he trusted that, as an agreement between gentlemen, Alpha Mason would honor the clause.

The time to honor it had come, and Mason was showing what his intentions had been all along.

“I believed you to be a man of your word, Mason. But you have no problem admitting you’re breaking it—even in front of your most prominent subjects,” Helena said with resentment.

“And I was willing to keep it, darling, back when I made the deal with your father—even if it was illegal. But things have changed. Your brother Agus may have grown in stature, but his soul is still that of a child—naïve and foolish.”

Mason’s words were harsh, cutting as the tension in Helena’s clenched jaw—but no less true. Her brother Agus had proven, since coming of age and receiving his wolf, that he was not fit to lead a pack, even though he too was an Alpha. Though he had the best intentions, he was naive, too trusting, and even weak-willed. But that didn’t justify Mason’s betrayal of the agreement.

“I can train my brother,” Helena said. “He needs a role model—someone to guide him, a mentor. Give me time, and I’ll prove that he can lead Moon’s Watch independently.”

Alpha Mason shook his head.

“No, my dear. I’ve already made my decision. I won’t risk your brother ruining everything I’ve built…”

“You? You alone?” Helena interrupted, offended by her husband’s words. “We built this together, Mason. I’ve been managing the pack my father once led. I’ve poured in my time and effort to…”

“Yes, darling,” the Alpha interrupted, “but with whose resources? Whose money, hmm? Have you forgotten that I’m the one who invested a mountain of gold to pull your father’s pack out of the ruin he drove it into?”

Helena was about to respond—that a considerable part of that ‘mountain of gold’ had been acquired thanks to her reforms and administrative efforts, which had made Moon’s Claw’s fields and trade more productive, and that their recent prosperity was due to her. But she knew it would be a waste of breath. Mason had chosen this moment, this audience, to make his intentions known. He sought their approval—or, at least, their silence—to legitimize his claim with the power of consensus.

“You dishonor your word,” Helena declared. “I hope your subjects take note of what you’ve shown them today.”

Before turning and climbing the stairs to her room, Helena caught Mason’s silent warning in his eyes. She had overstepped, and if he didn’t punish her right then, it was only because he didn’t want to humiliate her further in front of the pack’s elders. He’d already put on the show he wanted. Later, in private, he would settle the score.

Helena entered her room and bolted the door twice, even though she knew Mason wouldn’t come until much later—when he reeked of whiskey and the private wing of the pack house was empty—ready to ‘correct’ his Luna’s insolence. She had once been a girl, not yet a woman, but already the most beautiful and sought-after among the marriageable daughters of the realm’s packs. But not even her beauty had been enough to bind Alpha Mason to her for more than a month. When the arrogant, powerful Alpha of Moon’s Claw grew bored of her, he returned to his old ways—chasing any woman who fell for his charms.

And now, not content with having torn her from her family in their time of need, Mason wanted to steal her pack as well, while Helena, despite her strength, intelligence, and hardened character, saw no clear way to stop him.

“It’s me, Luna. May I come in?” Helena heard on the other side of the door. It was Claire—her Beta and best friend.

Helena unbolted the double lock she had placed just minutes before.

“I suppose you heard everything.”

“I came up as soon as I delegated a few pending tasks.”

Helena sighed and sat on the bed. Claire soon sat beside her.

“What options do I have, my friend? I’ve just lost my father, and while his body is still warm, preparing to be burned on his funeral canoe, Mason is already thinking of stealing his only legacy—after stealing his daughter too.”

Claire placed her warm hands over Helena’s, and though nothing would have pleased her more than to offer a suggestion, the truth was she couldn’t see any possible alternative either.

“Maybe... if I divorced him,” Helena ventured after a long silence. “If I were single, if I managed to divorce him before he can submit the request to merge the packs…”

“You’d be the heir and wouldn’t have to share anything—but wouldn’t that be even harder than stopping the merger?”

Helena looked up and sighed again, deeper this time.

“Yes, maybe it would. But that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t try.”