AllFreeNovel
Share Us
CHAPTER 30
LILY
I’d suffered too, but my suffering had only felt like days. Theirs had carried on for years. We were not the same, and our suffering and healing wouldn’t be either. Most of theirs had ended the moment they found me, but mine had only just begun.
My room was still the same as before I disappeared. Apparently, the only thing missing was a picture of Axel and I together, where I was wearing aviator sunglasses laughing happily, and he had his arm slumped over my shoulder, sporting a silly pout. I’d found the picture in his room the previous night, deciding not to mention it and let him keep it.
For the last few hours, Laura had been helping me pack. Cassius’s mate, I’d found out, which I guess made her my sister-in-law. A sister. I’d never given much thought on the subject since it always seemed so far away. Yet, here she was, with my brother’s second born suckling from her breast. How many precious moments had I missed?
“Does that hurt?” I asked, nodding towards the nursing infant, dozing off in his mother’s arms.
She looked down at Zephyr, a tiny bundle wrapped in blue blankets. “It did with Maya, but not with him,” she said, smiling down at him. “He’s a gentle soul, just like his daddy.”
I scoffed. “Gentle soul, Cass?”
Laura looked up, giving me a different type of smile than the one she’d given Zephyr. “It’s true.”
“Not the Cass we know.”
“Well,” she said, her eyes twinkling, “he is. He just doesn’t show it very often.”
“As in never.”
Laura shook her head, looking back down at her baby. “You’ll see what I mean once you’re mated to Raiden. Alpha’s have a certain,” she searched for the right word, “appearance to uphold. Showing affection or even empathy could be interpreted as a weakness by some.”
Cassius’s training popped into my mind; how harsh it had been, the things my father had expected of him. Laura smiled at me again. She complemented Cassius in every way. Where he was strict, she was carefree. Where he was unforgiving, she was gentle. Where he was serious, she was incredibly funny, especially around the dinner table; the life and essence of the party.
No, Laura was her own person, unique in every way. Nothing like my mother, and nothing like the perfect Luna image she’d tried so hard to enforce upon me. I didn’t know what my mother thought about Laura, but it was of little concern since the pack accepted her just the way she was and seemed to truly love her.
“He kinda looks like you.”
Laura brushed a finger over Zephyr’s tiny head and the dark fluff covering his scalp. Dark hair and a button nose, just like his mama.
“He does, doesn’t he? I’m hoping for Cass’s blue eyes, but if it turns brown, that would also be fine.”
Laura was beautiful. Her dark hair and brown eyes matched her golden complexion perfectly. Our family had always sported more of a pinkish undertone.
“Can’t have two kids looking like Cass when I did most of the work,” she said with a wink. “I mean give a woman some credit where it’s due.”
Maya, now almost three, had indeed inherited all of her father’s features, along with her mother’s bubbly personality. It made her a master in wriggling herself into anyone’s heart. The cutest little Alpha female I’d ever seen.
Laura’s eyes glazed over before she said, “your mate is on his way, I should get going.” She stood, reaching for a light gauzy blanket and draped it over her shoulder, covering Zeph as he continued feeding. “Let me know if you need anything else.”
“Thank you,” I said, and meant it. She’d been an enormous help, identifying valuables and other things I might need. The rest, she’d assigned to other families within the pack. It certainly made it easier for me to let go, knowing it was going to families in need. Laura left shortly after, cradling Zephyr close to her chest, safely tucked beneath the blanket, and leisurely made her way down the hall. To anyone else, it looked like she was merely carrying a sleeping baby.
Turning back to the two suitcases sitting by my now empty dresser, I wondered if we might have discarded too many things. Whether I had enough to get by. It suddenly dawned on me that I was alone for the first time since Blade Rock. The excitement was finally coming to an end, and I took a seat on the edge of my childhood bed, glancing across the room one last time. It looked so cold and bare. Wrapping my arms around myself, I sighed. This had been my home. Not only the room, but Hollow Stone as a whole. The grounds, the pack, all of it.
The pack. Most of them had welcomed me back with open arms, although a few had remained sceptical. I couldn’t blame them, but the way they glared at me, like I was infected with some kind of disease, was hurtful. People I once knew and regularly connected with had turned into strangers. They were easy to spot, by their tendencies to avoid me like the plague, staring at me without shame. Axel would lash out at them, chase them away with his Alpha-voice, but it didn’t make it any better. Perhaps leaving wouldn’t be a bad thing. A new start in a new place.
As newfound mates, it was customary for the lower-ranking wolf to move into the pack of the higher-ranking mate. In our case, Raiden was the Alpha of his pack, which meant that I’d be moving in with him and eventually become Shadow Creek’s new Luna. Even though it was what I’d always wanted, I couldn’t get past my recent failings. The echoing of my mother’s voice in my mind, telling me how much of a disappointment I was and how I would make a horrible Luna. Leaving your home behind was a big step for any wolf, even if I was basically just moving to the neighbouring pack, but becoming their Luna - that was a whole new ballgame. One I might very well be losing.
The last few days had been a blur. Everyone was so excited to see me again and wanted to make up for the time we’d lost, that I’d barely even had time to bathe. It was exhausting and emotionally draining, especially catching up with the family. Through it all, Raiden’d been very kind and understanding, giving me the time to reconnect with everyone before he whisked me off to my new home.
As if summoned, he stepped into the room behind me, and said, “ready to go, my Lily-flower?”
