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I reclined the bed into a sleeping position and felt myself fall into a dreamless sleep, almost completely content with my life. Tomorrow would be a big day. Everything we had worked on for the last few months would come to fruition. We would free my friends. We would bring justice to everyone who lost their lives in the massacre that took the lives of my parents.
I opened my eyes when I heard movement around me the next morning. Dr. West was reviewing the numbers on the monitors and making notes. He saw I was awake and smiled. “Good Morning, Luna. I think you can go home. I will draw up your discharge papers shortly. Everything looks perfectly normal. You and the pups are in perfect health, but I’ll be giving you some vitamins for you to take with you.” I thanked him as Markus woke up next to me.
“I’ve been given the all-clear,” I told him with a kiss. “What time is the meeting with the council again?”
“Ten,” he answered, helping me off the bed. We looked outside the partition. Danny and Maya had already left.
“What time is it?” I asked him. Markus pulled his phone out of his shorts.
“Eight-thirty. We should go change and get ready,” he said. He quickly mind-linked someone while I dressed. Dr. West gave me prenatal vitamins and scheduled some appointments for us, and when I was officially discharged, we left the hospital holding hands. When we walked into the pack house, Maya met us with a couple of breakfast plates, Danny at her side, munching on a biscuit.
“I’ve got some breakfast for you guys,” she told us brightly. A stark difference from last night, I was glad to see. “Danny’s going to set up the conference for the meeting, so you have some time to shower and get ready. Celeste, make sure you eat all of it,” she ordered, making me look at all the food on the plates. There was a lot of fruit, some peanut butter and toast, while Markus’ plate was full of sausage, bacon and eggs. I raised an eyebrow at her and pouted.
“Why didn’t I get normal food?”
“Oh, well, I kind of let it slip that you were eating for three to Mrs. Wriley, and she thought you might get nausea with eggs,” Maya replied, a hint of pink covering her cheeks.
“Well, I haven’t gotten any nausea yet, but tell her thank you.” I grabbed my plate and picked a slice of bacon off Markus’ plate as we headed toward the elevator. The doors to the elevators were closing when I heard a little boy running and giggling as Luna Kiara chased him through the foyer, one of our guards right behind her.
“It looks like having a guard while the other alphas are here really helped Luna Kiara,” I mentioned to Markus.
“Yeah, I don’t remember what happened to her when she became luna. Dad might know more, but I made sure the guard was aware that some of the other alphas and lunas weren’t very kind to her, and he was not to let them bully her. After clearing it with Alpha Troy, we put two rotating guards on her so she is never without one while the other guests are here. Unless she specifically asked the guards to leave her alone, they are to remove her from a situation if she looks uncomfortable by faking a mind-link from us. That way, she isn’t forced to continue an interaction out of politeness or fear,” Markus explained, then added, “She seems to have taken a liking to little Cade.”
“She sounds fifteen years younger playing with him,” I said as we reached the bedroom. We put our plates down and headed to the bathroom. We didn’t have a lot of time before we had to go down to the meeting, but I paused when I walked in. There were melted candles all around the bathroom. Rose petals led to the tub which was full of cold water, petals, and faint smells of oils still lingered on the top. I turned back to look at Markus, whose face told me he had forgotten about the bathroom.
He sighed when he noticed me staring at him.
“It was supposed to be a surprise after the party. To relax you after a long day and before a longer one. I completely forgot about it yesterday after you were taken. I’ll have someone come clean it up later,” he explained, and I hugged him tightly. We stood in the middle of the bathroom, not speaking for a couple of minutes, enjoying being in each other’s arms. We showered and changed quickly. I dressed in the chiffon button-down pink blouse and black skinny pants Kelly had pre-selected for the day. I brushed my hair and tied a half ponytail. I added some light pink eyeshadow and lip gloss. Markus sat on the bed, watching me get ready as he waited for me. I smiled at him when I was done, feeling my face heating and my core tightening at the look he was giving me.
“What are you looking at?” I asked.
“The mother of my pups. The woman who owns my heart. The mate I’ll be blessed to see next to me every morning when I wake until I take my last breath,” he answered without hesitation, turning my heart into a puddle of mush.
“Well, aren’t you feeling romantic today?” I teased. His chest purred as I started walking his way, but then I saw him get a mind-link, and he sighed.
“Everyone is ready for us,” he said, getting up from the bed, and we headed to the conference room hand in hand.
Markus
Weenteredtheconferenceroom and looked around. The alphas were scattered around the perimeter of the room. A small table had replaced the usual long one at the center of the conference room, where the council was already seated and waiting. Kelly and Rhett, both fully marked, mated and completely engrossed with each other as they waited for us, were sitting immediately to our left with Gillian, Danny and Maya. Dad and Marie were near the back, trying to stay in the background so they weren't asked to leave.
Alpha Geoff, Luna Luisa, Beta Trevor, Sandra, and Levi were sitting along the far side of the room in silver chains and surrounded by guards. Lucas was currently in the hospital, getting the liquid silver filtered out of his bloodstream at the council's request. He would never use his leg again, and it's not like he would need it. I hoped he was dead before the week was over. Maybe it was petty, but I was happy to see that Sandra was still covered in burns and looked like hell. Parts of her hair were missing and singed, and she was giving off the distinct smell of burned flesh, making even her mother, sitting next to her, turn her nose to avoid inhaling the scent. In my opinion, the outside was finally matching the inside.
“Alpha Markus, could you please explain the nature of this meeting?” Councilman John asked impatiently.
“I asked everyone to be at this meeting today because I wanted to request the council to open an investigation on the Blood Moon Pack. However, after last night’s incident and another from a few days ago, I now ask that immediate action be taken against them.” The visiting alphas started whispering to each other.
“What are you accusing the Blood Moon Pack of exactly, Alpha Markus?” Councilman Eric asked.
“Over eleven years ago, Alpha Geoff challenged Alpha Cory for his luna and Sky Moon. There was a massacre after the challenge that you deemed legal when Alpha Geoff alleged Sky Moon wouldn’t honor the outcome of the challenge. You based this on his word because there were no survivors from Sky Moon to refute his version of events. Alpha Geoff lied. He massacred the pack in cold blood, and there were survivors that day. Survivors he kept from the council and their surviving families. In the following eleven years, he starved, beat and sold the surviving members of the Sky Moon females.”
“That’s a very serious accusation. Do you have proof to back up that claim?” Councilman John asked.
“My mate and my gamma’s mate can both testify that they are, in fact, survivors of the Sky Moon Pack massacre and that all the servants in Alpha Geoff’s pack house are also survivors. They were treated as slaves, never registered with the pack council as new members, and then the she-wolves, when it was assured they were not mated to pack members when they came of age, would disappear. Through some investigation, we have discovered evidence that Blood Moon has been selling these she-wolves on the black market.”
“Show us, please?” Councilman Matthias encouraged.
I began explaining all the documentation we found as I went through the presentation. I showed the link between the sales on the website and the deposits into their bank accounts. Danny explained the operation and showed the video of Ruby’s rescue. Once he finished, I got up to speak, but Councilman John beat me to it.
