The Barren Luna

8 – Calum

T hings had been going to shit for a while now, but locking my Luna in the dungeon definitely took the cake. I grabbed the first enforcer I could find and instructed him to get a message to Lucy. I then made my way to the hospital while at the same time trying to figure out what the fuck had happened.

That female. She kept showing up at the pack house uninvited and at the most inopportune times, always complaining of one pregnancy ailment or another. If my Lucy hadn’t borne two pups, I wouldn’t have been able to see through her attention-seeking behavior. The Alpha, however, bought it, hook, line, and sinker. On the one hand, I could understand him, I had also been overprotective of Lucy during both of her pregnancies. On the other hand, how he was wounding his mate with his behavior was anathema to shifters.

Even before Lucy found the Luna passed out during their first breeding session, the whole thing had made me uneasy. We took the Luna to the hospital and spent two and a half days by her side since the Alpha’s order was that he not be disturbed. He almost punched me when I informed him that his mate had been hospitalized, but I think most of that anger was misdirected. I’d known Alpha Henry since we were pups. He used to be a good and honorable male and I had to believe that, deep down, he still was.

And now that damned female was walking around smelling like the Alpha all the time and there were some rumors going around, but I still had faith in Alpha Henry’s integrity. I attributed the smell to his pup growing inside her, and unless I saw something with my own two eyes, I wouldn't indulge in baseless gossip.

“Alpha, do you have any news?”

His eyes were wild and his hair was sticking out in all directions.

“The doctor will be out shortly. Calum, I don’t know what I’m gonna do if -,” he broke off, his eyes shifting from brown to black, his wolf trying to take over.

A pang of compassion hit my heart. I remembered Alpha Henry and Luna Ginny coming to this very hospital to bless our firstborn, Nora. I remembered holding her tiny body in my arms and being overwhelmed by love, fear, and awe.

I hadn't realized it back then, but that visit was the beginning of the end of our friendship. He started subtly distancing himself from me, and, in the thick of new fatherhood, it had taken me way too long to notice. By the time I had, a new, awkward coldness had settled in between us and we never went back to the jovial camaraderie we once shared.

How long had he secretly been carrying his pain of not being a father? How long had he been pretending to be an indestructible Alpha male? The doctor’s arrival jolted me out of these uncharacteristically emotional thoughts, and we both shot to our feet.

“Alpha, both the pup and Miss Rogers are fine. He’s a strong one,” the older male smiled kindly and we both exhaled in relief. “Miss Rogers is a bit bruised and shaken up from the incident, but she'll be fine in no time. I haven’t had a chance to tell her the good news yet, since she’s just woken up, so maybe we can go together?”

“Sounds good,” the Alpha said, blinking tears away. I wanted to give him a man-hug, to clap him on the back, to share in the happiness he must have been feeling, but I knew that wasn't who we were anymore.

The female, Hannah, looked like a porcelain doll in the big hospital bed. That peaceful image was shattered as soon as she opened her mouth and started crying hysterically.

“Oh, Henry, it was so awful, our pup! The Luna pushed me down the stairs,” she wailed and her tiny shoulders were shaking with sobs, and for the first time since I’d known her, I felt a modicum of empathy toward her.

“Hannah, don’t cry; he’s fine,” Henry sat down by her bed and took her hand, but I could see his jaw clench at the mention of his Luna. Hannah looked at him, then me, then the doctor.

“I don’t understand.”

“Miss Rogers, if I may,” the doctor cleared his throat. “Your pregnancy is intact and the pup’s heartbeat is strong and healthy. You’ve been very fortunate.”

“He’s alive,” she whispered, her eyes wide.

“Yes, we got lucky this time. I am no longer letting you out of my sight,” the Alpha was back in business mode and I readied myself for the assignment I knew was coming. “Calum, get two of your most trusted female enforcers and have them be with Hannah 24/7. She is not allowed to be alone for even a second, they are to accompany her even to the bathroom.”

I nodded while Hannah looked like someone was choking her.

“Alpha, you surely can’t be serious. I mean – I - ” she spluttered.

“This is not up for debate. I am not risking my pup again.”

“But Henry, it is only the Luna who wants to harm him and I’m sure you’ve dealt with her -”

“That's none of your concern. You’ll have a security detail until you give birth, and that’s final. I now have business to attend to. Calum will stay here until the enforcers arrive.”

I stepped out with him for a moment, uneasy about the topic I was about to broach.

“What should we do about the Luna?”

“I’ll take care of it,” he said menacingly.

“Alpha,” I cleared my throat awkwardly. I was not one to challenge my superiors. “You can’t honestly believe that Luna Regina would do something like this. There has to be some other explanation -”

“Calum, you seem to be forgetting your place,” I straightened my back upon hearing that. “Your place is not to question my judgment, it is to follow my orders. And don’t presume to know my mate better than I do,” after that, I bared my neck to him slightly and, with one last mean glare at me, he left.

I sat with Hannah in silence until we heard a knock on the door. I opened it, expecting the enforcers, but it was her father, Zeke, who used to be Beta before me, and his stepson, Julius. I motioned them to come in but made no attempt to remove myself from the room. Orders were orders.

“How’s my daughter?” Zeke hugged her tightly.

“I’m fine, Daddy. Everything is fine. Everything. The pup is strong and healthy,” she told them in that sickeningly sweet voice of hers.

“Well, that is great news, sis. So, when are you getting out of here?”

“No idea. No one’s told me anything yet. Calum here is in charge of my security until my two new bodyguards show up.”

“Really?” Both males turned to me. I nodded.

“The Alpha was adamant that the pup be protected,” I said simply, and Zeke nodded, knowing firsthand how both Alpha males and first-time fathers could be.

“Well, I agree with him, don’t you, son?” Julius looked startled by the question but quickly composed himself.

“Absolutely. Our Hannah banana needs to be safe,” he smiled at his sister and briefly squeezed her hand.

???

“Calum, please tell me you’ve seen her.”

I could see that my mate had been crying, and I hated it.

“No, firefly, he won’t let anyone see her. I’m sorry. I got updates from one of the guards, though.”

“How is she?”

For the first time in my life, I cursed the bond between us because I knew she could sense my sadness.

“She’s suffering. Both physically and emotionally. I’m sorry, little firefly.”

“What is happening to the Alpha, why is he doing this to her? For heaven’s sake, he killed Dorothy, he is completely insane - ”

I covered her mouth with my hand and stepped closer.

“I know, my love. He is,” I said quietly into her ear. “Which is why it is of utmost importance not to provoke him. He is an Alpha wolf whose pup has been targeted, and combined with what Liam told me tonight about his extracurricular activities, he’s been abusing wolfsbane for a long time, so his wolf has been unstable for a while now. I don’t want us to do or say anything that could endanger you or Nora and Declan.”

“But Calum -,” my softhearted mate protested, but my heart was soft only for my family.

“We will do everything we can for her, but we won’t endanger our own lives. I’m sorry, Lucy, there is no one in the world I love more than you, and I will not pretend otherwise.”

She put her forehead on my chest, and for a brief moment, all was right in the world.

???

The following months were hell for the entire pack. I had a lot of time to think, and I concluded that from the moment our Elders and leadership agreed on breeding a concubine, the pack had been heading towards damnation. The biggest blow was when the Luna stopped doing the duties she had taken upon herself, and things started falling through the cracks all over the place. The female single-handedly ran the hospital and kitchen administration and did a lot of the work for the school board and individual pack members who had no family. The absence of her care was felt by everyone and my mate took great satisfaction from it.

“Those ungrateful assholes. All these years, they took her for granted, called her barren behind her back, and complained about the pack not having an heir. They can all eat shit now!”

“Language, firefly. We wouldn’t want Nora to tell someone in school to eat s-h-i-t now, would we?”

She just grinned at me and shrugged.

“We would if they deserved it. Anyways, I took Declan for his check-up yesterday, and they were out of tongue depressors at the hospital, can you believe that? I don’t know how this pack managed before Ginny got mated to that a-,” I covered her mouth with my hand again and raised an eyebrow at her.

“Well, the old Alpha did a lot of the accounting work himself, he said he enjoyed it. Former Luna Catherine took care of the schools, and I believe Zeke was in charge of the kitchens and the vendors. That’s how he met Corrinne after his mate died.”

“Don’t even get me started on that trashy family. Can you imagine being so power-hungry that you allow Nora to become the breeder of a mated man?” she shuddered with disgust and I felt the same at the thought of my wonderful, curious, lively daughter striving towards something like that.

Lucy was unstoppable:

“And while I was at the visit, one of the nurses told me how the former Luna was going around the pack, telling everyone how Ginny went off the rails and tried killing the heir to the pack!”

I was stunned at the news. I didn’t think that the Alpha knew about the smear campaign this mother was conducting against his mate.

“I can’t believe her,” I exclaimed angrily, annoyed at the older female who always tried to tell me how to do my job.

“I can. She was always such a snake to Ginny. Who she should be worrying about is her unhinged son. The same nurse told me how he’s been yelling at people and throwing stuff in the dining hall.”

Those nurses were definitely in the know, and I made a mental note to myself to use them in future information-gathering operations.

“He’s been... difficult. I think it’s a combination of the wolfsbane and keeping his wolf away from his mate. My source in the dungeon tells me he visits sometimes when the Luna is asleep or unconscious.”

“Why would she be unconscious?” My mate looked startled and I hated breaking her heart.

“Many reasons. The sullying of the mating bond, withdrawal from the drugs she used to take for the pain, and she got badly hurt by Hannah once. But at least the Alpha put a stop to that because it was hurting him too.”

She looked so sad after hearing that. I needed to give her some good news so I hugged her tightly and whispered in her ear:

“Liam and I sent an official complaint to Colorado. He posted it this morning when he was sent to the city on pack business.”

“What did you include?”

“Everything, starting with the council approving the concubine, the lax prescribing of dangerous drugs under the Alpha’s orders, fornicating outside of the sanctioned times with Liam named as a witness, the imprisonment of the Luna on the word of the concubine without any investigation, and of course, Dorothy’s murder,” I listed.

Lucy closed her eyes and exhaled into my chest.

“Do you think the new King will do something about it?”

“I hope so. I know the wheels of justice move slowly, and the wheels of paperwork even slower, but I don’t see any other avenue of action available to us at the moment.”

“You are a good male, Calum. I am happy and honored to be your mate.”

There must have been something in my eyes because I had to blink several times before I was able to respond to her.

“I love you, my little firefly.”