Filed To Story: In the Shadow of the Past Luna (Lily & James)
“Not yet. Alpha Randall ordered him to come back six days ago, but so far he has not shown up.”
“I bet Alpha Randall is not happy about that,”
Jessica said, chuckling. I laughed as well. “I am pretty sure I have seen steam literally coming out of his ears,”
I confirm. “Well, when he gets there, please let me know. I have a package to deliver to him. I will head straight over there.”
“A package? From who?”
“I don’t know for sure. There is no return address label on it. Normally, I am supposed to throw unmarked packages like this away.”
“So why haven’t you?”
“Because…. the handwriting on the label looks familiar. I may just be imagining it, but I am hoping….”
“Has it already gone through the x-ray machine?”
“Yes,”
“And does your wolf smell anything odd about it?”
“No.”
o “Okay. Hide it somewhere so others in the mail room will not see it. I will let you know when James gets here.”
“Thank you. Love you, Joey.”
“I love you, too.”
I cut the link, and sent another prayer to the Moon Goddess that we would not have to go back to our original plans, before we discovered that Lily was the Goddess-chosen Luna of our pack, (The next day) (James POV) And I am back. Here I am, standing just outside the border to West Mountain Pack. It is funny, years ago, when we would go on trips or to conferences, I-could not wait to come back here. This was my home; this was the place that I felt the most comfortable. But now? Now I feel like every time I am here I am entering the twilight zone. Nothing feels right; nothing feels true; everything feels like it is hiding something from me. How did I not notice all of these things before? my way to Sighing, I force myself to cross the border and make the packhouse. It would be faster to drive, but after the taxi driver dropped me off, I turned down the border guards’ offers for a ride. I could also shift into Luke, but neither he nor I are eager to get back. The long walk will be good for our nerves and for our growing anger. I briefly think about stopping by my waterfall, but I know that my father has had wolves watching my every move since I arrived at the border. The last thing that I want to do is ruin that special place with the guards’ watchful presence. So instead, I continue my journey to the packhouse. Once I arrive, I head up to my room. I know that proper protocol would be to visit my father first, but I have no interest in observing proper protocols anymore. At least not with him. To my surprise, Jessica-Joey’s mate- is waiting outside the door to the alpha suite when I arrive. She appears to be waiting for me. “Jessica?”
“Good afternoon, Sir. This… this package arrived for you. Normally, we are supposed to toss packages without return mailing addresses, but… I thought maybe you would want this one.”
Jessica hesitantly hands me a small square package. As I look at the mailing label, my heart sk ips a beat. “Thank you, Jessica. I appreciate it.”
I open the door to the alpha suite and Jessica turns to leave. However, before she can, I notice all the Stephanie portraits and mementos everywhere. “Jessica, your mate is downstairs yes?”
She nods. “Would you ask him to come upstairs. I am hoping that you and him can help me with a small project.”
Jessica looks at me curiously, but then confirms that they would be happy to help. H While she waits for Joey at the entrance to the alpha suite, I go to my bedroom, put my suitcase on the floor, and gently place the package on my bed. I am dying to know what is inside of it, but I have to get this project done first. I grab three large duffle bags out of my closet. Joey knocks on my bedroom door and I toss him and Jessica each a bag. “What are these for?”
Joey asks. “I want every single picture of Stephanie, and every single memento of hers, taken down and placed in these bags. Anything that will not fit, you should take down and create a small pile on the floor.”
I watch as Joey and Jessica exchange looks. They are smiling. I do not bother to ask why… at least not right now. Fifteen minutes later, the three of us are about halfway through removing Stephanie from the alpha suite, when I hear a screeching voice that I unfortunately know all too well. “WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU ALL DOING?????!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?121212212121212171*
(Jessica POV) Completely off the record? I used to hate James. I did not like who he was when he was around Stephanie, and I absolutely could not stand who he became after she died. Years ago, Lily was one of my best friends. I would like to think that we would still be really good friends. today, had everything not happened. I never believed that Lily had anything to do with Stephanie’s death, and I knew Lily was not one to mess around with male wolves the way James suggested. Losing Lily as a friend had nothing to do with my desire to gain favor with James or the other ranked wolves; I could have cared less about any of that. My decision to limit contact with Lily was motivated by the same thing that motivated many other members of the pack: James, Margie, and others in pack leadership made their threats implicitly -and sometimes explicitly- clear. we either ostracized and bullied Lily, or we ourselves would be ostracized. Not that that was an excuse; it was not. I always felt really guilty for cutting Lily off. I did try to be friendly with her whenever I could and no one was looking, but I know she still suffered a lot. I used to pray for her all the time, and that was even before she did what she did for Joey.. and even before I found out what she had done for the others. My prayers for her only got louder after I found out all the other stuff. When I found out along with everyone else that James was Lily’s mate, I was shocked. Floored, really. I was so proud of her for rejecting him, and for having the courage to do so publicly and confidently. A huge part of me wanted to stand up and shout, “That bad a&& she-wolf is my friend.”
Of course, I could not do that, but I could help her in other ways. When Lily stumbled out of the event hall, Joey and I followed her. Joey and I do not hold high ranks in the pack -he is a warrior/ guard and I am a regular wolf/ mailroom clerk- so we were already seated towards the back of the hall. It was pretty easy for us to reach her before anyone else did. We quickly got her back to our house and hid her. It was not until hours after we grabbed Lily and after I had time to really think through the significance of her being mated to James- that it occurred to me how much Lily could help our movement and our overall plans for the pack. Unfortunately, I knew my plan would only work if James saw the light, changed, and accepted Lily as his mate. From the beginning, I have had private doubts about whether James could do any of that. My doubts original plans. However, I learned a long time ago to always listen to my gut… well, my gut and my wolf. And for some bizarre reason, both my gut and my wolf had faith that James was redeemable. Sadly, without any objective evidence to back up my gut feelings, many of the more vocal members of our movement actively disagreed with me. In fact, when I first proposed my alternative plan, resistance to my idea lead to a few really heated meetings in which yelling and cursing took center stage. Nevertheless, after getting the anger out of their system, everyone in the movement unanimously agreed to give my plan a chance. Deep down, they all have the same goals, and no one wants war-whether it be internal or external. If giving James a little time offered us even a small hope of keeping our homes and avoiding war, even the most reluctant, pessimistic members were willing to give it a chance. I confess, however, that my own faith faltered as Sheila continued to circle around James and especially when she persuaded Margie and Luna Jane that she should marry him. I began to worry that, even if James himself changed, he would be too weak to stand up to his parents and Margie. I got a little more confident when James went to see Lily, even more so when he told Sheila to f&&k off, and even more confident than that when James ignored his father’s demand to immediately return home. Then, when James tossed Joey and I duffle bags and told us to start removing Stephanie’s pictures and mementos from the alpha suite, my original gut feelings finally felt completely validated.
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But…when I heard Margie’s screeching voice demanding to know what we were doing… I knew that this was the beginning of the ultimate test. Would James have the strength and ability to make things right, or were we headed for war? “WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU ALL DOING????!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!??!?!?”
I turned around with one of Stephanie’s many pictures in my hand. Joey quickly came and stood between myself and Margie. “We are just following orders, Ma’am,”
he said. “ORDERS FROM WHO?”
she screeched. “Orders from me,”
James replied calmly, coming out of the hallway from his bedroom. “What is wrong with you, James? How could you remove these things? HOW DARE YOU remove these things.”
t “Do not consider this removal. Consider this.. early spring cleaning.”
“I have omegas come and dust all of these pictures twice per day. Nothing should need to be cleaned,”
Margle replied, clearly missing James’ point. “It is time to put them away, Margie. You are welcome to keep Stephanie’s pictures and mementos up in your own suite. I will even allow you to keep some of the pictures and mementos in the main packhouse. However, at this point, it is time for Stephanie to leave the alpha suite.”
“Who do you think you are to make orders about what will or will not be allowed in the packhouse or inside the alpha suite?”
a deep voice bellowed as Alpha Randall walked into the room, followed by Luna Jane and Sheila. The weight of Alpha Randall’s alpha aura was heavy, and I burled my face in Joey’s back. “Should we leave?”
I mind-linked my mate. “Not a chance,”
he responded, “We stay right here.”
Although not relevant to the immediate crisis, I have to tell you: ever since Joey joined our movement’s efforts, he has been impressing me with how hard he has been working, how much courage he has been showing, and how creative he is in solving problems. Joey has always had a reputation for being a lazy, reputation is just an act. I mean, I always knew he had more potential than he showed, but he has proven the last few months how great he can be when he applies himself. If we were not in alpha suite watching a stand-off between the ranked wolves, I might actually be turned on. Anyway, back to that stand-off… “You want to know who I think I am? I think I am the only wolf in this room-except maybe Joey and Jessica here- who have any sense left,”
James replied to his father. “Do you really think I am going to sit here and let you talk to me like this? In my own home? I am still the alpha here, in case you forgot.”
“Are you sure about that?”
James asked in a voice indicating that he was ready for a fight. “Because it seems to me that Margie has been the alpha here for a long, long time.”
I glanced over at Margie. She smirked. “James!”
Luna Jane exclaimed. “That’s enough.”
“Jane, tell James that the pictures and mementos need to go back where they were. All of them,”
Margie ordered. “James…”
“What, Mother? Go ahead. Tell me. Or should I just sk ip the middleman and start calling Margie not just alpha,’ but also ‘mother’?”
“JAMES ANDERSON! THAT IS ENOUGH!”
Alpha Randall growled. James shrugged. “Fine, whatever. You summonsed me back here, Father, do you want to tell me why?”
Sheila came around everyone else and put her arm through James’ arm. “Actually, I will, Darling. I spoke to Margie and your parents, and they have agreed that you and I will be getting married at Stephanie’s birthday memorial in a couple of weeks.”
James did not appear surprised. “Oh, did they?”
Sheila smiled. “Yes. Isn’t that amazing?”
James looked at his parents with an eyebrow raised. “What makes either of you think that I would agree to marry Sheila?”
This time Margie was the one who smiled. “Beta Robert and I have chosen her for you.”
“I only agreed to marry your choice of mate if I did not find a suitable mate after a year. It has only been Luna Jane sighed. “Yes, James, but circumstances have forced us to move up the timeline.”
“And what circumstances would those be, Mother?”
Sheila squeezed James’ arm excitedly. “Well my pregnancy of course!”
(James POV) I could not help it. Sheila’s claim of pregnancy made me start laughing. I knew Sheila was going to try something, but faking a pregnancy with a virgin took guts that I did not realize she had. “Your… pregnancy?”
I said through my laughter. Sheila looked at me with fake outrage. “Yes, Darling, my pregnancy.”
“Who is the father?”
I asked, continuing to laugh. “You, James. I already told you that.”
I shook my head. “Right,”
I said sarcastically, as I finally started to pull myself together. “What exactly are you trying to pull, Sheila?”
My parents looked at me with disapproving eyes. “This is no laughing matter, James,”
my mother chastised me. “It is when she is trying to blame me for a pregnancy that I had nothing to do with, assuming she is even pregnant. Who is the father, Sheila?”
I repeated. Sheila and Margie exchanged knowing looks, and Margie in turn exchanged a look with my mother. “You are, of course, Darling,”
Sheila said sadly. “No, I am not.”
“Yes, you are.”
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Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?