Filed To Story: In the Shadow of the Past Luna (Lily & James)
“How could I be the father if I never had sex with you?!?!?”
There, I said it. I do not care if everyone knows. I never slept with Sheila. Instead of being ashamed to admit that, now I feel proud. Margie looked at me with sympathetic eyes, and put her hand on my arm in an attempt to comfort me. Wait… what? That was not the reaction I was expecting. “Sheila told us that you would say that, James, and I can understand why you would think that. Sometimes I have to pretend that Stephanie is with me when I am doing all sorts of things, too. But now that a pup is on the way, you need to be honest with yourself. I know it hurts, but Stephanie died a long time ago. The she-wolf that you have been sleeping with is Sheila, not Stephanie. Sheila has been letting you pretend that she is Stephanie, but that does not mean it is the truth.”
“What?!?”
I almost could not believe my ears. I forced Sheila’s hand off of my arm and turned her so that I could her in her eyes. “What the f&&k did you tell them, Sheila?”
Sheila started to tear up. Fake tears, but tears all the same. “Only the truth, Darling. I know it is hard for you to accept, but it is true. It has been me, not Stephanie, that you have been f&&king the past few years. And our love has finally produced a pup!”
“YOU ARE SUCH A LIAR!”
I growled. Margie quickly grabbed Sheila and pulled her protectively behind her body. “DO. NOT. YELL. AT. HER. Her pregnancy is high-risk. Stress could hurt the pup. YOUR PUP.”
I ran my hands through my hair in frustration. This situation was getting insane. I had clearly underestimated Sheila. “Fine You do not want to believe me? Let’s take a paternity test.”
“Did you not hear what I said, James? Margie said, still using a raised voice. “She is high risk. A paternity test at this stage could hurt the pup. We will not make her take that risk simply because you are being stubborn. Stephanie would not want that.”
“Then we take the paternity test after the pup is born.”
“If that will make you feel better, fine. But you will get married first,”
my father stated. “Why would I do that?”
“Because whether you like it or not, the pup in Sheila’s belly is your heir. If you are not married when the pup is born, the pup will have to go through multiple hurdles to claim its rightful place. And on top of that, Sheila’s European family would likely disown her and demand their alpha end the treaty we have with their pack. After losing the alliances that we had with Red River and Black Moon, we cannot afford to lose any more,”
my mother explained.
I looked at Sheila in anger and disbelief. “You really did think of everything, didn’t you? I assume you also have a reason planned out as to why I should be required to mark you before the pup is born?”
Sheila gave me an evil smile, but only I could see it because she was still pretending to hide behind
Margle.
“Yes, you would have to mark her, James,”
my mother answered for Sheila. “Bearing a mate’s mark will help strengthen her pregnancy and help you adjust to married life sooner.”
“What married life, Mother?”
I asked. “I am not marrying Sheila. Not now, not ever.”
“YOU WILL MARRY HER, JAMES,”
my father growled. “I understand that you do not like it, but YOU WILL
DO IT.”
“How exactly do you think you are going to enforce that order, Father? What are you going to do? Alpha-
command me to marry her?”
I taunted him.
Alpha-commands are amazing things, but they are not without their limits. A marriage that occurs because of an alpha-order is automatically void, and on top of that, any alpha who attempts to force a marriage using one can be brought up on charges before the werewolf council.
“YOU. WILL, MARRY. SHEILA.”
My father growled again, ignoring my taunt. “Everyone in this pack knows that you have been sleeping with her, and she is now pregnant. Actions have consequences, James.
Marrying her is yours.”
“Listen to me, Father, for once in your life. Listen to ME, YOUR SON and not Margie or Sheila. I never slept with that b&&ch, and her pup-if there even is one is not mine.”
“Her pup is vo your heir, James,”
my mother pleaded with me, tears in her eyes. “Please. I know how hard it is for you to accept; Sheila and Margie explained the situation to us. I believe you believe that you never slept with Sheila. But you did, James, and that pup is your heir. We need to protect that pup at all costs.”
“Just like you protected me?”
I fired back.
I knew that was a low blow, and it triggered my father to make exactly the threat that I had been expecting from him since before I came back:
“THE HEIR OF THIS PACK WILL NOT BE BORN OUT OF WEDLOCK. I WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO FORCE
PACK TO GO THROUGH THE ALPHA CHALLENGES JUST TO TAKE WHAT
THE RIGHTFUL HEIR OFT
IS RIGHTFULLY THEIRS. ‘You either marry Sheila, or I will turn the pack over to Nick. Period, end of discussion.”
was about to tell my father to go ahead and name Nick his heir, when Joey suddenly spoke up.
“Sheila’s pup is not the heir. My… my cousin Mary Beth is carrying James’ pup too. Mary Beth is already showing, so I think’she is further along than Sheila, which would make her pup his heir.”
Suddenly, you could hear a pin drop in the suite.
“WHAT?!?!”
my mother exclaimed after a few seconds. “James… James, is this true?”
I gave a dirty look to Joey, and then took a moment to collect my thoughts.
“Well, mother, I will put it this way: The likelihood that Mary Beth is carrying my heir is the same, if not greater, than the chance that Sheila is.”
My mother sank down on a chair, trying to catch her breath as she began to have a panic attack. My father immediately went over to her and began rubbing her back, trying to calm her down. He then looked at me.
“James, I will meet you in my office in 30 minutes. We will not continue this conversation here, in front of everyone. You and I will talk privately, and we will discuss the path forward.”
(Alpha Brady POV) Life at Black Moon has not been the same without Lily. I miss her smile, her laugh… just her presence. around me. I am kicking myself for letting her go. How could I get angry with her for what happened between her and James, knowing personally how hard it is to ignore the mate bond? How could I then go a step further and give her the silent treatment and angrily accuse her of sleeping with him, as though I had the right to control her? I know I felt hurt and betrayed, but Lily did not want to see James in the first place, and she ultimately left Hawaii with me and not him. Surely, those two things meant something; I should have recognized that and handled my fears and concerns better than how I did. Instead, I let Lily feel like I wanted her to be Evelyn’s replacement. What an idiot I was. When she seemed fixated on how similar she and Evelyn looked, why did I not take the time to explain the differences between them? Or at least explain why I feel so strongly for Lily? > Worse, when we came back from Hawaii, why did I let two weeks go by without personally checking on and talking to her? d very w I made so. many, mistakes. And now, she be in danger. The intelligence indicated that our enemies knew that Lily was at Black Moon. I pray to the Moon Goddess that they did not somehow find her as she left. I also pray that she will reach out to me soon to let me know that she is doing okay. The night that I discovered that she was gone, I carried through with my initial instinct of firing every last guard who had been tasked with her security. That meant letting go a total of 18 officers. I also alpha- ordered them not to discuss Lily, her disappearance, or anything having to do with her with anyone. | The more that time goes on, I wonder if I went far enough. Most alphas try to avoid using alpha orders/ commands except in all but the most serious situations. The weight of the command can do a number on wolves with weaker constitutions, who are pregnant, or who are dealing with certain health conditions. Using the command to force a wolf to NOT do something is generally considered to be much easier on a body than using the command to affirmatively get a wolf to do or say something. Prolonged use of an alpha command -for example, during an interview- can require a couple of days of rest for a strong wolf, and a couple of days of hospitalization for a weaker one. As a result, overusing the alpha command is a quick way to alienate members of your pack. Even so, a part of me wonders if I should have gone ahead and interviewed my security team while they were under one. It is difficult for me to believe my security team truly could have been so incompetent to not notice when Lily left, and to not become concerned when she did not come out of her room for two believe that they were that incompetent than to believe that one or more of them intentionally loosened security or turned the other cheek in order to make it easier for our enemies. ou could If my instinct is right, that would also explain how the enemies learned not only about Lily, but more importantly about Rose. Lily and I were really careful about when and where she shifted, and you only see the special mark on Rose if you were within somewhat close range. For the enemies to know about it tells me that there is a leak somewhere. I do not want to believe that the leak is within my own pack, but what if it is?
I have sent two of my best trackers out to look for Lily. I cannot send more out without potentially alerting the enemy to Lily being missing. If they are unable to find something within the next two weeks, I will have to pull the 18 former officers in and do the alpha-command interviews. I would consider doing it now, but the process is time-consuming, and Sammy is arriving to Black Moon in less than an hour. He has a two-week winter break from school, and he is going to be spending the entire break here with me. As always, I am going to spend every single second that I can with him. I wish Lily was here to meet him. Perhaps we will find her before he leaves. Until then, I pray that the Moon Goddess continues to keep her safe. (James POV) After my father asked everyone to leave so that he could care for my mother, I grabbed the three duffle bags and went to my room. I took the duffle bags for a very simple reason: I wanted to make sure that Margie did not have Stephanie’s pictures and mementos hung back up while my back was turned. Even though my father is right that he is the alpha and I technically have no authority over how the alpha suite is decorated, I am not ready to stop fighting about this issue. My father ordered me to come to his office in 30 minutes, so I grabbed my phone and set the timer for 45 minutes. I then laid back on my bed, thinking about what had just happened. Sheila claims to be pregnant, and she has come up with goddess-knows-what story to force me to marry and mark her quickly, before any of her claims can be verified. Between what Lily told me and what I learned during the interviews with the five wolves Dr. Hyder sent me to, I knew that Sheila was not to be trusted. But, wow I had no idea just how evil and underhanded she could be. In hindsight, I should have suggested that my father alpha-order her to tell the truth, but once Margie began talking nonsense about Sheila’s pregnancy being high-risk, I knew that my father would never do it. Strangely, Sheila’s fake pregnancy and story was not even the most surprising part of the incident that just happened. The most surprising part had to do with what Joey did. Joey has acted very strangely since he was assigned to accompany me to Hawail. He lied to Sheila about receiving orders from my mother to sit by me on the airplane; he took efforts to distract Sheila so that I could “relax”
; he asked me if I was bringing Lily back with me from Hawaii; and he and Jessica exchanged happy looks when I asked them for help removing Stephanie’s pictures and mementos from On top of all of that, Dr. Hyder somehow knew what I told Sheila when I left Hawaii. Dr. Hyder told me he did not talk to my parents, and I do not believe for a second that he talked to Sheila… was it possible that he talked to Joey, who of course was the wolf I used to relay the message to Sheila? Dr. Hyder did say that he had sources in all places. I had already been letting all of those things mull around in my head when Joey surprised me -okay, everyone-by announcing that I had gotten his cousin Mary Beth pregnant. Now I was 100% sure that Joey knew something, and he has moved to the top of my list of wolves I need to talk to, right after I deal with my father. ot even Sighing, I rolled over. When I did so, I noticed the package I had carefully laid down on my bed not an hour ago. I felt my heart start to beat quickly as I sat up and reached for it.
I ran my fingers over the handwriting on the mailing label, pleading with myself not to get my hopes up. The handwriting looked familiar, but technically it could be anyone, right? I mean, lots of she-wolves have similar handwriting, and there was not enough on the label to really be sure. After a couple of minutes, I finally convinced myself to open the package. Inside I found two items: a red, orange, and white baseball jersey; and a framed picture of the most recent Arkansas Wolf Packers professional baseball team that had been signed by all of the players. I smiled as I looked at the items, because I knew immediately that Lily had sent them. I had never talked to anyone else about my love for that team. I pulled out the jersey and looked at it, noticing that it had “J. Anderson”
printed on the back. I held it up to my nose, hoping it had some of Lily’s scent on it. Unfortunately, it did not. I then pulled out the framed team picture and examined it. Nothing stood out about it —other than it being really incredibly cool- until I was about to put it back in the box. That is when handwriting on the back of the frame caught my attention. I turned the frame over and noticed a phone number. My heart pounding hard, I pulled out my phone and quickly typed a text. Me: “Lily?”
I waited… and waited… and waited. Then finally, I got a response. Lily: “Hi, James.”
Me: “It is you!”
Lily: “Yes. [smiling face emoji] I decided to go ahead and get a phone.”
Me: “You have no idea how happy I am to hear from you.”
Lily: “I assume this means that you got the gifts?”
Me: “I did. Thank you! What was the occasion?”
Lily: “Just a couple of early birthday presents.”
Me: “My birthday is not for another couple of months, you know.”
Lily: “Yes, but I needed to get my phone number to you somehow, and I thought this might be the best. way.”
Me: “It was an awesome way.”
!! Me: “How are you, Lily?”
Lily: “I am doing really well. I just found a new job that I really like, and I am starting to have a lot of hope for my future.”
I stare at the message, not sure how to respond. Lily: “Rose misses Luke.”
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
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?