Filed To Story: In the Shadow of the Past Luna (Lily & James)
“But… Sir… what if… what if what we are hiding is worse than anything else you have heard?”
Joey asked. “How could it be worse?”
Jessica looked down. I thought I caught a glimpse of shame in her eyes just before her head dipped. “
Treason,”
she whispered. I swallowed hard. Treason? What the f&&k has been going on in this pack?!?! “I guess it depends on the treason and who is getting hurt by it,”
I responded once I processed through Joey reached over and grabbed Jessica’s hand. After a couple of minutes, Jessica nodded and turned to me with a brave face. “Okay, we will tell you as much as we can. But I should warn you, there is a lot to talk about. Would you like some coffee?”
I nodded my head. Jessica got up and went to the kitchen. “Where should we start?”
Jessica asked me. “I have no idea what you have to tell me, but I want to know everything. You decide what I should know first.”
Jessica stared into her coffee mug as Joey rubbed her shoulder. Neither of them said anything. I groaned in frustration. “Fine. Let’s start with something easy. Tell me about this cousin of yours that I supposedly knocked up.”
Joey winced and rubbed his neck, something I have noticed he does a lot of when he is nervous. “Again, Sir, I am sorry about that. I panicked. We just… we could not let you be forced to marry Sheila.”
“Do not be sorry. Your little stunt bought me a couple more months. My father agreed to delay the wedding so that I could sort through the Mary Beth issue. Not that I would marry Sheila whether it was tomorrow or ten years from now. I assume that Mary Beth is at least a real she-wolf?”
“Yes… but she is my mother’s cousin,”
Joey replied. “So still your cousin too. That is fine. Where does she live?”
“Mexico.”
“Okay, well that is good. We have fewer contacts in Mexico. It could make it more difficult for wolves in this pack to track her down. Is she really pregnant?”
“No… but she sort-of looks like she could be.”
*JOEY!”
Jessica gasped. “What am I missing?”
I asked, clearly confused. “Mary Beth… is 63 years old,”
Joey said hesitantly. “Oh, Goddess. Seriously? You could not think of anyone younger to pin a pup on?”
Joey gave me an apologetic smile. “Like I said, I panicked. My parents were just talking about Mary Beth the other day, so her name was fresh in my mind.”
“Goddess, Joey.”
I rubbed my temples. “Well, we will have to figure out how to deal with the Mary Beth issue later. That is obviously not the treason you mentioned. Tell me what the treason entails.”
Joey and Jessica looked down, again saying nothing. “Goddess!”
I exclaimed, getting frustrated. “Why is this so hard? We already agreed that you would tell me what is going on. Just spit it out already!”
“Unless you want me to ask you to leave, Sir, I suggest that you do not yell at my mate,”
Joey said firmly. As annoyed and frustrated as I was, I had to appreciate Joey’s protectiveness. It takes courage to stand up to an alpha wolf-even one who is not yet alpha- and yet here he was, doing it. “Fine, look, I am sorry. But I am getting desperate here. I have been chasing riddles and trying to find answers for weeks, and every time I find someone who might have something useful to tell me, I run into nothing but roadblocks. I cannot fix anything if no one will tell me what is going on!”
“You have been trying to find answers? You want to fix things?”
Jessica said hopefully. “YES! I have gone to see Dr. Hyder multiple times. I have tracked down Lily. I went to see…”
I started to bring up the list of five names but stopped myself. I strongly suspected that they had some sort of connection to Dr. Hyder, but I did not how far that connection ran. “We are part of a movement,”
Jessica blurted out. I looked up at her. “What? What kind of a movement?”
“A movement to overthrow West Mountain’s pack leadership.”
I gulped, and my eyes got wider. When Jessica first mentioned treason, I honestly thought she meant stealing money or supplies, or sneaking people in and out of the pack. I brought up the possibility of treason dealing with my parents and Margie in sarcasm, not thinking it was a serious possibility. “What? Why?!!?!?”
“There have been a lot of wolves that have been hurt by pack leadership over the years. A lot of wolves have been oppressed and pressured to do things they did not want to do. And a lot of crimes have been committed; wrongdoing on a level that should never have been allowed.”
“If that is true, why not just go to the werewolf council and report it?”
“Two reasons. One reason is that the wolves who have been hurt the worst do not want to talk about what happened to them. It hurt them and their families too deeply. The other reason is that many wolves in our movement have lived in the pack for generations. If the werewolf council came in, they would likely eliminate the West Mountain Pack entirely and force us to either become rogues or join another pack. Wolves in our movement do not want to give up our homes and our lives simply because of the sins of a horrible few in leadership.”
“So you would prefer to overthrow your pack leadership? I assume you mean violently?”
Jessica nodded. “Yes. Wolves in the movement are willing to fight for their homes and for what is right. At this point, war is almost inevitable, whether it comes from outside packs trying to come in and take our lands and our homes, or whether it happens from the inside.”
“When is this overthrow going to happen?”
“We are….. we are now hoping to avoid it. When we found out that you and Lily were mated, we came up with another plan.”
I stood up and took a deep breath. This was an overwhelming amount of information, and we had not even barely scratched the surface yet. “Wait… how many wolves are in this movement?”
I asked. “500,”
Joey responded. “500 wolves?”
“No. 500 families.”
*Trigger Warning: Margie, Steila, and Stephanie are disgusting, horrible she-wolves. The next few chapters will prove just how sick and twisted they really are. Almost every type of loss and abuse that you can imagine will be involved. If that kind of thing bothers you, I am very sorry! There are many happy moments and happy endings coming, but first we have to get through some really, really ugly stuff. Please be prepared.*** (James POV) “How many wolves are in this movement?”
I asked. “500,”
Joey responded. “500 wolves?”
“No. 500 families.”
I collapsed back onto the couch, leaned over, and put my head in my hands. “Five-hundred FAMILIES? I repeated. “Yes,”
Jessica responded softly. “Not every one of those families has been directly hurt or impacted, but everyone is linked in some way. Either they have been hurt, or they know someone who has been.”
“But… five-hundred families… if each family has an average of four members in it, that means that at least TWENTY PERCENT of our ranks are actively planning an uprising?!?!?”
“Well… they WERE: But then you were mated to Lily…”
“How is Lily involved in all of this?”
I asked, genuinely confused. “Does she… does she know about the uprising? Is she part of the group?”
I glanced up at Joey and Jessica, wanting to watch their faces as they responded. Joey and Jessica both shook their heads. “No, no. Nothing like that. Lily has no idea about any of this. She does not even know that we were the ones that kidnapped her.”
“Kidnapped her? When?”
“On the day of the rejection. “YOU KIDNAPPED LILY?”
I asked, suddenly becoming angry. “Well… yes… sort-of. I mean, at first we only meant to help her. But then we realized she could help us “How could she help? And how did you get her out of the pack?”
“She collapsed as she was heading to the border beyond the forest. We got to her before anyone else, and we carried her to our house. When we discovered how injured she was, and she would not wake up, called in reinforcements. We were worried she would die.”
we “What do you mean, you called in reinforcements?”
Joey started rubbing his neck. “I may have… sort of… kidnapped Dr. Hyder.”
Despite the seriousness of the situation, the visual of Dr. Hyder being kidnapped made me laugh. I could think of few things in this world less likely than Dr. Hyder falling victim to a kidnapping by anyone, much less a warrior like Joey. “Okay, funny. What did you really do?”
Joey looked at me sheepishly. “I kidnapped Dr. Hyder.”
I studied his face. “Wait… you aren’t serious?”
Joey continued to look at me straight-faced. “How in Goddess’ name did you manage to kidnap Dr. Hyder? And why?”
Joey looked down. “It was not easy. I had to use wolfsbane and then I got sort of lucky… Jessica jumped in. “We had to. We knew Dr. Miller was tied up helping you, and the first place anyone would look for Lily would be the hospital anyway. We could not let anyone get to her. One of… one of our group members heard Margie say that they should not search for her and should just let Lily die. Then, when Alpha Randall sent searchers out anyway, she told one of the searchers that she would pay him a premium if he brought back proof that Lily was dead; triple if he could prove he was the one who killed her.”
My head was spinning. Too many details were hitting me all at the same time. I was having trouble catching up. Treason. Uprising. Somehow Lilly was involved, but she wasn’t. Joey kidnapped Dr. Hyder- THE Dr. Hyder. And now Margie wanted to pay a premium for Lily’s murder? I knew she hated Lily, but to want her killed?!?! “Wait… Hold up… We have to take this whole thing slower. My mind is trying to catch up. Let’s start with the last thing that you said. Margie wanted to pay a premium for proof of Lily’s death? To pay a premium, don’t you normally have to be paying someone to begin with? That is not part of the beta female’s responsibilities.”
Jessica frowned. “I know.”
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?