Filed To Story: In the Shadow of the Past Luna (Lily & James)
He would never cheat on her.”
“Sheila claims that she slept with your father too.”
He still loves her.
“Sheila claimed a lot of things! She also said she slept with you and we both know that never happened.
That it could not have happened!!!!”
Charlotte stood up and approached Lily. “Lil’, maybe it is true. I mean, it would make sense.”
Lily turned to Charlotte with tears in her eyes. “No Char, it would not make any sense at all! How could my father not only cheat on my mother, but also hide a secret pup from her and his family for almost three decades?!?!?”
“I don’t think he knew,”
I explained. “Andrew only knew because he heard his dad talking about it with his alpha one day. Evelyn’s mother fell pregnant with Evelyn three years before she met who Evelyn believes to be her father. It had been sort-of an open secret in the pack that Evelyn’s mother h ooked up with Beta Robert. When she fell pregnant, the alpha confronted her mother about the rumors and she confessed to he prohibited him from ever coming back to their pack. The day that Andrew heard the alpha talking to his father, the alpha was debating whether to lift the ban now that so many years had passed and Evelyn’s mother had moved away.”
“It still does not explain why Evelyn and I look so much alike. I get my hair and eye color from my mother.”
“Several years ago, your father and I were having drinks with several other buddies,”
Dr. Hyder said slowly. “During the conversation, the topic of cheating came up. Your father made a rather interesting observation. I did not think too much of it at the time, but it somehow always stuck with me.”
“What was it?”
Lily asked hesitantly.
“He said that you can tell a lot about the reason that a male cheats based on what his mistress looks like. If his marriage is troubled, he will look for someone who looks nothing like his wife. She will be younger, have a different body type, have different coloring.
to prove
On the other hand, if his mistress looks like his wife, the cheating was for a very different reason. Maybe prove. the male was drunk, maybe he was desperate for an heir, or maybe he felt like he had something to Whatever the reason was, if he gravitates towards someone who looks like his wife, it means that in his mind, his wife is still the ideal female.”
Lily wiped a few tears off of her cheeks. “What are you saying?”
“Evelyn’s mother has the same hair and eye color as your mom.”
I could feel Lily’s heart breaking. She stared back and forth between me, Dr. Hyder, and Charlotte. Then.
she ran out of the office.
I followed after her. She got all the way to her old bedroom before she turned and collapsed against the door, I sat down beside her and wrapped her in my arms. She cried against my chest, letting it all out.
“My life is a f&&ing telenovela,”
she whimpered.
1
I laughed. “I know. Mine feels like one too right now. But remember what you told me earlier. Our families do not define who we are. Your future is with me, and mine is with you, and I promise we are not going to live the crazy way our parents did. Our story will not be a telenovela; it will be H&&mark.”
(Brady POV)
It has now been three full days since Charlotte, Lily, James, and I returned to Black Moon. A lot has happened during that short period of time.
For example, there have been several planning meetings with our allies to discuss the takeover of West Mountain Pack, the takeover of the werewolf council, and the various trials that will need to be held. As the Goddess-chosen leader of the werewolf council, Lily technically does not need input from us or our allies on most of these decisions. However, Lily has been adamant from the beginning that she wants as much buy-in from the broader werewolf community as she can get. She says that getting the buy-in will help rebuild the council’s reputation, will help ensure that future problems are brought to the council’s attention, and will help foster future peace.
In addition to the planning meetings, my father has been working with Lily and James several hours a day to help them understand, develop, and practice their new powers. (Or at least the powers that they cant practice. Obviously, Lily is not going to “practice”
freeing someone’s wolf.)
Lily originally struggled with the alpha command, which meant that she needed extra time to practice it. They figured out that she was unconsciously holding back out of fear of hurting someone with it and out of fear of the power itself. To help her move past that issue, they decided to use yours truly as the “test dummy.”
The thinking was that -being young and an alpha- no matter how much force she used, Lily could not hurt me unless she really, really, really wanted to.
You can imagine how much appreciated having to sit for hours on end while James and Lily practiced. ordering me to do goddess-whatever occurred to them. (Hint: not at all.) Even then, it might have been okay, but Charlotte quickly decided to take advantage of the situation by suggesting that Lily and James to order me to do ridiculous and embarrassing things like meowing like a cat and doing the chicken dance.
Charlotte said that her suggestions were simply about making Sammy laugh. (Sammy and my mother returned to Black Moon fairly late on the night that we confronted Evelyn and Andrew.) I am sure that making Sammie laugh was part of it, and it is the only reason that I did not murder James despite how much fun he seemed to be having at my expense. At the same time, I also know that an equally important part of Charlotte’s suggestions was teaching me a lesson.
And what was that lesson? That Charlotte will not put up with my bullsh&t.
You already know the events that led up to Charlotte slapping me. What you do not know is that I made.
things worse later that night. How? Well, I sort-of insisted that James and Lily stay in separate bedrooms while at Black Moon because they are not yet married. Everyone was shocked by my demand, including
To be fair, I had not really expected them to stay in separate rooms; I was just still feeling a little bitter and I wanted to be an a&&hole.
Unfortunately, being an a&&hole cost me. Not only did my father overrule me on the separate bedrooms. thing, but also Charlotte reacted by insisting that the separate bedrooms rule apply to us as well.
I tried to apologize to Charlotte and explain that I was just trying to take a dig at James, but she could not be convinced to change her mind. If anything -thanks to Charlotte being fiercely protective of Lily-my explanation only made things worse.
So much worse, in fact, that Charlotte actually said this to me in front of my father. “I have realized that you are right, Brady. It is important to honor the conservative values of your pack. From now on, out of respect for Black Moon’s family values, I will remain celibate until I either leave Black Moon or I am married.”
That single comment had my father ready to start planning my wedding… not because he wanted me to get laid, but because that was how much he loved the way that Charlotte handled me. Unfortunately,
Kalen was not so amused; I think he seriously would have killed me if he could have.
Indeed, Kalen was (and is) just as stubborn as Charlotte. He absolutely refused to shut up and let me sleep unless he was close to her. As a result, for the next three nights, I ended up having to sleep on the floor outside Charlotte’s room. Thankfully, my mother-despite being just as amused by the situation as my father- brought me a pillow and blanket the first night, and I have remembered to grab those myself the last couple of nights.
Speaking of my mother, she also adores Charlotte. It seriously took all of fifteen minutes for her to fall in love with her. Charlotte’s ability to keep me on my toes certainly helped, but it was Charlotte’s reaction to meeting Sammy that really pulled on my mother’s heart strings… and mine too, if I am being completely honest.
Backing up, I had been worried about how to explain everything to Sammy about his mom and Andrew. I was also unsure how I should explain who Charlotte was. But, when Sammy and my mom returned from
Red River, the problem solved itself. Sammy by passed me and ran immediately to Charlotte and gave her a huge hug. Charlotte embraced Sammy immediately; it was almost as though he was already her son.
Sammy’s move shocked all of us until he explained. Apparently, the Moon Goddess came to him shortly before he was kidnapped. She told him that bad wolves were about to come for him, but she did not want him to be scared because he would be quickly rescued. She also told him that she had given his daddy (in other words, me) a very special gift. She wanted Sammy to know that the gift was not just for me, but also for him too, because his mommy and Andrew might not be around as much as they used to be due to some very bad mistakes that they made.
Sammy knew right away that Charlotte was the gift that the Moon Goddess was referring to, and his story confirmed what I think all of us had already figured out: Charlotte and I were second chance mates. The only problem was that Charlotte’s wolf had not woken up yet.
“She will wake up when you are ready for her,”
Kalen told me. “I can feel her wolf on the surface, but you are not ready for her yet.”
(Brady POV)
My parents, James and Lily, Charlotte, and I were all sitting in the alpha office talking about last minute details relating to the takeover of the council, the takeover of the werewolf council, and the related trials.
The allies had all already gone back to their packs to ready their teams. We did not think that we would need any of them, but as before, we wanted to be prepared for all possibilities.
With respect to the trials, we knew that we would need to have the trials held as soon as possible. Doing so was important, because it would not only ensure swift justice, but it would also (hopefully) allow everyone to move on and focus on the future once they were done.
The primary question that we had left to decide-or rather, that Lily had left to decide-was how to conduct the trials at each pack. The decision had already been made that Evelyn, Andrew, and the Black
Moon traitors should be tried separately from everyone at West Mountain, but we had gone back and.
forth on whether there should be one trial or multiple trials at each pack.
The allies had given their opinions, but those opinions were essentially that the decision depended on what was best for each pack. As long as there were trials, and as long as the trials were public, they did not care. In other words, they basically said, “you decide.”
There were a number of factors weighing in favor of both options. A single trial at each pack would be cheaper and faster, and it would allow observers to see all of the evidence all at the same time. On the other hand, each individual’s involvement was different, as was the nature of the crimes committed.
That weighed in favor of separate trials for everyoné. In addition, doing a combined trial would allow each offender to share the negative spotlight with the others, instead of having to deal with the pressure of being alone and accountable for his or her own actions.
Ultimately, after we hashed it out again and again and again, Lily decided that each individual should be tried and judged on his or her own merits. It would be expensive and time-consuming, but in her view, it would be the fairest way to proceed.
Lily’s decision led to another question, this one voiced by Charlotte:
“So… if we are doing doing separate trials… who gets to be the one to tell Evelyn that Andrew marked her by mistake, thinking that she was Lily?”
Lily shook her head. “Andrew did not mark her by mistake. He just thought that she had powers that she did not have.”
James squeezed Lily’s hand. “You know, sweetheart, I know it had to have absolutely sucked for you to shift for the first time by yourself, but I keep wondering what might have happened if anyone else had
Lily smiled sadly. “I would like to think so. But it did turn out to be a huge blessing that I was alone, and that no one else knew that I had a wolf. I think the rumors that I was wolfless strangely protected me.”
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?