Filed To Story: In the Shadow of the Past Luna (Lily & James)
“THEN WHAT IS IT ABOUT? TELL ME SO WE CAN END THIS!”
For a moment, the strength that I had seen in Lily cracked just a little bit. I saw the tears forming in her eyes.
“I always loved you, Father. I put up with everything and I ignored the pain. I considered you to be my superhero. I told myself that you did not know what she was doing, and that you would never allow it to continue if you knew. But here you are, defending her.”
“She is my mate and my wife! Of course I am defending her!”
“AND I WAS YOUR DAUGHTER!!!!!”
Robert paused, not saying anything for a moment. His next words were spoken softly. But for our werewolf hearing, I doubt most in the audience would have heard him.
“Your mother has suffered enough, Lily. My parents mistreated her. I mistreated her. She lost Tyler, and then she lost your sister. Those kinds of things can take down the strongest of wolves. She is not as strong as you and I, or any of us. Please, Lily, I beg of you. As my daughter. as your mother’s daughter.
think of the good times. Think of your family. End this public spectacle. Let’s get your mother into some therapy. I will go with her. I will even get some too. But please, do not continue this. It needs to end.”
Lily wiped a few more tears from her eyes, and James approached and hugged her from behind. She leaned her head against his shoulder as she collected herself.
For a moment, I thought she was going to agree to what Robert asked of her. But she didn’t.
“This is not about me, Father. I put up with abuse and torture for ten years without complaint. If this was just about me, I would have accepted your suggestion. But it’s not. It’s simply not. I understand that
Mother has suffered and I am sorry for that. But it does not excuse what she did. Nor does it excuse what she allowed to happen and what she encouraged to happen.”
Lily gestured to everyone else in the boxes, as she wiped more tears from her cheeks. “Nor does it excuse what you did, or what anyone else in these boxes did. There are real victims here, lots of them, and they deserve justice too. Sit down, Father. The meeting will continue.”
With that, Lily invited the first of many victims to the microphone to explain their stories. For the next three hours, we heard heartbreaking story after story.
We heard from pack members that had long since left the pack and that I never thought I would hear from the Hoffman Family, and many, many, many others.
By the end, I had thrown up so much that they had to briefly pause so that Dr. Miller could check on me.
At his request, the silver cuff was removed so that my wolf could try to heal me. He actually proposed to the other council members that I be allowed to leave and go to the clinic for an IV, but I quickly said that I did not want to go anywhere.
These atrocities had happened in my pack, under my leadership. I had always refused to hear complaints about Margie and Stephanie in the past, but that was because I did not know how bad things were. Now that I knew, I owed it to the victims to continue to hear them out.
Ultimately, I am glad that I stayed. Because the worst was about to come.
(Lily POV)
After the victim statements, we gave each one of the accused an opportunity to respond to the allegations. Each would face a separate trial down the road, but unlike the trials at Black Moon, the West Mountain trials would be private. Today would therefore be the only opportunity for the accused to publicly address the allegations and the victims that they hurt.
Randall chose to say very little. “I did what I had to do,”
was all he said.
My father, meanwhile, used half of his time to apologize to the victims on my mother’s behalf, and the other half asking them to understand that my mother has me ntal health issues. Notably, he never said one way or the other how much he knew about what she had done.
For her part, Luna Jane was completely repentant. Of course, anyone with eyes could already tell that. Her regret did not make up for what she had done, and what she had allowed to happen, but it definitely went a long way towards easing some of the tension in the room.
The various guards and other workers on my mother’s payroll made a few excuses about money my mother promised them or threats that she made. Almost in the same breath though, they each chose to quickly plead guilty to the allegations. They clearly hoped that quick pleas would spare them from stiffer sentences at their upcoming trials.
The statements from Stephanie and Sheila were perhaps the biggest surprise. They neither apologized nor accepted responsibility. At the same time, they also did not talk about their love for James, their hatred for me, their pups, or anything else that might mitigate the heinousness of their crimes. Instead, they spent their entire statements pointing fingers at my mother and trying to paint themselves as additional victims.
(Perhaps none of this should have surprised me, but it did. For most of my life, and in so many of the stories of their bad acts, Sheila and Stephanie seemed larger than life. They were confident, calculating, and evil. To see them reduced to petty finger pointing, without any of the sp unk or confidence or name- calling… it just came across to me as though Sheila and Stephanie were deflated balloons. It was sort of sad, really.)
My mother spoke last. She spent the first three minutes of her speech crying; one minute apologizing for her actions; and then almost 15 minutes talking about herself. Her me ntal health, her suffering, her childhood, her desire to be loved and appreciated, how wronged she had been by my father, Luna Jane, and others in the pack,
By the time she was done, I was exhausted, as was everyone else I am sure. I happily yielded the floor
“Thank you all for your patience here this evening. I know it has been long road tonight, and I promise that we will get to the celebration part of the night soon.
We hope that tonight will offer closure for most of you. In the upcoming weeks, each of the accused will face private trials before the council. The punishments, once rendered, will be announced publicly, but the trials themselves will remain closed. We are doing this in large part because we want to ensure that we can move on as a pack and as a community.
However, before the accused leave the stage, I want to make sure that we do not leave anyone with unanswered concerns or questions. All of you, whether or not you were directly impacted by the crimes, were victims. Your pack funds were used; your leaders were distracted; and people around you struggled. We want to acknowledge that and do something about it.
Moving forward, West Mountain Pack will be one in which transparency is not only expected but required. And that transparency starts today.
In just a moment, I will alpha-command everyone on stage except Sheila to truthfully answer any questions that you might have. Sheila will not be subject to an alpha-command because she is pregnant, but Lily and I will talk to her wolf and get any questions answered that you might have for her.
If I could have Joey and Jessica please take the stage.”
As Joey and Jessica approached the stage, James and I exchanged knowing smiles. The two of them were aware that they were going to be leading the question and answer session, but they did not know why.
“Joey and Jessica are going to help facilitate tonight’s question and answer session. They will also be facilitating future question and answer sessions for pack members, which we plan to host every month. No o one will be required to attend those sessions except for the alpha and beta couples, as well as anyone who wishes to talk to us about issues that are going on. Luna Lily and I will also maintain an open door so that the kinds of issues that went undetected in our pack in the past are not repeated.
Please understand that our Beta and Beta Female will have slightly different roles than in the past. As our Beta and Beta Female, Joey and Jessica will not stand in the way of pack members communicating with us, but they will instead serve as additional resources for you and the pack generally.”
James paused to allow Joey and Jessica to process the weight of his words. I smiled as I watched Joey start to become emotional as he put the pieces together.
“Alpha James, are you saying-
“-that I want you to be the Beta of this pack? Yes. That is exactly what I am saying.”
“What… what about Nick?”
“We already talked to Nick. He agreed with us that this is what is best for the pack.”
Joey looked over at Nick, who was still on stage.
“I have a mate to track down, Joey. And when I find her, I think she is going to want to move to another pack anyway. This one has too many painful memories for her. Besides, you earned this. You and Jessica both did,”
Nick said reassuringly. “You are much more of a beta than I am.”
“But I do not have Beta blood_”
“I don’t think you need it. You kidnapped me from my own home. No one has ever been able to do that,”
Dr. Hyder said, provoking mild laughter from those who knew him.
Joey then looked at me. “But after all I did to-
“Are you going to keep looking for excuses to say no or are you ready to just say yes?”
I asked, giving him.
a mock pointed look.
Jessica put her hand on Joey’s arm. They looked at each other, and then they pulled James and I into a hug. “Yes. Yes, yes, yes!”
A couple of minutes later, Joey took the microphone.
“Ya’ll ready with some questions? Let’s finish this so that we can finally get to celebration.”
(Joey POV)
I am going to be Beta of West Mountain Pack. Me. ME.
Goddess, no matter how hard I worked the past few months, I never expected this. Nor did I think! deserved it. High school Joey was lazy, rude, and a bully. But now I am going to be Beta. Holy Goddess.
If it wasn’t for the seriousness of the situation, I would be jumping up and down. But alas, I had a job to do.
The first wolf to approach the microphone was Olivia Grace.
“My question is for Alpha Randall. How could you let everything get so out of hand? Why didn’t you do anything?”
Randall took a deep breath as he tried to fight the alpha command. His resistance was futile.
“Luna Jane caused Margie to have a miscarriage before Stephanie was born. Luna Jane felt guilty about it, and she wanted to do everything she could to make it up to Margie. That worked for a while, but Margie began threatening me that she would turn Jane into the werewolf council. I love this pack, but I love Jane more. Much more.”
“Why didn’t you just order Margie not to go to the council?”
Olivia Grace asked in confusion.
“I do not have the ability to alpha command someone not to talk to the council. Alpha commands do not reach that far.”
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?