Filed To Story: In the Shadow of the Past Luna (Lily & James)
Randall ultimately received a sentence of 25 years in the dungeons. He was also demoted to the rank of
Omega.
Jane received a very different sentence. By the time her trial was done, Jane had served roughly 60 days in the dungeons. Given the extreme remorse that Jane had shown, coupled with her limited knowledge of what was happening, the council and I agreed that 60 days was a sufficient amount of time served in the dungeons. However, we also gave her 1000 hours of community service and demoted her rank of Omega.
Since being released, James has been unwilling to visit Jane, and Jane has been unwilling to visit Randall. I fully support the decisions that both of them are making, but a part of me hopes that their family can eventually reconcile. I will not push James to do anything he is uncomfortable with, but I do want to gently bring up to James the possibility of reconnecting with Jane after she has successfully completed a decent chunk of her community service hours and started to prove herself again.
With respect to Stephanie and Sheila, the council recommended the same maximum sentence as the one. that my mother received: life in the dungeons without the possibility of parole, and removal of their wolves.
When I went in to free their wolves along with my mother’s, it was a pretty somber experience. By the time I went in to see them, all three had spent a decent amount of time in the dungeons and it showed. They were well taken care of in the dungeons, but they still looked like a fraction of the females that they used to be.
For a minute, I started to feel sorry for them….. to the point that I even started thinking about various books and care packages that I might be able to send them to help ease the boredom. Thankfully (or not), those feelings quickly died when each one began to feed me compliments, play up the sympathy card, and try to guilt me into agreeing to release them early. It was an unfortunate reminder that I had the power to remove their wolves but not their demons.
With respect to Margie’s employees, each received between 5 and 15 years in the dungeons, depending on their level of knowledge and involvement.
Derek Ab bott was a bit of a special case, because he absolutely needed to be punished, but it is difficult to make a celebrity in the human world disappear for years without bringing unwanted attention to the werewolf community. We ultimately decided to free his wolf and then use some of the information his wolf gave us to have Derek brought up on criminal charges in the human world.
It takes much longer for a case to go to trial and be tried in the human world than ours, but we have been watching the case carefully, and we currently anticipate that he will end up serving between 15 and 20
years in a human jail, when all is said and done.
I think that just leaves me with my father to update you on. His case was perhaps the most unusual of them all. My father tried to avoid the trial by pleading guilty and stipulating to the maximum sentence on the condition that he be housed in the dungeons along with my mother. We had to repeatedly explain to my father that it did not work that way.
My father then tried a different tactic: he confessed to knowing everything that my mother did and to actively participating and helping her. The craziest part of this confession was that it was not true.
When I talked to my father’s wolf, his wolf explained that my father knew some things but not many. He knew, for example, that my mother was abusing me, but each time he would talk to her about it, she would promise to stop and he would choose to believe her. Similarly, my father had hints that my mother and Stephanie were doing horrible things, but he did not have exact deals and he readily accepted every quasi-rational explanation that was given to him because it was easier than dealing with the truth.
Ultimately, the council and I agreed to give my father his requested maximum sentence. However, unlike my mother, my father’s sentence allowed him the possibility of parole. And, because I am probably far softer than I should be, I agreed to have him housed in the cell next to my mother’s.
I should probably also tell you two other things about that last interaction with my father.
First, at the end of my conversation with his wolf, his wolf tried to reassure me that my father really did love me. “Unfortunately, he just loved Stephanie and your mom a lot more.”
I wish I had not been told me that last part, because it hurt. A lot. Suspecting it and knowing it are two different things.
Second, I did not tell him about Evelyn being his daughter. I actually planned to tell him, but I changed my mind at the last minute. Given that he would be in custody for possibly the rest of his life-and given that Evelyn would be in custody for the next very long chunk of hers- I did not see the point.
Moreover, telling him could only cause more pain… including for me, should he decide to make more of an effort with her than he has made with me. I know thinking like that is selfish, but I guess even the chosen one isn’t perfect.
Perhaps one day I will change my mind, get past my own selfishness, and tell him about Evelyn. Perhaps that will be the same day that I decide to go and visit him again… although I do not see that happening any time soon.
(Lily POV)
After I arrived back at Black Moon, I met Charlotte for a quick lunch. We then headed to the dungeon visiting room together, where Evelyn was already chained to a table waiting for us. Like Stephanie and Sheila, she was being taken good care of, but she nevertheless looked awful.
“How are you, Evelyn?”
I asked.
“As good as can be expected, being this pregnant and in here,”
she sighed.
“You wanted to meet with us?”
I asked politely.
“Yes, thank you. I know it may seem crazy for me to reach out to you after everything that happened, but my wolf trusts you. And Charlotte, Sammy talks so highly of you every time he comes to see me.”
For the briefest moment, I half wondered if we were in the right visiting room. This was not the Evelyn that called me and Charlotte wh ores as recently as her trial. This Evelyn seemed very, very different.
“What is going on, Evelyn?”
Charlotte asked.
Evelyn sighed. “This pup is going to be arriving soon, and I need a plan. I originally thought that he would go live with his father in Canada, but when I wrote Andrew, I got a letter back saying that Andrew was also in custody here?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
“And he isn’t getting out any time soon, just like me?”
“Correct. He has been sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.”
Evelyn wiped a tear from her cheek. “I am really, really sorry. I…”
“Where is all of this coming from, Evelyn? Why the sudden change in attitude?”
Evelyn looked away. “I don’t know. I think maybe it is just the reality finally hitting me. I have a pup out there, who can only see his mommy behind bars, and I have another one on the way who will not be able to have a normal relationship with either of his parents. And for what? Some petty jealousy?”
The sincerity in Evelyn’s words floored me.
She wiped a few more tears from her face, as Charlotte and I continued to stare at her, unsure how to respond.
“Look,”
she said. “I heard that there are a couple of mothers at West Mountain Pack that have pups. I need to make a plan for this pup, and I was wondering what they are doing with theirs.”
I frowned. “Well, Evelyn, every situation is different. For example, my sister’s pup -“
I paused, feeling guilty that I was not saying “our sister’s”
is being raised by his human father in Europe. He has always been primarily raised by his father, and Stephanie does not have much interest in him, so we have decided to let him stay there. When he turns 14, though, he will have to come back to our pack. We have contacted his father, and he has agreed.
Antonio agreed only after James threatened to bring down his operation with some of the information that learned from Derek Ab bott’s wolf, but still… he agreed.
“What about the other one?”
Evelyn asked.
“Neither set of grandparents is in a position to take Sheila’s-pup in, and both parents are serving dungeon sentences, so that pup will be adopted by our beta couple.”
“They can’t have pups of their own?”
she asked, as though she already knew the answer.
I shook my head. “No. At least they do not think they can.”
Seriously, either Evelyn is the most amazing guesser on the planet, or the dungeon news feed is even better than I realized.
“Evelvo
“What do you think I should do with my asked.
“We can’t answer that for you, Evelyn,”
I responded. “You need to make that decision. We can help you, but that is really your decision and what you think would be best.”
Evelyn put her head down on the table. I could not tell if she was frustrated or angry or sad or what was going on.
When she did not say anything for a few minutes, I decided to go ahead and give her the message I was supposed to deliver earlier.
“Evelyn, this may sound a little weird, but I had an opportunity to talk to the Moon Goddess several months ago.”
“Because you are the chosen one,”
she said, not lifting her head off of the table.
Ok, it is definitely the jailhouse newsfeed.
“Yes. She gave me a message that I was supposed to give to you when I saw you. I am sorry that I did not give you the message earlier, but everything sort of happened really quickly…”
“What was the message?”
Evelyn asked. Her head remained sideways on the table, but her tone was curious
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