Filed to story: In the Shadow of the Past Luna (Lily & James)
Next, Dr. Hyder told James that he had talked to all the allies, and they were ready to go back in as soon as James was back in town and ready. Until then, the werewolf council would stay at the pack doing an investigation about the little it knew so far, so it was unlikely anyone would be hurt in the interim.
I could n not follow all of the conversation because I did not know much about what had been going on, but it seemed like everything was clear for James and I to have some time together the next several days. All we had to do was come up with some sort of cover story for James.
Given the circumstances, I knew I should feel worried, but a part of me felt a little happy too. I only had to work two shifts at the girls’ home this coming week, and most of my training for the team was done, so l
James must have sensed how I was feeling, because he gave me a small smile and leaned over and gave me a kiss on my forehead.
Unfortunately, when I looked back at the laptop screen, the look in Brady’s eyes broke my heart. It reminded me once again of all the reasons that I left Black Moon, and of all the reasons that I did not want to be part of a love triangle. I hated the idea of hurting anyone, much less Brady after all he had done to help me.
Eventually, after a few moments of silence, Brady asked me if I would be willing to share my phone number with him so that he could communicate with me while everything got sorted out. James immediately tensed yet again, pulling me closer to him. I was not sure what to say.
Thankfully, Dr. Hyder spoke up before I could. “Your pack has been compromised, Brady,”
he snapped. “It is not safe for Lily to be communicating with you.”
Brady started to get angry. “But it is okay for that a&&hole to communicate with her? And what about this call itself? How is this safe?”
Dr. Hyder visibly got even more upset. “You need to start thinking like an alpha, and not like a jealous son- of-a-b&&ch. If James’ phone was compromised, the enemy would have found Lily weeks ago. And my phone and laptop are military grade; there isn’t anyone getting into my devices.”
Sighing, Dr. Hyder turned back to us. “We should limit communication for a while, though, just to be safe.
I am not saying do not reach out to me, but let’s try to be a little sparing about it, okay?”
James and I agreed, and the video call was disconnected soon afterwards.
James and I sat quietly for a few minutes, neither of us saying anything. Finally, he spoke.
“Dr. Hyder is different with you than he is with anyone else. He is gentle.”
I smiled. “Yeah, he is like a father to me. He reminds me of how my dad used to be before the whole thing with Stephanie.”
James gave me a sad smile.
Then, almost out of the blue, he asked me something that caught me off-guard.
“Do you still have feelings for Brady?”
(Brady POV)
I was sitting in my office, quietly wondering to myself whether this week could get any worse, when my week… well, immediately got worse.
I felt like I had enough to deal with already. My pack had been attacked, which not only resulted in loyal pack wolves being hurt, but which also interrupted some of the precious time that I had with my son. And not only had my pack been attacked, but also the attackers had made their way into areas of the packhouse that I had previously considered to be safe and sacrosanct.
On top of all of that, I had to deal with my father, with imposters infiltrating my security team, and with heartache relating to the increasing probability that I would lose Lily to that a&&hole James. 1
“You mean lose her to her mate,”
Kalen corrected me in our link.
“No. I mean lose her to that a&&hole James. He does not deserve to call himself her mate anymore,”
I linked back.
“And you do?”
“YES!”
I replied angrily..
“It took you two weeks to even notice that Lily left,”
Kalen reminded me.
URGH.
I immediately put up a block. I did not need to deal with Kalen right now. I hated how often he was right about things, and I hated how often he chose to rub that in my face.
Unfortunately, the exact moment that I blocked Kalen was the same moment that Evelyn decided to barge into my office and confront me with more wild accusations. As much as I was not in the mood to deal with Kalen, I was REALLY not in the mood to deal with her.
You may notice that I said “MORE wild accusations.”
Ever since the day that Evelyn announced her plans. for Sammy to become alpha of Andrew’s pack, she had come to my office at least once a day to accuse me of failing her, my son, or my pack in some way. Some of her complaints had been legitimate, but most of her complaints were petty bullsh&t. Regardless, it was always something. She had come so often in the past couple of weeks that no one tried to stop her from coming in here anymore, and she did not even bother to knock on the door.
I did not know what her sudden motivation was for acting this way; she had never acted like this in the past. Nor did I know why I allowed her to continue with the behavior.
Maybe it was because I spent years ignoring and being ignored by her, and this was the most we had talked in years. Maybe it was because a part of me was happy to see her everyday. Or maybe it was because I am just masochistic.
Either which way, with everything else on my plate, I was finally getting tired of both her and her behavior.
Not that she cared.
“Is it true?”
Evelyn asked me angrily as she slammed my office door.
I rubbed my temples. “Is what true, Evelyn?”
“Were we attacked because of your floozy?”
“WE were not attacked, Evelyn. You are no longer a member of this pack, remember?”
“Cut the bull, Brady. We were here. The attack scared our son. He is worried that he is going to lose his father and that something is going to happen to him too. Did you know that the attackers even went into his room? Thank Goddess he was with me when the attack happened and he did not see them.”
I sighed. I did know that. It was one of the many things that really bothered me about the attack.
“I am working on beefing up safety protocols, Evelyn. We will make sure that they are unable to get through again.”
“How can you say that? If it was so easy to just ‘beef up protocols, why did you not do that ages ago?
Why wait until our son was traumatized to take care of the problem? What kind of alpha are you???”
Great. So this was one of her legitimate rants. Again, just what I needed. More guilt and more reminders of my failures. Seriously, she should have been mated to my father not me; they could have enjoyed. belittling me together. Too bad for her my father is in love with my mother.
“What do you want from me, Evelyn? Packs get attacked. It happens. We dealt with it; no one was killed. You and our son were safely provided for in one of the safe rooms.”
“Attacks like this never happen in Canada!!!”
she yelled at me.
I put my hands over my face. Deep down, I knew she was wrong -all packs get attacked from time to time- but knowing that did not make her allegation hurt any less. As an alpha, my job is to protect my pack members. As a father, my job is to protect my son. Whether the enemies were successful or not, they got close. Too close. And that is my t y fault.
“What do you want, Evelyn?”
I repeated after a minute.
“I want you to tell me if it is true. Were the attackers here looking for your sl ut?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Liana. Lina. Lillah. Whatever her name is. Is it true that the attackers were here looking for her?”
Wait… does she mean Lily? If so, how would she know about that? To my knowledge, there are only six wolves in Black Moon Pack including myself and my father- who had access to that information. We had purposely kept the information quiet.
“Who told you that?”
I asked, suddenly concerned.
“It does not matter! Answer my question!”
me
“It does matter. Tell me who told you that,”
I said seriously.