"Are you serious, Luna?!" Andres was mad. It was to be expected since Luna didn't exactly partake in explaining her reasons behind some of her actions. "I deserve to know why we need to be in the same room as that half breed!"
"Yes you do," Luna agreed as she stood up from her seat within Cami's living space. "Unfortunately for you I am your leader, therefore; I do not answer to you."
Andres, who has since been pacing angrily around the small apartment, seemed aghast at her deliverance of status to him. "Are you spouting that crap on me?! I left my family and friends for your suicidal mission down here! All for you!"
It was Luna's turn to be aghast, held at bay by only the distance between them and a coffee table. Here and now was not the place for such a conversation.
"For me? I never asked it of you! You came because you volunteered yourself!" Luna heard the skirmishes of her children on the bed, they had slept most of the night and morning away. Those two were beyond exhausted.
"Yes, I volunteered…to make sure you and the kids were safe." Andres began closing in, his eyes glowing yellow, the wolf was way too close to the surface for Luna's comfort.
Keeping her heart at a calm pace, she swallowed thickly. "And you have done so, you can leave at any time you wish. The pack will welcome you back without question." He was supposed to be their true Alpha anyway. Both Luna and Andres knew it. It was because of her blood that defected his rank within the pack.
Andres began to shake his head at her, she could feel the despair and the confusion brewing within him at her words. "You think I care about any of that? The politics behind what you are and what you mean to us?"
"Of course you do, everyone does." She couldn't look at him, memories floated to consciousness, memories she'd rather not deal with until the bayou.
Andres leaned over one of Cami's side tables, his huge hands spread out upon the dark wood. In an instant he smashed it against the other side of the room. The brick wall crumbling at the impact.
"I don't! I care about you! I care about those kids!" He pointed to the newly awakened children on the bed. Their eyes like saucers at the sudden alertness of anger and sounds resonating through the small space. "My kids!" His breathing was heavy, his teeth elongated against his lips, and the growling began to inundate the expanse of his lungs.
Luna held her place, from her stature of 5'3'' she looked up to his 6'2''. Her silver eyes glowed against his yellow ones. "Calm yourself, Andres. Your anger and prejudice will only hinder any progress I am trying to attain while here."
"And what is that exactly?" Andres was still in his human skin, but Luna swore she could see him bristling. "Was it just to get back with that boy of yours?"
Pain and anguish threatened her trained calm. Luna immediately shut her eyes to him in order to control herself. "It has nothing to do with him."
"Then why Luna? Answer me that! We ran from the pack because you refused to reason with them! To give them answers to your request." Andres' breath was on her forehead, the warmth reminded her of what it could be like if she'd allowed him the liberty of her touch.
She had to put more distance between them, she tried to take a step back. His hand was suddenly on her arm. That feeling coupled with the knowledge that he did hold some piece of her, a piece that a sixteen-year-old girl had stashed away long ago to protect the two things that she held so dear. "Release me, Andres."
"Not until you look at me," Andres whispered harshly, his grip tightening in earnest.
Within a blink, Andres' hand was being crushed by her grip. Luna did open her eyes, the tears that she held back for so long, were threatening to fall. Andres, in great pain, fell to his knees as the pressure to his hand only increased. "I am looking at you Andres, and what I see is a man too far gone in his anger and rage to see reason."
"Mom?" Eliza's voice sounded from right behind her. "Is everything okay?" She knew Eliza's concern was not for herself, but for Andres.
"Is everything okay, Andres?" Luna forwarded the question to him.
Andres grunted a positive towards them and Luna released her hold. Andres cradled his hand, but Luna knew he would be healed within an hour.
Turning to her daughter, the girl seemed frightened. "It's been a long day and I need some fresh air. Do you mind keeping these two boys in check while I walk around town?"
Eliza nodded, still eyeing her mother as if seeing a stranger. "Yeah, mom. Of course." Luna went towards one of Cami's jackets she left out for her to borrow, while Eliza stooped to help Andres care for his hand before it healed. "Mom?"
Luna turned back from the front door to make eye contact with the same eyes she was born to. "Yes, Eliza?"
"Please be careful, and come back soon." Eliza's request was met with a slight nod before Luna left the apartment.
"You know she loves you Andres." Eliza said as she checked out his hand. Andres' grunt only irked her more about the situation. "You know she's always been pushing you away. Pushing all of us away. I think it's her way of dealing with things."
Andres looked over at her, his brown eyes sad and uncompromising. "Aren't you a little young to think that way?" A slight smile showed on his tanned face.
Eliza smacked him on his shoulder and chuckled, "I've had a good teacher." The compliment made Andres reach for her. The embrace was welcomed immensely. Sometimes a daughter just needs her father.
"My mother may not say it, but I'll say it for her, and for my brother and I. We love you." Eliza felt Andres stiffen with the words. It was the first time she admitted that all of them were forever grateful for him being in their lives.
"I love you all too. More than anything left on this world." Andres' voice was thick, but Eliza knew him well enough not to mention that fact to a grown man who was close to tears.
Luna was shaking. Shaking with everything that she had kept hidden, and far away from the surface. Her wolf whined within her, revealing the sorrow and the hurt that led to all of this. Once Luna was a distance away from the building she found an alleyway. No one around except for the smells of food and booze, and the faint sound of the jazz bands playing outdoors.
That's when she allowed herself the release. Tears came and refused to stop. Holding her arms around her, she allowed them to keep going. Allowed herself to feel everything at once.
She wanted to be in her wolf skin, to run, to be free from the sense of dread that was always there.
Using the brick wall behind her as a crutch, the memories came flooding back.
"Luna? Is everything okay?" Sean was in front of her sixteen-year-old self. His blonde hair lighting up like a halo from the dying sun behind him. His blue-green eyes looking down at her with concern. "What's wrong?"
Luna simply shook her head and let her dark mane of hair cover her face. Staring at her shaking hands, she refused to answer him.
"Luna?" He stooped down and used his fingers underneath her chin to lift her face. Using his other hand to move her long hair away from her weeping face. Showing him her shame: the bruises, the cuts, and the blood left over from her own father.
"I tried to sneak out, I tried to run." Luna answered finally once he saw the retribution that was cast upon her. "He said what all the Elders said. I can never leave. I am to stay and be a good little pup. To breed and consecrate my blood to the pack."
Sean could only shake his head at her, "Why do you allow him to hit and abuse you? You're more powerful than any wolf there."
Her lip trembling, "Because in the end Sean, he's my father, and they're all right about me. I am to be their weapon, their way to victory."
"No, you're a person. A person who deserves the life she wants." Sean was getting angry. She sensed it.
"Don't do anything, Sean!" She whispered harshly at him. "Don't get involved, okay?" She could still see the wheels turning in his head. She knew him all too well.
"You want me to sit with you and do nothing? Luna, he needs to know what he does it wrong! Just because he's brother to the Alpha doesn't mean he's allowed to hurt you or your mother!" Sean stood up and Luna grasped his arm.
"Don't! Whatever you're thinking don't! Trust me Sean, it's better you ignore it. Being an O'Connell only makes things worse. Your family isn't exactly a welcome interference."
"What are you talking about? This does involve us, we're the median between your world and ours." Sean explained to her for the umpteenth time.
"Still on that, huh?" Luna reminded him of the many times they had the debate about which species came first onto this world. Sean stuck to his faith through it all and it almost always ended in a stalemate between them.
"You know my opinion, and whether you believe it or not, doesn't matter. What matters it your father takes responsibility for the mistreatment you and your mother have received from him whenever he's had too much to drink." Sean's eyes showed a hint of suspicion.
"This all couldn't be just because you tried to leave the house, there's something else isn't there? My uncle told me of a meeting of the packs, all of them around here. He said that some kind of treaty was being drawn up in preparation of combining the packs under one rule. That's what this is about, isn't it?" As much as she knew Sean, he read her too well in his own right.
Still holding his arm, she looked down at her scraped knees. Her shorts held against being thrown and dragged when she tried to leave her father's presence, but her skin always betrayed her. "It's because I wanted to leave the house, and the fact that they are arranging a treaty within the packs. To ensure peace around all of New Orleans."
"Why you? Why now?" Sean asked her as he pulled her up from the ground she sat herself upon.
Sniffling, Luna knew she looked a mess, and tried to straighten out her shirt and smooth back her hair. Tears still fell down her cheeks. "As you have said I am much stronger than all the wolves around me, and in order for me to consecrate my blood to a pack it would have to be in a certain ceremony." Luna didn't want to say it fully, she didn't want his anger to light up once more.
Sean's face changed, his pale skin went to a burning red, his eyes squinted at her. "No, no. They can't! You're only sixteen!"
"My father said I have no choice, and mother…well she's silent as always." Luna shook her head at the knowledge that her mother was just as tired as herself with the fate that was handed to them. Her mother's bloodline was the reason she was what she was. It was difficult for Luna not to hold a grudge against her ancestors.
Sean's hand caressed her cheek, despite his anguish over news of her arrangement of marriage, he focused on her. "Luna, I can't let you marry some other guy. You know that."
Luna held him with her stare, "I love you, Sean."
"I love you too. We'll figure something out. I swear it. I'll get my uncle to help us." Sean suggested.
"No, Sean. I told you that your family cannot be involved. It's too risky. For you all and for me." Luna denied his ideas.
Kissing her forehead softly, "Then what? What would you have me do then?"
"Just lead me. Lead to me to where I can get something so I can get out of town." Luna already had a plan running its way through her brain.
"You're leaving the town?"
"What else would leaving mean, Sean? I cannot stay here, it's too dangerous with everything that's happening and what's about to happen." Luna didn't want to tell him, but she saw she had no other way of breaking the other part of the news. "If I stay and do marry, then you'll be in danger. And I can't let that happen."
"When's this ceremony supposed to take place?" Sean asked her, and she knew she had to tell him before it was too late.
"It's not until next spring," Luna replied as she grasped his hand against her cheek.
"We have time then…" He began.
"No, I don't." She knew by the change in his scent that confusion was beginning to stir up within him.
"What do you mean? Next spring is months away. I can find whatever it is you're looking for, and we can leave." Sean included himself in the plan automatically.
Luna's tears began anew. "You're so damn stubborn and incessant!" She was so overly emotional, she despised herself at that moment. She was born to rule, to be a leader, and here she was crumbling under the simple gaze of the boy she loved. Her weakness bared to him only, but he was her definition of her world, which meant she had never felt more vulnerable.
Sean wrapped both his arms around her and held onto her, she leaned into his body and felt comfort immediately enrapture her. Closing her eyes, she allowed herself the chance, even for a moment to feel safe. "I'm not letting you go anywhere alone, without me."
Luna knew the next words were a lie, and for once, she was thankful he was simply human and could not sense it. Opening her eyes, she pulled her head back to look back at him. Their eyes met and she smiled. "You'd really leave everything behind for me?"
Before she knew it his lips were against hers, and she reveled in it. Sean pulled back to breathe, "Does that answer your question?" He hinted at a smile, which in turn made Luna's face light up.
"Okay, but we have to hurry on these plans, like I've said the longer I stick around, the more endangered your family becomes, and yourself." Luna reminded him of her request.
"Why? What's going to happen?" Sean asked her.
Swallowing, she eyed him carefully. "Because in the next few months I'll begin to show." Sean's eyes widened, but he held still. "Sean, I'm pregnant."