Alpha's Blind Luna



The next few days were horrid. I refused to give Vale more than three words, two of which included 'my king' at the end of everything. More than once had he yelled at me but I took it with a blank, bored expression. This pups anger couldn't scare me. Goddess, no. I wondered sometimes if he had ever seen Auri truly angry before. She was a force that would leave me breathless with fear.

If he required a deeper conversation, I was short, straight to the point and sometimes sarcastic. The change seemed to shift the whole castle in the awkwardness between us.

I didn't give a single shit. Neither did Rydere. We both sometimes needed time and he would take over, letting me retreat. He treated Vale even more sarcastically that I did. Which, of course, ticked Vale off even more. But I was angry and I felt like I had to bottle all my pain. Bottle everything and even when I tried to reach out to Bryan or Simon, there was nothing. Morgan had called me, giving me a status update on Ezekiel.

All I gave Vale was that he was doing better and now was being better with people touching him. But I didn't go into anything further. Morgan looked broken. He had started to say something when he thought better of it, just saying he would be glad for us to be back soon. I couldn't agree more. "Fucking hell, Hector! Pay attention!"

I looked at Vale, my face blank. "Why, my king? You seem to have everything under control."

"For goddess sake!" Vale stormed over to me. He pulled me up by my shirt but I kept my face blank. "Pull yourself together! I've never seen you like this! You're supposed to be my moms beta! Do I need to call her to talk some sense into you?"

I looked away from him, pain, sadness, loneliness and everything I was pushing down I knew flashed through my eyes. My gaze, happened upon Luna Naomi who looked at me with pity. A pity that hurt me even more.

"What does my king want from me?"

Vale threw me against the door, angry but as his hand balled up, most likely to try to pound me into submission, Luna Naomi grabbed his arm. “Alpha King Vale, if you wouldn't mind, I would like to speak to Beta Hector. I might be able to help. Since it seems your anger has not gotten through." She flashed him a smile and Vale sighed.

"Alright. Whatever you want. Just get him out of my sight before I kill him."

She linked arms with me and lead me out of the room. Honestly, I didn't know what she was thinking but she lead me out of the castle.

“I know I'm probably the last person you would want to speak with, Beta Hector..."

I cleared my throat. "Just Hector is fine, Luna. And you're not, Vale is."

This made her laugh. "You remind me a lot of my father. In both the best and worst ways."

My brow furrowed. "I'm sorry..."

"No no. Don't apologize. My father was a great man. He was a wolf, Beta blood through and through but his fated mate, my mother, was a human. His pack excommunicated him for refusing to give up his mate."

"No pack should have control over ones mates. He made the right choice."

Her eyebrow raised as she looked at me but continued. "Despite being packless, he was happy. They were happy. I was their only child. My mother was ecstatic when she found out I took after my father. It was more of a chance to find my fated, she always said. But...I realized that wasn't the truth later."

Luna Naomi walked with me through the clearing, down one of the paths into the forest surrounding. "My mothers family had a rare type of cancer that was gic. All the woman seemed to get it. My mother being no exception. Sadly, once diagnosed, there wasn't much anyone could do." "I'm sorry, Luna." My heart broke for this young Luna. She probably was around Tyr's age but when she spoke, it was much more mature. “It's alright. I was in my teens when my mother died. My father tried. He did. One day though he brought me into his office and told me that he couldn't anymore. I had seen the shell of him walk around for weeks and I knew this was coming. I lost both my parents that year. Somehow, when I thought all darkness had consumed my life, I happened upon Evan." She beamed up at me and I couldn't help but smile.

Her head looked back into the trees we had now walked into. "I don't tell you that to make you feel sorry for me. Only that...for weeks I watched my father put in a brave face while he descended into the pain and loss of his mate." Luna Naomi turned to me, taking both my hands in hers. "The same pain I see on your face when you think no one is watching."

My eyes widened and I looked away from her. "I don't know..."

"Hector, please. I know your lashing out at Vale and I know it has to do with his mate. He told us...about his mate being missing. He broke three glasses one time trying to serve us and finally we got him to explain what was going on with him."

"His mate is fine. They found him and he's back home..."

Luna Naomi put her hand on my cheek and moved it so I was forced to look at her. "At what cost, Hector? You know...don't you? It's why you're angry with Vale. Because he doesn't care. He's ecstatic that is mate is home and he doesn't care how it happened. But something did, didn't it?" Tears started to stream out of my eyes and I squeezed them shut. I took sharp breaths as I tried to control my body to stop it from shaking. "Hector, let it go. You have to...'

I tore my face out of her grip and I walked a few steps into the forest. "I can't! If I do...I might lose it all...lose everything. Or realize I already have." My voice was quiet. "You are right. Vale doesn't care."

"Does he know? Know what the cost..."

I shook my head. "No. He'll probably blame his mate later...when he founds out. I thought I could give him some time to be happy but...goddess when he said he didn't give a shit. I just...how could I not be angry? I..." My hands balled up into fists. "...she's my everything." My voice back down to a whispered cry.

Luna Naomi came up to me. "You can tell me, Hector. I'm still half human. Vale's control only works so far. I won't tell him anything we speak about. Please. It's eating you...you're..."

"Dying, Luna." I chuckled hollowly. "Though, not my first time. Or even my second."

"Hector..."

I threw up my hands. "What do you want me to say, Luna? That I've almost lost my wolf already? That every time I think of her my heart feels like it's been torn to pieces? What do you want?" My anger was misplaced and I knew it. I took a deep breath. "I'm sorry...I shouldn't..."

"Tell me about her?" Luna Naomi leaned against a tree and slid down, sitting on the roots. The same as Auri would always do when she wanted to talk. "She must been amazing to have captured your heart." She was completely undisturbed at my outburst and I dropped my head in shame.

I smiled absently. "She is. She's fucking stubborn and she can't plan for shit. She jumps head first into everything she does. Nothing is halfway with her. She either embraces it fully or will reject it completely but she will never feel any limitations. She refuses to acknowledge them. Even at our age." I leaned my own back against a tree, pinning my hands behind me.

"She sounds like a force." Luna Naomi smiled.

"Goddess is she ever. A force that could destroy the world if she wanted with a simple choice. Instead, she chooses to love and try to make it better. Despite all the pain life has put her through over the years."

She chuckled. "You sound off her worst qualities as though they are her best."

Shaking my head, I looked up at the tree canopy above us. "Because she is beautiful. There is this air of unyielding confidence and everything about her flows like water. Even her wolf is stunning. She is the best fighter that I have ever had the pleasure to witness. I knew it when I first laid my eyes on her and I knew it all through my years. Her body is fucking perfection. Sculpted by the goddess herself. Everything she touches is just made better. I don't know how she does it, but every thing she makes or holds just is perfected. You can make something the same damn way and it pales in comparison. Even her faults are what make her the everything that she is."

Luna Naomi smiled sadly. "You love her...but she isn't your mate...is she?"

With my eyes still looking up, I shook my head. "Fated, no. No, she's not. She's...fated to someone else."

"What about your fated?"

I shook my head again. "My fated was killed by her, actually."

Luna Naomi gasped. "Shouldn't you hate her? For killing your fated? Your chance at happiness?"

My lips pursed and I smiled. "Maybe? But truthfully, I was angry at my fated. That she would try to kill the woman I loved. I was angry at myself for not being able to protect her against someone that was supposed to my match."

"That's...unheard of."

I nodded. “Yeah. It is. But my wolf and I think that somewhere along the lines, our souls refused to take anyone else. That even if we had mated, our love for her would never have died. We were linked. I've been her protector. I've been by her side but she always slips through my fingers. Always when it's regarding her safety." My eyes started filling up again and I tried to blink the tears away.

"She...she got hurt? Getting back Vale's mate?"

I took a deep breath. "Most likely what happened...was that she traded places with him or traded her life for his. They found out where he was and just fucking left with three of them. How else were they supposed to get him back? All three of them storm a facility crawling with vampires? How the fuck was it supposed to go?" I bit back angrily.

"Sounds like that was her plan from the beginning."

I looked at Luna Naomi but she wasn't looking at me. Her head was down, staring at a leaf she was twirling in her hand, brows furrowed. She continued, mostly thinking out loud.

"It sounds like she knew exactly how it was going to go. Did she take people who would create a stink about it? About her..."

My body slipped down the tree into a squat. "Goddess...she took Simon and Jax. Not Bryan. Not Morgan. Not AJ. Just those two. Hell, Lucy is a medical professional. But no, she took the two people who would never go against her. Jax always feels indebted to her, she took over as his mom. Simon is from her old crew. Fuck. FUCK. That makes it so much worse!"

"Vale said that you had a theory that they weren't after him as Vale's mate, but just as an Alpha. If she was acting on that theory...she had something more...something they wanted more than him."

I nodded. “She's....our Alpha...." My tears fell and I buried my head in my arms. "She's the Luna Queen...she is everything they could possibly want if they are looking for someone powerful."novelbin

"Wait...then...the wolf your speaking of is Auri...Auri Meadows?"

My head nodded. "Yes. The Huntress. The one woman army and...Vale's mother."

She gasped and I looked up at her but through my tears, it was nothing but a blur. “Oh Hector...I'm so sorry.....”

Shaking my head, I rocked forward and let my knees fall into the forest floor. I balled my hands up into fists. "I know...I know she is mated to Logan and she's the Luna Queen. I know but I saw her long before Logan ever did. He continued to treat her like shit. Treat her like every other she-wolf when she was so much more but I never acted on my feelings. I never...but every time she pulls this shit. Every time she decides her life isn't worth whatever she's doing, it's always the ones who love her that suffer."

I felt hands cover my fists and I looked up to see Luna Naomi staring at me. Not with anger or judgement, just sadness. "Hector, we can't help who we fall in love with sometimes. The fact that your wolf also accepted her, shows how much she means to you. At least, if she was a replacement for Ezekiel, she is still alive...somewhere."

My body was racked with sobs. "That's what I fear most. She's been through this before. They tortured her, destroyed her, built her into someone that you wouldn't even recognize as having a soul anymore. If she has to go through that again...Luna...I pray the goddess takes her soul to rest. The hell she has been through already..."

Luna Naomi wrapped her arms around me and I cried. I cried like a pup in her embrace. She didn't say anything as she let me cry. I felt like shit but it did feel better to let it all go. It had been compounding but I didn't know how much until I started to hiccup, unable to take full breaths as I mourned the loss of Auri. To me, she was already dead. Even if we managed to find her, how much would be left of her?

As if reading my thoughts, Luna Naomi pulled back. "Hector, she's probably still waiting for her knight. You can't give up on her yet. If you give up... she's on her own. Even if there is a 1% chance. Isn't that better than zero?"

I looked at the young Luna. She was smiling through her own tears.

"I...I can't..."

She chuckled. "The great Beta Hector Mendez? A quitter? That's the first time I've heard of it. Especially about hearing him love a woman for what? Ten? Twenty years? Who couldn't be yours?"

I cracked a smile. "Over thirty now. You forget how old I am, Luna. I may be older than your father."

Luna Naomi laughed and nodded. "You might be right. But right now, you're just a wolf who's lost his mate. Give Vale a break though. He doesn't know it's his mother. I know you're choosing not to tell him. But at least...know where he is coming from. If Auri was saved right now...would you care if 1000 wolves died in the process?"

I shook my head. "I wouldn't. Auri would. She would kill us if we let that happen. She takes sacrifices for her sake very hard."

Chuckling, she stood up and held out her hand for me. "Then it sounds like you need to make sure you don't sacrifice anyone in saving her."

"If they didn't just decide to kill her, knowing who she is."

Luna Naomi narrowed her eyes and shook her head. "You want my honest thoughts?"

I nodded.

"I think you would feel as much as Alpha King Logan would. But...the would be a theory I would never want to test.”

Taking her hand, I allowed myself to be picked up. She brushed off her pants before starting to walk back the way we came. "Don't give up yet, Hector. Don't assume she has. I know it's going to hurt. She's strong and as you said, she's stubborn. The time it takes to find her, if you do find her, whatever is left of her. Let's hope a piece of her soul still remains. But please don't give up hope."

Following her, we walked back to the castle. I opened the door for her and we walked in mid-dinner. She sat next to her mate and one of the staff tried to put a plate in front of her but she waved the off. Doing the same, I sat at my usual spot across Vale. He was eyeing me suspiciously but then

chuckled.

"Whatever you did, Luna Naomi, seemed to work. You would think the way he was acting, I killed someone close to him."

Luna Naomi's eyes widened. "Vale!"

I slammed my hands down on the table but it was Rydere who took over. "You're mother, Vale. It was your mother." Getting up, I headed out of the room. I couldn't stay here if he was going to be like his father. His cockiness hit a cord and I didn't care how much pain

this would cause or if it caused a rift between him and his mate. He needed to shut his muzzle. Rydere stepped back, mumbled incoherently as he

retreated.

"What the fuck are you talking about?"

I turned to him just before exiting the dinning hall. "That cost. The cost to get Ezekiel back. It was Auri, Vale."