Alpha's Blind Luna



The day before Lucy, Hector and I had gone into the closest major city to order furniture for the nursery. They delivered it early this morning and I'd taken most of the afternoon unwrapping and placing everything where I wanted it. Yesterday, I'd chosen the paint too, opting for a grayish-blue color. One of our pack members was an artist and I had her come in and paint black line-work on the walls. My theme was moonlight forest. So on one wall was a forest of trees as an accent and then the moon over some grass with flowers on the other. It was simple lines but it came out better than I imagined. It was starting to look like a nursery.

I ended up drilling Hector while we were out of what Auri did with her four kids and he answered most of them as best he could. He said he had more of a hand in Vale's upbringing. Bryan had his hands full with his two kids at the time and Auri with still working through her injuries. So Hector stepped up but it was a long time ago. Still, he provided me with more useful information that I felt any of the forums ever had. Except how to put some of the furniture together.

Kneeling on the floor, I was screwing in a piece for the cubbies I wanted to hold clothes, when the door opened and slammed shut. Multiple voices started up and I cocked my head to the side. Lucy, Felix, AJ and Jax had walked in but they weren't supposed to be back until later.

"Guys, there is something you need to see." Lucy's voice filtered in from the living room.

My brow furrowed and I got up, leaving my project mostly done. Hector's brow was furrowed as he walked by me. He headed down the stairs but not before patting me on the shoulder on his way by. I skipped the last stair as I headed into the living room. Felix turned on the TV as Bryan and Vale walked in from outside.

The news station was covering a fire live. The smoke billowing from the building was black and the flames were so high I was surprised that the camera crew were so close.

"Is this the supernatural news or...?"

"Human. Regular ol' news." AJ answered. "Felix, turn it up."

Felix nodded and turned up the volume.novelbin

"...started around 8 a.m. local time. Authorities are still unsure how the fire started. As you can see, security has blocked off the road leading up to the lab but they are unable to even attempt getting closer. With the flames reaching as high as a three story building, the fire department is unable to get close true to the dangerous level of heat."

"Did she say lab?" Vale looked at Jax who nodded.

Lucy crossed her arms over her chest. "It's a lab in the outskirts of the UK."

The anchorwoman spoke up. "According to reports, around 250 people worked at the lab. It's unsure what specifically they were working on, as it was a private facility. Reaching out to the company Bovo Inc, they've said that right now, they are focused on the lives lost and working with the families. As soon as it is safe to approach the building, they will be working with the authorities to find out what happened."

Vale furrowed his brow. "Why are we watching this?"

"Because it's Auri, isn't it?" Bryan turned to Hector.

He was rigid, but nodded a couple times. "It looks like it."

"She wouldn't. There could be innocent people in there! Two hundred and fifty people? What if the BloodHunter Coven is underground? What if they rented the space out?" Lucy looked from Hector to Vale.

Vale's brow furrowed. "Her hatred has taken this too far."

"Every one of those people deserved to die."

All heads turned to Hector who was starting at the screen. His face still didn't shift from the slight frown he was wearing. "Hector...people could have..."

"The BloodHunter Coven doesn't rent spaces or share. They don't just intermingle. If there were humans there, they were there for their so-called science. They make excuses, turning a blind eye to the atrocities all in the name of science. All of them deserve to burn." He snorted for a moment, the edge of his mouth turning up into a smirk. "Good fucking riddance. I have a feeling we will see more of this and I'll crack a beer open for each one."

True to his word, he grabbed a beer from the fridge before heading out into the yard. Peeling my eyes away from the door that Hector left, I looked around the room. There was a mixture of horrified and disbelief looks on their faces.

"He doesn't mean that...does he?" Lucy looked from Vale to me.

Everyone was quiet. While I understood where they were coming from, I couldn't help but agree with Hector. At times, it was humans had their hands on me. They were drawing blood after I was getting tortured or taking vitals after I was raped. They turned a blind eye to the pain, the torture, that I was put through.

"I'm sure he doesn't." Felix flashed a loving smile at Lucy who nodded.

“I agree with him. If anything, this was too good of a death.”

Everyone in the room turned to look at me but the same frown that adorned Hector's face, also was reflected on mine.

"Zeke, come on. That's harsh. There could be innocent people..." Vale reached out but I crossed my arms over my chest, out of his reach. Shaking my head, I sighed. "None of them are innocent. They all play a part. I wasn't tortured by just vampires. The coven isn't just vampires. You guys are speaking without having had gone through what Hector and I went through. What Auri went through."

"You don't know that." An edge crept into Vale's voice.

I turned to him, my brows coming together. "Do you see that fire and pity them? Think they didn't deserve that? Is that the same feeling you had when you looked at me for weeks? It shouldn't be. You shouldn't have the same feeling for those monsters. Monsters who very well could have been the exact ones who fucking raped me. The same feelings when you see Hector. Goddess, all of you..." I turned to head out the door, snagging the lighter and pack of cigarettes off the kitchen counter. "You can say whatever the hell you want because you weren't a victim of them. But I suggest you keep your opinions to yourself in front of the two people who suffered immeasurably by their hands."

Slamming the door behind me, I walked out past the patio. The grass was cool against my feet and the air was also brisk. I made my way to the edge, standing a little ways behind Hector who was sitting on one of the rocks that made up the outer ring of the house. He had his arm resting on his knee, the other hand holding the beer. Taking a cigarette out, I lit it and took a long deep drag.

Hector spoke as he looked out over the sea. "She's avenging all the people she knew who died at their hands. She's avenging a love that died saving her. And I think most importantly, she's avenging us. The ones left to deal with the scars."

I hummed. "I shouldn't be angry. I know they don't get it."

Hector looked up at me, no real emotion on his face but his eyes were like looking into pools of sorrow. "You are entitled to be angry, Zeke. At the very least you should be angry. The issue is that they would will perceive our anger as spiteful. Only because they don't understand the depth of our pain." "You and Auri had it so much worse than I did though."

Turning, he looked back over the sea and took a drink. "What you went through is your pain. I have my own. We both have different limits. You can't compare what we went through against each other. Only against what you've been through before and what you can handle."

"If that the case, Auri beats us hands down. The palle on that woman.'

For the first time since being back, really since I came back from the lab, Hector burst out laughing. His bottle clinked against the rock as he leaned over, letting out a barking laugh. It brought a smile to my face as well. I looked out over sea and took another drag.

"Your Italian pronunciation is getting better." He took a deep breath. "And you're right. I don't think anyone on this pl could handle what she's gone through and live to tell about it. Let alone kept their sanity."

"Is she?"

He looked up at me. "Is she what?"

"Sane?"

Hector hummed. “Yes. All too sane. She's sane though for what she's gone through, not sane in the sense of everyone else. Her normal thought process is based on what she's been through. So her sanity may be someone else's insanity." I looked down at him and he was eyeing me. "Just as you and I now function in a sane level, which might seem insane to others."

"Yeah yeah, I'll go apologize."

He shook his head. "You have nothing to apologize for. You were being sane. Sometimes, it's just understanding that your world is going to be different from theirs. Your view is forever altered. For better or for worse."

We lapsed into silence for a spell. The waves crashing hard against the rocks and the slight breeze meant, as Auri would say, a storm was brewing. I could feel the prickle of Vale's emotions but I didn't really want to face them; him or the others. I didn't want to have to dive back into the memories those weeks. I didn't want pity anymore. I wanted what Auri was giving us. She was doing what she needed to do and as much as Hector said he was done fighting, the smile of his face said otherwise. She was avenging us and it felt good.

Vale adding people to my security, making sure the pack was as safe as possible so I wouldn't be taken again, didn't make me feel free. It made me feel like I was in a cage. What surprised me was a little bit of the weight off my heart seeing the lab in flames. I felt a little safer; a little less scared that I'd wind up back in their clutch's. Sighing, I put out my second cigarette.

"How did Auri live like this? Live without the fear that they were going to come back for her? Sometimes I end up double and triple checking the doors, making sure they are locked. Then I think, why am I being stupid? I can't live my life like this. I can't parent pups like this." My voice spewed the fear that had been nagging at me.

It was more than just being a parent; of having two little ones relying on us. I felt like I wasn't ever going to be healed, ever be sane that everyone else was, as Hector put it. Hector chuckled, getting up and coming over to me. I held out the box and he took a smoke, lighting it and looking down at

me.

"What makes you think she wasn't?"

I opened my mouth but closed it. "Cause she's...Auri?"

He shook his head and put a hand on my shoulder. "Exactly. She's Auri...and that made her fear all the more. Imagine the secrets she's kept, the pain she's hid, the actions she's had to take. You think she didn't fear with every glance over her shoulder? Every creak in her house? Every time her kids cried? Thinking that were they here for her? Were they here for them? She was the most afraid out of all of us, Zeke." His hand squeezed a little tighter. "Because she should have been. We all should fear a little more. It's what keeps us sharp and what prevents us from make the same mistakes as before."

"Fear shouldn't define us, Hector."

"Neither should anger. And yet here we are. Put in a place where we are on the brink of a supernatural war that could very well alter our entire way of life. If not making us lose it."

Pinching the bridge of my nose, I shook my head. "Don't put that thought into my head. I've got enough going on."

Hector's grip on my shoulder loosened and he patted it. "Then just focus on what you can do. The pack, those two pups who need you, and helping throttle Vale back a bit."

This time I barked out a laugh. “That last one is you overestimating my abilities."

Hector started to walk towards the front of the house, around the side.

"Where are you going?"

He looked back. "A run. Before I bite those kids heads off...again. I'm too old for this shit. I had my time, but somehow Auri never fails to stir up trouble, even when she's not here."

"Let me come with you. I need a little longer before I face my mate."

"Zeke, I..."

I walked over to him and clamped a hand on his shoulder. "You can't always be alone, Hector. It doesn't matter to me what happened; how you look. Eventually, you're going to need someone." Not allowing him to reply, I started to jog ahead of him. "Come on, we need to lose the guards that Vale's assigned to me when I leave the house."

There was a loud huff and a groan before I heard him start to come up behind me. "Vale is going to kill me."

Shaking my head, I looked over my shoulder to see a smirk on his face. “I'm pretty sure in his current condition, Vale wouldn't last five minutes. He'd have to use his Alpha King order."

Hector snorted, now next to me. "That wouldn't work either. Not anymore."

My brow furrowed but I didn't get a chance to ask what he meant. We crossed the street and I saw the two guards running behind us. They weren't from our pack as Vale specifically pulled them from the High Council so I couldn't order them to stay away. He may have taken over Alpha, but it still put me in an interesting Luna position of power.

I was able to still give orders and have the pack obey, not that I would bark orders to our pack members. But I would absolutely do it to get these guys off my back rr at the very least put them to work. Shifting, I let Faris take over. He happily jumped to the forefront, kicking up our run into a much faster sprint towards the forest. Attempting to lose the guards for the first time.