The Barren Luna

8 - Calum

Things have been going to shit for a while now, but locking my Luna in the dungeon definitely took the cake. I grabbed the first enforcer I could find and instructed him to get a message to Lucy. I then made my way to the hospital, while at the same time trying to figure out what the fuck had happened.

That female. She kept showing up at the pack house uninvited and at the most inopportune times, always complaining of one pregnancy ailment or another. If my Lucy hadn't borne two pups, I wouldn't have been able to see through her attention-seeking behavior. The Alpha, however, bought it, hook, line, and sinker. On the one hand, I could understand him, I had also been overprotective of Lucy during both of her pregnancies. On the other hand, how he was wounding his mate with his behavior was anathema to shifters.

Even before Lucy found the Luna passed out during their first breeding session, the whole thing had made me uneasy. We took the Luna to the hospital and spent two and a half days by her side, since the Alpha's order was that he not be disturbed. He almost punched me when I informed him that his mate had been hospitalized, but I think most of that anger was misdirected. I'd known Alpha Henry since we were just pups. He used to be a good and honorable male and I had to believe that, deep down, he still was.

And now that damned female was walking smelling like the Alpha all the time and there were some rumors going around, but I still had faith in Alpha Henry's integrity. I attributed the smell to his pup growing inside her, and unless I saw something with my own two eyes, I would not indulge in baseless gossip.

"Alpha, do you have any news?"

His eyes were wild and his hair was sticking out in all directions.

"The doctor will be out shortly. Calum, I don't know what I'm gonna do if-" he broke off, his eyes shifting from brown to black, his wolf trying to take over.

A pang of compassion hit my heart. I remembered Alpha Henry and Luna Ginny coming to this very hospital to bless our firstborn, Nora. I remembered holding her tiny body in my arms and being overwhelmed by love and fear and awe. I didn't know it back then, but that was the beginning of the end for our friendship. He started subtly distancing himself from me and, in the thick of new fatherhood, it had taken me way too long to notice. By the time I had, a new, awkward coldness had settled in between us and we never went back to the jovial camaraderie we once shared.

How long had he secretly been carrying his pain of not being a father? How long had he been pretending to be an indestructible Alpha male? The doctor's arrival jolted me out of these uncharacteristically emotional thoughts, and we both shot to our feet.

"Alpha, both the pup and Miss Rogers are fine. He's a strong one," the older male smiled kindly and we both exhaled in relief. "Miss Rogers is a bit bruised and shaken up from the incident, but she will be fine in no time. I haven't had a chance to tell her the good news yet, since she's just woken up, so maybe we can go together?"

"Sounds good," the Alpha said, blinking tears away. I wanted to give him a man-hug, to clap him on the back, to share in the happiness he must have been feeling, but I knew that was not who we were anymore.

The female, Hannah, looked like a porcelain doll in the big hospital bed. That peaceful image got shattered as soon as she opened her mouth and started crying hysterically.

"Oh Henry, it was so awful, our pup! The Luna pushed me down the stairs," her tiny shoulders were shaking with sobs, and for the first time since I've known her I felt a modicum of empathy towards her.

"Hannah, don't cry, he's fine," Henry sat down by her bed and took her hand but I could see his jaw clench at the mention of his Luna. Hannah looked at him, then me, then the doctor.