Fearless

Bayu Bayushki Bayu

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Bayu Bayushki Bayu

A/N the song at the top is the Russian lullaby that Michael sings to Luna. I suggest you listen to it as you read when Michael starts singing it. You'll understand how captivating it is to listen to, especially with a deeper voice than the video.

"Michael, I don't care that you're making coffee, get over here and hold my baby." Charlie called from the living room. Actaeon entered the kitchen to take over my coffee duties. He shrugged his shoulders and pushed me out. Charlie was sitting with a blanket over her legs, her baby propped up on them. Alice was next to her, smiling softly down at the baby.

"Luna has got to be the most well behaved baby I have ever met." Alice said as I neared them. I hadn't even touched Charlie's baby yet. I was in high alert. Jared and what was left of his pack would be arriving today, looking for Luna. I was focused on protecting, not playing with a newborn.

Alice noticed my discomfort as I stood there in front of the couch. She got up, grabbed me but the arm and pulled me into the hallway. "What's wrong? You haven't even touched Luna yet. Are you afraid of children or something?" She asked me.

"Of course not. I held Blue's kid. It's just, I'm not very good with kids, and Luna is family. I just feel like I'll upset her or something." I told her. Alice clenched her jaw and stared up at me.

"Are you worried about Jared? Is that why you've been peering out windows all morning?" She asked. I blinked at her for a second. She noticed that?

"He's going to show up today, and I just want to be able to get Charlie and Luna out of here in time. He's looking for a fight, Alice. We can't forget that. Either I'm going to fight him alone or the whole pack will fight his pack." Alice crossed her arms over her chest. "I want to be prepared for this. We can't let Jared take Luna away from Charlie."

Alice put her arms around my neck and pulled my head down a little bit. "Honey, we are prepared. What do you think we've been doing during Charlie's pregnancy? We've been training. You've been training. There is no way that we'll lose." She assured me. She pecked me on the lips once. "Now hold Charlie's damn baby before I take your chance." Alice pushed me out of the hallway and into the living room. Charlie adjusted Luna in her lap a little bit before she noticed me standing there awkwardly.

"Sit down, and I'll hand her to you." Charlie told me. I looked behind my shoulder and gave Alice a fearful look before I sat down on the couch. Charlie threw the blanket off of her legs and stood up with Luna in her arms. She stood in front of me and lowered Luna onto my lap, facing me. She squirmed for a second before her chubby little hands grabbed onto mine. Once her cold hands were in my warm ones, she calmed down immediately. "Oh, would you look at that." Charlie said as she went over to the kitchen. "You're great with kids." Little Luna smiled a toothless smile at me and made small gurgling noises. I chuckled a little at her. 

"Little Luna, what a strange creature you are," I hummed to her. At the sound of my voice, Luna stopped making weird noises and stared up at me, her mouth open a little bit. "You see that girl lover there? The one in the hallway?" I asked Luna. Her eyes found Alice leaning against the wall. "That's Alice. She is the most amazing person I have ever met. She knows exactly what to say to me, and she does it without hesitating, even though she knows something things will strike a chord. You, Little Luna, are very lucky to have an aunt like her." Luna looked back at me. A little stuffed wolf that was in my lap fell to the ground when she moved. As soon as it bounced against the wood flooring, I knew that there was no going back. Tears swelled in Luna's eyes and her cheeks went a bright red. Her eyes squeezed shut and her mouth opened as she cried. I swooped her up into my arms and stood up from the couch, rocking her back and forth on my shoulder. Alice swiftly picked up Luna's animal off of the floor and stuck it in her hands. Luna still cried and cried and cried, and eventually Alice shooed me out the back door. I hummed under my breath and rocked Luna in my arms, but it was no use. 

Alice looked at me through the window and mouthed, 'sing to her!' I rolled my eyes and rocked Luna a little faster, as if I could rock all of the tears right out of her. The first thing that came to wind was a Russian lullaby that my mother used to sing to me when she would put me to bed after a particularly hard night. 

Luna's eyes locked on mine as I started to sing softly. She grabbed fistfuls of my shirt as she held onto me. Her tears slowed a tiny bit as I continued with the song. I barely remembered how to pronounce the words, it had been a very long time since I had last spoken Russian, and it had been a very long time since I had last heard my mother sing this song. But somehow, I knew every word and every note to the little lullaby. Luna wiped her face with her fists and knotted them in my shirt once again. Luna's eyes fluttered lightly, and she locked them back on my face. She wanted to keep listening, she wanted me to finish the song for her, even as she struggled to stay awake. My rocking slowed a little bit as I concentrated on singing the song. As I sang it, memories of my mom singing it to me flashed before my eyes. The images that came with the memories of my mother were some that I wasn't ready for. I remembered what my father had done to me, to my mother. To my sister. I felt warm tears fall down my cheeks and I kept singing, my voice shaking as I forced myself to keep going. Luna seemed mesmerized by me. She grasped my neck with a hand that wasn't balled in my shirt. As the last line of the song left my mouth, I noticed that an audience that gathered by the back door. Charlie, Actaeon, and Alice were by the back door, staring at me holding Luna.

Charlie bustled over and took Luna from me. She had calmed down and was a happy child again once she was in her mother's arms. Actaeon went inside with Charlie, but not before giving me a lingering glance. Alice walked over to where I had been standing. "How do you know that song?" she asked me. She slipped her hand inside mine and squeezed it gently. 

"My mother used to sing it to me, especially after we had a particularly bad night because of my father." I told her. "My parents met in Russia, and my dad made my mom come back to Canada with him after I was born. My mother used to speak Russian to me all the time, since my dad didn't even know one word of it." I smirked a little bit. 

"What is the song about?" she asked. 

"It teaches Russian children not to lay on the edge of their beds or a wolf will come and drag them into the woods." I told her. She looked startled by this information. "Russian lullabies aren't used to calm babies down, they're used to warn them of the world around them." 

"That's kind of morbid, isn't it?" she asked. I shrugged. "Well, I'm glad you could calm down Luna. She freaked out, didn't she?" I chuckled. 

"Yeah, she probably thought her stuffed wolf died when it fell. She wasn't the only one freaked out, though. When I was singing it to her, I remembered things I had repressed. And for good reason, too." Alice looked up at me. Then she turned her head. 

"We better go inside, Charlie just dropped a vase. You might need to calm the baby down again." Alice started to pull me inside by my hand in hers. I hoped it wasn't her nice vase, she would lose her shit if she broke that. 

A/N hello everyone! I hope that this chapter is to your liking. Please share this with someone you think would enjoy this story, it would mean so much to me. Vote if you liked this chapter, and don't be afraid to check out some of my other works on my profile. Have a good evening!

p.s. comment on those nasty typos/grammar mistakes