White Lightning

Chapter 14: Explanations

The doctor met her gaze then, his cornflower blue eyes wide as he shook his head slowly. "Rain, I believe you are confused."

"No," she shook her head frantically. "They died because of him! He's killing them!"

Ricky clutched her by the shoulders then and shook her gently. "Rain, our Luna took her own life. The Alpha discovered her body floating in the tub and he tried to save her, but it was too late." He bowed his head with those words, moved by the loss of the beautiful young she-wolf.

Rain tried to digest his words, but shook her head slowly. "No, Chris said that she died from complications. He blamed himself, he said that he killed her."

"He blames himself for her death, yes," Ricky nodded slowly, his expression pained. "Just as he blamed himself for Serenity's death. When we lost her, when we lost the pup, he was beside himself." He paused before he bit his bottom lip and then continued. "It was a tragic thing, a freak fever that overcame her and took them both in an instant. But Chris, he blamed himself. As the Alpha in-training, he believed that it was his job to prevent any deaths within the pack. He loved Serenity, he loved that pup."

Rain watched as a tear slid down the pale doctor's face. "He was a different man then, Rain. We have been friends since we were children, and I saw such a change in him when we lost Serenity. Their pairing had been arranged, and they were both initially resistant. In fact, Serenity was fearful of her circumstances, her new pack, and her new mate, and she denied him on the evening of their Mating Ceremony. Chris waited with patience for her to be ready, and they did not consummate their pairing until she welcomed him into her bed several weeks later. He was so patient and loving with her and several months later, when they discovered that she was with pup, he was on top of the world. Literally if he could have, he would have carried that pup inside his own body."

Rain found herself stepping back and falling into a nearby chair that was propped beside the tiny little she-wolf's crib. She heaved a great sigh, weighing all of this new information. "I don't understand," she eventually spoke aloud in a soft whisper.

Ricky sat beside her, taking her hands into his own. "When Serenity died, we thought that we would lose Chris, too. There was a time where it seemed a definite likelihood. Chris and Ryan's father was still our Alpha, and to try and save his son from going entirely off the deep end, he made a new treaty; one that promised Chris to a beautiful auburn-haired beauty named Amara. She arrived here with some serious delusions about what being a Luna would entail, and she quickly learned that her new mate was horribly scarred. She wanted someone who would take care of her, lavish her in luxury, and she got a man who was too damaged to bathe or even feed himself."

A tear rain down Rain's cheek then, and she wiped it away quickly. "How did he recover?"

"He didn't," Ricky clarified with a frown. "What you see is what Chris became in order to survive. We thought, we being myself and his father, that with a new Luna at his side, he would bounce back faster; he would force himself to heal so that he could care for his new mate. And, to some degree, he did in small increments. Unfortunately, despite their frequent trials, Amara was not getting with pup. In response to what she perceived as a failure, she lashed out and made life even more miserable for Chris. So, he took a lover and then, finding no comfort in his dalliances, he took another lover, anything to escape having to go home at night to Amara and her tantrums."