Evelyn POV
“I said, you’ll have to banish me too!” I repeat meeting Reuben’s thunderous eyes.
“That’s impossible!” He growls at me, his body shaking with anger. Vicky places a hand on his shoulder before having the nerve to try and calm a deteriorating situation that she has caused.
“Reuben please don’t fight on my account.” She coos into his ear.
My own growl is deafening, the growl of a luna’s and an alpha’s daughter furious at Vicky. Vicky’s wolf has no choice but to whimper…with her alpha and pack dead she is no longer of luna status. I turn my back on the two of them and start to pull Noah away from them also.
“Are you leaving with him?” Reuben’s cold voice rings throughout the courtyard.
“If you insist on banishing Noah, then yes. I won’t leave him behind.” I firmly stand by my decision.
“I told you she had feelings for him.” Vicky mutters into Reuben’s ear, which earns an irritant growl, even from him.
“He must be banished but you cannot leave the position of luna, you are my wife.”
“What’s the point Reuben? For two years I have tried for you to love me, for you to see me. But I can not make you happy. Why continue this façade, why make each other miserable. I can see now that I never really stood a chance.” Can you see a heart break? I feel like every spectator is watching my heart being destroyed in front of their very eyes.
“Even so, you will NOT be with him, you are still this pack’s luna and will obey my orders.” His eyes seem to flash in colour, his wolf trying to channel through.
I haven’t got the energy to fight for him anymore, not with her here. I need to protect his baby, even from him. Silent tears are falling down my cheek from knowing what I must do.
“What if I wasn’t your luna anymore?” I say, hearing a gasp from the gathered pack members. I wipe away my tears as prepare myself and my wolf for my following words.
“What do you mean?” He mutters under his breath.
“I, Evelyn, Luna of the Blood Moon Pack reject my position as the Alpha’s wife and Luna.” How could you feel a pack connection break when you were never marked? It was almost as if I could feel his own heart breaking. The fall down the stairs was nothing compared to this emotional pain.
“Evelyn..” He takes a step towards me but is pulled back by Vicky.
I turn my back, linking my arm into Noah’s and walk away back into the alpha mansion. I hear Reuben roar behind me, but I decide not to turn, not to continue…not when she is his everything.
“I won’t let you leave me!” He roars before I can hear him shift and race off into the distance.
……
“Evelyn?” Noah closes my bedroom door behind me.
“Noah, we need to pack…we need to leave. Take only the essentials, everything else we can get when we are back home.” I rush around trying to find a big bag to put some essential clothes in.
“Home?”
“Yes, we will have to return back to the Silver Moon pack until I can think of my next step.” I was running on adrenaline at the moment, not taking a second to think about the severity of what I had just done.
“Evelyn…” Noah gently touches my elbow.
“…you don’t need to do this, not for me. I’ll be fine. You need to fight for your luna title, don’t give it up, don’t let her win.”
“I don’t want this anymore. You were right, he won’t ever love me. I just want to love my child.”
Our exit from the pack was awkward. Pack members were pleading for me to stay, for me to give him another chance. My heart was shouting at me to stay, every fibre of my being was telling me to remain and fight for him, fight for the family I could have. But my head was overpowering my heart, pre-empting the future disappointment I will continuously feel if I stay. Conflicted even until the last second, even when Candice chased after me asking me to wait, that he’ll soon realise what a bitch Vicky is and how really he was in love with me, he just doesn’t know it yet. But my head won.
We had travelled without stopping. I just wanted to get back to the Silver Moon pack, to see my parents. I was ashamed of my failed marriage to such a powerful alliance, but I knew they would never shun me. They only ever showed me love.
Once we had arrived on pack grounds, Noah didn’t stop driving. He used our reinstated pack link to inform the warriors of our arrival and to open the gates.
My parents were standing outside of the alpha house, waiting for me. I exited the car rushing into the comfort of their open arms and allowed my body to finally cry every tear it wanted to cry the entire journey home.
Noah didn’t leave me once, he sat on the single armchair in my family front room where I told them everything that had gone wrong. My father found it hard to keep his anger at bay. He had expected more from Reuben and mum had to calm him down.
Noah admitted his guilt in his contribution to the breakdown of my marriage but that he couldn’t sit by and let Reuben continue to treat me in such a wrongful manner. My parent’s had always been fond of Noah and ensured him that no blame laid with him.
“I’m going to organise my men to visit Reuben tomorrow….” Father starts to declare but I can’t have him enter a toxic environment when he was full of anger at my treatment.
“No Dad, it is done….”
I turn to Noah who nods at me with encouragement to share my news.
“…I am pregnant and just want to raise my child here.” I finally confess what I had been holding back. I wipe away a single tear that burns from my eye. Both my parents look at each other with wide eyes before mind-linking one another.
“We will support you Evelyn as always. You will remain here and raise the child.” Father agrees, relieving the tight tension within my chest.
……
For the next week I had been mainly resting, this baby was strong. Noah had continued to prescribe me the daily vitamin drink but I still struggled to eat. My heartache still too great, yet I passed it off as morning sickness.
Reuben had been trying to call me on my mobile phone all week but I didn’t have it in me to answer, what was left to say?
“Do you think he’ll come here?” Mum asks looking slightly worried.
“I don’t see why…”
“Perhaps you should take a few days out Evelyn, why don’t you visit the lake, you loved it there as a child.” Mum suggests concerned that if Reuben did arrive it might cause me and the baby undue stress.
“Yes Mum I think I will.” I smile softly at her.
“I shall accompany you, make sure you keep your vitamins up.” Noah offers which does make me feel slightly relieved knowing he would be with me.
……
Mum was right, visiting my favourite place as a child did me the world of good. The soft ripples of the lake drummed in a new calmness into me. I knew I would always be tied to Reuben through his child and would always love him, but I had the chance of happiness and peace with my parents and my child, and I would grab that with both hands.
I think the trip had helped Noah too. He let his wolf run around the lake knowing I was safely sat on the decking of the lake house. I hadn’t realised how much of a worry I had been to him.
The lake was just on the outskirts of the pack grounds but far enough to warrant a few nights away for a well-deserved break. The break gave me a chance to reassess my situation, my heart break. But I had a new future to look forward to.
My father would become my baby’s alpha, the important male figure in his or her’s life. It’s not what I had originally dreamed for myself, I remember putting on my wedding dress with such a romantic vision in my mind of what marriage to Reuben would involve, but I have now woken up for that dream.
We were driving back to the pack grounds when I couldn’t get hold of the border patrol through the mind-link. The outer patrol always requested that you announce your arrival in advance as not to slow down car movement, less chances then of raising human suspicions.
A cold sensation runs down my spine and my wolf howls in my mind, as we reach the outer gate to find it empty.
“Something feels wrong.” I say to Noah from the safety of the car.
“It is eerily quiet and I can’t get hold of inner gate patrol.” Noah looks to me with deep concern in his eyes. The inner gate patrol guarded the more densely populated part of the pack, if we couldn’t get hold of them then something really was wrong.
Noah being of beta status had always been entrusted with the codes for the pack gates. He briefly steps out of the car to type in the code to open the large iron gates. As we drive deeper into the pack, we see a fire burning up ahead by the inner gate border patrol.
“What is that?” I say to Noah.
“I’m not sure.” He answers, clearly on edge.
As we drive closer, Noah slams the emergency breaks on the car and puts his arm out to stop me from hitting the dashboard. At first my brain can’t understand what I am witnessing until pure fear hits me like a train. I step out of the car and run towards the fire, letting out a mangled scream. Dead bodies were piled up on top of each other and left to burn. Pack member’s bodies.
Parents, my wolf shouts into my head.
I start to run as fast as I can towards my parent’s home.
“Shit, Evelyn wait!” I hear Noah roar behind me before he starts to run after me.
Dead bodies lay on the grass as I bypass the road and run through the fields. As I reach the house, I see pack members sat down crying into each other’s arms. Survivors left to mourn the dead, hopefully more had managed to reach the shelter in time.
“Luna?” A warrior stands up and tries to block my family home from me.
“What happened?” I gasp as I try to step past him.
“We were ambushed, there were too many.”
“Evelyn!” Noah gasps behind me which distracts the warrior for long enough to allow me to push past him. I race into my parent’s house to find complete utter devastation.
My father’s body was unrecognisable, his severed head laid next to him on the floor. My mother’s body still intact but she had been struck with a silver sword. A sword that had been left placed in her heart…that held the emblem of the Red Stone pack. A symbol of a crown with a wolf howling into the red blood moon.
I collapse to the floor, my lungs unable to hold my own breath. How could he have been so ruthless, how could he have been so heartless towards me and mine. Reuben you truly are a monster. I grip the silver sword’s sharp blade with my hand squeezing it tightly. The stinging of the cutting wound causing blood to freefall down my arm, but I couldn’t feel the pain.
“How….how could you?” I scream. A surge of anger courses through my blood from what he has done to me. My tears stop, a determination replacing them.
“Reuben…you will now never know what is yours!” This was my pledge, my bleeding promise.
