Alpha's Blind Luna novel Chapter 21

I sat on the edge of a small cliff that was not too far from the house. Further east was a waterfall from a stream that wrapped around the territory but that was further than I wanted to go. The air blew through my hair and I had my leg pulled up, the other dangling off the edge. It was sunny and so the rock beneath me was warm since the trees didn’t grow this close to the edge. It overlooked the rest of the forest that dropped down about thirty or so feet.

It was peaceful. There weren’t any sounds outside of the wind, the rustling of the trees, and the creatures in the forest. I found a place that I escaped to outside of the High Council castle as well. Here though, was familiar and safe. A place where my head could just not think of all the things I needed to do, all the duties and problems of the world. Naresh also sat quietly in my head as we looked out. At some point, I closed my eyes and slipped into a meditative state.

I heard someone come up behind me and I looked back, seeing Hector shift and walk through the trees. Turning back to the view, I rested my chin on my knee.

“This always was your favorite spot as a kid. I found you out here after the fight with your brother.” He sat down next to me, both legs dangling off the edge.

“The view is calming. It’s far enough away from everything that you can lose yourself to the wilderness.”

We stayed quiet for a long time. I snuck a glance at Hector again. Seeing him in a different light knowing there might be something going on between him and my mom. His hair now sported a peppering grey but it looked good with the braid he usually wore. He had lines on his face that showed he wasn’t as young as he used to be. Scars riddled his upper body but none of them looked life threatening. Not like some of the ones my mom sported.

Hector had always been a big part of my life. Him and Bryan both I counted as uncles more than anything. My Uncle Ty had been busy a lot as Beta of his own pack and so we never saw him much or my cousins. They also were pretty mad at my mom and my dad for different reasons over the years.

“You know, your mom went through a lot before you kids were born.”

I hummed. “I know.”

“Nova actually saved your mom’s life.”

My eyes widened and I looked at him. “What?”

His face was blank but the sadness in his eyes was apparent. “Nova put off her dying from an overconsumption of healing potions. She had been attacked and it was the final potion that her body couldn’t take.”

“But healing potions are so rare now-a-days. How did she end up consuming too many?”

“There was a point where she was tortured and they used the healing potions as a method of taking her to the point of dying before healing her. How they were able to get so many, I don’t know, but she was drowned in them for over a year.”

I was stunned. There were always bits and pieces of my Mom’s life I was told. But this was more than just the quick words of ‘my mission went south’ or ‘I went missing for a few months’. This was the first time I had heard that she had been tortured and that they used potions. That she had almost died back then before she died having me.

Sighing, he rubbed his palms on his legs. “Yes, she took Nova without knowing what it would do. It was not a great point in her life. But she was alone and had literally no one. Nova just turned out saving her long enough that your grandpa and dad were able to find a solution. That was the reason why she had to take steroids for years.”

“She destroyed them though? The drugs?”

“Yes. We all thought it was the end of it. Until it popped up again a couple years ago. She was livid. The drug gives you super strength, sure, but you can’t feel emotions. At first, it would sound like a blessing but you slowly lose your humanity. I can’t even say that it makes you become a wolf because even wolves feel emotions. You become a robot. Unfeeling, unsympathetic and the more you take the drug, the worse it gets. Until there is a point when, even if you get off of it, you can’t feel again.”

My eyes widened. It was quiet but there was a shake in his voice as he spoke.

“The new drug…amplifies that, Vale. Your mom was on the drug for years and she could feel that sense of unfeeling seeping in. She got off of it and expected to die for a while. But this new drug, it only takes a couple months.”

“Wait…so if Mom found it in pack…if they were using it to test it then…”

Hector looked at me, his eyes moist but his face was stern. “Your mom found out too late. Winning the challenge a few weeks ago meant they had to stop using it. Stop experimenting with it. But…it was too late.”

My hand covered my mouth. “So my dad…”

“Is just like your mom when she was on Nova. She couldn’t feel love, couldn’t feel anything deep for anyone or anything. While she couldn’t be happy, she also couldn’t be sad either. For her, at the time, that was a relief. There was so much pain she endured over the years, in her mind, it was better to feel nothing than everything. You’re dad though…watched the effects it had on her and he still took it. I don’t know what would possess him to take it. To even be near it ever again.”

“Was it the Nova that took her wolf away?”

Hector was quiet for a while until he also pulled up his leg to rest his chin on his knee. “No. Nova wasn’t the cause. Kai died trying to save your mom. You know your mom received a blue scroll from the old High Council, correct?”

I nodded. The story had been told to me but I knew a lot of details were missing from it. The details I had were a mission report more than a journal entry.