Alpha’s Rue: His Shunned Luna (Athena Enchanted) novel Chapter 84

Chapter 84

“Aeliana,” Luna Estelle taps my shoulder. I snap out of it, noticing everyone already leaving the room, and others crowding Alpha Dante and some Kingston. “They’ll be talking for a while, come on.”

I nod, running my hand over my dress to make sure I didn’t soak it through.

Luna Estelle leads me out of the office, and we wind up back in the house. I realise I didn’t have a chance to look around when we first arrived, and I missed so many details. “Do you want to look at pictures while we wait? Please say yes, my friend was bragging about showing her daughter-in-law, and I want to do it too.”

“Yes, Luna.” I smile, even though I’ve seen all of his and his family’s images from his younger years.

“Mom,” she corrects me, her smile warm and welcoming.

With her gone, I finally take a look at the house again, I didn’t get to look at it well when we walked in. Alpha Dante’s pack house is very lived in, the walls have always been decorated with images of their children, nephews, nieces as well as any and everyone who grew up here, like Rowan, who is practically their fourth son.

The wall dedicated to their daughters has always been the prettiest thing in the house, but when I take a closer look at it, I notice something different. Me. I’m in the pictures, there are a few pictures of me from different ages, pictures that I did not existed. And right next to their wedding portrait is mine and Kingston’s, bigger than theirs.

Luna Estelle arrives a moment later, holding three large albums. She drops them on the table and ushers me over. I sit beside her and she opens the first album, mostly pictures of Kingston as a baby and as a toddler. You can tell how loved and cared for he was from the pictures, his kindness is a result of her gentle hand and it’ll be the ruin of

him.

His images around age six get more crowded, I’m in them, and so are his other friends. “I know it’s a bit much, but I am glad I did this with them. I wasn’t around everytime but these pictures make me feel like I was there just enough. Look at this,” she smiles, pointing at another picture of him. It’s a picture of him at ten holding a rifle after his first successful hunt. “You and Rowan were not around when it happened, so he screamed for you both to come and see. I couldn’t talk him out of waiting until you both returned, but no, he stood there with his wild boar until you two returned.”

“He looks so little,” I smile. Which is strange because he was so big to me at that age. All the fear he sparked among the kids in the pack is unjustifiable judging by these pictures, he looks just like every other adorable child.

When she gets to the older pictures, I’m not in them anymore, not a single one. Luna Estelle notices my quietness and puts the album down, grabbing another one, this one has more than just King, his siblings are in it, too. And

Everywhere.

A picture of him, Rowan, and me on their front lawn, laughing so hard that my eyes are squeezed shut. Another of me at twelve, perched on Kingston’s shoulders during winter camp. It doesn’t stop there. There, are so many candid images of me from Kingston’s camera, I know because I used to tease him about always taking pictures of everything, and everywhere we went, and I would often steal it to take pictures of him when he wasn’t watching or conscious. There are so many more pictures that I do not remember taking, but you can see how happy I was in them.

Something in my chest tightens, only I have this many pictures of me. My own father’s house hardly has six pictures of me, no solo ones at least. Even in family photos, group photos, you can hardly spot me, I was always an afterthought, almost like they wanted to keep me hidden but here? I’m everywhere.

Tears sting behind my eyes but I don’t let them fall, Luna Estelle continues to show me more, talking through her

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favourite ones and reminiscing about when her kids were still little and needed her for every little thing.

“That’s it,” she sighs heavily, slamming the last album shut. “I wanted to put a few of you together on the wall, but Kingston wouldn’t let me, he said you’d be uncomfortable.”

I don’t know what to say, so I offer her a smile instead. “Between you and me, I think he doesn’t want to share you with the world, they already get to see you now, so he’s keeping your younger memories locked away.”

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