The Eclipsed Life of Luna Mischa (by Jennifer Francis) novel Chapter 208

$25.

CH 208

Anthony

He walked from Mischa’s suite, and it was dark outside. He’d slept all afternoon and, despite having done so, he was still tired, and he knew why; his bond was broken, and she wasn’t here inside this pack was out there somewhere well away from him. He’d grabbed a towel from her room and wrapped it around his waist so he didn’t walk naked through the packhouse to his own suite.

He passed by Harvey and May and the two of them looked at him. “A dozen more have left the pack, while you were doing goddess only knows what, for a day and a half now,” Harvey stated, sounding disappointed in him. “Seems your choice of Christy over Mischa was indeed very wrong now wasn’t it.”

“I’m aware of them leaving, you don’t need to remind me.” Anthony snapped right back and stalked off. He didn’t need a reminder of how the pack members were leaving one by one. He’d also lost nearly 100 pack members since the Gamma-blooded wolves had left, after being insulted by Christy.

He didn’t even know they were leaving until it was too late. Not one of them had come to him and told him they were leaving had just driven out of the pack and been initiated into another either that day or the next. He didn’t bloody know, and now Mischa had too.

Louise’s last note had been that if Mischa left the pack would fall apart, and now it was. Anne and her entire family had gone as well, though he suspected she’d gone right to Mischa herself, to remain as her personal omega. She might not be the Luna to that pack wherever she was, but she was carrying the heir to it.

If he hunted her down, and they rejected each other, that Alpha was likely to sink fangs into her and claim her for himself, the moment their bond was over. He’d not once felt the pains of betrayal since her heat, and so he knew Mischa wasn’t going to cause them to him on purpose. A bonus he supposed.

He showered and dressed in jeans and a tee-shirt and headed downstairs to his office, to close out Anne and her family’s files only to sit there and find they’d been closed out already. A final note had been logged by Letti or Rebecca and the file was sealed. He’d given them access to it, seeing as Mischa wasn’t here to do that.

He read Anne’s final log; it was simple and as he expected. “Anne has chosen to leave the pack, taking her extended family with her. She linked me, Letti of the Luna’s unit, before leaving the pack and stated she was going to be Luna Mischa’s personal omega in her new pack. She had received a call from Mischa and been offered the position; she was told she

208

may bring her entire family.

“That she accepted the offer, saw no point in remaining here when the Alpha did not care for her, or even know she’d left the pack. That she had been gone for a month now. That Anthony was not an Alpha she wished to be aligned to anymore. She would be severed from Night Whispers upon initiation into her new pack. Wishing myself and Rebecca well in the future.”

He sighed and leaned back in his seat. The others read much the same. They were all loyal to Mischa and not him. This whole pack was loyal to Mischa, and he wondered if she called them to her new pack. Would they all get up and leave? It certainly looked that way to him. She could, he thought, have this pack be abandoned by its wolves by simply asking them too.

Because she’d never done a single thing wrong to them, in all the time she’d been the Luna of this pack, not even after Christy had come here, she’d still been the perfect Luna to them all. He saw the notification that he had e-mails waiting for him and logged in to the server. He’d been in that suite upstairs for a day and a half.

The world didn’t stop because he had. He saw an e-mail addressed directly to him, and he could see the sender was the Wolfen Council. He closed his eyes and muttered, “Just freaking great.” He knew the moment he opened that it would send them a notification that he’d read it. Did he really want to after everything that had just gone down?

No, was the answer, but he also knew if he ignored it he’d be in their line of fire, and he really didn’t want them in his pack right this very minute. So he had no choice but to open it.

‘Alpha Anthony Trenery of Night Whispers Pack,

The Alpha Council will be coming to your pack for an official visit. Please prepare rooms for six wolves. If you have council suites, prep them if not three two-bedroom suites for visiting Alphas are considered to be appropriate.

The date of arrival is the 1st of December. The agenda will be discussed upon arrival. Please go about your normal business until then. But stop all human world meetings for that day and the following one as well.

You do not need to respond to this e-mail. Your compliance is mandatory. Extenuating circumstances will not be taken into account as to you trying to delay this meeting for whatever reason you think is fitting. Nothing is fitting in our eyes.

Alpha Dennis of the North Dekota Wolfen Council.’

He sat staring at that e-mail, there was no agenda, it was mandatory, and no extenuating circumstances would be accounted for. Which meant that even telling them one of his Luna’s was missing, and he needed to be out there hunting for her wouldn’t stop them from coming.

2.4 208

1+23 Punts

That if he wasn’t here inside the pack when they arrived, they’d just assume control over it, see it as he’d fled the pack and done something they’d punish him for. This was one of the ways they dealt with Alphas; they just announced they were coming to see what those Alphas did.

Those with nothing to hide just opened the pack to them and those with much to hide either played at being good, and got investigated and imprisoned, or they fled the pack to avoid their crimes being found out and punished by the Wolfen Council.

He looked at the date now. It was the 20th of November. He had 10 days before they came. Could he find Mischa in that time and go and speak with her and come back? The answer was yes, if he could find her, that was.

Though he was supposed to have a mating ball here inside this pack on the 25th, which would shorten his time frame down once again to just four days, he’d have to be here inside this pack from sunrise on the first of December. The Alpha College was only two hours from here, and they did like to arrive at the oddest of times for official business.

Depending on what it was, of course, so he would have to be back inside this pack as of the 30th of November at the latest, it was going to cut it close if he could find her that was. He got up and walked from his office to hunt down food. He was hungry, he hadn’t eaten in well over 24 hours now he could come back to the other e-mails.

There was hardly anyone in the dining hall even though it wasn’t all that late, and he wondered why, as he looked about. There also wasn’t all that much food prepared either and that made him frown. When had that started happening, he turned and looked at the two omegas standing there and asked one, “Why isn’t there much prepared food for the pack?”

“It’s not needed. 80% of the pack started eating in their homes when…” she trailed off and

looked away.

“When?” he prompted.

“When Christy started working in the packhouse kitchen,” the other omega answered, “No one wanted to eat anything she prepared Alpha. Didn’t know if she would do anything to it, so they just opted not to come anymore.”

“I’m certain that…” he cut himself off from speaking, as he realized he was about to defend Christy to the pack and say she wouldn’t do that. “Fine.” He nodded and turned took his food back to his own office.

away

and

Even now, after all he’d read and having put that she-wolf in the cells himself, he found himself still wanting to defend her. Three years of defending her, and it was it appeared in grained into him. No wonder he couldn’t get Mischa to come back to him or even look at him.

CH 208

• 25 Poi

He could see all the traitorous things done by her and still he had just nearly voiced she wouldn’t do such things.

He sat and ate quietly, his unit was nowhere to be seen, and he wondered if they too thought Christy would harm the pack by doing something to the food in the dining hall. It was clear to him right here and now that the pack did not have even one single ounce of trust in Christy. He really did have to sort this out and fast, before the Council got here. He finished his meal and got up and made his way to the cells. She was sitting there on a cot just staring at the

wall across from her.

He looked at her and actually saw her for the first time as a she-wolf who had done nothing but destroy everything he’d had. Really looked at her as she sat there and turned hard eyes on him, and he realized she’d aged quite a bit, looked older than he did as she sat in here, with poor lighting and no make-up on.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify