Chapter 107 - LUNA'S BAGGAGE

Asher

"Will he really work with us?" Alison refused to believe that something good would fall into our hands just like that. I didn't blame her though, it was so easy for Chris to agree to work with us. It almost felt as if the moon goddess was making last-minute pairings to help us. So many of my pack members hadn't found their mates among the rescued women, but a council member conveniently did. The same thing had happened with Elvis, it was his statement that had helped us turn the tide.

"He will work with us, considering the way Martin and the others have treated him. It would be a miracle if he stayed on their side." Alison hadn't been there to see the way Chris had been chastised, they didn't even pretend to try and rescue him when Jeremy pinned him down. One can only take so much bullying and disrespect before snapping. If they could treat him like that in front of strangers, what of in private? I never thought I would have sympathy for a council member.

We watched Chris from a distance as he watched his mate, but he wasn't alone, there was a whole crowd with him. My pack members that had found their mates gathered there. They could only secretly watch their mates, afraid to scare them. How I tried so hard not to be petty. I will never forget how my mate was treated for being human. Look who has human mates now. Could this be counted as karma? Hopefully, this will make more people stop being prejudiced against humans.

The sun had set by the time Chris came to see me in my office. Alison had gone to supervise the feeding of the children. She was good with them, just as I thought she would be. I remember thinking she would make a great Luna the first time I saw her protecting the triplets and I was right. I was going through the comments on our post, and Alison's latest comment had caused even a bigger uproar. People were starting to believe us, that was a good sign. "Have a seat." Chris remained standing by the door without a word.

"Where did you find all of them?" he spoke after a moment of silence. "How could they do that to those women? Aren't human lives just as important as ours?" His reaction was almost similar to mine. These women were treated worse than animals. What type of fuc. ked up person did something like that without any ounce of guilt? What kind of mental disorder could someone like that have? He raised humans for produce just like a farmer would cows.

"Sit down, we can talk some more." I passed him the documents I had prepared earlier when he took his seat. I gathered all the statements from the victims and updated the table Jeremy had been working on. As traumatizing as it was, I asked them for the number of people that had died while they were there. There were at least five deaths every year. Sometimes the bodies would be left in their shared room until they began to decompose. That is when I got a piece of information I hadn't noticed before. You see, I thought Dr. Hann would dissolve them like in the barrels back at Angel's clinic but I was wrong. There were greenhouses at Seraph that we had completely missed. He used them as a compost heap! It is a miracle that they were still sane when we saved the survivors.

"Is- is this your daughter?" I almost doubled over from the fleeting pain in my chest. In his hand was the picture I had taken of the crime scene while Alison finished off the doctor that had walked into the room. I gathered it among the other documents I was going to pass Chris so that I wouldn't be able to see it, but when he asked, it was as if I had been transported back into that operating room again.

"We were too late." No matter how much time passed, I never stopped blaming myself. I didn't realize I had tears in my eyes until a handkerchief appeared before me. "Imagine how many children have gone through this? He made the other children watch as he did that to their sister. That is the kind of man you rushed here to protect. Has your conscience been eaten by the dogs?" Was I being unfair to him? Yes, but I needed to get everything out of my chest.

"I am sorry for your loss. I d..."

"You should be, weren't all of you there when Martin was taking me round in circles when I called to plead for help? Couldn't any of you say something?" It wasn't Martin that had picked up the call initially, someone had passed him the phone when they heard it was me. What if, instead of doing that, he had helped me without involving Martin?

"I um, I don't know what to do to make things better." I knew very well that even if Chris had been there that day, there was no way he would have been able to help me. Should I commend him for being able to stomach looking at that gory picture for so long? Just when I was going to say something, his eyes widened before he exclaimed. "Is that who I think it is!? It couldn't be, right?"

"Why are you surprised?" I knew what had caused his surprise.

"So, the king has known about this all this time?" Yes, an unconscious Sir Anderson could also be seen in the picture. "That is... maybe it is just a look alike."

"Your eyes aren't deceiving you. That is exactly who you think it is. We got there before they could finish harvesting." There was a sharp intake of air by Chris. "He was only one of the clients. There were many more and each of them more powerful than the next." His eyes couldn't possibly get any wider.

His eyes were filled with doubt. "Are you serious?" The king had made everyone believe he was a magnanimous ruler for decades, so Chris' doubt was expected.

"Do you think Dr. Hann would have been able to run his business without someone powerful backing him up? An unknown doctor was suddenly named head of the werewolf medical association. What was fishy, however, was how the most useless association in the werewolf was suddenly thrust into the limelight.

"We are going to be in danger if everything blows up. You realize that, right?"Being in danger was an understatement, we were practically going against the king. One man had so many people behind him, while in my corner was just my little pack.

I chuckled, "Do you want to change your mind? Because if you do, then you are nothing but a coward." What right did he have to get scared? "Look at what they did to your mate. A good man would get revenge." I wasn't going to act proudly, I needed more people on my side and if guilt-tripping was the way to get him, then so be it.

"I didn't say I was giving up. I just want to know if you have thought things through. We just can't jump into the situation head first and hope for the best."

"That is where you come in. I am sure someone on your council has to know what is going on. My bet is on Martin." He looked as if I had slapped him when I mentioned Martin. Maybe we could bond over our hatred for the old fart after everything was settled. "I hear Martin is quite close to the king. It would be best if you could find out what he knows." Now that I think about it, Martin's rise in power occurred around the same time as Dr. Hann's.

"But the man hates me, I don..."

"Then think of something. All those poor women are counting on you." I knew what he had seen earlier had a huge mental impact on him. "The soon we finish this, the sooner you can be with your mate." he and I both knew he couldn't take his mate with him at the moment. No wolf wanted to stay away from his mate, but currently, I was his best bet at keeping her safe.

Not wanting to put too much pressure on him, I stopped that. He needed time to digest all the information he had received. I didn't speak a word when he sat dazed staring at the ceiling for a very long time. Who knows how long we sat in silence before he asked me if he could look through the documents I had with me.

I explained to him the bits he didn't understand, like the list of clients I found in Dr. Hann. He was just as angry as I had been when I realized the psycho numbered the children instead of giving them names. "I have been thinking of giving them names but I figured it would be best if their mothers did it themselves." I would name the ones that would be left behind. I could have adopted them, but that wouldn't be fair to the kids that had been there before them.

"You saved the children too?"

"Why? Did you expect me to leave them to fend for themselves? Of course, I made sure everyone was brought back. I will be conducting DNA testing for the women who are willing to take care of the children. If you wish to raise your mate's kids should any of them still be alive, you should find a way to talk to her. Most of the women expressed reluctance to take care of children they didn't have a choice in bearing." I still wondered how many would agree to raise kids that weren't theirs.

We visited the orphanage after he learned about the existence of the children. It was too bad they were already asleep. "These were the ones we were lucky to save, so many of them have suffered the same fate as my daughter."

It was past midnight when Chris suggested going back to his people. "We might need some fake bruises, it will look suspicious if you go back unscathed." We quickly changed contact information. To be safe, I gave him my private number that way no one could trace it back to me. He also insisted that he would be the one to initiate contact.

"How do we do that? Make-up will be too obvious, besides, I don't think any of us know how to use it." If we were going to make them believe he had escaped, he needed to look the part. I am sure they expected me to torture him.

"I could just beat you up for real." I almost jumped out of my skin when Timothy popped up. The past few days, he has been going to bed early to help Bethany and Agnes get used to a routine. "What? Why get fake bruises when it is easy to just have real ones? I promise it won't hurt that badly."

He lied! Timothy used all his strength. In the end, Chris was forced to escape for real. "If he changes his mind about helping us, don't blame me for what I will do to you."