Chapter 108 - LUNA'S BAGGAGE

Alison

I no longer needed to go to work. I mean I haven't had to go in a very long time, but since I took over the Luna duties, I became officially no longer Asher's secretary. I could go on mourning over the loss of opportunities to have an office romance, how sad. 'My married to the CEO' arc ended too prematurely for my liking. As if! I am too shy to pull off something like that! Cough! Prude! Cough!

Lately, my days have been filled with screaming children, messy diapers, and long showers consisting of me trying to pull food out of my hair. Do you know how many times I wished I could send the government a petition to increase kindergarten teachers' salaries! Yes, both werewolves and humans. All those times I said I wanted many children? I take it back! All of it! Even my dreams were filled with screaming children.

Yet here I was, again in the wee hours of the morning, mixing up baby formula. Yes, you heard that right. Over the past few days, quite a number of the women have had their babies. The joyous moments were, however, short-lived. More than half of them ended up suffering from post-partum depression. It wasn't surprising considering the circumstances under which they were conceived. I couldn't help but wonder if this was a normal occurrence. Were they inseminated even with such deteriorating mental health? Dr. Hann obviously wouldn't have cared. All he needed was healthy organs.

I almost cried when I was told about all the terminations. Monthly ultrasounds were a norm in Seraph and any fetuses showing any kind of deformities were immediately aborted. This is one of the reasons why there was a high number of deaths. The man was out there performing forced abortions on these women without a care in the world.

I was left to take care of the children by myself because Mary dearest finally had a chance to use her degree. "I could have helped you, but those women need some therapy." It wasn't like she was giving therapy at 6 am. Some of the women tried to help but I very quickly sent them away. Instead of helping me, their presence worked more like a stress inducer.

"Grace, what was the expiry date for this baby formula you delivered last?" I wasn't sure if she was awake but I couldn't feed them the spoiled milk I needed to now. "Sorry for disturbing your sleep," I added as an afterthought. No, I didn't wake her up before trying to check for myself. I couldn't find anything even after turning the can upside down and accidentally wasting almost all of its contents.

"Grace!" The children were about to wake up and I needed to have everything ready before then or I would have a migraine for the rest of the day. Luckily, the kitchen delivered food for the older ones. "Grace, I have n..."

"Luna, what is it?" Her voice was filled with sleep. It was Grace, I wasn't going to be sorry about waking up. I could hold a grudge for eternity!

"The expiry date? I am running out of time!" I had to repeat my question thrice before she told me a date that was six months away. She told me to check the box if I had any questions, which I did of course. I still didn't trust her no matter how much ass kissing she did.

Then why did it smell funny? I opened different cans but they all had that smell I couldn't place. What could be the problem? I couldn't give this to the babies, right? I could have tasted it but baby formula tastes gross! "Hey you, come here for a bit." I hated how arrogant I sounded, but I didn't know everyone's name yet.

One of the kitchen ladies had come to set up the tables for the older kids. My eyes shone, I had found myself a perfect lab rat. "Can you smell this for me?" I saw her eyes widen when she got closer. I must have been right. "It smells weird, right? Grace says it hasn't expired yet, but I doubt her."

She sniffed it for a few more seconds before shaking her head, "I don't smell anything."

How is that possible? "Are you sure?" Yes, I asked that. I asked a werewolf if she was sure about her sense of smell. The look she gave me when I asked was full of confusion.

She took another sniff before turning to me. "Yes, it smells the same as every other day. Maybe you need more sleep? I can help you here if you need me to."

"You want to help me? Do you know what you're supposed to do?" If she knew what to do, I wasn't going to say no to help. I was forced to drag myself all the way here half asleep. I was more tired than usual, but that was maybe because Asher and I had stayed awake almost half the night taking care of the babies. For some reason, they all have colic pain at the same time.

"I have watched you enough to know what to do. I will ask the kitchen to send over your breakfast potion." When I went to repeat the instructions on how to make what was needed for the time, she physically pushed me out of the door. Asher wasn't home just as I had expected. There was a lot to be done, he had probably left as soon as I walked out the door.

Breakfast was barely palatable, which was concerning considering everything on the plate was my favorite. I could not get sick, could I? This wasn't a good time to get sick! If we were going to fight against Dr. Hann, I needed to be in tip-top shape. I decided to rest in the living after my small meal. The lady that came for my plate panicked at the amount of food I had left on it. "Did they cook it wrongly? Can I get someone to cook something else?" It took a lot to convince her that I was OK.

Asher's voice talking to me through the mate link nearly had me jumping out of my skin. "I hear that you refused to eat." Why did they feel the need to tell on me? I wasn't a child for crying out loud. So I can't have a bad appetite? Why was it a big deal that I didn't feel like eating anything? Was I supposed to be grateful for concern or be mad at the meddling?

"I wasn't hungry, I will eat more during lunch," I promised him before he decided he was going to come and feed himself. My stomach rambled as soon as I said that. It was a good thing he could not hear it through the phone. I quickly hung up after promising him again that I would eat later. The truth is, I was hungry, but I could not bring myself to consume anything. My only hope was that by the Asher comeback, I would be back to normal already.

Sleep didn't come, not even when I went to bed. I found myself in my children's room. They weren't there, Mary had come for them in the middle of the night when Asher and I had been forced to rush to the orphanage. The room was an empty mess, there were clothes and toys strewn all over the place except Joy's. Her bed sat in the middle of the room, there wasn't even a speck of dust on the clean bedspread. When did my boys learn to make beds? Joy's side of the room was well taken care of, while theirs was almost akin to a pig stye. It seems I wasn't the only one that was having trouble moving on.

We still had three of baby everything, beds, seats, cutlery, you name it. I still found myself calling out for her every now and then, then bursting into tears. Yet the werewolf council members dared to walk in here like they owned the place. 'When Asher comes back I will ask Asher to help keep these things in storage.' I thought to myself. Maybe letting go was the key to moving on, because I didn't hurt as much when I saw the children playing with toys I had donated. Could this be counted as Joy making them happy in a

I was bored and lonely sitting in the house by myself, so I decided to go and find Mary. She should have been done with the morning therapy sessions. Maybe it was time I got one too. She had asked me to see her for a while, but I hadn't been ready to open up. I wasn't ready now either, but I needed someone to talk to, especially after seeing so many of Joy's things. Maybe I should bring Joe and Jayden too.

"Congratulation Luna!"

What?