Chapter 122: LUNA'S BAGGAGE

Alison

I could not shake the unsettling feeling in the pit of my stomach, seeing Dr. Hann again affected me in more ways than I cared to admit. One man had single-handedly given me the greatest joy as well as the greatest sorrow in my life. If Mary had not been holding me down, I would have ended up going straight to the train station.

“You are pregnant Alison! Possibly carrying the future Alpha of Thompson Springs Pack, don’t do something you will regret.” Mary was right, if Asher could get pushed around and hit with microphones like that wouldn’t I just be putting myself in harm’s way if I went?

I could not help but feel frustrated, Dr. Hann was so close yet I was not going to be able to get my revenge. I watched helplessly as he used the reporters as a shield to prevent Asher from keeping him back. He even made it sound as if we were after his life, OK, that was not a lie.

The Livestream ended, leaving me to my thoughts. Not for long though, our very own pack reporter aka Mary had more updates for me. The werewolf council had arrived right after Dr. Hann had left trying to cause trouble for my already irritated mate. It was not surprising that he decided to imprison them.

"I heard that your mate locked up the council member, won’t he get in trouble?” I had been worried about the same thing. It was enough that we were challenging the king by going against Dr. Hann but directly imprisoning his lackeys was a completely

different territory.

“What do you want me to do about it? I cannot undermine his authority in front of the pack. I will support him even if I think his move was risky.” That is what a good mate should do. I would support him even if I thought a different approach should have been taken.

The day was not completely terrible though. I got the chance to play relationship counselor and convinced Evan’s mate that werewolves were not as terrifying as she thought. My highlight of the day was having Asher shift over and over again in front of the women. My greatest concern was to ensure they were not scared. Everyone I had spoken to so far, seemed to be easily accepting of the existence of wolves than I was when I found out the truth.

I did not touch on the topic of mates because I was scared of overwhelming them. They were pregnant, it was best to keep their emotions stable.

“Alison! Take Mary and the kids and leave immediately.” It had been a few days since everything went down and just when I thought things were beginning to get calm, Asher anxiously called for me through the mating link asking me to leave.

“What happened? Asher? What is going on? Talk to me please.” I was met with silence. Why wasn’t he answering me? Had something happened to him? Determined to find the underlying cause of his instructions, I decided to ignore his request to leave.

One foot out of the door and Mary was pushing back inside the house. “Alison! Where are you going? We have got to leave!” She had a small suitcase with her, and behind her were all the children including Timothy’s. Something big was happening, wasn’t it? Why else would they want us out of the way?

“What is going on? Where are we going?” Where could I go? This is the only home I have. I could not just leave, especially not when it sounded like my mate was in trouble. “Mary stop fuvking ignoring me! What do you know?”

The biggest advocate of not cussing in the presence of children ended up being the one dropping f-bombs. “I don’t know, Jeremy just said I should come and get you.” I quickly ran through the house trying to pack what the kids and I might need. “Are you done? I think we should go already.”

I placed the packed bag in Mary’s hands before pushing my boys to her. “I don’t think I should go. Look after them for me, please.” In the back of my mind, I knew it was dangerous to stay behind.

“What the he.ll Alison! Asher asked us to leave and has to have a great reason for asking to do so.” I knew she would not be impressed by my decision. To be honest, I did not understand why I was reluctant to go either. All I knew is that my heartstrings tugged painfully every time I thought about it. Maybe it was because I knew Asher was going to stay back but it was more than that.

“I don’t want to go Mary, just protect my babies for me. I d…”

“What about the one in your tummy? Will you cut it out and let me take care of it too?” I was growling before I could prevent myself. “What? Now you care. You are the one that wanted to stay back, were you not? You want me to take care of all your babies and I will do just that. The only problem is that one of them is currently stuck inside of you.”

“Mary…” My attempt at making an excuse was not well received.

“I don’t want to hear it, get your ass out here. We need to leave now!” My wolf was not in the slightest bit offended that she talked to me like that. Mary’s words completely wiped away tee feeling of wanting to stay behind. Between staying behind with our mate and the pack and protecting our unborn pup, she was of the same opinion as Mary.

I dragged my feet to the car like a child that had just been told off. Nevertheless, I was more than grateful for Mary being there to drum sense in my head when I could not see clearly. “Be safe my love,” I whispered to Asher through the link before turning to Mary and the kids. “Let’s go.”

I never realized we had so many car seats until I went to the store to grab them. “Looks like each one of them will get their own.” When did Asher buy all these? I knew we were planning to take the boys on a road trip when everything had finally settled down, but why did he get so many of them?

I had to help Mary strap them down since she had never used one before. It was only then that it hit me just how secluded pack life was. Mary didn’t know how to use the car seat because she has never had reason to. “You are driving,” I said making myself comfortable in the passenger seat. Mary did not move, she stood by the car looking at me with a faint blush on her cheeks. “You? No! You don’t know how to drive? You have to be pulling my leg.”

“I never got the chance to learn.” Could this be it? There was something humans were better at than werewolves. How rare. “We are not like humans. We do not clamor to learn how to drive at age sixteen. That is the time we shift and are more interested in learning about our wolves. So do not give me that look.” I was tempted to ask why she had not learned after that. If she could not at sixteen then what about seventeen or even eighteen?

“Fine! I will drive.” It was a shame leaving my comfortable passenger seat for the driver’s seat. I hated driving but it was not always like that, my sixteen-year-old self had been excited to learn how to drive. Some of my best memories with my dad, he taught me everything. When I was confident enough he would let me do delivery rounds in his truck with him chaperoning of course. I was meant to get my first car after graduation but we all know how that went. I swore never to get behind the wheel after the accident but I was forced to go back on my word when I took that delivery job in my old town to make ends meet.

“I will teach you how to drive when we get time.” I could not hide the pride in my tone. I was so used to having everyone else be better than me at everything that was not parenting.

“I will take you up on your offer. Now stop wasting time and let us get out of here.” Before I stepped on the gas, I sent out a silent prayer for the protection of the pack. My mind was clouded by guilt. I felt like a deserter, I was the pack Luna and yet at the first sign of trouble I was the first one to run away. Did that make me a coward? I was only following instructions, right? Mary’s words were quickly losing their effect.

We did not get far before I began noticing men in uniform headed back where we had just left, “Who are those?” They were getting too many for me to ignore. They were moving fast, the only reason they were easily noticeable was the uniforms and the fact that they were all on foot. Anyone would find them odd.

The look on Mary’s face told me what I needed to know. The presence of these men was not a good sign. “That can’t be! I believe they are the king’s guards.” Yes! One hundred percent not a good sign. How good could Martin’s boss be? That man was the reason why everything had happened. Who else could Dr. Hann be brazen enough to carry out his operation? “Is this why Asher asked us to leave?”

On hearing Mary’s question, I felt even guiltier than I had been earlier. Asher was doing everything to protect me yet I had not even bid farewell in person. It was not the first I was feeling like I was not a good mate but this was worse. The next moment, my ears were filled with Mary’s deafening screams as I made a perfect U-turn on the highway. I had to go back. “Do not try to stop me. I know you want to go back too.”

“Then can we at least take the children somewhere safe first?” I hated reckless driving, but there I was, making another U-turn. I was desperate, OK? Besides, there was no other car on the road except ours at the time. I was not the kind to put others in danger like that.

“Grab my phone and call Asher, tell him about the men but don’t tell him we are going back.” He may have known what was coming, but we did not lose anything by giving him a heads-up. But what if he did not know the king’s guards were coming? Mary left him a message when he did not pick up the call. No, do not think I forgot about the mating link. It was the first thing I tried but I could not reach him.

“Where are we going to leave the kids though?” That was the big question; neither of us knew people around here. Then I remembered something, the staff at the hotel where we first housed Dr. Hann’s victims knew us. I almost kissed the ground they walked on when they agreed to watch them for us; it was not even hard getting them to do it.

I went to make another call as Mary helped settle down the kids. I needed backup.