Chapter 32 MORE THAN A LUNA
Celestia's POV
"Have we gotten there yet?"
The blood was beginning to dry and stick to my skin and clothes. Lucian and I walked side by side alert in case another attacker was still lurking. Gradually we were letting our shoulders ease up but I was a little tired.
First hours on the road and then that unexpected attack, I had half the mind to collapse on the softest surface I could find right now. Still, with Lucian trading beside me that wasn't an option. Hence, I just kept moving forward throwing one foot in front of the other hoping eventually I would be looking down and see my reflection from the lake, and just 2 minutes later after I made that comment we did arrive and he gestured towards it.
"There it is, I guess it feels a little longer since we're both tired," he admitted that much and I appreciated it.
Suddenly he began to tear of his shirt too quickly for me to object or say anything, then I calmed myself slowing down my racing heart to remind my throbbing heart that this would become a regular occurrence for me when we were trying to make pups, I shouldn't be taken a back by something as simple as him tearing of his shirt it's not like this is the first time I have seen a man shortless in my entire life.
But he wasn't like other men, Raphael had been built of course as an Alpha but he seemed to lean more into his genetics than actually putting effort into it as for Lucian you could tell that every muscle he had was carefully crafted and perfectly sculpted out he had one not only the genetic lottery but done everything possible to mold it to perfection I could not help but gape at those abs that made me forget that we had been targeted if few minutes ago and a small pool of drool together at the corner of my mouth.
"I'm flattered but we have to wash up and get going back to the car,"
He picked up that I was staring at him. Of course he did. I immediately scolded myself for pointing out the obvious. He would have to be blind not to notice how I was wide-eyed looking at him not to be thrown in the dust. I took off my own shirt as well.
I heard him suck in a deep breath.
Suddenly I was a trap of nerves and self-consciousness immediately remembering things that Raphael had said about my body.
" I think you're getting fat recently, maybe you should try exercising a little bit," Raphael taught me while I was pregnant with our child. He said it with a straight face too, as if I should have noticed it myself and picked up a gym membership before he even had to point it out to me.
His words had broken me completely, I had seen the stretch marks, gradually watching my body metamorphose into something I could not fully recognize knowing that my former body would never truly return.
Before the consolation, I carried around just like a swelling curve on my belly the idea that he still loved me no matter how I looked or how my body was changing so rapidly.
However, the way he spoke to me that day, how his voice dipped with undisguised disgust as if he needed me to know just how badly he thought of me, and could not keep it to himself.
Raphael and I were nothing now but he had watered the seeds of my insecurity. It's not like that was his first and last comment about my body; he still had plenty more to give till the day it was time for me to give birth.
I stripped from my bottoms and rushed into the lake, not waiting for Lucian to say anything, because truthfully I don't think I would be able to take it.
My time surviving as a rogue had also exposed my body to several scars, I mean I was better off than many roles because I had the skills to defend myself whenever it came down to it but they were times where I was out numbered, times when it just took everything inside of me to come out from a fight and not be the one heading to the grave.
The current of the river wasn't that intense and the light of the Moon danced almost playfully on top of it, I ducked cupping my hand and splashing over my body gradually dribbles of red started to run down my skin.
Lucian who had been conspicuously standing still for a while finally came forward, he made a beeline for my eyes, never trailing off me for a second.
"Something up?" I asked hoping he wouldn't say anything about my body.
"These scars..."
My heart pushed against my ribs, he was probably going to tell me how vile they were in his eyes. How should I make sure that I am never undressed in front of him and if we're going to do it will have to be in a room devoid of lights.
I had prepared myself for everything that he was going to say other than what he actually said.
"Don't they hurt?" His question almost seemed like it was coming from a hapless child.
I smiled kind of sheepishly in response.
"They've healed now, so I can't really say they do, don't worry I normally keep them covered under my clothes..."
"How?" The question seemed to pulse from somewhere deep inside him.
I looked at him with broadened confused eyes.
"How...?" I repeated with an arched brow to show my confusion.
"You've been through so much, how do you still keep your head up like this? How are you able to jump in to help someone when they need it even when there's nothing to gain for yourself?"
I looked at my wobbly reflection; "I don't know, perhaps I have not truly accepted that I'm no longer a Luna,"
"You're right," he said stepping into the river, "you're now the Queen Luna."