Page 29 of The Barren Luna

“We grew up together,” Calum shrugged sadly, “he used to be my friend. Before I had pups of my own,” he added, and I was surprised Calum had noticed in my mate what I'd failed to.

“Alright, please continue.”

“The Alpha was pacing outside, saying that his wolf was annoyed with Miss Rogers and that he needed a break. So we waited together, and when the doctor let us in after the pup was born, the Alpha immediately started yelling at Miss Rogers and asking about the pup. He kept yelling, “What the fuck is this”, and then his wolf took over and said that the pup wasn’t his,” I was sure I gasped, just like the rest of the courtroom. I wasn't expecting this. Who could have expected this? No wonder Henry was out of his fucking mind, talking about lies half the time.

“Then the Alpha grabbed Miss Rogers by the hair and dragged her to the pack house. When interrogated under the Alpha command she admitted that she and her lover, Julius Crawley, who was her step-brother, hatched a plan to climb the social ranks of our pack. She would bear the Alpha’s pup, and in return, he would promote her brother to Gamma.

When she failed to get pregnant during her first heat, the step brother impregnated her, and the Alpha failed to smell it due to the wolfsbane he was taking in order to quiet his wolf while he had relations with Miss Rogers. She admitted that they then saw the opportunity to get rid of both the incriminating pregnancy and Luna Regina at once, and that she faked the attack. She had thrown herself down the stairs,” he finished, and I couldn’t remember ever hearing Calum talk so much at once.

“How would she have faked subsequent pregnancies?”

“She said she wouldn’t have. She would have blamed it on scarring and damage from the miscarriage. She believed she’d still get something from the Alpha out of pity.”

I couldn’t believe Hannah and Julius. I could still see his slight smile in front of the pack house as he told me: “Goodbye, Luna.” Those wolves were disgusting beyond words.

“What happened to Miss Rogers and her lover?”

“In order to best relay what happened, I must first explain that, during the Luna’s dungeon stay, Miss Rogers and her stepbrother went to see her unauthorized. There, Miss Rogers used Julius’ silver knife to inflict about a dozen cuts on the Luna’s lower abdomen while Julius held her down.

The Alpha felt his mate’s extreme physical pain and immediately ran to the dungeon, where he caught them in the act. He was extremely angry with Miss Rogers but couldn’t do anything, as she was still pregnant with what he believed was his pup. Julius, however, got fired from his position as pack enforcer and beaten badly.

On the night in question, after a guard had brought Julius to the pack house, the Alpha used that very silver knife to cut off his genitals,” a few males in the audience sucked their teeth andwinced when he said this, “which he then stuffed down Miss Rogers’ throat.”

I could not believe what I was hearing. Everyone’s eyes went wide. I was sure that Henry felt like he was avenging me by doing this, but if that had truly been the case, shouldn’t he have choked on his own dick as well? I felt like all this senseless violence was, in fact, a lot of misdirected anger on his part.

“So, how did the two of them die in the end?”

“Jules was commanded not to move as he bled out. As for Miss Rogers, the Alpha smashed her skull between his bare hands.”

The courtroom was absolutely silent, and that was saying something for a species as blood-thirsty as we were.

“What happened to the pup?”

“The hospital released him to his grandparents and they immediately applied for transfer to another pack, which the Alpha approved, after confirming, under Alpha command, that they had nothing to do with their children’s scheme.”

“What happened after the murders?”

“The two of us went to his mother’s house,” Calum continued, and my ears perked up.

That bitch Catherine. I wondered if she’d be here today to ask for my head.

“The Alpha yelled at her, accused her of poisoning him against his mate, and basically banished her from the pack by forcing her to spend most of the year with one of her sisters from then on.”

The brief sense of satisfaction that I felt at Catherine finally getting her comeuppance was silenced by the familiar refrain oftoo little, too late.That might as well have been the anthem of the last two years I’d spent with Henry. Why care about him standing up to his mother once after I had already beenimprisoned and tortured? Was I that starved for a bit of protection, a morsel of love?

“And after he left his mother’s house?”

“He seemed deeply unsettled and, frankly, unhappy. He kept talking about “his Ginny”, about how he needed to get her back, how she had to forgive him, how he would take her home and everything would be as it used to be between them.

Now, I am no doctor, but that's when things got really scary for me. I feared what he might do to the Luna at this point, and I couldn’t wait for someone to respond to my complaint, so I secretly took the pack phone and called the Court directly.”

“I want to commend you, Beta Phillips, for having the strength to disobey your Alpha and go behind his back for the greater good. I know it went against your very nature and your position,” David said and Calum seemed uncomfortable with the praise.

“I still failed my Luna,” he whispered sadly and tears threatened to spill from my eyes. I looked at Lucy and she sat motionless, tears streaking down her face.

“One last thing,” David said. “Can you take us through the events of New Year’s Eve?”

“Yes. When I had called the Royal Court on Christmas Day, I’d spoken to Prince John Bell, to whom I explained that a complaint had been made a while ago with some serious allegations, but that we hadn’t heard anything back yet. I also informed him of the latest developments, such as the murder of the concubine and the Luna’s house arrest. He assured me that he would look into the matter and send a delegation our way as soon as possible.

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