Page 35 of The Barren Luna

“I really don’t care at this point. The last two days have drained the tiny amount of energy that I managed to store up since coming here. I just want it to be over.”

“Oh, you’re killing me with the attitude. Laura,” she decided to look for another ally. “Which of these two dresses should she wear?”

Laura looked me over and then looked at the dresses.

“The purple one. She has the greenest eyes I’ve ever seen, and the dress will make them pop. Pair it with the platinum watch.”

“This is platinum?!” I asked, at the same time as Lucy said, “Great choice!”

“No! I’m not wearing the watch. It’s too much, what if I lose it? Besides, it has a blue face, look, it doesn’t match,” I tried, in vain, to dissuade my two personal stylists.

“Oh, come on, who’s gonna notice that,” Lucy waved me away. “Just get dressed, we need to go.”

As we made our way towards the courtroom, I reflected on how familiar these halls seemed after only a week here. It felt so much longer somehow. Like what happened with Henry had been months ago. Where would I end up after this? Even if, by some miracle, all these Alphas decided it wasn’t a big deal that I had murdered one of them, where would I go? Not Spruce Mountain and not Allegheny, that was for sure.

Would another pack accept a mate killer into its fold? Would I be forced to live in the human world until I died of loneliness? Our kind could rarely survive without a pack, it was our deepest nature to live close to each other.

Lucy stopped me from colliding with the massive courtroom door.

“Are you okay, Ginny?”

“I will be, Luce. Wish me luck,” I smiled weakly and she gave me a firm hug.

“Good luck, my Luna,” she said, and it made me want to cry because she had long ago stopped using my title, and I knew why she was suddenly using it now.

I made my way to my seat, and although I didn’t have my full shifter senses at my disposal, I could feel that the atmosphere in the room was different than it had been in the previous two days. Most of the Lunas looked at me with kind, understanding eyes, and some of the Alphas did, too. The Betas mostly scanned the room for potential threats, always in work mode.

John was the one who started the proceedings: “Good morning, everyone; I hope you’re all well rested for our final day of this trial. The Crown’s first witness today is Doctor Timothy Warren of the Spruce Mountain pack hospital.”

“Tell the truth,” David commanded the older male, and I took the opportunity to sneak a peek at him. As imposing as always. Sensing my eyes on him, he flashed me a brief smile before turning back to the witness.

“Doctor Warren,” John started his line of questioning, “is it true that you were the doctor in charge of the Spruce Pack Alpha’s breeding program?”

“I was, but in order to understand the background of that project, I would like to go even further back if that is alright with you?” John looked a bit taken aback but nodded.

“See, what most people don’t understand or don’t know is that for 18 months prior to the selection of Miss Rogers, Luna Regina was being subjected to what I can only describe as medical torture,” he slowly looked at all the faces in the first rows. “She was on a constant regimen of fertility shots and had her heat induced every two months, which is borderline inhumane.”

It was, of course, the Lunas who looked absolutely mortified. They, as females, understood very well how taxing a heat cycle was on the body. There was a reason why those occurred only twice a year spontaneously.

“If it was inhumane, why did you, as a medical professional, write off on it?”

“I was commanded tomake her fertileand I had to keep going, even when seeing her broke my heart,” he looked at me with those knowing eyes of his and I shut mine against the onslaught of memories.

I hadn’t known what was worse during that period – the hot flashes, the urges of the heats, the perfunctory sex, my deteriorating relationship with my mate, the disappointment on his face after every cycle, and eventually, my disappointment in myself as well.

“I’m sorry you were forced to act against your conscience, Doctor,” John told him in a kind voice and he dipped his chin.

“Was the treatment the same for Miss Rogers?”

“Yes. The timeline was a bit different, but the shots were the same.”

“And how did you solve the issue of Alpha Giles being a mated male?”

“He was given a wolfsbane tincture to be used sparingly: one drop in a glass of water each time he needed to copulate with Miss Rogers. It wouldn't do permanent damage to a wolf if used correctly.”

“Were you aware that your Alpha had started copulating with Miss Rogers outside the agreed-upon times?”

The doctor sighed, “I had my suspicions. I’d heard rumors, and the Alpha asked me for a refill of the wolfsbane but categorically denied that he was using it recreationally when I warned him about the side effects.”

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