The Perfect Luna

now here we are

I knew he was hurting and I was too. I feared that if I stayed, we would only hurt each other more.

Occasionally, I would hear news about him here and there, but I tried not to listen. Whenever his name comes up, I make it a point to leave and forget it because... well, in some ways, remembering him hurt.

When I returned to my home pack, I refused to see or talk to anyone. I locked myself in my room and pretty much just cried and poured my heart out to my poor pillows and bed.

At first, everyone was confused, especially my parents. My mom was beyond baffled, she didn't understand why I would be here, why I left my new pack, my responsibilities, my duty, my mate. But I explained it to her, very briefly and she didn't press on.

It was only after those two months that I had gathered the strength to truly explain to her what happened. And since then, they didn't ask me anything about the matter already and it was hardly touched upon.

News that a Luna had rejected an Alpha spread like wildfire, much less the Alpha of Luna Flumine. The gossipers and conspiracy theorists all placed in their unwanted opinions and theories of what happened to our relationship.

But I tried not to mind the rumours and gossips about us, about me or Archer.

Throughout the year, I had visited Hannah to see how they were doing. Baby Austin was absolutely adorable and I was so glad that he turned out healthy and strong.

It made me wonder if my child would've been the same.

"Thank you, Hazel," Hannah started when I was holding the sleeping Austin in my arms, "... and I'm sorry. I didn't know you were going through all of that when you helped me. I can only imagine how hard it must've been for you." she said.

I shook my head and placed a kiss on top of Austin's forehead. "It was the right thing to do."

I was also thankful that Hannah didn't pressure me to talk about Archer, she was kind like that. Although she would slip in a few information about him here and there, I didn't mind. It also satiated my curiosity of how he was doing also I would never admit that I am always wondering of how he's doing.

But he seems to be doing fine. And I'm happy for him.

We had talked a lot about the Strays too as they proliferated, even humans are starting to feel that there was something wrong. And so I had visited Chase and Maddie down south.

I visited them twice and both times I had to hold myself from hitting them both. I wondered many times if ants would start crawling on my skin with how sweet they were to each other, Chase being much more showy than Maddie of course.

I managed to obtain more information about Finn, Maddie's childhood friend, the person we suspect to be the one behind the creation of the Strays although the deeper I dug, the more obstacles I encountered.

What's more, it was dangerous. Chase warned me to leave the work to him and Archer, but I still did what I could. There's no way I would simply sit still while thousands are dying and losing their homes.

It's a Friday night and my parents had left for a fancy dinner somewhere for their date night. I was baking my favourite chocolate chip banana bread to pass time when my brother Nash came in our house.

I was just getting ready to have a marathon about this series called Gilmore Girls too, but seeing the look on the face of my brother, I knew that plan was getting ruined already.