The Crystal Moon Curse: Book 4: FALLEN

28. Truth

ASTRID

“You must understand Astrid, I am bound by my oath to the Healer Council to not reveal certain treatments that are deemed restricted. The circumstances surrounding your great-grandmother’s treatments by mother fall under that oath. You know very well that if I had told you and you revealed it to your family I would be removed as a healer and you would never be allowed to become one.”

Sonja is not telling me anything I had not already considered. From the moment I found her note book and began reading the treatment notes for Ulla Fenrir, my great-grandmother, I knew I was reading something I shouldn’t have. Sonja’s case notes were concise and revealed a story I could not drag my eyes away from once I had begun.

My great-grandmother was the younger sister of the packs Alpha. She was mated to the packs Beta and after three years of trying she realised she was barren.

Every full moon she went into heat and tied the knot with her mate but his seed never took.

Her mate, a proud and traditional Beta, was on the verge of rejecting her when in desperation she went to the pack healer, Sonja’s mother Vivika - at the time, Sonja was a trainee.

Vivika went to the healer council for approval to use a rare fertility treatment, one that came with risks that were known and risks that were unknown. Infertility in she-wolves is very rare and so only a few cases were on record.

Vivika gave the prescribed treatment to Ulla and by the next full moon she was pupped.

Her joy was short lived as the pup was stillborn, one of the side effect of the treatment. But she kept trying, her heartbreak and determination to give her mate an heir spilling on the pages I read and breaking my own heart.

“She had six still born daughters before my grandmother was born. She died giving birth to her.” I whisper into the room my heart aching.

Sonja nods her own sad eyes meeting mine.

“It was a risk she was well aware of and willing to take.”

I scoff.

“It was all in vain, I know what happened after. My great-grandfather took a chosen mate after she died and had many sons, my grandmother was cast aside.”

Sonja looks at me sadly.

“I watched your grandmother Helga grow up, and yes she suffered. Your great-grandfather was not a loving wolf, his focus was on his job as Beta and his sons. He left her pretty much to her own devices. She was twenty when she left the pack to travel the Americas. She never told her father about her mating with Alpha Quill and becoming Luna to Crystal Moon. She cut him off and never looked back. I never heard from her again and I never knew about the situation at Crystal Moon until your aunt Eva came to visit after her rejection by her mate.”

Something still does not make sense to me.

“So did the council also know a side effect of the treatment given to my grandmother would become male-barren?”

Sonja glances up at me.

“Yes. It had been noted before in previous cases but it was anecdotal. What we didn’t know is that the treatment would affect the pups born. Somehow the treatment given to Ulla affected her daughter Helga and she was only able to bear daughters. They in turn have all only had daughters too. We are yet to see if the impact of the treatment will extend to a third generation, which is you and your sisters and cousins.”