"Are you sure you're up for this?" Aidan helps me walk down the stairs to the second floor. Today is the meeting we have with the council to discuss what to do with Blake's pack, and Aidan's worried that I'll strain myself at some point if I attend.
"I promise I'm doing great." He shifts his arm around my waist to help hold some of my weight making me roll my eyes. To be honest my back is nothing compared to the injuries I sustained when I first arrived. The only difference is that I wasn't pregnant then.
"If at any point you don't feel good don't hesitate to let me know, and we will get you out of there." He tells me for the hundredth time since I said I wanted to attend the meeting.
I want Ivan and anyone else that is from the council to look us in the eye and tell us they were wrong. Lives were lost because of their neglect to do their job, and I want to ensure they compensate all the families effected.
"Really?" I exclaim as Aidan opens the conference room door with one arm while his other is still around my waist to help support some of my weight. Emeric is standing at the end of the table holding my regular chair out for me. I roll my eyes at how bad they have been babying me. I can't even sneeze without one of them rushing to my aid. It was kind of nice at first but now it's getting frustrating.
"What? I'm being polite." Emeric shrugs while smirking. He knows it's starting to get on my nerves so he's really been laying it on. Aiden doesn't say anything as he ushers me to the chair, and I pry his arm off as I get to the chair so I can sit down on my own.
"If you don't knock it off I'm going to smack that smirk off your face." I glare at Emeric over my shoulder as he pushes my chair in, but my playful threats don't phase him as he laughs hysterically while sitting down on my left.
No one has brought it up, but Emeric's just sort of stepped up into the Beta position since the attack. Fletcher and Ryder don't seem to mind either. Aidan and I discussed it last night and we are going to tell the council that Emeric will be taking over as official Beta. The council is usually the first to report on these matters because of paperwork and other unimportant reasons like that.
"Can we run through what is all going to be discussed today?" I look over at Aidan. We talked about it last night, but I fell asleep before we finished. Aidan nods without hesitation.
"First we are going to give them all the information we have on the attack, and I have gathered all of Alex's belongings to hand over to them so they can try and piece together what happened. Although I have kept a few things so we can still investigate ourselves since we know how thorough they are. Also under no circumstances can they know that Violet is alive." I am now very confused, and Emeric must see this because he speaks up.
"The council would hunt her down to question her, and with the circumstances in their eyes she would be an accomplice so they would treat her as such."
"Well she wasn't, we know that." I sit up a little straighter wincing when it strains the muscles in my back. Aidan pushes forward in his chair grabbing my hand to help me if I need it. I shake his hand off. "I'm fine." He scoots back giving me space. I immediately feel terrible for snapping at him, but I'm too engrossed in our conversation.
"It doesn't matter. We could show them evidence, but they would still conduct their own "investigation"." Emeric's use of quotations around the word investigation worry me.
"From here on out Violet is no longer with us." My body heats up with anger. Just because the council has some backwards bullshit protocol won't stop me from finding my friend. Aidan sees that I'm about to explode and quickly interjects. "That doesn't mean we'll stop looking for her." I take a deep breath calming down only slightly. I still don't like the fact it will only be us looking for her. Locating her is going to be a lot harder if we have to dodge the council while doing it.
"What about Blake's pack? Do we know what they are going to do with it?" I want to change the subject so I don't get as worked up again. To be completely honest I don't care what happens to Dark Mountains as long as it doesn't fall back into the hands of someone who will use the position to harm others.
"Not a clue." Ryder speaks up. "I had some of my guys make a quick run over there to make sure nothing sketch is going on. Surprisingly they are just running it like a newly started pack, and acting as if it wasn't the most notorious group of people a month ago." I frown at his last sentence, and I can see Fletcher react as well.
"I would watch it, by your standards your mate was a part of that notorious group not that long ago. Just because you are born in a terrible place doesn't make you a terrible person." I can tell my words set something off in Fletcher. He looks lost in thought, staring off to the side clearly mulling something over.
"Lastly I know you guys wanted to submit the final papers so Tessa would be in the system as your child." Aidan looks towards Ryder and Fletcher for conformation. I whip my head in their direction wide eyed, and Fletcher opens up the folder in front of him pulling out a small stack of forms.
"Really?" I ask excitedly cover my mouth with my hands. Tessa has been their child since the moment Fletcher offered to take care of her, but with these papers anyone else including the council would have to recognize Tessa as their child as well. He hands them over to Aidan with an excited smile.
"We need you to sign off as Alpha and then we are all set." Ryder smiles. I try not to tear up as Aidan happily approves the adoption signing the forms. It isn't until Aidan slides the page over to me do I realize I also have to sign them as Luna. I pick up the pen hovering it over the dotted line hesitating. Aidan clears his throat to try and get me to snap out of it, so I turn my head looking back at Ryder and Fletcher.
"I've never been so happy to sign paperwork before. I just wanted to say how proud I am of both of you for stepping up and offering to take care of her. It will be a great relief to know that she will always be safe and cared for by a happy family." I look back down wiping away the stray tear that made its way down my cheek, and sign the paper handing it back to Fletcher.
"That's the only subjects that I know will come up during this meeting, but it wouldn't be a council meeting if they didn't pull something out of their ass to throw us off guard." Aidan grumbles. I reach over grabbing his hand under the table and interlacing our fingers. We sit for a few minutes in silence waiting for Ivan as the clock ticks in the background.
A knock at the door gains all of our attention. Aidan stands up and all the boys follow suit, but as I struggle to lift myself up Aidan shakes his head. "It's okay you can stay sitting." He gives me a small smile, but I can tell it hurts him to see me injured even if we all know I'm going to be just fine soon.
A warrior pops his head into the room making sure we're here and ready before swinging the door wide open to let Ivan and his men in. Ivan steps in with his usual impassive expression, and Aidan meets him halfway shaking his hand motioning for him to sit down. Ivan and three other men sit on the other side of the table from us.
"Excuse the fact my pregnant wife couldn't stand to shake your hand. She was severely injured by Blake in the attack and is still recovering." Aidan snaps, slightly losing his temper. He emphasizes Blake's name to get the point across that we were right all along, and I have to bite back my smirk as Ivan nervous gaze meets mine.
"Excuse my mate. It's been hard for him to see me almost die." I reach out shaking Ivan's hand as he squirms in his seat. Next to me Emeric hides his chuckle with a cough. Aidan sits back down in his chair and as usual pulls my chair closer to his.
"The council would like to apologize to all of you for what happened." Ivan gets straight to the point, but I cut him off before he can get too far with that.
"Don't apologize to us because we are the lucky ones. We are still alive although missing a few parts." I look over to Ryder, and as if reading my mind he lifts his left hand to shake Ivan's.
"Oh my bad I still forget." Ryder lowers his still stitched up stump back under the table. Lifting his good hand he shakes Ivan's hand who just sits there stunned.
"You need to apologize to the families who have lost a parent, child, sibling, or friend. They lived in fear for two weeks because you wouldn't do anything, and were slaughtered because you didn't listen." I lower my voice as I speak. His eyes harden with each word that passes my lips not appreciating where I'm going with this, and the atmosphere in the room grows tense.
"We will be compensating those affected." Ivan says through clenched teeth. By his body language I can tell he's struggling to handle us "disrespecting" him, but he knows he has no room to argue with us.
"And you will apologize face to face for your gross negligence, and promise to make sure it never happens again." I add making Ivan clench his fists.
"Of course." He plasters a fake smile on his face. I lean back in my chair letting Aidan know he can take over from here.
"As I discussed with you over the phone I have all Alex's property packed and ready for you to take. As well as written witness statements from everyone who saw what happened that day." Ivan's men eyes glaze over and they stand up without another word leaving the room.
"They will start loading it all into our cars." Ivan explains why they are leaving. "We need to discuss what you would like to do with Blake's pack." My fears are affirmed when Ivan looks between Fletcher and I. The usual protocol when a Alpha and Luna die is to pass the reigns to their children, but I worry that taking over Dark Mountains will only bring up painful memories for both of us. "Your options are; one of you can take over as Alpha, you can take over the land and just absorb all the people into Black Moon, or the council will appoint someone to take over Dark Mountains." The room falls silent as the attention turns to Fletcher and I.
I've never thought that we would be in this position. Of course I worried about it but deep down I knew they wouldn't give us the opportunity to choose. It's throwing me off that they are actually handing us his pack, but sitting here stunned isn't going to help anyone. I look towards Fletcher only to see he is still just as in shock as I was a second ago.
"What do you want to do?" I mind link him not wanting Ivan to hear our conversation. Fletcher seems to snap out of whatever daze he was in.
"We can't let them take control." I'm glad we're on the same page, but that still leaves us with a very important decision to make.
Dark Moutains has always been a place of darkness with negativity attached to it, and I would be nice to turn that around. Merging the pack would only create conflict in the long run, but Black Moon is my home. I don't want to be in charge of two different packs because I would always feel like I was neglecting one of them, and I wouldn't be able to give both my full undivided attention thus failing at being a true Luna.
"I can take over if that's okay with you." My wide eyes connect with Fletcher's relaxed ones. It's not that I don't believe he could do it, but taking on a dismantled pack is a lot of work especially when you are so young. It will require a lot of work and time that could be spent with his family.
"I don't want you to feel pressured to do it."
"I don't feel pressured. Think about it Blake always wanted me to eventually take over, and it's not like I would let it go back to the way it was. Plus the council and other Alphas would recognize me as Alpha more than someone else. It would be the final fuck you to Blake by turning it into the opposite of what he always wanted." I smile at his positive attitude towards the situation. It would be nice to know that the pack is in good hands, and I wouldn't have to worry about it.
"I would like to take it over." Fletcher informs Ivan leaving Aidan and Emeric shocked, but Ryder doesn't seem surprised. I have a feeling they talked about it earlier today. I turn back to Ivan with a smile on my face, a real one this time.
"Well than that's settled. Aidan and I would also like to make some formal changes." I quickly make sure Aidan has recovered from Fletcher's decision before continuing. "Because of Alex we'll obviously need a new Beta, and Aidan and I have decided on Emeric." I turn to Emeric, who is sitting next to me on my left, and somehow his jaw has dropped even further. "If you accept of course." I certainly don't want to force Emeric into a position he doesn't want, but I hope he wants to be Beta because I can't see anyone else who would make a better fit.
"Of course I accept." Emeric does the most Emeric thing. He hugs me. I pull him closer because he's trying to be gentle around my back, but I'm not letting that stop us from properly hugging. I pull away and discreetly wipe away the lone tear the fell from his eye before anyone could see. Aidan reaches around me to pat Emeric on the back, but Emeric doesn't care he stands up walking up to Aidan and pulls him into a hug as well. Aidan sits back down when Emeric pulls away taking out the paperwork we filled out last night.
"We have it all finished you just need to sign." Aidan hands Emeric the paper work as he sits back down. He looks down at the paper in awe for a minute until I poke him with a pen handing it to him.
"You sneaky bastards." He murmurs shaking his head. I gasp and smack his arm. "Whom I love." He gives me his best innocent face causing me to roll my eyes. Emeric signs the paper way too big, but it wouldn't be him if he didn't make a grand gesture during such matters. I can tell we are starting to get on Ivan's nerves which only elates me more.
"We also have one more motion to bring forward." Ryder quickly pipes in before Ivan gathers his folders together. Fletcher slides the stack of paperwork along with a small photo of Tessa across the table. "We adopted an orphaned child named Tessa weeks before the attack, and we would like her to be formally be put into the system as our child." Ivan nods his head looking over the papers to make sure all the signatures required are there.
"As well as mine and her name change papers." My smile somehow manages to get bigger. I'm so happy for Fletcher. If anyone deserves a happy peaceful life it's Fletcher, and I'm so excited to see his family grow and become stronger.
"Alright I'll file all of this as soon as I get back. Is there anything else I can do for you?" I can tell he wants to get out of here before we torture him with anymore papers that will cause him to do is literal job. I chuckle at how fast he picks up all of his shit.
"Not today, but we will keep in contact until the transition of power of Dark Mountains to Fletcher is completed." Aidan stands back up ready to escort him back out. Thankfully Aidan's isn't facing me while I take forever to stand up as so he can't stop me. Ivan stiffens a bit when he see I'm up and holding my hand out.
"I meant what I said. I never want a repeat of this again." I let the Luna authority seep through my voice before stepping back conveniently into Aidan's chest. He warps am arm around my waist trying to help me hold some of my weight so I don't strain my back.
Ivan says goodbye to Emeric, and promises Fletcher and Ryder that he'll call later with more details about transferring Dark Mountains. I let a sigh of relief when the door closes behind him resting my head back against Aidan's shoulder. The atmosphere in the room lifts slightly as everyone relaxes.
"Holy shit." Emeric says as he sits down on the edge on the table. "I'm a Beta." He looks up at me now that he's finally processing it. I giggle at his stunned face pointing over to Fletcher.
"And you're an Alpha." I affirm raising my eyebrows in his direction. "And so are you." I motion to Ryder who just nods in agreement. Fletcher shakes his head at our antics. Our playfulness is cut short as a pair of small footsteps come barreling down the hallway.
"Daddies!" Tessa screams excitedly once her eyes land on Fletcher and Ryder. Any traces of stress or worry completely melt as they bend down to embrace their daughter. Aidan's mom comes running through the open doorway out of breath.
"She is a fast one." Erica braces her hands on her knees trying to catch her breath. I'm glad Aidan sent his parents on a surprise vacation just before everything went to shit because I don't know what we would have done if something happened to them. To say Axel was pissed when he heard the news of the attack and they came right back would have been an understatement. At least what I've been told, I was in a coma when they got here, but according to Fletcher Axel basically had steam coming out of his ears. Erica on the other hand was much more forgiving and helped so much with helping taking care of Tessa while Ryder and I were out.
"How do you feel?" Aidan searches my eyes for any indication of pain. We planned a pack meeting after the council meeting so we could update the pack on the situation. It's been a busy day and I know Aidan is worried I'll over do it, but to be honest I feel better than I have in a while. Everything is falling into place and for the first time in a long time I feel at ease.
"Better." I press up on my toes giving him a quick kiss before Tessa sees. Last night after dinner Aidan hugged me from behind to kiss my cheek and she ran out of the room pretending to gag. She's been opening up more to all of us which is a great relief, but I know she still has nightmares about everything she's been through. I'm not too worried though she has Fletcher and Ryder to care for her, and I know they would do anything for her.
"You ready?" I smile up at the mate that I never envisioned I would have, but thank the Moon Goddess everyday that I did. Aidan has shown me more times than I can count what it means when you love someone. It may have taken longer than others but we got here in the end, and I couldn't be happier.
"Always." We walk downstairs in a big group. Erica and Axel walk with the boys and Tessa over to the stage to gain everyone's attention while Aidan and I hang back for a second. I look up at him taking his hand in mine giving it a squeeze to gain his attention. He looks down at me with a smile.
"I love you." I smile at the way his cheeks turn a bit pink. I'll never get over the way his beauty takes me back every time I look at him.
"I love you." He brings our hands up to his mouth giving mine a kiss. He walks us forward helping me down the back steps and over to the stage. I smile and wave to the familiar faces I've become acostumed to. Aidan basically carries me up the steps walking us over to the microphone. I look out at our pack thanking the Moon Goddess for the fate to have gone from a rogue to Luna.
***********
Song: Two More Minutes by Jaymes Young
Thank you all so much! I can't believe this is the last chapter, but don't worry there will a epilogue and a sequel. Rouge to Luna has passed 2,000 reads, and I want to thank everyone that has stuck around and given this book so much support. When I started writing this book I never thought it would become what it is. I'm so excited for the sequels and seeing what the future for the books hold. This book wouldn't be what it is today without you guys, so thank you from the bottom of my heart. I don't know what else to say but thank you. I hope you all enjoyed this story and if you did don't forget to vote and comment! Until next time.
~Stella Gordon.