Stronger

Elizebeth POV:

To say something had shifted in the Luna was an understatement her determination multiplied tenfold, and she had her guard up again. She would go for her morning run with her son on her chest and then find her way to the gym training in the early hours. Her strength was still a fraction of what

it used to be but I saw her work like it was there.

“Don’t let her push herself too far,” the alpha told me as we watched her drill her strikes.

“You know as well as I that she won’t listen,” I reminded him.

“She knows he’ll come for her again and she doesn’t have anything stopping her from defending

herself,”

“She still doesn’t have her wolf,” I bristled at the thought of the Luna facing this devil undefended.

“That’s why she’s doing this, I just don’t want her fainting,” he stayed back.

I got the feeling Annette didn’t want him to see her like this she was getting up before everyone to run and train. She still had to exude the female alpha blood, show her strength, her invulnerability. I watched over her as she spun striking down imaginary foes her movements precise, her strikes sure and practiced from a lifetime of drilling.

The only reason Marc’s had gotten the drop on her was the fact that she had just given birth, and his little silver concoction. He couldn’t make more of it but Simon said that there was still enough there to subdue at least all of the full blooded alphas.

Grayson had told him to work up an antidote for the silver and Simon agreed as long as it wouldn’t be used on Annette. He was worried what affects it would have and introducing new stuff to her during recovery was risky.

Most of my time was spent watching over the Luna, sometimes Matt would join me. When I wasn’t with her I was training in the new rouges. Most of them seemed good and trustworthy but I still watched them like a hawk. Anyone of them could be plying us to get in and try and cause mayhem.

They all were also severely malnourished they needed protein shakes and double portions just to get back on their feet.

In all honesty I didn’t want them here there was a reason most of these people hadn’t found a new pack. Rouges weren’t trustworthy.

My alpha had ordered me to train them to help them so I did. Some of them were easier to trust than the others still clearly rattled by their banishments.

The Forester family who left their pack after their alpha wanted to bind to their twelve year old daughter. The father was a hard worker and the mother a talented healer. I saw the look on the little girls face when they entered camp, she wasn’t a child anymore.

Marcy a wolf girl out of Texas, her soulmate bonded to someone else for the sake of the pack so she left without a second thought. I saw the way she looked at Annette and Grayson, the envy in her eyes and the respect.

She was proficient with a bow so I saw her as incredibly useful.

Annette had seen the way I watched them with a calculating gaze. I had expected her to admonish me and tell me they all have pure hearts.

“They deserve a chance until they don’t Elizebeth,” she’d warned me. “If you watch them like that they won’t trust us,”

N

She knew too what we’re risking but she also still had her kind heart. I was ever thankful to see that

it hadn’t been taken from her.

She spent some of her time at Amarias house the two teens we had taken in staying there. The girl was getting close to delivering her baby and Annette was there to help prepare her.

She would stop every once in a while and I saw how it hurt her to speak of holding the baby and loving it.

I could see her in the cave the way she memorized Christian’s face, how she had known what to do and the pain it caused her.

She was jealous of the girl and the time she would get with her newborn baby. Even if she didn’t say it aloud I saw her still and pull herself together every time we were in that house.

‘She’s still drilling?” Ella came up beside me.

“Yes,”

“People will be getting up soon,” she looked over to me.

“Luna!” I called and she stopped nodding to me and grabbing her towel before heading to the locker

room.

“I’ve been thinking,” Ella turned to me. “The Luna still hasn’t been able to reconnect to her wolf, what if she went into the moon pool,”

“It’s only meant for ceremony,” I crossed my arms, disrespecting the moon pool was a grave mistake.

“She needs her wolf, if she bathes in the moon pool again it could help,” Ella pushed the subject.

She wasn’t wrong but I didn’t know if it would work, and the pool was sacred. We didn’t know if this would offend the goddess or not.

“We should ask Amaria,” I decided. “You go and speak with her but don’t let the Luna know.

I didn’t want to give Annette hope if there was none. She’s having a hard enough time trying to get

back to her old self.

We went about our day seeing to the crops and tending the fields. We weaved more clothes for the new comers and Annette started in on dinner. She had gone back to her routine and I as her guard had too.

Some days it felt all too familiar and there were moments I thought Aarron would walk through the door, but then my heart clenched as I remembered all that he’d done.

I never said it but when I went to bed at night I missed him. It had been years since I had slept alone, and though I know he wasn’t a good man he had been mine and I missed having someone’s arms around me.

Then I saw Annette with Christian or Grayson and Matt walking together in the morning, Leon trailing after them and it faded just as quickly as it had come. I may have loved him but he had. betrayed everything we hold dear and he deserved his death.

“Elizebeth,” Amaria entered the house smiling she rubbed my arm in greeting.

“What are you doing here,” Annette came over and hugged her mother in law.

“Ella came to me with an idea,” she grabbed Annette’s hands. “We believe if you bathe in the moon pool it could help return seraphine to you,” she exclaimed.

I saw surprise and relief come to my Luna, she blinked for a few moments and then become slightly worried. “I do think that’s a good idea….“she trailed off. “But-”

“But my sister has pure alpha blood it’ll be a powerful sensation,” Charlie explained from behind. “If it works she’ll be very dangerous,”

“It’s worth a shot though right,” she looked to her brother who nodded. “We should ask dad too,”

Annette called her father who agreed they should try it but also insisted that their family be there to subdue her if needed.

At times I forgot how hard it was for them to take the pure alpha blood inside them. They had centuries worth of refinement and still they didn’t rip off heads at the slightest whim. James drenched in blood flashed into my mind. I couldn’t stand the thought of Annette becoming like that.