Chapter Seventy Five

Liam

After a lot of begging, I begrudgingly agreed to let Azalea help heal some of the injured from White Moon. I made her promise to help no more than one each day. Luckily, most of those who were only minorly injured healed before her help was necessary. All the White Moon wolves were back to good health within a week. Word spread around them and the rest of the pack about Azalea’s help. People were stopping by the packhouse just to say hello to their Luna and I could not be happier.

A welcoming party was set for 2 days from now for all the new White Moon members. The pack had managed to already construct a couple small homes, and more were in progress for the new members. The White Moon members seemed to be integrating seamlessly and Azalea was all smiles every day. The pack house was full and chaotic for the time being, but Azalea wasn’t fazed. She moved around every where like she was floating, helping people left and right. Meals were coordinated and served efficiently, and the chores were shared by all. She had even taken it upon herself to help find jobs within the pack for almost all the new members already.

She had the idea to add a position for the White Moon Delta within my own team. He had accepted graciously, and Austin had made sure he fit in right away. As I watched my pack over the last week, I felt nothing but pride in what we had done.

Azalea’s leadership of the integration had left me open to deal with all the normal duties as Alpha and go over everything Austin had done while I was gone. Damien had come back a couple days ago and was up to speed as well, not having to help with arrangements as usual. Now we had one problem left to solve: what to do with Missy.

We had sent wolves to her house many times and they had all reported no change. It appeared her mother had not been home for well over a week now. During the day, she was her normal cheerful and helpful self. But we had caught her a few times when she thought no one was looking. She would cry and call for her mom. I knew it was weighing heavy on Azalea’s heart.

My office phone rang. “Hello,” I said.

“Alpha Liam. So good to hear your voice,” said Alpha Langston.

“Alpha Langston. Great to hear from you. What can I help you with?”

“Well, we found someone belonging to your pack,” he said in a worried tone.

“Oh?” I sat up straight. No one was missing that I was aware of. Unless he meant…

“Yes. A she-wolf actually….”

“Did she give you a name?”

“That is the issue. We found her dead in the woods.”

I sucked in a breath. “Understood. Thank you for calling. I will send a few wolves to collect the body.”

“Sorry, Liam. Looks like a suicide. Let me know if you need anything and say hi to your wonderful mate.”

“Thank you, Langston. Will do,” I said and hung up the phone. I sighed. I wonder if this is who I think it is…

-

I walked into the pack house kitchen to find my beautiful mate. She did not notice the door opening as she continued to help prepare all the dinner food to be served. I sat there and stared in adoration at her.

“You’re a pathetic little puppy when it comes to mate...” Gavin teased.

“So? And don’t act all high and mighty. You can’t tell her no either.”

“I could if I wanted to.” I laughed at him. I knew what I had to tell her wasn’t good news, but I couldn’t help the joy inside me every time I laid my eyes on her. She finally realized I was standing in the doorway. A smile stretched across her sweet face as she walked over to me.

“My Alpha,” she drawled in a low sexy tone. My eyebrows shot up in surprise.

“Little Luna,” I said, giving her a smirk.

“What do we owe the pleasure?”

“Hmmm. I can’t remember now; you have distracted me,” I said pulling her flush against me by her waist. She giggled in my arms making my c**k twitch. “How about this?” I said as I captured her soft pink lips in mine. I kissed her hard after missing her all day.

She broke away from me panting slightly. “Now, now, My Alpha,” she teased. “I still need to finish up dinner. Then you can have whatever you want.”

I groaned. This little minx. “Actually,” I said. “There is something I need to talk to you about. Think you can step away?”

Her face scrunched up in concern. We really had not had any bad news since I returned from White Moon. “Sure,” she said. She turned around and scanned the room. Finding Lily, she called, “Hey Lil, finish up please? We will be back for dinner.”

Lily gave us a mischievous smile. “Go make us some Alpha pups!” she called. Azalea blushed and shook her head before turning back to me.

“Let’s go,” she said.

I grabbed her hand and led her out of the kitchen. I headed towards my office because I didn’t want us to be interrupted. I would tell Damien and Lily later, but Azalea should know right away. She had spent the most time with Missy lately and she should be the one to decide how we proceed. When we got inside, she leaned against the desk and looked at me expectantly. I shut the door and came over to her. “I got a call from Langston today,” I started.

“Oh, how are they? They were so lovely at the wedding,” she said.

“They are well. But they found someone on their territory. A she-wolf belonging to our pack…”

“But we have no missing wolves except…” she trailed off as realization washed over her. “No, Liam. Don’t tell me…” I nodded my head as her eyes filled with tears.

“I sent wolves to retrieve the body. I checked myself. It is Missy’s mother. She committed suicide just outside the border. My uncle says it looks like she did a few days ago. He has her body for now…”

“But Missy… Now she is an orphan… How do we tell her…” Azalea cried. She shot forward and wrapped her arms around my waist. I let her sob into my chest as I held her.

“I know. This is not what I was hoping to find…” I let her cry for a few more minutes until she calmed down a bit. Her swollen eyes met mine.

“What are we going to do?” she croaked.

“Well, we need to tell her for sure. I think maybe we should wait until tomorrow. Let her have one more night. She’ll need a guardian and a place to go. She can stay here in the pack house until then.”

She nodded her head. She straightened up. “Yes, we should wait until tomorrow. Austin, Abigail, and a few of the other families were going to do a movie night in the rec room tonight. Missy made everyone cookies. She should get one more fun thing,” she said. She had some resolution in her voice now. “We should tell Damien and Lily, probably Austin as well tonight though. Lily can help me in making arrangements for the funeral and finding her a foster family. She is close to Austin so he should know so he can help her.”

I nodded. I pushed her hair behind her ear and gave her a smile. “What?” she asked.

“You are already the perfect Luna to this pack…” I said softly. She blushed. “Let’s go down and have dinner with our pack members. We can talk to everyone after dinner and begin arrangements in the morning. I will call my uncle about a timeline for the funeral later.”

She nodded her head. I bent down to give her a soft kiss before I grabbed her hand and led her downstairs.

-

We were laying in bed that night. We had told Damien, Lily, and Austin about Missy’s mother. Austin had put up a good front all night with Missy during the movie. Lily agreed to take care of the funeral arrangements. Damien and Austin were going to help take care of Missy’s home and belongings. Azalea and I agreed to be the ones to tell Missy and find her a foster family. Azalea was fidgeting while she read a book cuddled up into my side. I had a movie on but all her moving around was making it hard to concentrate. I could feel something was bugging her. I muted the TV and looked down at her.

“Baby, what is wrong?” I asked.

“I am sorry. I am just worried about Missy…”

“Why?”

“Every time she has brought friends over to the pack house and their parents have come to get them, it doesn’t seem like they like Missy much or maybe just don’t like her mom. It doesn’t seem like she had many friends in the pack, especially after her mate died…”

I sighed. “I know. But someone will help her. We have a great pack. I am sure someone will fall in love with her.”

“Someone already has…”

I raised my eyebrows. “Who?”

She sat up and faced me. “We have.”

I looked at her confused for a moment. I love all my pack and so does she. We are Alpha and Luna.

“She wants to adopt her,” Gavin said. My eyes widened in realization.

“Please, don’t be mad. I know we haven’t even gotten to my Luna ceremony or talked about the wedding. And we haven’t even begun discussing pups for that matter-”

“Azalea, breathe,” I stopped her. She nodded her head.

“I am not mad. But can you explain how you came to this? Help me understand?”

“Liam, I knew how much you loved that little girl the first time I met her. You are so patient and sweet with her. You give her special attention she doesn’t get elsewhere. The only person she is more smitten with would be Austin. I also know that you have been giving her mother extra money to take care of her, buy birthday presents, Christmas presents. I also love her. So much. She is so full of life and I want her to always be that way. I know it might be weird at first and we would all need to adjust. I don’t think I am ready to be a mom, but I also think we are the best people to take care of her. She knows us; she is comfortable here. I understand if you don’t want to, but I think we should let her decide.”

I stared at her amazed. She was right. I did give Missy special treatment. We had been fortunate enough not to have any other orphaned children in the past few years. After everything that had happened with Azalea, when Missy came around, I couldn’t not help her. And I was helping her mother with money regularly.

Of course, I wanted pups with Azalea, but I wasn’t expecting anything any time soon. We had come so far and overcome so much that I was content with the way things were. She was right; we had never once discussed pups. I didn’t know how many she wanted or if she even wanted any.

“Do you want pups?” was all I could think to say at the moment.

“Yes, eventually. We should probably get married first. But that also would not stop me from taking care of Missy. Plus, I think if she lived here with us, she would have Lily, Damien, Austin, Abigail, and others looking out for her. Felix is even pretty taken with her. She is one of the only people not afraid of him.”

“Okay. Let’s give her that choice. If she wants us to be her guardians, we will be. If not, we will find her a family…” I said. Her face slowly stretched into a smile. I pulled her into my chest, hugging her. “Do you feel better now, Little Luna?”

“Yes. Thank you,” she said quietly. I could feel through our bond that she was calmer now and a little less sad.

Azalea

Missy sat in front across from Liam and I at a table in the dining room. We decided not to do this in his office. She fidgeted around a bit and I was sure she was nervous. We had never asked her to sit down and talk with us like this. She was smart enough to know this had to do with her mom being gone.

“Missy, we wanted to talk to you about something very important,” Liam began.

“Sweety, we found your mom,” I said softly.

Her eyes perked up. “You found my mom! Yay! I can go home soon right? When is she coming to get me?”

I looked to Liam and he nodded for me to continue. “She isn’t sweetheart. That is what we need to tell you. Your mom has passed away…”

Missy was silent for a minute. She looked down to her lap. I could see the tears starting to run down her cheeks. “She didn’t want me anymore now that Daddy is gone, did she?”

“No, no, no! Missy that isn’t it at all! Please sweety, don’t you think that,” I said quickly.

“Missy, can you look at me?” Liam said. Her head peeked up as she sniffled. “Do you know what a mate is?” he asked her.

She nodded her head. “It is the perfect gift you get from the Moon Goddess for being one of her children. It is the person you love forever and ever.”

He nodded at her. “Do you know that a mate is half of your soul? So, when two mates find each other, they become one complete soul?” Missy shook her head but listened intently. “When you find your mate and you become one, you can feel everything they do. Sometimes you even know what they are thinking. And you can always find your mate, so you never get lost. But when you mate dies, it can hurt a lot. You lose half of your soul when your mate dies, and you feel lost because they are gone.”

“So, when Daddy died, Mom lost part of her soul?” she asked.

Liam nodded at her. “Yes, she did and it hurt her very much. She tried to be strong for you, but she was very hurt. It was awfully hard for her to take care of you because she hurt so much. She was so happy that you were spending time here with Luna. After all the hurting, she was weak though. She wasn’t strong enough to hold on anymore,” he explained softly.

“She died because she was hurt?” Missy said. We both nodded at her. Tears continued to flow from her eyes. “Why didn’t she ask Luna to fix it?”

My heart tore a little at the. “Missy, that isn’t the kind of hurt I can fix. I’m sorry, sweetheart.” I paused for a moment. “Missy, do you want to live here with Liam and I?” I asked her. She turned her head to me, confused. “Do you want the Alpha and I to be your new guardians? We think you should pick but we were hoping you would like to pick us,” I said.

She looked between us for a minute. “Would I live here?” she asked finally.

“Yes, you would. You would get your own room right down the hall from us. The pack house would be your home forever,” I said with a small smile.

She looked down in her lap again. “Can we have a funeral for my mom?” she asked quietly.

“Yes, Miss Lily is going to make sure your mom gets a good funeral,” I told her.

She thought for a minute more. Finally, she nodded her head. “Yes, please. I want to live here with you Luna and you Alpha!”

I got up and came around the table and wrapped her in a big hug. “I am so sorry sweety,” I whispered. She finally broke down in real sobs. I was proud of how she had just handled all of that.

-

I was standing in Missy’s room with her. Liam had arranged one of the rooms on our floor for her since they were for the Alpha family. Damien and Austin had brought almost all her things from her house. Because she was so young, we decided to lock up the house and leave it for when she was older to decide what to do. Missy was standing in front of the mirror looking at her dress for the funeral.

“Are you ready?” I said.

“Yes, I think so,” she said quietly. She was holding up better than we had expected. She cried for most of the day when we told her and was certainly not as cheery. Liam’s uncle said we should give her time to grieve and try to just give her a proper home for now.

She turned to me and took a deep breath. I held out my hand. “Let’s go say good-bye to your mom,” I said. She grabbed my hand. We met Liam and Felix in the hall and headed downstairs.

The service was nice. There were more people than we expected there. Missy was brave the whole time, only crying as the casket was lowered into the ground. When we returned, Missy went to her room for the rest of the night. Liam told me not to worry. I knew she would need some time. She was only a little older than I was when I lost my parents, but she was worlds more mature.

I laid in bed that night with Liam. He was watching TV while I just cuddled into his side. I was thinking about everything that had happened over the last few months. I was content but lonely at the Inn. I never thought I would come back to the pack. Now here I sat, almost Luna of the pack and engaged.

“What are you thinking, Little Luna?” Liam linked me. I smiled and peered up at him.

“About when I will finally be officially Luna of Blood Eclipse,” I said with a smirk. His eyes brightened. I had his attention at least.