Chapter 109 - The Grieving Luna
There were different types of losses experienced by many people daily. Financial loss property loss of a loved one bit something that surpassed them all was a mother losing her child. A mother losing her child all over again when she had not even stopped grieving for the first one she lost him all over again.
It was in loss not many would understand. It was a loss that she wished no one would experience. No matter how much she had tried to grave along with therapies it had been tough and now when she saw him like that in front of her it was going to be much more difficult than before.
She wanted to hold her child in her arms but she didn't understand how to or which part to hold. The head was separated from his body and the eyes . . . they looked so dead. Tortured and . . . She closed her eyes at the horror sir child must have been through before finally letting go of The pale. The horrors that she, the incapable Mother, could not protect him from.
A cry escaped her as she patted the matted fur. He was all skin and bones. No one had fed him and he looked like a stray dog that no one wanted around. Her child was a wolf once fully fed with a healthy for and thick belly but now he seemed to like a dog on streets with people kicked as they walked by.
He had suffered, the whipping marks and burnt skin told them the tale no parent wanted to hear. The tale of suffering their child endured the tale from which they were supposed to protect their child. The very tale, they had failed to stop from repeating.
Now, the consequence of their failure was in front of them. The child lost ten years ago was now found only to be known as a tortured soul, now torn in two. The happy child, whose eyes were full of mischief and wonder, now filled with pain and horrors he saw before death.
Another cry came as she felt the hands of her husband around her, hugging her close as she mourned for the child, assumed to be dead, found again. How could fate be so cruel to the, how could the Goddess be so cruel to her home she had loved dearly and followed but in the end was thrown away into the land of hurt?
The Luna of the pack had run miles when she sniffed the wind that carried the scent of her child. First, she refused to believe it but she noticed her husband stiffening up and she knew that it was reality. Her son was found. When their husband turned around to look at her and see if she noticed that their eyes men in hope sparkled, a flicker of hope, which was now burning to ashes.
She wailed as the happiness she ran with slowly turned to numbness when she saw a torn wolf and then came the sudden surge of grief and anguish. The very grief that you wished to kill herself rather than experiencing it again. It was too much for her heart, for her soul to go through.
"Why? Why?" she wailed loudly with a thickened throat from crying for so long. "He was just a child, a child of five years. Why would someone do that to him?" she cried at the top of her voice. "Please. . .someone tell me why. What was his fault in all of this. . ." she cried. Her words were barely understandable as the grief could be felt from her voice. The pack members cried too. The women wept openly, the hurt of seeing a mother cry rattled their hearts and they pulled their children closer.
It was horrifying, special that was the leader of the pack trying the mother of the pack which had all of them. The hurt and grief that she faced were felt through the entire pack, each heart and soul felt it.
It was the cry of a mother that shook their very souls. It was the children they all saw ten years ago laid across in two pieces around the park while the fur showed the torture the child had been through.
"Linny, the baby, don't." The alpha said, he pleaded and did not mind doing that in front of his entire pack. "Please don't cry." He kissed her temple, the hurt getting to him too. It was his child, the child of an alpha, kidnapped and taken away to be tortured and eventually killed. As much as it took to his pride it took to his heart first that he was a failure of a father, that he could not provide for his child and had a whole pack that was dependent on him.
"He was a c-child. . . they could have given him an easy death." the mother cried and sniffed repeatedly spitting the words out as they hurt even to say. "They could have let him go. What use was he to them?!" she cried and looked up at the moon, standing proudly in the night, rebellion in her was shown to all. 'You bitch! Why would you write that in the face of a child!" she cursed the goddess loud and clear. "How heartless can you be?!" she screamed.
"Oh Linda," the alpha wrapped his arms around her even tighter, barely holding himself together. "Pull yourself together, love you have to stay strong." he chided even though he was breaking on the inside he knew that he had to provide support for his mate first.
She closed her eyes and shook her head. The tears did not stop, no matter how she tried; the pain of losing her child all over again did not sit well with her. "Do something." She whispered helplessly as if something impossible would make some saying impossible just bringing back her child to the land of Living come true.
"I will." He promised and let her go as his son took his place to comfort his mother and he moved to his second in command; His beta, who stood near a tree.
"What is it? Have you found something?" He asked as he neared him and immediately grimaced at the stench. Piss and blood, it was. He sniffed it again.
"Piss and blood, alpha," The beta pointed, "The fear can be smelt in the piss and the blood is what you son had in his mouth." he pointed out as he had taken the lead on his own knowing that the Alpha would be grieving for the loss of his son.
"Quite a few possibilities there are," the beta drawled to which the alpha nodded. "Yes, there are." he agreed as his fists clenched at the thoughts coming to his mind.
The alpha continued, "I think my child escaped and it is the blood of the person who kidnapped my child or maybe, a human that the kid wanted to feed on. I would not blame him given the condition he was in the moment." He growled. His son was hungry and undernourished meant that his actions were justified in the land of shapeshifting.
"Yes, yes." The beta agreed. "but if it is the latter then the human escaped and we cannot kill it but the authorities would be made aware of our presence which cannot be good for us. They would roam in the forest to see and hunt us."
When a parent had vengeance on their minds, it was obvious that they won't be fair. His child was dead but he had experienced it all over again and that hurt the most.
"Then killing the human would be the best option I think. The alpha concluded, "The Luna will be immensely satisfied by that." he glanced back at his mate who was touching the matted fur and trying to soothe out the knots. She was smothering him with love before the last rights were performed.
His heart went out to his mate.
"The Luna is grieving, alpha. At the moments the unthinkable can be possible for her too. Killing a human will only point more fingers in our direction." The Luna did not matter. She was a kind-hearted woman like very alpha needed beside him. The main concern was the alpha, who was planning the killing of the human was probably scarred for life, both mentally and physically.
The alpha tsked in return. 'there are other ways to kill a human, not just by tearing their skin but other 'scientific' ways too, ways that they invented." Ways that would bite them back the ass.
The loss was irreplaceable and the beta knew that. He wanted to give in to the idea of the alpha but he was thinking clearly, without any emotions because of which it became easier for him to know that a mere human could do that a fully grown wolf.
There was someone else responsible and he had to decide to pursue his doubts or not.