The Lunar Queen Chapter 101

Lyric POV

After Cole leaves I let Hannah and Ezra eat as much as they could.

The longer they sit at the table the more relaxed they slowly become, but Ezra still flinches anytime someone walks too close behind him.

“Are we all done?” I ask and Hannah nods her head fast.

Food is still smeared across her cheeks and since meeting them she actually looks like a normal pup instead of a pup running on survival instinct.

I giggle at her. “Can I take you guys to see my doctor friend to check on Ezra’s cuts and bruises and to check you out too Hannah?" I say.

Hannah gets out of her chair and takes Ezra’s hand. “We can trust her” she says and Ezra nods.

The complete certainty in her voice makes something tighten painfully in my chest. Their parents really sent them here intentionally.

Elise takes both of their hands as we leave the dining room to walk to the hospital.

Watching my Elise happily chatting away while Hannah listens closely and Ezra stays quiet somehow makes the situation feel even sadder. They should have been around wolves their own age laughing and playing, not running between kingdoms alone or at all.

“Hey Grace can you have a few Omegas go up to our suite and have two of the rooms set up for the two pups that came to us. I need clothes for them as well, one boy about 8 and one girl about 4. Send a servant to go shopping for them, I need furniture and everything please” I link Grace one of the head servants.

“Yes Luna, I will get it done immediately” She links back.

“Thank you” I say before closing the link.

If those pups are staying under my roof then they will never feel abandoned again.

When we get to the pack hospital Lydia is just walking out of Winter and Iris’s room.

“Hey Lyric, what are you doing back?” she asks.

“These two angels were found at the border a while ago and Ezra here has some bruises on his face and he looks to have a cut on his side” I say.

Lydia’s expression immediately softens when she looks at them.

“Okay let’s go to a room down the hall” she says.

As we walk past Winter’s room she calls me “Lyric what is going on?” She asks.

“Pups at the border I'm getting them checked out” I say.

“Pups at the border?, with no parents?”

Her tone instantly sharpens with concern.

“Yes.”

Ezra stops walking when he realizes I'm not following.

His entire body immediately tenses like he thinks he’s being left behind.

“We will talk later they aren’t completely comfortable yet” I say as I walk over and grab his hand.

“Don’t worry honey you are safe here” I say.

The second I say the words his grip on my hand tightens slightly.

When I step into the room with Ezra, Lydia has a face of concern and as I look at Hannah I see why, she is a seer like Eloise.

Her eyes are glowing white and the air around her feels strangely still.

I wait until I see the brown of her eyes. “What did you see little wolf?, can I take a peek?” I ask and she holds her hands out to me.

“She already knows what she is” Nova says.

There’s no fear in Hannah’s eyes about her visions. Only exhaustion. Like seeing things she shouldn’t has become normal for her already.

When I grab her hands I see a man in a house who looks to be shut in, his eyes are red and he is half shifted, furniture around destroyed.

Pain slams into me so hard through the vision my chest tightens instantly. Rage. Isolation. Grief. His wolf feels… different. Fractured somehow.

“Do you know who that is?” I ask her.

She nods “That is Alpha King Kairo, mama says he’s sick” she says.

Kairo.

The name settles strangely in my chest like I should recognize it even though I know I’ve never met him before.

“Why does the name feel like it should mean something to us?” Nova asks.

“Not sure but if he is the King of the West we will be meeting him soon” I say.

And deep down unease curls in my stomach because whatever is wrong with him doesn’t feel physical. It feels like his wolf is suffering.

“Well how about we get started” Lydia says.

“Okay Ezra let’s get on the table, do you need help?” I ask.

He shakes his head and climbs onto the table.

Even while injured he carefully avoids looking weak in front of Hannah.

Lydia lightly touches the bruise on his face and he winces. Then she has him lie down and pulls his shirt up and he has a gash down his side.

The second I see how deep it is anger twists violently in my chest.

She cleans it out and puts a bandage over it. She then checks out Hannah taking vitals for both of them and creating a chart.

After an hour Lydia finally looks at me “Luna you can heal him if you would like, none of the bruises are bad and same thing with this little one, she doesn’t seem to have any visible bruises but they are both malnourished and are severely underweight” she says.

I file that away, they will feel nothing but love and happiness.

Whatever monsters made pups this small run across kingdoms will never touch them again.

I know whatever they went through to get here couldn’t have been easy.

I walk over to him and heal him quickly, and then I walk over to Hannah and heal her as well.

“Okay so I want to ask you guys a question, do you want to go to the orphanage with other pups who lost their parents or would you like to stay with me and Cole and our pups?” I ask.

Hannah’s eyes go wide “I want to stay with you” Ezra says first.

The answer comes so quickly my chest aches.

Hannah bounces on the balls of her feet “Me too” She says.

“Okay, let’s go” I say.

Relief instantly floods both of their faces.

“Can we have sleepovers?” Elise asks.

“Of course we can bug” I say as we walk back to the palace.

When we get up to our suite I hear Rhea in the nursery and I head inside.

“Hey Rhea” I say just as Hannah runs straight to Eloise.

“My wolf says she’s like me, but more” Hannah says.

Nova immediately stills inside me at the words.

“Her wolf must be old and strong for her to be able to see that and most seers don’t have wolves. I wonder who her mother was” Nova says.

“Yeah and I think that is why they targeted her, a seer coming into her gift this young is rare” I reply.

Unease settles deep in my stomach at the thought of someone hunting gifted pups specifically.

“If Eloise is more as she says, we must keep her and all of our pups secret as much as we can” Nova says.

The thought alone makes my chest tighten protectively.

“Luna the rooms are done, and the Omegas stocked both closets” Grace links me just as I pick Zachariah up out of the crib.

“Thank you Grace” I link her.

“Okay I have a small surprise for you two, do you want to see it?” I ask them.

“Yes, Yes” Hannah says excitedly.

The excitement in her voice is so innocent it almost hurts.

We walk out of the nursery and down the hall to a door that has a princess tag on it that says Hannah.

“Hey that’s my name” Hannah shouts.

I smile down at her and Nova purrs in my mind at her excitement.

“These pups are mine” Nova says.

I knew the moment I saw them that we would never let them go.

“Mate, can you come to our room please” I link Cole.

“Of course princess” He links back.

When we step into the room Hannah and Elise both scream in excitement.

“Princess everything, I love it” She screams and runs into my arms.

Pure happiness radiates off her so strongly my eyes sting unexpectedly.

“Thank you new mama” She says.

I freeze for a moment and she looks up at me “I saw it” she whispers.

The quiet certainty in her voice sends chills down my spine.

I brush her hair back “I will be whatever you want me to be little wolf” I say to her.

And deep down I already know I’m attached to them both far more than I should be after only a few hours.

I turn to Ezra “Are you ready to see your room?” I ask him.

He smiles shyly at me and I shift Zachariah in my arms and take his hand.

Elise and Hannah stay in her room as I walk across the hall to Ezra’s room. When he opens the door his smile melts my heart.

“It’s race cars, I like race cars” He says softly.

The wonder in his voice makes him sound younger than he did at the border.

“I’m glad you like it” I say softly to him.

He spins around the room “Are you really going to be my new mama?” he asks.

The question nearly breaks me.

I ruffle his hair and lightly cup his cheek “if that is what you want little guy” I say to him.

“Would I have to be King, I don’t want that” He says low and I laugh at that.

“Don’t tell him but this little one here is stuck with that job” I whisper and he smiles.

For the first time since meeting him he actually looks relaxed.

I smell Cole walk into the suite. He steps into the room.

“Cool room buddy” He says and Ezra smiles.

“I thought you said our room” he says smiling at me.

“I did but I figured you would find us” I say kissing him as he takes Zachariah out of my arms.

The easy affection between us feels softer now after the tension from the last few days.

“We need to talk” I say to him.

“Yes, I agree” he says.

“Can I play?” Ezra asks.

I crouch down “Of course little wolf, this room is yours” I say.

His eyes widen slightly at the word yours like he’s never truly had anything belong to him before.

“We are going to be in the nursery okay?” I say.

He turns and nods “We are safe here” he says softly.

The words hit both me and Nova hard.

“Yes you are buddy” Cole says ruffling his hair.

We step out of the room and see the girls playing and walk into the nursery.

“Okay Rhea go be a teen we got it” I say to her.

Cole puts Zachariah on the floor with his siblings and then he pulls me into his lap in the rocking chair.

The familiar warmth of his chest against my back instantly calms some of the anxiety building inside me.

“You first” He says rubbing small circles on my wrist.

“Hannah is a seer, and she had a vision about the Western King, her mother told her he was sick” I say.

Cole’s body immediately stills slightly beneath me.

“What was the vision?” he asks.

“It was fractured, he was in the dark, he was half shifted, red eyes. His wolf felt fractured like it was disconnected from him” I say.

Even remembering the feeling of it makes unease creep through me again.

“You felt that?” He asks concerned.

“Nova thinks he may mean something” I say.

He stiffens like his body knows something I don't “Well if his wolf is feral and something is going on in his kingdom, then you may need to help him” He says.

“Yeah well I guess we will find out soon” I say.

I turn a little in his lap “Your turn” I say.

“Dominic discovered that magical beings have been going missing or being found dead in the past few weeks” He says.

Cold dread instantly settles in my stomach.

“All in our kingdom?” I ask.

He shakes his head “No in the North and the Fae were left outside the edge of their territory and the witches in our kingdom” he says.

“What is going on?, and then pups from the Western Kingdom ending up here” I say.

Nothing about any of this feels random anymore.

“Not sure love but we need to go to Dark Valley” He says.

“Okay and what about the messengers?” I ask.

“Already done princess” he says.

“Good, because the sooner we can get this council created the better” I say.

Because whether the kingdoms realize it yet or not, somebody is targeting supernatural creatures and we need to find out why and how. This is bigger than just the Eastern kingdom and that scares me more than anything.