The Shadow of a Luna
Chapter 21

Chapter 21: Chapter 21

Tyler got the sheriff from the nearest human town to come to the crime scene and he was a middle-aged man with a severe beer belly and was nothing to be desired around these muscled werewolves.

"I don’t know who he is. He doesn’t have any ID." Tyler said to sheriff Miller as they approached the scene.

"Oh yeah. His name is Donny. I know him. He’s pretty popular around my station house." The sheriff said.

"Well, no matter what he did, he didn’t deserve this. My coroner has already been here. He determined the cause of death to be blunt force trauma and that he’s been dead roughly 6 hours." Tyler explained.

"Thanks. Obviously I will have to get my coroner to look at him so that it’s legit. And we have to move him off pack lands." Sheriff Miller says.

"Yeah. These men are here waiting to help you." Tyler says. "Take him about a mile away from the boarder. We can’t have people searching the woods and coming too close to the pack." Tyler says.

"Don’t worry. I’ll make sure that they keep their distance." Sheriff Miller says. And he turned around to see me standing there. " And who’s this? I don’t believe we’ve met before." Miller said raising an eyebrow.

"This is my mate, Tessa." Tyler announced.

"I didn’t know you found your mate. Congratulations." Miller says. And he left with the men to move the body away from pack territory.

We went back to the packhouse and Tyler had to get to his office and get some work done and after I got something to eat I went to the library and continued my research on Angelo.

Not long after that Bella came in to see me and plonked down on the couch beside me while I was reading on the dark web.

"What’s wrong with you?" I asked.

"I don’t know. Cade is being all weird around me." She says.

"Have you asked him what’s wrong?" I asked.

"No. I haven’t. I’m not as straight forward as you. And I might be afraid of the answer." She says. Then she quickly turned back to look at me. " Oh my god." She yelled.

"What?" I asked almost jumping out of my seat. So she grabbed the side of my jacket and pulled it down revealing my new mark.

"You and Tyler. You marked each other?" She asked.

"Well, obviously." I say shrugging my jacket back up.

"And...did you do anything else?" She asked cautiously. But I just side eyed her without completely looking at her and she squealed in her seat and then hugged me.

"Alright. Calm down." I say.

"I am so happy for you. I didn’t think it was ever going to happen." She says.

"Why not?" I asked skeptically.

"No. Nothing personal. Because of everything that you’ve been through. You told me that whenever you thought about having sex with Tyler you got really bad anxiety. So, what was it like?" She asked.

"Anxiety played a part in it. Obviously it did. But he understood. He knows everything. I haven’t kept any secrets from him. He knows my whole past. But he was really good about the whole thing. He was gentle, sweet, he went slow. And if you repeat this to anyone, including Cade then I will kill you." I say.

"I cross my heart. I will never tell a soul. I’m just happy for you." She says.

"Thanks. Me too. But I am trying to keep my mind off of what happened this morning and concentrate on what I am doing here." I say.

"Alright. We won’t talk about it anymore. Are you any closer to finding Angelo?" She asked.

"Nope. There’s nothing here about where he could be." I say.

"I’m sure he’ll show his face when he’s ready." She says.

"Yeah. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing." I say. Sirens then started going off and we both jumped up out of our seats.

"Is this another attack?" Bella asked.

’Tyler. What’s going on?’ I mind link.

’Get all the women and children into the shelter. You stay in there too. Do not come out here.’ Tyler yelled through the link and then cut it off before I could argue. So I grabbed Bella and we ran to the front door of the packhouse.

People were running around everywhere and I ran out the front and started directing all the women and children to the packhouse. The shelter was underneath the packhouse, but it was seperate to the dungeon. It was a proper shelter. A women got knocked over while carrying her baby so I ran over and helped her up and helped her get to the packhouse door.

Aria and Bella were both at the front door helping them inside and taking them to the shelter while I made sure that everyone was getting there.

When I couldn’t see any more women or children I went inside the packhouse and I ran to the shelter and I looked around at all these faces that I didn’t know. And I realized how unprepared I was for this. So I went to Ruth, one women that I definitely knew.

"Is this everyone. I don’t know the whole pack yet. I don’t know if everyone is here yet or not." I say.

"I’m not sure. I’ll have a look." She says standing up while holding Gracie’s hand. But Gracie hung onto my leg.

"It’s fine. She can stay here with me." I say picking up the little girl. So Ruth started walking through the shelter looking at everyone that was there.

"Yeah. Everyone is here." Ruth says.

"Oh. That goddess." I say. She tried to take Gracie but she clung to me again. " It’s alright. I don’t mind." I tell Ruth.

"I like the Luna." Gracie says.

"Well, I like you too sweetie." I say and she gave me a really shy smile.

I was carrying Gracie around while I was checked on everyone around the shelter and I saw a couple of people with injuries. So I grabbed the first aid kit and I went to one woman with a deep gash to her forearm.

"Hi. I’m Tessa." I say when I approach her.

"Luna." She says baring her neck in respect.

"No. It’s just Tessa. What’s your name?" I asked.

"I’m Brielle. I’m an Omega. A cook in the hospital kitchen." She says.

"That’s an important job. Do you mind if I wrap up that arm of yours. It looks pretty bad. We just need to get it bandaged so it will hopefully stop the bleeding." I say.

"I’ll be fine. You don’t have to." She says looking a little concerned.

"Please? Don’t think of me as the Luna. I definitely don’t feel like one." I say. " Gracie, do you want to be my assistant?" I asked. And she shook her head enthusiastically. So I put Gracie down and I sat next to Brielle.

I opened the first aid kid and I put some saline on the wound to clean it out and then I put a gauze on it and I wrapped a bandage tightly around it.

"Where did you learn this stuff?" Brielle asked.

"My father never used to take my to the hospital for the little stuff like this. I know that the wound will heal soon but only if it’s covered and basically the skin is squeezed together so it can sew itself back up. I learnt how to do this for myself when I was pretty young." I explained.

"Thank you. This means a lot to me." She says.

"Of course. Don’t mention it." I say. " Does anyone else need some first aid?" I asked. And Gracie pointed to another women sitting across the room. So we walked over to her and she had a deep cut on her forehead.

"I’m Leah. I work at a restaurant in town." She says.

"I should know all of this shouldn’t I?" I asked.

"No. You shouldn’t. And none of us blame you for not knowing who we are. We know that things have been a lot worse for you. We’re not pitying you. Just letting you know that we understand." She explained.

"Thank you. Gracie, saline." I say. So Gracie hands me the saline and I was out her wound. And I show Gracie was the butterfly stitches look like.

"I won’t forget those. I love butterflies." Gracie says.

"Really. Me too." I say. And I put four butterfly stitches over Leah’s cut on her head. " That should heal pretty quickly." I tell her.

"Thank you." She says.

After I made sure that everyone was taken care of I tried to get a hold of Tyler but I was met with radio silence. He had blocked the link. Probably concentrating on the fight that was happening outside. I was so desperate to head out there to find out what the hell was going on. But I fought the urge and stayed with the women and children. Trying to be a good Luna. But I also wanted to be a good warrior and useful to the pack.

We were in the shelter for three hours before we heard someone banging on the outside of the door. Aria went to answer it but I stopped her.

’Tyler. Can you hear me?’ I asked.

’Yeah baby. I can hear you.’ He replied.

’Is it over? Someone is banging on the outside of the shelter door. I’m not opening it unless I know that it’s one of ours.’ I say.

’It’s Carter. I sent him to get you all out of there.’ He responded. So I nodded to Aria and she opened the shelter door and threw herself into Carter’s arms when she saw him.

We all started coming out of the shelter and I walked outside of the packhouse. We could see where the fight had happened but it stayed in the woods. Luckily. It didn’t come into town or near the packhouse. That was all that we wanted.

So I headed for the woods looking for Tyler. And when I found him they were filing up the dead bodies. Two different piles. Ours and theirs. But when I looked at them, I knew that they weren’t werewolves. Their bodies were grey and basically desiccated.

"Vampires." I say shocked.

"Yeah. A few of them." Tyler says walking over to me.

"Why would they attack? And why now? After I just told you who I really was? Why now?" I asked with a little panic seeping in. " Angelo is closer than we think." I say looking around.

"That’s what I was thinking. But I wasn’t going to say it." He says.

"This is because of me." I say. But Tyler grabs both of my arms firmly.

"This is not because of you. You didn’t make him do this. But it’s a coincidence that it happened only hours after that dead body with the note for Adam." He says looking straight at Adam who just got to the scene. And I turned to look at him too.

"Wow. Looks like I missed the party." Adam says smugly.

"You think this is funny. See that pile of dead men over there. They are ours. We lost people today. Pack members today. Do you even care about that? After all, you are still a member of this pack aren’t you?" I asked.

"Come on Adam. We need to talk." Tyler says grabbing Adam by the shirt and dragging him away. And I followed them.

We took Adam to Tyler’s office and Cade and Carter and other warriors were doing the clean up. We would bury our dead, but burn the rest. We didn’t want our ground soiled by their bad spirits.

When we got to the office Tyler practically threw Adam in the chair and sat on the other side of his desk. But I sat on the chair next to Adam.

"There was a dead body this morning with this note attached to it." Tyler says handing it to Adam. And he read it. " Are you in trouble with werewolves or vampires? Because we were just attacked by an army of vampires and everyone knows that vampires aren’t that organized. They don’t run in large groups like that. So, tell me the truth." Tyler demanded.

"You can’t use your aura command on me Alpha. It doesn’t work. We have the same Alpha blood." Adam says with a smirk.

"Did you piss off those vampires? We were just attacked and a lot of them got away. They could come back to finish us off. We need to know." Tyler yelled.

"I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve already told you why I’m here." Adam said looking bored.

"Stop fucking lying to me. I will throw you out on your ass and you will have no one to protect you if you put this pack in danger." Tyler yelled standing up.

"You don’t scare me. Dad would never let you throw me out of the pack." Adam says. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. What a smug prick. He was so cocky and sure of himself that my blood was starting to boil. I could feel my wolf scratching inside my head.

"God dammit Adam. Tell him the truth." I screamed standing up and slamming both my hands on the desk and staring Adam straight in the eyes. I didn’t know it at the time, but my pupils were pulsating. Tyler stumbled back slightly and Adam even crouched down where he was sitting.

"Alright. It wasn’t werewolves. It was vampires. They said that they would kill me if I didn’t do it." He admitted.

"Do what?" I demanded.

"Hand you over. Josiah wants you so that he can get Angelo. He hates Angelo and wants to get back at him for something. I don’t know what." Adam confessed. And I straightened up and shook my head and even I was confused a little by what just happened.

"You have Alpha blood in you?" He asked.

"I don’t know." I say shocked and confused and not able to really to wrap my mind around what happened. I look over at Adam and he was sweating, and it looked like he was in pain.

What the hell did I just do. I couldn’t have done that. Could I? What was wrong with me?