Chapter 71
Third Person POV
The sounds of a baby crying woke Camilla in the middle of the night. She knew it wouldn’t be long before the other one woke as well. Her body was sore from hours of labor, and she was tired. Her husband, Kyle, had business tending to at the packhouse. As the Beta, Kyle often had to deal with the mess left behind by the Alpha of the Stormwind pack, which they were from. It’s not that Alpha Richard was a bad Alpha; he was just dense and often made careless mistakes that Kyle had to fix.
Camilla sat up, peering around the dimmed hospital room, and sighed as she peeked into the small bassinet by her bedside. The small baby, wrapped in a pink blanket, whaled her heart out. Camilla’s eyes watered, hating that her daughter was in such distress and hating that she had no idea how to fix it. She had finally gotten her to sleep a little over an hour ago after she spent hours crying before that.
She and Kyle still hadn’t chosen any baby names, and she knew she would need to before she left the hospital.
Camilla wrapped the small bundle of joy in her arms and cradled her, hoping she would settle down soon.
“Baby girl, why do you keep crying?” Camilla whispered to her daughter as she rocked her back and forth. “You won’t eat, you won’t sleep… what more could you want?”
Camilla brought the baby girl to her lips and kissed her reddening cheek.
“You know I love you and would do anything for you. Just tell me what you want, baby,” Camilla pleaded
Not before long, another whaling sound came from the second bassinet. She sighed and scooped her son into her arms, holding him just as close as she held her daughter. He was the calmer of the two and was easier to settle.
“Baby boy, your sister won’t stop crying. What do I do?” Camilla asked her baby boy. He sniffled, almost already calming from his small fit.
Outside the hospital room, Camilla could hear a couple of nurses talking in the hallway. They were keeping their voices low so they didn’t wake any of the patients sleeping in their rooms, but with her Beta hearing, Camilla could hear them clearly as if they were standing in the middle of her room.
“Is that baby girl crying again?” One of the nurses asked.
“Yes. She finally got to sleep an hour ago and now it seems she’s awake again. I’m not sure what to do for her. She just won’t stop,” the other nurse said, heaving a sigh.
“The Beta female still hasn’t chosen a name for them, yet?”
“Not yet,” the nurse said softly. “She’s due to be discharged soon, so she must choose names in the next 24 hours.”
“She must be so exhausted having to deal with not one, but two babies. Twins. Such a rarity.”
“It’s rare; indeed, thankfully, the boy doesn’t seem to be as fussy,” the nurse pointed out. “At least the Beta female is in good health though. That’s more than we can say about the Luna.”
That caught Camilla’s attention. The Luna?
Luna Penelope was also pregnant and was going to pop any day now. Camilla had wondered if the Luna had finally given birth. She already had one daughter who had turned 2 a couple of months ago. Despite her husband sometimes being incompetent, Penelope was a wonderful Luna and took care of the females and children of the pack.
It was rare for wolves, especially ones of power, to get sick, so hearing that Luna Penelope was unwell was odd.
“Is she still weakening?” The nurse asked.
“Her wolf is refusing to heal her,” the other nurse answered. “I heard her arguing with the Alpha the other night and it turns out that he believes that the Luna got pregnant from an affair. He doesn’t believe the baby is his and rejected her as his Luna and mate.”
The nurse gasped in response.
“She’s already marked and mated to him though,” she said, her voice laced with disbelief.
“Yes,” the other nurse breathed. “Only the Alpha can reject his mate after she’s already been marked. However, the rejection would destroy the weaker of the two, and obviously, the Luna was weaker than the Alpha. Though his wolf would take some damage and be upset, it’s nothing compared to how Luna and her wolf are feeling. It’s enough that her wolf might die and if her wolf dies without healing her from the tough childbirth…”
“The Luna might die as well…” the other nurse breathed.
“We are waiting for paternity test results now, but by the time the results come in, it’ll be too late. She’s deteriorating quickly and she’s so alone. The Alpha refuses to visit until he knows for sure,” the nurse continued sadly. “I don’t know what more to do for her. I already pleaded with the Alpha to undo the rejection until the paternity test results come in. But he refuses.”
Camilla could hear the distress and aggravation coming from the nurse; her heart ached for her Luna. She couldn’t imagine something like this happening; if Kyle were to reject her, she would simply cease to exist as well. Camilla didn’t know there were problems in the Alpha and Luna’s mating; she didn’t think the Luna would ever have an affair. They were true mates and they seemed to love one another more than life itself. Hearing that Luna had an affair, didn’t sit right with her.
She was rather good friends with Luna Penelope, and she thought she would have mentioned meeting someone else.
At that moment, Camilla realized that her daughter had fallen back to sleep in her arms. Her heart warmed when she looked down at her small baby. She smiled when her baby boy yawned and began to fall asleep as well. Perhaps the babies just needed a little snuggling and love. She kissed each baby gently on their foreheads and then closed her eyes, letting sleep welcome itself again.
Camilla wasn’t sure how long she slept, but when she woke up, the nurse was in her room, checking her vitals. She also had a moment of panic because her babies were no longer in her arms.
“Don’t worry,” the nurse said, reading Camilla’s expression. “I put them in the hospital nursery for their morning check and to give you some time to sleep undisturbed. I know sleep hadn’t come easy to you since giving birth.”
She sighed, relieved that her babies were okay. She nodded her thanks.
She recognized the voice of this nurse as one of the nurses who was talking in the hallway earlier… or last night. Telling from the sun peering through the window, it was morning.
Had she slept all night?
She felt more refreshed than she had before she fell asleep, and she wondered how many hours she actually got last night.
As she thought of this, she examined the nurse's face while the nurse went through her checklist on her clipboard. The nurse looked tired, and her face was pale; she also noticed that the nurse had red and puffy eyes like she had been crying.
Something was wrong and it left an unsettled feeling in Camilla’s chest.
“Are you alright?” Camilla asked.
The nurse looked up from her clipboard with a frown.
“I’m that transparent?” She mused.
“You look as if you’ve been crying,” Camilla pointed out. “Is it because of me and the twins?”
“No, you and your babies are perfectly healthy,” she assured her. She thought about it for a moment longer, then she looked around as if she was expecting someone to be lurking around and eavesdropping. “I don’t want word to spread about this yet… not until the Alpha arrives…”
“I won’t breathe a word,” Camilla promised her. “As your Beta female, you can trust me.”
The nurse nodded and then bit her lip; Camilla knew this was difficult for her to say so she didn’t rush her. She waited patiently for the nurse to continue.
“The Luna passed away early this morning.”
Nothing could have prepared Camilla for what the nurse had just said. Camilla’s heart fell into her stomach, and she gasped.
“What?” Camilla asked, her voice sounding far away.
Tears welled up in the nurse's eyes as she nodded her head slowly.
“The Alpha rejected her a couple of days ago because he doesn’t think the baby is his…” she explained. “The rejection was too much for the Luna’s wolf to take and her wolf slowly ceased to exist. The Luna’s body couldn’t handle it and she quickly got weak. I found her in her room this morning…” the nurse choked out a sob. “They are doing an investigation as we speak so I’m really not supposed to say anything about it. But she’s gone…”
“Oh, Goddess,” Camilla whispered, her body feeling numb.
“The kicker is we also received the paternity test for her baby,” the nurse continued. “That’s why I went to her room. I was going to tell her the news when I found her.”
“What were the results?” I asked.
“The Alpha is indeed their daughter's father,” she said softly. “But now it doesn’t matter. She’s gone and now the Alpha is left raising two girls.”
Camilla’s heart broke within seconds.
“You are looking well. I don’t see why you’d need to stay at the hospital for longer than another day,” the nurse said, smiling at Camilla. “Your babies are also healthy. They should be waking up around now and they’ll probably be hungry. I’ll grab them for you.”
Camilla numbly nodded, still not believing what she heard. The Luna was dead…
The nurse brought the babies to Camilla and gave her some privacy to feed. They both latched onto a nipple and fed at the same time. Relief flooded Camilla that they were finally eating; in fact, their appetites had improved greatly.
Camilla nearly jumped out of her skin when the door flew open, and she saw her loving husband run into the room. He looked frantic, which made Camilla less excited.
“Kyle? What’s wrong?” Camilla asked.
“There was a prophecy,” he said, breathless. “We need to leave right away before the Alpha comes here. He’s going to take our babies. He will kill us if he finds us.”
Panic consumed her.
“What are you talking about, Kyle? What kind of prophecy? Why would the Alpha come for us?”
“It’s not just our Alpha; it’s all the Alpha’s in this area,” Kyle said, shaking his head as he grabbed Camilla's small overnight bag and started to pack her things along with the baby stuff. “The Alpha of the Crown pack put a hit on us pretty much. They had a meeting, and it won’t be long before they figure out that it’s us they are seeking… we need to leave right away. We can’t take any chances.”
“Slow down, you aren’t making any sense. Why would they come after us? We did nothing wrong.” Camilla thought her husband had gone mad; there was no way the Alphas would want them dead.
“There was a prophecy about us, Camilla,” he said, not looking at her as he continued to pack. “The Alpha of the Crown Pack has a daughter who is a prophet, Charlotte. She’s only a teenager, but she’s a strong prophet. She foresaw that the child born at midnight would have terrifying powers and bring disaster to the werewolf world.”
“And what does that have to do with us?” Camilla asked.
“Because we were the only the only ones who had children born on the full moon, Camilla.”
