Lucera's POV
I returned home with my mate and our son, my heart already frayed.
I'm lost on what to do, with my son and my people. I know it wouldn't be long before things get out of control.
With my son, I know I wouldn't be able to care for him, not as a human mother would. I had no hands, no fingers gentle enough to tend a fragile child.
Had he been born a wolf, it would have been simple. I would have licked him clean, fed him without thought. Nature would have known its place.
Instead, he lay in a woven basket between Varah and me, and we stared at him in silence.
We were helpless. Both of us.
"Is this another punishment from the Moon Goddess?" Varah asked at last.
"I do not know," I answered. "We will ask the sage tomorrow. Not today. Not before the others."
Every wolf present had asked themselves the same question. They would never voice it not to their queen but I felt it burning behind their eyes.
"Sooner or later, we must address them," Varah said quietly. "Seven days is too long. How do we even feed him?"
The restraint shattered.
"I don't know," I snapped. "I don't know how to feed him, I don't know how to do anything right. Is that what the moon goddess wants to teach me, that I'm a useless mother.
I don't know why the Goddess decided my son should be born human. I don't know why she will not leave me alone after thousands of years. Is the punishment not enough?"
My voice broke, rage bleeding into grief.
"My people look to me every year for answers. I have prayed. I have begged. I have sacrificed. Still, she will not forgive."
Tears streamed down my fur.
What more can I give her, Varah?. We are merely humans, her children, Is she not supposed to forgive us when we err.
It hurt most when young wolves were born and discovered that part of them would remain bound forever trapped by a curse they never earned.
"I am their queen," I whispered. "They believed I would save them. And now I have a son I cannot save either."
"It is all right," Varah murmured, pressing his head against mine. "Come. We will face this together."
Then, steady and practical, he added, "The child needs food. You must try to nurse him. It will be hard but we must try."
The night became a blur of cries.
After what felt like endless hours of my son's wailing, I fled for air. I ran into the dark, my paws pounding earth and stone, trying to outrun the weight crushing my chest.
Caring for him was agony. I struggled to nurse him. I fed him water with my mouth. He was always unclean, always fragile, always wrong for this world.
I hated not knowing what to do.
I was Luna of the Moon Realm. Queen of the White Wolf Throne. Marked by the Goddess herself.
And still powerless.
I ran until dawn.
When I returned, as I walked past some of my people I saw it in their faces. Fear. Worry. Love twisted with dread. They saw my son not as a blessing, but as a spark that could burn the realm to ash.
Cowards, I thought.
I ignored them and went inside, exhaustion weighing heavier than armor.
"You cannot keep doing this, Lucera," Varah said the moment I entered. "You cannot ignore your child or your people."
"I know," I said.
"The elders are restless. We must call the meeting before they do. If they act first, it will not end well."
I listened in silence, hearing truths I already carried.
"Tell my beta to prepare the council for tomorrow," I said at last.
"Why not tell her yourself?" Varah asked. "You've ignored her for three days."
"I cannot endure another voice telling me the truth," I snapped. "Yours is already enough."
Then my anger crumbled.
"For once, I want to be selfish. I want to shut the world out and keep what little family I have left."
I cried openly. I knew my mate felt it through the mate bond. I knew it hurt him. Still, I could not stop.
"Lucera," Varah said gently. "I will never leave you, I will always stand with your decisions, hell I will burn the entire world if you tell me to. . But we cannot rule from grief. Decisions made in pain will destroy us."
"I know," I whispered.
"I want to be alone with my son today," I told him.
"I am not leaving," he said firmly. "You have shut me out since you conceived him. I will not allow it again. I am your mate and this is my family too."
So we stayed together all day with our son.
We spoke softly. We held our child. We lay together as three, clinging to something that almost felt like peace.
When I woke up, Varah had already woken up, he stood by the window, staring into the sky.
"My love," I called.
"What troubles you?" I asked.
"The path that brought us here," he said. "The war. The curse. Our son."
Then, quietly, "What if we had never gone to war?"
"Then we would have been slaughtered," I replied.
"No," Varah said. "Greed led us here. Your father's greed. He ruled with menace and took what was never ours."
"Do not speak of him," I warned. "Those were dark times."
"He began the dance that destroyed the four kingdoms," Varah pressed. "You know it."
I did. I hated him for it. I hated myself for what I had been forced to do to stop him.
"When I took the throne, it was already too late," I said.
Varah turned to me, his eyes grave.
"Lucera, I think the dance has begun again. And our kingdom has struck the first drum."
My heart sank.
"Our son must go," he said. "If he stays, we will lose everything."
I closed my eyes. The memory of the last fall still haunted every wolf alive.
"I understand," I said quietly.
Then I lifted my head.
"Convene the council tomorrow mo. We can no longer delay."
"Yes, my queen," Varah answered.
And with those words, fate tightened its grip once more.