Chapter 195: Territorial Security

Selene’s POV

News of pregnancies had already begun trickling in, and it was good news. We were happy, truly happy, for the first time in months.

"It’s working, Damien," I said as we sat at the council table, and I couldn’t keep the relief out of my voice.

"Yes, Luna, it’s working. It wouldn’t have been possible without you and the Alpha," he said.

Everyone loved to flatter us. We were crawling through the worst of the worst just to keep Icefang safe, yet somehow our people saw us as strong and mighty. They knew we were royalty, but they also knew we had weaknesses like everyone else. The only difference was that we never let those weaknesses stop us.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and straightened in my chair. "Every pregnant wolf will receive the ultimate care. Make sure all the food is fresh and purify everything they touch. This is a critical season for us."

I didn’t want anything happening to those mothers before the full nine months were up. Not one miscarriage. Not one tear I could have prevented.

"Yes, Luna." He bowed and left to implement it immediately.

Then it was just William and me in the room, after a long day of work at the office. The silence settled over us, and with it came the weight I had been pretending not to feel.

"William, is it enough?" I asked.

"What are you talking about?" He frowned, genuinely lost.

"What we’re doing. Everything we’ve done so far. Is it enough to keep us from harm?" The question came out of pure fear, and I could feel it crawling under my skin.

"I don’t know where this is coming from, love, but we’re doing our best. With everyone’s cooperation, we’ll get to the end we want, okay?" He was always like that, optimistic and steady. But this wasn’t about being positive. It was about being realistic.

"I’ve been having these strange feelings, the same ones I used to get right before something bad happened. With everything we’ve been through, I don’t think we’ve seen the worst of it. I feel like it’s still coming," I said quietly.

"Selene, you’re scaring me. How do I act on that? Feelings don’t have directions. It could be anything. That’s why they’re feelings," he said.

He sounded perplexed, even a little shaken, and I knew I had to stop. He wasn’t seeing what I was seeing. Or maybe I was just torturing myself over things that didn’t exist.

I went to bed with a burdened heart, but what dragged me out of sleep was crazier than anything I had imagined.

It was Lucian in that dream. It was him, and then it wasn’t him.

He had his normal face, like every other werewolf, and then it began to change. His features twisted and stretched into something I couldn’t name. Everyone was there, and nobody seemed to find it abnormal or out of place. They just stood there, as if I were the only one who could see it.

I didn’t know how I had ended up in the middle of it all, but I knew the moment he started chasing me. What the heck? I ran like someone escaping a mountain lion, a bear, or some wild animal that had already tasted blood. I ran fast, and I ran for a long time, but he never slowed down. I couldn’t understand what he wanted from me.

Then I stumbled over something and fell, face first, hitting my head on the ground. I touched it and my fingers came away wet. There was blood. The beast wearing Lucian’s shape crept closer, and as he pounced with a heavy, bone-shaking growl, I screamed myself awake.

"What is it?" William asked, jolting up beside me.

I was breathing hard and drenched in sweat. Fuck. It was just another one of those experiences I couldn’t name, damn it.

"It was a bad dream," I said. That was all I could say. I couldn’t tell him what had really happened in it. He would be angry, of course. He always was when it came to Lucian, and he had every right to be.

I climbed out of bed and went to freshen up like everything was fine.

"Are you sure you’re okay? Do you need a doctor?" William asked, worry pulling at his face.

"I’m fine, thank you."

While brushing my teeth in the bathroom, it began to dawn on me. That thing hadn’t been something leaping at Lucian. That was Lucian, the same wolf I had seen the first time I encountered him. That was the real personality underneath. The way I interpreted it, he was reverting to his old ways, becoming his old self again, and that was not going to end well for him.

But why was I being shown this? Why me? I thought we had nothing to do with each other anymore.

I stared at my reflection until my own eyes looked like a stranger’s. Then I rinsed my mouth and went about my day, because what else could I do?

It was not a normal day. It was filled with hallucinations and sudden jerks of fear. Fuck. Fuck Lucian. Fuck Lucian!

At some point I found myself hitting my office desk, hissing "Fuck you, Lucian" through my teeth, until my secretary opened the door.

"Is everything alright, ma’am?"

"Everything is," I said, and she closed the door again, slowly, like she didn’t believe me.

I tried to get Lucian out of my mind, but it was useless. I think he had become an integral part of me, and taking him out would be impossible. It was better to stop trying, even if it hurt to admit it.

The days kept cycling, one blending into the next, and I couldn’t tell whether we were advancing or regressing. I just hoped it would all be enough.

After the office, I went straight to the council, and it happened again. There was bad news waiting for me to come and collect it.

William was there, but he couldn’t bring himself to say it. "What happened?" I asked one of the elders.

"We received a wired message directly from the President of Bernia. He says we need to discuss some very important issues of territorial security. He claims he doesn’t want a war to start, so we should settle it amicably. He’ll be here the day after tomorrow with his team, and we’re to welcome him openly."

Damien ended up speaking instead, since no one else would.

"The President of Bernia? It’s gotten that serious? It’s now a national matter?" My voice rose before I could stop it. "They were the ones who attacked us first!"

Everyone went quiet, as if they had never heard the word president before. We were kings in our own right, so we might as well have been called presidents ourselves.

I forced my shoulders back and my voice steady. "I don’t know what they want to discuss, but we’ll be here. And we’ll be waiting."