MOON
PS: The side story for this volu is specifically set at the Screars Pack (The West) and will revolve around events 35 years ago during the execution of the pack including the events Zina glimpsed in her vision.
"I am sorry my lady, we lost the child."
Luna Aneris Screars of the dwindling Screars Pack laid numbly on her bed when the Healer’s delivered the bleak news.
Yet she didn’t react as her company thought she would. Normally, she would have wailed yet again at her failure. Instead, she stared wordlessly at the roof of her room as she counted the numbers.
"How many is it now? Five? Or was it Six miscarriages?"
The Head Healer, also a close friend to the Luna bowed her head shafully. "It is eight miscarriages thus far, Luna. We are working hard on a redy; believe , one of these days, you will get to hold your own child."
Aneris chuckled darkly at that. She once held such hope, but she was no longer foolish enough to hold onto the possibility of that happening.
She had finally woken up from her delusion. She would never be able to hold a child... her own child.
"Many tis, I do wonder why the goddess has failed ." She muttered, still staring at her ceiling.
Like her future, it was just as blank.
"The goddess would never fail you, Luna." The Head Healer muttered, a desperate attempt to console the Luna who had lost all hope, "just hold on a little longer. You’re still far too young. Afterall, you married just at eighteen years old. One day, all your toils will bear fruits."
Aneris finally managed ti muster the strength to pry her eyes from the ceiling to the healers that knelt by the foot of her bed. One of them bore a bowl of water kicked with the blood of the child that had left her just like the wisp of smoke.
"You said it yourself," Aneris began grimly, "I’ve lost eight issues. Next, I will loose my husband. The elders cannot wait on anymore."
It was true that Aneris herself was just twenty-three years old. Perhaps in that view, it could be said she had ti.
But the pack had no ti.
Prophecies have already spoken of their destruction and extinction. A prophecy that Aneris was tasked to overturn by her natural role as the Luna of the pack.
But how could she perform the role when she couldn’t bear a child that would carry on the legacy of the pack?
Soon, the elders would have their eting. And then they would decide that Aneris was far too incapable to carry on such role.
And then they would replace her. For afterall, the matter of carrying on the true blood of the pack was far more important than her pride as a woman.
Aneris shared in the sa thoughts. The pack of her ancestors was about to face a natural extinction. True abilities of the scream was now lost and Aneris was thrusted into a position where she had no choice but to marry her distant cousin, also the Alpha of the Pack, in order to carry on the true blood of the pack.
Yet despite such powerful marriage, she had failed to produce a child.
If she were any wise, then she should be the one convincing her husband and Alpha of the pack to take another wife. It had never been heard of, but if she were truly wise, then she would set aside her pride as a woman and do that.
Aneris staggered from the bed. The pain of loosing a child was not just ntal, it was physical. The space between her legs throbbed, and her womb seed to ache with the loss.
"Have dressed. I need to et with the elders and my husband." She commanded her maids.
She was dressed up against the advice of the Healers, and then she began the torturous journey to the ancestral altar of the Screars Pack.
There, the Elders and her husband were already eting. And the mont they saw her, a frown overtook their face and her husband looked away uncomfortably.
They must have heard about yet another of her woes.
"Luna." The elders managed to greet her in a stiffled voice. "You’re here."
"Obviously," Aneris said with a smile that she couldn’t afford while her maids helped her to a seat.
The elders stared at her uncomfortably, and finally one of them managed the courage to speak.
"Luna Aneris, I’ve always taken joy in the fact that you’re a gentle and wise woman." One of the male elders said.
Aneris was far from gentle. Marriage had chipped at her edges, and the onerous task of bearing an offspring had reduced her to no more than object incapable of being terd anything other than gentle.
But no one there knew that. The few people who knew of her true self was just the Hesd Healer and her personal guard. And both of them were not there to vie for how cruel life had been to her as well.
"You’ve sothing to say, Elder Malem. Please speak."
"We never wanted to do this, nor did we wish to ever decide on it, but you must understand that an heir is far too important an issue for us to disregard anymore."
Aneris had expected as much.
She straightened her spine, looking the elders in the eyes. She vowed she would not co off as petty, or worse. She vowed she would not only look magnanimous but would even suggest which woman would be fitting to be her husbands second wife.
"I understand, Elder Malem." She said easily, but their expression only grew more uncomfortable.
Aneris had been expecting they would be at ease at the very least. And yet it looked as though what they had in mind was far from what she might have envisioned.
One glance at her husband showed that the man was still avoiding eye contact with her. Even as Alpha of the Screars Pack, he normally appeared to be cowardly, but never this cowardly.
"Since no one wants to say it then I will. One of your forr, discharged maids gave birth to a boy."
Aneris stilled. Slowly, she asked. "What about it?"
"That child belongs to the Alpha. And he has shown the rare ability so we must bring him back to the pack and raise him as our own."
Aneris watched as her composure shattered before her very eyes at the news. It was one thing to ask her that she allow for a second wife. But it was totally a different thing to be told that after all the years she struggled to bear a child, her husband had in fact gone behind her and laid with another woman.
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