Page 10 of Luna's New Reign
Ilara’s expression doesn’t waver. She tilts her head slightly, her eyes glinting with something almost playful. “You don’t train the magic itself,” she says simply. “You train its vessel. If the body is strong, the magic will know its limits,” Ilara continues. “As it stands now, I can sense it flowing from you, without pause. Like a river with no banks to contain it.”
That sounds exactly like my Alpha. Each vision seems like a little too much, straining his body and his mind. He’s passed out more than once and I hate watching it every time. I don’t care if Mother Nature or fate chose him. His pain hurts me too. “What does the training involve?” I ask, cutting into the conversation.
A grin spreads across her face as she focuses on me again. “Concentration. Determination. Meditation. Strengthening the vessel is not about brute force, but discipline. Balance.” She reaches into her robe and pulls out a weathered book, its cover etched with symbols that seem to shimmer faintly in the light. “This,” she says, placing the book on the table with a soft thud. “This is a collection of teachings passed down through the packs. I was told the halfway house in the crystal forest was destroyed,but each pack has preserved parts of our magical knowledge to ensure it isn’t lost. But the question remains, Luna. Will you allow me to train your Oraculum?”
The air leaves my lungs, my chest tightening painfully. Maverick’s magic has been a blessing and a curse, something that sets him apart but also puts him in constant danger. I look at him now, his calm mask firmly in place, but I know better. I see the strain beneath it, the way his jaw is still clenched and that furrow in his brow.
Tears well up in my eyes and I blink rapidly, trying to keep them at bay. “Will it save him?” I whisper, my voice trembling.
Ilara’s expression softens. “I will do my best.”
The tears spill over despite my best efforts and I nod, my throat too tight to speak.
“Then it’s settled,” Ilara states, her voice cutting through the emotion in the room. “The training will begin immediately.”
The conversation shifts, the tension in the room softening but not dissolving completely. There’s still so much to discuss, so much to decide. Ilara’s presence looms large, even as she settles back into her chair, her sharp eyes scanning the table with a quiet intensity that makes my skin prickle.
Victoria clears her throat, drawing everyone’s attention. “Let’s move on to the council. If our packs are to unify, the council must reflect that unity.”
Everyone murmurs in agreement. I glance at Mateo, his expression unreadable as he leans forward, resting his forearms on the table. My beautiful Alpha is all hard edges and ruthlessness, his wolf pushing toward the front. However, it isn’t feral like it had been a couple of weeks ago. It speaks of the magic that resides within him and his status as pack Alpha.
“I think it’s obvious that you and your mates should sit on the council,” Mateo declares as he nods toward Victoria, Lawrence, and Kehlani.
Victoria’s lips twitch into a faint smile. “We’d be honored,” she says, though there’s a flicker of something in her gaze—hesitation, maybe.
“And Ilara,” Mateo continues, his attention shifting to the seer. “Your role will be invaluable moving forward.”
Ilara inclines her head slightly, her expression unreadable. “I accept.”
The room grows quieter, a heavy pause stretching between us. I glance around the table, taking in the faces of the people who will help shape the future of our pack. It feels surreal, sitting here, making decisions that will ripple through generations.
“What about the elders?” Mateo asks, breaking the silence. He clears his throat, no doubt ridding of the painful truths still present in our pack. Even the one elder that Mateo trusted has stepped down from his role—not that I blame him. “The Nightshade elders… many of them were faulty in some way. Corrupt, biased, or stood by while the corrupt ones worked against our pack values. If we’re rebuilding, we need to start fresh. I want to pick from both sides, to truly unite us if that is our choice.”
Everyone agrees with Mateo, my Alpha continuing as he lists the changes that will be made beneath the full moon in the next day or two. That the pack is required to be notified of everything going forward, unlike when his mother was running the pack. Again, murmurs agree with the pack Alpha, leaving me with a fleeting sense of peace.
7
ASANI
The clinic is quiet except for the soft shuffle of papers beneath my fingertips and the occasional creak of the old floorboards. I’m pouring over documents sprawled across the counter, my brow furrowed in concentration. The handwriting on these is awful—scrawled notes and half-legible symbols that make my head throb. Magic theory, biological studies, scraps of research left behind by Enzo—crazy scribbles that I can’t seem to make sense of.
All I know is that Enzo was doing shit years before we met up until the day he did. Some part of me wonders if he found me specifically because of who I was—none of which matters now.
A soft knock on the open door pulls me from my focus. In taking this small room, Mateo and I made sure to outfit a door toward the back so that pack members could enter the clinic without entering the house. As many times as Nepheline has mentioned that it’s okay, I know for a fact her territorial instinctsare chaotic at best and while I love her aggression, there’s no need to turn it on anyone else.
The room has been sectioned into three parts, the main office that can be accessed from both entry doors, a small operating room for brief issues, and then storage—where Darius currently is, my trusty assistant for the morning after Victoria kicked everyone out of the council room.
A Beta is standing at the entrance, his face flushed from the cold and his arm wrapped awkwardly against his chest. I recognize him as one of the younger pack members, a loyal kid to his parents as he hands out handyman services to raise money for school.
“Xavi?” I ask as the Beta nods. “Accident fixing something around the house?” I already know the answer, the Beta having been in here more than once. I gesture for him to sit down on the chair beside me, the Beta shyly pushing forward.
“It was just an accident. I was fixing up the porch railing and it gave out. Decided to take me with it.” Xavi lets out a nervous chuckle, the Beta on the smaller side. He’s adorable, just beginning to explore what love is with one of the single Alphas, and even amongst the chaos, it’s exciting to see some normalcy in the pack.
I nod again, slowly unwrapping the cloth to reveal a nasty gash on his arm. Before my very eyes, the skin is slowly knitting itself back together, the dried blood now caked on a healed surface. “Lucky for you, I don’t even think you need me, Xavi.”
He frowns, turning his arm to see the wound, his eyes growing wide. “We’ve all felt the magic but I didn’t think… Alpha, that’s…”
“It’s a beautiful thing seeing nature repair itself. I’m glad that you weren’t more seriously hurt and while the wound is gone, I’d advise at least resting for a few hours to let your body regain its strength. That wasn’t just a small cut.” I inspect the woundagain, in awe of what just happened. My mind is whirling with a thousand possibilities, the implications of this on science, and how it truly affects the body.