Page 49 of Luna Ascending

“So, Morganna, mum, will you choose to help yourself?”

The lights sputter then flicker on, and the room stops shaking. Morganna is once more just a wraith like figure who looks too skinny to stand up without support. She leans heavily on Angus who rushes to her side, she stares into my face. She gives a tiny, imperceptible nod.

In the end Morganna helps Tavey and I research how best to create the spell. It almost feels like some parent-child bonding as we bicker quietly over the best materials and stones to use in the bracelet to compliment the cast.

She tells us, slowly, haltingly about the night Angus thought she'd died. She and her new daughter were flung to the ground in the blast, and she was knocked unconscious. When she came around she sensed the Coven approaching and tried her best to escape. Having just given birth to twins, she was physically weak and her majik was severely depleted. She managed to mask her presence as far as the edge of the woods, then had to let the spell drop in order to concentrate all her energy on fast-flowing away, carrying her baby.

She recalls how she'd would have gotten away with it had not there been some very powerful Coven members present. Weaker witches wouldn't have sensed her from that distance, but they caught her trail and went after her.

Nearing the end of her reserves Morganna was giving up hope when a new threat appeared. She was cornered by three vampires.

I recoil in shock, I didn't realise that vampires were a thing. What other fairytale creatures are real?!

Morganna pauses in her story, glancing at me. She explained how the vampires seemed unnaturally interested in her daughter, in me, and so increasingly alarmed she prepared to fight them. It didn't matter the threat – Coven or vampires, no-one was harming her only surviving child while she still had enough breath to fight.

She suddenly looks tired, and starts to wind up the story quickly. In the end, she didn't need to fight them. They helped her escape the Coven and hid her, and her baby, for days afterwards, until she regained enough strength to cast a lasting spell to keep them both off the Coven's radar. She smiles sadly – it was this spell that broke the connection with Angus that might have let them find each other.

While she was inside the vampire's castle, she could sense nothing in the outside world, and assumed Angus and her baby boy were dead. Once her spell was woven, nothing, not even a mate bond, could recognise her. She admits only discovering they were still alive long after the Coven captured her.

Morganna concludes her story by cursing the Coven to beyond the grave, blaming them for the years of hardship I endured as a child, for her separation from her fated-mate and for everything they did to her once they finally caught her. Before she can get too riled up, we present her with the finished bracelet.

She takes it hesitantly and slips it on grimacing. I walk up to her and demonstrate the quick release catch that's built in.

“If you need, or want, your majik Morganna... it's there”

She nods, looking slightly happier and excuses herself.

Over the next few days and weeks Morganna seems to regain a lot of her physical strength. She manages a few simple meditations without the bracelet on, and we have no more episodes of her majik being out of control.

As much as I'm gloating when the council applaud me for my idea, a little part of me is worried. Really worried. Whenever she has that bracelet off I am overwhelmed by the malevolent angry aura she gives off.

The air is thick with it around her. I fucking hope I haven't persuaded the pack to harbour trouble. I can't help noticed her rhetoric is becoming more and more hard-line, and goddess knows she had enough to be angry about to begin with. I'm going to have to talk to Aaron about it – it's not something he should be blind to.

Surprisingly, Aaron waves away my concerns. I have to stress to him that her obsession with getting revenge on the Coven might lead to her doing soemething that will endanger the pack. Again, he wafts it away.

Then, he surprises me by admitting he buys into Morganna's approach. He thinks the pack should be doing more to combat the Coven. He's determined to lead them in the right direction – he wants all out war. He's tired of the constant little skirmishes, of hiding from trouble, of avoiding the Coven. He wants them destroyed.

I'm shocked. I knew Aaron was more hands on than his father, but I didn't think his first goal as alpha would be to lead the pack to an outright war. He declares that just as soon as his alpha-blooding ceremony is over he will take a much stricter control over his pack. He will lead and they will obey.

I can't help myself, I burst into tears, I'm so much more emotional these days. I can't help but be distraught over the idea – it seems so pointless to throw lives away when we're not ready for war yet, if ever. Aaron comforts my physically, rubbing my back and kissing my head, but he's not to be shifted from his plan.

Chapter Thirty-Six

Aaron's POV

Things are starting to go my way, finally. I have Freya, and a group of shifters loyal to me specifically- it feels really good. I just need to turn the rest of the pack away from the 'avoid all trouble at all costs' mentality that my father's bred into them over the years. It's not how wolves should think, and at the end of the day we're fucking wolves. Eat or be eaten.

Morganna agreeing to voluntarily wear the suppression charm played into my hands brilliantly. The council have a healthy new respect for Freya as Luna-in-waiting, and I've found a new ally. Morganna's desire for revenge is truly awe inspiring.

Unsurprisingly with everything that's been done to her, Morganna is viciously against everything the Coven are and stand for. She will stop at nothing. She might be the key ingredient we've been missing. I'm hoping, once she's more stable, I can use her to rile up the pack. She is, after all, the wife of their old and much beloved beta.

Preparation for my blooding-in ceremony as alpha has begun. The pack can't wait any longer. Freya will stay as Luna-in-waiting and won't be recognised as Luna officially until she turns twenty-five. I'm already of age so I can officially take control now.

Normally we would wait in the wings until we're both old enough, but the council agree that between my father and I – I'm now the stronger alpha. The pack needs every little advantage there is against the Coven. And a blooding-in ceremony is an excuse for a celebration- and hell do we need that right now too. It'll be a good opportunity to solidify the pack, and rekindle the bonds between our neighbours.

Freya will be fomally introduced as our future Luna. I fucking hope there's isn't too much bad feeling from the packs involved in the failed Luna Rite – I want them onside.

I need to work out if other packs have had as much trouble with the Coven. My father let the ties between us slip the past few years. If they're having problems too - it might work in my favour, maybe we can find some new allies in this fight.

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