Page 166 of Conner's Luna

Fuck. This is the Luna to the RedMoon. She looks half-dead. Fuck.

"He rejected his mate. She killed herself by throwing herself into the sea."

No wolf likes the ocean. We shudder collectively as the female continues her story, "ever since not a single RedMoon firstborn alphason has survived to mate with their truemate. That's why Robert's father, also named Alexander, left and started ClearHowl. He wanted to escape the curse," she continues, ignoring her son's frantic attempts to shield her from the males in the room.

She looks at Dad. "I believe that Antony has gone to ClearHowl."

"How do you know all this?" Dad asks sharply.

Trey's mom's eyes fill with tears, "he's going to Challenge Alpha Alexander." Her eyes drift over the walls plastered with proof of Lydia's insanity. "He took her with him. Lydia. His lover."

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Bailey

I jerk awake with a start. "Who? What?Who?!" I babble my questions to Dad, who appears equally stunned. The thick comforter turns into my enemy, fighting my efforts to free myself as I scramble to the edge of the bed. I end up falling to the floor, the blanket still wrapped around me like a sinister cocoon.

"It can't be the same Wilkinson family," Dad says in a stunned voice. He starts flipping madly through the pages.

"I read only the last twenty pages. I didn't see any mention of his name," I finally manage to kick away the covers and army-crawl my way over to Dad.

I throw myself next to Dad on the couch. He holds the diary open and continues to read aloud, "Tia loved him and we all thought he loved her. It was terrible when he left her behind. She cried for days. I remember her tears soaking the sheets every night. Mama would wash them, rinse them in the ocean, then the creek, before hanging them out to dry in the sun. Then, it became worse. For five nights and days, it rained and Tia Daryle became..." he pauses.

"Despondent," I fill in.

He nods and continues, "a black cloud hung over Daryle, just like the ones hovering in the sky. On the sixth day, it was beautiful again, but when Papa carried Tia into the garden, nothing about her changed. She stared off into space, sometimes clutching her stomach. Mama says maybe she will have a baby."

I start crying, hiding my face in Dad's shoulder, my hands dropping to cover my own tiny little baby-wolf.

"But," Dad's voice becomes choked, "when I crawl into her lap, she spoke of how much it hurts." He stops reading for a moment to hug me tight and kiss the top of my head fiercely. "I couldn't have known then, but maybe I should have, that on the seventh day, when the hurricane came, Daryle would disappear into the waves."

He sucks in a breath and rubs my back before he continues on, "when Alexander, the dog, returned a year later, he cried to hear she was gone. Mama told him thatMami Watacurses him and his entire family forever. That if Daryle couldn't have her son, then his family should never have a firstborn son again."

Dad turns the page and falls silent. I peek at the diary, but all that's there is a picture of a yellow flower and a note aboutBisabuelaCharlotte's garden.

"Trey has a firstborn son," I whisper.

Dad looks at me with a frown. "You’re his mate," he explains. "You’re supposed to have his first son.”

“But Mikko isn’t mine and I'm pregnant with Conner's baby," I finish Dad’s thought.

"Speaking of," Dad's entire frame goes rigid, "that boy and I need to have a long talk."

I regard him warily, "without bullets."

Dad closes the diary with a thud. "No promises."

The siren that screams through the air makes us both jump. The lights on the fire alarms start to flash. A voice fills the air, "this is a number four alarm. Everyone, please report to muster."

"Where is muster?!" I scream at my Dad.

"What is a number four alarm?" he says seriously.

"Intruders," Velia pops into the room. "We're supposed to go to the saferooms, but I heard Alpha Wilkinson was here and he's confronting Alpha Carm."

We don't go to the saferooms. We run to join the crowd assembling in front of the packhouse. I see young children and elderly people, so I can't imagine that we're unsafe. I squeeze my way to the front. At least, I try to get to the front. I don't have much luck when I make it to the outermost layers of people. Along the way, I lose Dad and Velia, but the press of bodies is so thick that I still feel safe. I'm shorter than most of these people anyway, so I'm hidden away.

At the edges of the crowd, I come up against an impenetrable wall. All LoboGris. All males. Not one of them budging their denim-clad booties out of my way.

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