Alpha's Blind Luna novel Chapter 78

***Ezekiel’s POV***

I sat across Vale at desk in the office. We are both immersed in different paperwork. I could feel his gaze fall to me sometimes but I didn’t look up, trying not to be distracted as much as I already was. This paperwork was important and it needed to be approved, signed, and submitted as soon as possible. Having my beautiful mate sitting across from me did not help. He had come home a couple weeks ago. It had been almost a month he was gone this time and I found that it never got easier to be away from him.

Worse, the pack house was quiet without him. Auri was gone. It already been years and I think both Vale and I had started to accept that the strongest person in our lives was gone forever. Not to mention Hector. He was always gone from the pack house. Suddenly though, he started to not take any of our calls, even from Pipsqueak. We knew something bad happened but Vale said he was still connected to the pack. So there was some semblance of hope. Lucy had moved into town with her mate and the two of them were heading up the hospital now.

Bryan was another story. He was alone now. I tried to kept him busy but he was wasting away. It got to the point where I started to send him with Vale when he left just so he would get some fresh air. Apparently, he only smiled every time he walked into the large library at the High Council. He received special permission to enter the library. Keeper Thomas and him hit it off so well that they could be found huddled in the corner debating some dumb history fact. It was hard to watch but he got older so much quicker without Auri or Hector to keep pace with. It frustrated me that Hector just left him alone; not checking in. Bryan always said it was fine but the hollow look in his eyes said otherwise.

I cursed, I’d read the same sentence three times now and I just wanted to kick something. Vale’s prickling gaze was not helping.

“What Vale? You’ve been staring at me for an hour now.”

Looking up, he was smiling sheepishly. I shook my head. My irritation could never hold against him. Not with his eyes nailing me to the chair, making my dick twitch.

“What do you think about having family?”

I blinked at him once, then twice, trying to see if he was serious. His face seemed to show he was, if not a bit embarrassed bringing it up. Setting the paper in my hand down, I laced my fingers together and I looked him in the eyes.

“It’s something I’ve thought about over the years. You know that. We talk about it sometimes.”

“But you haven’t really said anything about it outside that you’ve always wanted one.”

I sighed. “I can barely get time for you to myself. You’re bouncing between here, the High Council, or different packs. As much I would like pups, to have a family, I honestly never thought you were ready for it.”

A frown covered his face. He looked down at the papers on the desk in front of him. “I want to stay here. I want to be here all the time.”

“But…”

“The world is exploding.”

I chuckled and nodded. “Now just doesn’t seem to be the right time. That’s okay. I don’t mind waiting, Vale. I’m not that old.”

“We don’t know how long I have, Zeke.”

My eyes looked over him as his face fell. I knew what was bothering him. The conversation we have a couple of weeks ago. It was still bothering him now. My lips pressed on a line and I let my eyes fall as I leaned back in my chair.

“I don’t want to be left without you Vale.”

“You might not have a choice, Zeke.”

Clicking my tongue, I let out an exasperated breath. I regretted finding those journals. Auri was meticulous in her notes about everything. Her handwriting perfect as most everything she deemed important was written down by hand. I’d found some old journals of hers, ones that were placed in a way to tell me no one was supposed to find them. At least, not unless someone was cleaning out the pack house. I’d just happened to be looking for some information and knocked over some books, creating a domino effect that revealed their hiding spot.

There were five journals in all. Four were written accounts of her life, from when she was just a child all the way till she moved out here with us. I’d read the four and I had been horrified. The things she had been through. The accounts that differed so drastically from the accounts in the history books. I nearly fell back into a depression. The fact that Auri knew what she was doing, having been through it before, when she took my place. She didn’t deserve that all again. But over and over, she picked herself back up. Over and over she stepped forward when I don’t think even the strongest would have. I envied her, admired her, and was in complete awe of her. The journals though highlighted every detail, including things that kept me up at night. I hadn’t told Vale, or anyone about them. Those I now kept in my personal safe; away from everyone.

The last book was more of a theory book. Random thoughts that she was looking into it. Or had done research on in the past. These I did share with Vale. Some of them were silly. The major one cropping up with the library of Alexandria and the possibility that it had survived. Vale even knew of this slight obsession but not to the extent that she had been searching for it in her free time. However, one theory had taken us not just by surprise, but shook us to the core.

In the past, the new Alpha King was born when the previous Alpha King died. That was the base understanding. There would always be an Alpha King. Once one died, the next was born. Auri was the first Alpha King to survive after giving birth to an Alpha King. It was also the first time that in centuries that the Alpha King had been born within the same family.

She said it didn’t make sense though. Yes, she technically died when Vale was born but that Vale, was stronger, grew faster, was already presenting as more of an Alpha than their first born son. That was unheard of in itself. Following that theory, Auri believed Vale was always the Alpha King, conceived as the new Alpha King. Meaning, the death of an Alpha King was not the spark of the birth of a new Alpha King. But rather, the birth of the new Alpha King, marked the death of the old one.

This theory hit us hard, Vale especially. It meant that as Alpha King you could not control your death. The one thing that if you were safe and stayed hidden, it still didn’t guarantee you lived till old age. Instead, if a pup presented strong Alpha aura it could mean the end of Vale. No matter what he did. Unless, somehow like Auri, he managed to survive. However, she was never meant to be the Alpha King in the first place. That alone might have been enough to save her.

I knew Vale tried to play it down. How much it scared him. We had no control over our deaths really but we also act safer as to not put our lives in danger. Vale was struggling that even if he threw his life away, it wouldn’t end unless a new Alpha king was conceived. In that same vein, even if he did office work for the rest of his life, he could die in six months if a pup was conceived. Now, I could see his fear. See it in wanting to live his life as much as possible now.

“Zeke…”

I tore my eyes from my own hands where I had zoned out. His own hands, clasped together as he rested his chin on them.