Freeing Starr
Chapter 15 ~ It's Her

A few months later...

I rubbed the budding headache that clung to my temple in exhaustion, blinking away at the brightness of the screen before me as my tired eyes scanned the mountain of information.

My fingers skimmed the keyboard with light touches as I typed out my rough drafts of the plans I came up with to help improve our pack as it rapidly expanded.

Zion was continuously spreading his dominance throughout the continent, targeting the small packs with barely any foundations or defenses to give room to our much larger pack and taking as much territory as we could. This left me with tons of work to do on the inside structure of the pack.

What worried me, however, was the fact that none of the more renowned and stronger packs made a move or voiced their opinions on Zion's sudden rise. It was too effortless, too quickly, too quiet... and it left me uneasy.

I tried bringing this up to Zion once and he simply brushed me aside and said that I worried over nothing and that sometimes overanalyzing things would give me unnecessary stress. He was right. I really shouldn't nitpick when our pack was doing so well asserting it's dominance.

Especially since their Luna was finally beginning to show promise. I admit, I'd come a long way when you think back on how I was a few months ago.

For starters, I no longer feared my husband. We've been doing well these past couple of months as our mate bond solidified and made us even closer than we've ever been. I admit that I've probably began to like the man, but it's hard not to when he's the one I eat, sleep and bed almost every night.

With my morning trainings with Zion, I've been slowly improving. By allowing my wolf to take over my body at times where I needed to fight, I've become much stronger, except it still took a lot out of me just to coerce her into showing herself. Luckily, for her mate she made any appearance he willed her to. Not only that, but the predicament about how her and I are supposed to be one single being like everyone else was still not put to rest. Zion tried researching what it could possibly mean but never got an answer, but I never cared for an answer anyway. My wolf and I were in this together for years now. Without her, I'd have already succumbed to the insanity that festered my mind every time that man had bent me over his desk. So I cared little about why I was the only one hearing and speaking with my wolf. I wouldn't change it for the world.

I've finally gotten accustomed to life in the Shadow Rogue Pack. Zion took me to the pack house a few days ago after confirming that I was strong enough to hold my own and I've been there ever since. I took up residence in Zion's office and continued documenting all the changes the pack was going through as Zion left the territory on business. He'd be back any day now.

A knock on the door had me glancing up as Niah came in with a grimace set on her face.

I sighed and closed down my laptop, "what is it now?"

"There's been a fight amongst two of the Betas. One of them got seriously injured and is on the brink of death."

I frowned, "Didn't I tell them to avoid killing their own if possible?"

Niah dropped down in the sofa that was in the corner of the room and rolled her eyes, "well obviously it wasn't possible. Do you think they'd listen to you?"

She was right. Although I got stronger, I still wasn't strong enough to gain their recognition and it was a pain in the ass. Every day, it was a damn bloodbath. They were all savages. They just took action without thinking! They had no sense of kinship for their own pack members. Simply killing whoever displeased them and raping whatever woman caught their attention. I hated it and I tried my best to limit their actions but they didn't listen to me and Zion completely ignored me whenever I voiced my concerns. At this rate, we might end up falling apart by our own hands instead of others.

"What about the pack doctor? Did he check their wounds?"

"He did and there's nothing he can do since he doesn't have the equipment nor the necessary means to gain medicine to treat the wounds."

My headache grew worst.

Many packs had pack doctors, however, they weren't as skilled as the doctors you'd find in the more prominent packs. Doctors were a hefty price to pay. It took a lot of resources and if I was being honest, we had those resources. Except we had nothing to spend them on. We weren't an officially acknowledged pack and thus, the medical supplies that was usually gained through the Kingdom wasn't accessible to us so our medical supplies were running out and these fools weren't making it any easier. We could try communicating with one of the human territories to obtain supplies but as of now, the werewolf and human kingdoms were waring against each other so neither side would be willing to cooperate. We were in a predicament. I did however, think of something we could try that might work.

"I'll talk to Zion when he gets back. I think we need to postpone our expansion and focus on the territories that we do have. We don't have the manpower to handle this many territories when our Betas and Gammas are constantly killing each other. The structure of this pack needs work and more efficient rules need to be implemented."

"I understand what you mean but it's not that simple. This pack was built on the idea of freedom in its truest form. They're free to do whatever they want as long as it doesn't harm the pack."

I perked up at that, "that's it!"

Niah tilted her head, "what is?"

"As long as it doesn't harm the pack! Killing each other is harming the pack!"

"Not necessarily. Our pack still goes by survival of the fittest."

"It does, however, in order for us to get stronger, we need to stop fighting amongst ourselves. Reducing our numbers on a daily is in fact harming our pack because we lack the proper force we need to go up against the packs with stronger members. We can tell everyone that until we've solidified our power on this continent, they are to try to refrain from killing our own. That's it. I'm not telling them to stop fighting, just to stop killing. Asserting your dominance is important but that dominance means nothing if you end up destroying the one thing that allows you to do so."

"The pack," Niah trailed off in thought, "you're right but that's something Zion has to command on his own. They won't listen to you."

I nodded, "I know. I'll tell him when he gets back."

Niah nodded and flashed a proud smile my way, "y'know, I think our pack needs you. You fill the role of Luna perfectly and although I don't want to admit it, ever since you've joined our pack it's been much easier on me in handling everything."

I smiled and waved a dismissive hand, "I'm accustomed to this. I basically managed most of the stuff in my former pack. My dad just made the final deci-"

"Luna!"

I looked over at the door as one of the Betas, Mitchell I think his name was came through the door with a grimace on his face.

"What is it?" I asked.

"You really need to open up your pack link. There's a situation. One of the pack doctor's and a warrior are getting ready to tear each other apart."

Niah and I stood up immediately. We couldn't afford to lose another pack doctor.

"Lead the way," I nodded, quickly following him out the door.

I could've easily accessed the location if I had my pack link open but I disdained to do so. The conversations that I overhear were always vulgar and crude. Quite frankly I hated it. It's not like it was all bad, however the bad conversations always seemed to overpower the others. That's why I never opened my link unless necessary, especially now that I was surrounded by criminals.

A crowd was gathered in front of a small two story home and in the center of that crowd stood two growling males standing opposite each other with a female sprawled out on the floor in front of them, sobbing her ass off.

It's her.

My eyes widened in recognition as I glimpsed the female's face and got a flashback of that time on the mating hunt where I had abandoned her to continue running.

Looking at her now, the situation still seemed the same. She looked bruised and battered and she most definitely lost weight. She had her head down as tears streamed down her cheek and soaked the ground beneath her.

"What's going on?" I stepped through the crowd and asked, causing both males to turn their attention to me.

The doctor's eyes softened in relief as they met mine and he slightly lowered his head and addressed me, "Luna, I apologize for disturbing you but please stop this beast from harming my daughter!"

"Your daughter?" I murmured, my eyes going towards the sobbing female once more. She didn't look up.

"We can't get involved in this." Niah said over our mindlink.

"I know but we can't lose another doctor. They're important to the pack." I replied, my heart conflicted.

In this pack, we weren't supposed to involve ourselves in each other's affairs no matter what happened. I found it completely barbaric how we had to sit back and watch as others treated those close to them terribly. I won't deny that domestic abuse is high within our pack and because of this, we've had constant suicides because the women couldn't handle it. I tried to address this with Zion but he completely brushed it off and told me to leave it alone.

The man growled at me angrily, his eyes flashing, "I don't have to justify my actions to anyone! This bitch tried to run away from me. She deserves to get her ass beat."

The doctor flared, "not at the cost of her life!! You've gone too far!! This is exactly why she doesn't want to stay with you!!"

The man grabbed a tight hold of the woman's hair and yanked her face upwards to face her father. She cried out in pain. "Say that again you old piece of shit!"

The doctor's eyes began glowing as his nails lengthened. He was on the verge of shifting.

"That's enough. Both of you need to calm down," I ordered, thinking of something I could do to solve this situation as peacefully as possible.

The man growled, "tell this bastard to get rid of his claws. I'm her mate. He has no right to insert himself in our lives otherwise I have the authority to kill him!"

I hesitated at that because the man wasn't wrong in terms of pack rules but this was just ridiculous.

My headache got even worst.

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