Mira's POV
"Luna Mira." They all stand and wait for me. I stand up from the seat as well.
"He? He's coming?" I quickly shut my mouth as I see the looks coming from Damian, Lucian, Rowan and Kai's eye.
"No, my Luna. I would be here waiting for the rest of the members of the council as I was just recently promoted." He bows down.
Now, I see the reason why they promoted him. His loyalty has been proven.
"It's fine." I place my hands into Lucian's hand and we walk back inside.
"Ugh." Lucian stumbles, nearly falling over.
"Are you okay?" I ask him. I palm my head as I realize the nature of my question.
"Does he look okay to you?" Damien scowls at me.
"He's not okay. We told him to rest here but he wouldn't." Rowan explains to me.
"I wouldn't or I can't." He places his hands on his knees. Beads of sweats drop furiously from his body.
"We will explain the reason of your absence to the council." Damien says again.
"None of us can afford to be absent in the meeting with the council members. Especially not at this time, there will be rivals. Rivals, we will need to shut up immediately. We should rest for the next meeting." He stands up and continues walking but not as fast and as tall as he was doing before.
I follow them because I have nowhere else to go.
The moment the door to a room is opened. He stumbles again and crouches leaning on the door.
"Are you sure you can be present for the next meeting? If we must hold it with you in attendance. We can postpone it as well, Lucian." Rowan tries to talk him out of it.
"No,the meeting will hold today and we will all be in attendance. Anyone not in attendance will be defaulted." He is struggling to breathe and talk properly.
Everyone keeps quiet when they realize he is hellbent on attending this meeting.
I stand there for hours till I can no longer feel my legs.
"Are you just going to keep standing there till you can no longer feel your legs? Do you wish to attend the meeting with legs you can no longer feel?" Lucian asks.
I want to get back at him, let him know that I am way better than him, at least, I am not struggling to breathe but I shut my mouth.
"If you have something to say little princess, it'd be better for you to come right up and say it." Damien teases me. I ignore him and go ahead to sit down.
"We have forty more minutes till the next meeting. The meeting with the upper council is much more than that of the lower council. Brace yourself."
We spend the remaining time keeping calm and waiting silently for time to pass.
"Alphas." One of the shadow guards come up again.
"Did you not see your Luna?" Lucian asks him. His poker look is back on his face. I still struggle to accept that truly this is the same Lucian I knew and met.
"Luna Mira. It's time for the meeting with the upper council." The shadows guards address me.
I take a deep breath. And I prepare myself mentally for the next meeting.
I hear the shout of our names again and this time I repeat what I did earlier. The whole place is tensed, so tensed I can feel the weight on Lucian, Rowan, Damien and Kai's shoulders.
"Alpha Lucian."
"Alpha Rowan."
"Alpha Damien."
"Alpha Kai."
"Luna Mira."
Justin greets all of us with a slight bow.
Unlike the lower council, there are no reactions and no emotions. Their gazes are hot on my body. It is so hot, I shiver involuntarily.
"We were not made aware of the new information Alphas." I stop myself from drinking down this guy in one look.
"We also were not aware of the plans the moon goddess made for us. Which is why, we have brought this to your notice." I click my tongue silently. They are not bossy and intimidating as with the lower council.
"And the other, Queen Serene?"
"She's currently locked up. Another reason we called for this meeting." Rowan immediately says.
"May I ask why, Alphas?"
"Yes, you may ask."
"Why is our queen locked up? It does not particularly appear like it is unrelated to the new Luna? Was she imprisoned because we have a new Luna?" Another one of them asks.
"Firstly, I would like to remind you that we are not animals. We would not carry out decisions without thinking. Your queen, Queen Serene is being imprisoned because she committed a crime that should cost her life." Rowan says. He stops and he does what he usually does.
"She went ahead to try to force us to dismiss our Luna. And you all know, the moon goddess's decisions should not be questioned. Secondly, while we refused and decided to let her have her space, her authority and her respect. Your queen, Queen Serene went ahead to try to murder the Luna of this pack." The whole place goes eerlily quiet.
"Queen Serene tried to commit murder? I'm afraid that is a blatant lie I would not agree to. She has been in this clan for so long and we have never really regarded her as a troublemaker." Another one of them speaks up.
"If we saw her as a murderer or someone that will commit murder, we would definitely have had her isolated from the very beginning." Rowan stands up and comes to my seat.
Carefully, he drags the scarf I used as an accesory to cover her claw marks.
"Do you still doubt it?"
"What exactly happened?"
"That is a tale your queen would answer when she appears before the council for questioning. But I will like to make some things clear to all of you."
"First, some members of the lower council has been dissolved."