Chapter 0036
“You cannot blame the boy for being upset with the Moon Goddess pairing him with Lily, Jane. How
could that possibly be fair to him? She is weak and wolfless. And her actions led to his first mate being
killed. The pack would never have accepted her as Luna. I agree that his language was less than ideal,
but you cannot say that you would not have done the same thing if in his shoes.”
‘I shake my head.
“Are you sure that Lily is weak? You saw her, Randall. She was bruised and broken and yet she had. command of that entire hall! And hear any dishonesty in what she said? I still cannot get her
did you
words out of my head. I keep replaying them over and over again.
She said no one ever bothered to ask her about the incident that led to Stephanie’s death. How can that
be? How can the entire pack blame a 14-year-old girl for a murder and yet NO ONE has ever asked her what happened?
She also said that James has been associating with a she-wolf who had more to do with Stephanie’s
death than she did. Did you know there was another she-wolf involved that night?
And she said that James has made many mistakes when it comes to her. What else has he been
mistaken about?
Randall, I am sorry, but my gut says that girl was telling the truth. And because of that, I no longer know
what to believe or think anymore!”
Randall looks at me with fear in his eyes. I can tell that my words are hitting home; he now has questions
too. But then I watch as his mind desperately tries to justify everything that has happened.
“Jane. even if there was more to the story involving Stephanie’s murder, it was still unfair of the Moon
Goddess to pair James with his first mate’s sister. Surely that was reason alone for them to reject one
another. I do not think I could bear if it something happened to you and I was later mated to your sister
Cindy.”
Tears fill my eyes. “But Randall… what if we w wrong about that too? What if Stephanie was never
James’ mate? You forget that Stephanie died before her 20th birthday. We have no idea who her mate
was. We all just assumed that it was James, because Margie and I wanted so desperately for that to be
the case.
What if… what if James’ mate was Lily all along?”
Randall looks at me with horror. “That is impossible. Of course, Stephanie was James’ mate.”
“If Stephanie was James’ mate, that would make Lily his second-chance mate,” I said softly.
“Yes… what is your point?”
what is your point?”
“You cannot be someone’s second-chance mate unless you yourself are in need of a second-chance
mate. If Lily was James’ second chance mate, who was her first mate?”
I watch as the realization hits Randall… but once again, he tries to ignore it.
“No, that does not make any sense. Stephanie was his mate. We know that. We have always known that. Lily had to have been mated to another male first. Lily is young, but that is definitely possible.”
“It is also possible that Lily wasn’t mated to anyone else, Randall. What if…. What if Lily was his mate all
along?”
Randall says nothing, so I keep going.
“Do you remember years ago how James begged us to scale back the events honoring Stephanie? He told us that he thought the events were impacting his me ntal health. We told him ‘no,” Randall!”
As the memory comes back to me, my tears begin to fall.
“Randall, we never tell him ‘no’ about anything, but we told him ‘no’ about that! We were so afraid to
offend Robert and Margie that we called him selfish and told him that he had to keep attending the
events. We told him that it was his duty as the alpha heir!
What if… what if our actions forced him to be so focused on Stephanie and her memory that he was
blinded to what the Moon Goddess really intended for him?!?! What if all of this is our fault?!?!?!”
Again, Randall is silent. However, this time, he grabs me and wraps me up into a hug. I melt in his embrace, especially as I feel his own tears starting to fall.
I had been so sure that saying all of my worries out loud would cause a fight between Randall and I. I am
very grateful that is not how it ended up playing out.
By the end of our conversation, I still had no idea what the truth was. For all know, my worries are just
the exaggeration of a tired mother who has seen too many movies and read too many romance books.
However, I cannot help but feel relieved that Randall now agrees with me that we owe it to our son, the
pack, and even Stephanie’s memory to dig a little further.
