Dead Luna
Chapter 84

Amelia's

POV

I don't have time for whatever nonsense my father and Prince William are up to this evening. But if my father really is able to do something to help Leo, as well as be willing to do it, I won't stop him. But there is no time to lose. Leo is near death.

I lead my father to the little pack medical clinic, and straight to the room where Leo is. As soon as my father sees mom, I see him pause. Mom looks up, sees who it is, and then looks away. I worry for a moment that the king has an entirely different agenda in mind, but I see his shoulders slump in disappointment at the frosty demeanor of his Juliette. He says nothing to her.

DeeDee, however, is growling at Alexander, and trying to stand protectively between her son and the king. Thankfully the king just ignores the distraught mother, rather than take offense.

Then the king is demanding to talk to the doctor, and to see the entire medical facilities. He is particularly disappointed in the lack of lab equipment.

"Is there any anti venom on the premises? Is there equipment or anyone with the ability of making anti venom? Is there any way of quickly procuring any?" He asks, sounding more desperate with each question he asks of the doctor. But Leo is too far gone to wait for the rare and precious cure to arrive in time to save him.

The king growls in frustration at this situation that he only caused. He stands in the middle of the room, caressing his temples as he contemplates the one and only option he has left in order to save my mate, as Deedee growls menacingly at him.

"I need her removed from the building, immediately!" The king suddenly snaps, and points at Deedee, who is then forcefully ejected from the room by Alfred and Glen, crying and screaming obscenities. "I need another bed brought in here, and doctor, you'll be needing whatever equipment is necessary for a blood transfusion."

Jackson and Raghu go grab a bed from another room and bring it in, placing it close to Leo's bed.

"Amelia," Alexander says, turning towards me. "I was so proud watching you address the crowd this evening. You did an amazing job, and you will make an excellent leader if anything should happen to me."

"Juliette," he says to mom. "I'm sorry for everything! The things I did wrong, as well as the things I failed to do."

It sounds to me almost like he believes that he might die! But how could that be? He's just giving a little blood, right?

Then he ordered everyone out of the room except for the doctor, and began to disrobe from the waist up. I could hear moms wolf Lavender openly admiring her mate, and I smile. I have to admit that dad is in pretty fabulous shape for his age.

Mom and I were standing in the open doorway to watch what was going on, Jackson standing just behind us. We had been ordered out of the room, but had not been told we could not watch. I need to make note of these sorts of loopholes in royal commands for future use.

The doctor begins to prep dad's arm to begin the transfusion, when dad suddenly stops him, saying he is going about things all wrong for some reason. Then he is calling out for the pack Beta to bring the ceremonial dagger, and for his officers.

A few minutes later Beta Raghu is stepping between mom and I, and entering the room carrying the ceremonial dagger. I am very concerned about what my father is planning to do with the weapon. Then Alfred and Glen are also entering the room, carrying a heavy flat stone with some strange carvings and a cabochon emerald embedded in it. That will apparently stand as witnesses to whatever it is my father is about to do.

The stone tablet is set on the bedside table between the two beds. Then my father instructs Alfred to cut both his hand and that of Leo's, and smear blood from each of them onto the emerald.

"I, Lycan King Alexander William Worthing, of the Emerald Kingdom, do hereby declare that Alpha Leonard..." my father begins, gripping Leo's hand firmly, but then appears to stumble, not knowing Leo's full name and I watch as he begins to panic! "Leonard Johnathan Hart," Beta Raghu supplied, and suddenly the tension in the room decreases.

The king is then able to continue the rest of the oath without further incident. Then he lets go of Leo's hand, lays back in his bed, and tells the doctor to begin the blood transfusion immediately. He then closes his eyes and appears to relax as the doctor works quickly. There is nothing left to do at that point but wait, no one making a sound other than Jackson reminding me that my shift would begin in exactly 20 minutes.

Eventually the doctor seems satisfied, and stops the transfusion. The only change I see is that Leo's heart has sped up to a slightly faster pace. Otherwise everything looks exactly as it was before. And the wounds on Alex and Leo's hands from the ceremonial blade continue to drip. My father has taken a very big risk in doing that. If Leo should die without completing the oath, my fathers hand will never heal. It would take a witches magic to stop the bleeding, but the wound itself would remain open permanently. It would be prone to infection, and could cause other long term issues.

As the minutes tick by and there is no change, I start to grow restless. Even my father does nothing but lay still on the bed, almost as if he is asleep. Eventually Alfred nudges him, and makes him eat a cookie and drink some lemonade, apparently concerned that his sugar might be too low from the loss of so much blood.

I thought it strange that my father was willing to bypass me as well as any other children he has with my mom as potential heirs, in favor of making Leo the future king, rather than just accept Leo as my consort. I don't know how Leo will feel about it all, but first he needs to survive before anyone need to worry about any of that.

Jackson reminds me that I'm down to 2 minutes until my shift, and suddenly everyone is rushing to get me out of the building, as well as push Leo's bed outside and into the light of the full moon. Mom helps to unzip my beautiful dress and then I'm standing naked before everyone for no more than 10 seconds before I feel that things are happening.

The pain was intense, and I know that I cried out at the sharp pain as my bones began to shift and rearrange themselves. Ambrosia was telling me to relax and let her do her thing, as I tried to brace myself as more changes began. Every part of my body suddenly felt like it was on fire! Just breathe through the pain, girlfriend. We got this!

Mom is gripping my hand tightly and telling me how amazing I'm doing, while I'm writhing on the ground in agony.

In the background I hear people shouting that Leo is shifting, and I send up a thank you to Moon Goddess. He is saved! Then I'm whimpering as I feel my canines growing longer, sharp claws are growing from where I used to have fingers, and dark brown hair is sprouting all over my body.

As soon as I'm able to figure out how to move in this completely different body I'm now a part of, Ambrosia and I walk over to where I can see Leo. I see that he is truly no longer Lance, but a magnificent beast that looks sort of like a cross between a jaguar or panther and a black lion, with strange pale yellow eyes. I see him look over at me, and I know that he likes what he sees. I'm relieved that Leo has survived, but I will miss Lance, and I know Leo will miss him, too.

"Hello, my beautiful mate!" I hear Leo's Lycan loud and clear thru the mind link. I then notice his scent, which has also changed significantly from that of Lance. He smells of pine, rosemary, and as I get closer I clearly smell something I've never come across before, but Ambrosia tells me that the scent is something called frankincense.

"I am called Frankincense, but you may just call me Frank if you prefer. Almost everyone does."

Well, I suppose that only makes sense. Then, before I even realize what she is doing, Ambrosia walks right up to Frank and bites his neck! Then she gently licks the wound clean. And I'm even more shocked when Frank does the exact same thing to us. And I like it! We quickly decide that we are going to go for a run through the forest, but before we can do that, my father is addressing my mate.

"Young pup," King Alexander calls out to him, which I can tell irritates my mate greatly. Young pup, indeed. My mate is a majestic Lycan, not some tiny chihuahua puppy.

"I just saved your life tonight." The king informs him. Fake news as far as we are concerned. He only tried to kill Leo off to begin with. Leo wouldn't have even needed saving at all if not for him!

"I gave an oath to the moon goddess, declaring you as the heir to my title, as well as all my land and subjects," the King continued. I see my mate roll his eyes at that. Then he turned and started to walk away, and I notice he has a slight limp. "I also gifted you a blood transfusion of my pure Lycan blood. That paw of yours will not properly heal until you complete your part of the oath!"

My mate sits, and takes a look at his sore paw. I can tell he is rather unhappy about the situation and just wants to ignore my father. But finally, resigned, he walks up to my father and sets his paw in my fathers hand.

"I, Alpha Leonard Johnathan Hart of Bull Run pack, and my Lycan Frankincense, accept." Leo mind links my father.

I notice my father looks alarmed for some reason, but I really don't want to contemplate that right now. After years of heartbreak and toil, I've finally got my mate, I'm marked, and I'm ready to live the life I've been dreaming of. I just want to be happy, dammit!