Pure Moonlight (closed)

[KieranSoares]

Kreston didn't stop her, knowing she was safe in town and she was close enough that he'd be able to hear if something happened. She found Jan just beyond the courtyard, absently playing with the threadbare edges of his vest as he tried to figure out what to do with himself. Karn and Petu had gone home, so Jan didn't have anyone around he really knew, but he'd followed to make sure Luna would be alright.

 

[heartofcourage]

"So..." Luna said softly as she came to sit next to Jan, looking at him in the dimming light. "Now that you've saved me, what happens next?"

 

[KieranSoares]

Jan barely looked up as she came to his side. "I don't know. I mean... Well, I won't be able to go home for another couple years. I gave all my money to the navy to help buy supplies, so I can't afford my ride home anymore. But that's fine. Scotland's not so bad now that I really think about it. I missed the rain and the mist while we were gone."

He turned his gaze to Luna. "I don't expect a reward or for anything to change, you know." She'd seen Ghell and Taqu'un and Kreston talking to him about that very subject, asking if Jan expected Luna to be his mate after what he'd done, or if he wanted some kind of monetary reward. Everyone was willing to reward him for tracking Luna down and helping navigate all the way, but no one trusted him still.

 

[heartofcourage]

Luna gently rested her head against his shoulder, wrapping her arms around his chest to hold him tightly. She knew that he had given up a lot to make sure that she was rescued. It meant a lot to her that he had done so much.

"I do love you, Jan." She said softly, confessing to him that she had deep feelings. "And I would like to see what might become of us. Karn has strong feelings for me too, but I feel like being with you is what I was destined for."

"I need you to be serious, though. You will have to prove to my family that you really do love me and that you can support me." Luna murmured as she glanced up into his amber gaze.

 

[KieranSoares]

"But I have to go home..." Jan murmured. "Even if things worked out for us, I have to go back to Sweden." Jan had never exactly told her why, but she knew he didn't have family there anymore. They'd all passed away except a couple who'd moved to Scotland and now lived near Edinburgh with the old Golin tribe.

 

[heartofcourage]

"Why do you have to go back? What is there for you, Jan?" Luna asked, hoping that he wasn't about to break her heart with more bad news. "You have a home here where people will come to respect you if you do good things. Why do you have to give that all up?"

 

[KieranSoares]

"I have to to because if I don't, the Swedish military is going to come execute me for desertion," he said in a sudden outpouring of anger and sorrow. "I was drafted into service aboard a privateer vessel after I got in trouble back home in the shipyards. If I don't prove to my admiral that I'm working to get home and back into service, he can have me executed. I've got ten years of service left."

That certainly explained his lack of respect for authority.

 

[heartofcourage]

"I could talk to my uncle. He knows the Swedish queen very well. Perhaps he can talk to her about having your conscription put aside." Luna offered, knowing that if Jan went back to Sweden there would be little hope for a future together.

 

[KieranSoares]

"I committed a serious crime, Lu. Even Brogan, good a man as he is, is never going to look past it. You wouldn't look past murder either." Jan was a rowdy fellow sometimes, but it was all in fun and though he did get in fights, he was more a lover than a warrior. Perhaps that was because he'd killed before

 

[heartofcourage]

Luna was stunned when he told her that he had killed someone. She found it hard to believe that the man that seemed so happy all the time could be harboring a secret like that.

"Did you do it on purpose?" She asked him softly, unwilling to believe that he would have killed anyone in cold blood.

 

[KieranSoares]

"No... He was drunk and I was alone and lost in Malmo. He said he was going to skin me alive and he pulled a knife on me, so I killed him before he got a chance. That's why I wasn't killed outright for murder. I was given a twelve year navy assignment with merchants and privateers." Jan looked as though he were still hurt by having to kill the man.

 

[heartofcourage]

Luna was quiet for a long moment, thinking about the sad situation that Jan had found himself in. Even if they didn't end up as mates, he was still someone who she cared about greatly. Slowly, she stood and took his hand in her own.

"Let's go talk to my uncle." Luna said softly, pulling him off the bench and back towards the keep.

 

[KieranSoares]

"Lu, it's no use..." Jan told her softly when she managed to get him into the keep. Everyone else stopped what they were doing and turned to see Luna guiding Jan in. As they approached Brogan, he rose to face them with a calm and neutral expression. "What can I do for ya, lovely?" He asked softly when she came to a halt before him.

 

[heartofcourage]

"Tell him what you told me, Jan." Luna said softly, knowing that her family was very protective of her at the moment.

Hearing his story would likely upset her father and her brother, but she knew that Jan deserved a chance at being free, just like they all did. It didn't matter what he had done in Sweden. He had been afraid and unjustly punished for protecting himself.

 

[KieranSoares]

It took Jan a moment to summon the courage to speak, but he slowly explained his plight, how he was bound to his homeland's navy and how he wished he could be free to find his own way. When he finished, several people in the room looked appalled but not malicious. Kreston in particular, who was no stranger to fighting and even killing for his own life, seemed to have reached a new understanding of Jan.

Brogan took a long moment of silence to consider the story and Luna's clear support, before asking softly, "Let's say y'were free, no obligations 'r chains of any kind. What would y'do with yerself?"

Jan took a moment himself to consider the possibility, and he murmured, "I... Have no idea. I'd have to find a new place for myself. But I think I'd want that new place to be in Scotland."

"With her?" Brogan asked, looking toward Luna.

"Absolutely," Jan nodded hand gave Luna's hand a squeeze.

"Well... It's not really for me to decide. Yer a thief after all, a wanderer, an' a heartbreaker as I've 'eard. It's up to Luna an' 'er mother." Brogan looked at Selena. Kreston would give Jan a chance for sure, but Selena was probably the most against the idea. And it was finally Luna's choice because it was her life.

 

[heartofcourage]

"Would you write a letter to Sweden, Uncle Brogan?" Luna asked him, her blue eyes imploring him to help her dear friend.

"Luna, we have much that we need to talk about first before he writes anything." Selena said. "And tonight isn't the time to have that discussion. Everyone is exhausted."

"Ma, it's important to me." Luna insisted as she turned to look at her mother.

"No, Luna Ghella. Not tonight." Selena's tone was firm, her eyes drifting briefly to look at Brogan and then at Jan. "When things have calmed down we will talk."

 

[KieranSoares]

"You'll be under my protection until a decision is made, Jan," Brogan told the tan Wolf. "But when the decision is made, I'll pay for your return if need be."

"Yes, sir..." Jan muttered, though he knew he deserved no less than Selena's complete distrust. He'd made Luna cry, spent time flirting with others when he was already pursuing Luna, and he was a thief that had been run off or arrested too many times.

 

[heartofcourage]

Once the family was back at home, Selena spent a long time standing in the doorway to Luna's room, watching her daughter slumber in the bed that had been there since childhood. She couldn't believe that she had almost lost someone that meant so much to her. There had been long, dark nights when she thought that they would never see their girl again or that she might have been skinned in a horrible fashion.

With a long sigh, she closed the door to the bedroom and walked into the kitchen, sitting down at the table where Kreston had a steaming hot mug of tea waiting on her.

"What are we going to do, Kres?" Selena asked him, weary and unready for the fight that she would face with Luna over Jan. "I don't like the boy at all. I think that he is up to no good...but it's apparent that she only has eyes for him. Even with Karn around, she only wants him."

 

[KieranSoares]

"I think Jan has a good heart... Do you really think he'd have gone halfway across the world and given up every coin he had just to get Luna in bed? I think not. He could easily have forgotten about her and gone to find a much easier conquest if that's what he wanted. But he exhausted himself every day, and made sure we were cared for on board those ships. And Luna isn't a fool, she's considered Jan and found him worth her love if he straightens up. She has the same good judgement you do, but she's much more positive about these things. But even if he were just a scoundrel after our daughter, I still don't believe anyone deserves a military sentence for self-defense. Even if you don't let him come near Luna again, don't leave the boy to an unjust future."

He picked up his own mug of tea, and murmured, "And Karn... He loves Luna as much as Jan does. He's reliable, independent and making plenty of money to support a family... And a fine outdoorsman to boot when money won't cut it. He's the kind of son-in-law anyone would be proud of. But Luna... She loves him as a brother, like Petu. She could never know the kind of love she needs with him. He'll always be around to care for her and be her friend, but just with their jobs alone, they'd never see one another and she'd never feel fulfilled. And if they had a family, they could never stand on a united front. One would always be busy."

 

[heartofcourage]

"What happened to our little girl?" Selena asked as she looked over at her mate. "It feels like this morning she was crawling around on the ground, following after Ruben as he played with her. Now, we're talking about letting a man take her heart. He very well might break her heart too, Kres. How will we deal with that?"

 

[KieranSoares]

"Our little girl is still here. But she'll never find her way unless we let her risk her heart. She's been aboard slave ships and been in chains and seen terrible things. I'm sure she'll survive if one Swedish Wolf breaks her heart. It won't be easy... But no one will ever know unless she tries. If he does run off... Well, good riddance. No good person will look on her as any less for being in love and being tricked because of it. She'll be alright. She's your daughter after all."

 

[heartofcourage]

As Selena and Kreston discussed Luna's future with Jan, Telma slumbered in the bed that she shared with Ruben. Her brow crinkled as she reached for her mate, pausing when his side of the sheets remained cold. Lifting her head off the pillow, she saw him staring out the window as if he were lost in a world of troubles.

"Ru? It's getting late. Come to bed." She murmured softly. "Tomorrow will be another long day if you stay up all night."

 

[KieranSoares]

"I'm not tired," he murmured, his eyes continuing to stare out into the moonlit night like there was an answer to his troubles somewhere out there. "Go back to sleep..." They'd spent the first months of their new lives together searching for Luna, and the entire affair had left Ruben in distracting and deep thought each day since they'd retrieved Luna. They'd been away nearly ten months, and had returned to find a few other people had been taken and poor Arin and Norr had had a bad run-in with hunters that they'd escaped from, but left both wounded. Arin might've suffered permanent damage to one leg. It all made Ruben the future endlessly.

 

[heartofcourage]

"You can't solve all the problems of the world standing in the dark and staring out a window." Telma said softly as she heard him tell her to go back to sleep.

Sitting up with a long sigh, she rubbed at her sleepy eyes for a moment before she slowly slipped out of bed. "I'll make us both some tea. I don't think I can sleep without you there with me."

 

[KieranSoares]

Ruben turned to catch Telma in his arms before she could leave and he held her tight as though he might lose her if he let go. "I don't know if I can bring children into this world, Telma... I know I want to be a father, but I don't think I'd ever make it if one of them was taken."