The Heartless Alpha's Beloved Luna Novel

---- Chapter 179 These people would never question the Luna's commands in a public forum, but they would air their doubts privately to neighbors or friends. Gossip spread quickly in a tight-knit pack, and their silent glances and whispered judgements were palpable if you knew what to look for. The grocer had completed ringing up his customer, and I had returned my focus to my work, when a pair of boots stopped at the edge of my field of vision. "Looks like hard work," the man said, glancing down at me with his eyes, while keeping his face turned away from my guards.

His voice was low, so as to not attract their attention. I didn't say anything in return. I was forbidden to speak, but I was curious as to what this man had to say, so I turned my body towards him slightly to indicate that I was listening. "See someone work that hard, day and night, and you start to wonder if the people ordering them about could do even half what you do," he continued casually, rubbing an eyebrow and pretending to browse a nearby display. Did I dare respond? Perhaps this was someone who Dierdra had sent as a test. I couldn't risk it.

Suddenly, a piece of fruit appeared on the pallet I was working on, and I stared at it in surprise. The man had placed it there so quickly I hadn't even seen him move. ---- "You're skinny as a rail. Only a cruel person would put you through this, and injured besides. Take that, and don't be surprised if a few others try to do the same." I pocketed the fruit quickly, trying to make sure the guards couldn't see the furtive motion, and glanced up at the friendly villager. "Thank you," I said, my voice creaky from disuse.

"The problem with making people do this sort of labor is, at first it's meant as humiliation, but it also makes you stronger. After seeing you out every day, knowing how hard you work, folks are bound to notice that what they're seeing, and what they' re being told, isn't lining up," The man's eyes sparkled down at me, as he pretended to be searching in his bag for his receipt.

"Folks might say, 'Watch out for that feral wolf!', but I gotta wonder if anyone wouldn't go feral being treated like this," he murmured, "You've got more friends than you might think, Luna." Tears sprung to my eyes at his kind words. To know that my punishment hadn't gone unnoticed, that there were people who saw what I was going through... It allowed me to feel like a real person again. "Now, now," the man said gruffly, holding out his handkerchief behind the shelf, "just passing along a bit of sympathy is all. Hate to see a pretty young thing like you treated this way.

You helped me and mine a few months back, though I doubt you remember." ---- I squinted up at him through my watery tears. Had I helped him before? "You opened up that community garden last spring," the man said, in response to my querying look, "that fresh stuff and the remedy you brewed up was just what my wife needed to get over her coughing sickness. She has been so much better since, and it was all thanks to your gardening and healing." Oh! I hadn't met him directly, but I remembered when his wife had come to ask if I had anything that might help her get over a lingering sickness.

The doctors had prescribed medicine that made her nauseous, and I had used the herbalism books I had gotten from Sofia to brew up a soothing syrup that would reduce her coughs and be gentle on her stomach. "Thank you, sir," I whispered, touched that he remembered me atall. Across the store, my guards must have realized that he had been lingering too close to where I was working for too long, and began to move in our direction.

"One good turn deserves another," the man said, turning in the direction of the door as though we hadn't been talking, "Leave your door unlocked tomorrow, and my wife will drop off a homecooked meal. Feels like the least we could do for the Luna who made our lives better. And then he was gone, with a final sympathetic look as he pushed open the door. ---- I stared after him, touched by his sympathy. Perhaps I could survive this after all...