Grey.
The wait after the note was anti-climatic. It had been three weeks and there had been no attack.
We had been training relentlessly, of course. We had men yards outside our borders on all sides ready to alert us. We were prepared.
Any day now.
.
.
* 2 days post-war *
"Tamara Grace, we need you to tell us what you remember," the man repeated, his voice getting firmer but not raising his tone one bit.
I understood he had to be frustrated. I would be too. He had been asking me the same question for a while now.
I could hear him. I think I could even understand him. But the link between that and actually forming an answer seemed to be broken.
"Tamara Grace, it's important. The more time we lose..."
He was right. Trouble was, I didn't want to remember. I didn't want those memories back in my head.
"I remember the beginning..."
*** Back to present ***
Fire.
That was my first thought when I woke up. Except I realised that I hadn't woken up by myself. Grey had shaken me awake and now had a tight grip on my arm and was pulling me out of bed.
"You need to get to the safehouse now"
Shit.
"They're here? They're attacking?"
"Yes, Gracie. We need to go now" he was shoving my feet into shoes and pulling me towards the door.
"Grey, I want to fight. I told you"
He ignored me.
I ground my feet into the ground, "Grey! I'm not going to the safehouse and waiting like a damsel in distress for the fight to be over. I want to fight, I want to help you."
He whirled around, his eyes blazing "We do not have time for whatever this shit is Tamara Grace. A lot of havoc is about to be wreaked. Get to the fucking safehouse now!"
Grey never called me by my full name. Grey never swore at me.
"Fine" I pushed past him and headed for the safehouse which was miles below the actual house and needed like a billion passwords to get into. Passwords that were guarded so well that even I didn't know them.
I got to the elevator where some other women and children of the pack were also waiting to get on. Grey entered the password and we all trooped in.
The ride was awkward and consisted of me glaring at Grey and him pretending not to notice, staring straight ahead. The doors opened revealing a well-lighted space with women and children of the pack. Everybody on the elevator got off except me and Grey.
"Tamara Grace," he said through gritted teeth.
"Grey."
"Look, my men are out there fighting. I don't have time for this, I need to go and join them. Go out of the elevator." His voice was hard.
"Grey, please. I don't think I can just sit here and do nothing while you're-" involuntarily, tears sprang to my eyes. I didn't want to even imagine him getting hurt.
His expression softened and he sighed and stepped towards me, taking me in his arms, "Baby, please. I won't be able to focus if you're out there and I need to focus. I need to know you're safe down here so that I can protect my pack properly. Please"
He was right, I knew he was right
"Okay," I nodded, "Please be safe Grey. Please, I don't know what I'd do if-"
He kissed me, cutting me off, "I'll be fine. This will all be over before you know it. Okay?"
I nodded and got off the elevator and watched the doors close, keeping my eyes on Grey until I couldn't see him anymore.
I turned around and immediately felt my cheeks go red. I had forgotten there were other people here who had just witnessed Grey and I's little show. My immediate instinct was to lower my head and avoid eye contact and slink off to a corner to await Grey's return but then I remembered that I'm Luna. I looked around, meeting everybody's eyes until they all returned to whatever they were doing before.
This space had been the final project of the pack in preparation for the war. It was below the packhouse basement - which is where the elevator would take you if you didn't have the password - and was everything-proof. They had specifically worked on coating the walls with something that would block even the most powerful werewolf nose from catching even a whiff of us.
Then food had been brought down; enough to last a few weeks (Grey promised me that was just a precaution), chairs, a few mattresses, even a tv had also been brought down. We were to be as comfortable as possible while we waited for our brave strong men to come back from war. The thought made me roll my eyes.
Some children were gathered in front of the tv now, a cartoon having been put on to distract them. Some women were sobbing quietly, some were having conversations with their friends and some were just sitting quietly, staring into space. I decided to join the latter, choosing an armchair in the corner and staring into space.
* 2 days post-war *
A white coat dashing past the open kitchen door caught my attention, making me pause my story-telling.
The pack doctor!
I ran after him, "Doctor, doctor! Please talk to me, what's the situation now?"
Without breaking his stride, he gave me the same reply I'd been hearing from everybody for the past two days, "We're still working on it Luna. Please be calm"
I grabbed his arm, forcing him to stop, "Calm? Calm?! How do you expect me to be calm when you people aren't giving me any answers?! You've spent the last two days holed up in that room. Don't talk to me about being calm!"
He gently pried my fingers off him, "With all due respect, Luna, your hysteria isn't helping anybody. If you would excuse me, we're losing time"
My shoulders fell as I watched him walk away, his steps long and hard. I returned to the kitchen where the man was still sitting, his cup of coffee untouched next to him.
I took my seat opposite him.
He let a minute pass, "Would you like to continue?"
No.
But I did.
*** Back to present ***
There was no clock in that room. And it was done on purpose. I had no idea how long we'd been there but it felt like days.
More realistically, probably just a few hours.
I was getting ansty.
Most of the children had fallen asleep by now. I envied them, I wish I could just sleep and wake up and Grey would be back, unharmed.
Suddenly my heart squeezed. That's the only way I can describe it. It felt as if somebody was holding my heart and squeezing it. Immediately, I knew it had something to do with Grey.
I needed to get out of there.
I ran to the elevator and pressed the button several times but nothing happened. Then I noticed the keypad above the buttons.
Shit.
"Luna? What are you doing?"
One of the women, Annabelle, had gotten up and was now standing behind me.
"I need to get out of here"
"Luna, it's not safe"
"Uh-huh, yeah" I blocked her out. I needed to figure out what the password was. It was my mate who set it, I ought to be able to figure it out.
When we were getting on earlier, I'd seen him enter the last digits which were 01.
Annabelle was saying something but I wasn't listening.
01, 01, 01...
I slowly typed in 2601 and held my breath. I didn't know what would happen if a wrong code was entered.
The pad beeped and the doors slid open. My heart fluttered, he used my birthday. I needed to find Grey.
I rushed in, pressing the button for going up.
Annabelle was still saying something as the doors slid shut.
I needed to find Grey.
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