"Behind those bushes, quick!"
"It's a thorn bush, Luna!"
"That's exactly why we should hide there, quick!"
She didn't let Alphard think over it anymore and dragged him into the bush covering his mouth, in case he screamed, or something if the thorns pricked him.
"How the hell did these find us!?" Alphard whispered when she let go of him.
"These aren't from here. Someone's after us, that's the only explanation." She peeked from behind the bushes.
After some 15 minutes from when they left the cave, Alphard had heard low growls from behind him and Luna was walking a few feet ahead of him.
He immediately intimated Luna and it took less than a minute for her to spot the wild dogs and here they were, taking cover behind the thorn bushes.
Peeking out, Luna spotted a fire ant colony close to where the dogs were. She calculated the odds and concluded that they can scare the dogs away.
Yes, we can if we could somehow manage to bring down the anthill all at once! She thought.
"Good idea, we can bring it down by crashing something into it, why not maybe the dogs themselves?" Alphard suggested.
"Great." Luna agreed.
She took a pack of meat out of her bag and wrapped a juicy slice in a big leaf which Alphard managed to get his hands on from a nearby plant. Then Alphard threw it over and it landed perfectly below the anthill.
The smell of the meat hit their snouts really fast and within moments Alphard and Luna saw the dogs fighting each other to get the slice for themselves. Hell broke loose and so did the hill, soon the dogs were scratching themselves to get rid of the ants that were probably crawling over their bodies and into their snouts now.
Alphard and Luna shook hands at their success.
The two of them crawled out of the bushes carefully after the dogs had ran in the opposite direction to save themselves and began walking towards Alphard's place. They weren't far from it, the suburbs were now in sight.
"Be careful it's slippery here," Alphard cautioned.
It's been raining since that day Luna was attacked in the forest. She nodded in response and they made their way through the forest. Despite the warning Luna slipped and gasped in horror from the sudden loss of balance.
Alphard caught her before she hit the ground. His right arm on her back and the other holding her by her right arm, while both of hers were over his chest. Their eyes met and it felt like the world didn't exist anymore.
Alphard leaned a bit forward. She was ready to pull him down, but was suddenly reminded of the surroundings they were in.
"Stop," She whispered, bringing him back to earth.
"Sorry about that," He steadied both himself and her.
"It's no time to be distracted, we should focus. A little carelessness and we might lose the weapon." She breathed. Alphard agreed.
They walked past a few pine trees and coming to stop before a certain one, which was short with an unusually stout trunk, they knew they'd reached the place.
10 feet more and there came in view the back door that they had to unlock.
Alphard used his keys to open the door. The house was unusually silent, it was like it's been abandoned for days.
"What happened here?" Alphard mumbled as he walked in, Luna followed close.
"The store room, it's open." Luna whispered making Alphard notice it too.
They tip toed from around the living room and stood on the sides of the door with their guns ready to shoot on spotting any threat.
"On three, I'll push the door completely open, okay?" Alphard said, as he was standing on the side of door that's hinged to the wall.
"All right," Luna nodded.
"One...two, three!" He pushed the door and Luna barged in, pointing the gun in front of her at nothing in particular.
In the dark room, her eyes caught movement on her left. Alphard switched on the lights just when a gun shot echoed and someone screamed.
Luna looked at Alphard in horror, embracing herself to witness the worse, but sighed with relief on seeing that the bullet had just scraped past his right arm. However the relief lasted only till she turned to look at the one who had delivered the shot. Her eyes widened with terror when she saw two familiar faces lumped on a corner of the room, looking thinner and paler than ever; scared. No need to tell that Alphard was going through the same emotions.
"Dad," He ran to Dorian.
Luna was still in shock and hasn't moved an inch from her spot. Alphard helped the two in front of him to sit properly.
"Luna..." The voice finally shook Luna out of her shock.
"Mom," She ran to Laura and hugged her tight. "What happened here? Who did this to you two?" She cried.
"This isn't the time, Luna. We'll have the answers soon, they need to rest now." Alphard tried pulling her away from Laura.
"No, I'm not leaving her!" Luna exclaimed, sobbing over her mother's shoulder.
"Luna, please. We both know it's the right thing to do."
"No!" Alphard sighed at her response.
He got close to her and put his hands over her shoulders from behind.
"Luna, don't you want to find out who did this to them? Don't you want to dig the person's grave for doing this?" He shifted to her right, she looked at him as he stroked the back of her head with his left hand. "I know you do, I do to, you're not alone in this. Will you?" He put his right hand in front of her. She took his hand and squeezed it gently, he smiled lightly. "Come on now," He stood up.
They got to Dorian's room first and cleaned it. They made the bed and also spread clean sheets over the couch in the room which was pretty large and comfy to sleep in, then they prepared Alphard's room in the same way.
They brought Laura to Alphard's room and Dorian to his own. Luna and Alphard decided to sleep on the couches of the respective rooms their parents were in. Since the house had no spare rooms, this was the only way.
"The weapons, let's leave them in one place so one of us stays awake while the other can rest." Luna suggested.
"All right,"
They brought the sheild and the sword in the same bag and placed clothes over it, covering the precious thing. Luna stayed on watch as Alphard rested for a while.
He woke up after a short nap and went to check on Luna. She was lying on the couch with the bag under her head and looking at her mother's sleeping figure. Alphard walked into the room drawing Luna's attention to him.
"How's he?" She asked.
"Same as her," He sat down beside her as she sat up and wrapped his arms around her.
"Dad. He's not here, I'm afraid he's responsible for___" Luna began, but Alphard cut her off.
"Shh, don't think about anything. Even if your dad did this, we all know it's not him, he's under someone's control. Just rest for now, we'll start immediately after they regain their strength, okay?" He ran a comforting hand over her back.
"Okay. I don't think I'd be able to sleep now, I'll go prepare something for them to eat. You keep an eye on the weapons," She got up.
"You stay, I'll take care of the food." He pulled her back down. "At least you'll get to stretch and relax your muscles by lying down." He gave her a little peck and went down to the kitchen. As he prepared the food, his mind raced about the possible odds. He came back up to Luna with a plate and found her asleep on the couch, using the bag as a pillow. He smiled to himself and walked to her side, placing the plate on the bedside table. "I don't know if I'd be able to stay this strong after all that you've ever gone through. Starting from your childhood till date, you've seen more hardships than happiness. You're strong, Luna, very strong." He leaned down and kissed her forehead, then left the room with the plate of food to check on Dorian.
"Alphard..." Dorian breathed the moment he entered the room.
"Dad," Alphard ran to him and helped him sit. "How're you now?"
"Better...Laura..how's...Lau___"
"She's asleep in my room, Luna is with her." He supported Dorian's back with a pillow. "Eat something," Alphard gave him the plate with pancakes and some syrup.
"Water..." Dorian asked.
After that he ate some pancakes and wanted to see Laura. Alphard helped his father to his room. Luna woke up to Alphard's voice as he talked to Dorian. She stood up and helped Dorian to the couch.
"You shouldn't have left the bed, uncle." Luna said.
"I'm fine," He took deep breaths then continued. "Didn't she wake up even once?" Luna shook her head in a no gesture.
"Dad, what happened after we left?" Alphard asked.
"Where is dad?" Luna asked Dorian. Alphard sensed a mixture of guilt and anger rising within her. He got to her side and rubbed her arms to calm her down.
Dorian looked at them confused, which cleared almost as immediately as it came.
"You two came in through the back door? Through the forest?" He asked.
Now both of the young people frowned.
"Yes," Alphard answered.
"That's why you don't know..." He sighed.
"What's it?" Luna asked.
"Our Mayor's been missing for two days now,"
"What!?" Luna felt a pang in her chest.
"Suberswills is in shambles." He coughed. "We were awaiting your arrival. With your father gone missing and mother in this state, the town's ruling falls into your hands now." Luna ran to her mother and lifted her sleeve up.
"He lives, he's alive." She sighed in relief on seeing the wolfmark on her mother's arm. Alphard hugged her in consolation. "I accused him, Alphard. God knows the state he's in now." She sobbed. "Tell us the whole thing," She asked Dorian after pulling away from Alphard.
"After we left the workspace, we came straight here and in a few minutes learnt that Alphard was now capable of starting mind connections. Will said he'd a meeting and your parents prepared to leave after a light breakfast, but before they could, he started having headaches and throbbings in his temples. He said it was how it felt when the person after Alphard contacted him the first time."
"Those men tried to contact him again?" Alphard asked.
"Yes. He tried blocking it the best he could and fell unconscious after fighting for a long time. Just when he opened his eyes, we heard loud bangings on the front door, within seconds we were surrounded by shifters with loaded guns. They injected so much silver into our system that we haven't found our beasts within till now."
"That's why we didn't feel your presence in the house?" Alphard asked, Dorian nodded.
"They began searching the place for Alphard and we used the moment to sneak Laura into the store room. As it isn't visible from the outside when it's closed, we thought it was the safe place. When they found the house empty, they tortured us. On finding no use, they hit me with something on the back of my head and I blacked out. When I opened my eyes they were gone. They'd taken Will with them. I limped to the store room and found Laura where we'd left her; weaker than ever. I took out the gun I kept there for emergency, in case someone came back. I attempted to shoot you because we're still weak and aren't able to feel the energy of another shifter."
"Will..." Laura mumbled.
"Mom," Luna sat on the edge of the bed. "I'll bring your mate back, I'll bring dad back. I promise." She embraced her mother.
"Promise me you'll come back safe too," Laura stroked Luna's hair.
"I promise you her safety," Alphard spoke, Laura opened her arms and Alphard joined Luna in her mother's embrace.
"We need a solid plan to carry this mission out," Luna pulled away and so did Alphard. "We'd need Greg's help for that,"
"What're you planning to do?" Alphard asked.
"He's the only one apart from us who knows that you're a Wolverales and after all this I'm sure he knows that you're the Wolverales under chase and with all this going on in the town we need to know if he'd told anybody else about it; we'll plan our next move accordingly." She took a deep breath and mind contacted Greg.
"Luna! Finally! You need to come back as soon as possible!" He said the moment the contact was established.
"I'm aware of the situation of our town, that's the very reason I'm contacting you. Have you said anything about Alphard to anyone?" Luna got straight to the point.
"No, I remembered how you asked not reveal his identity to anyone and realised that it wasn't just a part of his training, but something else too, I even took care of the documents that were used to appoint him, nothing will be revealed about him through the agency."
"Good, we need your help in bringing my father back,"
"Anything for the royal family."
"Thank you, Greg. I and Alphard will be at the agency in 20, after which I want a press meet arranged."
"Will be arranged." They cut the contact.
Alphard and Luna took a few bites of the pancakes and were off with the bag they had the weapons in. They managed to get to the agency, dodging the reporters and were in Greg's office in no time.
Luna explained what she wanted to do, both Alphard and Greg agreed to it. They found that Greg still thought of Alphard to be a human, who now knew about werewolves. They decided to keep it that way for now and hid from him the fact that he was Luna's destined mate.
"Thanks a lot Greg," Alphard said.
"I'm glad that I would be of some help," He placed an assuring hand over Alphard's right shoulder.
"Lemme get to my cabin for a quick check." Luna left the men down and took the bag with her to her cabin.
She placed the sheild in a safe that she owned. It was indestructible and needed her heart rate scan to be opened. However, the sword was not hers to pick up, it wouldn't budge unless its owner handled it. Alphard felt it.
"It's taking her long, lemme go bring her down. You check on the reporters," Alphard excused himself from Greg and got to Luna's cabin.
"Good that you came," Luna began.
"I felt it," He got to the safe and placed the sword in. When he was done he looked at her and found her looking at him, thinking about something. "What?"
"Did you notice that something strange has been happening to us since last night? I mean, after what happened between us last night." She asked.
"Not really, what happened?"
"We're hearing each other's thoughts,"
"Are we?" Alphard frowned.
"Yes, back in the forest, I was just thinking about bringing the anthill down, but didnt say it out loud. You heard it. Now, you should've only felt that I'm having trouble with something, how did you know exactly that it was because I wasn't able to lift the sword up?" She asked.
"That's true, though. Have you heard anything that I'd been thinking?" He asked.
"No, but we can try. I think we hear those thoughts of the other which we wish they did. Like how I wanted you to be here and you heard it,"
"Let's try then." He kept his expression calm and continued. "What am I thinking now?"
"That we should've got mom's signature to get our plan to work?" She asked being a little uncertain.
"Exactly!"
"See, I told you." She smiled. "And yeah, I took care of that, we have her signed consent."
"Good, let's go." They locked the safe and left the cabin.
Luna got out of the agency along with Greg and Alphard and found the press meet arranged for her as she wanted. Kel and Darcy were there too. Luna answered to the questions the reporters asked and kept in mind to keep the whole mark of evil and Flake of Alverales thing out of conversation as she'd did with Greg too.
"Ms. Royalves, you suspect someone?" A reported asked.
It's time to put the plan into action. She thought.
"I do. This whole fuss started with some men trying to get their hands on the next Alpha of the Wolverales pack. Our town is a small one and apart from the members of the royal family; including me, only two other people knew that the Wolverales were back in town. If anyone, then it's them who've been giving information to the villains." She scanned the crowd.
"Why did they capture Mr. Royalves when the current Alpha of the Wolverales pack was present at the sight of attack? The Wolverales under chase is his son after all." Another reported asked.
"During the chaos, Mr. Royalves managed to send the one under chase safely out of the house, while doing so he was seen whispering something in the boy's ear, which could possibly be the place to hide in, so the men took him instead of Mr. Wolverales." She lied as part of the plan.
"Who are the ones you suspect? Shifters?" The first reporter asked.
"One a known shifter and the other a human who just moved to our town and knows a lot about our kind for his own good. They're here among us now, I'll have them under interrogation as soon as I take charge as the temporary May___"
"Ms. Royalves, the paper work is done and you're now the town's Mayor till Mr. Royalves returns." Mayor's secretary announced.
"Now that you're in your father's place, will we get to know who the traitors are?" Another reporter asked.
Luna pursed her lips. It was becoming hard for her, the more she thought, the more worse she felt. Then she felt a familiar voice ringing in her head.
"For uncle Will, for your father. You can do it, you have to, Luna."
"For dad, for the mayor of Suberswills town. I can do it, I'll have to. I'll do it, Alphard."
She took her gun out and turned around to face Greg and Alphard. Kel and Darcy were looking at her, confused and were in shock, Greg and Alphard looked the same.
"Agent Kelvin, agent Darcy, bring in the handcuffs." Luna ordered. "Greg, Alphard, you're both under arrest."
__________
Author's Note:
Hi everyone!
How're you doing? All good? Yep, good!
Alphard and Greg are to be thrown into the cell and the plot's going to get more interesting from here on, stay tuned, 'cause a lot of suspense is on the way ;-)
Read my other stories on Wattpad #Crowded Silence (completed) #Holding On to Silence Until; You Came Along (ongoing)
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