"No! Let go of me!"
"So soon? No, you're going to have to watch from where you're as we play with her."
"You lay a finger on her, I swear I'll behead you!"
"You're talks are too much for someone who's tied up with chains,"
He watched as the man in front of him moved towards his mate who was unconscious and tied to a pole. The man slapped her across the face, then raised his hand and grabbed her shirt. The others standing around them started laughing at his helplessness.
"I'm the one you want, let her go!" He yelled.
"It's because of her that us meeting got this much delayed. It wouldn't be fair if I don't return the favor now, would it be?" The man said and pushed himself towards her.
"No!!"
"Alphard!" Someone called from beside him.
"Let go!" He yelled.
"Wake up!!!" He opened his eyes when someone slapped him and came face to face with Luna. She hugged him tightly. "It's all right, it was just a bad dream. Breathe, breathe..." She whispered in his left ear and ran her hand over his back.
It was only 1 am when Luna had woken up to faint grunting beside her. She saw Alphard sweating as his hands clutched the bedsheets and both of his brows almost touching each other in a frown. His body was shaking and he kept throwing his head from side to side as if wanting to free himself from something he's been tied to.
He pulled her close against his chest and buried his face in the crook of her neck, inhaling deeply before letting the breath out.
"I won't let anything happen to you," He mumbled against her neck.
"Nothing will happen, calm down. I'm here, with you." She stroked his head. "We can talk about it if you want to." She pulled away a bit to look at him.
"Not now, maybe in the morning." He said.
"All right then, try to sleep now." She wiped his face.
He smiled.
"How can I wake up to this and go back to sleep?" He looked at her pressed against him, covered with the bedsheets and ran his fingers over her arm.
They were both lying beside each other in a state of nature from last night.
Alphard knew he wouldn't be able to sleep after the nightmare he had. He didn't want to sleep and risk having to experience the trauma again, he needed a distraction that'd take his mind off of the dream and Luna understood him more than anyone now.
"If it calms you down," Luna lifted her chin up with her eyes closed.
**********
"I cannot recognise my own self." Alphard mumbled, looking at his reflection in the mirror.
He had dark circles around his eyes that made him look like a masked animal, Luna was wondering which animal should she compare her mate with for the situation.
"Aww, you still look handsome." Luna teased.
"I'm not believing that because you're biased when it comes to me." He continued to stare at the mirror and Luna laughed beside him.
"Laugh, laugh. Why wouldn't you? I wasn't able to sleep all night and now I look like ___"
"A Powder Blue Surgeonfish!" She exclaimed.
"A what?" He scowled making her laugh more.
"Yep, that's definitely the right animal to compare you with."
"A fish?"
"Yeah, a blue coloured fish with mask around its eyes. It's called a surgeonfish so I'm gonna call you that."
"I'm not even gonna ask why." He huffed in annoyance.
"Because you're a surgeon and it is called that because it has a certain scale near its tail that's as sharp as a scalpel."
"I said I'm not going to ask also, no need to remind me that my knowledge when it comes to wildlife is zero, okay? I know it's null." He buttoned up the shirt he'd on and heard Luna laugh behind him as he walked out of the room.
They fell asleep around 3 in the morning and had woken up at 6. Alphard didn't get enough sleep though his eyes were shut. After having had taken the shower, it was now time for them to discuss what has to be done next.
Luna brushed her hair and walked out too. She'd gotten extra food yesterday, Alphard had taken it out of the fridge and heated before bringing it out to the lobby. They ate in silence and carried the rest to the clinic for their parents.
Camille had just woken up and the others were still asleep. Luna helped Camille to the bathroom and then fed her too while Alphard checked on Will.
By 9 am everybody were up and ready to go through the details of what was to be done.
"What happened to you?" Dorian asked Alphard. He looked at Luna not wanting to talk about it, but knew he'd eventually have to.
"He had nightmares last night." Luna said.
Alphard took up on telling all that he saw and rubbed his hands over his face, sighing heavily. The room fell silent until Camille broke it.
"You're still going to hunt that evil beast down? I mean, after what you saw? The same may, or may not happen while you come face to face with them." She asked.
"Of course, mom. I'm not going to back away 'cause of some bad dream. That beast must be taken down before more damage is done." That being said Alphard looked at Luna as it was she who was being tortured in his dream.
"We aren't going to back away 'cause of some silly dream." Luna clasped her right hand with his left, smiling at him.
"Then it's time," Camille breathed before continuing. "It wasn't just a bad dream, my children." She addressed both Alphard and Luna.
"Then?" Laura asked.
"It was the call."
Alphard and Luna looked at each other then back at his mother. She let the silence hang, buying them time to process what she'd said.
"Call for?" Luna asked.
"When those with the evil mark set out to flow blood like water, the ones to defeat them are put to test. You were put to test with a threat to your mate's safety, Alphard." Camille explained. "It's also the call that you'd have to start on the path soon. Seeing that your determination didn't faze, I can say that you passed."
"What about Luna?" He asked thinking why she hadn't got the call.
"I'm your protector, Alphard. I don't need to be called to protect you." Luna stated.
"That's exactly the reason, why she didn't experience what you did, Alphard." Camille reinforced Luna's statement. "So how are you planning to do this?"
"We need a team to fight with us, it'd be foolish of us to step into his territory without a back up. We saw that he has shifters guarding him at the white continent." Luna said.
"For that we'd need to tell people the truth, only then will they fight for us." Alphard reasoned.
"And that cannot be done, ugh." Luna added.
"Why do we need more people? Aren't we enough?" Will asked.
"We?" Alphard and Luna said in unison.
"Yeah, we six and Greg, if he wants to, that is."
"Let's think about Greg later, but are you seriously suggesting that we take you four with us, dad?" Luna asked.
"Why not?"
"Okay, let's say we consider you and dad, uncle Will. But the ladies?" Alphard asked.
"We've beasts within too," Both the ladies said.
"Mom!?" The two youngsters exclaimed.
"Ask Greg as soon as you can." Dorian said, leaving no room for arguments.
"Fine, I'll leave for the agency in an hour." Luna groaned.
An hour later Luna, along with all the others left the workspace and made their way home while she walked to the agency. There she went straight to Greg's cell and took him out to the forest as she wanted to 'continue the search for the kidnapped Mayor with the suspect', the suspect himself didn't question, that is until they were out of hearing range.
"Where's Alphard?"
"I'm taking you to him," Luna answered and they made their way to the Wolverales place through the forest.
On reaching there, Luna did her rhythmic knocking on the back door, that Alphard and Dorian immediately understood it was her. Dorian opened the door and they walked in closing it behind them. Greg saw all those sitting on the couch in the living room.
"Mr. Royalves?" He asked.
Luna and Alphard told him how they'd come to find Will and what they'd decided.
"Now it's time. Will you join us, Greg?" Alphard asked. "You're not in compulsion, you can deny if you don't want to."
"I've always wanted to be in the middle of a battlefield, you know. With an armour on, a sword in one hand and a shield in another."
"Can't you just say yes, or no?" Luna asked growing impatient by the second.
"Yes, definitely yes. I'm on it."
"Great." Luna mumbled. "Now we'd have to figure where he's hiding." Just as she said that, something in her back pocket buzzed.
She knew it wasn't her phone because she'd it in her hand. She digged into the pocket and pulled out a chain. Alphard looked at it with widened eyes.
He recognised it.
It was the same chain they'd used to track down the path which led them to the one with the evil mark. Luna processed what was happening again.
It buzzed.
It could be a tracker!
She calmed herself down and opened the locket. It left her speechless, but at the same time relief washed over her. It wasn't a tracker.
It was some kind of a communication device through which those people probably kept updating each other. She knew it because there was now a map of some other city in place of the one they'd visited before. She showed it to Alphard.
"I think we know the place we're to go to." Alphard said.
"Dad, we'd need your private jet and uncle, I hope you're still as good as the pilot you once were." Luna asked. Dorian nodded, Luna continued. "All right then, I'll go get Olivia." Luna set to leave.
"What do you need her for?" Greg asked.
"Not to battle with them, relax. It's just that we're all with our mates, but you..." She trailed.
She's been feeling bad since the beginning that Greg's been kept away from his mate for them. Her feeling only worsened when they found Camille, even Dorian had his mate back now, but Greg.
"It's a big thing you trusted me over your best friends with this secret, Luna. I know you did it because as an aged and experienced beast I'd have more control over myself compared to the young ones that your friends are, but when it comes to Olivia, I simply don't think it's a good idea."
"Mates are each other's strength Greg," Luna said.
"Yes, but she can be a easy target for them, getting into her head can be as simple as connecting to a child mind and I will not risk the life of our Alpha, especially when he's from the only powerful pack of the town, you know with you two being mates and your packs merging." Greg stated, then added. "At least we're mated for life, but this needs to end at once so you two can mate and that doesn't make me the only one suffering, if that's what's nagging you."
Alphard got to Greg and gave him a little hug. That took Greg by surprise, but then he patted Alphard's back before he pulled away.
"I know how it feels to be away from one's mate, thank you." Alphard said, Greg just nodded with a smile.
Luna reached and placed her hands on Greg's and Alphard's shoulders, smiling at them as an act of gratitude.
"I'll go hold a press meet so that the civilians and the authorities know what's going on and we can leave as soon as possible." Luna took in a deep breath.
"Okay," Alphard gently squeezed her hand over his shoulder.
"Keep in mind the three important things of this mission until we leave the town. One. Alphard Volvomaks is dead. Two. Camille Wolverales died in an accident all those years ago. Three. We're leaving the town for some days as we suspect that Will Royalves is being held hostage in some other country. The last one is the important one." She reminded and walked out of the house.
At the agency, she asked for a meet to be arranged and officially announced that she along with her mother and Dorian will be going on the search with Greg still as the marked suspect. She also announced that during her absence the mayor's secretary will be in charge of all the political needs and duties to be carried out. She made sure that she pressed on the fact that Will must be brought back soon, because he's the only one who knows where the 'Wolverales boy' is hiding.
From there she went straight to Alphard's place and they settled in to talk about how they're planning to sneak Camille, Alphard and Will into the plane without anyone suspecting. Luna thought of ways they can do it and suddenly her eyes fell on the cardboard boxes under the staircase on the left side of the living room. Those boxes were of electronic appliances from when the Wolverales had moved back to Suberswills. She grinned on figuring everything out.
"What?" Laura asked.
She grinned more and answered, knowing the ones to be hidden will be opposing her idea, if Camille doesn't, at least the two men would definitely go against Luna on this.
"Dad, the washing machine. Alphard, the fridge. Aunt Camille, the air conditioner.
__________
Author's Note:
Hey all!
So the call's here and it's time they answered. *I know it's a bad one* hehe. Lemme know how the chapter was by commenting.
Read my other stories on Wattpad #Crowded Silence (completed) #Holding On to Silence Until; You Came Along (ongoing)
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