After that terrifying encounter, Landon took us to what looked like a spacious living room of some sort. The furniture was old-fashioned but had a certain charm I found comfortable.
I was on the verge of passing out. I couldn't believe this was still the same day as Cassie's birthday party. It felt like we'd been here for an entire week.
"What's gonna happen to us?" Cassie asked.
Landon shrugged, "The Alpha and Luna will probably want to meet you."
"What the hell is an Alpha and a Luna?"
"Alpha Ares and Luna Alexandria are the leaders of our pack. They have the final say of what we can do with you. Who knows, they might tell us to feed you to the pups."
I widened my eyes.
"Joking," Landon held up his hands with a slight smile, "We obviously don't eat humans and if we did, we wouldn't eat you two."
"When are we gonna meet this Alpha and Luna?" Cassie asked impatiently.
I looked out the window but of course it was too dark to see anything.
"Not tonight," a voice came from across the room and scared me a little until I saw who it was. It was the healer whose name I didn't know.
"Oh, right," Landon made a face palm, "I forgot, the Alpha and Luna are away visiting another pack."
"So we can go then?" Cassie stood up quickly, smoothed down her wrinkled dress and headed for the exit.
But the healer stepped in her way.
"Not necessarily. You and your sister will sleep here tonight and wait until they arrive in the morning. We have already prepared a room for you down the hall. Landon, would you mind showing our guests to their room?" It was meant to be a chivalrous offer but I couldn't help but want to immediately say no.
Thankfully Cassie shared the same sentiment.
"You expect us to sleep in this dingy, medieval castle that's probably covered in like a million germs? No way." She wrinkled her nose in disgust.
"Germs are the least of your concerns," the healer didn't back down and I wondered what he meant by that. "Landon, please escort them down the hall so they can rest."
"No, we're going home. Right, Landon?" Cassie looked at Landon but he completely ignored her pleas. I was too nervous to say anything. "Right, Landon?" She repeated.
"Come on," Landon tried to sound chipper, "I'll show you to your room."
The healer moved out of the way and Landon forced us to follow him to another unknown place.
.•*•.
Our room had everything we needed. Two king-sized beds, an en-suite bathroom stocked with amenities, a tall cabinet of fresh food and a walk-in closet full of clean unwrinkled clothes. They even guessed our sizes right.
If I didn't know better, I'd say we were in a first class hotel.
Yet I knew they were only doing this because they wanted something from us. They had kidnapped us and locked us in this golden cage without any further explanation of what was going on. All we knew was that we had to meet with this Alpha and Luna.
I changed into the robe they had laid out for us and I wasn't going to lie—it felt so good to get out of that dress. Cassie had taken a bath first while I took one after her. Then I brushed my teeth for ten minutes as I was anxious to clean out what I'd thrown up before. Meanwhile, Cassie was trying to tame her voluminous thicket of hair.
"Look at my hair, it's a total mess." Cassie raked a brush they had given us through her curls and winced as it got caught in the bristles again. She gave up and pulled it up into a bun. "I'll just deal with it in the morning."
I spit my toothpaste out and washed my dry face with a towel. "If we make it that long."
"Don't be morbid, Mad."
I caught my reflection in the mirror and almost wished I hadn't. I'd seen better days. My eyes were bright red and my skin was paler than normal.
As soon as we were done washing up, we climbed into our separate beds and got under the covers.
"Good night," I said.
"'Night,"
I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to sleep even though I was desperate to go home. Outside of family sleepovers, this was the first time I'd slept in an unfamiliar house. I was on edge and terrified of what would come when we woke up.
It was good that our parents were away because they wouldn't have to worry about us going missing and we wouldn't have to get lectured about getting into a stranger's car. But it was also bad because they would've called the police and rescued us by now.
I ended up staring at the ceiling for two more hours. Turned out that Cassie had the same problem.
"Hey, Mad," Cassie whispered in the dark, "Do you believe in the supernatural?"
"You mean werewolves?"
"Yeah."
"You saw what I saw. He changed from a human to a wolf." It happened so fast that it was hard to remember. But we couldn't deny what we had witnessed.
"I'm scared." She admitted and for once, we were on the same page.
"Me, too."
"Do you think if we play along and give them what they want then they'll let us go?"
"But what do they want from us?" I didn't think they wanted to kill us because they would have done it already. They needed us alive but I wasn't sure why.
She didn't reply and after a few more minutes, I could hear her soft snores. My mind was still reeling long after sleep pulled me under. The last thing I heard was the ghostly echo of a howl before the nightmares started.
.•*•.
Breakfast was delivered to our room at nine in the morning. They served us waffles and bagels, deeming it a "typical human meal". Apparently they didn't eat human food and I wondered what they ate instead.
Landon and Drake knocked on our door at ten and their clothes were elevated a little bit more. Landon's hair was gelled back to show off his eyes and Drake shaved all of his facial hair so he looked younger. They said that after we got dressed, they would take us to meet the Alpha and Luna.
Cassie and I obeyed and they escorted us down the stairs and into a throne room of sorts.
Two figures were already seated in the thrones. The man was tall and muscular with striking ice blue eyes while the woman was more petite with bright red hair. Despite how different they seemed to each other, they were both the type of people to command a room.
They stared at us as soon as we entered the room. They studied us, just like everyone else in the room was doing.
I grew very uncomfortable with the amount of eyes on me.
Cassie elbowed me, "Hey, that guy who almost killed you yesterday is here," I followed her line of sight and saw the hot-headed werewolf with his arms crossed. Zack was standing off to the side of the man's throne, not looking very happy.
"Alpha Ares and Luna Alexandria," Landon announced and bowed, "These are Cassandra and Maddeline Aster." Where did he get our full names from?
"Welcome Cassandra and Maddeline, we've heard a lot about you two and are pleased to meet you," Alexandria spoke first and after getting a better look at them, I realized that they both couldn't be much older than Cassie or me.
"Excuse me for my rudeness, Alpha and Luna, but who the hell are these two?" Zack burst out and some more people began to voice their multiple questions.
"Silence!" Ares commanded and everyone immediately stopped talking. "As Archer has told us, we believe that one of you is the Moon Goddess reincarnate."
The room erupted into shocked murmurs once again. What he said was obviously huge but neither Cassie nor I knew why.
"Archer," Ares called and the healer stepped forward, "Tell them what you believe,"
Everyone was dead silent. Cassie and I held our breaths as he would now hopefully explain what we were doing here.
"As most in the room are well aware of, I receive messages from our Goddess pertaining to the future of our pack. For a year now, I have had the same dream—visions of a young woman who was given extraordinary gifts from the moon. This young woman has the ability to fashion mate bonds which leads me to believe that she is the Moon Goddess. Or, perhaps, a reincarnation."
Those words were as good as foreign. I didn't understand anything he said. I didn't know what to make of this.
Werewolves I could believe in based on what my eyes just witnessed with Drake. But Goddesses? That was an entirely different subject.
"Maddeline and Cassandra were brought here because two of our wolves noticed a magnetic pull, which I am certain that you can feel now." Archer explained.
Cassie exchanged a look with me and I could immediately tell what she was thinking based on her facial expression: they're batshit crazy and we need to get out of here.
"Which girl is it?" Ares asked. It was obvious he was buying whatever Archer was selling.
"The Moon Goddess was fabled to have hair as pale as the moon and eyes as rich as the midnight sky." Drake spoke up from behind us. It was clear that description fit Cassie.
"That is one interpretation, yes," said Archer.
"I. . . get these dreams sometimes." Cassie spoke up and I stiffened. I looked at her and she gave me a reassuring look, wanting to handle this by herself and keep me out of it.
"Continue," Ares said.
"They're nightmares, actually," She tucked a piece of hair behind her ear, "They never make any sense but they always have wolves in them."
What was she doing? We both knew that I was the one having nightmares but why tell them that?
"You're sure of this?" Ares asked Archer and he bowed his head.
"In that case they need protection," Alexandria said, "Zack, you'll be responsible for guarding them."
"Begging your forgiveness but there's no way in hell I'm going to guard humans." He objected hotly and I flinched at the hatred in his tone.
"Your Luna gave you an order." Ares announced sharply and Zack winced.
"Yes, Alpha," He said through gritted teeth.
"Landon, Drake," Ares spoke their names and they straightened their backs, "I want you to make sure our guests are comfortable here."
"We aren't staying here," Cassie spoke up, "We have family and friends, not to mention our own lives, to go back to." She looked at Alexandria as it seemed she was the only one who displayed any warmth.
Ares and Alexandria exchanged looks and I noticed that he softened in her presence.
Ares nodded, "We will let you return to your human lives if you agree to be protected by our wolves."
Cassie looked at me and I nodded, just wanting to leave.
"Fine. How soon can we leave?"