Brooke's POV
It had to be a miracle, though Jace seemed to think otherwise. Somehow, I had made an immense recovery, which could not have even been possible with my werewolf healing. My physical health had certainly taken a turn for the better, for I barely had to use to wheelchair to move around anymore. I could now move about without much assistance. I was glad for this, as I found my injuries to be a nuisance. The doctors at the pack house had been baffled at my strange recovery, and as I said before, it had to be a miracle.
Jace did not think so though. He concluded that the Moon Goddess must have healed me, because she wanted to me to hurry complete the little mission she assigned me. Jace took this as a bad sign. He claimed that since the Moon Goddess wanted me to hurry up with this, it was probably a very major issue, and the war, would most likely happen soon. Really soon.
I walked over to my closet. Wracking my brains, I looked through each rack, hoping to find the perfect dress for the meeting. If this was an ordinary meeting, I surely would not be stressing too much on what to wear. But today was different. Just this morning, Jace had informed me of what he was planning to do during the meeting. He wanted to introduce me to the pack.
True, there were quite a handful of werewolves in the pack whom I have already met before. However, there were still many who did not, and Jace insisted on introducing me to his pack as Luna. I had no choice but to agree, seeing as he had already planned it out. This does not necessarily mean that I was not against the idea, because I most definitely am. It only meant that I only agreed because I had no choice but to do so.
I continued doing the same routine I was doing earlier – check, evaluate, toss. I glanced at the next dress. No, it was too formal. Toss.
The next dress was a cute pink number. It was not really suitable for this occasion though. With a sigh, I threw it carelessly on the ground.
I was fortunate that the next dress was the one I decided on wearing. The meeting started in ten minutes, and I did not want to waste time choosing an outfit. The dress was a pale green, with a strip of dark green at the bottom of the dress. It was paired along with a brown belt. It may appear simple, but it was however, perfect for that occasion. I slipped on the dress and hurried along to join Jace in the meeting room.
He smiled upon seeing me, and naturally, I smiled back. The tingling feeling that I felt down my spine when he smiled, did not go unnoticed by me. I walked over to him.
“Oh, by the way, we need to act like a couple to avoid any misunderstandings or confusion.” He said it so fast, and so soft that I wouldn’t be able to hear it, if I weren’t a werewolf. I was flabbergasted at his sentence, as well as annoyed. He looked at me pleadingly. Seeing as it was a bad idea, I was just about to say ‘no’. I never got the chance to, when the pack members started to arrive. They filled up the seats one by one.
Sighing, I shot Jace a look that said ‘we’ll talk about this later’. He snaked an arm around waist. I jumped a little from the contact. Over the months that I had known Jace, we had rarely experienced any physical contact with each other. I had tried to limit it, even. Hence, the sparks that shot through my skin, had shocked me. Firstly, because I was not used to it. Secondly, because I never expected it to be so intensified. Another probable reason might be that I did not expect him to really put up the facade of us as a couple.
It was not that I did not like it, however. In reality, I loved it. I loved the way his arm was around me. I loved how we were so close. I loved how we were going to act like a couple, except, I did not want it to be an act. I would never tell Jace that. With the war, and the other problems going on, I could not let the problems of my relationship with Jace get in the way.
There was not at all time for drama. Maybe, hopefully, after all this has been settled and blown over, then I could consider our relationship status.
Jace cleared his throat, and instantly the whole room went silent. I was in awe, of Jace’s power, for I never really experienced it first hand before. It was indeed amazing.
Only then, did I come to realize where exactly we were. Standing in front of a huge crowd of about a thousand people had my nerves sent into a frenzy. It certainly did not help at all that I hated to be the center of attention especially in a crowd as big as this one.
I found myself burying my head into Jace’s chest, my face heating up. He seemed to sense my discomfort, and his arm tightened a little around my waist, as if to assure me he was there. I smiled gratefully at Jace, and he returned it with a smile of his own.
“I have organized this meeting, for two main reasons. One of which, is to introduce my mate. Yes, indeed I have found her,” Jace gestured to me, then continued by saying, “This is Brooke, and she will be your Luna.” I looked up at the crowd, doing my best to appear brave, though I was sure most of the pack members saw through my act.
I smiled hesitantly at them. They erupted into cheers and applause, which made my smile become even wider. I heaved a sigh of pure relief. They accepted me. It was the best piece of news I received in all my life. Even Jace, as serious as he seemed, managed a grin.
“You will get to meet her later. Currently, however, we have a very serious matter to attend to, which involves all of you here.” With a single sentence, all the cheers, laughter, and all traces of happiness in the room, died down instantly. Jace’s tone had obviously scared most of them, and they all sat in their seats, fearfully waiting for the news. They looked at us expectantly.
I began to speak. “The Moon Goddess appeared to me a few days ago, in a dream. She sent me this vision. You do not need to know the specific details of it, except for the one part that shows… that shows…” I could not bring myself to say the words. I could not.
Thankfully, Jace realized, and said it for me. “That shows a war.”
That was it. The news was out. There was no doubt at all that the pack members were all shocked and worried. I felt the same way. Gasps were heard, and soon, whispers broke out within the large crowd. Their reaction was expected, and the worried look on everybody’s faces had me worried as well. I realized that so many of them here, might die, and if they did not die, their family members probably will.
I looked at the little children in the room. They might lose their father. The mothers, some would end up without their mates, and some, without their children. I knew how they felt. I had, after all, lost my entire family.
“Of course, safety measures will be carried out, and most of you here will have to fight.” Jace spoke up. “Now, I want the mated females, children below sixteen, and the elderly above 55, to follow the Beta out of the room. He will show you where to hide, when the time comes.”
Nobody dared to disagree, though I could hear many people who started to protest. They wanted to fight, as I did. I heard them telling each other how they would not stand to sit there and watch their mates and other werewolves fight. They wanted to fight.
Jace turned to me. “Brooke, I need you to follow them. You will have to know where to hide as well.”
Immediately, I protested. “Jace, we’ve been through this. I’m fighting.”
“No, you’re not. I agreed to teach you defense moves so that you can protect yourself. I never said that you will be fighting. You will be staying in hiding.” From his tone of voice, I could tell he was serious about this, and that he will not change his mind about this.
He made a point there though. He had not said anything about me fighting, nor had I asked. There was no way I could argue with that.
“Pleaseee Jace?” I started to plead.
He shook his head firmly. “No, Brooke. Go with Cayden.” That was the end of our discussion. Seeing as he would not change his mind, I had no choice but to do as he was told. I found Taylor in the crowd, and went to join her. While I was complaining about not getting to fight, Taylor was glad she did not have to. She hated any form of exercise, especially learning how to fight. In this sense, Taylor and I were polar opposites.
Sighing, I followed Cayden with the rest of the werewolves out of the room. We were led to the back of the pack house. “What I’m about to show you is top secret. This is something you can never tell to anyone outside of this pack.” We nodded in response to Cayden’s words. He walked towards a small rosebush. Reaching his hand underneath it, he pressed a small green button that was easily camouflaged with the green leaves of the plant. Almost at once, a latch on the ground popped up. He lifted the latch to reveal a secret gateway. I looked at it in awe. The surprises this pack house has in it, is indeed amazing.
“All of you will have to hide here, when the rogues attack. It is very important that you ensure nobody is watching you when you enter in here. If the rogues find you, there will be a passage way in there that you can escape from. It is located behind the bookshelf. Of course, there will be a few werewolves in there, to protect you.” Cayden said, looking at the crowd in front of us.
“All of you will hide in here, except for the Luna and Beta Female.” As soon as those words left Cayden’s mouth, all eyes were on me and Taylor. I fiddled with my fingers, not liking the attention at all. “You will hide in the same place as you did before.”
With that, the mini meeting we had, adjourned.
I turned around to leave, deciding to hang out with Taylor for a bit. But not before Cayden called me back. He reached into his pocket and produced a crumpled up piece of paper. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. Why was he showing me this?
Then, I realized what that paper showed. It was the map of the entire world, with little X’s marked on it, kind of like the ones on treasure maps, on various parts of the map. “These are the places where the Oracle lived?” I took a guess.
Cayden nodded. “I managed to find out where he lived, so far. But there doesn’t seem to have a pattern.”
“What are those numbers at the borders of the map?” I pointed at them for emphasis.
“Those are latitudes and longitudes. They help to locate places on the map.” Cayden explained.
“Ohh… I think I learnt them in Geography class before, but I wasn’t really paying attention…” Cayden chuckled at me.
“Anyway, do you think there could be a pattern, perhaps, that has something to do with the latitudes and longitudes of the map?” I asked Cayden. He nodded in response.
“It could be. I didn’t think of that. I’ll go check it out immediately.” Cayden said. Happy that I managed to get a lead, I smiled widely.
I decided to follow him, and he brought me to the living room. He grabbed his calculator, and started to try and find any pattern that might tell us where the Oracle is staying at currently. “I got it!” Cayden fist pumped into the air.
“That was quick.” I commented, smiling.
He shrugged his shoulders, then proceeded to telling me the pattern. “He would take the square root of a latitude, as the longitude, and as for the latitude, he would add five each time. And he would alternate between East and West, and North and South. A thousand years ago, he was at West and South, so now he’s at East and North. He started off with a latitude of 26 degrees East, and that was approximately eleven thousand years ago. So now, we have to add 55 degrees to 26 degrees, and then you will get the latitude, which is 81 degrees west. Now, I will calculate the longitude. The square root of 81 is 9. So the longitude is 9 degrees North. If my calculations are correct, the Oracle is currently living at Panama.”
I did not understand a word he said at all. In fact, I lost him after the fifth word. Also, I had no idea where Panama is. All I knew is, that we had finally found out where the Oracle lives. He would be an immense help to our little mission. We had to go and find him, as soon as possible.
I turned to Cayden. “Book us some tickets to Panama.”
“We’re going to find the Oracle.”
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So this is Chapter 21 :) I must admit it gave me a headache to write, with the latitudes and longitudes that I had to figure out. (They're actually the real numbers and stuff.)
Anyway, I hope you guys like this chapter. I really have to apologize because the chapters nowadays have been kind of sucky, and really boring. I'm sorry for that. I really hope you like it though :)
Don't forget to vote, fan, comment (Do you like it?)
Thank you so much for reading!
I love you all:)
~claudia