Moonless

Chapter 26

AN; Hey first off, I reached and surpass my goal and I never realized it. Now I have 1,303 reads and 216 votes. I needed 210 to update, so true to my word here's the next update l. Now I will be holding the next chapter for 20 more votes, so it means I need 236 votes in total on the entire story to update. Anyway enjoy this chapter, the puzzle is slowly falling into place!
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Liam's gaze swung behind him.

"Told you what?" I asked

He looked back at me and abruptly exploded into a cloud of golden glitter. I covered my mouth to prevent myself from gasping.

What just happened? And what was he going to say before he.. well exploded for lack of better words."

Seconds later footsteps filled my ears, and  Grayson and Carole appeared on the other side of the glass. In his hands, he held my backpack and a couple of other personal items. Carole had a tower of assorted clothes and objects, that I recognized as belonging to Beatrice, Benedick, and Caesar."

She grinned widely at Grayson, and I felt my skin crawl. "Master Grayson, I can't stop thanking you enough for helping me bring all the prison's personal items...I mean our Luneras' stuff."

"No problem Carole, always happy to help."

"Always happy to help?" I mocked inside my head.

"Jealous?"

Shit, I guess I had directed that thought at Grayson by accident.

"No..."

Grayson turned towards Carole, "You are my favorite worker here after all?"

Carole let out a series of giggles and I suddenly had the urge to rip out all of her red hair.

"Oh stop it master Grayson, you're making me blush!" she gushed.

"I think that you are a little jealous. Maybe I shouldn't go to Black Lake."

"Grayson..."

"Whatever doesn't matter. I won't find a mate and I'll come back and we will be done once and for all with this. And I won't have to have to drive myself crazy thinking about you all day..."

Grayson yanked on the glass door, and it swung open with a loud squeak. He stepped into the room and walked over to me. The scent of pine trees and snow floated off his skin. "Here is a change of clothes and your schoolwork. The Alpha wants you all to stay down here for another day to reflect on your actions."

His eyes traveled over me in the dim fluorescence lights, and likewise, mine eyes traveled over his red sweater and ironed khaki pants. It was all I could not touch him with him standing in front of me, and if Carol wasn't gawking at us, I would have.

I took my backpack and an old powder blue sweatshirt and a pair of worn jeans we held in his hands. "Thank you, master Grayson."

"Are you leaving soon?"

"I'm leaving tomorrow in the afternoon. The Alpha is not happy about it, broke the news to him after I asked Alpha Christopher if I could come for a visit...in front of my father. So, I may be a little late tonight."

"Tonight? What time is it right now?"

"It's 10 am, this place is designed so you don't know what time it is."

Some movement caught my eye from beyond Grayson, "My eyes shifted to Carol, just in time to see the massive collection of items in her hand crash to the ground.

Grayson looked over his shoulder at her.  Then turned back to me, before leaving and securing the door behind him. He walked over to Carole and bent down, and began to help her pick up the mess scattered on the ground.

"Can you tell me how my friends are doing?" I asked.

"They are doing just fine. Each cell has a camera pointed at..."

I inhaled sharply. Don't tell me that someone had seen and heard my conversation with Liam?

"I wanted to come down here myself to see you for myself, the camera assigned to your cell has been malfunctioning. It has for the last half hour."

I felt a little relief creep in beneath my skin. But it was short-lived.

"I thought father had done something to you. Or something happened..."

I got a sick feeling in my stomach. I watched him straighten into a standing position.

"I needed you to tell me why my life isn't as valuable as the others."

"Aurelia, I told you I can't."

Did they know I was from the Red Moon pack?

"Don't tell me why they are important, just tell me why I'm not important."

"Come on Carol, let's go ahead and deliver the rest of the stuff to the others," he said while I helplessly watched him begin to walk down the hallway."

"Aurelia, for someone that only came into my life a couple of days ago, you matter so much. But no one cares about you, no one with any power. There are requests for your picture, no baskets ever arrived for you. No one of importance would care if you lived or died. And that's why you aren't valuable to the Alpha. You truly did get into this program on your test scores alone. Your friends didn't."