Moonless

Chapter 36

AN; Hi guys! Sorry, this was late. I seer have just been a little too much in my head lately. Anyways, hope you like this chapter and sorry for that horrid chapter I gave you last week. I rushed it and it showed😭 Anyways, 478 votes ——————————————————-

Beatrice stood from the bed and hurried over to one of the wooden trucks. While she did, I noticed that she was favoring her left leg very heavily. She flung it open and retrieved an old brown coat from  and quickly slipped it onto her shoulders.

The twins had stopped their game and were now looking at Beatrice with wide and curious eyes.

She began to dig through the chest for something else. She had just pulled out a scarf when  Benedick came up behind her and gently pushed the trunk closed before taking a seat on it.

Beatrice glared at him. "Benney get off!" she said through her gritted teeth. "Three are dead because of me, I cant have it become 4, 6, or 12 more!" she attempted to shove him off, but no matter how hard she pushed his large, wiry frame did not budge under her efforts.

Benedick shook his head, and his long black hair swished from side to side. "Can not do Bee. First off we are miles away and there is no way you are walking out of here without any resistance. Secondly, your leg is still hurt, and thirdly if there are cameras around here you are going to get caught."

"My leg is fine, a healer came and treated it when we were locked up in those awful cells. But what am I supposed to do then!? Can we really stand by and do nothing while our family dies!?"

"If it means I don't have to stand by and watch you die, yes. We can't do anything. We just to have faith in the Alpha, but more importantly faith in them."

The sounds of footsteps echoing off the narrow staircase caused us all to freeze. Benedick stood from the trunk and Beatrice promptly shed her coat.

Our eyes collectively swung to the other side of the cluttered room, and it was then that I noticed that the glowing visage of Liam had disappeared.

Hadn't he had "news" to give me?

I had been so preoccupied with my friends that I had dismissed Liam. Now, I had a bad feeling that maybe I should have stopped to hear what he had to say.

Conner and Carol appeared in the stairwell. They were both dressed in fancy dress clothes with Carol in a golden dress and Connor in a black suit. Conner's head appeared to be extra shiny and I thought, with some amusement, if he had shinned it.

Carol had her arms full of dresses and suits which she promptly threw on the nearest cot, while Conner chucked a couple pairs of shoes on the ground at our feet.

"Can't believe that this is what I have been reduced to. Bring shoes to the Lunera scum."

"Pardon me? What are these for?" I asked, making sure to keep my head low and submissive. It was always a risk to ask questions. So, one had to be careful when asking them.

Connor's head jerked in my direction and he sneered at me, "Nothing for you," he looked around while he addressed the rest of us. "The Alpha's heart has warmed up, so he decided to let you all attend the Christmas Eve party he is hosting. Well, except 23, due to her insolence involving her work."

"Were they able to find Alpha Damien's mate?" Beatrice blurted out abruptly and the room became deathly silent.

I felt like I was going to be sick.

Beatrice what did you just do!? Are you trying to get yourself in trouble?? At that moment I really hoped it was true that she was Alpha Damien's mate and they knew it.

Conner's eyes narrowed and he took a step towards her. The creaking floorboards under his feet sounded like gunshots in my ears.

"Who told you that?" he demanded.

Carol let out a loud groan. "Who cares? It's freezing up here and we have a million things to do, come on let's go! We have to get them changed."

Conner swung his gaze towards Carol. "No, I want to know! They need to be punished for spying!"

"Come on, it really doesn't matter. We can find out later!" Her eyes swung over us. "All of you get dressed now, we have no time to waste!" she barked.

The others began to change into the clothes without another word. Beatrice changed into a long forest green gown. When she removed her pants, I could see that her lower right leg was wrapped in clean white bandages. Conner stared at her the entire time she changed. Even though Beatrice did her best to hide it, I could tell that it was making her extremely uncomfortable, by the way, she kept turning her body to hide. The boys did their best to shield her by changing in front of her with gray suits, but Conner had a significant amount of height on them, and just had to crane his neck to see over them.

Meanwhile, I herded the twins away from Conner's perverse gaze and quickly changed them into matching white sweaters with short red shirts.

"Come on let's go!" Carol barked and snapped her fingers in the air. Everyone filed out, each giving me a background glance before leaving. Conner attempted to linger behind, probably to make a threatening comment to me, but Carol was having none of it.

"Come on let's go!" She barked, shoving Conner towards the door. "I have a picture of a dead Luna to find and thirty broken plates to deal with. And YOU need to go help with our ongoing problem in the woods!"

And just like that, they were gone, and I was left alone in the attic.

I crossed my arms over my chest and shivered. The attic suddenly felt much colder without anyone here. I took out some homework and began to work on it. But in less than two hours, I was all caught up.

With nothing else to do, I began to explore the attic. And much to my delight, I found a box full of books stuffed behind a stack of broken wooden chairs. I dug through Jane Austin and Shirley Jackson before I selected a dog-eared copy of The Scarlet Letter.

I laid down on one of the cots and cracked open the book.

Somewhere between Hester and Pearl visiting the governor's mansion and Chillingworth proclaiming that Dimmesdale should live with him, I drifted off to sleep.

I was startled awake out of a deep sleep by something heavy being dropped on the floor.

The room was dark and as my eyes began to adjust, I saw that someone was standing in the doorway. And that someone appeared to be Grayson.

The sounds of murmured voices, laughter, and music floated up from under us.

"What are you doing here?" I asked sitting up on my cot. "Aren't you supposed to be on your flight?"

"I don't think I'm who you think I am," Alpha Luka replied coolly.