The Protected Luna

The Lies Just Keep On Coming

Dimitri

"Yes I'll be sure to pass on the message. No that's not required. If she doesn't return by tonight, I'll send out an amber alert. Most likely she got tied up with whatever it is she's doing and just forgot to call. Yes, okay, that's fine. Thank you Kai, we'll keep you guys posted. Bye,"

"Well, anything?" Mom asked.
"Kai and Kennedy says they haven't seen or heard from Artemis since she came to Celestial Moon to retrieve the pendant," I sighed as I hung up the phone and put it in my pocket. "Goddess knows where she could be. She isn't returning any of my calls and I can't reach her in the mindlink either."

"Such an irresponsible, negligent girl," Deidre said disapprovingly, causing all of us to look at her. "if she was going out, the least she could do is inform someone she was leaving."
"Maybe she was in a hurry and didn't have time to inform anyone," Lana spoke up.
"How long does it take to tell someone you're leaving? Forget about others, couldn't she say something to Dimitri?"

"Deidre this isn't the time to play the blame game," I said as I massaged my temples with my fingers, struggling to remain calm under all this stress. "my mate is missing, we don't know where she is, if she's okay or when she'll be back. We can't sit around and argue about who should've done what. Right now our first priority is finding Artemis and bringing her home."

"Alpha Dimitri!"

Hearing someone shout my name so aggressively, everyone in the room rose to their feet and ran outside where the shout originated from. Just as we exited the packhouse, we all stopped dead in our tracks and stared at the newcomers, shock evident.

Standing in the packhouse courtyard surrounded by eight of their guards were Alpha Caspian and Luna Cassandra.

"Woah, what are they doing here?" Roman wondered.
"I don't know," I murmured. "let's find out."

Stepping forth I prepared to address them, but Luna Cassandra put up her hand to stop me.
"Alpha Dimitri, when you and Luna Artemis came to Sapphire Sea and requested we hand over our pack's amulet to fulfill some prophecy, we initially thought you were out of your mind," she started to say. "then with much persuasion on your end, we gave it to you with the promise to keep it safely."

"We have kept the crown of Sapphire Sea safely Luna Cassandra. It's locked in our vault as we speak," I patiently explained.
"Is that so? Then tell me, why in the name of Selene did I get a call from your pack calling me to Romania because our amulet is in danger?!" she yelled. "explain yourself Alpha Dimitri!"
"Lower your voice!" Deidre growled.

Luna Cassandra's attention abruptly shifted from me to Deidre and her eyes darkened instantly.
"Well, if it isn't the Queen of Golden Sun. Hello Deidre, you're looking well,"

Deidre stiffened and glared at Cassandra so hard I was amazed her eyeballs didn't pop out. The tension between the two Lunas was palpable, as was the anger and hatred. Not wanting a fight to break out and inevitably start some kind of feud that would end in bloodshed, I invited Caspian and Cassandra inside.

Caspian came willingly, but Cassandra, with much disdain, declared that she'd rather have one of her fingers chopped off than sit in the same room as Deidre, who responded with an equally snarky comment. It took some time but Caspian somehow managed to convince his mate to come in and have a seat.

"May I offer anyone a drink?" Everice asked with a polite smile. "or perhaps you'd like something to eat? It's past noon, I'm sure all of you are quite famished. Luna Cassandra, Alpha Caspian, would you care for anything? Juice? Water?"

"No thank you Everice," Caspian said as he reached over and clasped Cassandra's shoulder in an attempt to calm her down. I could tell that being in the same room as Deidre was hard for her. After all, Golden Sun and Sapphire Sea weren't exactly on amiable terms. Each had their own reasons to hate the other, reasons that remained unknown.