Blue Moon (Colors of the Moon #1)

Chapter 3

I woke up to the sound of rushing footsteps and a whispered conversation. Across the tent Effie was speaking with a young woman. The said young woman looked like she had been through hell and back, which told me she had been among the imprisoned women as well.

"What's going on?"

I rose into a sitting position and let my eyes scan across the small tent. Six cots took up most of the space, but as far as I knew only three were currently occupied. Each cot had its own blanket and pillow, which was more than we had inside the cells.

"You're awake." Effie offered me a cup of water and I gulped it down without hesitation, which earned me a maternal smile from the older woman.

"What's going on?" I repeated my question.

"Nothing for you to worry about. Alpha Braxton's Luna is missing, so they're organizing a search party."

At the mention of Alpha I felt a swirl of mixed emotions spin through my stomach. On the one hand, I had decided to stay away from him, but on the other hand, I wanted to help him. He was, after all, the reason we were now free.

"I want to help," I said with more conviction than I actually felt. "I want to help search for Luna."

"You don't need to, honey. Your only job is to get better." Effie petted my hand.

"I want to help."

Something in my voice or expression must have told her how serious I was because she nodded in agreement without another word in protest.

"Okay. You can team up with Trish here."

Effie motioned to the young woman across the tent. She was sitting on a cot identical to mine. Our eyes met and we shared a hesitant smile.

After we finished with the introductions, Effie told us where we needed to volunteer to help with the search. My muscles squeezed in protest as we made our way out of the tent, but I ignored them. I needed to do this.

Trish and I were both silent while walking through a make-shift camp, neither of us feeling the need to make small talk. Or maybe it was just the lingering side effect of the silence forced on us inside the cells.

Tent after tent covered the top of the small hill, but I didn't have time to take it all in because we already arrived at our destination. In the middle of the camp stood a table covered with countless maps and with a familiar figure leaning against it. He was the second guy from yesterday; the one I presumed to be Elena's brother.

Effie had told us that the name of the coordinator of the search was Gamma Ortiz. We stopped on the other side of the table, but instead of him, I focused my eyes on the maps. I tried to find out where exactly we were right now, but there was no indication on any of the maps; no red dot screaming this is where you are right now.

"We are here to volunteer to help with the search," Trish said, reminding me why we came here in the first place.

"We don't need no humans to help." Gamma didn't even bother look up.

Again with the humans. It seemed to be a family trait for these two.

"We just want to help search for Luna..." Trish whispered.

Then again she was still better than me. I couldn't even force my mouth to open.

"I said no." He still didn't bother with glancing in our direction. "Now piss off."

Trish lowered her head in defeat and turned to leave, but I grabbed her forearm before she could. With my eyes focused on the top of his wavy hair, I pried open my glued lips. For once in my life I wanted to tell someone how rude they were being, but all that came out in the end was a timid squeak.