Mother of the Moon - Chapter 129 - Back Home
Zelena.
I laid with my head resting on Gunner’s chest. We had stayed here for a few more hours, just to be on the safe side. To make sure the heat was really over. I looked around at the small room, a familiar feeling came to me. I’ve been here before.
“Gunner, where are we?” I asked as I sat up,
“Huh?” he mumbled.
“What is this place?”
Gunner sat upright and glanced at me. He bit his lip and rubbed his hand over the back of his neck, something I have noticed he does when he is nervous or uncomfortable.
“It’s uh, it’s the cabin” he said meekly.
“The cabin? What cabin?” I looked around the room again. The cold concrete floor, the steel walls and the iron bars covering the door. I have definitely been here before. A sick feeling filled my stomach and I wanted to vomit.
“Gunner, why?” I grunted as I slowly stood up off the raggedy mattress on the floor. My heart rate accelerated and my chest tightened. Why would he bring me here? Here! Of all the places we could have escaped to, he brought me to the place where I murdered my childhood caregiver and torturer.
“I’m sorry Zee, I panicked” he rushed out. He stood and wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling my head into his chest. I can’t be here, I need to get out. I could feel my panic rise and I started to hyperventilate.
“I don’t... want... to be here...” I gasped for breath.
“Okay, okay. We'll go home. Wait here a second”. Gunner let me go and walked out the door. I lowered myself back to the floor and tucked my knees into my chest. I forced myself to take deep intakes of air, but the feeling of my throat constricting was stopping the air from reaching my lungs. Gunner came back through the door holding a pile of clothes. He knelt down in front of me and pulled my hands away from my legs. He placed his hand on my cheek and rubbed his thumb over my bottom lip.
“Slow down, baby, just breathe” he said softly as he looked deep into my eyes. I leaned my face into his hand and let the warmth of his skin sooth me. After a minute I could breathe normally again.
“There, that’s better” he smiled sweetly at me.
“Here, put these on and then we can go” he said putting the clothes on my lap. I pulled a grey t-shirt over my head and then stood up, I pushed my feet through the legs of the sweatpants and turned to Gunner. He held his hand out for me and I took it. Together we walked out the door and up the stairs, leaving that hellish nightmare room behind. We came up to the top floor but didn’t stop, we went straight out through the front door.
As soon as I came out into the sunlight, I shielded my eyes from the bright light. Two days in artificial lighting can mess with your eyes. Gunner held my hand and led me a few steps away from the front door, when a shocked voice caught my attention.
“Oh my word” the feminine voice whispered. I turned to see who had spoken but I didn’t recognise her. A small statured woman stood by the front door of the cabin. Her chocolate hair sat messily on top of her head, showing off the freckles that littered her face. She took a step towards us, but Gunner pulled my hand, bringing me into the side of his body. Another woman jogged from around the side of the cabin. This one was very large, the biggest woman I have ever seen. Not large as in fat, large like Tobias. Wide set shoulders and bulging muscles. Her size wasn’t the intimidating thing about her though, it was the tribal tattoo that covered her chin and bottom lip. I know for sure that I have never seen this woman before, I would have remembered.
The moment the huge woman spotted me, she dropped to her knee and bowed her head. The smaller woman followed suit, placing her hand over her heart.
“My Goddess” the big woman spoke, her voice was loud and hard, it carried a powerful aura with it.
“Beta Elaine, Miss Alyse. This is my Mate and the Triple Goddess” Gunner said to them. They both stood and walked a little closer to us.
“Oh, she’s beautiful” the small woman whispered and covered her mouth with her hand. Her eyes filled with unshed tears and a small sob escaped her. I can’t say someone has become this emotional when meeting me before. Excited, shocked, maybe joyful, but not emotional like this. Strange.
“Goddess, I am Beta Elaine of the Luna Eclipse. It is the highest honour to meet you” the larger woman spoke, meaning the small crying one is Alyse.
“Hello” I smiled and nodded to both of them.
“The diplomats from Luna Eclipse have been guarding you since the night of the party. We are very lucky to have them here” Gunner said proudly. He almost sounds like he is gushing over them.
“Thank you for that. It is very kind of you” I smiled again and stepped forward with my hand outstretched for a handshake. Alyse squeaked quietly and stepped back, and Beta Elaine eyed me curiously. After an awkward moment of me standing in front of them with my hand outstretched, Beta Elaine stepped forward and gripped my forearm. She placed her other hand on my shoulder and leaned way down in order to reach her forehead to my own. I have seen Sevasmo between many male wolves now. But have never done it and never seen a she-wolf do it. I should ask Gunner about that. Is it a male wolf only type of thing? We stood together for a moment, with our heads touching lightly. Being this close to another Were, I could feel everything she was feeling, I could smell all of her emotions. The highest of them all was pride and joy. She is happy to be here, to meet me. The feeling made me happy.
We broke apart and I stood back at Gunner’s side. He smiled down at me fondly and gently traced his finger over my cheek. Another sob came from Alyse.
“Are you okay?” I asked her. She nodded her head furiously and cleared her throat.
“I’m sorry, I just can’t believe you’re actually here, you’re real. You have no idea how often we thought of you” she said as a few tears streamed down her face. I couldn’t understand what she meant by ‘how often we thought of you‘. The world hasn’t known about me for that long, so how could she have thought about me? And who does she mean by ’we’? Is that like a general we, including all Weres, or a more specific we? Anyhow, what a strange statement to make.
“Ah, yes. Well, I'm here and I'm ready to go home” I replied meekly.
“Your heat has ended?” Elaine asked
“It has” Gunner answered her,
“We are headed back to the village, you’re welcome to walk with us” he said as he took hold of my hand.
“We will, thank you Alpha” Elaine said with a curt nod.
The walk back to the village was quick and basically silent. Not much more, beyond basic pleasantries, was said between us. I did though catch the she-wolf Alyse staring at me a few times. Something about the way she was watching me, worried me. It was like she knew who I was, like she knew all about me. But that couldn't be possible, could it? The village itself was clean and tidy now, if you hadn’t had been in attendance, you'd have no idea that there was a party here the other night. All the chairs and tables have been packed away. And the decorations have been taken down. It looks just like it did before.
Like Gunner said, there was still a lot of visiting Weres around. A lot of the larger tents are still up around the outskirts of the village, just nowhere near as many as before. As we got to the fire pit in the middle of the clearing, Roe and Lupus came barrelling down the porch steps towards us.
“Sweet girl, how are you feeling?” Roe fussed as she smooshed my face between her small hands.
“You gave us quite the scare” Lupus rumbled as he gently squeezed my shoulder.
“I’m sorry, I'm so sorry, I didn’t know” I mumbled, I could feel the lump in my throat working its way up and tears welling up in my eyes.
“Nonsense, it wasn’t your fault dear. We're just glad that you’re okay” Roe cooed as she pulled me into her arms and hugged me tightly.
“You’re not mad?” I choked out from within her constricting embrace. She may be a small woman, but she is damn strong.
“Don’t be ridiculous” she huffed and Lupus laughed from behind her.
“We should have known you had another surprise up your sleeve” Lupus chuckled,
“We never quite know what to expect with you do we?”
Roe released me from her iron grip, and I huffed and smiled up at Lupus.
“I gotta keep you on your toes” I mused.
“Well, you definitely did that. You should have seen the chaos that went on around here. Those poor bastards didn't know what hit them” Lupus roared with laughter, he leaned over and slapped his thigh. The sound of his laughter filled the clearing. He's really getting a kick out of this isn't he?
“Oh enough” Roe chided and hit him on the back of the head.
“Go and do something useful” she huffed and gave him a firm shove. Lupus continued to laugh as he waltzed away.
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