by Noelle N
"Everything alright, Luna?"
I tucked a stray lock of hair behind my ear and nodded. "Come on, Beta," I said, smiling when he held the car door open for me to climb in. I got into the passenger seat and strapped myself in. "Tell everyone that we're heading back."
Lance nodded and passed the instructions to the rest of the pack, before climbing into the driver's seat. We were the first car to pull out of the driveway, and I winded the windows down when we were along the main road, feeling the wind sting my cheeks and squinting when a bit of sunlight unexpectedly caught my eyes.
"Did Lorraine call?" I asked, after several minutes of silence, which was occasionally interrupted with Lance cranking the radio on the car. He kept missing the station he liked, and I leaned forward, tapping a couple of buttons until the car was filled with the strains of a song he clearly knew, if the way he began drumming his fingers against the wheel was any indication.
"Thanks." He grinned at me, but sobered up swiftly, an apologetic look slipping on his face. "And no, I'm afraid not. Sorry, Luna."
"There's nothing to apologise for," I returned lightly, even though I felt my heart sink with the news. Taking a deep breath, I flipped around for a new topic of discussion in my mind until I finally found one. "How're we doing on security?"
"Brilliant." Lance didn't miss a beat. "We've got Phobos and Deimos up and running; and Io seems to have forged new ties with Lysithea and Nix, so those packs might be worth revising new contracts with."
I shot him a grateful smile. In the aftermath, Lance had proven himself time and time again to be the most ideal choice for a Beta. For starters, he was the last of Jed's closest group of friends – but without any of Azazel's scheming and all of Spike's loyalty. Just the fact that he was able to switch sides even after Malthus had branded him as a part of Prometheus was admirable in itself, and I trusted him implicitly before and after everything.
I tended to go with my instincts, and so far, they'd turned out to be pretty alright.
"Remind me to thank Callisto again one of these days," I said to Lance now. "They've been incredibly helpful for a neutral party. Titan hasn't had a breach since the battle and it's all thanks to them. I should probably get some gifts or something," I mused, as an afterthought, before turning to him. "What do you think the Luna of Callisto likes?"
A cheeky grin stretched across his face. "A mate?"
"A mate," I repeated in disbelief. "Really?"
He shrugged. "I've heard she's still single. You know, a couple of years ago, the elders in Callisto tried to hold a grand party for her so that she could meet single, eligible lycans? The line stretched for miles on end, because whoever got to be her mate would automatically become Alpha of Callisto."
I shot him a brief glance, noticed his lips twitching and promptly narrowed my eyes. "You went, didn't you?"
He bit down on his lip for a second or two before caving in. "Fine, I did! But not because I wanted to be Alpha or anything," he added quickly. "I went because I heard rumours that she was gorgeous. And that the éclairs they served there could melt in the mouth." His lips twitched up in a smirk. "Both rumours didn't disappoint."
That gloom of sadness that perennially hung over me seeming to dissipate at his words and I laughed, shaking my head at him in mirth. We kept up the light-hearted chatter for the rest of the ride home, until we pulled up to the familiar driveway and Lance parked the car outside the house.
I climbed out first, standing on the front porch with Lance as I waited for the rest. The last car finally crossed Titan borders and I felt a comforting sense of relief sweep through me when I saw that everyone had returned safely.
"Luna," someone called, and I turned, only to see Harvie, his friends and most of the pack still waiting around for us. Harvie's eyes were still red-rimmed, but he offered me a brave smile. "Do you still need us for anything?"
"No, I'm good," I assured them, "Lance will let you all know if there's another meeting or if something crops up. In the meantime, just take the day off and have a good rest, all of you."
With a reassuring smile, I waved a quick goodbye at them until most had left to return either to the diner or to their respective homes. But before Harvie could leave, I stopped him by wrapping my arms quickly around his shoulders and pulling him into a tight hug.
"Hey," I said quietly, feeling my eyes prick with tears when he paused momentarily, before returning the hug with equal force. "Stay strong, okay?" I felt him nod and pulled back, smiling brightly at him and the few of his friends who were standing several feet away. "I'll see you guys at the diner later?"
"Tonight," One of the girls agreed, and they waved goodbye before heading off together.
I stared at their departing figures for a moment before glancing over at Lance, who had just finished speaking with Brutus, Katya and Jade. The three of them left after biding me a quick goodbye, and Lance followed me into the house.
"Brutus reported that there have been no development on our missing-person cases," he was saying, as we scaled the stairs slowly. "Sorry, Luna."
"Don't be," I returned quickly, even as I paused on the landing and turned to him. "But keep looking. Contact the packs along the coastlines and ask them to keep a look out. Unless there's a dead body floating out to sea, we're not going to give up hope."
Lance readily agreed, and he was just about to say something else when a voice from the doorway stopped us.
"Oh, there you are." Lorraine had a syringe in one hand as she stood by the doorway. "I was beginning to get worried."
"Alright, Mom." Lance grinned mockingly at her. "We're back now, so there's no need to get your grandma knickers in a twist."
She rolled her eyes and chucked an empty bottle at his head, only to have him nick it out of thin air just in time. Then she turned to me. "I just did the daily dose. Vital readings are all fine and functioning as per usual." The look of relief on my face was impossible to miss and she smiled. "I'll leave you to it now?"
I nodded and offered her a grateful smile. "Thanks."
"Don't mention it. See you at the diner later, Luna."
Stepping aside, I waited until Lorraine had retrieved her bag from the stool before leaving the room. The two of them headed down the stairs and Lance waved a quick goodbye to me over his shoulder. Moments later, I heard the front door shut with a firm click in the distance, and the house descended into a soft silence, occasionally interspersed with the beep of the machine by the bed.
It was just Jed and I now, just the two of us.
For several minutes, I stood with one shoulder propped against the frame of the door as I studied him – his pale face, arms stiff by his sides, and his chest rising and falling with even, steady breaths. The rest of his wounds had more or less been healed by now, the occasional scar still marring his tanned skin. His chest, however, was a different story altogether – the wound covered with a thick strip of gauze that wrapped across his shoulders in a crisscrossed fashion, a jarring and ever-present reminder of how close he'd come to death.
I took a deep breath and stepped forward, tugging out the stool with my foot and settling down on it beside his bed. Instinctively, my hand sought his, my fingers slipping across his warm palm and curling around his hand in a grip that was tighter than I'd meant it to be.
"So, the funeral went well," I started quietly, my eyes fixed on Jed's face as I spoke. "Terence couldn't bring himself to go, but most of the pack went along. Harvie wrote the most beautiful eulogy I've ever heard, and the speech I prepared just went right out the window after his turn. All I could say was how brave Dion had been to go into battle when he was just sixteen. He was everything you and Spike taught him to be."
My breath caught in my throat as I thought about Spike. About Dion and Vaughn and Rowle. Two from Phobos, and one each from Deimos and Io. We'd managed to get Brutus, Katya and Jade out alive; and Prometheus had been razed to the ground in the aftermath. Its headquarters was now a shamble of wreckage and burnt debris.
We had won, but it had come at a cost. And somehow, amidst all the funerals and death and just waiting for Jed to wake up, it almost seemed to me like we'd lost. Maybe war was like that. You had victories and you had defeats, but the lines were so blurred sometimes that you couldn't separate one from the other.
"Dion's somewhere good now, I guess," I continued, my thumb brushing gently against the back of Jed's hand, the same way he'd done to me before he'd slipped off into unconsciousness that night. "And the pack's coping. The aftermath's a bit messy and there are so many decisions to make but – we're together. The diner's being renovated," I added, my voice fractionally lighter now as I remembered the freshly painted cream-coloured walls and newly purchased tables and benches. "And it's opened to a couple of packs around the area. You're going to love it. The corner booth's still ours. Sometimes, the usual bunch of us sit there to discuss Titan-related matters but it's – " I paused and swallowed hard. " – it's not the same without you."
My eyes flickered to his face now, and I studied him intently. His eyelashes were fanned out against his cheekbones and his eyes were shut tight. Nothing about him suggested that he was close to waking up, or even the slightest bit conscious, and he'd been the same way for days now. His regenerative healing was supposed to kick in, but the wound that Malthus had inflicted upon him was so great that it seemed to be taking far longer than any of us had expected.
"It's really not the same without you," I repeated, a weak, watery laugh slipping past my lips now as I blinked back the tears that sprung to my eyes. "Breakfast is lonely when you're not there to mess it up or insist on doing the dishes afterwards. I miss all those short walks to the diner with you, or stepping out of the kitchen and seeing you bury yourself in all that paperwork so much that you'd forget all about lunch. Or heading to the hill at night when you've shifted. I miss all those nights. Remember that time when you went into the bushes and pulled out an injured rabbit and almost ate it until I told you it was disgusting and refused to come near you after that?"
Just the thought of that made me smile, and I held his hand up, pressing the back of his palm to my cheek as I propped my elbows on top of the mattress. His pulse was a steady rhythm against my skin as I wrapped my fingers around his wrist.
"I miss that too. All of you," I said softly. "But I think about how you've spent years waiting for me, for a girl you didn't know whether you were ever going to meet, or even like, but you just kept waiting. So now it's my turn. No matter how long it takes, I'll wait for you to wake up. And when you do, I'll be right here," I added, shifting my lips to sponge a feather-light kiss to the back of his hand. "I promise."
* * *
Sunlight filtered through the glass windows in a delightfully haphazard manner when I walked into the diner several days later. It casted faint shadows every so often, but mostly light, bathing the place in a warm glow that lulled us into a certain sense of peace that was here to stay. Several people greeted me and I returned their greetings with a bright smile on my face, before heading over to the counter where Lorraine was.
She was pleasantly surprised to see me, and immediately filled a cup of coffee to the brim, adding sugar and milk just the way I liked it. "I didn't think you were coming in today," she mused, looking rather amused as she watched me drink the coffee eagerly.
I took several more sips before lowering the cup back down onto the platter. "Brutus took over. Told me I needed to get some fresh air."
"And good thing too. You know, some of those girls have been hoping to keep vigil at Alpha's bedside," she added, with an impish grin, jerking a thumb in the direction of the teenage girls keeping up a lively chatter at their booth. "You're depriving them of the opportunity to stare at him with dreamy expressions and hearts in their eyes."
A bubble of laughter escaped me and I hastily clamped down on my lower lip when several curious people turned our way. Over the past few weeks, Lorraine had been slowly but surely reverting to the cheerful person she had once been. There was still that degree of sadness that rimmed her eyes at times and it never quite faded, but she was smiling more, angry less. She was grinning conspiratorially at me now, before grabbing the coffee pot and heading off to offer those teenage girls a refill.
"Well, well." A familiar voice made me turn, only to see Bianca striding towards me, her usual knapsack slung over one shoulder and her hair twisted into a tight bun. "Look what the cat dragged out of the house and into the diner."
My lips automatically twitched. "Hello to you too," I said, with a wry smile, and headed behind the counter to grab the milk and ice-cream from the fridge. "One strawberry milkshake, I presume?"
"To go, and thanks." She caught my questioning glance and nodded, perching on the nearest stool with an arm braced over the counter. "You knew I couldn't stay forever, Quinn. Lone wolf and all that, remember?"
"Yes, I do remember," I returned calmly as I prepared the milkshake, hardly taken aback by her decision. I'd always known it was just a matter of time. Bianca had left the first two times after she'd stepped into Titan land, and this time was no different. "Where're you headed?"
"South. I heard that's where the Black Market's currently located," she explained, at my confused look, and quickly raised her thumb and index finger into the shape of a gun, tugging the imaginary trigger with her other three fingers. "I need a refill."
"You're heading South?" Lance had overheard the last part of our conversation, and he stepped up beside her, folding his arms on the counter. "Do you think you can keep a lookout for Giles?"
Lance looked worried and I felt a surge of sympathy for him. He wasn't the only one worried – we all were. Titan hadn't held any of Prometheus as prisoners that night after the battle, and we'd turned the prisoners we already had loose. But Giles had disappeared sometime during the fight after I'd stabbed him, and in the flurry that had ensued, along with the clean-up during the aftermath, we hadn't found him.
He was still alive. I was certain of that; and Lance had assured me that a swift stab, even with a silver knife, wasn't going to kill lycans, unless it pierced right through a vital organ the way it almost had for Jed. But Giles's loyalty had been turned to Prometheus ever since Malthus had overcome his wolf, and now that Malthus was gone, we didn't know who his loyalty now belonged to, or where he even was.
"Still haven't found him?" Bianca pursed her lips sceptically. "Fine, I'll look for Fish-Gill. And Scar-Face too," she added, with a droll sigh, when she saw that I was about to speak.
I shook my head at her, torn between horror and amusement at the ridiculous nicknames she had for Giles and Dimitri. Giles had been a huge question mark, and Dimitri had been another. The last I saw of him was when he plummeted down into the sea at the bottom of the cliff.
But while Malthus's body had been found – punctured with bullet-holes and chunks of flesh missing after being shattered to bits amidst the crashing waves and jagged rocks; Dimitri's body was still missing.
And I had a feeling that there was more to this than met the eye.
"Thanks, Bianca," I said to her now, handing her the milkshake, as well as several cupcakes in a takeaway box. "We really appreciate your efforts, honestly."
"Alright, alright, no need to get sappy about it," she mumbled, rolling her eyes at me when I leaned across the counter to hug her, but giving me a quick pat on the back nonetheless. Then she pulled away and rummaged through her bag for awhile, before setting two things down on the counter. "Anyway, I figured I might leave you some souvenirs. This is for Jedediah," she said, pushing the fabric closer to me.
Feeling rather curious, I picked it up. It wasn't until I shook it out that I realised it was a shirt. In his size. It looked well-worn, so frayed at the ends that it couldn't be considered new, and I stared at her in confusion.
"It was the only thing he gave me," she explained slowly, picking her words with care and deliberately ignoring the way Lance now looked suspiciously at her. "When I first came to Titan and I needed a place to
stay for awhile, he gave me a room in one of the other houses and he let me wear this." She waved a dismissive hand at it, but then met my gaze squarely. "I just think it's time for me to leave it behind now."
I understood the meaning behind her words perfectly. Previously, she'd generously set aside her feelings to prevent herself from being an obstacle in Jed's and my blossoming relationship. But it was one thing to set aside one's feelings, another thing altogether to leave it behind.
"I'll give it to him," was all I said at last, carefully folding the shirt and setting it aside. That left the other thing on the counter, and I stared at it for a moment. It was a thin metal strip, the tip crooked and curved into a tiny hook, the base of it slightly rusty.
"That one's for you," she said, when she saw me looking at it. My gaze met hers and the corners of her lips twitched up in a faint smile. "You don't remember? That was what you used to save me."
"I do remember. I just can't believe you remembered. And kept it."
"Well," she said slowly, her smile turning almost self-deprecating. "It seems that both Dimitri and I may have been wrong. Turns out that while rogues are hardly ever loyal, once you earn their loyalty, and gratitude, you have it for life."
For a moment, I was reminded of how the majority of Titan had once been sceptical of Dimitri and Bianca. And of me for trusting them. But they'd pulled through time and time again, and had proven to be far more reliable than the original Beta everyone trusted the most. Maybe trust and loyalty were two things that we couldn't do without, and could save us in more ways than one.
"Take care of yourself," I said instead, picking up the pin and closing my fingers over it tightly as I smiled at her. "Titan will always be a place you can call home should you ever choose to return."
A sliver of emotion flickered in her eyes, but it was over in a flash. With a quick nod and a final fleeting grin, she pulled the strap of her bag over her shoulder and got down from the stool, grabbing her milkshake and box of cupcakes along the way.