Chapter 19

A shrill scream echoed through the hallway. Remy was with Marielle down the hallway when he heard the scream. Marielle had just come home and he had run into her while she was trying to avoid him.

"Is that Valentina?"

She asked and he nodded his head.

"She must be having another nightmare. You can go."

He left as soon as he came, making a beeline towards the bedroom they were both supposed to share. As he open the door and turned on the lights, he found Valentina on the bed, her face haggard and her eyes wide open with fear. When she looked up at him, her shocked eyes seemed to soften as if she was relieved to see him.

"Another nightmare?"

He asked gently as he got into bed with her.

She nodded.

"Sorry about that."

He whispered.

"Come here."

He murmured. His voice hoarse and husky. He stretched open his hands and Valentina buried herself in his arms. He stroked her hair gently.

"You're fine now."

He murmured into her ear.

"I saw a wolf. A wolf with my face!"

She said in a muffled tone. Remy sighed but kept stroking her hair. He didn't know what to make of her and her nightmares but he knew she had not had a single night's rest ever since she lost her memories.

"Hey. It's okay. It's okay."

He murmured gently.

"I'm here now. So you can close your eyes and fall asleep. I promise I won't leave till you fall asleep."

She sniffed. She was going to protest, tell him to leave, tell him she was fine alone but she truly wasn't. His presence was calming and the way he stroked her hair felt nice.

To be honest, she didn't want him to leave.

.........

The next morning. She woke up to an empty bed. Remy must have left when she fell asleep. She didn't even know it was possible to fall asleep after such a dreadful nightmare. But she was happy that she did. Happy she had finally gotten some rest.

She stretched a bit and got out of bed. She was hungry, rightfully so too because she didn't remember eating dinner. Remy had mentioned something about there being preparations for the full moon. She wasn't sure she had heard him properly but she was sure it was in the next two days. She was going to be the only one left in the whole mansion. And more wolves would be arriving for the full moon.

Nevertheless, she freshened up and changed into Joggers and a T-shirt and went downstairs.

She couldn't deny the heightened frenzy in the air. There seemed to be more people in the house than she had ever seen.

She looked around confused, some of them stopped to say hello, she answered them with a polite smile. She was relieved when she found the familiar face of her mother in law seated in the living room and talking to one of the members.

"Ellen. Good morning."

"Oh! Sweet child! There you are! Remy said you had another nightmare. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. There's a lot of people here."

She muttered and Ellen nodded.

"Yes. Well it's a full moon. A lot of wolves like to spend that time with their kind. It keeps them grounded."

"So there are more members of the Silverback Pride out there?!"

She asked and Ellen chuckled.

"Way more than you think. Some people will arrive tomorrow. Just in time for the full moon and leave the moment it's dawn."

"Interesting."

Valentina murmured.

"Do you need my help? Do you need me to do anything?"

She humbly offered but Ellen looked hesitant.

"Why don't you come have breakfast now? You didn't have dinner yesterday. I'm sure you must be starving."

Her stomach growled around that time, confirming Ellen's suspicions. Oh yes. She was very hungry.

Ellen dragged her to the kitchen.

Valentina kept an eye out for Remy. She was going to thank him last night , he had stayed with her till she went back to sleep. That was nice of him.

Ellen noticed her frantic searching eyes and accurately guessed who she was looking for.

"Remy and some of his men left early. They'll be doing perimeter sweeps and checking out the woods just to be sure its safe for the full moon. He'll probably be back in time for lunch. Or dinner."

"Oh."

Was all she replied with.

"I want to help out. If there's anything I can do to help let me know."

Ellen looked pretty hesitant.

"Well, everything has been pretty much covered. And you're the Luna, you're not expected to do the hard or manual labour."

"I still want to help. I can't sit around while everyone gets to do something."

Ellen smiled uneasily.

"Well there is something. I'll show you after breakfast."

Breakfast was a meal of oatmeal and fruits. The chef profusely apologised for not having anything more than fruits and oatmeal but Valentine was fine with it. Even a cup of coffee and stale bread would have sufficed, she was that hungry. There was still a lot to do. Grocery runs, cleaning, setting up everyone's sleeping arrangement. Valentina felt like an outsider looking in with everything they were saying and doing.

No matter how much she told herself that she was one of them and her memory was the only thing that was holding her back, she still couldn't shake the unmistakeable feeling that she didn't belong with them. That she never did.

"This is Connor, Missy and baby Grape."

Ellen said as she pointed to the two kids in front of her and the one she was bouncing on her hip.

Valentina's jaw dropped.

Kids?! Ellen wanted her to take care of kids?!

"It's rare getting kids this time of the year during the full moon, mostly because the parents aren't willing to travel down. But they happened to be in town so they came over."

"Okay."

Valentina answered quietly

"You just have to watch them for two, three hours top. Connor and Missy are eight and seven, they are very well behaved. Baby Grape is eight month old and she has been fed. She's not fussy. If you need anything just send someone to get me. I'll just be down the hall."

With that, Ellen handed her the baby and Valentina held her as gently as she could. The two other kids looked at her expectantly as Ellen left.

"Do you... do you like paintings?"

She asked awkwardly and the boy nodded his head.

She took the kids to her painting room and was immediately reminded of how much of a bad idea it was when she saw the dark paintings. She hid as much of them as she could, juggling a baby in her hand and she gave the kids some watercolours and sheets of paper from a sketch book.

"Here. Paint something you like. Anything you want."

"Anything?"

Missy asked and Valentina nodded, an encouraging smile on her face.

"Yes! Anything!"

Connor and Missy looked interested enough, so they started painting right away. The baby on the other hand didn't want to leave Valentina's arms. So she held on to the baby as she looked outside the window.

Her phone beeped and the sound alarmed her so much that she jumped, startling the baby who almost broke out in a fuss.

"Shhh."

She murmured to the baby as she fished out her phone from her pocket.

It was a text message from an unknown number. Her heart skipped a beat as she read the words to it.

*I will find you. And I will take back what's mine. *

..................

"We're running out of time."

Kale said as he looked at the map on the mahogany table. It was a map of all the known packs in America. And the territories they occupied. They had all been staring at it for a while. Remy was looking to see who he could trust and who he could not.

"These secret meetings, the spies, they're moving against us. It's not hard to see."

Marielle persisted. For days, days and days she had been trying to make Remy see reason, she was trying to make them act, but Remy wanted them to examine the situation first. He didn't want them to take any irrational decisions.

"She doesn't remember anything. She's not even connected to her wolf yet."

Marielle gave him a pointed look, her hands were folded.

"Well you've tried it your way. Let's try mine. We look for John."

Kale looked at Marielle uneasily. He was sure that there was no way that his alpha would agree to such a plan. Remy would never let John the healer back into the pack or anywhere their Luna. But desperate times called for desperate measures.

"John's a healer. And he's a pretty good one. I'm sure I can find him."

She persisted.

"Well, I have no doubt that you will find him. But I don't trust him. Can we trust him to keep his mouth shut? Do we know if he still swears allegiance to our pack?"

Remy gave Marielle a pointed look. Sure they were desperate, but they were not that desperate, there was no reason for them to be. Especially not at the moment.

They had time. Remy sighed. He took one last look at the mahogany table and shook his head.

"Go out and go find him. Find John."