The Luna Chronicles : Shadows of the Past

Chapter13

The next day, following the red moon, everyone was in better spirits, you could tell. They all knew they were safe because of the barrier, but that was not all; since the ceremony, there have been many new couples here, too. But now it came time to start investigating the whereabouts of the Quil that tried to harm Genius and me. So, I sat up in bed, Genius had already gotten out of bed and headed outside to train with the boys about an hour a so ago. So I got out of bed, got dressed, and mind-linked the boys, "Meet me in the office.”

They all responded with, “Yes, Alpha.”

Heading downstairs and greeted everyone on my way through to the office. Once there, I sat down and began going through the books that were there, looking for any information on the Quils. But I couldn’t find anything, which was only frustrating me, but finally in walked Alcide, Daniel, Zeus, and Genius. Daniel looked at me. "What’s up, boss? Why did you call a meeting?”

I just shook my head. It’s like they all forgot, "Do you not remember that we needed to find out who this Quil was that was trying to harm us?”

They all dropped their mouths to the floor, well, except Genius, because he was the one who reminded me. All three boys said in unison, "f**k, we totally spaced that out.”

I couldn’t even be mad at them because I had forgotten also, "We need to gather more information about them. Also, are any of our pack members good at tracking?”

All three boys looked at one another before Zeus spoke: "Well, ya, James is the best tracker we have in the pack.” I turned toward Alcide. "Are there any books that we could read up on, or is there an elder still alive that we could speak to who would know about the Quils?”

He sat there for a moment thinking "The only person that was alive and knew about the Quils were your mother so unless you can speak to her again I can’t think of anyone else that would know about them, as for literature about the quils your parents use to have some back at their old castle in Romania but I don’t see how we are going to get there without someone noticing who you are.”

Well, I can try contacting my mother again here soon and see if she has any ideas on how to get into our old castle, because we need that to learn and teach the other pack members. Even if she explains everything to me, I don’t want to get anything messed up in translation. I turned back towards Alcide, “Uncle, do you remember anything else about these quils, like why they would attack us? We haven’t done anything to them for them to attack.”

He sat there staring at me like he was shocked I didn’t know that answer "Well Artemis, Quils usually only attack when they feel threatened or if someone is ordering them, see quils lost most of their free will after your mother and father lost the crown, the other wolf started treating them like property instead of another race, I understood to an extent because some of them had lost their minds completely but the ones that were sane I never understood why people would treat them that way.”

Genius and I looked at each other before speaking, "Well, maybe we can fix that once we find the one that attacked us.”

“But in the meantime Genius and I are going to head back to school, the other pack members need to as well we don’t need the school sniffing around, the other pack members will be safe here, the ones that need to go to work can go they just need to be a little extra cautious, also I want to speak to James before I leave to school.”

After I finished that sentence, everyone left except Genius, which I was fine with; he was my mate and my fiancé after all, so I mind-linked James, "Hey James, could you meet me and Genius in the office really quick, it is important.”

I waited for a moment for him to respond, "Yes, boss give me a sec to finish feeding the kids.”

Well, that was sweet of him. While we waited, I turned toward Genius, “Babe, are you okay going to school because you know we don’t have to? I can have Zeus sign paperwork stating I’m being homeschooled or dropping out, and you know your mom never wanted you attending school anyway.”

He c****d his head to the side. "Princess, I am fine going to school, no, I am not happy about the situation, but it is not your fault, so why would I punish you for something that is out of your control? I know you’re not going anywhere, even if I do get jealous sometimes I can’t help it.”

I hugged him, and right when I was about to kiss him, in walked James. He covered his eyes. "Oh, I am sorry, I cannot come back.”

Laughing, "James, it is okay, you act like you haven’t seen us do much worse.”

That earned a smile from him. He started laughing, "Ya, that is true, okay, what did you guys need to see me for?”

Well, Genius and I looked at each of them before both speaking in unison, "Do you remember that quil that attacked me and Genius?”

He nodded, "Well, do you remember the scent it left behind?”

He nodded again. "Well, okay then, we have your first mission, this is purely scouting; you are to avoid any conflict at all and take at least one other pack member with you that you trust, but we want you to track that scent and immediately report it back to us, once you know where it is at come home.”

James got excited the moment we said we had his first mission; you could tell he was getting restless in the house all the time.” James, we need to know you understand your mission?” He stopped jumping around for a minute. "Oh yes, sorry, I do, you want me to track the quil, avoid conflict, report anything I find, and once the location has been discovered, come home, o also I can bring one person I trust with me.”

Nodding "Yes, that is correct, now I want you to grab some things, and your partner, whoever it is, and head out. We will be going to school, so just mind link one of us or Zeus.”

With that, James left the office, and then in came Zeus. "Squirt, you guys ready? We've got to go, or we are going to be later than we already are.”

Waving at him, I looked at Genius. He grabbed my hand, and off to school we went. Once we got there, I could already tell that Oliver was there; I could smell him a mile away, which started to make me uncomfortable with how everything had happened between us the last time. Genius could see that I was becoming uncomfortable the closer we got to school. "Princess, why are you nervous? Are you ever going to tell us what happened the last time or not?”

Looking at him, "I am fine, Genius, just nervous about my English test today.”

Luckily, he seemed to buy it because he didn’t do it up again. Zeus pulled into the employee parking lot. He waved us goodbye before going through the employee entrance. Genius and I went into the office because we were late. We had to get a tardy slip from the office, we walked to my locker to gather our things, and before Genius walked me to English, he kissed me on my forehead. "Good luck, Princess, you know you will ace this test, you always do.”

As soon as I walked into the classroom, there sat Oliver just staring at me. Luckily, my old desk was available, so that is where I sat. I didn’t want to be anywhere near Oliver right now. The English teacher passed out the tests. "You guys have the class to finish the test. Remember, this counts for half of your grade. Once you are done, bring the test up to me, then you are free to leave the classroom.”

Well, that was good. We have never been able to do that before, so I got started on the test after about 15 minutes, and I was already done. Genius was right, it was easy, so I got up and took the test to the teacher before walking out of the classroom. I wasn’t sure what to do because I had never been able to leave class early before without a good reason, so I walked to my locker and put my English stuff up I grabbed my reading book from inside the locker. I sat down in front of my locker and started reading my book, and that is when I noticed a familiar scent and a familiar uneasy feeling. I was scared to look up because I knew who it was; it was Oliver. Why was he here? He knows I want nothing to do with him.

That is when Violet decided to pop up, "You know you can reject him right, but I wouldn’t advise doing it alone, I would wait for either Zeus or Genius, because the way he is acting, it will get ugly.”

"Well, Violet, should I do that or not?”

"Sweety, that is a decision that you need to make, but just because you reject him now doesn’t mean it will work, it didn’t work for mother, she rejected her other mate, and he just waited around for father to die then come back into her life, you remember that man she was dating that was her other mate.”

I wasn’t sure what the right thing was. I wanted to be with Genius. I have loved him forever, but here Oliver was trying to get my attention, but how do I know that he doesn’t want it for the wrong reasons? I don’t, and that is why I must do this.

I peered up to notice him just smiling away at me. "What do you want, Oliver? I told you to leave me alone.”

He just started laughing, "Do you really think that I would stay away from my mate?”

I just shook my head, "Genius is my mate and my fiancé.”

Pulling at my shirt just enough to show him the mark, I then showed him my engagement ring. That pissed him off because the next thing I knew, he grabbed my wrist really hard. "I will remove his mark. You are mine.”

Staring at him, "Oliver, let go, that hurts.”

But he started squeezing my arm harder, now I was starting to get pissed, I reached behind his head and grabbed his neck, forcing him to the ground. "You will remove your f*****g hands from my damn wrist before I snap your neck.”

He just started squeezing harder. "You really think you scare me, a bitch.”

Zeus and Genius must have felt how angry I was becoming because both came rounding the corner. I held up my hand signaling them both to stop, but Genius did not want to. I let out the deepest growl I could, sending him a warning that this was my fight.

I flipped Oliver over on to his back before straddling him pinning his arms above his head, I could tell Genius was getting pissed so I sent him a message "Babe trust me I have this handled, if he continues after this you can do your thing baby, ok but I have to do this just trust me.”

He gave me those puppy dog eyes, I turned back towards Oliver "I want you to understand something, just because I am your mate does not mean I have to be with you, if you think treating me like that would ever make me love you-you are sorely mistaken, and just because of that Oliver I reject you as my mate I reject our mate bound I reject you”

The moment those words left my mouth, everything that I felt for Oliver went away. I didn’t notice his scent anymore. But that is also when Oliver became enraged, he started to shift underneath me but he didn’t know who I was, So I remained on top of him that is when my eyes turned dark purple and I forced him to stay human "Oliver, if you keep playing with me you see my wonderful mate sitting behind you he is just waiting to kill you, and be grateful that it is him and not me I could do it slowly and painfully.”

Once he saw my eyes, he became frightened, like he knew what I was, and that was not allowed, so I held him a minute before asking Violet something, "Hey Violet, can we erase other wolves’ memories?”

She laughed at me, "Yes, you can, but you’re not a vampire, it doesn’t work the same way, you have to place both hands on the sides of his head and manually erase whatever it is you need to erase.”

So I did just that, I erased the image he saw of me with my eyes changing colors before getting up. Once I got up, I heard James in my head, "Alpha, I followed the smell 30 miles from the last place you guys saw him. Should I continue?”

"Yes, James follows the smell and find the location once that is done, contact us let us know then meet back at the packhouse.”

I walked over to Genius. Zeus stood guard in front of us, and Oliver slowly started to back away. "Artemis this is not over. I do not care if you rejected me; you will be mine.”

Genius let out this loud and mean-sounding growl, and that is when Oliver turned around and left.

Genius turned towards me, "Princess, did you really just reject him?”

Looking at him like he was stupid, "Babe, you literally just watched me do it.”

He smiled, "Thank you, but I don’t understand why you didn’t tell me he wouldn’t leave you alone.”

I just shook my head, "Because, babe, this was my fight, I had to deal with it my own way, I love you, and he will not ruin that no matter what.”

Picking me up, pressing me against the lockers, kissing me long and deep before Zeus cleared his throat to get our attention. "Well, love birds, I think that I am going to pull Artemis out of school. Oliver just saw your eyes.”

I started cracking up laughing, both the boys just looked at me, "You guys don’t have to worry about that, I wiped his memory of that.” That shocked them. "Wait for what?”

Walking away, "Don’t worry your head about that now, come to the office with me, I am going to talk to the principal really quick.”

So they followed me to the principal’s office. I walked into Mr. Vios' office. "Hi, Mrs. Cage, to what do I owe this pleasure?”

I shook his hand. "Well, Mr. Vios, as you know, Genius and I are graduating early due to us having our credits that are needed, so I was wondering if we could just get our diplomas without attending the graduation ceremony this weekend?”

That seemed to confuse him. "Well, Artemis, I thought you wanted to walk across the stage like everyone else?”

Hanging my head, "Well, I did but that was when my mother was alive. I really would just like to get my diploma now and go home; if not, Zeus here will be pulling me out today.”

That shocked him, he turned toward Zeus, "Is this true?”

Zeus nodded in agreement; Zeus knew what I was doing. Mr. Vios got up from his desk and went over to the filing cabinet that he kept locked. He grabbed two envelopes out of the filing cabinet. "Well, I can’t say that this isn’t upsetting news, but I do understand why, so here are your diplomas; you are free to go.”

Smiling, "Thank you, Mr. Vios. I appreciate it, and you were a wonderful principal to have.”

With that, we left his office. Genius grabbed my hand. "Well, that was smooth.”

Smiling, brushing air off my shoulder, "I know I am just good like that.”

Zeus and Genius fell on the floor laughing, "Okay, guys, let's head home, don’t forget I still have to get a hold of mom tonight.”

They were able to finally stand. We got to Zeus' car, but we noticed that the tires had been slashed. This had to be Oliver’s doing. "Well, squirt, what do you want to do?”

Chuckling, how about you just post a free car sign on it? I will buy you another one. Now he was truly confused. "How are you going to do that, squirt?”

Looking at him like he was stupid, "Did you forget that dad had left me money in the bank for when I graduated?”

He made that O ya face. "Now, let's get to the woods so we can shift and get home. I am tired.”

Zeus made the free car sign and signed the title, leaving that and the keys in the glove compartment. We jogged until we were deep in the forest, then we shifted into our wolf forms.

Once we shifted, we took off towards the house, just running like we never had. Finally, we reached the barrier and came running in at the same time. That is when we ran into each other, tripping over one another. Once shifted back, all we could do was laugh. Alcide came over to us. "What is so funny, and why are you two not at school?”

Getting up, putting the robe on that Alcide brought with him, and I held up Genius and I diploma. Alcide just stood there with his eyes wide open "I thought the graduation was this weekend?”

Nodding, "It was, but I didn’t want to attend it wouldn’t be the same without mom there, so I just asked the principal and he gave them to us.”

Nodding his head, "Artemis, you know that your mother would have wanted you to walk across that stage.”

Walking away, "Well, she isn’t here now, is she?”

With that, I went inside the house, and I went into the kitchen, where food had already been put on plates for Genius, Zeus, and me with juice in a glass next to each one of them.

Grabbing my plate and drink, and went upstairs to my room. I sat there and quickly ate my food. Wanting to be asleep before Genius came upstairs. I didn’t want to talk about what I said because I knew it was wrong, plus I still needed to try and contact my mother. Once I finished my food I sat the plate and cup on the stand next to my bed I laid back and started humming the song my mother would sing to me when I couldn’t sleep and soon I drifted into sleep, I couldn’t hear or see anything not yet it was all black and static, the vision started to clear a little bit but I could hear my mother’s voice. I kept trying but nothing yet...........