"Two words! Therapy sucks!" Kat yelled as she stormed into the room, slamming the door open.
She threw her backpack on the floor.
"I mean, I like Dr Vega, I really do. She seems like a nice lady and she always wears the coolest pants suits but all that talk about my 'unspoken' feelings and my stored up anger and finding 'healthy' outlets and - what's wrong with you?" Kate stopped ranting when she saw me on the floor, sitting with my legs pulled up to my chest.
I gulped when I looked up at her.
"Close the door." I whispered.
She closed the door behind her and looked at me in confusion
"You're not having some weird PTSD reaction to your attack, are you?" She asked bluntly.
I looked at her.
Wasn't therapy supposed to be making her more empathetic?
"Because that's ridiculous. You do know they're like six ripped soldiers out there standing guard for you, right?"
She didn't even stop to listen to me before she continued speaking.
"You will not believe how everyone at school was talking about your little run in with trouble. I think it'should amazing publicity. When you go back to school on Monday, you will come off as a survivor. I can see it now, 'the luna faces the enemy and wins'."
I don't even know how the story of the attack had made it to the people at school. As far as I was concerned, all the candidates had been sent home.
But of course they had gotten the entire narrative wrong.
The luna wasn't brave and fearless. She had been afraid out of her mind and this close to peeing her pants.
But funnily enough, almost getting killed by Van Cliffe wolves was the least of my worries right now.
I sucked in a deep breath. "Kat." I called out her name, grabbing her attention.
I held out my phone to her.
"What is it? Do you have pictures? Because if so, I definitely want to see them."
She walked towards me excitedly and took the phone.
Her brows rose when she read the message.
She scoffed.
"Who the hell sent you this? Do you have a stalker or something? Because you know, one word to alpha Tristan and whoever it is is dead meat."
"It's from Roman." I told her in a low voice.
Her eyes widened at me. "What?"
I nodded at her.
She looked back at the message.
"He - what? How do you know?"
I sucked in a deep breath before getting up and taking the phone case from the drawer.
I showed it to her.
She furrowed her brows in confusion as I pointed to the patch.
"I don't get it." She spoke. "What -"
I quickly put my finger on my lips before throwing the cover back in the drawer and pushing her into the bathroom of our room.
"Did you see that round black thing?" I asked in a whisper.
I didn't know how good the microphone on that thing was but I wasn't ready to take any chances.
Kat nodded, still looking confused.
"It's called a surveillance patch." I whispered. "It's something that Roman learnt to use in the AAP. It records audio and I think determines location."
Kat gasped. "He bugged you?"
I nodded, the fear now official settling in.
"Holy crap!" Kat yelled. "So the message and - he sent you that? His been spying on you this entire time?"
I nodded. "Me and who knows who else."
I sat down on the edge of the bathtub.
It had been months. Just merely months yet it had felt like Roman had happened a lifetime ago. He felt like a dream even. A very confusing and intense dream.
But just hearing from him made everything come back. All the memories. All our conversations.
It had never felt like I had been talking to a spy. It had just been Roman.
"Oh my freaking gosh." Kat pressed her hand on her forehead. "This just took a spin in an unexpected direction. Wait, how do you know for sure that this is him?"
She whispered 'him' and at that moment, I remembered Rick and the other soldiers outside.
They couldn't hear us, right?
"I spoke to it." I explained to her.
She looked unconvinced. "You spoke to it? And... it spoke back?"
I gave Kat an unamused look. She was treating me like I was crazy.
"No, then I got the text message."
"Oh damn."
"I know." I told her.
"Do you think Roman is still in Woodfell?" She asked.
"I don't know." I told her in frustration.
"Well you have to tell Tristan." Kat told me.
I just looked at her, I opened my mouth to say something but I realised I didn't know what I wanted to say.
"We have to tell Tristan, Crystal." Kat told me sternly.
"I know." I spoke in exasperation. "But -"
"No! No buts."
I stood up. "Kat, I think there's more going on here than we might think."
"No, Crissy, you just want an excuse to see him again or talk to him again. You want to give him a chance to try and justify his actions. You want to give him a chance to lie to you."
"So what if I do?" I asked Kat.
She didn't understand. She couldn't. She hadn't known Roman like I did. She didn't know what we had.
"I cared about him too." She told me softly as she put a hand on my shoulder. "But he lied to us all. He was pretending the entire time. He can't be trusted."
Her words stung. He had been pretending the whole time. Including in our relationship?
"I think - I think he wants to talk to me." I told her.
She furrowed her brows at me. "And why would you think that?"
I sucked in a deep breath. "I heard him call out to me a few days ago. I was heading out of school after training and I heard his voice."
Kat's eyes widened. "And you're just telling me this now?"
"You were mad at me okay? And - and I thought that I was going crazy. I didn't think it was real until Tristan told me that he had caught Roman's scent in the territory around the same time."
"Tristan - wait, is that what you two were talking about the day he came to talk to mum and dad?"
I bit my lower lip nervously and nodded.
Kat rubbed her temple. "You don't want your new lover to kill your ex lover - when did your life become a telenovela?"
"Kat, this is serious." I told her.
"I know." She responded in frustration. "But we can't get ourselves involved in this. We're just kids. TrIstan is the alpha. If he finds out about this some other way -"
"I think Roman knew my mother." I blurted out.
Kat stopped. She blinked rapidly at me.
"You better be kidding."
I had been thinking about this so much that my head hurt. Trying to find loop holes but there were none.
"Roman used to say things. Things I would brush off but honestly, they were things he shouldn't have known."
"Like what?" Kat asked.
"Like... like he knew that my mother told me never to take off this necklace."
"Everyone knows that, Crissy."
"Okay, maybe but also, he once mentioned a very specific detail about the day my mother brought me to Woodfell." I rushed out the words, wanting desperately for Kat to believe me.
Kat sighed. "Cryss, that doesn't prove anything. Roman spent a lot of time with dad, he could have told him all this."
"I already asked Uncle Victor and he said he didn't tell Roman anything."
"So? Dad has a crappy memory sometimes." Kat spoke.
"Kat, I have a feeling that something is up."
"That might be so but feelings aren't evidence." She told me. "Tristan is trying to protect you. Witholding this information is an act of treason, might I remind you."
Kat was right. I owed it to Tristan to tell him that Roman had contacted me.
Maybe Uncle Victor was right, this might have just been a conspiracy that I was brewing up myself.
I was just reacting to being abandoned by two very important people in my life.
But something still didn't add up.
"But how do you explain the attacks?" I asked.
That couldn't be a coincidence.
"The first wolf didn't want to hurt me. What if it had gotten orders not to? Only two people would give that order, my mum and Roman."
"Okay." Kat gave in. "Maybe that was Roman. But that's all the more reason you shouldn't want anything to do with him. That wolf was sent to kill Josh."
Okay, that was bad.
Whoever had sent that rogue had obviously been trying to hurt Tristan. And if it was Roman, Kat was right, I shouldn't want to be associated with any of that.
But Roman was as much of a kid as we were. He was only twenty. He came to Woodfell when he was ten, how could a ten year old be a spy?
It just didn't add up and I wanted answers.
"But the second attackers were Van Cliffe wolves. Ro didn't have ties to Van Cliffe wolves, my mum did."
Kat looked shocked. "It was Van Cliffe wolves that attacked you today?"
"Yes. And I know for sure they came for me this time. What if my mum is in trouble?" I asked Kat.
Kat put her hand on her stomach.
It's then that I had noticed how pale she had gotten.
"Where's my dad?" She asked.
"What's wrong?" I asked her.
"We need to tell him. If Van Cliffe wolves are here and after you then he needs to know."
"He already does. I met him when I got back. He told me about his history with the Eclipse pack and how he got out."
"Then you should know this isn't a game, Crystal." Kat spoke desperately and seriously. "Van Cliffes were bad news. If they have your mum or if they're trying to get to you. Crap, that would be bad."
"I know." I told her. "Maybe your dad will have answers when he gets back from questioning."
"My dad is getting questioned?" Kat screeched.
I bit my lip. Was I not supposed to tell her that?
I assumed that Aunt Sarah had already disclosed this information to her when she had picked her up.
"Didn't your mum tell you all this when she picked you up?" I asked Kat.
Uncle Victor and Aunt Sarah were very open with their kids about things that affected them. So the fact that Aunt Sarah hadn't told Kat any of this was strange.
"Mum didn't pick me up. I mean she wanted to but I wanted to leave school and therapy early so I told her that I would walk."
That definitely sounded like Kat.
"What the hell? They think he has something to do with those psychopaths?"
I figured that this wasn't he best time to telk
"Kat, relax." I told her. "He's the only Van Cliffe around, that's probably why."
"It better." Kate spoke. Like usual, she was trying to appear tough but I could tell she was scared.
"Nothing will happen to him, Kat, he's innocent."
"You were too and they still treated you like a criminal."
As someone who had gone through a trial in Woodfell, I knew the Silvercrest pack believed in the statement 'guilty until proven innocent'.
"If I can help it, I won't let anything happen to him." I promised Kat.
I might have been totally against my role as luna but I wasn't going to let anyone accuse Uncle Victor.
Kat clenched her fists.
"Do you really think Roman might be involved with Van Cliffe's?" She asked.
"I don't know." I admitted. "But I just have a feeling that this isn't a coincidence."
Kat took in a deep breath. "Well there's only one way to find out."
I furrowed my brows at her.
She marched out the room without another word.
I followed, curious and scared about what she was about to do.
She picked my phone up from my bed where she had left it.
"Kat, what are you doing?" I asked.
"Calling Roman." She shrugged and next thing I knew, she was putting the phone to her ear.
"Are you crazy?" I yelped as I rushed to grab the phone from her but she still held on to it tightly.
"You're the one who was talking about treason. Contacting a spy seems a lot like treason."
Kat finally let go of the cell phone. "Fine." She relented.
I quickly cut the call but a part of me couldn't help but wonder if he would have answered.
"Okay, so our next step is telling Tristan." I told Kat.
She huffed. "As all good upstanding pack members should."
I understood her annoyance, I desperately wanted answers as well. But we needed to do this the right way.
"Great. All this has made me hungry." Kat spoke.
I didn't see how that was even possible but getting out of the room and doing something to keep us occupied with how anxious we both were was a good idea.
"We could make spring rolls." I suggested.
Hazel loved them and I knew she would definitely be happy if she came home to them.
"Okay, you can make the shells and the filling." Kat spoke.
I rolled my eyes. "That's like 75% of the work."
"Crystal, look at it from a glass half full perspective." She tried to persuade me.
"My glass is literally only a quarter way full." I told her.
She sighed. "Crystal, we're already frustrated enough, do you really want to bring math into this?"
"I'm just saying -"
I was cut off when I heard my phone ping and the message icon popped up with the unknown number.
Kat and I shared a frightened look.
"Should we-" she started but I had already opened the message. Kat leaned in to read into with me.
Crystal, I'm in trouble, I need your help.
I looked up at Kat and I was about to say something when the front door burst open.
Kat and I both jumped, causing me to drop the phone.
We turned to see Aunt Sarah walk into the room.
She walked straight to me and placed her hands on my shoulders. Kat took that as an opportunity to pick up my phone and place it in her pocket.
"Are you okay, sweetie?"
I nodded quicky. "Yes, why wouldn't I be?"
Aunt Sarah looked at me in confusion.
"Maybe because you got attacked a second time by Van Cliffes." Kat spoke in a 'duh' tone.
"Oh right," I spoke.
Kat placed a finger in the middle of her lips.
Did she wants me to stay quiet about the messages?
"Oh baby." Aunt Sarah pulled me into a hug. "I don't know why these things always seem to happen to you." She spoke, pulling back to look at me sympathetically.
"Well, um, I've made it this far, haven't I?" I joked.
She gave me a small smile.
"Just remember, baby, God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble."
I smiled and nodded.
Aunt Sarah's motivational verses never failed to calm me down even if it was just a little bit.
She suddenly grew serious. "Um, beta Bridget is here for you."
ââââââ"Why?" I asked too quickly.
What if she knew about Roman's messages? I don't know how she would but dammit, I was nervous.
"Let's just go downstairs so that you can talk to her and your uncle."
Kat and I shared a confused look. "Um, okay." I spoke feeling uncertain.
Aunt Sarah put her hand on my back and begun to lead me out.
She then stopped.
"Oh and Katherine, I know you left school early."
I saw Kat flinch.
"We'll talk later." She told her before she continued leading me.
When we got downstairs, I was surprised to see Rick standing by the dining room. Hazel stood in a corner just staring at him with a goofy smile on her face.
Uncle Victor and Bridget sat in the living area.
Parker stood in front of Bridget who just stared at him in confusion. It looked like he was holding out a crayon to her.
Bridget took it slowly. "Um, thank you?" Bridget responded as she took it.
He beamed at her.
"This means we're married."
Bridget's eyes widened. "Um-"
ââââââ"Oh gosh." Aunt Sarah spoke as she rushed to take Parker.
"Bringâââââ cookies the next time you visit, wifey!" Parker yelled as he waved.
Kat came up behind me. "Oh my gosh, freaking beta Bridget Lane is in our house."
I had forgotten what a fan Kat was of Bridget.
I wanted to point out that Bridget had been in here before but I just decided to let her have this."
"Here." Aunt Sarah spoke as she gave Parker to Kat. "Take your brother and your drooling sister out of here."
Kat and I turned to look at Hazel who I now realised was figuratively drooling at Rick.
Rick actually kind of looked uncomfortable and kept shifting.
"Why am I stuck with babysitting?" Kat asked as she took Parker. "I want to attend the grown ups meeting.
Aunt Sarah rose her brows at her. "Oh you're grown now?"
"In ancient times, I would have been married expecting my second child." She spoke matter of factly.
Aunt Sarah gave her a 'what will I do with you' look.
"Don't worry about the meeting, you'll find out soon enough. Crystal tells you everything anyway."
That was true.
Kat sighed. "Fine. Let's go colour a picture of a strong, independent woman, Park." She told him.
"Like my wife?" Parker chirped.
"Hazel!" Kat hissed at her little sister.
Hazel quickly snapped her head to look at her older sister who waved her over.
She looked disappointed as she followed her.
I followed Aunt Sarah into the living area.
Bridget rose and nodded at me. "Luna."
She gave a pointed look at Uncle Victor and I really hopped she wasn't expecting him to rise for me as hell.
The 'luna rules' didn't apply in this household.
"Um, hey Bridget." I greeted.
I hadn't forgotten about our conversation earlier but there were more important things to have anxiety over right now.
I looked at Uncle Victor. "How did the questioning go?"
He stood up. "Um, it was good. I can't say I was much help though."
"Did you see them - the wolves, I mean?" What I really wanted to know is if they had found out why they were here.
"I did see them. And know, I don't know them." He answered.
He put his hands together and looked at Bridget.
I immediately knew that something was up.
Bridget stepped forward. "Luna, your uncle and I have been talking and we think it would be best for your safety and the safety of your family if you moved into the alpha's manor."
My eyes widened. I looked at Aunt Sarah and she simply nodded.
"What?" I yelped.
"Just until Tristan figures all this out." Uncle Victor added quickly.
I didn't know how to feel. They wanted me to leave the house? The only place I had ever felt safe?
"Wait. Does this mean the attacks won't stop? Is it true? Are they after me?"
Uncle Victor didn't meet my eyes but Bridget did.
"On the contrary, luna, this is just the beginning."