Rescuing His Captive Mate: Saving The Future Luna

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Star

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Artem had talked to someone that knew something about the Warlock named Gannon, but they weren't able to come help us right away. Apparently they had a lot of stuff to do in their own pack following the battle they had recently been in.

I couldn't imagine that. A battle? What does that mean? Like just a fight that they all got into where some people just happened to die or like full scale battles from wars only with supernatural creatures instead of with guns? I just didn't know how to imagine it all.

Though, I was having a hard time with everything right now. It had been a week since the boys had screamed in pain. It had been a week since their talismans had been removed. And it had been a week since they had all slipped into comas. And not a single one of them had woken up yet.

I didn't leave my room anymore. I barely even talked to Artem before he left for work. I didn't go to breakfast so it was brought to me in the room I share with Artem. The same went for lunch and dinner. I couldn't bring myself to go and see everyone else.

I couldn't really explain my reasoning behind the way I was feeling. All I knew was that I felt guilty. I felt like I was somehow responsible for what had happened to the boys. I felt like since I had smoothly recovered from the talisman and since I was now able to shift I had somehow caused this to happen to the innocent kids that we were trying to save.

I was spiraling into a pit of despair and I knew it. The problem was that I couldn't get myself to rise above it. I couldn't save myself. I couldn't fix this for me or the boys. I wasn't strong enough to help anyone.

I was doing what I did almost every day. I was sitting on the bench seat that was built into the window. I was just staring out at the trees and the calm soothing visage that was nature.

I hadn't expected that I would get visitors since I have been doing this same thing for a week and hadn't received any visitors yet. So, when Artem came into the room accompanied by Bailey, Reed, and the old man who had introduced himself to me as my great great grandfather. I barely knew him since I had not had the time to talk to him much since he came to stay here.

I had looked away from the window and watched as they all came into the room. They didn't say anything. Reed and Bailey picked up the couch and brought it to face the window where I was sitting. After that the three men from my family sat on it and looked at me with calm faces.

I wouldn't say that they were smiling, since they weren't. It was more like they had carefully crafted blank expressions that would give away nothing of how they were feeling. The problem is, none of them could make that look reach their eyes.

All three of them were upset. I guess the true description would be worried. They were worried about something and I didn't know what. What had happened? Were they here to tell me that the boys had gotten worse? I don't think I could handle that.

Artem had gone to the closet before anything else. He hadn't said a word when he came into the room either. It was like they had perfectly coordinated what they were going to do before they came in to see me.

There was something in Artem's hands when he left the closet. I was wrapped in dark green silk but I knew what it was nonetheless. It was the box that had belonged to my mother. I had hidden it in the back of the closet until I was ready to open it. 

I just continued to watch on silently as Artem moved toward the rest of us. He handed the box to Bailey who was sitting on the end when he passed by the couch. Once his hands were free Artem came right up to me. He lifted me into his arms like I weighed nothing at all and took my place on the bench.

I had squealed when I was lifted from my seat, grabbing a hold of Artem's shoulders for balance and support even though I was never in danger of falling. Still, it was disconcerting to be picked up so suddenly like that.

"A-Artem, what's going on?" I finally asked him when I was seated on his lap while he lounged on the bench that I had previously been occupying.

"We're worried about you." He gave me a look that said he didn't know what to do. "You've been getting worse for the last few days, Star. And I don't know what to do."

"You need to get out of this room, you need to get on with life." Reed followed up Artem's words with some of his own, but what he said, getting on with my life, that just made me mad.

"Get on with my life?" I glared at Reed, putting a large amount of what I was feeling into what I was about to direct at him. "I don't have a life to get on with, Reed. I didn't have that luxury growing up. Just like Julian, Flint, Dalton, Leslie, Cohen, and Benton didn't have that luxury. Just like Nico didn't have the chance to either. And how am I supposed to just move on while there are seven boys who have been lost to us, possibly forever?"

I saw the three men sitting before me recoil in shock from the force of my outburst. I had expected that Artem would do the same. I thought he would be surprised at the least, but he wasn't. Artem just wrapped his arms around me and hugged me gently. His heart wasn't beating faster, his breathing was steady, he was just as calm as usual.

"I know you think this is your fault, Star, but it's not." Artem's words were soothing and soft and exactly what I needed to hear. The only thing is I didn't want to hear them.

"How is it not?" I had begun to cry without even realizing it. I only knew that I was crying when the tears dropped from my cheeks and landed on my hands that were clasped in my lap.

"This would have happened no matter what we did. Just like your talisman came off after Howard died theirs came off after Gannon died. This is a set back, but I am certain that we will figure all of this out sooner or later. The boys are alive and that is what matters. They just need help waking up. The Luna queen is coming here in just over two weeks on the twelfth. She will know what to do."

"I-I know." I faltered for just a moment. I needed to admit that the Queen should know how to handle this situation. She was older and wiser than us, right? That meant that she had more experience in all of this and could help us figure all of this out.

While I sat there and contemplated what Artem had said I heard someone clear their throat. It was my great great grandfather, Daniel Westbrook. I lifted my head to look at him more clearly than I had ever looked at him before.

I was still nervous around him since I didn't know him at all, but he smelled nice, just like Reed and Bailey had always smelled. His hair was pure white but his eyes were still a bright and clear blue. He had a kind and gentle smile that made me feel like I knew him even though I knew that I didn't.

"Star, I never got to help you while you were growing up. I couldn't save you. I was too old and too weak. But I want to be here for you now. I didn't know your mother for long but I knew her when she was a very little girl and when she came back to us when you were still so young."

"I don't remember her at all." I hung my head in shame, looking away from him.

"That's understandable. You were so little when she was lost to us. We can rebuild her in your memories though. We can help you to see her face again."

He didn't know how that would feel. On one hand I would love to see her clearly in my own mind, not just a blurred image of her that was probably more made up than real. I would love to see what she looked like in my own memories.

But, then again, seeing those memories. Remembering them and knowing what it was that I had lost, that would make things harder on me. I would have to relive the good and the bad and I didn't know if I could do that.