Flora’s P.O.V
“Flora!”
Daphne and Emma engulfed me into their arms as soon as I opened the door and let them into my room, a few hours after I came back from Andre’s office.
It was only a month since I had been away from them, but I had missed them dearly. They weren’t just my friends; they were my sisters and sisters always stuck together. No matter the secrets and the lies, they were family.
“I’m so glad you’re safe!” Emma told me as we pulled away. “Andre went half-mad when you went missing. He even got injured somehow an-”
“I know.” I told them. “Clay and I injured him when we escaped.”
“Oh God!” Daphne gasped. “Is that…are you injured?”
“What?” I looked down at my skirt, where Daphne had been pointing and found the splatter of blood on the peach colored material. I hadn't been in the right mind to change yet, so I was still wearing the dress from this morning. For an instant, my heart thrashed against my ribcage, before I remembered Malachi’s mental voice.
Clay was alive. If Malachi had told me so then I knew I could trust him with my life. Clay was alive and Malachi was taking care of him, along with our healer, Mercy.
“It’s Clay’s blood.” I told them past the knot in my throat. “Malachi shot him to save him from Andre. It must have splattered over my dress at that time…”
“Wait…Malachi hurt Clay?” Emma frowned at me. “Why would he do that?”
I was about to answer her but her words registered then. “You know about Clay…you too?”
At this point I should be past feeling betrayed, but it still hurt that my friends kept lying to me. It was also at this point that I remembered both Emma and Daphne being inside the underground Shrine where I had first been taken when I had wanted to become a Lunar Maiden. They had been there when the Goddess herself appeared and they were definitely present when the Goddess had cursed us. I had been a fool to think that the Goddess would erase all our memories.
“How many of you know the truth? How many of the Lunar Maidens actually knew about me even before I lost my memory?” I asked, hoping for a sincere answer this once.
“Only the four of us.” Emma answered. “Daphne, Ezra, me and Alpha Malachi. You hadn’t visited any other person before that so no one else knew you.”
“I see.” I shook my head. “Any more secrets I should be aware of?”
“Flo-”
“Yes, there is.” Emma began but Daphne cut her off. “There is a secret that you should be aware of, so you don’t think we betrayed you.”
I looked at Daphne in surprise, wondering why she was being like this all of a sudden. But when I looked at her expression, I knew she had been hurt by my words.
“I’m sorry, D-”
“No.” Daphne shook her head. “I’m not doing this because I’m offended or hurt, but I’m doing this because we have been hiding secrets for far too long. We are friends, sisters! And there shouldn’t be secret among sisters…especially since we are all in the same boat.”
“What do you mean?” I frowned.
“You lived with the rogues this past month didn’t you?” Daphne continued once I nodded. “Did you notice that they were all males? That all the rogues were only men and not women?”
“Yes,” to say that I was surprised at Daphne having repeated my sentiments would be an understatement. “I told this to Clay as well, but we didn’t give it much thought. At first I thought there was some kind of connection between the rogues being all men and the Lunar Maidens being all women, but…”
Daphne and Emma exchanged wide-eyed looks and it just clicked. Like a light bulb coming to life. Like pieces of a puzzle fitting together.
No…I had been right? Was it possible that what I had been thinking for these past month had actually been right?
“I guess you figured it out without our help.” Daphne gave me a sad smile. “You’re right…the rogues are all males and the Lunar Maidens are all females…because we are the same as you. We too had dared to make the mistake of loving the men that weren’t our mates and we all suffered the consequences.”
“That’s why Malachi is sympathetic towards the rogues.” I breathed a sigh of relief. Even though I knew Malachi would’ve tried his best to save Clay, now I was certain that he would do anything for Clay. It was the assurance that I needed.
“But this only applies to the rogue near the Lindersay Castle.” Emma corrected me. “There are other rogues too, outside, in the world. Most wolves in the outside world become rogues because they disobeyed the Goddess or because their animal instincts are just too strong. And there we have female rogues as well.”
“So, what you’re trying to tell me is that the rogue pack outside Lindersay, that Clay is now the Alpha of, are all the people that the Lunar Maidens had dared to love by rejecting the mating bond?” It took some time to settle in. “Then why aren’t the other Maidens with them? Why aren’t they going back to normal?”
“Because you’re the only one who has ever recovered their memories.” Emma’s eyes were moist, as if she was struggling to keep her emotions in check. “No matter how hard we had tried…none of us remember anything. All the Maidens here just go about their day like there isn’t a giant hole in their heart where their lovers should’ve been. All we know is that memory loss is just a side-effect of being transformed into a Lunar Maiden and most of the other maidens are so ingrained in their new life that they don’t even care where they came from.”
That’s why most of the other Maidens didn’t give much thought to me losing my memories. No one cared about what they had lost, in fact, none of them remembered.
“We took you to the library that day on purpose since we were already suspecting that you were getting your memories back.” Daphne said and my attention snapped to her. “We knew Andre was up to no good, but we also wanted to know what he actually meant about the ritual. Ezra told us later what the ritual signifies.”
“True love’s sacrifice…” I whispered.
“It looks like Andre is up to something.” Emma nodded. “But Malachi has a close eye on him. Nothing will happen as long as we have Malachi.”
“Yes, i-”
Someone knocked on the door before I could answer her and the knocks kept on getting frantic.
“What could it be?” Emma’s voice was startled.
“I’ll go check.” I told her before going over to the door and unlocking it.
A familiar face greeted me on the other side. A face I hadn’t seen in ages and I had almost forgotten about.
“Samuel?” It was the soldier who had gotten hurt badly while saving me from a newly turned rogue. The soldier that I had healed so he himself didn’t turn rogue. “What brings you here? Are you alright?”
“I’m fine, Lady Healer.” He looked pale as he kept looking over his shoulders. “But something really horrible just happened. You must come with us to look!”
“What is it?” Both Emma and Daphne were beside me in an instant. “What’s wrong?”
What he said next, felt like the ground had been pulled from right under our feet.
“Alpha Malachi has been taken prisoner. Andre has declared himself the new Alpha just now and the Castle is under lockdown.”