In the new hideout, Gerella had just explained to the kids (again) that they couldn’t go out to play yet because the weather wasn’t good. The truth was they were never going out to play now that they were hatching yet another escape route. After reporting to Saxum about the food supply, Gerella went for a stroll in the forest.
She was enjoying the coolness and the peace of the greenery in her invisible form. Then, she heard something. A rhythm. Lup-di-duh-di-dup. Over and over again. It was the most beautiful sound that she’d ever heard. But where was it coming from? There wasn’t a soul in sight, unless this was another discretus? Was she hearing the bodily fluid of the mate their Lord had bonded her to?
Gerella was excited but also nervous. She followed the sound, and found herself walking towards the beach, the very location Sa
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Gerella’s fairytale moment came to an end as well, and she wished she could just disappear but her ability seemed to be denying her request, so she stayed fully visible as she glanced back into the forest. “Part of those who are involved are basically my family, Toby. We're...not related by blood, but they're family nonetheless. You can’t just ask me to give them up.” “Why does your family want to challenge the Queen’s Authority? If you wanted a place in the kingdom, all any of you had to do was ask. I doubt Xandar and Lucy would mind.” “Xandar and Lucy?” “The king and queen. She’s the same queen whose power your family is trying to challenge,” he tried not to sound too harsh but that did come out somewhat accusatory.
Ideally, Toby would have wanted Gerella to deny his suggestion immediately, but her silence was worrying. There was nothing to control the Queen’s Authority yet but he and the others knew for a fact that the shell worked well to shield the rogues against Xandar. Tweaking the shell to be offensive rather than defensive might take less effort and time than having to come up with something from scratch to control Lucianne. It already worked so well in Blue Crescent. With some improvements on the shell they gave the decipio-proditors, there was no doubt that the hybrids would succeed. This was getting more messed-up by the second. Gerella started speaking again, “The queen has garnered many enemies over the years, being one of the main players to have them kicked out of their packs…”
Greg had just come out of the elevator onto the subway platform, waiting to catch the next ride when his watchers’ report came in, telling him that his suspicions were right, that they were the ones being watched all along. He asked his watchers to bring in Dormant Little Red, J.J. and Bundy, and the duke called off the watch duty immediately. The new assignment was to start looking for Klementine and her assistant, Feva. After that, Alissa’s link came through. Greg said nothing throughout the report, even when he stepped into the public transport. When Alissa was done, he ordered, ‘Get to Polje for our practice with the bloodsuckers as usual. We’ll fill the queen in if the defense minister continues keeping silent about this affair.’ ### That night, Lucianne wasn’t ev
Since verifying the presence of children didn’t concern Greg, he moved on to what really interested him when he asked Toby, “Minister, did she give any descriptions of the three scientists?”“No. With hindsight, I wished I had asked.”Lucianne gently consoled, “You had a lot on your mind.”Tate added, “And she might not even know, Toby.”Toby begged to differ. “It’s really nice of you to want to help defend my mate, Alpha, but let’s face it, if she’s privy to planning the Blue Crescent attack and the abductions at Falling Vines and Saber Vagary, I doubt she won’t know who the scientists are.”
After Toby left the beach, Gerella ran as fast as her legs could carry her back to Neptune’s hideout. She was still amazed by how close the two rogues were that Neptune was allowed to set up his own hiding place on Klementine’s land. Gerella began cracking her head on a plausible excuse for them to evacuate as soon as possible. She came to an abandoned hut, went to the back where there was a worn out truck, slipped underneath the vehicle and slid open the metal casing covered by dirt and dried leaves before sliding into the hideout. Her eyes scanned the significantly smaller space, looking for Saxum. Neptune saw her frantic look, so his head gestured to a room behind a tattered curtain as he uttered calmly, “There. One of your friends has fallen ill.” &n
The vigils and custodes only reached the beach and the abandoned hut two hours after the hybrids left. In the darkness around 11:30pm, it took them another thirty minutes to find the entry of the hideout under the wrecked car. In the hideout itself, they could smell that the scents matched those found in the hideout of the Forest of Oderem. The only difference was that no belongings were left behind this time. They searched the forest before Duica had the idea to start looking through the wooden hut again. The fact that the floorboards had uneven gaps in between and the plank walls weren’t evenly constructed depicted that this shelter was not built by a professional. Perhaps it was a family project of sorts. If there weren’t any clues here that would lead them to the hybrids, maybe there was something that could tell them who thi
At 4:15 a.m. Lucianne dashed to the front door when she heard a light tap. She and Xandar asked Mrs Parker to babysit much earlier this morning so that they both could spend a few hours together.Lucianne got the picnic basket while she heated up some of the food that she and Xandar prepared the night before. After Xandar stuffed the picnic blanket into the basket, they left through the backdoor, shifted and made their way to the freesia field.Xandar still carried her across the river, and when they reached their destination, they made their way across the field of flowers and placed the basket under the largest acacia tree, their usual spot. After shifting back, they set up the food and drinks.When Lucianne was satisfied with the arrangement of everything on the picnic bl
Whatever Xandar just said was not just ‘terrifyingly overwhelming’. It was monstrously torturous, heartbreaking and soul-crushing. It was basically the strongest cocktail of all his fears combined into a single scene. Lucianne’s hands reached out to stroke his cheek and shoulder, ensuring him that she was right there in front of him, that she was his and only his, that they weren’t apart and never will be so. He leaned into her hand and kissed her palm before she asked in a small, encouraging voice, “How did you fight it?” He managed a smile when he explained, “For a while, I didn’t think I could. My instinct was to pounce on Greg, who was holding you a little too close for my comfort…actually, I prefer if he didn’t hold or touch you at all.” His grip around her instin