MALIA’S POV
The way he spoke like I was some kind of puzzle that needed to be solved with carefulness offended me but for someone who had risked his life to save me from the wreck of rouges, I am sure getting furious at him is not one of the ways to show my appreciation.
So instead of scowling at him like I intended to, I decided against it last minute and strolled toward him with purpose. He had saved me, so a little word should not get me all riled up.
Unhurriedly, I slid into the chair sitting opposite of him all the while he glanced thoughtfully at me.
It seems like my theory again has once been proved wrong. I thought with the way he looked at me upfront that he might have figured out a lot of things about me but now that I was close enough to read his gaze, I found out that he was trying to figure me out just the same way I was trying to figure him out.
“Who are you?” He didn’t hesitate to ask as he let his hands out of his pocket and set them on the table that was between us, slowly moving forward and supporting his chin with his hands while he openly stared at me.
“Who was I?” I asked myself inwardly. Because seriously who was I? I was so occupied with thinking about other priorities that I didn’t even spare time to think through what I was going to tell him if he asked me questions as such which I knew was going to come.
I took my time to wallow over the question he asked and he also took his time to study me, never for once asking why I hadn’t answered him.
When I felt like I had gathered enough words that would serve me through this conversation, I cleared my throat and turned to face him, completely looking him dead in the eyes just as he was at me.
“My name is Malia, I told you that”
“Yes, and I heard that part. What I desire to know tonight is who you are and what you were doing in the forest alone, unprotected, and without any weapon for self-protection. That is a very far-fetched and bizarre situation to find a young maiden”
These were the longest sentences he had ever spoken directly to me or to anyone that was to my hearing. He was always so reserved and more of a one-word person.
Brazing myself for what was to come, I opened my mouth and spat out the falsehood I formulated in my head hoping he wasn’t as ingenious as he looked.
“I am just a servant who happened to be in a very bad place in her pack. Deciding that running away would fetch me better than staying in the pack, I acted upon it. I guess I didn’t carefully plan out everything. Grateful for you if not I would have ended up dead by now, torn apart by the wild beast”
The format I presented my explanation was intentional. I listed the story first and then made sure to end it with something he was aware of so that at least he wouldn’t just focus on me or my tale.
“A servant you said?” He rubbed his temple while still staring at me. “What a very interesting servant you are. To have tossed away an expensive gold bangle without a second thought, that is indeed one of the most evident characteristics of a servant” His words slid out of his mouth with so much ease like they have been stored there for long.
Okay, I was giving him less credit than he deserved and he had caught up to my lie. I hardly get beaten up in my own game but the fact that he was able to do that at just the first try was enough for me to know he was even more ingenious than he looked. There was no need to lie to him.
“I am not saying you should tell me what has sent you out of your pack, no. All I want to know is who you are. I saved you from the face of death, the least you could do is let me know who I had saved” He rebuked.
Okay, he has a point. The least I could do was frankly tell him who I was after he saved me from the rouges.
“I am….. or should I say I used to be the Luna of the Silver Crescent pack but..”
“Silver Crescent pack?” He inquired, curiosity lingering in his eyes.
“Yes, the almighty Silver Crescent you know,” I confirmed his suspicion with a firm nod.
That was all he asked for and so that was all I was entitled to answer. But the look on his face showed that he wanted to know more. It seemed like my confession had just sparked even more curiosity in his eyes than ever before. And even though he didn’t press to know more, I felt entitled to tell him the rest of the story. He saved my life, this was nothing compared to that.
“I am weak” I began. “And when I say weak, I don’t mean weak because I wasn’t experienced with weapons or such, no. I am weak because I do not have a wolf. And it is already a well-established fact in the whole werewolf community that a weak Luna isn’t needed anywhere, so I just had to drop it and leave. I believe it was for the best”
“Okay, so here is the thing. I want to get something right. You,” He pointed toward me with a single finger raised. “Are the Luna of Zade Hunter of the Silver crescent pack?”
At his question, I nodded without hesitation.
I don’t know what I was expecting after that but I wasn’t expecting him to just get up and walk out of the room wordlessly.
Strange.