MALIA’S POV
While we were on our way back to the palace, Lucien warned us not to talk about my newly discovered identity as a witch. Penelope was not even supposed to tell Damien and he was not even going to tell Margaret.
“If so many people know about it, it might cause them to be hostile towards you and some may even exploit you to their own advantage,” he had explained.
I had so much to learn. I didn’t know the first thing about being a witch. I was just even getting used to being a proper werewolf.
“You are not going to keep on wearing that hat forever are you?” Penelope queried.
“I don’t know,” I replied, looking at Lucien for guidance.
He shrugged. “Well, people are going to wonder why their Luna is suddenly covering her hair all of the time. It is going to make them more curious and when they discover that your hair colour has changed, they are going to be even more curious about why you had chosen to hide it. And trust me, they are going to find out.”
“So I guess I should leave it open then,” I said.
“Starting right this minute,” Penelope added and removed my hat. “Once you step out of the car, the members of the pack are going to assume that you went to the hair salon to get your hair dyed. I am certain that some of the women are going to want to copy you, especially the ones with blue eyes.”
“I hope so,” I murmured. If there was one thing I wasn’t ready for at that point or any other point in my life, it was scrutiny. Even though I was Luna and constantly under the public eye, I was a private person and didn’t like everyone knowing about my affairs.
“Do you think I should dye my hair another colour?” Penelope asked.
“No matter how much you change anything about yourself, you are not going to look any different. Some of us were just not born to look good,” her father-in-law teased.
“Lucien!” I exclaimed and burst out laughing.
“Now I see where your sons get their tormentful wit and smart mouth from. I just don’t know why you all choose to use it on me. Why don’t you tease Margaret instead?” Penelope complained.
“Margaret could easily deal with us, but you can’t,” he replied with a grin.
Lucien walked us to Penelope’s chambers. Her husband was already home with the kids.
His eyes widened as he saw my hair before he gave me a small bow.
“I love the new look. What inspired the change if I may ask?”
I gave him a small smile.”Let’s just say I got bored and decided to try something new,” I replied.
“Well, I must admit that it really suits you and brings out your eyes,” he said.
Penelope cleared her throat and I figured she was not comfortable with her husband complimenting another woman.
Damien’s lips quirked in amusement as his gaze moved to his wife. “You know words fail woefully to capture your loveliness,” he said to her.
Although she fought the urge to smile, the colour on her cheeks showed that his words had pleased her.
I giggled when Lucien scoffed and muttered pumpkin under his breath.
Damien’s eyes suddenly narrowed in suspicion at the three of us. “Now, where have the three of you been?” he queried.
Lucien bade us goodnight and turned to leave.
“Are you really not going to tell me?” Damien asked his father.
I took that as my cue to escape while I could. I wondered why I was even scared. I was his Luna, he couldn’t question me.
I decided to take charge of the situation.
“I was having a mental breakdown. Ryder and I fought last night. So I just wanted to be out of the palace. Your father offered to drive me around and of course, my personal therapist also had to be with me. And also decided to visit the hair salon to do something new with my hair” I explained.
I ignored Penelope’s small frown at being called a therapist and gave her husband the most convincing I’m-telling-the-truth look.
“Oh,” he murmured, “I didn’t know about the fight.”
“Perhaps he just forgot to tell you. It wasn’t that big of a deal,” I replied.
“It’s not that he forgot to tell me. I have not seen him all day,” he explained.
“Well, I guess that’s strange,” I murmured, thinking that I also hadn’t seen him all day but that was on purpose.
“I’ll go to him and see how he is doing. Good night you all,” I said and walked out the door.
I had taken a couple of steps down the hallway when I heard another pair of footsteps behind me.
I looked back and saw that it was Lucien. I arched an eyebrow. “Are you stalking me now?” I joked.
He chuckled. “I do not stalk girls anymore,” he replied and my eyes widened.
“So you used to stalk girls.”
“Yeah. But that was when I was still young. The last girl I stalked was Alice,” he said and his smile became wistful.
We continued down the hallway together in silence for a while.
“You are never going to see her again right?” I asked softly and he nodded.
“It’s the right thing. I can not do that to Margaret. I can’t entertain those feelings I have for Alice. She is in the past and ought to remain there. I would be lying to myself if I said we would just be friends. We can never just be friends. So it is best if I stay away from her,” he replied.
I could tell that it hurt him to say those words. It was not easy to stay away from someone you had a connection with.
I sighed and decided it was best to never bring up anything that had to do with Alice. It was my own way of helping him.
We arrived at Ryder’s chambers and I took a deep breath before opening the door.
It was dinner time already so I figured that he’d be in the dining room.
As expected, he was there and was almost done with his meal.
He leaned back in his chair when he saw me and Lucien gave him a deep bow.
“What did you do to your hair, dearest wife?” he asked with a forced smile.
I focused on his eyes and tried to gauge how mad he was about what had happened the previous evening. They were as cold as ice.
“I just felt like trying something new,” I answered and he smirked.
“Have you two eaten? I can ask the maids to get you something,” he said mostly to Lucien who declined.
“Margaret is going to give me an attitude for the rest of the night and probably throughout the next day if I do not have dinner with her just because I’ve eaten elsewhere.”
Ryder smiled and nodded in understanding.
“I just dropped by to see if you were okay. Damien said he didn’t see you all day,” Lucien said.
“I was somewhat indisposed so I decided to stay indoors and recover,” he replied with his eyes fixed on me.
The Gamma nodded. “I should return to my chambers now.”
“Good night. Give Margaret my love,” the Alpha said with a small smile.
Lucien gave me a meaningful look before he left the room.
I was finally alone with Ryder and I realized I did not know where to start from or what to even say to him.
I took a deep breath and pulled out the chair closest to him. I decided to start on a lighter note.
“I’m starving, dearest husband. Are you not going to ask the maids to get me something to eat?”
He smirked but snapped his fingers anyway and a maid appeared. “The Luna would like something to eat.”
The maid nodded and disappeared into the kitchen.
I inhaled deeply. “I’m sorry for attacking you last night. I don’t know what came over me,” I began.
My wolf snorted. “You attacked him because he was being a mean asshole.”
I ignored her. I just wanted peace to reign between my husband and me. I hated fights.
He gave a harsh laugh. “You know, I never imagined for once, in all the time I was training you to be a soldier, that you would use those skills I taught you against me. You were going to kill me, I saw it in your eyes.”
I closed my eyes and sighed deeply. My wolf was actually to blame for that. His words had been infuriating enough to get her so triggered and she had taken control.
The maid arrived with my meal and I opened my eyes to find Ryder staring at me with an unreadable expression. I waited for the maid to leave before speaking.
“I’m sorry I lost control. But you must admit that you pushed me. You hurt me with your words. Sometimes you act as though I do not have feelings with the words you say to me.”
He was silent for a moment and then he smiled. “So you want me to apologize to you, is that it? Fine then, I am sorry.”
I mentally rolled my eyes. “Ryder, what is wrong with you? Why are you treating me this way?” I queried in frustration.
He closed his eyes and sighed.
“Is it because I have not been able to conceive?” I asked softly.
He suddenly got up from his seat and walked out of the dining room without saying a word.
I decided that I was no longer hungry and I pushed my chair back to rise from my seat.
“Girl, you better eat,” my wolf said.
I remembered that I hadn’t eaten anything all day except for the cookies and mocha that Alice had served us.
I left the dining room anyway, but with the tray of food in my hands, deciding to have my meal in my room.
I slept off after that and woke up sometime around midnight. I sat upright on my bed, trying to figure out what had woken me up.
I heard a door close and I remembered that I was going to ask Ryder what he was working on that was making him leave his chambers almost every night.
A part of me wanted to leave my room and follow him but I didn’t want to cause any more issues between us. We already had enough as it was.
I lay back on my bed and tried to go back to sleep.
The first thing I did when I woke the next morning was go straight to my closet.
I stood in front of the mirror and sighed in resignation.
My hair was still white.
I shrugged and went into the bathroom.
Penelope was trying to get little Damien to try something different for breakfast when I got to their chambers.
I watched in amusement as he made a face when he took a bite of French toast and started to chew.
He ended up spitting it out and Penelope sighed resignedly. “I can’t do this with you this morning,” she said to him.
He simply smiled and demanded his favourite cereal.
She rolled her eyes and walked to the kitchen.
I followed her. “Nice try,” I said to her and she frowned.
“I’m worried that he eats nothing else apart from cereal, sweets and fruits at this age,” she complained as she poured some cereal into a bowl.
I rolled my eyes. “He’s just two years old. Give it time.”
“Whatever,” she murmured. “I just hope the triplets do not give me as much trouble.”
She took a spoonful of the cereal after adding some milk and I smiled inwardly. She had told me the other day how she wanted to lose weight even though I couldn’t see the extra pounds she claimed to have put on.
“I don’t think eating your kid’s food is going to help you lose weight,” I said to her. “And speaking of the triplets, where are they?”
She scowled at me before answering. “They are with their grandpa. He came here this morning and said he wanted to take them fishing. Who was I to say no? A morning without three crawling babies sounded like heaven so I allowed him to take them.”
For a moment, I imagined one of the babies crawling into the river and drowning. I mentally berated myself for such a negative thought and followed Penelope as she walked out of the kitchen.
“Are you sure he’s going to be able to pay proper attention to the three of them?” I asked as she set the bowl of cereal in front of little Damien.
“I have to believe that he can do it. Thinking that he can’t is just going to make me so anxious and make me go get my kids,” she answered.
We sat on her sofa and she gently touched my hair. “We have a date today,” I suddenly spoke and she raised an eyebrow uncomprehendingly.
“I don’t know anything about being a witch and I don’t think you do too. But we have a library full of books that could help me. So I was thinking that the both of us could go there and feed our brains,” I explained in a low voice.
She nodded and smiled. “I like the sound of that.”
“But where are we going to put your son or do you want him to go with us?”
Her eyes shone with mischief. “I know exactly where to take him,” she said.
We left her chambers about an hour later with her son balanced on her hip.
We got to the front of her husband’s study and I realized what her intention was. “I don’t think he is going to like this,” I said.
She grinned. “We wouldn’t be here long enough to find out whether he will or not.
She opened the door and quickly set her son down. He immediately began walking towards his father who was seated behind the desk.
The last thing I saw was his confused expression before Penelope shut the door.
“Let’s go,” she whispered and started to walk briskly down the hallway. I hurried after her and we didn’t slow down until we got to the hallway that led to the library.
We burst out laughing as soon as we entered. “He is not going to forgive you. He seemed pretty busy and now you’ve also added the task of babysitting.”
She snorted. “Trust me, he can handle it. Now, let’s begin,” she said and walked to the bookshelves.
We found several books about witchcraft and my best friend wanted us to take most of them to the reading table.
“It’s not like we can finish reading them all today. Let us just go with four,” I suggested.
She rolled her eyes. “Who says we are going to read them all page by page?” she queried.
“What we are going to do is skim through the pages and read any information we can find about the Alfea tribe.”
I nodded and we got to work.