Lucy’s POV
The next day, Shaun had to leave early to have a brief meeting with his brothers regarding the message he received from the scouts. I should have gone with him, but he assured me that I would get feedback as soon as they were done, and advised me to get some air. I still hadn’t told him about my little ‘discussion’ with his aunt, but maybe he didn’t need to know about it. Knowing him, he might have taken it even more seriously than I had.
After finishing up the breakfast which had been brought up to me, I took a quick bath, did my hair, and put on a fresh set of clean clothes. Gowns had become tiring to me, so I opted for some free pants and a loose flowery top that slipped past my shoulders. After confirming my appearance in the mirror, I exited the room and stepped out.
As I went down the long winding hallways of the palace, I couldn’t help but remember the conversation I had witnessed between Anabella and the other woman I didn’t know. I didn’t understand how people could have nurtured such fantasies in their hearts, to the very extent that it consumed their waking thoughts and desires. Indeed, people were seldom what they initially seemed.
There was no way I could allow her to get close to Scott, or even Shaun. Who knew what kind of plans she had in mind for them if she managed to get close enough?
Soon, thoughts of how I could protect them filled up my mind such that I didn’t notice a woman walking right into my path until it was almost too late.
I halted at the last minute, looking up. It was the same woman from the other day. Agatha. Her face stirred up faint recognition inside of me again, but I didn’t know where exactly to place my finger.
“You should be more careful, dear,” she said politely, already moving to walk past me.
Maybe it was her voice, or the familiar way her eyes moved, but right then, I remembered who she was.
I gently caught her arm. “Excuse me, ma’am. I think I know you.”
Her eyebrows lifted in inquisition. “Yes. We met the other day. The Luna introduced us. You’ll be getting married to Shaun soon, will you not?”
“Yes. But . . . that’s not exactly what I’m talking about.” I removed my hand from her arm now that I had her full attention. “I think I know you from Bloodbath. You . . . You were my mother’s friend.”
She paused for a moment, simply watching me silently, but there was enough conviction in my heart now that I definitely knew her outside of Moonstruck.
A sharp memory of her coming by our home years back with some freshly baked bread came to mind. “You . . . Used to bake. You’d bring it to our house. It’s been a long time, but I know it’s you . . . Agatha.”
Finally, her expression seemed to crack, and she gasped, bringing her hands to her mouth. “Oh, good goddess! It is you!” She pulled me into a hug. “Forgive me, I didn’t recognise you because it’s been so long and you’ve grown so much.” A sad look infected her eyes. “I’m so sorry about what happened to your pack. Are your parents . . .?”
“They . . . didn’t make it,” I said quietly. “And so did my brother. I’m the only one that survived in my family.”
“Oh my,” she said again, pressing me tighter against her bosom. She smelled faintly like tobacco and cinnamon combined. “I shouldn’t have asked,” she said, pulling away.
“It’s okay. It’s been a while now. But I’m glad I got to see a familiar face again. How did you get to Moonstruck?”
The question seemed to catch her off-guard, but she quickly caught herself. “It’s a very long story, but my destiny wasn’t tied to Bloodbath. Maybe if I had known that such evil was going to have befallen the pack, I would have been able to do something. I thought about it for months after the incident with Moongrowl’s former Alpha, but there was nothing I could have done about it at that point.”
I sighed. “You’re right. There was nothing that could have been done. But . . . our people are free now. Whatever reason you had before for leaving, I may not know, but you can return home now.”
Her expression went cold, and the atmosphere became tight with unexpected tension. A brief, strange, moment passed between us, before she broke it with a sharp chuckle. “I’ve learned when to leave things behind. But . . . It gladdens my heart that Bloodbath has regained freedom.”
Before I could ask her further questions, she patted me gently on the shoulder. “Please, take care of yourself now. It was good seeing you again, Lucy,” she said, walking away down the hall.
I watched her retreating back, and her brown hair now streaked with white. For some reason, I couldn’t shake off the fact that something wasn’t quite right.
Although leaving a pack wasn’t unheard of, it usually wasn’t something done on a whim. Even other packs weren’t very keen on the idea of accepting someone from another pack just like that, because even though a large percentage of packs were cordial, there was always that looming risk of spies or assassins, and people could never be too certain what outsider was worth trusting.
If Agatha had moved to Moonstruck, how come she had been not only welcomed into the pack, but also well-known by even the Luna herself? Was there more to the story that I didn’t know?
If my memory served me right, Agatha had been a very close friend of my mom, until all of a sudden she just didn’t come around anymore. This had occurred a few years before the attack. I had even tried back then to learn about what had happened between her and my mother, but the conversation never got past the question: “What happened?”.
Seeing Agatha brought back memories of my mother with such a powerful intensity that I couldn’t help but shut my eyes as a way to physically root myself to the present. She would have probably had white streaks in her jet black hair just as Agatha did by now. Although she had married my father when she had been around my age, due to some issues, she was unable to conceive for close to a decade. They had almost given up on childbearing until the moon goddess seemed to finally hear their wish for children. Soon after, my brother and I were born less than two years apart.
I continued on my way, preferring to walk and stretch my legs, than to reminisce on a past that brought heartache.
As I finally reached outdoors and the welcoming air that waited there, I went to find a shade underneath one of the large trees surrounding the palace.
I had barely rested against the tree, when I heard a shuffling in the grass behind me.