Lucy’s POV
People slowly milled out of the hall, murmuring amongst themselves. Their faces were equal parts confused and scared. Obviously, we weren’t the only ones who had heard the roars and screaming.
Half a dozen men rushed out of the halls, fur already bursting out of their skin as they prepared for what could have very well been an attack.
One of them walked over to Shaun and I, who stood furthest out into the clearing, clinging to one another.
“You two should get inside. It’s not safe out here,” he said gruffly. “We’ll go and see where the noise is from.”
Shaun took me by the shoulders and gently pushed me towards the door to get back into the hall. “Lucy, get inside.”
“No! I’m going anywhere. We still don’t know where Scott is.”
“I told you, he’ll be fine. I need you to trust me and just get back inside.”
“And what will you be doing?”
“I’ll go with the warriors to check out what the ruckus is all about. I won’t be long.”
A feeling of dread creeped up my spine. “No. What if you get hurt? We don’t know what’s out there.”
Another roar vibrated the air once again, reminding us of the threat that loomed near. The bystanders that had walked out of the hall earlier became more frantic. Some rushed back inside, while others started to panic, mentioning things about their relatives and loved ones back home.
The warrior that had come to meet us, who appeared to be the one in charge of them all, directed some of his men forward to check out the nearby woods, while he ordered the rest to ensure that people were safely taken back into the hall. Finally, he turned to us again, his eyes already luminous as his transformation slowly began.
“If you’re going inside, do so now. We don’t have much time to waste.”
As people moved into the hall, Seth pushed against the tide to come and meet us. “What’s going on? I heard screaming.”
Shaun moved me over to his brother, ignoring my protests. “Seth, get Lucy back inside. I’m going with the warriors to see what exactly is going on.”
Even as I fought against Seth, he managed to hold me in place. Now, not only was I worried about Scott I also had to think about Shaun and the fact that he was going head-first into a dangerous situation that we knew so little about.
“Shaun . . .” I turned to him, reaching for his hand. His eyes brushed mine, and he stepped closer to me and pressed a kiss to my forehead.
“I’ll be back soon, my love. I promise.” To Seth, he said, “Take her inside, and find Scott. We don’t know exactly what’s going on right now.”
Seth looked like he had a lot of questions, but just swallowed them down and nodded. He started taking me back to the hall, and this time, I didn’t fight against him. I simply held on to the faith that Shaun was going to be fine. I knew I couldn’t stop him from going after whatever idea in had in his mind. But as for Scott, I knew that I had to find him.
As we entered the hall, I grabbed Seth’s arm and stopped in my tracks. “We have to make sure that Scott is okay.”
“I agree, but he went outside with Anabella,” said Seth, “and from what I’ve seen, there are guards preventing people from leaving here. Maybe I can tell one of the guards to keep an eye out for him.”
“No. That’ll take too long. We can’t ask them to spend their time searching for just two people when there are probably dozens out there that need help.”
“What’s going on outside?”
“I don’t know for sure, either. But from what I heard, it sounded like an attack of some sorts. There were roars and screams. But let’s just focus on finding Scott right now.” I looked around the hall for one of the adjoining halls that led to another point within the palace. “There had to be a door somewhere.”
Seth pointed to a door at the other end of the hall. “There.”
There were two young women huddled against it, looking terrified out of their minds. I didn’t know what they had seen or heard, but definitely just like the rest of the people in the hall, they must have received the news about whatever was happening outside.
We rushed to the door, and at that moment I became grateful that I had selected a pair of shoes that were easy to run in. If not, I would have probably ruined them already with all my stomping and racing around.
“Why are you so worried about Scott, Lucy? What happened?” he asked once we made our way out the door.
“It’s a long story, Seth. But I just need to find him. I’ll tell you about it later,” I said, walking down the hall with him in tow. I searched left and right, front and back, up and down but still found no sign of Scott or Anabella.
We had started nearing the living quarters. “Do you think they could have gone back to the rooms?”
Seth shrugged. I didn’t understand how he managed to look so unfazed after the things we had seen and heard already. “I don’t know, honestly. There is a chance though.”
“Then we’d better check it out,” I said, heading towards their quarters. The odds that we would meet anyone there was slim, but I didn’t want the opportunity to pass us by. I was going to leave no stone unturned until I was certain of Scott’s safety.
We reached the room’s door, and even before we stepped inside, the door fell ajar with a slight hiss.
I could hear a repeated creaking and harsh breathing coming from the inside that made my stomach sink. Seth and I glanced at each other, and from the look on his face, he had heard the sounds too.
Summoning strength for whatever lay beyond it, I pushed the door open and stepped inside.
A loud moan reached my ears before I could even catch my balance. There, right on one of the beds, were the people we had nearly turned Moonstruck inside out searching for.
There Anabella was, wildly bouncing atop Scott, who looked to be thoroughly enjoying himself as well, given the way his eyes were rolled back into his head and the imprints his hand made on her flesh as though she was his reason for existing in the first place. They went at it like ravaged animals, not for once acknowledging that they had an audience.
I turned away immediately, feeling my cheeks heat up with embarrassment and something else I didn’t want to acknowledge. Seth continued watching for a little while longer, before turning to me with a smirk on his face that said, “I told you there was nothing to worry about.”
Together, we quietly stepped out of the room, but the sounds of their mating was sure to haunt my thoughts for a long while.
“Well, it’s good to see that they’ve finally gotten along,” he said from behind me as we walked away. “Now will you tell me what the ruckus was about.”
As I thought about it, it didn’t make any sense to me to tell him what I had been trying to avoid. After all, Scott didn’t seem to mind what was happening.
Maybe it had all been in my head, and Anabella was merely expressing an attraction to all three brothers, which I couldn’t actually fault her for. The one night I had spent with them had been nothing short of wonderful, and maybe that was why I had reacted so violently to her saying those crude things about them in the first place.
Since my room wasn’t so far off, I finally remembered that I had wanted to change my clothes. But changing didn’t matter so much to me anymore. I just wanted to find a place to rest my head.
I shook my head. “It was stupid,” I told Seth, walking ahead of him and heading for the door to my room. “You can go back to the hall. I’ll rejoin you when I’ve put on a different dress.”
He narrowed his eyes a little, but he didn’t press further, and simply nodded.
I went inside to change.