My brain simply refused to work.

Everything was confusing me, the whole PureBlood thing, the similarity between me and Melissa's daughter, Mercy's weird magic - none was making sense. My life had never been such a mess, and now that I decided to sit and think over it, I was interrupted by Adrian.

He looked just as sinfully gorgeous as he always looked, the light from the nearby window highlighting his sharp jawline, his beautiful, mesmerising silver orbs, his soft lips that I desperately wanted to be on my body. Too bad, he wasn't mine even though he was.

How confusing.

"I asked you something, Moon," His tone was dark, dangerous, and his hard eyes were completely unreadable. "And I am not asking you again. What was it that you were doing in Liana's room last night?"

The question finally sunk in and my eyes widened.

Shit! Shit! Shit! I miserably failed in trying not to panic and I knew Adrian could feel and see it.

"I was just sleeping," I blurted, "I was feeling very lonely in that palace - I'm not used to living in such big spaces and I was scared so I came here."

"No, you were not." He stated as if it was a fact. "You didn't sleep, you fainted. But whatever you did was something that werewolves are not supposed to do."

"I don't know what you're saying."

Next moment I was backed up against the wall with Adrian looming over me and his arms trapping me within them.

I bit my lip and his eyes darkened.

"What are you?" He asked, his hard eyes challenging me to tell him the truth. He knew – or at least he had an idea, but he wanted to hear it from me. He wanted to intimidate me, scare me into telling him.

"I don't know what you're saying," I whispered, my heart beating with a frantic tempo, betraying my lie. I was sure not even a single part of my body was composed, and it just proved that I couldn't lie to him at all.

Why was it that I couldn't keep my composure in front of him?

"I. Am. Your. Mate." He answered my unasked question, "My lovely, Moon, you and I are made in such a way that we can't lie to each other no matter what."

He placed a large, warm hand on my chest, right above my heart, pushing me slightly against the wall. "This heart of yours," he met my eyes, "these wide, beautiful eyes of yours, " and then his eyes roamed all over my body, darkening in a delicious way that made my thighs clench, "And this delectable body of yours," he grabbed my thigh and wrapped my leg around his waist, "Can't lie to me."

At this moment, I realised Celeste was me. We were not two different entities anymore, the way my PureBlood and I were - which only meant that I couldn't call my wolf to give me some courage to argue with Adrian now.

Poor me.

My body and mind were entirely at war. At one hand, the proximity between me and him aroused my body, to the point that I was shivering with his heat and scent surrounding me. On the other hand, my mind was scared and boggled, whether to tell him the truth or not.

"Moon, Celeste, why don't you tell me the truth now?" He asked, and then leaned in closer, caressing the crook of my neck with the tip of his nose.

I shivered.

"A-A-Adrian..." My voice was a soft whimper and I couldn't even hate myself for being so weak when it came to him.

He pressed his lips right over my throbbing pulse, and then his tongue flicked out to throw my mind into a frenzy.

My brain was gone. No thought of PureBloods, Mercy, Liana, lying were left. It was all Adrian, Adrian, Adrian. I wanted him, closer to me, closer to my body. I ached for him, and just for the same reason, my body arched to meet his, and I craned my neck, wanting his mouth all over me.

"Adrian..." I whimpered again, as he sucked my skin.

"Yes, baby. Tell me what you want."

"Please...Adrian!"

"Why don't you start by telling me what you were doing yesterday night in Liana's room? I was watching you the entire time, yet I couldn't see what exactly it was that you did in there." His mouth now trailed across my jaw to my cheek, so close to my mouth that I wanted him to kiss me.

Kiss me. Kiss me. Fucking Kiss me!

"I won't kiss you until you tell me the truth, Moon. I kept wondering what you were, and what you did, or maybe it was just me imagining things. But then Liana's improved condition this morning, and now the little talk you had with Mercy...there's no use hiding the truth."

"Adrian, no...please." I turned my face because the torture was too much, but he pulled away and grabbed my hips to keep me in place.

I let out a frustrated groan.

"Tell me, what are you?"

"A hybrid." I gritted out.

"I know that baby," his soft voice melted my insides, "but a hybrid of what?"

"A Werewolf..."

"And?"

"A PureBlood.."

"Fuck!"

He kissed me. He finally kissed me. He gave me what I wanted and I felt like I was drowning in the waves of euphoria and pleasure, with the blood singing in my veins and my heart beating crazily. I wanted him to be closer to me, and I wanted him inside me, marking me, making me his. I didn't care if anyone walked in on us, I just wanted him.

I ripped his shirt off him.

"Moon..." He warned but I didn't care. I kissed him with wild abandon and he wasn't stopping me. Our teeth clashed, tongues entwined, breaths mixed and my body was on fire, a raging inferno, a thirst that only he could quell.

"Adrian, please..." I breathed, digging my nails in his back and wrapping my legs around him. His erection was hard and large against my core, and I wanted to rip off the number of clothes and barriers in between. I grinded against him, moaning when that familiar fire ran through my veins.

"Why?" Adrian, panted against my mouth, "Why didn't you tell me, Moon? Do you know that you being a PureBlood is going to change so many things?"

"I planned to tell you after your main bitch is out of the picture, after or perhaps just before you mated or marked me." I whispered back, panting.

"Don't call Delia that, Moon. She did what she thought was the most beneficial at that time. And it was my fault, not hers." He pulled away completely, trying to find his nonexistent shirt. "And about her being out of the picture? It's never going to happen completely even if she steps down. Because of the pup, she will remain a part of our lives. About our marking and mating? Moon, it's going to happen soon, very soon."

The haze faded away. My rational thoughts were back and every single one of them contained hurt and fury.

A sob escaped my throat, "You are saying," I sniffed, "that you will mark me even when Delia is right there in your palace, all around you, all over you to rub it in my face that she had you before me and she will have you fucking forever?! You are my mate! Mine! I don't know how you can do this to me!"

"Don't cry, baby " His eyes softened and he came closer to me, slowly, "Your heat is close, Moon, I can smell it. Marking is going to be inevitable. I will not be in a condition to keep any kind of self control at that time." He opened his arms, coming closer to pull me in his embrace.

"Don't touch me!" Oh thank Goddess for you, Cynthia! "You are not going to touch me until Delia is still your fucking Queen! You can only have one of us!"

And I ran away from him.

Keeping your brain thoughtless was a very, very hard task - especially when your own mate lacks the ability to keep things to himself. By now, Jaxon and the Beta King, Ace, knew about me and the looks of stark curiosity and awe that they sent my way made me uncomfortable. Just for that reason I decided to find refuge in Malcolm and Melissa's palace.

There were so many questions?

Firstly, my parentage. Now that I was here, in the Were Kingdom, I realized that there was no point in delaying when it came to finding out where I came from and how I happened to be the way I was. Was it that my father was a werewolf, or was it my mother? Were my parents high ranking wolves, or were they just common Weres?

Another question was Mercy and whatever she did today. How the fuck did she hide her pregnant belly? And about her scent, she could hide it, too.

And why was the mating system of the Alpha King, Alpha Prime and Beta King such a mess? Why couldn't they just normally accept their mates?

I was so tired.

To find some peace of mind, I had decided to lose myself in the vast palace surrounding me. I kept looking around me, trying to get lost in the intricate designs and paintings that adorned the palace, but it didn't happen. I wasn't lost - I was still there, still thinking about how my life went from being monotonous and boring to completely, utterly and unbelievably messy.

Why couldn't my life be a cliché or normal at least? Poor me; I realised that living normally was so much better than having your heart broke this way.

My feet stopped. I had reached a dead end, and by dead end, I meant a room which wasn't locked but looked unused. The door looked rusty, and there was dust settled in every corner. It was strange: every part of this palace was squeaky clean except this place.

Well, time to be stupid and wander into a deserted corner of a vast palace. No one's going to know anyway.

The moment I opened the door, dust flew into my nose and mouth, making me cough loudly. Once I managed to blindly get off the cobwebs and dust, I finally got a vision around.

It looked feminine.

Obviously, the owner was the last person to touch the room.

What baffled me was the scent. Home, just like what Malcolm and Melissa's felt. Not just that, but just inhaling the scent brought tears to my eyes and made my heart clench.

What was it?

I looked around the walls, only to find pictures of me.

Or at least a woman who looked like me. Framed pictures containing memories from the women's birth to looking like a woman were hanging all around, and in each one of them, I could see myself reflecting in the looks, form and figure of the woman.

Could she be related to me?

I stepped in further and found a typical black leather diary in the middle of the bed. Forgetting all the dust that had been choking me, I sat down on the fluffy bed and took the leather bound journal in my hand. Flipping a few pages, I realised I was right in assuming two things: it was someone's personal diary.

And this was the room of Malcolm and Melissa's late daughter, Elise.

By looking at the dates and the frequency with which she wrote, I guessed that she mentioned and wrote about only those things that went out of the ordinary.

Like a typical person, I found the last entry, after which the pages were blank.

June 28, 1995

This may or may not be my last entry in this journal.

Adrian agreed! He really did, and now he believes in me! We can stop the war and I can finally breathe. You have no idea - that conniving Lazarus, The Vampire King, had managed to convince all Elders and every member of the council that PureBloods were conspiring against the Were Kingdom and it called for a war.

PureBloods would never do that. My Vashisht would never do that to me. He loves me and there's no way he will ever do that to me or my kind.

But there's still a threat. Knowing that the war won't happen anymore, the Vampires could do anything to take both the kingdoms down. I can't afford to lose anyone, not even my own life. My daughter is waiting for me in the human world, and I know that I don't go back to her soon, she'll throw a tantrum and Julia will have a headache.

She's so beautiful, and she's just six months old. That tiny little bundle loves Vashisht and me so much that it brings tears to my eyes. I still miss those toothless grins she sends me and I'm eager to go back to her again.

Vashisht and I badly wish to bring her across the MoonLine, but she's just so...different. She smells like me - a Werewolf, but she smells like Vashisht, too - who's a PureBlood. I've never seen anyone like her before and that's why I was worried about her during my entire pregnancy.

I'm yet to break the news to Mom and Dad. Hell, they don't even know that I mated with a PureBlood - they just thought I was on a vacation to forget the memories of John, my real mate, who had died a year ago.

I would've died if it hadn't been for Vashisht. Now with him and Celeste, I've found my whole world.

I snapped the diary shut.

I didn't care that I was sobbing. My Gramma's name was Julia. It couldn't be the Julia Elise was talking about, right?

It was purely a coincidence that even I was six months old around June 28, 1995. This was so sick, so, so sick.

My mother. Malcolm and Melissa's daughter, Elise, was my mother - and she mated a PureBlood - my father - someone named Vashisht.

I refused to believe this!

It was all a lie! A freaking fucking lie! Adrian knew my mother! Did he know about her being my mother? Did he know that the Elise he knew then was someone who would give birth to his hybrid mate?

This was all bullshit.

My mom was dead. She couldn't get the world she had wanted with me and my father. Or maybe she did. Maybe the two of them ran away somewhere together and were carrying on their illicit affair, giving birth to more hybrid species like me.

Oh my God, I didn't even know what I was thinking!

More frustrated sobs escaped me. I pulled my hair in frustration, letting out a scream so loud that I was sure everyone in the castle heard me. I didn't care.

I didn't fucking care!

My entire life was a lie! And now I couldn't even meet my parents for just once!

"Moon! Why are you crying?" I was engulfed in familiar arms, his warmth making my body tingle, comforting me, bringing my sobs down to just whimpers.

"Don't touch me..." I weakly protested in Adrian's hold - the same idiot who suggested mating while Delia was still a part of his life. "No, no... don't... don't..."

Obviously he ignored me and scooped me up in his arms, the resulting feeling so comfortable that I curled up against him involuntarily.

"You're fine, baby. You're safe. I'm here now, everything's alright."

I blacked out.

"... she's staying with me, now. My wolf is restless without her in sight and I'm not keeping her away from me. After Luna Liana's incident, I cannot trust her safety with anyone..."

"Alpha, she'll be fine with us. The poor girl needs some rest and some time away from you. Her heat will begin anytime since today and I don't think you should mark her while there are ...err...other matters at hand ..."

"I am the Alpha King. Anywhere this side of the MoonLine, I will smell her, find her and mark her. There's no other way and I'm not sending her back across the MoonLine."

I slowly opened my eyes.

Mercy was standing next to me, and she smiled when she noticed that my eyes were open.

"She's awake." She said and three quarrelling people turned to see me already sitting up and sipping water.

Wow. I was already in the hospital.

Adrian was beside me the next moment while my maternal grandparents - no wonder the feeling of 'home' - rushed at my other side.

"Are you alright, Moon?" Adrian murmured, firmly pressing his lips to my forehead.

I simply nodded.

"Why did you scream, baby? Was there someone inside? Did someone hurt you?"

I stared at Malcolm and Melissa.

While Malcolm showed practically no emotion, Melissa smiled at me almost sympathetically. She covered my hand and kissed my cheek.

"You should tell him, honey."

"You knew?" I asked her in a small voice.

She looked at Malcolm and smiled at me, "We will recognise her face anywhere, honey."

With that, both of them walked out of the room, with Mercy in tow.

"What was that, Moon?" He asked me, but I kept quiet. "What did that mean — No, that's impossible!"

I looked at him, questioningly.

"You are Elise's – Malcolm and Melissa's daughter...you're her daughter?"

I simply nodded with a blank face.

"Fuck! That's impossible! I had seen her before the war and she looked...normal. Who's your father?"

He looked totally adorable, all wide eyes, shocked, confused, flabbergasted and messed up. I smiled a little, feeling a little weird inside about how numb I was now reacting to the whole thing.

"How are you so calm about it?"

It was like he suddenly remembered me, and another moment of me jerking up and down made me realise that Adrian now made me lie on top of him, with his arms around me.

Heaven.

"I screamed, remember?" I said to him, chuckling.

He kept silent for a few moments, and I almost fell back asleep, when he asked, "Do you know who your father was?"

I yawned, "Not exactly. I just know his name - Vashisht." I told him.

"Vashisht?! Did you just say Vashisht?!" He sat up, making me awkwardly sit on his lap.

"Yeah...I mean, that was the name that was written wherever my father was mentioned." I told him, feeling confused.

"And where exactly did you learn this information from?"

"Her personal diary." I said

"Fuck!" He muttered, "I should've known."

"What?" I asked him, curiously.

"Elise, I mean, your mother, had decided to go 'backpacking' around the world when she had had enough of mourning after the death of her mate. Usually, wolves die within a week or, at the maximum a month, after the death of their mate. Somehow that wasn't the case with her.

"When your mother finally returned, it was after two years, and was like a new woman altogether. She was happier and didn't look like someone who's mate had died.

"Around the same time, Lazarus was convincing the Pack Elders and the kingdom council that the PureBloods were conspiring to wipe out the werewolf and vampire race because we were lesser than them. At the same time, he went to Vashisht, your father, the then PureBlood Prathma - Prathma being a Sanskrit word for Alpha - and told him that Werewolves were seeking Vampires' help to wipe out PureBlood existence.

"Of course, Jaxon, I and Vashisht - who used to be our mentor and a father figure - didn't believe him. Elise got the wind of it and approached me about it. She begged me to stop the war - now I understand why. Unfortunately, the vampires managed to trick us and we lost many of our Weres and all the PureBloods."

"I think I want to sleep some more." I said after his explanation. It was a lot to sink in. I had more reasons now to hate Lazarus.

And I was mentally tired.

"Luna Celeste! Oh, I'm sorry to interrupt you but Luna Liana woke up and is asking for you."

Here we go. And now, I'm wide awake.