Just standing out of the room made me feel the dark, brooding vibes that the room emanated. It was as bad as if someone died inside, making me check if we were entering the correct room.

"Is this the right room?" I asked Adrian, as I was perched on his back, too tired to walk myself.

"Yes..." He hesitated, "But, it doesn't feel like so. Liana waking up is certainly a good thing, right?"

My brows furrowed, but I squeezed his waist with my thighs, making him sigh and move forward. Once the door opened, I almost felt like crying. My best friend, Liana, who just yesterday was stumbling between life and death, now seemed to be smiling at me radiantly looking her gorgeous self even with her haystack hair.

"So you two kissed and made up, huh?" She asked, an edge to her tone as she eyed the way I was on his back.

"Uh." I climbed off him instantly and was immediately hit with Adrian's intense emotions of confusion and longing. "You can say that. There's a lot I need to tell you. And then, I needed some comfort, too, with you out like light." I shrugged and stepped towards her carefully. It was true anyways - she had no idea about the date and everything.

Liana raised a brow, but kept silent, waiting till I reached her. I was still confused about why the atmosphere was so gloomy in the room - but then my eyes landed on the Alpha Prime.

Jaxon looked utterly in despair. He wasn't even looking up at us, just fixed his gaze somewhere on his lap and clenched Liana's hand tightly in his.

Liana soon guessed my thoughts about why he was looked so put off and then said:

"I don't want to stay here, anymore." She said blankly.

I looked at her bemused, "I think you need some more rest, Liana. It's not like you've been perfectly fine for the last few days; you need to rest."

"I'm perfectly fine, Moon. I was healed by a PureBlood, you - who also is a Luna Queen, and Pureblood healing is just like that: instant, magical and miraculous. You did it, Moon and I'm so proud of you!" She gushed and that was all I needed to rush forward and tackle her into a hug.

The warmth of her hug was enough to turn me into a blubbering and sobbing mess, my heart clenching with the remains of the foremost fear I was plagued with the day before - the fear of losing my one and only best friend.

"I'm so happy that you're back..." I said, hiccuping, "I was so scared, Liana...so scared, you have no idea. I thought I'd lose you and I didn't know what to do." I clung to her tightly, now seeking comfort in my best friend.

"But you did it, Moon, and now I think it's time to go back home." Liana said, patting my back.

"This. Is. Your. Home!" My mate's voice boomed, making me and Liana jump apart.

Adrian gritted out, "This Kingdom is where the two of you fucking belong! You are not going anywhere. Jaxon fucking say something to your mate! You have just been pulled out of danger and you want to go back again?!" He yelled.

Surprisingly, Jaxon kept silent and stared at the bed, his face void of any emotion.

"You are no one to tell us what we're going to do!" Liana yelled at him and for a moment I thought that she forgot it was Adrian she was talking to.

"I am your Alpha King!" He seethed, "And you are going to obey my every comm-"

"You might be the Alpha King," my friend flipped her hair over the shoulder, "But Moon here, is your mate and she doesn't give a fuck about taking orders from you, do you Moon?"

Um...did I do some brain damage, too?

"Um...I won't say it that harshly." I muttered.

"And anyways," she continued, and all I could do was stare at Adrian who looked like he would burst out into flames any second, "Moon will be going into heat soon and she doesn't need to stay here and add to her problems."

That was indeed right.

"Who is going to protect you out in the human world?!" Adrian spat, incredulously.

Liana grinned at him, making him more annoyed, "I," she pointed at herself, "am a trained warrior and Moon is under my wing. You don't have to burden yourself with both of us."

Adrian ran his fingers through his hair in frustration, and I was completely flabbergasted by this sudden recovery on Liana.

"Say something to her, Jaxon! Stop her! She will kill herself and my mate this way!" Adrian growled.

Mercy stood in a corner - looking quite scared.

"No one is going to get killed." Liana stared at him blankly, "The human world is safer for us than staying here, thank you very much. Life might not be too short but I want to spend the rest of my life peacefully. You both can go and fuck your duplicate mates."

Either she woke up on the wrong side of the bed or Jason just said something to her that made her this mad. I couldn't even open my mouth to tell her to calm down.

A low growl came from both the males in the room. That was the first time Jaxon chose to respond to something that was said.

"If it's us you don't want to be with," Adrian started calmly, his voice coaxing and no longer irate, "Then you can stay at Malcolm and Melissa's place. They wouldn't mind having you over there - being Moon's maternal grandparents."

Liana looked like she would burst.

"Holy Goddess!" She whipped towards me and my heart nearly stopped beating because I expected her to still be the fragile Liana whose sight had brought tears to my eyes just yesterday. "You are Elise's daughter!? Elise!? Really, Elise? Oh my god, I should have known with that face of yours!"

I merely nodded. All of them knew my mother personally. Wow, just wow! It was a great way to make me feel like a newborn baby.

She just shook her head then, "Whatever, Alpha Adrian. We're still going. If Moon wishes to stay here, only then I will change my mind."

All eyes were on me. Did I really want to stay here? Living under the same roof as Adrian was a big no. The only other place we would be safe was the ex Alpha King's palace but I was not in the mood of uncovering more secrets, and also I needed some time away to digest all the new things I had come to learn today.

"I think Liana's right." I murmured and immediately felt the intensity of both, Adrian's fury and Liana's smugness. "I really want some time away from here. I'm sorry, Adrian, but I can't stay here around you. The farther I'm from you, the better all of this will be, both for you and I. You'll be able to look after your...er...wife and your baby, and I'll be peacefully and blissfully ignorant."

Adrian gaped at me in frustration.

"Now the drama is over, I think both of you can leave. Mercy, of course, stays here." Liana said, sweetly.

"But -"

"Leave." It was me - my voice authoritative. Adrian and Jaxon looked at me with wide eyes but then slowly made their way out of the room with hard faces and clenched fists.

The room was still thick with tension, and all I could do for the moment was stare at Mercy and Liana. Both of them were lost in their own thoughts and at that moment I couldn't help but think how similar all of us were in our current situation. All three of us were unwanted and wanted by our mates at the same time, and it was just this reason that made us want to be away from them. Had it not been for the mate bond, we would have run away and moved on long ago.

Or probably not.

From the window I could see Adrian and Jaxon shifting into their wolves and looking back in our direction before running into the woods and destroying everything that came in their path. Poor trees.

"Don't worry, after they've destroyed everything the woods will be back to normal. It's one of the reasons why we call it Magic Woods. It houses the best of herbs and there's nothing in this world that can destroy it completely."

It was Mercy who murmured, probably after watching the concern on my face. Just then, another healer, Kia, entered the room.

"So are we set to step into the human world?" She said, rubbing her palms.

"Wait," I turned to face her fully, "You are coming with us too?"

"I'm sorry to cause you inconvenience," It was Mercy who replied, "But Luna Celeste, now that both of you are going to be out of the kingdom, I thought that Kia and I could tag along with you. It would be better than having to hide from my mate all the time. And I don't feel like living my life hiding, anymore." She said nervously. I could even see her pregnant belly now.

"It would be wonderful to have you with us," I said glancing at Liana who grinned at me, "But first you have to tell me how you hide your scent and your pregnancy. It has had me crazy ever since I had that talk with you."

"It's my witchcraft." Kia said, her eyes gleaming in genuine excitement and pride, now that she could tell it to me herself.

"You are a witch?" I blurted, and I looked at her up and down, finding something that would give her away. She looked completely normal, and just like all of us, she looked like a normal human. But then, all of us did and we were wolves.

She did have a different scent though.

"Yes! Yes I am a witch! Oh my Goddess, it feels so good to finally tell you." She said with a huge sigh of relief, "Believe it or not, it is difficult for anyone in this kingdom to keep a secret from their Lunas. It makes you feel like a traitor."

I frowned at her, "But why do you need to hide yourself?"

"Witches had been a part of the war that killed your parents, Luna - though, quite unwillingly. We were the allies of the PureBloods because we have a very small clan and we looked up to the PureBloods for protection. Now that they no longer exist - we don't have anyone to protect us and that is why the witches went into hiding. I was the only witch left who had the ability to disguise myself and others so I was sent here to see if the Were Kingdom is safe enough."

Mercy added after her, "She has been a wonderful healer, and when she saw how miserable I was, she revealed herself to me, and well now, she helps me hide things no one is supposed to know."

"So Adrian and Jaxon don't know that you are Theo's mate?"

Liana shook her head beside me, "Something is really fucked up with those three men. You know what, let's go. I don't want to wait for them to come back with a new way to make us stay. I have already made the travel arrangements so that it's comfortable for Mercy. Are we all ready?"

We all nodded. I was slightly doubtful as to why Liana was wanting to go back home so soon. She had always been such a composed and calm woman, and seeing her like that didn't sit well with me.

'I'm alright, Moon. I'm just tired of this shit and I wanna go home - to your home." She told me, sensing my mood before I could say anything to her.

"I'm just worried, Liana. This kind of impulsiveness is so unlike you." I frowned at her. Mercy and Kia had already left the room to give them some privacy.

"It's not impulsiveness; it had been decided already that I was going to come to you." She said, taking my hand.

"What is it that you said to Jaxon that got his mood so...awful?" I asked her the question that was bugging me since what felt like ages.

Liana sighed loudly, "I told him something that I should've had said to him years ago."

"What did you say to him?"

"I told him that I accept his rejection." Her eyes were sad, but she looked determined.

"Why?" I couldn't help but ask her.

"Lazarus - he told me that Jaxon tried to mark someone when I wasn't there. The thousands of beatings didn't hurt as much as knowing that did. And I know he wasn't lying."

My mind stopped working.

*****************************

I was completely silent during the ride home, still contemplating if what Liana had said was right or not. It did not feel right - morally - because as far as I knew, if the kingdom couldn't function without a Luna Queen, it could not function without a Luna Prime.

It felt right, too - because Liana didn't deserve to be this miserable just because her mate didn't ever think about her and her needs before.

If Liana was choosing to go where she was happier, then why not be away and happy. And technically, rejection was not exactly possible. It was just a detachment - not a full on breaking of the bond. The Moon Goddess left us choiceless that way.

But then the thought nagged my mind - Adrian had hinted many times that Jason had a valid reason for rejection.

I sighed. My mind wasn't working at all. I was still confused about the things that happened back in the Were Kingdom. Also, there was this weird feeling gnawing inside me; a restlessness that was slowly getting on my nerves.

Honestly, there was nothing I needed to be restless about. So, I knew those feelings belonged to Adrian and I very well knew that he was either itching to follow us and drag us back - or was actually following us.

My eyes fell on Mercy - she was looking wistful as she glanced at the forests that effectively kept humans from coming anywhere near the MoonLine. It was definitely not the first time she was leaving the Were Kingdom, but it was the first time she was stepping out with the intention of never going back in again.

Oh, who was I kidding; all four of us knew very well that there would be a time where we would have to return back to our waiting mates. Adrian and Jaxon were surely waiting for a momentary mistake to grab on so that they could find a way to get us back without having us protesting.

Thankfully, they had no clue that we had taken Mercy with us - and also, they were more clueless about Mercy being pregnant with the Beta King's child. In that case, it would have been Theo who wouldn't have let us go.

Suddenly, Mercy squealed loudly, and we all turned to find her eyes gleaming with excitement. Kia was sitting next to her, and Mercy quickly grabbed her hand and placed it on her belly.

"Kia, the baby kicked! I think she just kicked!"

It was an instant change of mood inside the car. All four of us, Liana, me, Kia and Mercy were sitting with bated breaths till the squeals of Kia and Mercy brought smiles on our faces.

The smile on Mercy's face didn't last long though, and I felt the immediate drop in her mood; the familiar feeling of longing filling me. Mercy was missing her mate; her wolf wanted her mate to be there during all the special moments with their unborn child. After all, werewolves went through the stages of pregnancy only once - and this experience was not going to come again and again.

I wished, internally, that Theo felt it too. I wanted him to feel, to realise the mistake he had made when he had left his mate to fend off for herself alone. It might have been just four months in a long pregnancy, but it did not mean that they were small moments.

"He's an asshole, Merc," Liana sighed as she too, felt the sudden longing that filled Mercy, "You can tell me now, and I'll turn this car around and we'll go to your mate and tell him that you are pregnant."

"No!" Mercy protested immediately, "No, I am fine. I don't want to be the one to go to him and beg him to take me back on my knees. Getting rejected myself was one thing, but him rejecting the baby we made together would kill me."

"You wouldn't know until you actually try and tell him," I faced her, "Wolves are supposed to be possessive about their pups, right? I mean, a pup is the reason why Adrian and I aren't together now. Are you sure Theo wouldn't want his own baby?"

Kia rolled her eyes, "I've tried telling this to her all the time, but it is of no use. A part of me hopes that Theo tried to reach her through their mate bond - but either that idiot has really forgotten her, or he has not tried enough."

Mercy winced. Both Liana and I empathised with her, comforting waves rolling off us.

"A part of me hopes that it is after years he comes back to her - so that it would strike him right in his heart how much of an asshole he has been, but then I look at how miserable Mercy is and I want to kick some sense into his nuts. Why are men such asses?"

The car filled with our laughter as we wholeheartedly agreed to Kia's words. In no time, I had realised that we had already reached my home.

All of a sudden, home didn't seem like the right thing to call that house. I frowned at that thought; this house had been my home for years and would always feel like home to me, or so I had thought. Then why was it that I had this craving inside me to bolt right back into Adrian's arms and find my home there? The more I thought about that man, the more I felt the need to go back to him.

Oh, Adrian.

"Moon," Liana's head snapped to me, "Stop thinking about him. Shit! It's your heat talking. Come on babe, let's get those heat herbs into you so that you stop thinking about your mate."

Liana's words weren't sympathetic as they usually had been, and I was once again feeling that my PureBlood healing had fucked up with her emotions in the way it should not have happened. I didn't like this version of Liana - this unfeeling, cold one. She wasn't the Liana who had held me whenever I was down or the Liana who had brought me out of the dark time when I was in pain because of my mate.

I felt arms wrap around me and Liana rested her forehead on the nape of my neck, "Don't worry so much, Moon. I'm just tired of feeling and giving a shit about everything. I want to not be a werewolf for once. I want to be a human," she sniffed and my heart clenched at the pain in her voice, "and I want to be the kind of human who doesn't give a fuck about who dumps her or not. Please, let me be this way for sometime, Moon. Trust me, I'll be back to normal in no time."

I turned around and nodded, pulling in my best friend for a hug. If a night of being human was what she needed, then I was going to give her just that.

"Now get those heat herbs or whatever shit they are, Lia, and then it's a girls' night. We are gonna do everything we can - shopping, eating, watching a movie, partying, clubbing and whatnot." I hugged her hard, "Up for it?"

"Hell, yes!" Came back a unison of three voices and I chuckled.