"What do you mean sorry!?" Jaxon growled, "The one lying on that bed is your Luna Prime and you say sorry? You are the best healer around, Mercy! You are supposed to fix her and save her and make her normal again, definitely not to say that you're fucking sorry!"

Throwing a fit or breaking down into sobs - none of them seemed to be the right thing to do right now.

The healer paled at Jaxon's words and I felt her shiver from where I was standing. I sighed, and walked towards her, wrapping a comforting arm around her so that she could give us some more insight into Liana's recovery - or the lack of it.

"Thank you, Luna." Her voice sounded much more confident. She took a deep breath and turned to the Alpha Prime, "Alpha Jaxon, all of us healers have done the best we could, but Luna Liana has nearly every bone broken and it seems that she herself is giving up the struggle to live."

No. Don't say that. You don't know her. She's the strongest person on Earth!

"Why would she do that?" Jaxon whispered in a half sob, his tone the complete opposite of what it had been a moment ago.

I let out a shaky breath. All of us couldn't afford to lose Liana.

"That is something only you can tell, Alpha," the healer's tone was borderline accusing but then she let out a defeated sigh, "Only a miracle can save her now."

"What about the mate bond, Mercy?" I asked her, "Can't Jaxon's presence trigger the healing or increase it's rate?"

She sighed, "I'm afraid that's not the case here."

I frowned, "What do you mean?"

"With the initial rejection, prolonged distance for an entire century, Alpha's sexcapades with other females and the consequent pain that Luna Liana suffered from, it all succeeded in diminishing much of their bond strength. It could have grown stronger if they had been on good terms but since that clearly was not the case..." She trailed off.

"What if I mark her?" Jaxon's tone was pleading.

Mercy shook her head, "It will kill her Alpha. A normal marking takes up a lot of energy of the female. And with your case, it will take much more - and she will have no energy left to keep herself alive. Your presence acts only as a painkiller, something which our normal meds can do too."

Jaxon flinched at her tone. My presence gave her too much confidence, but now I was wondering if I was sharing my anger with her too. Since I was in no state to express my anger and explode my fury at Jaxon, Mercy seemed to be doing a great job by making him feel worse about himself than he already did.

"So it means Jaxon is practically useless now." Adrian said, rubbing his face in exhaustion.

Oh my, even exhausted he managed to look rakishly handsome.

Just as the thought crossed my mind, Adrian looked up at me, raising a brow. I blushed, absolutely forgetting that he could hear my thoughts already.

"I must say though," the healer continued, looking at me this time, "We have to keep Luna Celeste in complete protection. Had she been in her place, it would've been much more difficult for her to heal. Her being half human, and the mate bond being at its weakest point, even a miracle couldn't have saved her."

Something lit up in Adrian's eyes at Mercy's words, and in the next moment I was pulled away from her into Adrian's arms. I wanted to push him away, but my yearning for Adrian and comfort was way too strong for me to bear the distance now that I felt so safe with him.

He held me tighter against him, my body lined up complete against him as he kept pressing kisses to my forehead, the tingles providing distraction from the issue at hand.

If our mate bond was weak now, then I shuddered to think how strong it could be.

"Isn't there any other way to heal her? We can't just sit and wait!" Jaxon begged, clutching Liana's pale hand in his grip tightly.

I couldn't even bear to look at her.

Mercy shook her head, "Had this happened some twenty years ago, the situation could have been rectified."

"What do you mean?" I murmured.

The answer that came was spoken in unison by everyone present:

"PureBloods."

I stiffened, struggling to keep my thoughts absolutely blank and hoped that Adrian took my sudden stiffening as lack of knowledge.

PureBloods. PureBloods? Their existence was wiped out twenty years ago, near the time of my birth? Did that mean my birth parents are no longer alive? But I was half a werewolf so it meant that one of them had to be a Were, right? Shit I had to stop thinking?

"But since their existence has been wiped out completely, there's nothing we can do." Mercy sighed, "They were natural healers, a drop of a PureBlood's blood alone would have spurred her healing."

I felt utterly and completely helpless. I was utterly and completely pissed, wanting to chase everyone away and then drain my entire body's blood into Liana, if that's what it took to bring her back.

Mercy said again, "You look tired, Alpha Jaxon. You should rest."

"But — "

" — You can only be of use when you are well rested. Otherwise it would seep Luna's energy to yours."

Jaxon growled out in frustration and stalked away.

After the healer gave the pain meds - I had no idea what they were made of - to Liana, they turned to me.

"Luna Celeste, we believe that you would be much more useful in Luna Liana's healing while Alpha Jaxon takes rest. The two of you being close, and you being the Luna Queen, your natural healing abilities would be the most useful now. But then, you too need to rest."

And then all the healers went away, leaving only me, Adrian and an unconscious Liana in the room.

"Your mind is unnaturally blank, Moon," Adrian murmured, pressing a kiss to the top of my forehead, "Your emotions are numb too," he murmured in my hair, "I want you to feel something. Angry. Sad. Anything."

"I don't know." I whispered and burrowed myself deeper into his embrace, wanting my numbness to go away. Even when I did feel any emotion, it faded away too quickly for my liking.

We stood like that for a while, his arms a soothing cradle, and his voice a soft lullaby. But even the tingles couldn't chase away the numbness anymore.

My best friend was dying and I was standing here like a helpless fool when my blood would have healed her.

When I had mustered enough courage, I shifted in his arms and looked at Liana. Adrian released me and took hold of my hand, silently letting me lead us towards her. I sat next to her, running the fingers of my free hand through her hair.

Rage bubbled up in me - a fire. A fire that I wanted to light up in Liana so that she could at least bother to try to survive, if not for me, then for herself.

Suddenly, I was angry at everything: furious at Adrian, at myself, at Jaxon, at Liana, and at the healers. I was filled with fury for every single female who warmed Jaxon's bed and was ultimately the cause of their weakened bond.

Freaking shit.

Approaching footsteps and a distinctly familiar scent alerted me and Adrian of visitors. Both of us straightened and glanced at the door where the ex-Alpha King materialised along with another female. In human forms, both of them looked somewhere in their early forties.

That didn't bother me in the least.

When those warm motherly eyes looked down at me with so much emotion, so much familiarity, I steeled myself to keep myself from crying. I didn't cry even though I wanted to sob my heart out into her lap and feel those motherly arms around me.

I didn't want to cry.

But, oh, I did cry. Like a baby wanting her attention. The sob that I didn't know had clogged in my throat burst out and I held out my arms like a little child, just to feel her embrace.

Gut wrenching sobs escaped me as I cried, for everything. I cried for how Adrian treated me right from the day I met him, I cried for how Lazarus brought me here first, how I met Liana, how we narrowly escaped them. I cried for Liana, and how much pain she had to go through because of Jaxon. I cried for her now, because I couldn't bear to see her so vulnerable and unconscious.

I cried for how I wasn't able to help her the way I wanted to.

"Oh dear," the ex Queen murmured and took me into her arms. I wrapped my arms tightly around her waist and cried. The ex King put a comforting hand on my shaking shoulders, and I had to admit that it was so much more that the comfort Adrian provided me.

I felt the feeling of coming back...home.

"Honey," her sweet voice sifted towards me, "Come with us and take some rest. You look so worn out and tired." She caressed my hair and I sobbed harder, "There, there. Now come, will you?"

Adrian started to protest from the corner he was suddenly shoved in, "Moon will come with me. To my palace."

The ex King shook his head, "It wouldn't be right for her to have to deal with Delia's presence now, would it?"

Adrian couldn't argue with that.

Malcolm and Melissa, ex King and Queen's palace was unlike something I'd ever seen. It was beautiful, and looked like the perfect combination of Victorian, Gothic and Indo-Islamic structures. On the inside, it had every modern equipment and more, making me wonder how luxurious the lifestyle of werewolves was as compared to humans. The palace had served as a residence of every ex Alpha King and his family, and the successor of Malcolm would be Adrian, when the next Alpha King will be chosen after thousands of years. According to Liana, Malcolm had reigned for about Five Thousand years, the last year of his rule being the one where Adrian had defeated him in an annual game of sorts where the Alpha King was chosen.

"Come, I'll show you to your room, where you can stay for the time being." Melissa ushered me into the hallway where rooms after rooms were aligned and I was half afraid if I'd get lost somewhere and wouldn't be able to find my way back to Liana on time.

I remembered every turn she took to take me to the room, so that I could keep it in my mind until later. I tried to keep my nagging thought away - thoughts that went round and round and ended up on just one question.

Why did Melissa and Malcolm feel so familiar? Why did they feel so much like...'home'?

While this was the only question that ran in my mind for a while, the storm in my head worsened when we turned round a corner and a huge portrait on the wall caught my attention.

Malcolm and Melissa looked just like themselves - young, regal, beautiful and powerful.

But the girl sitting on Melissa's lap looked so much like me that I could have fainted on spot. The girl looked barely ten years old, yet the similarity of some of her features to that of mine when I was a child forced me to think of questions I didn't want the answers to. I didn't know that my feet had stopped moving; it was only when Melissa kept a hand on my shoulders did I realise it.

"Who is she?" I asked, pointing to the little girl in the portrait. If I compared how I looked now to the girl, no one would say that we looked similar.

At least, if they'd never seen what I looked like when I was ten.

Growing up, many of my features changed, grew and so did my face. It was a drastic change, but my grandmother had said that it was normal since I was growing up to be a woman.

Oh Grandma.

"She was my daughter. Her wolf's name was Elise." She said with a wistful smile on her face.

"Was?" I asked, and she gave me a soft smile.

"She died twenty years back. A young beauty - just two hundred years old." She smiled and looked away, "She couldn't cope with the loss of her mate and died."

I didn't ask more questions.

For once, she said young, and then she said two hundred years old. In my books, people weren't supposed to stay alive for that long. It still didn't sit well with me that I would be living for thousands of years too.

And then, for some unknown reason, it felt like Melissa was lying to me.

And it made me feel very uneasy.

How do I do this?

Since Jaxon was sent back to rest and the healers were nowhere to be seen, I sneaked into Liana's room to see if I could try something by myself - anything that I could do to make Liana heal quickly.

While exploring Malcolm and Melissa's castle, I had stumbled into their Library which I realised was practically useless to me. Not even a single book about PureBloods or their healing abilities. So I was pretty much clueless and banking upon my own instincts to get Liana better.

I couldn't afford to lose time.

With this thought, I held Liana's cold handing, tears bubbling to the surface when I couldn't even look at her twisted body. I should've stayed back and waited for Liana. But I was a coward and ran away just to escape the intense emotions the Kingdom housed. I was busy thinking about the date.

Now's not the time for self pity. Heal her. Celeste said.

But how was I supposed to do that. Cynthia seemed too silent and I needed her to be responsive.

Healing comes naturally to us. Cynthia's voice echoed in my head, But since I never even seen how it is done, it will be difficult for me. Not even once have I used the abilities PureBloods are known for. I cannot guarantee anything.

Well, we could try our best.

I did bring a blade with me, and all I knew was a drop of blood was needed. But what was I going to do with that drop of blood? Would I have to mix it with some magical potion? Was I supposed to do some kind of blood magic? I had absolutely no idea.

I didn't even know if anything would work out - I was just a half of what was pure.

Fuck it!

I took the blade and made a cut on my palm. Blood rushed out soon enough, but something felt weird...different.

Heal her, please.

What happened next was a memory that seemed to be hazy for me, too. I was in a trance like state the entire time, because my eyes flashed red, and there was a reddish tinge to my gaze. The hospital room was buzzing with a kind of energy that had me fearing and anticipating what was coming next.

I was not so surprised to find my blood - which was dripping earlier - suspended in mid air, right above Liana's chest, forming a perfectly spherical globule.

It had to be some sort of blood magic.

It didn't take a few moments and the globule disappeared into Liana's chest. Just then, her body glowed - illuminating the room in a very bright white light that made me shut my eyes close.

I fainted.

What I did not know was that Adrian had been keeping a watch on me the entire time.

"Luna!" I was shaken out of my sleep, "Luna Celeste!"

I opened my eyes slowly and blinked, once, twice and a few more times. Once the sleepy haze faded away, I took in my surroundings.

I was seated by Liana's bed, holding her hand. I looked around to find the excited gazes of the healers and Jaxon, and intense gazes of Adrian and Mercy.

I shifted in the seat.

My gaze then fell on my hand which had healed and then at Liana.

Oh. My. God.

Her hand was warm. She was still covered in bruises and bandages, but there was colour in her cheeks, and she was breathing on her own. Tears welled up in my eyes - She was going to get better soon! If this wasn't a sign of improvement, then I don't know what was - because my best friend looked a lot better than how she looked last night.

Gasps echoed in the room and I followed everyone's gazes, only to find out that Jaxon had knelt down facing me.

What did I do now?

"Luna Celeste," His voice was deeper, almost the same as the one I had heard the very first time he had barged into Liana's house, demanding for her. "I have no way other than pledging my loyalty to you to show you how grateful I am for doing whatever you did for my mate." He looked up at me and grinned, but I was more relieved when I could see the sincerity reflecting in his eyes.

"I don't know what you did and how you did it. Although it crushes my ego to admit that I wouldn't have been able to make so much progress with her using our mate bond, I would still bow down to you, Luna Queen. I'm immensely thankful to you and would have hugged you had it not been inappropriate for an Alpha Prime to hug the Luna Queen."

"Oh please, stand up, Alpha," I heard myself saying. Yes, Celeste and I were pretty close now since we'd been thinking along the same lines a lot. Also, yesterday's healing session had brought Cynthia much more closer to me.

But that was another thing for me about, because the moment me, Celeste and Cynthia were no longer three different personalities, the harder it will be to hide Cynthia from everyone like I had earlier planned.

"You're making me uncomfortable. You don't have to bow down to me, and there's no such rule that disallows the Alpha Prime to hug the Luna Queen. It's the 21st Century after all."

Jaxon laughed while the other healers giggled, "It's not a rule. It's just that Alpha Kings are very possessive over their Queens and consider us Primes a threat when we get too close to their queen."

"Oh, come on!" I laughed, "Adrian won't mind at all." I laughed again, not caring that I had actually pulled Jaxon into a bear hug, because I fucking really didn't care! Liana was going to be fine and I was going to have her back and that was enough for me to forget the bad blood between Jaxon and me.

Not bad blood, but you get the point.

"That's enough hugging, you two." I heard Adrian growl and a thick arm wrapped around my waist, pulling me out of Jaxon's hold. He kept me close to him and Jaxon looked at him apologetically, making me scoff.

"It's so good to feel this happy after a lot of time," One of the healers said, "I never knew that our Queen's emotions can affect us this strongly. No wonder it felt like gloom and restlessness had settled over the entire kingdom for the past few days."

I smiled at his words.

I looked around only to find Mercy still looking at me with a very doubtful look on her face.

She knows. She fucking knows and now she'll catch me.

Many people had assembled to visit their Luna Prime at noon. All the healers had gathered, and it was the first time I had seen the Kingdom Elders. Also, I met the Kingdom Beta, Theo.

A handsome man with a complexion that had me thinking that he had Italian origins, brown eyes and a tough build, he was polite when he first addressed me as, "Luna Queen." much to my dismay. I didn't like being called the Luna Queen when Delia had already been sitting on the throne for some hundred years or so.

After some time into the visit, I realised that all the healers were present, except one.

Mercy.

"Where is —"

I was interrupted by Kia, one of the female healers, who gave me a sweet smile and whispered, "She had to attend another wolf. It was important."

I smiled back, wondering how she knew I wanted to ask about her. I then excused myself to visit the restroom, because so many people were inside one waiting room, addressing me time again as their Luna Queen was making me uncomfortable.

Just as the restroom was nearing, I came across Mercy, who gave me a small smile and walked past me.

I stopped in my tracks.