Chapter 123
“I’ll be bringing in other members of Blue Moon and broadcasting through Moon Shadow’s system to anyone who can hear me to get a firmer update and dispense orders.”
Candido nodded. “I understand.”
I turned to the screen behind her as Candido took the box from my hands and set me in the chair beside him. He hiked up his pant leg and lifted into the seat beside him.
Gilgamesh returned with a few other people and more drinks. They all looked exhausted, but Dune wasn’t among them. I wondered if these people were just people with Blue Moon.
Since Gilgamesh was here, he had to be of some importance to the Blue Moon Pack. He sat beside me and offered me a cup.
“I was told that the princess only drinks hot chocolate.”
My mood boosted and I reached for it happily. “It smells so good…”
I wrapped my hands around the mug, shuddering at how the warmth coasted up my arms. Then, Gilgamesh pulled down his mask and picked up his mug. I stared at him, wide-eyed.
He was… younger than Candido. Much younger, like he could have been my age.
Was he? He glanced at me over the rim of his mug. His eyes twinkling as he sipped.
“What? Rethinking your choices?”
My face burned with embarrassment.
“Knock it off,” Candido growled.
“Touchy,” Gilgamesh said and wiggled his eyebrows. “I’ve never heard of a beautiful young woman turning down some positive attention. And you are, beautiful that is.”
The problem was that he looked nothing like Francium. Francium’s features were delicate. Gilgamesh looked… rugged the way Candido did and younger. He wiggled his eyebrows.
“Armageddon, you might want to watch yourself…” someone said across the table, laughing. I turned to see the woman, sipping from her mug. “Gilgamesh is making eyes at your mate.”
“He knows better,” Candido growled.
Gilgamesh scoffed. “Chill, old man.”
“I am not old!”
I snickered at how indignant he sounded. Gilgamesh laughed. “Seems like Pandora agrees.”
Vanessa sighed and shook her head. “Gilgamesh, if you would please refrain from irritating Armageddon. It has been a long day.”
“Of course,” Gilgamesh said, winking at me. “I’ll be on my best behavior. Promise.”
Someone else snickered, a man who was sitting further away from us.
I looked back at Candido to see him without his mask on, smearing something on his temple. It sparked before vanishing, leaving only smeared blood behind.
“You should have let the medical bay take care of you,” Vanessa said.
“They made it sound urgent,” Candido said. “I’ll be fine.”
She pursed her lips. “You’re not allowed to donate blood for at least a week from now.”
He looked up.
“That’s an official order. Gilgamesh, if you would let the medical staff know?”
“On it,” Gilgamesh said, pulling out his phone. “Seems like Armageddon is the one who needs to behave.”
I smiled, timidly pulling down my mask. Whoever was in this room seemed to know who I was to Candido. There was only one person in the room watching me with a stern gaze. Everyone else seemed happy to be here, a little tired, and happy to see me.
I sipped my hot chocolate with a sigh of comfort.
Finally, the room went dark and the screen on the other side of the room behind Vanessa cleared. In place of the stream of words, there were photos and a few graphs.
Most of the attacks had been lethal, taking out large populations of werewolves. They’d attacked nearly every pack’s capital save a few. The capital’s attack had the most property damage done, but it was somewhere in the middle of the death counts.
I swallowed and my jaw trembled.
“We’ve found that many of those small packs may have had a tie to vampires and thus defected.” Vanessa shook her head. “But that’s not something that’s been confirmed… We’re gathered her to think of next steps.”
“Does the emergency broadcast system still work?” Candido asked.
She frowned, “What is your plan?”
“An address,” he said. “The people will panic less if they have a sense about what’s going to happen or at least what has happened…. I believe it will also be good for them to hear from me given everything that has happened.”
Vanessa hesitated and she nodded. “I can’t argue with that. I’ll get them working on it. We should have it ready within the hour.”
Candido nodded.
“As for the rest of it…” Vanessa started talking about the rest of the issues, but I stopped listening.
I couldn’t help but think about Candido and what his plan was. Would he be able to speak to the remaining werewolves and give them any sort of hope? I hoped so.
Candido reclined his chair and closed his eyes, seemingly asleep.
Gilgamesh let out a low whistle. “He’s… more worn out than I first thought.”
I looked at him. “What do you mean?”
“He doesn’t tend to sleep like that,” Gilgamesh said. “For as long as I’ve known him, he’s never been able to sleep sitting up.”
He shook his head and gestured through the air. I gasped as Candido started to float over the table and across the room to a cot that someone else was building for him. He lowered onto the cot and someone put a blanket over him. He looked pale, now that I could just look at him, like he’d lost a lot of blood or was simply going into shock.
A woman kneeled beside the bed and held her hands over him, she murmured something and waves of light ebbed and flowed over Candido.
“What is she doing?”
“It’s called transference,” Gilgamesh said. “It helps… ease some things.”
“What do you mean by that? Transference of what? Who is she?”
Gilgamesh snorted. “Hey, Calliope, the princess is jealous of you. Better not get handsy.”
She turned back with a scowl. “That’s disturbing on every level. He’s old enough to be my father.”
“Hey,” Gilgamesh said. “This is a safe space. No kink shaming.”
My face heated. Calliope barely glanced at me before rolling her eyes.
“Honestly,” the man who had been staring at me with a stern gaze. “I don’t know what he’s thinking.”
I looked over at the man. He sat back, eyeing me. “How old are you?”
I swallowed. “I’m… I’ll be twenty in a few weeks.”
At least, I think it was few weeks. I hadn’t been keeping much track of time.
He scoffed. “If he had half a brain, he’d reject you.”
“Yggdrasil,” Vanessa hissed. “We talked about this.”
“We did, and I stand by what I said.” He gestured towards me. “She’s barely off a bottle and he’s too damn old, with too much responsibility, to be humoring this.”
“The goddess has a plan,” Vanessa said.
He scoffed. “That doesn’t make it a good one.”
I frowned. “I thought… everyone in Blue Moon was… really religious.”
He scoffed and jerked his head towards Candido. “That one retreated into all that nonsense for a sense of purpose. He needed it—He still needs it.” He shook his head. “What was done to him… what he’s had to deal with gets him every pass I can manage, but not this.”
“Yggdrasil, please, she loves him.”
He scoffed. “Yeah, because she’s young and stupid.”
I shot to my feet. “I’m not stupid.”
“And naïve,” he said. “And has daddy issues the size of a mountain.”
“I—”
“Your father is that idiot Steven, isn’t he?” Yggdrasil asked. “The one that was going to marry you off to yet another man old enough to be your father?”
I shut my mouth. “That… has nothing to do with my relationship with Candido.”
“Who just so happened to take you in when you were sixteen, running from that?” Yggdrasil scoffed. “Let me guess, you’ve loved him ever since?”
His tone was mocking as he laughed.
“Yggdrasil,” Vanessa hissed. “You’re being cruel. She… makes him happy.”
He waved his hand. “I’m not worried about his happiness. Happiness is a choice—”
“Not this again,” Gilgamesh groaned. “Please, can we not get on this again? They’re cute together.”
Yggdrasil scoffed. “She wants a daddy figure she can fuck and he’s so obsessed with having someone he can protect he’s not seeing reason.”
My eyes burned and my jaw trembled. “How could you say that to me? The goddess chose me!”
He shook his head. “Ask her.”
I flinched. “What?”
“Ask the goddess if she chose you,” Yggdrasil said.
“Yggdrasil, stop. You know—”
“If you’re so convinced you were chosen, ask her why. What do you offer him except for something young and gullible?” He scoffed.
