Chapter 57 - The Invitation I

CELESTINA VILLARAMA'S POV

I never imagined that I would go back to the Silver Moon Pack as early as now. Siege told his brother to accompany me on the way there, since he doesn't trust Stella fully. And as soon as we arrived at the entrance of the mansion, Master Kristoffer bowed his head to bid us farewell.

"You're such a fool," Stella whispered, and I just ignored her, knowing that I had no other choice but to proceed in the mansion.

Lucas probably detected my presence from the moment that we stepped foot in the lobby, and I was anticipating that he would be the first one that I'd see here, but he was nowhere in sight. I wanted to ask Stella, but she had already left me all by myself.

"You're back." Ice approached me with a confused expression on his face. "As much as I want to question your sudden return, I want to thank you for going back today. Lucas is waiting for you in his room," he informed me.

"Is Lucas really sick? Stella told me that he hasn't slept for days because of me," I inquired, feeling a bit guilty that their alpha had to go through this.

Ice nodded his head as he invited me to go upstairs to where Lucas was staying. "Go in; he'll be the one to tell you more details about what happened, 'cause I'm also quite clueless as to how that was possible," he mumbled.

The delta was the one who knocked on the alpha's door, and I heard Lucas' voice telling us to go in. So when Ice opened the door for me, I hurriedly crossed its threshold. Without looking back, I heard the door being shut by Ice.

Lucas was lying on his bed, and I don't think that he's in his best condition at all. Half of his body looked stiff, and he could barely glance my way. "Come near me and stop staring at my body, Celestina," he ordered.

My footsteps were slow, so he growled at me and told me to hurry. "What happened while I was gone, Lucas?" I anxiously asked at the same time that I sat beside him on his bed. "Did someone infiltrate your pack and ambush you while you were asleep or something? I heard from my sister that you weren't doing well, so I came back. I wasn't expecting that you'd be in this state."

Lucas raised his right arm, and I saw how much his hand was trembling. I held his hand and brought it down to his chest. Though he insisted that I place it on my cheeks, I did as I was told.

"I made the wrong move, and it seems like I angered the moon goddess," Lucas replied, which was followed by a short cackle. "I thought that I was allowed to let anyone from my pack wander out of the pack house, but I was mistaken. The moon goddess cursed me for letting you go meet up with Siege from the Crimson Moon Pack, and I still can't walk until now. My legs down to my feet are completely numb," he explained.

"Why would she even bother? You gave your go signal, and it's not like I had the intention to stay there for good!" I grunted, thinking about how problematic the moon goddess can be.

Alpha Lucas heaved out a loud sigh of frustration. "There's nothing I can do about it now. The curse has been done, and I don't know how to undo it. I'm sure that once words get out of this room, people out there will start a commotion and plan to strike me in my sleep," he uttered.

The way that Lucas spoke made me feel that he was worried about his rank as the alpha. In his current condition, it was obvious that he wouldn't be able to defend himself if anyone really tried to attack him while he wasn't awake. There's also a high probability that wolves who are hungry for a title as the alpha will be the first ones to move.

"In that case, why don't you just tell Leo about your problem? He's the beta, and he's surely the only one who can assist you during this kind of time," I suggested.

Lucas' eyes flared as his forehead showed lines as he scrunched it. "How do you know Beta Leonardo? I never told you about him, and I doubt that Ice would mention someone like him to you," he confusingly asked. His hand stopped shaking as he firmly held mine instead, slowly rubbing his thumb on my palm to let me feel how furious he was.

"I stumbled upon him while Siege and I were looking for Master Kristoffer," I answered briefly.

"It's been quite a long time since Leo came here. Why was he lurking around the other pack when he should've reported to me first about his return?" Lucas couldn't believe that his beta chose to go there rather than to where he originally belonged first.

"Maybe he just wanted to see how the siblings were doing," I muttered, even though I wasn't really sure if that was Leo's reason. "Forget about that. Can you ask Leo to take care of your pack first until you recover?" I brought the conversation back to its main topic.

Lucas shrugged my idea off. "I don't think that he's going back here at all. I haven't sensed his presence yet."

"There might be a chance that he hid his scent from you, Lucas. You also mentioned that he hasn't shown up here for a long time; you probably just don't remember his scent anymore," I said to further convince him to let his beta take over his responsibilities in the pack for a while.

"He's not suited for any pack matters, Celestina. If you have already encountered him once or twice, then you probably know that he's just an insane maniac who wants to have a woman for his own benefit." Lucas avoided my eye contact as he glanced at the window. "I'm worried that he might have already fallen for you too, Celestina."

The alpha's last sentence was softly mumbled, as if he wanted to keep it to himself, but at the same time he wanted to let me hear his thoughts.