Talia's POV

I snuck out again as fast as my legs could carry. It was midday already and I had less than two hours to meet Vance at our rather embarrassing meeting point.


The baby was in the best care possible and Ken left the palace just minutes before midday. The overthinker in me thought he was up to something, but then I had to remind myself that Ken was damn too noble and way too royal for that type of shit.

'Oh, stop it!" I chided Kara in my head. For all of her bravado, she's a chicken sometimes.

We were successfully out of Silverhaven, nothing could possibly go wrong. It was past midday and the traffic was quite heavy. People commuting to and from. I walked very briskly past them all and in no time, I was at Moonstone.


All the while I was busy in my head. What if he was just joking? Or was it one of those plans he made and never kept to? I would have broken Ken's trust and walked miles to get here to be stood up by Vance.

'Enter!" The voice commanded from the jeep I was about to meander before entering the cemetery. I recognised the voice, but not the car.


Without further ado, I jumped in.

'I didn't think I was going to see you again." Vance broke the silence.

'What made you think so?" I asked him immediately. While there are valid reasons for me to never meet him again, what had to be done had to be done.

'I just thought you'd know better." I felt a bit insulted. But I took it that he was killing himself to kill the enemy. I sure knew better than hooking up with an Alpha with such a conniving Luna like Nadia. He also knew that he was less that I should go for. While being his Luna, I knew Vance always struggled with self doubt.

'Well at least one of us does." I replied to him.

'And who is that?" He asked, his tone rose.

'You definitely. We're not meeting at the graveyard of a woman." I said.

It was barely a split second after it left my lips that Vance sent my cheeks tingling with the most stinging slap I had experienced.

'You don't fucking say that." He barked. Vance was bleeding from the nose. I was scared, angry and scared.

He had locked the doors, I couldn't open and run out. Not like that's what I'd have loved to do. I needed Vance alive.

The slow trickles came faster and his eyeballs rolled up. I had not been that terrified since seeing Kael lay motionless in the bathroom.

I kept slapping him across the face but it didn't stop anything, didn't make him more conscious.

The air condition was on, so the blood was clotting way faster.

I was scared, so bad I nearly pissed my pants.

I tried to be strong. After all, I walked into this sticky situation with my two eyes open.

I sent a quick prayer to the Moon Goddess. There were many reasons why Vance could be bleeding like that, but I didn't know anything to do to stop it.

I kept kicking the door.

Suddenly, I felt a hand hold me. It was Vance. No longer bleeding and semi-conscious. I nearly went mad with disbelief.

I literally just saw him almost give up the ghost seconds ago.

'What the fuck was that?" I asked him, breathing hardly. 'Are you dying?"

'You shouldn't care about that. It's none of your business." He shut me down.

'I don't think I agree after almost being implicated in the death of a random stranger I met in a graveyard." I shot back at him.

'Well then, maybe try to get to know me." He replied casually. He was back to cool old Vance. The version of him that probably appealed to all the females he had sex with while we were married. Shamelessly, it appealed to me too.

'I don't think that's on my bucket list. All you've done is freak me out. I think I know enough." I replied to him.

'So what's the plan now?" He asked. 'You just keep wandering in search of someone better?"

'I wasn't searching for anything." I replied to him in a cutting tone.

'You know too much to back out now. Can I take you to lunch and see tomorrow. I need to get back to something?" I didn't mistake it to be a request. I sounded much like the polite command it really was.

'Do whatever. Wipe the bloodstains of your beards too. You look scary." I chipped

I'm not supposed to be this free with him, but some part of me longs to. I just wanted to get to make him long for me before pulling the stick his whole word sits on and unraveling it all to him.

'I'd rather we eat in." He said. 'I'd order the food and have them deliver it here. Give me two minutes." Vance stretched to pull his phone out of his pocket, reminding me of all the times when we were together, and I was the one who did that for him because I could not stand him taking one hand off the steering to attend to calls.

He'd call me paranoid and smile all the while when I picked the calls, put them on speaker phone and hold the mouthpiece close to him. It was routine we got used to till his calls became 'more confidential" and he couldn't even take them in my presence anymore.

It made tears well up in my eyes, but I quickly dubbed them off before they earned me further query from my supposed stranger.

'Here." Vance's voice broke my thoughts.

I was so lost I didn't see the delivery guy knock and hand the box of pizza to Vance.

He opened it, letting out the aroma that made my stomach growl shamelessly. I was embarrassed and wished I could keep it in. Now there was no way I could reject the food.

He handed it over to me and we are in silence.

There was too much on my mind. He got more than one box but insisted we ate out of the same box. Our fingers were constantly brushing. At one point, his face was in mine.

I became overwhelmed and ran out, with the pizza stuck in my throat. I ran as fast as I could before I began to puke. The whole thing came right back out just the way I chewed it. I felt weak and nearly at the verge of collapsing, but I have Ken to run home to.

Chances are he'd be back.