Talia's POV

I didn't know what exactly to do. I was cold, lonely and wounded, near the edge of Moonstone.


Dawn was approaching quite fast.

There was only one logical thing to do, go back to Vance.

I picked up what was left of my wolf, and my dignity and headed back to the palace.


I couldn't afford to have been seen by anyone else.

I wobbled back to the palace.


Unfortunately, or fortunately, Vance had just managed to sit himself up.

I could see his bloodshot eyes looked weak.

I wanted to hep him so bad, but I also needed to be sure that I wasn't pouring my waters into a basket.

As soon as Vance was strong, I knew his go to move was gonna be to dispose of me. There was no way, if he had kept me locked in the basement throughout, without the interruption of Landon, that he'd let me walk free.

'Easy." I said to announce my presence. Apparently, he didn't even get to dress properly, as his trousers were still quite a distance away from his waistline.

'Why did you even come back?" He asked. I thought it ungrateful and bitchy.

'You don't have to sound like that. Just say the word and I'd be out of here. You don't have to make it seem like I didn't do you a favor. If you're too proud to let me see you in this state, command me to be gone, and I'd leave you to rot here before the words even leave your lips." I was angry, pissed and wounded, definitely not in the mood to have taken his bullshit too.

'I wish I didn't send them after you." He muttered to himself.

'You took the words right out of my mouth. I wish you didn't too. It's barely been over a day, and it's one I'll fortune to another." I spat at him.

Vance was too weak, really weak, and I was doing my best to take advantage of his situation. Depending on how it went, I was gonna ask for a favor, being where to stay for the short period I would have been there.

'What would you like me to help you with?" I asked him, breaking the ice. I knew he was feeling too proud to want to ask for help.

'The question should be if I trust you enough to ask you to help me." He replied to me. His eyelids were falling and he seemed to be getting progressively weaker. Vance was bleeding from his mouth and nostrils, I was scared, but I tried to contain it. He was Moon Goddess' choice after all. It wasn't like she was going to sit back and watch things happen.

'Isn't that a little irrelevant right now? Seeing as you're bleeding heavily wounded and only half conscious?" I added again. I was battered, not nearly as bad as he was though, but I too needed rest and seeing to.

'Do as you please. There's a key in my pocket, it's the key to this basement. It would be better if you took us back to the hotel yesterday." He said, while drifting away into unconsciousness.

'How can you be thinking of that right now? You're bleeding and wounded and can still think of a hotel?" I really could not believe him.

'That's not why I mean. It isn't safe here. If one knows, others do too. We aren't safe." It wasn't until then that I discovered what he really meant. I scolded myself within for thinking what I thought.

'Oh. I get you now." I said.

He motioned for me to help him up and I took his hand and lifted him.

'I'm so sorry I ever thought of that." He apologized.

'That doesn't move mountains or dey waters over here. I don't care whether you are or not. I'm not mad, I expected it. I'd never believe you." I maintained maximum composure while I said those and also made sure our eyes were in contact.

'Ouch." He exclaimed, as I hurried him along.

'Did I touch a sore spot?" I asked, feeling genuinely bad for him as he was wounded.

'Yeah." He said, and I felt bad for him. The life he lived now was definitely not what he projected. 'In my heart."

'Oh!" I said, looked at him, then looked away.

'What was that for? What I feel doesn't matter?" He asked me. His voice was starting to have a lightness to it, for which I was pleased.

'Oh, sure it does, but only to you and those who care about you." I replied to him.

Someway, Isla was helping Talia get vendetta for all the emotional trauma Vance put me through, and I was only so thrilled.

'You mean you don't care about me? You surely can't expect me to believe that. You came back for me after going after him." He said, laughing and gloating.

'Well, first of all, you look too weak for me to even engage you. Secondly, you're just a selfish man who happens to be their Alpha, and lastly, I couldn't feel anything for you, not even if I tried to." I replied to him.

He was genuinely shook and stopped to look at my face.

'Why are you even helping me?" He asked.

As much as I was dying to blurt in his face that I was there both for Revenge and to save his ass, that was no time for it.

'No every decision is rational, isn't it?" I asked him.

'That's true." He said dismissively.

We wobbled to one of his cares, while he fetched the jets and handed them over to me.

It was the first time I drove in years.

Vance's car was exotic. I was wounded and nervous, which was a bad combination.

I had to start and drive as quietly as possible.

The palace maid and servant were discreet enough to be trusted, Nadia was the problem.

In less than two minutes, we were out and driving.

Vance's vision was getting hazy, so was the directions he kept giving.

Finally, we got to the hotel, or at least, it's remains.

It was bombed.