His Blue Moon Princess
Chapter 9

I wake up slowly, feeling the sunshine on my skin. That is so amazing...

When I open my eyes, I realize I'm not in the hospital room anymore. Where is this? I sit up and try to analyze the room around me. Is this a bedroom? It's even bigger! I'm in a ridiculously large canopy bed, to begin with. The sheets are of various shades of pink and orange, and there are, like, a dozen cushions. If it was any more girlish than that, I could have felt like I woke up in some fairy tale! Two large windows illuminate the room, with some of the sunlight falling directly on me. And the view! I can view the whole city from here, like from one of those skyscrapers. I get up to approach the window, and realize I indeed am in one of those skyscrapers! This is insane. I step back and turn around.

Someone left a long, silk kimono on my bed, and I take it to cover myself. There are two large wardrobes, a dressing desk in front of my bed, and an entirely stored bookshelf. Two of the books I was reading at the hospital have been placed on the bedside table. I open one of the wardrobes and recognize some of the clothes Tonia bought me, while some are clearly brand new.

I exit the room, a bit confused, and as soon as I open the door, I almost trip on some huge mountain of fur.

"Bobo!"

The big brown wolf gets up to greet me. Does he ever get into his human form at all?

"Bobo, what is this place? Where are we?"

Of course, he won't respond, but he grabs a piece of my kimono and pulls me to another room. I smell something burning as soon as we enter. In a big and modern kitchen, Tonia is busy cooking, with a frown on, but smiles as soon as she sees us. "Hi, baby girl!" "Tonia, what are you doing?"

The smell worries me, so I go over to where she is indeed burning some sausages. What a mess... I take over by reflex, and she only seems too happy to let me.

"Sorry, I wanted to make breakfast, but I really s**k at this..."

"It's okay, I can do it. Can I borrow some things?"

"You can take whatever you want, Nora, go ahead."

I quickly grab a few things I can replace in all the cupboards and the fridge and decide to do some crepes and an omelet with mushroom and the sausages I could save from Tonia's attempt.

Bobo hungrily watches me through the whole process.

"If you start drooling, Bobo, I'm not cleaning!" Tonia says.

They argue for a while, though, I can only hear Tonia's side. She is still mindful enough to answer him out loud, though he is apparently making fun of her poor cooking skills.

While the siblings fight, I can only enjoy this fantastic cooking space. Everything is brand new and really top-notch material, too! I've never cooked in such a big kitchen before, though I'm only cooking for three. I'm done soon enough, and we can finally sit to enjoy it. I was kinda hoping Bobo would shift to eat on the table with us, but as usual, Tonia just puts his plate down on the floor for him.

"Go ahead, you piggy. Thank you for this, Nora. I knew you liked cooking, but I didn't know you were that good! Where did you learn?"

"My father taught me when I was young. I just loved cooking with him, and after he passed I just kept cooking for the pack, so..."

I drop my fork. The pack! How could I be so stupid and mention the pack now?! I was so happy with my cooking, I forgot to stay on guard. Tonia looks at me, shocked.

"So you do belong to a pack!"

I gasp, not knowing what to say. Of course, it's way too late to lie anymore now. Gosh, Nora, you i***t! Even Bobo has stopped eating. All of sudden he starts growling. At first, I think he might be angry at me, but then Tonia enlightens me soon enough. She slams her fist on the table, making me jump. Why couldn't I shut up...?

"What sort of pack is this?! Nora, I examined you; you were abused for years! And your f*****g pack never helped you?"

What can I say now? I just stay quiet and bite my lip, confused about what I should do. I can't tell her that my pack was abusing me! She looks so mad, I'm sure she would run to give them a scolding, and I'm terrified about the consequences if Damian knows about this. But Tonia is all agitated now, and Bobo won't stop scrutinizing me either.

"What's the name of your pack? I got two words to tell your Alpha!"

Oh, no way I'll tell her when she is this enraged. But what can I do?

"Tonia, I really don't want my pack to be in trouble because of me. I'm okay!"

"Okay? Don't tell me you're okay, Nora, do you have any idea how long your medical chart was?"

I shake my head. "It was because I was attacked the night before, Tonia. Otherwise, I'm okay, it's just... I got scolded a few times, that's it."

She suddenly gets up and exits the room, not the slightest calmer. When she comes back, she has a couple of pictures in her hands, and she shows me. They're pictures in black and white, and I recognize the entrance of the hospital I was at. The caption is yesterday's date. Were these taken from surveillance cameras?

"Who is the guy at the help desk, Nora? He was looking for you; he gave your name to the secretary."

I look more closely at the photos. He's wearing a dark cap covering his face, but actually, I can recognize the cap itself. It's my brother's. Is that really Alec? The size and shape of the silhouette look about right. Alec was looking for me? Why? Was he concerned, or...? I shiver. Tonia is waiting for my response, and so is Bobo, and I get that I'm not getting away with another lie this time. I sigh and put the pictures down on the table.

"That's my brother... I think."

My answer surprises Tonia, but she calms down a little.

"Your brother? Oh, you did mention you had one. Well, it seems like he is looking for you. Do you want me to tell him you...?"

"No!" I screamed. The siblings were startled, but now they're both looking at me with surprise. I don't want Alec to replace me. That's the main reason I agreed to stay locked in this hospital room before-I was scared.

"Nora? Nora, what's going on?"

"Tonia, I don't want my brother to replace me. I... I ran away."

That's not totally a lie, is it? At least I don't need to tell them Alec was the one that tried to choke and kill me. Tonia looks a bit confused, and I can tell she's thinking hard right now. Maybe she is talking with her brother with the mind-link, but I don't know, they are both silently staring at me. It goes on for a while, and no one says a word.

In the end, Tonia turns her head to Bobo, and as she's frowning. I can tell they're arguing. But Bobo starts eating again, ignoring her. She rolls her eyes.

"Okay, I get it. For now. To be honest, we moved you out of the hospital for that reason, anyway. We were worried about having some unidentified guy looking for you... I take it that you're hiding from your pack then?"

"Yes... Sort of. Can we... just not mention them for the moment?"

Tonia frowns, but eventually, she slowly starts eating again. I can tell she's not happy with my response and is still thinking long and hard, but she doesn't ask any more questions. So I just concentrate on eating my omelet, and that's it.

After a while, I'm done, and we are both silently drinking -tea for me and coffee for Tonia- while Bobo finishes his third plate. Looks like his stomach doesn't mind the burnt sausages.

"Tonia?"

"Hm?"

"Where are we?"

"Oh, this is your apartment."

I almost drop my cup of tea from the shock. What does Tonia mean "my" apartment? Did she make a mistake?

"What? Tonia, I don't have an apartment. And surely not something as... impressive as this!"

I wouldn't even dream of having such a large place to live in! The whole basement could fit in the bedroom alone, and everything looks so new and modern, and high-quality, and... And now I am enjoying some fragrant tea by a great glass-wall, with a full view of the city. A month ago, I was used by my pack like a slave, doing chores all day, and my brother was ready to sell me to cover his debts. I don't own anything, nothing at all.

But Tonia just smiles.

"Well, you do now. The Boss arranged this place for you. The whole apartment is yours! Oh, of course, you can tell us if there is anything you don't like, and we can always have it replaced..."

"Tonia, I can't have an apartment out of the blue, this is ridiculous. You have no idea how poor I actually am. I really appreciate you trying to help me, but this is... This is too much." She looks at me for a few seconds, then rolls her eyes with an exasperated look.

"Nora, for someone so cute and tiny, you can be unreasonably stubborn, you know that? Listen now, baby girl. You're the Boss's mate. You got nowhere to go as far as I know, and for some unknown reason, you're hiding from your useless pack. Now, the Boss is the most powerful man in this city, and trust me, buying an apartment like this is nothing for him. I mean it. Just consider it as him lending you a room, okay?"

It's not okay, even if she says it like this, but... It's true I don't have much choice either. Where would I go otherwise? I really don't have anyone I know that I could trust, and I'm pretty sure my pack must be looking for me now. Unless they think I'm dead, which would make sense, too.

But being here doesn't feel right either. Everything is too... too much. I feel like I'm stepping in a shoe that's way too big for me.

After breakfast, Tonia gives me a tour of the place that I'm now supposed to live in, temporarily, as I insisted. I'm glad there are not too many useless rooms like in those huge, luxurious people houses. There are actually three bedrooms, the biggest one occupied by me, and one of the tinier rooms by Tonia. Apparently Bobo sleeps wherever he wants, but I suspect he's guarding my room, anyway. Tonia also specifies that each of the bedrooms has its own connected bathroom. There's a big kitchen where we had breakfast in, and a dining room for eight people. Then, Tonia takes me to another place: a study! With a desk, a computer, and more bookshelves! I can't help but take a tour to see all the books, making Tonia laugh.

"You give her a latest-generation, super cool computer, and all she cares about are the books. You were born in the wrong century, baby girl."

"I don't really care about computers, I just love reading! And I am borrowing those books and this computer."

"If you say so. Well, you can always use the computer if you want to borrow more. Come on, there's one more room."

The last room turns out to be.... a living room. I stop at the entrance. There's a large sofa with multi-colored cushions, a large TV, a game station, and even a stereo with a shelf full of CDs and DVDs.

"Oh yes, Bobo and I didn't know what kind of music you like so... Nora, what the hell? Why are you crying?"

I just can't stop.

It's all coming back to me. I could never even step into the Jade Moon's main house living room before! And now I have a full room I can use all I want?

"I'm... I'm okay. Sorry, Tonia I just got a bit... overwhelmed for a second."

She looks at me suspiciously, but I'm just busy wiping off my tears. Bobo rubs his head against my leg, trying to cheer me up. Thank you, Bobo, I think as I pat his head. I've wanted to try petting him forever. It's not something I should do with a fellow werewolf, but I'm starting to feel like Bobo is the most dog-like werewolf I've ever seen.

"Okay Nora, stop crying. You're making me want to punch some people, and I don't have names yet so I can't. You know what you need right now?"

I shake my head, confused.

"What is it?"

"You, baby girl, need a good sweating."