NOVEL NEXT 346 Back in Neoma's Room
"Goddess, did Andreas really do that to you?" Selah asked the girl in front of her who had been renamed by the river. "I thought you couldn't be hurt."
"So did I," Neoma chuckled.
It wasn't actually funny. It was a truly horrific experience having Andreas maul her like he did, but that is what it took for her to be free from Zagan's spell so it was worth it.
"How do you think you can help?" Graeme asked, arms crossed against his chest. He was doing his best to keep up with all of these details without getting too overwhelmed by them. It was still difficult maintaining the posture of an Alpha when he didn't recall rising to that title or anything else since.
"Have we destroyed the map and servers?" Neoma asked him. Both Selah and Lucas looked to him for how we would answer. They knew he didn't recall anything, but they weren't going to be the ones to divulge that information if he didn't want it revealed.
"Hey, what have we missed?" Greta interrupted, entering the room with Sylvia on her heels. "All of the females are doing really well. Charlotte came to be with her sister, and everyone looks healthy. They are happy to be back but also understandably weirded out that we have all aged while they apparently haven't."
"The pups are okay?" Graeme asked. "You put guards on them?"
"Yes, they are guarded and the pups are okay. They are nervous to see their families, so we decided to wait until the sun rises to contact them. That would probably be the best time to announce to the whole pack what has happened with their return. It's going to be mind-boggling for a lot of them. I wonder how they will handle the news," Greta said, turning to Sylvia with a worried expression.
"If we frame it as the miracle it is, then it should be received well," Sylvia spoke softly.
"Some may think it is further evidence of witchcraft," Lucas mumbled only to receive glares from both Graeme and Greta. "I don't think that. I am just saying that those who consider them witches will likely think that. It's best to be prepared for that response, don't you think?"
"He is right," Sylvia agreed. "That is a possibility. We need to make sure they are well-protected. It should go over better with the pack now that they have a Luna who is also alyko though. We were all profoundly touched last night when we felt the union of our Alpha and Luna, and I think that experience will have changed some perspectives."
"It better have," Greta growled, imagining the nerve of anyone in their pack who might object to the return of their alyko. There was no way their alyko were going to be ridiculed or cast out or threatened ever again. "History will never repeat itself here so long as I am living to help prevent it. And now Graeme is Alpha without any scheming elders free to undermine his rule."
Just then, Sam jogged into the room. Graeme looked at him expectantly, but the Beta shook his head. "I can't find it anywhere, and I checked from here to the haunted forest and the tree where your scent ends. It is not there."
Graeme raked a hand down his face and groaned, turning to pace in frustration. The talisman was the answer to this memory issue. Now what? He couldn't fake his memory, and when the sun arose in the morning, there was going to be a whole pack looking to him for answers and guidance and leadership that he didn't know how to give when he didn't remember the truth of everything that had come to pass.
"You can't find what? What is it?" Greta asked.
"Your father's talisman. Selah says it would break the memory enchantment," Sam answered.
"You lost it?" Greta asked her brother, mouth dropping open in surprise.
"Can another one be made?" Graeme turned to Selah with the hopeful question.
"Yes, of course. It takes an experienced alyko, though. One who knows how it is done," she told him and glanced at Neoma. Neoma may be a powerful alyko now, given that she accessed a portal, but she was certainly not experienced.
"Perhaps one of the alyko who returned?" Graeme suggested, looking to Greta and Sylvia in question.
"We can… we can ask them," Greta replied before turning to verify this with Sylvia.
"I will go find out if any of them is aware of how to make one," Sylvia nodded.
"Is that the only hope of getting your memory back?" Greta asked her brother once Sylvia had left.
"You don't remember anything?" Neoma gasped. Was it Zagan who had done it similar to how he had altered her memory?
"No, Selah says I can violate the mate bond and it should snap me right out of it," Graeme grumbled in answer to Greta's question.
"It's certainly not something I recommended," Selah put her hands up defensively when Greta shot daggers at her with her eyes.
"That is out of the question," Greta growled. "What? Get your memory back so that you can deal with the anguish of having done something like that to your mate as well as to yourself?"
"Well, okay," Lucas spoke up. "What qualifies as a violation? Because if it's just, you know, kissing someone…"
"Ugh, Lucas," Greta groaned.
"Isn't it a fair question though?" he asked. "If that's all it takes, then…"
"I'm not discussing this, especially not with you Lucas," Graeme snarled, effectively ending the discussion.
"I was just trying to help," Lucas mumbled to himself.
"If one of our alyko can make a talisman, then it doesn't matter anyway. We won't have to worry about it. There is no way in hell he will do that to August," Greta said. "Wait… when did Zoe get back?"
"That just occurred to you?" Lucas chuckled in response to the delayed reaction. "You've been in this room for a good five minutes now."
"Did you come back at the same time the others did?" Greta asked, ignoring Lucas' smart ass remark. She would roll her eyes, but it honestly wasn't even worth the effort at this point.
"I had a detour," Neoma answered her. "I went to my old pack and escaped from there."
"She used a portal," Lucas added. "I saw her arrive out of thin air right down by the fire."
"Why wouldn't you just stay with your old pack? You've done enough damage here, don't you think?" Greta asked venomously.
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