After that, the guests began to take their leave, although some of them decided to sit or stand around to talk more.
I felt a little dazed, like someone who had just watched an overly emotionally charged movie at the theatre. You know, walking with the general flow, blinking a little, stunned by the brightness of the lights all around.
I wished Bell was here.
Eh, why did I suddenly think of him?
Dad led us to the side of the hall. "Go on upstairs and take a rest. I'll stay with my brothers till the guests leave."
"I can stay with you," I volunteered.
Dad shook his head. He put a large hand on my head. "Get some rest. We still have to bury my father tomorrow morning and be back at our pack for Sunday's Breakfast."
Oh yeah. We were going home tomorrow, back to our lives. Sunday Breakfast and Alpha duties, homework and... life goes on.
I threw one last look over my shoulder at Aunt Jade and my cousins. I didn't see Grandma Luna anywhere.
I wondered what tomorrow without Grandpa Alpha would hold for them.
Ben and Harvey escorted us up to our apartment.
"Is there anything else we can assist you with, Princess?" Harvey asked.
I shook my head.
"Thank you, boys," Mum said.
"Good night, Luna," Harvey intoned politely.
"Yeah, thanks!" I said, waving them off.
"Good night, Princess," Harvey said. He nodded politely to Savy behind us, who waved back soundlessly. She was tired.
"Night!" Ben said, and the two Betas left.
I went wordlessly into my room thinking it was shower time. Savy was headed to her room too.
"Girls!" Mum called out to us.
We both turned back at the same time.
Mum smiled. "You both did very well."
I swallowed.
Savy nodded and turned back to her room.
"You did good too, Mum," I managed to say before retreating quickly to my shower.
I learned a lot watching Mum today. This was not her pack either, but she shook hands warmly with every member and soothed those who cried.
Apparently, some of the members did recognize her from before they had left Night Forest. One of them had said, "It's so good to see you again, Luna."
It made me remember that once upon a time, even though it was only for a very short while, Mum had been the future Luna of this pack.
As I undressed, my skirt fell on the tiled floor with an unnaturally hard clink sound.
I picked it up and found Grandma Luna's blue sapphire ring. I had totally forgotten about this! What should I do with it? Grrr...
Maybe if I kept it with my white watch and gold bracelet. Yeah, that might work. I went out into my room in only my blouse and looked around. Now where was my watch? Eh! It wasn't on the dresser! I was quite sure I left it there.
Okay, don't panic. I dug around inside my luggage. If I were Ki, where would I keep stuff like that? Grrr....
Oh, I found a black flat box with a number lock at the back of my suitcase. It was locked, of course. Okay, presumably Ki had kept my valuables in it. My watch was probably in it.
My door opened.
"Ah!"
Ki shut the door again. "I beg your pardon, Goddess."
"Wait there! Hang on!" I picked up a pair of sweatpants from the pile of clothes that I had dumped outside the suitcase and pretty much jumped into them.
"Okay, you can come in now," I said.
Ki opened the door cautiously. He lifted a brow at the pile of clean clothes on the floor. He was holding a freshly pressed white dress shirt. "I was just arranging your outfit for tomorrow morning."
He hung the shirt up and picked out a short woollen navy skirt from the pile of clothes, some leggings, and a warm sweater with a low V-neck.
I dropped down to sit cross-legged to watch him.
"Ki, have you seen my watch?" I asked.
Ki took out the slim black box. He showed me the PIN number, 696996, with a grin. The same one as the vampire cage I released him from. Humph, very funny. I sulked and crossed my arms.
Ki made a chuff of laughter and showed me the watch and gold bracelet with a heart on it, laid out on the sponged backing.
"Did you need it for something?" Ki asked.
I shook my head and opened my hand to show him. Ki's mouth opened and closed wordlessly.
I put it into an empty space in the box. Ki shut it, then he opened it again to look at the ring, then he shut it again. It looked like he was torn between asking and not asking.
"Grandma gave it to me," I said. "It's supposed to be a secret. And I'm supposed to either bring it with me to the Colored Mountains or give it to my daughter."
"If I might be so bold, Goddess..." Killion started. I nodded my permission.
"Does anyone else know?" Ki asked.
I shook my head. I was an idiot. Grandma said not to tell anyone. I sighed. "I'm not supposed to tell anyone. But as you can see, I'm terrible with these things. I'll probably lose it before we get home."
Ki laughed. "So you show it to a runaway fight dog you picked up along the road?"
Arughhh... he didn't have to rub it in!
"At this point, it might be better to tell your mother. I believe your parents travelled with a more secure safe. If the ring is a sensitive issue, I could also pass this entire box to your mother for safekeeping without explaining the contents," Killion suggested.
Why did my parents travel with a safe? What did they bring?
That's the problem with safes—they screamed, "I'm holding treasure!"
Oh! In that case, what I needed was this! I jumped up and checked the bin in the bathroom. It still had it, the paper box that used to hold a piece of hand soap. Then I wrapped the ring in tissue and popped it into the box.
Ki wore the funniest expression as he watched me. It was like he had a very strong urge to say something but could not find the words. Eventually, what he did say was, "It's probably going to get thrown away by accident."
Ah, well then. "Do you have a pen?"
I knew by now that he would. All my Betas carried pens.
Ki took out a pen from his jacket. I wrote my name across the box. "SAM."
"That should do it!" Then I stuffed it into the small compartment of my backpack.
"It's probably going to get lost," Ki said. Then he sighed. "Wait here."
He returned a short while later with a small Ziploc bag. He took out a small tube of hand cream and an opened tin of mints from his jacket and put them into the bag. Then he held the opened bag up to me. I dropped in my soap box. He zipped it up and passed me the Ziploc bag. I put it into my backpack.
"Why aren't we just putting the ring into the safe?" Ki asked.
"I dunno. This way just seems more fun," I said.
Ki sighed. "Everything is a game to you, Goddess."
"Yeah, sorry about that," I said.
Ki smiled. "I meant that as a good thing."
And then he added, "Don't worry. I'll keep your secret safe."
{Loyalty}
That word shone in my heart again.
I nodded. "I know. Thanks."
Later, as I was showering, I wondered why I didn't just give the ring to my parents. Actually, I should've, but I got caught up in the moment. You know, it felt like some secret spy mission. Hahaha. But if I thought about it rationally, it's not like anyone would try to get to Mum and Dad's safe... right?