LUNA ASTERBELLE'S POV
I felt like there was someone who was desperately trying to wake me up from my deep slumber. A warm pair of hands touched my face, slowly cupping my cheeks, which were later pinched.
"I know you're awake. Stop pretending like you're asleep just to feel my touch, Luna," said a man with such a deep tone.
I struggled to open my eyes because of the bright sunlight that was directed at me. And when I finally had a clear view of the dazzling man in front of me, my lips slightly parted.
"I should run away, right? You're going to harass me and kill me later on, right? You're a bad person despite having such a mesmerizing appearance, right?" I consecutively questioned him with both of my eyebrows raised.
His facial expressions displayed how confused he was with my reaction, as if all of my speculations about him were far off from what he really intended to do.
The man firmly held my shoulders as the two of us stood straight. "Don't mess with me, Luna. Are you being serious right now? Don't you remember me?" he replied to me with another set of queries instead of answering me first.
I pressed my lips together, as I could no longer find any reason for this. "I'm joking, Jerome." I burst out laughing, hitting my palm in his arms to make fun of him.
He scoffed. "You think this is funny?" he seriously uttered, which made me shut my mouth. "I was extremely worried that your memories might have been affected because of the portal. You got me fooled there," he added, rolling his eyes before he turned around to leave me.
"Hey, don't go on your own. What if I get lost around here?"
I was about to run to catch up to him, but he stopped. "We still have to search for Nero and the others." Jerome lent his hand to me, which I held.
My horn was missing, but it didn't leave a hole in my forehead. I kind of feel like I can't communicate with Astra, though it may only be for the meantime since it's our first time here.
We were in the middle of the streets. Unlike in Grimstone, where there weren't that many buildings and it was just filled with mansions and academies, the human world seems to live in the future. I can't stop looking around and being fascinated by how advanced their technologies are.
"There's someone lying on the ground." I pointed to the left side where I saw a man in an alley, and we hurriedly went over there. "Nero… It's Nero!"
The beta's face was covered in dust and dirt. His current appearance wasn't any different from that of a rogue who hasn't found any prey for months.
Jerome woke up the beta. "Where's Yuki?" asked Nero.
"How are we supposed to know? You were the one who was with her," Jerome answered, letting the beta lean on the wall. "What happened to you? Why do you look like you've been beaten by mafias?"
Nero faked a laugh. "Ah, right. When we were summoned here, there were people in weird combinations of clothing in the same alley. T-they beat us to a pulp; I couldn't protect Yuki," he explained with his voice cracking.
My eyebrows furrowed in anger. "Why didn't you prioritize saving your sister rather than yourself? We don't know anything about this place! What if she's crouching in fear? We can't even guarantee if she's still safe in the hands of those strangers!" I could feel the veins in my forehead popping out.
"You can't blame him, Luna. If you're that frustrated over hearing it from him, then what about him? Nero witnessed Yuki's despair; it probably hurt him most. It's the worst feeling to be there and yet unable to help," Jerome said to calm my system down.
I breathed heavily to cool off. If we were still in Grimstone, no one could've done that to the Holmes siblings.
Our wolves can't be awakened in the human world. That's my first and only assumption as of this moment.
"We should reunite with Yve and her sister too. We can search for Yuki afterwards," Jerome suggested while assisting the beta. He placed Nero's left arm around his back as he placed his right hand on Nero's waist.
"I'm sure that they would still be in this area. They couldn't have gotten far with a lady resisting; it's impossible for them not to be seen as suspicious people unless they brought her inside a vehicle," I commented, following their lead.
We traveled down the road, crossing several corners. We asked all the people we encountered, stating some outstanding features of Yuki.
But we still didn't find her.
It was already nighttime. The moon seemed a little bit weird, but we didn't pay it too much attention since we weren't in our home place anyway.
"What if Yuki's dead now? She still hadn't eaten before we entered the portal. I doubt that those rude dudes would even feed her or at least let her drink clean water." Nero began to wail.
"That goes the same for all of us. We just don't notice how much we're starving since we're still busy finding Yuki. We're not even sure of Yve and Yana's whereabouts either," I said to let Nero's guilt fade away.
I glanced at Jerome, who was silent all along. He had his hands inserted in his pocket now that Nero could stand on his own. He had his head tilted up, staring at the skies.
The moonlight that brushed on his face made his eyes shine in their crimson hue. "You're not wearing your contact lenses?" I asked in pure curiosity, which made him look at me.
“What?” Jerome gently placed a finger to his right eye. “Where’d my contacts go?"He asked as if he hadn’t realized it until now.
I shrugged my shoulders. “Weren’t those eyes from your wolf?”
“Yes. Why?”
I scrunch my nose. “I can’t shift with Astra. Can you try yours?”
Jerome stopped for a minute. “I also can’t,” he said.
“Ah!” Nero yelled all of a sudden, and when we turned around to look at him, his hands were different from usual. “Mine is alright," he murmured.
“I think our wolves are asleep because we still have each other. And yours is awakened... and got separated from Yuki in exchange?” I blurted out an inference, having no definite basis for it.
All of us disregarded what I mentioned and chose to continue searching for Yuki.
“Excuse me…” a girl with a soft voice approached us, her head bowed down, so we asked what she came for. “Are you looking for Miss Yuki Holmes?”
Nero’s face brightened as he immediately held the girl’s chin to force her to make eye contact with him, so he could determine if the girl would lie or not. “Yes. Do you have an idea where Yuki is? Have you seen her around? Tell us if you don’t want to get yourself killed in a split second!” Nero threatened.
The girl shook in fear of the beta’s statement. “I-I-I don’t really know. I was just given an order to ask any of the three of you if you were searching for her…” she replied.
I kind of felt that the girl wasn’t telling the truth, so I pulled Nero away from her and replaced him. I knelt to the ground as I gently held her small hands, which were still trembling. I gave her a warm smile, then slowly tucked her hair behind her ears. Her eyes widened, though I couldn’t figure out why.
“I’m Luna. You can tell me anything you know about Yuki; I’m one of her closest friends, and I can’t let her wander around this place at night,” I mumbled.
She repeatedly let out her breath before she decided to give me a reply. “Miss Yuki Holmes is in our house. She kept on refusing to eat. She didn’t even want us to treat her injuries. She told us that she won’t listen to anything we say unless we bring her friends and her brother home,” she truthfully said, glancing at us one by one. “Where are the other two?”
“Yve and Yana? We also don’t know yet… Can you bring us to where Yuki is?”
The girl nodded her head twice. “Carry me,” she said, which I did. She was only lightweight, so it wasn’t a problem. She was the one who told us the directions to her home, so I was the one at the lead until we finally reached a mansion.
An older woman came out of the gates after they were opened. “Welcome back, Lady Asterbelle,” the woman in her mid-30s greeted the kid I carried. She was wearing a black and white maid outfit.
“Asterbelle?” Jerome spoke from behind. “Don’t you know her, Luna?” he asked me.
“Luna? Perhaps you could be Luna Asterbelle? The first daughter of my masters?” asked the maid who took the kid away from me.
I gulped, confused about how I should process everything that’s happening right now.
“Can I meet them? It’s been a long time since I went here, so I’d like to meet with them first." I lied with a fake smile, and she agreed, letting all of us in before she closed and locked the gates.
We walked along the stone path, going up the stairs, until we reached the threshold of the main entrance. “Go through the sixth floor. Their office is there,” she informed us.
All of us were traveling at hasty speed as we went to the sixth floor through the use of an elevator. “What if they’re my biological parents—the ones that Jin and my adoptive mother talked about before we came here?” I held onto my chest, where my heart was pounding like crazy.
I have been too used to the coldness of my body, but now that I’m here, I couldn’t resist the feeling of how my feet were freezing as a result of being nervous about who we would meet.
“Then ask them everything you have to know. Do all sorts of things you want with them. Judging from the few hours we spent here in the human world, I’m sure that they’re not the same people who would treat you like Brian did,” Jerome said.
We halted in front of a door that was soon opened, revealing a man in a tuxedo. The moment his eyes met mine, I had goosebumps.
“Luna?” He called my name, dropping the files he held as he quickly walked to me and trapped me in his embrace. “I’ve been waiting for years for you to come. And now you’re here…”