C28 At the Gallery

Freya’s Pov

We arrived at the venue, me and Artemis hand in hand. They were posse of photographers, ready to take pictures and documentaries. As we came down I and Artemis interlocked hands.

I was grateful for Artemis taking hold of my hand because with the amount of paparazzi my knees buckled and grew weak. I tried not to look at any camera and plastered a smile that seemed original and tender enough.

When we were inside a sigh of relief washed over me.

“Don’t wander too far from me,” Artemis whispered into my ear. To anyone that would have sounded sexy but I was on edge, and I picked out the under meaning of his words.

I nodded yes, trying to extricate from him, his hand snaked behind my waist and planted a kiss by my side.

The gallery was huge and extravagant, painted with white. Portrait hung on the wall. They were all beautiful pieces and communicated to anyone that cared to pay attention.

Just passing by the work, it would be mistaken as rubbish and trash and dirt but upon sparing a meaningful glance at it a whole new message would be decrypted and deciphered.

In as much as the works were creative and beautiful none seemed to be of my taste yet at least. I hadn’t completed my judgement when a portrait caught my attention. A portrait of a wolf. It wasn’t anything special or complicated. It was just a simple painting of a wolf, a wolf in the forest razing and cutting through the grass. She was free. The pictures resonated within me, it had been a long time since I went for a run, since I ran in my wolf form.

I reminisced over the feeling of running through the woods, the soft wind combing through my fur, brushing me and setting me free. Running brought a sense of liberty. One felt liberated being left in the wolf form on all fours. Pounding and pouncing, digging up dirt from the ground as I ran. I relished that feeling.

Back at Eastwood pack I’d sneak and go for a run. Sonia would be on the lookout for me should any Rex show up. Evelyn especially always came looking for me and I wasn’t always allowed the luxury of fully enjoying my wolf side. I guess I could do it here now.

“You have great taste,” I heard from my side and I spun immediately by reflex. I saw a young lady of forties staring at the same portrait I seem to be lost in.

“What?” It was not like I didn’t hear what she said but it was impromptu and I didn’t quite understand.

“The portrait, you are the only one staring at it, it took me a great amount of deal to paint this,” she replied, staring at the painting with equal passion.

I was skeptical at first, I did not know if she was human or a werewolf. Letting Jade come on edge, I sniffed discreetly to see if she was one of us, but to my disappointment she was human. I guess some humans had that inkling that werewolves were real.

Breaking a smile at her, “it’s beautiful,” I told her looking back at the painting. She manoeuvred towards the painting, “yes it is,” she said with a deep emotional tone.

She wasn’t a werewolf but I could tell she had a deep connection with that wolf or rather she had encountered a werewolf one on one. I couldn’t dare ask her, not just for her, I would be outing myself too. And it was paramount to never render out information unless specifically asked.

Confusion was my best friend now, so instead of saying the wrong thing I chose to enjoy my portrait in peace but the woman was adamant on making me curious.

“I love the bond between werewolves, when they find their mate,” she said, disorienting my peace once again.

“What?” It occurred to me that in this full conversation I had asked ‘what?’ Twice and had not engaged in any meaningful conversation or a better reply. I don’t blame myself, how could I? She was a stranger I was just meeting, I didn’t expect myself to grow a bond all of a sudden like mates.

“My mate died,” she spilled out and I gasped not one beat concealing my shock. It was too shocking to even be discreet about.

“But you’re human!” There! I said it. I voiced out what had been chewing down on me. It felt free letting it out. It was like that feeling one gets when he empties his bowels of the previous day's consumption. The sudden relief.

The lady smiled briskly, “you’re a werewolf,” she said.

She fu-cking knew. The games on me. I felt foolish yet again. There was nothing that was just for me, just to my knowledge. The whole thing appeared to me that the little knowledge I gained and thought I was high at least with this piece of information everyone had already discovered long before I did. It brought the feeling of being late again. When was I going to be on time?

“My mate was a werewolf.” She said, I didn’t miss the tense and the slight croak in her voice that betrayed the stoic face she tried to put on.

I looked back at the picture bereft of words, nothing I said could possibly wash away her grief or diminish it so there was no point in consolidating a fancy word, it would amount to nothing.

Steering from the picture to her, her face contorted into that of pain and bliss. She had the perfect face of bittersweet. Smiled while her eyes were crystalline. Tears evident in her eyes with a broken beautiful smile.

In the past I had heard rumours of werewolves being mated to humans and I couldn’t believe it was real and one was in front of me.

The wolf was brave, his pounce on the ground, his body, the way he jumped as he ran, serious and deadly. Just from there it was depicted that he was a no nonsense wolf. His shoulders were broad and well built. His stance on the ground was with full wattage.

“With those broad shoulders he died for me. I was in his arms when Artemis found me,” she said with full retrospection. The memories flashed through her eyes and the old flesh on her skin stretched into a weary smile.

Artemis saved someone? The news was both shocking and heart rendering. Jade smiled within me.

‘Mate wasn’t all bad,’ she said, ‘f*ck all those rumours.’

‘Okay don’t get all wide yet, we don’t fully know him,’ I reminded her but she did an eye roll and retreated.

“Let me show you my greatest masterpiece,” the human lady said, pulling back from my head.

“Okay,” I was a little skeptical about following a total stranger but my legs were already in motion long before I could reason anything.

Ah! My old friend returned, my stalker.

Panick sank within me when I reasoned that I could possibly be working into my own doom. So many scenarios came up in my head, so many conjured.

She could stab me and leave me bleeding, worse she could strangle me, she could knock me out. She could drug me. She could also be working with my stalker, and be an ally with him. What was I thinking?

I remembered my training, could they come in handy? Even if they should, could I use it on two strong predators? But they came a little too late because I was now in an elevator alone with her.

The gallery was big and thick. If I screamed nobody would hear me. A perfect place to plan and carry out murder because no one would be a suspect while everyone would be a suspect. The perpetrator would work out touchless.

I began to breathe through my mouth. She came beside me and was promiscuously quiet.

Artemis, his words returned to me, ‘don’t wander off too far.’ Ohhh I’m doomed.

I’ll die before I discover the mystery behind my father’s death. ‘Foolish child,’ he would say when I meet him. I wasn’t as smart as him.

He would question if really I was his offspring. So dumb.

The silence was thick and heavy. Should a pin drop, it would be heard. From the elevator steel I saw her smile in the reflection. The smile was the kind that gave a bad knot in the stomach, a wrenching one like the jokers smile.

Her words like tornadoes stumbled into my head. I died in his arms, Artemis saved me.

What if she was speaking in codes, oh my goodness. She was!!

Artemis saved her, how didn’t he save her mate. She never said how he died?

Because maybe he didn’t die’ my subconsciousness said.

My heart got erratic.

“Which floor is the masterpiece?” I asked tightly. My voice barely above a whisper.

Masterpiece? I was the freaking masterpiece.

She smiled “on the last floor, a masterpiece such as that is not for everyone.” She said,

“Then why are you showing me? I’m not that important,” I said trying to find a way out of this.

“Nonsense! You are. Our very own Luna?” She insisted.

I froze. I never told her I was the Luna.

“How did you know I was the Luna,” By now my fear had slipped into my voice. Traitor.

“Artemis mate? Who wouldn’t know you,” she said with a smile.

“And Demitri’s daughter at that,” she added and I felt every drop of blood in me run dry.