"So, tell me, Cleo." Alastair steps in front of him, his eyes reading Cleo. "How good are you at this?" His hand flicks around in circle, where the golden hue once emitted with light. "This whole portal thing."

"Better than her, you bet." He confidently replies back.

"And you need to know this because?" I narrow my eyes at him, trying to figure out the intention behind his curiosity.

"Your highness, what if we dispatch another team to actually look for her?"

"I did think about that." I sigh, shaking my head. "But we can't afford to lose any more of us as Circe said before. We need as many as we can here when the portal opens."

"Your highness, if you would, allow me to take Cleo and look for Harmony. I'm more than capable enough for this job. I swear to return Cleo unharmed."

"One glance at you and Harmony will be across the ocean." This time Aries sighs, combing his long hair back and I wished as much to play with them. "I have been meaning to ask you, Aries, was it? How come you are the only one Harmony spared. You are not even one of us."

"I am not one of you." He simply says as if that was meant to answer him. "As I said Harmony knows you, she will not allow you to be any closer, let alone have an actual conversation."

"So, this plan is dismissed." He once again folds his arms across and shakes his head, disappointment clear on his face. "If only we had someone else strong enough to take my place." He mutters to himself.

But I heard him clear. I turn my head around, his brown eyes already on mine and smile widely. "Alex."

"Don't even go there Zoe. I'm not going anywhere. I'm your warrior and I stay with you." Alex immediately shakes his head in disagreement.

"But Alex, you are the only one strong enough, only one that I can trust. Please Alex." But he continues to discard my every word. "We may possibly be heading to war and I cannot leave you to go into one, alone, without protection."

"She's not alone. And definitely not without protection." Aries steps in front, half blocking me from Alex, almost as if correcting his words. But no matter, a warm feeling rises in my heart and I smile up at him before I look back at Alex who stands with his fists clenched and a very hard expression, so unlike him.

I step past Aries and stand a few inches away from Alex, taking his tight fist into my soft ones, compelling him to look at me. "Alex, I know just how much you care about me and I really appreciate all those times you spent worrying about me, protecting me. But it's okay to let go sometime."

He shakes his head, but I give him a warm smile. "I free you Alexander Sancus Constantinou."

"Althea-"

"It's alright. Hear me just this once." I squeeze his hand tightly. "Just until you join the war, be free of me. Until then, learn to come forth of my shadows and go on this journey without me. And when you return home, be that warrior. Be my warrior."

I let go his hand and take a step back, tilting my head to the side, I look at him hopefully, holding my breath. "Will you do that for me Alex?"

He falls on his knees, hand over his heart, like that day when he cut the lines of his palms open and let his blood spill into my open wound. "I took a pledge, swore to protect you with my life, be your shield, your sword and forever be your shadow Althea. If you think that a mere word can free me, you are wrong. By blood, I'm your warrior. I was born to remain by your side."

When he lifts his head up, those deep brown eyes look at me with promises of the day when he swore to be my warrior. "But I will travel till the end of the world if you tell me to."

He gets up and moves towards Cleo. "Let's go."

Cleo nods his head and holds his hand forward until a golden circle, one similar to Circe's opens up. "The lesser the crowd, the more likely she will be there. Maybe closer to the ocean. There seems to be something between the ocean and you Lycans."

Alex nods his head. "Be sure to protect her with your life, Aries."

"I promise."

"And one last thing Alexander. Keep your distance from Harmony if you want to remain whole. And also send a message from Raven will you, tell her that 'she needs her to return home, that she knows and remembers everything' whatever that means, I'm guessing she'll know."

Alex nods at Aries and looks me in the eye before he steps through the portal. "Don't you dare let anything happen to yourself Althea. Stay alive until I return." Cleo soon follows with a quick nod at Noah and me, disappearing with the golden light.

I'm sorry Alex. I said things knowing how much you hate them. But you are the only one I trust to find her. You are my only hope. Be safe and come back home safe. I close my eyes and bid them goodbye. May goddess be with you in this journey, Alex.

"When she heard that I was looking for Althea, she came to the club that night." Aries explains his side of the story because Alastair was not letting him off the hook this time. His blue eyes on mine, his strong arm around me as I sit on the kitchen island and him standing beside me.

The night had fallen once again, and we were all over at Aries' house.

"Why am I the only one that does not remember what happened that night?" I ask curious. There was this big gap in my mind that was bothering me to no end.

"Maybe you met Harmony that night." We both shoot our head towards Alastair who puts his hands up in surrender. "I was just saying." But Aries turns to look at me again, a seriousness to his face.

"You think Harmony erased my memories too?" Furrowing my brows at him, I look back.

"I mean that's the only possible explanation on why a Lycan can't recall their memories." Alastair shrugs his shoulder again.

"But why would she."

"Your highness, Aries already answered that for me before. Because you are one of us too." And we all sit in silence. But that cannot be the only plausible reason, right? There must be something else that triggered her to do so.

"I guess we'll know when we find her." I guess so.

"Dinner's ready at the pack house, Alpha." A wolf makes himself known, entering the kitchen. "Thank you, Sam." Aries nods at him, and he retreats with a nod of his own but not before having a glance my way.

Aries puts me down although I was more than capable of doing so myself, but it makes the butterflies flutter in my stomach. I love whatever form of contact we could have, and holding tightly onto his hands, I follow as he leads the way. We all do.

But the scent of another werewolves in the air makes me halt in my feet and take a breath in. The scent different compared to the rest of the wolves here, but it wasn't exactly one of the rogues too and neither did it belong to this land. And it led right into the pack house where we were heading towards.

It was not an alarm that halted me, but a sense of familiarity in the air, almost like I knew the ones that carried the scent, like it belonged to one of my own. But the scent that I was picking up was most definitely one of werewolves and I most certainly never had an encounter with them, until recently. So, what was this feeling that I was sensing in the air? Just who was inside?

"I guess we have some visitors." Aries tugs my hand forward, urging me inside, holding that knowing smile of his, and like always I know that he knows all the story of the lost times, of their past, now their mysterious history that I had now been exposed to. But I still couldn't grasp the happenings around me with all my thoughts constantly going back to my home, my family.

I didn't have time to think about these enigmatic things around me.

I hold my ground as I look at Aries' back, hand ever so tightening on his, seeking to be filled with his knowledge but the abrupt opening of the door stops me.

A man with a ginger hair comes charging out. He looked to be in his early twenties in human years, but those wide blue eyes were filled with wisdom of time. And like most wolves here, he too holds that recognition to his face as he looks at me like a friend united at long last.

With those short and slow steps, he carries a power around him. It didn't take me long to know that smell, like Noah, he too was an Alpha. But of another pack.

"Alpha."

But he falls on his knees, and so does the other two that now comes rushing through and kneels just inches behind him, a male and a female. "Alpha." They too repeat the word. Aries steps aside, leaving me to stand right before them. The one they greeted was not Aries as I thought.

It was me.

"You have returned."

Tilting my head slightly, I try to process his words, although simple, it held a meaning in them that I did not understand. "I'm no Alpha. I'm not even a werewolf. Sorry, but who are you?"

The three set of eye looks up at me but the respect in their eyes never dismissed. "Of course, Alpha. What do you prefer to be called now? Oh, and I am Ash, the assigned Alpha of the Red Healer in your absence. This here is Lydia, and this is Warren, Alpha."

He introduces the two and they, too, nod in return. But I continue staring at them, still not fully grasping the situation, lips parted open. "Alpha Noah already explained the situation to us. Red healers are yours to command, Alpha."

And once again the three bends their head down in submission.

"But you still needed the proof didn't you now, Alpha Ash?" Noah leans by the door, hands folded across, slightly shaking his head but nonetheless had a smile on his face.

"Sorry for not believing your words, Alpha Noah, but you spoke of something highly implausible. But trust me, I shall never doubt you from this day forth. And thank you Alpha Noah for reuniting us with our Alpha. We, the Red Healers, are in your debt." Although his words were for Noah, his eyes remain on my face the entire time, beaming with happiness.

"Would someone like to explain the situation?" I look at them back and forth. "And please do get up."

"Yes, Alpha." And they all rise to their feet as I shake my head, lost for words.

"Alpha Noah called us earlier saying that you had returned and needed help. That there was a war of Lycans." Ash once again explains, and I raise an eyebrow at him. "And you agreed to aid him, in a war, just like that?"

He shakes his head and sighs. "Of course not. Hence the reason why we are here. I requested for a proof, so he asked Evelyn to open a portal to get us three here."

"And you agree now?"

"The proof is here. This life is yours to command, Alpha." Warren speaks up, fists clenched by his side.

Ash puts a hand on his shoulder, shaking his head. "Red Healer has been Blue Blood's allies ever since-" He clears his throat and I narrow my eyes at him. "We are allies. We help one another when in need. Even if we have to go to war for them, we will."

"But technically, you are going to the war for me."

I wait for them to back off, for the strong look in their eyes to falter a little, try to note a hint of nervousness in his voice.

"Even more so a reason for us to join then."

But I get nothing. He meant what he said and the two beside him, acknowledge his words through their complete silence and unyielding gaze.

Although, I still couldn't believe their simple reasonings, I couldn't deny the help they offered, no they had offered their lives to me, for whatever I may have done for them in my past life, that is, if I had one.

"I am Zoe-" They had shown, no they had given me more respect than I had earned in this eternity.

But this mysterious heart of mine wanted them to know. I wanted them to know that I was Althea.

For some reason, they felt closer than the Lycans I grew up with, who forever dedicated their lives crushing my self-esteem. But these strangers, these werewolves gave me a warmth, saw me as their own even though I clearly was not.

Most of all, they looked past this face. Not once did they give me that look, the look of dread upon being confronted to this side of me. The cursed eyes of mine, as they called, that they feared, but loathed.

He- no, their eyes invite me home. And as the wind blows past me, whispering the story that got lost in time, a truth it had been carrying along, breathing out for anyone to listen, I smile wide.

"Althea Zoella Castellanos Silvermoon." And the name just slips out of my tongue.

But the shine I see in his eyes makes the stars dim. His smile reaches for his ears.

"Of course, you are."