"Baby, we have some leads on where Maia is, I'm sorry-"

"Micheal" Bambi smiled, her eyes soft and filled with warmth he didn't deserve. Not yet. He was leaving her alone again so soon.
He clenched his jaw, softly smoothing down the wild curls on her head.

"Willow is coming by, and I'm stationing several guards outside the house" Micheal leaned down to kiss the top of her head. Bambi leaned into his arms.
"Willow?" She asked curiously.
She was worried about Maia, stressed as to what reason she would have to run away from her guards. She wasn't so careless anymore...

"Payten's mate, the one who I told you was a therapist" Micheal saw a small smile tilt on her lips. He kissed those lips too.

Micheal only reluctantly let go of his mate when Willow and Payten arrived. The couple was arguing... again.
Micheal wondered if the man just found his mate more attractive when she was angry, considering how often he teased her into fury. He'd lose a limb one of these days.

"Shut up! Go to work and leave me the hell alone. I will cut your fu-"

"Willow...Payten" Micheal interrupted them, glancing down at Bambi who looked on curiously. At least she wasn't frightened, he breathed a sigh of relief.
The curly dark haired woman turned to take in Bambi.
Her dark mocha eyes drank in the sight of the petite blonde, her face stern.
Bambi felt conflicted under such a heavy gaze, especially coming from a very pregnant and beautiful woman.
She forced herself not to shy behind her mate, because she needed to be stronger now.

Whatever Willow saw, she seemed pleased, because her face melted into a picture of beauty with her pearly smile.
She was a wild type of beauty, living alone and as a rogue so long. Despite the yellow sundress and knitted cardigan in the winter, she appeared like the sun. She had the aura of strength and freedom.
Bambi understood why Payten always complained about being away from her now...
She was radiant.

"Hello Bambi" before Bambi could react, she was pulled into a gentle hug.
Bambi panicked for a moment, feeling the swollen belly of Willow had her worried about the baby inside.
Willow laughed, smushing her further into the hug.

She even smelled like a summer day, Bambi realized, relaxing.

"H-hello" Bambi greeted back, nervous. Her eyes glanced at a beaming Micheal. She couldn't help the giggle which bubbled up.

"Alright, we'll leave you ladies to it. Payten-" Micheal turned serious again, while Payten groaned.

"I know. Go get back our Luna" though his demeanor was put off, his eyes were steely.

A Luna was a symbol of prosperity and a future for a pack. It was a serious crime to even think of harming one. Bambi felt her own wolf growl in fury, the loyalty ingrained in her soul.
Maia wasn't only her Luna though, she was her best friend.

"Don't worry" Willow whispered, despite the heightened hearing of wolves, "We'll get her back. No one messes with our pack" she winked, calming Bambi.
Bambi nodded in agreement, pride filling her chest.

It was cold. Or she was dying. Maia couldn't be sure, not anymore.
Her wolf felt that only a few days had passed, but not once had anyone come to visit...

Well, almost anyone.

"You're still pretending I'm not here... why?" The little girl sat opposite of where Maia had curled her herself up at. The intelligence and sharp gaze of the child was unnerving, but so was her resemblance to herself when she was young.

"Are you feeling guilty?"
The girl asked innocently, but the underlying meaning to her words was vicious.

"You should. You got yourself here. Now you're just laying and wasting away"
She chastised Maia, and Maia felt her irritation rising with her declining mentality.

"Shut up" she growled, wanting to go back to the chilling silence of before. It was better than this... anger.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Did you want to go back to sucking your thumb and playing with dolls?" The child sneered, glassy eyes devoid of vitality. Maia's wolf was getting weak. Her connection with Lucien was also weakening...

Maia ignored her again.

"Keep acting like you can't hear me. Keep shutting yourself off. It'll only be your fault when your mate kicks the bucket-"

"Shut up! You aren't real!" Maia screamed, her eyes turning black at the mention of her mate. Her body shook with uncontrolled fury, and her wolf began snapping to the surface. The smell of burnt flesh coming from her ankle only registered at the back of her mind.
She wanted to attack this mirage masquerading as her sister. She wanted to tear apart these bars confining her and keeping her here.

"Real enough for you to lose it!" The child yelled back, as if indignant. She looked so much like Mia.. spoke as sarcastic and haughty too.

"Face it! You finally have what you want right? For everyone to go away, leave you alone, so you can wallow in your own self pity-"

"I'm not!" Maia lurched forward, snarling. "I'm not running away!"

"Yes, you are! You're a coward. You couldn't decide that day, that's why mama suffered! You're always running away!" The child screamed back, stepping forward fearlessly just like Mia used to.
"You've lived so long in that head of yours, selfishly feeding off the attention and pandering of everyone else! You've never thought of anyone but yourself!" Maia felt her tears running like lava rivers down her face, dropping onto the cool cement beneath her. Her nails dug into the floor, breaking off and bleeding.

She wanted to tear apart this hallucination. To stop seeing and feeling everything all at once.

She wasn't selfish.. she loved her Noona, loved Bambi, loved Lucien- her mind blanked as a feeling of confusion and anguish washed over her.
When had she ever told them though? Really told them, looked them in the eyes and made them feel how much she cared? When had she shown it either? When Bambi nearly took her life, she was playfully sitting back and watching. When Lucien slowly became obsessed in finding that monster... she still thrived off his attention.

"Oh god" the paranoia set in. She was going to die, maybe bring about the death of her mate, because she was too weak to fight. Always too weak, spineless, cowardly. Even as a child, Mia wanted to fight, put her life on the line for someone other than herself and she did it. When had she ever remembered Mia as a hero?
She mourned for herself. For the pain she felt at the loss, but she never looked at what it did to those around her.
Just wasted away, only cooperating when everything went exactly how she wanted it to.

She didn't think before she acted.

Maia felt it all. Everything.

"See? You finally get it now? So why are you still sobbing on the floor!" The child yelled again at her, but she couldn't find the energy to berate her to stop it. She was right. Mia was right. She was underserving of how much love she was surrounded with.
"Crying won't get you out of here. Crying won't get you home. Crying won't protect anyone! Get up! Stand up! Fight back!" The child crouched before her, looking at her through the bars.

Eyes just like Mia. Just like herself.
"I never left you Maia... you just forced me out. We just became whole again, that's all..." her voice was filled once more with a familiar compassion that Maia had forgotten.
Her eyes widened, taking the scenery in again.

Mia was gone.

Maia bit her tongue, hard enough to draw blood. Her hands clenched tight, she forced herself to her knees. Her body shook, and she finally realized how much everything hurt. Her back, her knees, her body, her soul.
Was this what she was running from? All this pain...

Yet it still didn't compare to the cold. She wasn't cold anymore. She was angry. She was furious.

She was mad.

"Screw it" she could only whisper to herself now, as she looked at the chain around her foot. It was thin, burning through the tendons of her ankle, but still loosely wrapped like telling her this was all it took to keep her locked up.

They thought she was weak. She was.

But she didn't have to stay that way. People missed her, she was sure of it. Her mate was waiting and searching for her. Lucien was all by himself. Hadn't he spent one decade too many alone? He was always patient, even when she felt that wasn't his true emotions, and she pushed him away from seeing her because she feared he'd find the real Maia as ugly and self centered as she truly was...

Yet he still looked at her. Still comforted her and gave her a hand to hold.

When had she done that for him?

Shaking fingers stilled, and her wolf howled with all the power she could. She was a werewolf. Blessed by the Goddess. She couldn't die. She had a pack to protect, the connection of hundreds linked to her very soul which would one day look to her for guidance. The wolves who were contracted to her... and she barely even knew their names.
She needed to get out.

She needed to break this chain.

"....Ahhh!!!" A scream of agony tore from her throat, as Maia gripped the silver melting through her flesh to bones as she pulled. The chain was thin but her strength had dwindled. She didn't train like a proper wolf should. This was her own short coming.

She ignored the blood, blinked away the tears fogging her vision and concentrated.
The chain began to bend, and Maia could only twist and pull as it loosened with the speed of a leaking faucet filling an ocean.

The screams which filled the room fell on deaf ears, and the rate at which her body was deteriorating was faster than the possibility of breaking these chains.

She took her hands away, huffing while her body struggled to heal itself.

"Again" Maia panted, her face dripping with sweat. Her wolf howled, not ready to give up.

"Pacing won't do anything but burn a hole through the wood" Willow sat back on the leather sofa in the living room, relaxed and peaceful as she sipped the tea Bambi had made her a few minutes ago.
Bambi hadn't touched her own.

"Sorry..." Bambi stilled in her path, biting her lip as she wondered what exactly she could be doing right now that would help.

"Come over here, sit with me" Willow motioned for her to sit beside her on the sofa, and while Bambi really just wanted to keep pacing, she listened.
Willow's soft scent calmed her, but she still couldn't stop thinking about Maia and Micheal. Were they alright? Had Alpha Lucien found Maia yet? Would they be alright going into another pack's territory without permission?

"Your body might've stopped pacing, but your mind hasn't" Willow chuckled, setting her tea cup down and giving a raised brow at Bambi who flushed. Willow had a keen sixth sense.
"The Luna is fine, and so is your mate" she chided.

Bambi wanted to believe her... but Maia... her brows furrowed unconsciously.

A warm hand pressed against her head, smoothing out the lines caused from her stress.
"I know us wolves age very well and all, but aren't you a little young to be practicing for your wrinkles?" Willow's eyes filled with a motherly kindness that Bambi hadn't seen in a very long time.
The thought was odd, but she spoke without thinking much. "You'll be an amazing mother..."

Willow paused, retracting her hand with a look of surprise. Before she burst into a hearty laugh that infected even Bambi.
"You think? Payten say's he's scared the baby will inherit my language"

"He's dumb" Bambi nodded solemnly, causing Willow to fall further in her mirth.
"He is, isn't he? Men are troublesome, but it's hard to not love them when they can be so adorable" Willow had the glow of a well loved and cherished mate.
Bambi thought of Micheal, a hot and cold man but never once did he falter in keeping her beside him. They both are imperfect... but the time she spends with him... she'd never give it up.

"You should really have more faith though" Willow commented, her gaze slightly far away.
"I've met all kinds of Luna. Strong and fierce, rebellious and adventurous, sweet and docile, childish and cute... but they all have one thing in common" Her gaze was far off.

Bambi felt herself hanging onto the woman's words.

Willow looked deep into her eyes finally, a smirk playing at her lips.

"They all raise hell when their pack and family is put in danger".