Talia approved of Gideon's idea. "We can go with the story that Cornelia is your distant cousin, for now. What else?"
"I told Maya that due to an accident Damon has memory issues and that you will explain once you reach there. Out of guests, everyone left except the group from the Red Moon pack."
Mindy sucked in a sharp breath. "Marcy and Nora."
"Nora is in the dungeon and Marcy is in a separate house.", Talia said, and she hoped that was still the case. She turned to Gideon, and asked reluctantly, "What about Damon?"
"Three hours ago, Alpha Damon wanted to know if there were any immediate dangers to the pack and closed himself in the study. Maya assumed he had urgent matters to deal with and that you were resting upstairs. I told her to keep it a secret that you are back…"
Talia's ears were buzzing, and she didn't hear the rest. Damon was already there! She was running out of time.
"Cornelia, can you prepare a spell to take us to the packhouse as soon as the rooms are ready?"
Gideon's eyes lit up. A spell to move them to the packhouse? He really wanted to see that, but he didn't want to upset Mindy. The worst he could do was to make his mate insecure. Gideon pushed his spell-induced excitement down.
"Is there a clearing outside I could use?", Cornelia asked Gideon.
"Behind the house. Use any place that might be suitable.", Gideon responded, slightly disappointed that she won't do it right there for him to watch.
When Cornelia left to find a spot for the spell, Mindy reached over the table to give Talia's hand a squeeze. "Don't worry, Lia. We will help."
"Princess", Gideon called while pushing Mindy to stand up from his lap. "I need to pack materials. I assume we won't be back until the ceremony."
"I will pack a few changes of clothes for both of us.", Mindy said.
With that, Gideon and Mindy left the table and Talia took her phone and looked at it anxiously.
Eventually, she made a call. "Maya… Yes, it's me… I will explain later. Can you ask Zina and Dawn to come over to the room you are preparing for Gideon's cousin? I want to talk to all of you at the same time. I will need your help. If you can tell Caden that Damon has memory issues, that would be great. Try not to provoke Damon until we come up with a plan. The last thing we want is for him to lose patience and use his aura to have his way…"
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In the packhouse…
"Come in!", Damon called when someone knocked on the door of the study.
He lifted his gaze to see his Beta.
"Caden? Why didn't you use the mind-link?"
Caden shrugged. "I was here, so it was not a big deal to stop by."
Maya told him to wait until Talia comes so they find out the details, but Caden was worried when he heard that Damon has memory issues, and he came to investigate.
"I thought you won't come back until later tonight, or maybe in the morning. Actually, I thought you will come up with an excuse to stay longer."
Damon didn't understand Caden's words. Was he on a vacation? He couldn't remember.
Actually, since he came back, Damon was going through documents related to current and previous issues, and he was anxious that he couldn't remember more than half of them. The dates were there, and that was his handwriting, but he couldn't remember it. And based on the workload, it seems that he was absent for two days, no more than three. Why did it feel like it was so much longer?
It was not just the last three days, but for at least a month his memories were choppy, but he couldn't remember any accident or anything out of place. In bits and pieces he remembered, Damon could clearly see Caden, Maya, Maddox, Tony, and many others talking to him like everything was normal, but Damon knew that something was wrong. Really wrong.
There was a sense of loss and emptiness that was not there before, and it made him uneasy.
However, Damon couldn't admit that to his Beta. Not before he figures out what's going on.
"How can I stay away from here when there is so much work?", Damon said while gesturing at scattered papers on his desk.
"Maya and I got it covered. We prepared everything for your absence, and we said that if anything urgent happens, we will let you know, so you could relax."
Damon snorted. "Me? Relax?"
"Damon…", Caden called cautiously. "Why are you back early?"
Damon pushed the keyboard away and some of the documents fell on the floor, but Damon didn't pay attention to them.
"There was something urging me to come home like we have an emergency. What's the status in the packhouse?" He remembered Maddox and Tony. "Are the guests still here?"
"Most of them left. Only the group from the Red Moon pack is here."
Damon blinked and he remembered James with three teens from the Dark Howlers pack, George with Dawn sitting at the same table with Damon during the party, flashes of Nora coming onto him right in this office, and… "Is Marcy here?"
"She is in the side house, isolated, how you instructed."
Damon couldn't believe that he had a huge memory gap regarding Marcy. He remembered his time in the Red Moon pack, and Marcy coming onto him. And the next was her at the Dark Howlers pack, but it was just some random images that didn't make sense. How did she end up here?
And then there was a nonsense memory of Damon holding Marcy's hand and telling her to rest because in three days he will sort out people who tried to poison her and he will announce to the world who will be his Luna. Was he talking about Marcy as his Luna?
Damon clearly remembered Marcy's enamored gaze full of hope directed at him while bile rose in his throat because he lied. Why the hell would he lie like that? Did he lose his memories or his mind?
Damon didn't want to admit this liability to his Beta, so he asked coolly, "What's the situation with her?"
"Marcy is keeping busy with television and books, and she baked a ton of some super-sweet cookies. She will expect you tomorrow to break the news to her."
"The news? What does she hope I will say?"
"You know, that she will be your Luna.", Caden said while eyeing Damon's reaction. "It's all going according to James' plan."
Damon's brows came together. What James' plan? Did James make a plan for Marcy to be Damon's Luna, and Damon went along with it? What the hell was going on?
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