“How are they doing, by the way? It’s really been a while and I don’t think we saw them much after their stay back then… at least I didn’t, especially because of her circumstances.”

Virgil and his mate were still sitting in the helicopter on their way to their date's venue, talking about the mysterious topic that V intended to ask Helena.

“They’re doing fairly good, actually. Hero wanted to introduce us to them for a while, but things have kept happening, especially at his work, where things get messy easily.”

“I still wish he could have accepted to join the pack… both of them...”

“Don’t worry too much, princess. Things get worse before they get better,” Virgil assured her, and the way he said it gave chills to his wife, who preferred not to go into that part of the conversation for the moment...

“So, after all the background talk, can you finally tell me, my love, what are you going to ask of me? I hope you planned an offering in exchange, because, as things are right now with your story, I’m kind of worried,” she admitted, still on their mindlink.

V chuckled and, letting go of her hand, passed his arm around her shoulders, hugging her tightly and kissing her cheek.

“You can ask whatever you want from me, beautiful, you know that. It doesn’t need to be an exchange for anything… or are you thinking of something in particular?”

“Well, it depends on what you want me to do and how hard it is…”

Helena felt that he was still trying to avoid the topic, especially since she kept trying to bring their conversation back to what it was originally about.

“We… Hero and I… need you to visit Alicia…”

“Huh? That can’t be all, of it. That's too easy…” 

“No, baby, there’s a bit more… We need you to convince her to move, even if temporarily, to the packhouse. We have to make sure that she and the kids are completely safe before we start the plan. It's also for Hero to move more freely about and without worrying about his family.”

“Oh wow… What made you two think that she might do it if I asked her? And what is that PLAN you’re mentioning, anyway?”

“Because that’s your specialty, my love. You’re great at convincing people and that's not just coming from me. H was the one who suggested it since he believes you might be successful where we failed. Now about the plan, I’d rather not talk about it right now, if possible.”

“Okay. I’ll do it,” she said after a bit of a pause. She knew she could trust her mate, and not only that, but her man had a very hard time keeping secrets from her. The Luna knew for sure that, sooner or later - probably even sooner - he would eventually tell her. “But I need to know something. In exchange, if I may...”

“Whatever you want, my love.”

“I need to know if you know anything at all about Eron. How he is, where he's currently or any information about him.”

Her eyes fixed on his face, looking for the smallest sign of his awareness.

“I know that he’s alive,” he said after a small twitch that she knew perfectly well. 

She knew it appeared every time he had to talk about a topic he didn’t like.

His telltale sign…

“Just that?” she asked, looking for the same small twitch. "Nothing else?"

She waited for a second, and… yes... RIGHT THERE!

“Beautiful… I can see, too, that you’re not surprised, so I would like to know what you know. Has my brother called you? Have you two talked?”

“I had a hunch that, if anything happened, you would know. You care that much. Please, tell me how he is… what do you know?” she said, still smiling and avoiding the question.

Her thoughts were slightly different though: I’ll have to add this to the list of topics my twin and I can talk about later when I call him… That Virgil knows, and wants to know how much I know. Until I speak to him, I’ll have to avoid the questions. I’m sorry my love, it’s not a lie, it’s just not my secret to tell.

“He seems to be okay, precious… but there are a few... complications… that we need to handle. In connection with that, it is definitely of utmost importance that we get Alicia to a safe place as soon as we can, and I’m really sorry, wife, but that’s all I can tell.”

“Okay then. I’ll make sure that she moves with us to the packhouse. You can consider it done,” she assured him, yet slightly frowning. 

More concerned than relieved, her mind screamed “trouble,” and she couldn’t help but notice how her man, who always told all the truths of the tale without her needing to dig too much, was now protecting that information carefully and not letting anything out. It's similar to occasions when business got tough, or there were unexpected attacks on the pack and he didn’t want her to worry too much about it…

What are you protecting me from, handsome? she wondered, still intently looking at him.

“Sorry for the interruption, Alpha, Luna, but we’re near our destination, and I’m pretty sure that you’ll want to look down,” Antoine interrupted through his headset’s microphone, stealing the couple’s attention from their intense conversation.

And right on time to remind them that it was their date night, too.

Below them, the Nuernberg Castle was illuminated with hazy blue light, which also spilled over to all of its surroundings. They could easily see a large number of people happily mingling around, enjoying one of the more spectacular festivals of the region. 

“Die Blaue Nacht,” the blue night festival, which is the one event that she had waited to see for so long...

“Oh, my Goddess, V! I can’t believe that you remembered!”

He was right, the smile on her face right then and there was worth the wait and the effort to keep their date details a secret. This included the strong will and self-control that he had to exercise to let go of her soft, tempting body just so they could give way to a very different activity and experience that night. 

Her eyes were glued to the projections on the tall walls that surrounded the castle, the continuously moving lights, and the live music that she started to quietly lip-synch along to. He noticed how, almost immediately, her shoulders relaxed and her mind temporarily left all her worries and pending behind.

His own lips parted to allow a toothy grin, and he hugged her tightly from behind, with the excuse to see with her, from her window. However, his actions were also secretly allowing his connection with her to grow stronger so it allowed him to feel her happiness, which was in fact his as well.

Not long after, their expert pilot landed and they were off to their date, closely followed by Antoine, who took his job very seriously to make sure that the happy couple was safe on land or air.