Nothing is Normal

Maureen's POV

"Good morning, Your Majesty," Alpha Ron greeted me the next morning, looking visibly more relaxed than he was the previous day.

I had woken up that morning to a message from him demanding to see me personally. I had grudgingly stood up and got myself prepared. We all had gone to bed late that night, but I didn't sleep for a while as I kept twisting and turning, thinking about the events of the day, especially Tate.

I had only slept when Lance noticed I couldn't sleep and pulled me into his arms. His cuddle had never failed in calming me but that was already in the early hours. I had wanted to sleep late into the morning but I had to get up since duty called.

"You demanded an audience with me, Alpha Ron. Our meeting was set for nine o'clock am," I said, frowning, wondering why he would demand a private moment with me.

"I know, Your Majesty, but my Beta and soldier will be there with me. It will be weird of me to demand what I want to demand right now," Alpha Ron said.

"Have your seat," I said, then sat down too. "How may I help you, Alpha Ron?" I asked.

"I would love to spend one more night here, Your Majesty," Alpha Ron said.

"Why? If I may ask," I asked.

"For the first time in a long time, I slept peacefully. I think there is something about this place that somehow made me relax," he answered.

"Alpha Ron, do you have insomnia? Because if you do, I might be able to help," I said pretending not to know what he meant.

"No, it is not a sickness for me. I just have a lot on my mind," he answered avoiding my gaze.

"I understand. The higher the ranking, the heavier the burden of leadership. It is okay for you to stay for as long as you want. The Citadel is for us all," I said smiling reassuringly.

"Thank you for your hospitality, Your Majesty," he said and was about to stand up to leave but I stopped him.

"Who takes care of your pack in your absence?" I asked.

"My Luna and my Gamma are there, and they are capable," Alpha Ron said, but I didn't miss the sadness in his eyes when he mentioned his Luna.

"I see. I hope I will get to meet your Luna one of these days," I said smiling.

"I hope so too, Your Majesty," he said then bowed and left.

I watched him leave as I made a mental note to tell Lucia that she had to make contact with Alpha Ron so that he could have another restful sleep. He was surely a burdened man and emotional burdens are the worse. They follow you everywhere you go.

I could feel someone pressing into my mind a link, so I opened it up. At first, I thought it was Lance. He wasn't by my side when I woke up but Dawn's distinct voice came through.

"I think you need to see this," Dawn said, her voice laden with emotions.

"Is anything the matter? Where are you?" I asked.

"I am in my quarters. There is no problem. You just need to see something. I think it is important. I mind-linked the others already," Dawn said into the link.

"Okay, I am on my way," I said then closed the link.

I was out of my chair in seconds. I walked briskly because I was eager to know what was going on. My intention was to check on Torrent that morning but it seemed my plan wasn't going to work out. My visit with her would have to wait. Grandma Gina and her mum were there and I knew I would be alerted the minute anything went wrong.

I got to Dawn and Asher’s quarters to see that Dominus and Lance were already there. Asher came in as soon as I did. Lance embraced me and kissed me lightly on the head. Like he always did, he slipped a hand into my hair and ran it down till it got to the base of my neck and caressed me lightly. I closed my eyes in appreciation of the wanted touch.

"You called us here. What is it?" Asher said as he gently embraced Dawn.

"I am sure you waited for me right?" Lucia asked as she waddled into the sitting room.

"You called her here?" Dominus asked, moving to his mate's side with lightning speed, making everyone in the room roll their eyes.

"Relax father hen, I will be fine. I am pregnant, not sick," Lucia said, then stepped away from Dominus to sit down on the couch.

"Okay, guys. I think you should all see what I did with Tate's drawing," Dawn said, smiling, then removed cloth from the board that was covered beside the window.

All I could see were colorings of drawings that looked like humans that were not done properly.

"I do not understand this," I said.

"These are not done very well, I know that but you all have to take a closer look at the images to understand," Dawn said.

So we all stepped forward except Lucia who felt too lazy to stand from where she was. I gazed at the arranged painting for two minutes before I understood what I was looking at.

"Is that Alpha Ron?" I asked.

"It sure looks like him," Asher said as he fingered the drawing.

"How did you figure it out?" Lance asked Dawn.

"Two weeks ago, I discovered a pattern in her drawing. She will paint in particular colors for two to three days straight sometimes and then stop and start with another, but one thing is constant in her paintings, she arranges them into rolls," Dawn explained with her eyes round with excitement.

"I do not understand," Asher said shaking his head in confusion.

"I think you should see something," Dawn said, then went towards the room that was Tate's. "Come on, guys," Dawn said when she realized we were not following her.

On getting to the room, I was surprised to see that it was neat and nothing was out of place. I concluded that Dawn had cleaned it up.

"You clean her room every day?" Lucia asked. She had gotten up from the chair eventually out of curiosity.

"No, Tate doesn't litter," Dawn said, then pointed at a corner in the room. "See for yourselves," she said.

There were pieces of paper stacked on each other with different things used in demarcating them. From straws to sticks and leaves.

"Who made that arrangement?" I asked?

"Tate did. I might have helped her with the straws and sticks but she did the arrangement herself," Dawn answered.

"How has this been going on I knew nothing of it. I come into this room every night to kiss her goodnight but I never noticed that. Besides, she shows me her paintings," Asher said with a frown.

"You come in here to kiss her goodnight when she is already asleep, and the light is low; you might not notice. And if you see her paintings individually, it will make no sense. But when you put them together like I have done, they make a lot of sense. I didn't realize that until I walked into Alpha Ron's dream and realized that he looked like Tate's painting this past week," Dawn explained.

"I need an explanation on the drawings," Dominus said pointing in the direction of the sitting room.

"I can try to explain and maybe someone else can also explain as they understand," Dawn said.

"No, I think we should bring in Tate, maybe she can explain the drawing. They look like cartoon actions but without the conversation, I do not understand a thing there," Dominus said.

"No. Seeing us all together this way and asking her questions might intimidate her. We should solve this on our own," I said with finality then turned to go back into the sitting room.

As I stepped in, I stopped and frowned when I saw one of the twins standing in front of the arranged pictures. I quickly stepped out of the way so that everyone could come out and see what I saw.

The twins were identical, but I could somehow tell them apart, which always amazes people around, so I waited for him to turn to me so that I would know who it was.

"Wever, what are you doing here?" I asked when he finally noticed us adults standing there and staring at him.

"I followed your smell here, "Weaver said quietly. That was the way he spoke like a true gentleman. He was the twin that wasn't impulsive at all, a true definition of a peaceful person

"Followed her smell, how?" Lucia asked, coming to stand before Weaver and blocking our view of him, so we had to leave the spot we were so that we could see him.

"Her Majesty has a smell that is peculiar to her. Wagner and I use that to trace her whenever we want to look for her,"; Weaver explained.

"And if you are not looking for her?" Dominus asked.

"We can't smell her then, even if she is upon us," Weaver answered.

"You don't even have a wolf yet,; how do you smell a person? Can anything be just normal around here?" Lucia said as she dramatically sat on the sofa nearest to her.

"Look at me, Wagner," Lance said, then stooped in front of him.

"I am Weaver your Majesty, not Wagner," he said gently.

"Sorry, Weaver what does Her Majesty smell like?" Lance asked.

"Like Cinnamon," Weaver answered.

"You’ve got to be kidding me'," Lance said standing up away from Weaver. That is what my smell was. I have heard that several times from Lance.

"Why were you looking for me Weaver?" I asked trying to downplay what just happened in his presence.

"It dropped in my heart that I might have something to do for you, and when I walked in here, I realized it might be this," Weaver said, pointing at the drawing.

"What is it about the drawing?’' I asked

"It seems you don't understand it. I can explain it to you, Your Majesty." What he said would have made the old version of me stagger but in the past years, I had seen and even faced the weirdest situations I wasn't surprised that Weaver could possibly be gifted too just like Tate.

"Go ahead," I said then walked to a chair and sat down.

"You are joking right?" Asher asked.

"Guys, we have been in this for a while, nothing should surprise you anymore. Let's hear him out," I said and everyone took a seat.

So we all took our seats and waited for Weaver to explain. I guessed nothing in my world would ever be normal again.