My Lycan Mate of Suicide Forest

"He wants to die?" August scoffed. "That's great. Let's go take care of it right now then."

"He has a certain way he wants to do things. Like I said, he is… ancient," Penelope mumbled.

"So he's old. What does that have to do with anything?"

"He is stubborn, he is controlling, he likes doing things his way, and he is patient. And he seems to really enjoy whatever he has going on here with the alyko, which tells me he wants to draw this out with you and see what all you are capable of first."

"I don't like any of that," August shook her head. "I just want to get back to Graeme. I'm not here to play a game with him."

"Well, unfortunately you will have to. Otherwise I don't know what else he will choose to do with you. There were other alternatives to the memory enchantment, believe me. This was the best way. And he can't learn that you're pregnant," Penelope stressed, lowering her voice as she did. "If you pretend to not remember anything for now, you will be treated very well, and maybe he'll make himself more vulnerable to opportunities."

"You expect me to pretend to not know anything?" August exclaimed. "Are you crazy?"

"Look, I know this is difficult. But there is a lot that could go wrong here. It is the best chance we have," Penelope explained. "For your child, you need to try. Otherwise he might choose to take the fetus, he might want to experiment on it or on you as a pregnant fae, he might decide to imprison you here during the duration of the pregnancy… honestly, there are so many horrific possibilities, I don't even want to try to imagine them all. He may claim to want to die, but he still has a lot of curiosity left where the alyko and fae are concerned. If you intrigue him anymore than you already do, he might just decide he wants to stick around rather than die."

August's face paled when Penelope began listing off possibilities concerning her unborn child. She swallowed back the panic that was rising in her throat. Who knew that being pregnant would cause such an increased risk here.

"Okay," she said softly. "Okay, I'll pretend to forget. I'll do it."

"This wasn't my plan to be here," Penelope sighed, finally taking the last of the glass shards out of her knees and dropping them onto the counter, "but I'm glad I am, you know?" She looked up at August then and gave her a soft smile. "I'm glad I can help you."

August nodded slightly, fidgeting with her hands in front of her. This was going to be tricky. She was really hoping it would be pretty straightforward. Get here, kill him, get home.

"Don't worry. We're going to figure this out," Penelope added, seeing how nervous August suddenly became.

"Won't he know? That I'm pregnant?" August asked, her eyes darting towards the door now. "Doesn't he have super vampire senses or something?"

"The great thing about you being a Luna is that your body has all these extra defenses to keep others from picking up on the pregnancy. It's to protect the next heir of any pack. If we're lucky, that will also mean he won't be able to pick up on the heartbeat. I imagine you're too early now anyway for him to hear it, but once you are further along…"

"I'm going to start showing! We need to finish this before then!" August whispered urgently.

"You may take longer to show as well. It's possible," Penelope tried to calm her. "Honestly there has never been an alyko Luna. It's possible that you have all kinds of impressive superpowers to protect yourself while you're pregnant."

"Goddess I hope so," she whispered.

"The only thing that I think we can't expect to fool him with is your blood, so don't let him have it. Ever," Penelope shot her a look.

"Will he be asking for it?" August screwed up her face.

"He tried to take some from me in the lab, but I found a way out of it," she answered, patting her knees.

August rushed to the counter and started gathering the glass pieces to throw in the garbage.

"I can handle that," Penelope told her.

"I want to help," she said. "I didn't meant to do that. It was only a thought, and then… it happened. I'm sorry," she grimaced.

"It may be the talisman. You need to be careful about what you do, but I wouldn't take it off. It will help protect you," Penelope replied.

"How would it have broken the enchantment?" August asked, lifting the medallion in her fingers and staring at it again.

"Well, it amplifies your power. You were already fighting against the memory block. And like I said, it is meant to protect the wearer from alyko enchantments, so it was Magnolia's power in the talisman against mine I suppose," her lips tilted into the beginning of a smile. Magnolia was such a wonderful alyko. She had such beautiful abilities.

"What did you mean when you said that he would see? Does he have a map here?" she asked.

"Oh yes. He sure does," Penelope answered. She had seen it already but only briefly. He ushered her past it as if she would get a clue about where they were or how many alyko he had here. "And that means we are going to have to come up with some kind of story to explain all of this," she added, looking at the broken windows.

August spun Graeme's ring on her finger nervously, trying to think of an excuse for why she would have used her abilities and hurt Penelope.

"I will think of something," Penelope assured her. "You can't remember anything. Just… act confused and afraid about all of this, and I will handle the rest. I'm surprised he isn't here already. He seems to drop out of the sky at the most unexpected moments.. This is the first time I haven't had him breathing down my neck."