Rescuing His Captive Mate: Saving The Future Luna

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Star

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When I heard Dalton\'s voice I nearly cried.

"Uncle Artem!" He yelled happily. "Aunty Star!"

Dalton had never called me Aunt Star or Aunty Star or anything like that before. However, the children knew that Artem and I were a couple. If they considered Artem an Uncle, then to them that would make me their aunt.

That was something that my heart had not been prepared for. It felt like I was seeing someone so close to me, so precious to me finally coming home after so long.

"Dalton?"

"Hey Buddy."

Artem and I both spoke at nearly the same time. He was so happy to see his little friend awake and looking like there was nothing at all wrong with him. Dalton had been scared when he first woke up but he was all smiles now that he had seen the two of us.

"Uncle Artem, what happened?" He looked confused but he didn\'t lose his smile.

"You were asleep for a while, buddy, but you\'re better now." There were tears in Artem\'s eyes now. "You\'ll be OK and so will everyone else."

At those words Dalton sat up a little on the bed and saw the other boys lying around the room.

"Was I like that too? Was I sleeping like them? That looks scary." Dalton was only six. He wouldn\'t be seven until this winter and to him this must all look like quite the scary ordeal.

"Yes, Dalton, you were. But you\'re awake now and soon they will be as well." I smiled at him to try and calm his nerves. "When you\'re all awake maybe we can take all of you to have ice cream or something else fun like that. How does that sound?"

"Really?!" The excited squeal of delight was like music to my ears.

I thought then that I didn\'t need to rush to have kids with Artem. We already had plenty. This was the life that I wanted for the time being.

"Hi Dalton, my name is Griffin, and I am a doctor just like your friend Doc over there." Uncle Griffin was leaning over the little boy with a smile. "That nice lady there woke you up and she is going to do the same to your friends here. While she does that, why don\'t I get all these things off of you so that you can get up and out of this bed?"

Uncle Griffin was working hard to make Dalton feel safer and to move the focus off of us. I watched as Juniper got up and moved to Cohen\'s bed. He was the next youngest after Dalton since he would be eight next month.

Juniper put her hands on Cohen\'s arms and repeated the same method she had used before. That same golden light appeared and got just as bright as it did the last time. Once it got as bright as possible it faded rather quickly. As soon as Juniper pulled her hands away Cohen woke up.

This time Artem and I were ready to see the miracle of the little boy waking up. As soon as his eyes were opened we welcomed him back.

"Hey there pal." Artem\'s voice was filled with just as much relief as last time. "It\'s good to see you."

"How are you feeling, Cohen?" I asked with a smile to match Artem\'s.

"I\'m OK. What happened?" He looked a little more aware of what happened than Dalton had. "I remember screaming and then it all just stopped. I think it was dark for a long time."

"Yeah, you were asleep for a while, sweety, but you\'re all better now." I took his hand and squeezed it in mine as I answered him. "Doc will take care of you now, he will get all these things unhooked from you."

"O-OK." It was like Cohen had just realized that there were wires and tubes connected to him. He didn\'t look scared really, but he did seem a little uneasy about them.

"I want to keep waking them up with the youngest first. I don\'t know who the youngest actually were but those two looked pretty young." Juniper was looking around the room contemplatively.

"As it turns out, those two were the youngest. We do have seven new boys and they are all close to the same age. They range from eight to ten." Artem explained for Juniper.

"All seven of them?" Juniper\'s eyes popped when she heard those words.

"Yes. Of the original six in here there is Benton that is eight, Leslie that is twelve, Flint who is thirteen, and Julian who is fifteen." I told her about the boys who were here originally. 

"The new additions include Timothy, Gil, and Kevin who are eight, Zack and Marcus who are nine, and Ricky and Will who are ten." Artem explained who the new boys were. They were boys that we didn\'t know as much and who also didn\'t know us.

"When did the new boys get here?" Juniper asked with a knowing look.

"After they were in their comas already. I hadn\'t managed to save them all before all of this happened. I don\'t know if there were others like them or not. I am going to hope that there were none that passed away because of all of this."

"I hope so too." Juniper looked at the remaining eleven boys with pure fear in her eyes. "My worry right now is that these other boys don\'t know you and will need to be taken special care of when they wake up. I don\'t want to frighten them. But I want to wait and wake the teenagers last."

"That is understandable." Artem was nodding. "We will do whatever it is we need to do.

"I know you will.

From there Juniper started to wake the new boys. They were frightened and nervous when they first opened their eyes. They had lived in captivity when they had fallen ill but now they were in a place they didn\'t understand.

The first new boy to wake up was Kevin. He was only eight years old and so tiny. When he opened his eyes he was already shaking with fear. I knew that Juniper could make him feel better and probably already was but I wanted to try to talk to him first.

"Hi there." I smiled softly and knelt next to his bed. "My name is Star, what\'s yours?" I already knew it of course but I knew that it would make him feel even more scared if I started calling him by his name right away.

"K-K-Kevin." He stuttered with his fear and trembling.

"It\'s nice to meet you Kevin." Another smile to show him that I was not going to hurt him. "This is Artem and this is his house. You\'re in the hospital part of it. You were sick for a while but you\'re better now."

"A-am I going to g-g-go back to my family?" That looked like it scared him more than this room of strangers.

"Not if you don\'t want to. I know that they weren\'t very nice to you. You can stay here with us if you\'d like. There are a lot of other little boys your age. See." I pointed at Cohen and Dalton who were laying in their beds while drinking juice.

"Will I b-be locked up again?" He was still scared.

"No, never again, Kevin." That made him smile for the first time since he woke up.

"Really?" I think he was having trouble fully believing those words.

"Yes, really. You will have your own room, plenty of food, and you can go to school here at the house and show us how smart you truly are."

Kevin was calmer after that and so we moved on. It went similarly with the other six new boys. They were nervous but calmed down once they saw that we meant them no harm at all. I was glad to see that they were able to trust us and settle in. They all allowed Doc, Uncle Griffin, or Lana to help them out.

Following the new boys we woke the original four remaining boys in order of age. Benton and Leslie who were not yet teenagers. Right before Juniper went to Flint\'s side she paused. She seemed to remember that as small as the boy looked, he was still a teenager.

"I want to wait to wake these two until the others are out of the room. I don\'t know what will happen when I reconnect them to their wolves."

"We can remove the other children now." Doc informed her. "They have all been cleared of their wires and tubes. They\'re holding juice down and it would be best to have them walk anyway."

"Once they are settled in the library we will move onto the others." Artem made the executive decision after hearing what Doc and Juniper had to say. That also told Doc, Uncle Griffin, and Lana where to go.