#1 The Rise of the Crescent Moon

August

It had been several days since Josie told me about the Alpha’s legend and we were nowhere closer to contacting a witch or learning more about Alpha Johnathan’s deal.

Each day I was filled with more anger for the former Alpha, not only because of the decisions he made for the pack but for the decisions he made in regards to Josie. He put Josie at risk and he isn’t even around to clean up the mess. I was angry at the pain he was causing my mate, and I couldn’t say anything about it for fear of causing her more pain.

Arlo and I were frustrated. So frustrated we had been out running since 5:00 this morning. 4 hours later and our mate was mindlinking us about our whereabouts.

“Just out for a run, love.”

“Are you okay?” She asked, concerned.

“Of course. Do you need me?”

“No, it’s okay. Take your time”. I could sense her sweet smile and that made my heart swell, automatically relaxing Arlo and I both.

“Love you.”

“Love you back.” Her words echoed in our ears as we slowed our pace through the forest within the pack terrority.

“We don’t deserve her.” Arlo barked at me.

“No kidding.” I huffed back.

We jogged through the forest, dodging trees and rocks as we ran towards nowhere in particular. Eventually, we ended up at the waterfall on the edge of the territory, our favorite spot. Arlo ducked his head and lapped up the fresh spring water at the base of the falls.

“Hello, Alpha.” A woman’s voice sang behind us. Arlo jumped, the hair on his back rising defensively as he turned to face the intruder. She was tall and leggy with long, shiny blonde hair and green cat-like eyes.

“Perhaps you would consider shifting, Alpha so we can have a civilized conversation.” She purred, picking at her long, pointed fingernails. Arlo growled at the woman and I had to agree with his assumption, this woman had my instincts on edge.

“I can always make you.” She threatened. Arlo snarled, showing her his teeth.

“Down doggy,” She leaned forward and smiled,

“Your mate put up enough of a fight for the both of you.” That was it. There was no holding Arlo back from that.

He let out a wicked growl and lunged for the woman, pouncing on her shoulders and pinning her to the ground. Still the woman laughed, or did she cackle?

She snapped her fingers and Arlo let out a howl of pain that was matched by my screams. It felt like I was being ripped out of Arlo and he was being shoved inside my skull. The next thing I knew, I was standing on two legs and Arlo was whimpering inside my head.

“Yummy Alpha.” The woman, who must have been a witch, hummed at my naked apparence. I didn’t even care, I just wanted blood.

“Who are you?” I said between my teeth, my jaw clenched tight.

“Victoria.” She said smugly. The witch who attacked Josie.

“How dare you….” I began, but Victoria interrupted me,

“Now, now, let’s not be hasty. You are, in fact, very exposed.” She smirked, cocking her head to the side. Waving her fingers through the air, I was suddenly clothed.

“Now, we can chat.” She sounded proud of herself.

“Where’s your side kick?” I inquired about the rogue wolf Josie told me about from the bathroom.

“I decided to come unchaperoned this morning.” She shrugged.

“What do you want?” I tried to sound uninterested, but it wasn’t working out.

“I thought we should discuss my deal, leader to leader.”

“And what are you the leader of?” I asked.

“A coven of witches known as BloodMoon,” She grinned at my shocked expression,

“Ah, maybe you know me better as Marlow.” Oh what the hell?

“You’re the witch who murdered half my pack.” I accused her. She nodded, appearing almost giddy,

“That’s me!” I clenched my hands into fists, struggling to keep Arlo under control.

“To be fair, your pack broke our agreement.” She tsked.

“The agreement was to protect your coven and stay out of your way, not to offer themselves up as experiments.” I argued.

“We didn’t ask them to offer themselves up. We were going to bring in wolves from outside packs. All they needed to do was mind their own business and we all could have benefited from my creation.” She snapped, the smile finally vanishing from her sickening face.

“How could anyone possibly benefit from a hybrid?” I flexed my hands, opening and closing my fists.

“They could have offered our territories protection from any outsiders. We would have been untouchable, even by the Elders. We could have made our own rules, our coven and your pack.” She sounded like a crazy person.

“That’s not how it’s supposed to be. There’s an order to things for a reason.” I was growing tired of this conversation.

“Naive, just like your predecessors. Nevermind, that was a different time. Today, I will bring before you a new deal.” Her face returned to the nauseating smile.

“The same deal you gave Alpha Johnathan?” I asked.

“What do you know of that?” She questioned me, twirling her hair in her hand.

“I know you made Alpha Johnathan’s mate a human and then killed them both.” I said plainly.

“So you know basically nothing, how typical.” She rolled her eyes,

“I gave Alpha Johnathan an option, either give up his Alpha bloodline or sacrifice his wife’s wolf. He chose to kill his wife’s wolf.”

“Why did you go after him in the first place?” I prodded.

“I need this pack weakened, I need this Alpha line weakened. I made a mistake a century ago by letting the Crescent Moon pack settle here. You have grown much stronger than I anticipated.” She admitted, being too honest in my opinion.

“Why don’t I believe you?” She smirked,

“Believe what you want. Either way, Alpha Johnathan’s bloodline suffered. By his wife losing her wolf, they produced a human child. This is the long road, but eventually the Alpha bloodline will be so muddied with mortal genes that it will no longer be superior. I’m 300 years old, I can wait.” Victoria shrugged.

“Then why did you come for Josie 12 years ago and kill her parents instead?” I asked, figuring I would get as much information as I could while she felt like sharing.

“Alpha Johnathan was trying to break our deal. The terms were, his wolf child would marry a mortal, ensuring mortal offspring, and both children would stay away from the Alphas. He tried to force his son to reject his human mate for a she-wolf.” Victoria replied.

“But, Jared did marry a human and Alpha Johnathan was trying to keep me away from Josie.” I was admittedly confused.

“That’s where you’re wrong. He wasn’t keeping you from Josie, he was trying to train you so you would be strong enough to defeat me once you did mate with Josie. He was sacrificing Josie to ensure his own Alpha superiority survived.” She genuinely sounded disgusted.

“If he was training me to be strong then how would he be sacrificing Josie?” I said, a little cockiness in my voice.

“Because he knew you would never beat me. He only hoped you would produce an heir before I killed her. He told me so, the night I came for her. He broke the deal, so I came to take Josephine away, to ensure she would never mate with an Alpha. They offered themselves up instead and I couldn’t resist the opportunity to end them, that Alpha Johnathan was insufrible.” Victoria giggled like a schoolgirl and I resisted the urge to vomit.

“Then explain the deal you offered Josie? You told her you wanted our child so you could continue an Alpha bloodline?” I asked.

“That was me simply trying to make the best out of a poor situation. If another Alpha child must be born, then it can at least be used to make my rogues stronger. Admittedly, it was a pipedream of a deal. I have a much better proposal in mind for you.” She sang.

“What are you here to offer me?” I was ready to get to the point.

“Josephine wasn’t a good listener, you’re a good listener.” She said. I growled at her,

“Don’t talk about my mate.” Arlo’s voice came out of my mouth. Victoria held her hands up in mock surrender,

“You can give up your Alpha blood or I can take Josephine and mate her to my son, the Alpha of the Rogues.” Victoria said in a plain voice.

“Why are you so desperate to weaken this pack?”

“That’s not important. Shall I give you a few days to consider?” Victoria replied.

“I don’t need time, I won’t be doing either.” I snarled. She rolled her eyes,

“So the tradition of Alpha stupidity continues.”

“My pack won against your coven before, we can do it again.” I threatened her. She laughed loudly,

“Believe what you want, Alpha. I will come for your mate or your blood, the choice is yours.”

“Go to hell!” I yelled at the witch.

I lost control of Arlo as he finally shook off whatever Victoria did to him earlier. He took over control, the giant wolf ripping out of my body and lunging towards the blonde witch. She vanished with a snap of her finger, her laughter blowing through the wind. Arlo shook his head in confusion as I seethed inside his head.

I’m going to kill her. We both growled at the same time.