Daughter of the Tides, Servants of the Moon Book 2

Alpha Montblanc guided his small band of survivors that included his pregnant mate and the two other pregnant females toward the Moon’s Gate Temple. It was the only place he was certain they would be safe. Betrayed by his own family and the majority of his pack, he was desperate for a sanctuary. Winter had been hard and run late, but they had lost none of their numbers, including the four children.

Oddly, none of the trackers or patrols from his old pack even came close to the place where they had hidden. In fact, it seemed that as soon as the weather became harsh, the patrols had stopped. He made himself stop thinking about how mismanaged the pack was under his sister. He had waited as long as he could to lead his pack on the many nights journey, and he prayed another winter storm or group of hunters didn’t surprise them. A group of twenty-one wolves running across the snow-covered landscape was bound to draw attention, even traveling at night.

Marcus’ greatest worry was that Rairi risked their child by shifting at four months, but she was more determined than he was to get to their pack to the safety of the Moon’s Gate Temple. They were almost to the Canadian border when a very familiar coffee brown wolf emerged from the shadows as his pack was settling in to hide for the day. His grandfather and Beta both took up defensive stands but Marcus rushed forward. He shifted as Essie did.

“Thank the Goddess I found you! There is a bus waiting for you. Come on, we have to go now before the ones tracking you catch up.” She dropped back into her wolf before he could shift to ask anything.

“Follow the Servant,” Marcus shouted through the packlink to the others and they all ran through the barren trees, just showing the first buds of spring.

Essie ran faster, yipping encouragement as the howls of their pursuers were interrupted by the sounds of wolves battling. Alpha Marcus, his granddad, and Beta Tomas turned and waited for all the others to pass. The females and smaller males had surrounded the wolves carrying the four children and were running in a tight group. The three hung back behind the pack to defend it. Three scruffy looking wolves charged at them followed by two more; the reeking pungent odor of smoke and sun-dried meat came with the rogues. Fangs and claws tore at each other in the five on three battle. The two alphas and the beta quickly crippled the attacking enemy. Beta Tomas used his speed to seize the enemy and snap a limb, or to drag them toward the elder Alpha who expertly used his size and strength to flatten the offending wolf and then break its neck. Together they made a formidable pair.

Alpha Marcus fought two at once, regretting his choice to stay in his gray wolf for its running speed, because he didn’t have the time to shift to his beast to fight. The wolves both jumped on him, biting and shaking viciously. Marcus’ wolf jumped and bucked trying to shake them, then he managed to get his teeth into one as the other was thrown off. Flinging the first into the second with enough force that they became a tangled, rolling ball of fur and limbs, he attacked without mercy. His canines tore away one’s throat as his claws gutted the other.

His feet slipped on the warm blood and intestines when he was hit by a third rogue, who clawed long furrows from his shoulder to his hip. Marcus rolled back to his feet snarling in challenge as two more joined it. One snagged his back leg, pulling the hamstring painfully. His wolf yelped. His leg was useless as he tripod-hopped to the side to avoid the one charging him, but then he ended up with his belly flat on the icy ground. Two wolves leaped toward him and he was certain this was the end.

Marcus watched in amazement as a golden beast stepped out of the coming dawn and tore the attacking wolves in half with his teeth and claws. Marcus could see the Moon’s Marks glowing faintly on this wolf in the twilight. He also felt the power of this wolf as he struggled to get back on his feet. The golden warrior wolf stood over him and howled in challenge at the wolves and beasts surrounding them. The hovering beast kicked behind them at an attacking wolf and punched a charging beast at the same time. When the Servant’s foot came down next to Marcus’ shoulder, the warrior’s foot claws were impaling a small, rangy rogue like a bad slipper; its stomp came with the clear sound of crushing ribs as blood sprayed into the frigid air.

As the sun-colored warrior stepped away to engage the two beasts that rushed into the clearing, Marcus mercy-killed the dying rogue before jumping at the last wolf. His larger, wounded wolf struggled against its lithe challenger. It managed to flatten him, tearing at his scruff, then it was seized from behind. Blood sprayed the stained snow before it slammed into a tree with enough force to rain ice and snow on them. Whimpering, Marcus looked around, only he and the warrior Servant remained alive.

The golden warrior howled again and was answered by another deeper tone and Essie’s higher voice. Tomas and his granddad rushed toward Marcus, the Beta shifting to skin.

“Alpha?” Tomas gasped in horror at his blood saturated fur.

‘It isn’t all mine, but I can’t run. Go with the Servant of the Moon. Take care of Rairi and my pup.’

“I’m Nyall, what did he say?” the servant demanded. The beast shifted to his skin faster than Marcus had ever seen anyone shift.

“He says he can’t run,” Tomas answered.

“Then I’ll carry him, we aren’t leaving any behind for the Sunwolves.” Nyall barely got the last word out before his beast stood over Marcus again. It picked Marcus’ large gray wolf up and bolted in the direction the pack had run. Marcus’ granddad and Beta Tomas followed. Soon they were joined by a giant black wolf who was another Servant of the Moon.

There was the honk of a horn and the warrior carried Marcus’ wolf onto the bus and laid him on a blanket, before skin once again replaced fur with remarkable speed.

“Drive, Essie,” Kaiyou ordered.

Marcus felt the vehicle start moving and started to pass out as Rairi’s scent surrounded him and her touch sent tingles through his flesh that made some of his pain retreat. “Hang on, Marcus. I need you to shift back so I can help you.”

Marcus half-snarled, half-screamed in pain as his skin replaced his wolf. His last awareness was of his mate sobbing her love for him, and the warrior who saved him blurting out his mate’s name in a shocked and angry tone, “Nathrairi? What are ye doing with them? How are ye pregnant?”

“Not now, Comhnyall.” She snapped at him as she pressed towels over Marcus’ wounds. “I need to put stitches in these so they will heal.”

Kaiyou handed her a suture kit. “Will this work, Luna Nathrairi?”

“Thank you, Servant.” She nodded and worked quickly to tend her mate’s wounds as Nyall just stared at her. The memories of her attempting to seduce him then frame him for her beating and rape came back. All because her mate Cullen wanted Moire for himself.

“Hello, Comhnyall.” Another familiar voice and scent interrupted his thoughts.

“Sionn?” He turned and hugged the older sister of his late best friend from childhood. Sionn had only survived because she had found her mate and moved to his pack. Cameron had died in his arms the night the New Wemyss fell, betrayed by their father and eldest brother.

A growl made her giggle as she pulled away. She looked so different from the timid, abused wolf who had left their pack when Nyall was just fourteen. “Yes, it’s me. Comhnyall, this is mo ceile, Beta Tomas Arturan. Thomas, this is Comhnyall MacGeallimir, Master-at-arms of New Wemyss. He and I grew up together. I am glad ye survived the attack. Rairi said Ainsley escaped too.”

Nyall looked at her oddly as he shook Tomas’s hand, “Who’s Rairi?”

Sionn gave him a patient smile. “Nathrairi changed her name when we moved to White Mountain pack. Luna Merida told her to make a new life for herself, so she did. She fell in love with Alpha Marcus and he, with her. After the Moon’s wolf rescued us all, the Moon told Marcus that he and Rairi would be blessed and were mates now. She is a wonderful Luna.”

Nyall blinked as he digested the information. Moire’s nemesis was a Luna and pregnant while Moire had died as a packless rogue with his pup still inside her. He realized he had been silent too long and reached out to clasp Tomas’ hand again. “Congratulations on being mated to Sionn, and on your coming pup. She is a sweet wolf. Excuse me, Sionn, I need to talk to Essie.”

He moved toward the front, pausing only long enough to pull on sweatpants and a tee-shirt. Many of the wolves had dressed similarly, and were seated in the reclining chairs, some were already sleeping.

“I did not know you could drive one of these things,” Nyall said quietly.

“I got my class B C.D.L. when I got my motorcycle license.” She glanced at him then frowned, “What’s wrong?”

“Can you let me off? I’ll go as my wolf to the Gate… I… I need to run.” He practically begged.

“No,” she responded firmly.

“Please, Essie. I can’t stay in the same place with…”

“Look, Nyall, I don’t know what your issue is, but you need to get over it. We are to take these wolves to a secret location. The route we were going to take is blown so we are going to go south of it before turning north. We’ll be back on paw in a day or two. Your wolf can wait.” She scowled at him for a moment. “Get some sleep. When we get there, you are going to be spending the next year training them and everyone else Del sends your way.”

“Why?”

“Because, Nyall, you’re going to need an army and if Marcus’ pack is any indication, it is going to be a lot smaller than Del and Grandpapa hoped.” Essie signaled a turn onto a busy interstate highway. The traffic was lighter than normal as expected for a Sunday morning.

“How much smaller?” He asked with a dead weight in the pit of his stomach.

In a low voice, Essie revealed, “Marcus came to Del for a vision last winter a few weeks before you and she went through the Tides. She told him his pack would be divided. He told me a third of his pack still believed and would choose the Moon. There are only twenty wolves with him, out of over one-hundred fifty. Do the math? If Marcus’s pack is an indication of the true believers, then we are facing one to seven odds, but if they fight like those losers tonight and we fight the way you and Kaiyou are teaching everyone, then we still have a chance.”

“Essie, I can’t be king…” he started, but she interrupted in a harsh, hushed tone, “Then don’t be king! But be the Master-at-arms you were born and raised to be. Be your father’s son, Nyall. Goddess dammit, we need you. Stop being selfish.” For a moment, she sounded just like her sister and Nyall retreated.

He sat down in an empty row of seats and stared out the window. His adrenaline from the battle was long gone and he felt so weary. He ached for Moire and seeing Nathrairi reminded him of the night she had run away to the jetty. He remembered how he found her and begged her forgiveness for letting Nathrairi touch him and what it felt like to kiss her back. Suddenly, he felt ashamed of all the females he had shared a bed with since Heather.

Closing his eyes, Essie’s words were like the lash of a silver whip on his soul, Be your father’s son.

His father had been faithful to his mother for over a decade after her death, despite the Moon herself sending him second-chance mates with potential. Guilt gnawed on Nyall as he realized he had not stayed faithful to Moire for a third of that time. A tear leaked out and he couldn’t bring himself to wipe it away. He willed himself to sleep, using one of Kaiyou’s meditation techniques. He didn’t want to think or feel or remember, but while rest came to his body, his mind tortured his soul.