Emerald Luna

(A/N so sorry this has taken so long to put up, but I didn’t want to give ya crappy and rushed chapters so I like to take my time, but taking my time led me down the rabbit hole of The Choice and took too long... whoops thanks for being patient with me!)

Esme

It’s been two months since we’ve had Smokey and fall is hitting us. Leaves changing, cooler weather heading our way. We got into a routine with him and it was time for our afternoon walk.

“Ready for your walk, boy!?” I get him all pumped up for it and he gets excited about his leash. I get my jacket on and smile at the excited dog. “Well, glad you’re excited. I’ll be right back.” I tell the excited dog as he waits by the door. I made my way to Alarick’s office just to let him know where I’m going so I don’t worry him. Sure I could’ve just mindlinked him but I like this way better. “Alarick, I’m going to take Smokey for our walk. I’ll be back soon.” I walked up to his desk and kissed him. “Love you!” I smiled at him and went back to the anxious dog. I put on his leash and just went around the forest closest to the pack so I was still within pack borders. Soon I smelled something. It smelled off, but I figured it was just some camper burning some food nearby, and kept going. Then Smokey growled, and that made me worry.

“What is it, boy?” I crouched down to him and hugged him. “I think we should head back home. Let’s go!” I walked faster towards the packhouse when a rogue was in my face. They always smelled of burnt food since they didn’t have a pack.

“Miss me?” He smirks at me, and I try to back up but realize that we’re not alone. I hear little chuckles all around me.

“Wait, a minute… you look familiar.” I try to remember where I recognized this guy before, but then it hit me. He and his cronies are the same guys who attacked my family’s pack a while ago. It feels like a distant memory but really was a month ago.

“There’s the lightbulb.” He grabs me but I dodge him. There’s no way I’m going to get snatched. I’ve been training with dad and Alarick daily since the last attack and since I got my fairy powers. I tried to connect to my fairy powers, but I was punched in the jaw before I could. Ok… they want to play rough then I’ll just use my hands. I could feel the vines and small branches around me move and wrap them up so it’s just five rogues instead of ten. At least that’s manageable.

“Run Smokey! Get help!” He barks back to me and runs off. I take a deep breath and try to calm myself even though I’m anything but calm. I see one trying to charge at me and I knock him down to the ground. “Yeah, stay down for a while.” I hear more running and more are charging at me. I try to pull them off of me but five people on top of you are hard to get off. I try to get my fairy wings to come out but I’m pretty sure they’re stuck. Soon I hear barking and I breathe a sigh of relief.

“Smokey! That’s a good boy. Good job!” I was paying too much attention to the dog when I noticed he didn’t get Alarick… he got Warg… “No… no this can’t be true!”

“Oh but it is… I sent the dog to lure you… and now it’s time for you to come home with me… say nighty night.” He stabs something into my thigh and I scream since it was very painful. I tried to scream for help again, but whatever he stabbed me with overcame me and everything went dark.

Alarick

Esme had just gone for a walk with Smokey and she had done this since we had him. It was their routine before dinner which I didn’t object to. I heard barking and screaming coming from outside and I ran out.

“Esme!” I screamed at her, but she didn’t hear me. There were more people in hiding and while Esme got some tied up in a tree which I’ll interrogate later, some had jumped me to make sure that I didn’t get to her. I see Smokey run off to get help, but it wasn’t the help I expected… he brought who I guess is Warg… finally I get to see the arrogant ass that thinks he can have my mate. I growl so low no one heard me. I felt her pain of getting stabbed in the thigh and she passes out. I tried to squirm out of the guard’s arms, but I was only able to get one arm out. I punched him in the jaw which made him let go. Soon I heard more of my pack coming out to see what was going on. I see Esme’s parents and her mom lets out a scream!

“ESME!” They both scream at the sight of her. She shifts immediately into a dark gray almost black wolf and runs after Warg. I could hear her growling from here. Nobody messes with a momma wolf and her pup. Oleander and I along with my warriors stayed behind to fight off the rest of the rogues who attacked.

“We need to find Esme!” I shout to Oleander. He glares at me like I just said the dumbest thing.

“Of course, we need to find her! I just got her back! I’m not going to lose her again!” He shouts angrily back at me. He sprouts his wings and flies over the forest to try and find her. “Looks like they took her deep into the forest. Is there anything here that could be used as a hideout?” He asks me with sadness and worry in his eyes. Probably the same look I’m looking at him.

“Probably abandoned cabins. Larger ones probably to fit all the rogues that he’s also hiding. Maybe using magic or something to make it bigger.” I’m trying to think as Warg would, but that’s a creepy and slippery slope to go down.

“Who would help him with that??” Oleander asks me in anger.

“Well, obviously rogues who want to use her for her power! Look, he’s been harmless until now. Did I think he’d spy on us using a dog and following her on a walk, no? So clearly he isn’t as peebrained as we thought he was.” I say angrily back. Scaring her with a note is one thing, but this is entirely different from what I know of him, but maybe he’s done it before.

“What do you know about him?” He growls at me.

“He was Esme’s ex before she met me, but she was clearly not interested in him. It didn’t last long, she even had to graduate from college early because he was… stalking her… I should’ve seen this coming! Then he was my beta female’s mate, but she saw through him and rejected him. My beta, Koa, is her second chance. We didn’t have any communication with him since Violet rejected Warg.” I feel so stupid that I didn’t see something like this coming! He had a history of stalking! It would’ve been obvious that he would’ve done something like that again.

“Alright… I can try to communicate with her through her dreams, and you can try the mindlink thing. Grab some warriors that are still fresh and let’s start the search party. I know May is already looking for her so I’ll just follow her trail to see where she went.” I go grab about 25 warriors along with Koa, Violet, Oleander, May, and myself. This will stop and we will put an end to Warg’s sadistic plan.