Their Silver Moon

Nathaniel Black

The fire ignited in the same way in the same way it had that night. The same way the security cameras had captured the flames, licking to life from nowhere, dancing like snakes through the snow, and the wind, oblivious to the laws of nature or gravity.

Jamie’s eyes widened and he looked at me from across the clearing, and he hunched down, ready to shift, ready to protect, ready to fight the fire.

“Calm down,” I ordered, and I stepped out of the clearing, now wandering through the tress back around to my Beta and the rest of the party.

“Get some more patrol guards out here,” I ordered to one of the senior guards who nodded swiftly before shifting into his brown wolf and running down the path – back to the pack house not too far from here.

“What is it?” Jamie said, his eyes following the continuous pattern that laced the clearing, the snow melting from the heat, but none of the trees or wood igniting from its touch. It was controlled, someone was controlling it.

“If I had to guess, I’d say magic.”

“Magic?” Mary said, suddenly realising she’d spoken out of place she lowered her head in submission.

“I had a run in with a witch trying to take my mate away from me,” I answered. “And it looks like they wish to enact revenge,” I said.

Mary’s eyebrows shot up, but she kept her mouth closed this time.

“Come on,” I said to Jamie, and I left the clearing, sauntering back down the path. “I want the patrols tripled, and have someone escorting Alice constantly, I won’t risk anything with her, not after last time.

“Mary, stay here with three more of our party, I want four people constantly monitoring the magic, I want to know the second that something changes, if the wind blows it and it flickers, I want to know. No one, and I repeat, no one, goes in that clearing.”

“Yes Alpha,” she nodded, and she fell out of step, grabbing some of the party and staying behind.

I looked into the forest and froze, a light caught my eye as the clouds pasted over the snow and Jamie almost ran into my back.

“What is that?” I asked.

Everyone’s attention turned to the golden glow that flickered in the trees, dancing around like a reflection, floating on the same breeze that seemed to carry the flames.

“Jamie, find a witch and ask them what that swirl pattern in the clearing means. I’ll catch up with you.”

Jamie nodded and gestured for two of the guards to follow me into the darkness of the woods, before he and the remaining two guards followed him back along the path to the pack house.

Their breathing was heavy as we neared the border, the edge of the pack where the lines of territory blurred and there was nothing there – an invisible line. To some, it was nothing more than air and land. But to others, you can see the wall of white, the shimmer of white light, like a waterfall of liquid glass, an Alpha can see the boundary of his pack and that of others.

“What is that?” I repeated, looking at the golden light that wove into my pack boundary.

“Is it a hole?” one of the guards asked, and he reached out his hand to touch it, his mind captured by the light that flickered so seductively.

“If it was, it would explain them being able to cross over without being found out,” I said, grabbing the guard’s outstretched arm and shaking my head at him. He swallowed nervously and took his hand back, taking a couple of steps backwards

“Who’s them?” the other guard asked, who now seemed to jump at every shadow and movement that happened around us.

“Well rouges, other packs, and I’d bet that bitch Gina made this hole.”

I felt the guards discomfort as I stretched out my own hand and let the warm light engulf my body.

"Beta Jamie!" one of the guards called out, his voice laced with panic, before the world drifted away from me.