by Eva Harper
“Ladies,” Cherry called loudly, letting my arm go. “I know that often we are overlooked in the aspect of war and fighting, but I would like to change that. We know well and good that men and women fight differently, and I think we should use this to our advantage. Protecting our packs does not mean we have to give up our humanity.”
“Luna Cherry makes a wonderful point.” Valentina echoed. “Luna’s are built for healing, but we are also capable of fighting.”
“What do you mean, ‘Lunas were built for healing?’” I murmured softly to Valentina. She looked at me a little shocked.
“Our healing powers,” she dragged out. My blank expression shocked her even more. “Luna Cordelia hasn’t taught you anything, has she? When a wolf becomes a Luna, she is given certain healing abilities. We have all been working on them for years now, you need to start too if you want to be able to help your pack.”
I was astounded and looked around the group wildly, wondering what these women could do. Valentina laughed at my curiosity and rested her hand on my arm.
“We’ll teach you everything, don’t worry.”
Valentina kept good on her promise and roped Dominica and Cherry into my education as well. While the other women were talking about defense strategies and pack safety, the women taught me the basics of our abilities. Cherry fished a small book out of her bag and gave it to me to read. The book was filled with old ink and listed the history of Lunas, the practices of healing, and other anomalies.
Cherry’s mate, Francis, pulled her away to discuss a possible strategy for their pack, leaving the twins and me to mull over Francis’ grandmother’s writing.
Rush and Thatcher found us on the porch for dinner, covered in sweat, and pushing each other over playfully. They had taken off their suits and dress shirts and exchanged them for tee shirts and athletic shorts. I set the book down and smiled as Rush bent down the kiss me, his moist skin brushing against mine; I cringed away.
“What? It’s just a little sweat!” he defended himself.
“A little?” I giggled, wiping my cheek where his skin touched. “You’re dripping.”
He rolled his eyes and pulled me to my feet from the rocking chair. “We’ve been running attack drills for hours now, we found the easiest way to kill a human is to go for either the throat or the stomach, they can’t do much after that point.”
I looked away from him, shrugging my hand out of his. He sighed and wiped his lip.
“Sloane.” He tried to catch my eyes again. “I don’t want to kill anyone, but I will to keep you safe-to keep our pack safe.”
I nodded but kept my eyes low.
“Let’s go in and eat before the night activities.”
“I’ll meet you inside in a moment,” I promised. He hesitated but nodded, squeezed my hand, and left the porch.
I pulled my phone out of my back pocket and dialed Hazel’s number. She picked up on the fourth ring and greeted me cheerfully.
“Hazel? I was hoping we could meet, maybe grab that coffee you mentioned?”
Mirror Image
“Sloane, do you know where my brown shoes are?”
“Check near the door!” I shouted back to Rush. He ran out of the closet and threw a pair of black shoes onto the ground as he went. “Where are you going in such a hurry?”
Rush slid his shoes on, a hand on the wall to steady himself. “Our neighboring Beta is here, he’s here a liaison for his Alpha. They weren’t able to make it to the gathering last week, but they want to be involved.” He ran over to where I was on the bed and grabbed the back of my head, kissed me quickly, and then ran out of the door.
I settled back into the covers, my hands mindlessly knitting something, I think it was supposed to be a scarf, but it turned into a blanket. My mind wandered off to my meeting with Hazel two days previous.
She was a cheerful girl with a dreamy look permanently plastered on her face. She was happy to have someone to get coffee with since her friends hadn’t acquired the taste.
In the middle of a sentence, I decided that wasn’t the right time to tell her what I was. I told her I was nervous about the attacks and the threat of the upcoming war, which wasn’t a lie. Hazel admitted she felt the same way, but that her cousins, uncles, and father had already joined the human army.
“It’s kind of hard to hold an olive branch when your family is taking up arms,” she joked, but her eyes were stronger than her humor; they were dark and bothered.
“I know,” I agreed, smiling half-heartedly. “I just think there needs to be a way to get both sides to talk.”
“Well, I’m sure we can think of something.” She chatted on about her friends and family in town and the places she liked to visit. I listened and paid close attention to the places she said her dad was going a lot. I figured one of the places in town or someone’s house was being used as a meeting place.
“This was really great,” I told her as we exited the small café. “We should do this again soon.”
“Absolutely,” she beamed and then looked around. “My dad can never be on time; I swear I should start telling him to pick me up fifteen minutes before I actually need to be picked up.”
“I can give you a ride home,” I offered. “I don’t mind, really.”
She smiled and nodded, followed me to the truck I borrowed from Kenna, and hopped in the passenger seat. “I live off Middlevale, I know you probably don’t know where that is, but I’ll just tell you where to turn.” She fiddled with the radio and found a station she liked. Hazel told me where to turn and directed me to a two-story, white house. “This is me.”
Hazel thanked me and climbed out of the truck. I put the car in reverse, but my hand froze when her father and two other men came out of the garage. I ducked slightly and untucked my hair from my ear, hoping to cover myself.
Her father squinted his eyes at me, and the two other men turned to scrutinize me as well. I put the car in reverse and pulled out of the driveway quickly, my hands becoming slick with sweat.
Hazel waved to me, and I smiled briefly before driving down the road. I parked the car where Kenna told me to and hurried off inside before Rush finished his Alpha duties.
Our meeting had been two days ago, and I had tried my best to be inconspicuous and relaxed so that Rush wouldn’t suspect anything. He had no idea and was rather clueless about what I had been doing all day.
The scarf in my hand had lengthened and covered the top part of my thighs. I set the needles down and grabbed a hair elastic from my wrist. As I was tying my hair up, the bedroom door burst open, and Rush came in panting, his forehead covered in blood.
“Sloane!” he yelled frantically. I flung myself off the bed and met him in the middle of the room, his right leg limped slightly after him. “Oh, thank god,” he wheezed, pulling me into him. “You’re okay.”
“Of course, I’m okay,” I grabbed at his arms, trying to look him over. “What the hell happened to you? Are you alright?”
Rush settled on the corner of the bed. “Someone knew about our meeting. I was going to the border to escort Beta Quint, and we were attacked by two humans. They were older, maybe in their fifties or sixties, came at us out of nowhere. They had their scents covered, they’re getting smarter, Sloane.”
“Just sit there and let me take care of you,” I ordered, running to the bathroom to get hydrogen peroxide and cotton balls. When I came back, Rush had laid down across the bed, pinching his thumb and forefinger against the bride of his nose. I moved his arm away and began prodding his face with the cotton balls and solution.
“How could we have not known they were there?” he wondered. “They were ten feet away from us the whole time. What if that had been you, or Kenna, or Jahida?”
“We’d be just as likely as you to either die or kill the hunters,” I thought aloud. “Just because we’re girls doesn’t mean we can’t handle ourselves.”
“I know that,” he sighed, brushing his hand against my arm apologetically. “I didn’t
mean it that way. You all are just so precious to us, I don’t know what I would do if something happened to you.”
“Well, you’re precious to us, too,” I scolded. “So, don’t go getting into any more trouble like this, I like you in one piece.” He smiled crookedly but stayed silent as I cleaned and bandaged him. His wounds would be healed by nighttime, but I didn’t want blood dripping on the bedspread.
The moment I set the cotton and bottle down on the bedside table, Rush pulled me down on top of him. I giggled as his hand skimmed down my back to my butt, squeezing it playfully.
“Excuse me, sir,” I teased. “You are an injured man, and you need to rest-doctor’s orders.”
He smiled without teeth, his eyes squinted, and he relaxed back. “Don’t worry, I have to go meet Beckett and my father anyway.”
“Ah, ah, ah,” I tutted, shaking my head. “You’re under strict orders from your physician to lay right there and let me make you feel better.” My fingers looped his belt out of the clasp as I spoke.
He laughed loudly and threw his head back. “Sloane, as much as I love this, and you, I really need to make sure the rest of the pack is secure first.” His hand grabbed the leather piece from my fingers and threaded it back through the opening.
“Fine,” I grumbled, patting his leg. “I guess we will just have to continue this later.”
He leaned over and kissed my lips. “I will take you up on that offer.”
As quickly as Rush came into our room, he was gone again, leaving me with nothing to do but knit and read. I shuffled through my stack of books and found a plain, black, leather-bound journal that had yet to be written in.
I decided to write down my ideas about the war and all the information I had collected so far, from the address to Hazel’s house to the description of every human that had been on our territory. My phone wasn’t as secure as I hoped it would be, and it would only be a matter of time before either Rush or the humans found the information stored on the device.
I tucked the journal back in the pile of books and walked downstairs to find Kenna. As I climbed down the stairs, two younger children passed me, climbing the opposite way. The young girls smiled and blushed as they passed me, their cheeks warming as I smiled back at them.
It finally felt like I could walk around the packhouse with my head held high, no longer weighed down by the disapproval of Cordelia or the death of my sister.
I peeked around one corner and saw Beckett talking to another man. His head lifted, and his eyes fell heavy before he walked away from the man towards me.
“Luna, do you have a minute?” His voice was thick with worry.
“Of course.” I nodded, stepping closer to him.
“Actually, can we speak privately?”
I was hesitant but followed him to his office, nonetheless. Once we were inside, he closed the door softly behind him and motioned for me to sit in one of the office chairs. He said in the chair opposite me and crossed his ankles, and wrung his hands out nervously.
“Luna, I need to apologize to you.” He looked at me honestly.
“Beckett, you’ve already apologized, if that’s all that this is about.” I let the words sink in and leaned forward, ready to stand up.
He shook his head and looked at me more directly. “Please, just hear me out.” I sat back in my seat. “I really didn’t mean to be so rude to you when we first met. I didn’t even realize how terrible I was being until your sister’s funeral when you lashed out.”
“I’m not apologizing for that,” I warned.
“No, I don’t expect you to, you’d have no reason. I just need you to know why I was like that. I’m not usually that outright horrible. I know I’m callous and reserved even, but to talk to you in such a way and to treat you in such a way when you are my Luna was absolutely unacceptable.” He shook his head, and his eyes became glassed over, not with tears, but with a distant emotion. “You remind me of my sister.”
“You have a sister?”
“I did.” He smiled grimly and leaned over his knees, elbows resting on his thighs, head resting on his hands. “A younger sister, she was four years younger than me. She was killed three years ago.”
I didn’t know what to say, I never did when death was involved.
“She was actually killed by a rogue.” He nodded to me once, eyebrows raised. “She was a fast talker, quick-witted; it got her into a lot of trouble. She was always running off, running her mouth. She never meant anything by it, but the spy that crossed our territory didn’t know that. She was so confident, ready to fight her off, so damn confident. The wolf tore Sahara to shreds, and then she walked out of our territory like nothing had happened.”
I remained quiet and listened to him painfully talk about his sister.
“You look like her; the same brown hair, round eyes, loud personality, stubborn, strong.” His lip twitched. “When I first saw you, it was like she was taunting me because I couldn’t save her. Like you were sent here to constantly remind me of that. But you weren’t, and I know that now. And when you lost your sister,” his voice faded out.
“We both lost our sisters,” I filled in, looking around, trying to blink the tears from my eyes.
“It wasn’t fair to either of us,” he growled. “It wasn’t fair to them.”
“I know,” I told him. “That’s why you have to help me stop this war, Beckett. No one else needs to die, no one else needs to lose another daughter or sister, no one needs to lose their life.”
“Luna,” Beckett growled, trying to keep his voice calm. “That’s exactly why this war needs to happen. I won’t lose anyone else; I won’t let anyone else be a victim like our sisters were.”
“If there was a way we could communicate with the human hunters without starting a war,” I said excitedly.
“There isn’t,” he denied firmly. Beckett looked up and pursed his lips.
“The humans are people, too,” I argued. “They have sisters and families.”
“Luna, I say this with respect.” He caught my eyes. “You need to decide whose side you are on, and you need to stick to it because playing this double agent is only going to hurt you. I don’t want anything to happen to you, but if you aren’t loyal to this pack, you need to tell me right now. I will protect you with everything in me, but my loyalty lies with this pack, not with you. I will kill for this pack, I will die for this pack, for Rush, and for you. Will you do the same?”
Rivers of Doubt
When Rush came home, he found me in his office, mulling over a map of our pack grounds. I didn’t look up from the paper as he entered and walked to the back of the chair where I was sitting. His hands rested gently on my shoulders, his thumbs kneading a knot near my neck.
“What are you doing?” he asked softly. I sighed and let one of the ends of the map curl up.
“Just thinking,” I offered.
“About pack grounds?” He chuckled lightly and brushed my hair from my neck. I leaned into his hands and closed my eyes.
“About pack safety.”
His hands slid down my neck, and then he moved in front of me, leaning his backside against the edge of his desk.
“What’s this about?” His face became serious as he crossed his arms over his chest.
“Nothing.” I shook my head, smiling slightly. “I just want to make sure our pack is safe.” Rush pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes. “Okay, I just wanted to see how close our borders were to the human town.”
“Why?”
I sighed. “Because I wanted to make sure if anything happened on our grounds, that the innocent people in the human town would be okay.”
“What is with you and the human thing?” Rush smiled crookedly, amused at my concern.
“I don’t want anyone else to go what I went through,” I told him, filling my voice with sadness. It wasn’t the reason I was looking through the maps, but I knew it would satisfy Rush enough to leave me alone.
His hands fell to the flat surface
of the desk. “Sloane,” he soothed, touching my fingers on the desk.
“I know,” I smiled. “It’s just still fresh. Just let me worry about this, okay? It gives me some peace of mind.”
“Absolutely.” He nodded his head once and then stood up. “I’m going to take a shower.” He walked out of his office and closed the door behind him. I fanned the map out flat against the desk and located a tall, white, house on Middlevale.
I closed my eyes for a moment and pictured Hazel running into her house from my truck, her trusting smile illuminating her brown eyes. Her hand waved to me, and she opened the front door. Her younger cousin’s face skimmed behind her, running after a small, white dog.
Rush’s presence lingered in the room, even after he left, and it created a panic in my chest. What I was doing wasn’t meant to hurt him, but he would see it as betrayal, and I could understand why.
Rush’s head peaked through the door, his hair wet and dripping down his neck. I smiled softly and let the map shrivel up under my hands.
“Do you want to get something to eat? I’m starving?” He bounced up and down on his heels slightly. I nodded and clambered up from the large chair, too large for my body.
“Did you get everything settled with Beckett and the Border Guards?” I glanced up at him sideways.
“Yeah,” he breathed happily, hand skimming my shoulder as he placed his arm around me. “I’ve talked to a few of the other Alpha’s too, they said their borders were also compromised. They've given their guards permission to kill anything and anyone that steps foot near their boundaries.”
The air escaped my chest quickly, and I stepped back from Rush’s hold. He paused and leaned back, looking at me with wide eyes.
“What’s wrong?”
“Rush,” I panted, latching onto his forearm. He placed his warm hand on mine, calming me slightly. “Please, we can’t be those people. The humans don’t even know what boundaries are; these are just woods to them.”
“Yes, woods where my family live,” he stated calmly, too calmly. I let his arm go and turned around, breathing heavily into my hands. “Sloane, tell me what’s wrong.”