Chapter 64: Dark Moon

*****Artemus’s perspective*****

Thanksgiving was fun. Layla kept complaining about the boys. But I think she secretly was crushing on them. At least they weren’t bothering me.

Even though I had not officially met Sabastian, I missed him. He was only here briefly but he had made an impression on me. He was the protector type definitely. He kind of reminded me of my dad. I missed him. I didn’t get a proper goodbye with him. I visit his grave often but it’s not the same. I still miss him.

Our pack was hosting the last mate gala this year. There are three a year. Layla and her friends would be going. I was going to help with decorations, but decided I would just help plan it. Layla would need my help picking a dress.

Layla got lucky this year. The full moon is the morning after she turns eighteen, so she doesn’t have to wait another month to shift. She would have missed this gala if she had to wait. And she is lucky because I was willing to help her pick a dress.

Shania and I were starting to get on each others’ nerves so I moved back into the packhouse. My brother was thrilled to have me back under his roof. I was not so thrilled about it. At least the twins had calmed down some. They were adorable, I will give them that. Moving back in also meant I was expected to help out. It wasn’t something I was looking forward to. Princesses are helped, they don’t help out, unless they work for Disney.

I heard about all the craziness going on with the Dark Moon pack and was hoping that wouldn’t affect the gala any. I’m sure they wouldn’t be getting an invitation to join us. I did know we would have extra security this year. All the guests would be staying at various hotels in Boston. There would be too many to host them here.

*****Layla’s perspective*****

I am finally eighteen. The full moon won’t reach its peak until after nine in the morning tomorrow. I couldn’t wait. I knew it would hurt, everyone says that it does, but I was excited. If I have a successful shift I’ll be going to the gala in a few weeks. I hope it is successful. I have only heard of a handful of wolves who didn’t shift during the first full moon after they turned eighteen. But they usually shifted during the second full moon, except one. She was a half breed, her father was a lycan but her mother was human. That rarely happens. Both my parents were Lycan, so I’m good. This would be Kat, Jane, and Trevor’s third gala, but it would be my first. And I was looking forward to finding my mate.

*****EJ’s perspective*****

Layla shifted yesterday, it was pretty cool. After she shifted, I challenged her to a race. If it wasn’t for my hybrid, I would have won. But he decided he wanted to run and we shifted mid stride. I stumbled and rolled forward before I landed on my back. Layla won. After we had some fun in wolf form, I had to get back to work. With the full moon peaking this morning classes were cancelled.

Over the past week, I learned Alpha John Seki of Dark Moon was not a negotiator. Just like his father before him, he was stubborn. As such his fate would be the same. He ignored the summons he was given by our delegates. He refused to meet the council anywhere and he refused to see me at all. He said I was just a child and no child would tell him what to do. He expected the council to come to him sans (without) myself.

At the council meeting the other day, we discussed possibly going to war with Dark Moon. With their attack on Moonrise earlier this season, I had wanted to do a counter-offensive, but my idea was rejected by the council. But they didn’t reject it entirely at the last meeting. We would discuss it more this Saturday. Female pups were still going missing in that area: Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. I ordered packs from outside the area to send warriors and guardians to those packs affected. I also included a call for guardians in the invitations sent out for the gala. We would need the extra security, just in case. So each pack that was coming needed to bring a sufficient amount of guardians to protect their pack and maybe some warriors as well.

The gala was set for the twenty-second, the Friday before Christmas. I had hoped to have the Dark Moon situation resolved by then. But with Seki being so stubborn, I didn’t know if we could resolve it, especially if we had to go to war.

My grades were slipping and I was missing a lot of school. My mother was not too happy about that, but she understood that I had more important things to worry about than my academics. Layla was getting closer to the boys who joined our pack recently. I was concerned letting them join our pack might come back to bite us, but my father said they checked out. He also said he would have patrol and the guardians continue to keep their eyes open for any signs these boys weren’t what they said they were. I was also worried about what Dark Moon was doing.

At the council meeting, we discussed our next move. Intervention didn’t work. Sending delegates also didn’t work. Rescuing the girls was our priority. We had a strategic planning session. Afterwards, we called up several other packs plus the ones who had already agreed to help to convene in neutral territory for a strategic meeting. They would need to know the plan.

We hosted several war meetings at the conference center downtown. We invited the fae and our witch allies to join us. Once everyone was on the same age, we began preparing for war. Our first priority was to find where the girls were being held. Anyone who got in the way would be considered an enemy combatant and would be killed or arrested if they surrendered. The council would hold trials once the dust settled. While we were preparing to leave, we got word from Moonrise that they were under attack. Dark Moon had attacked them.

We doubled our efforts and headed out immediately. We had a rather large convoy. People would surely think the US military was having drills or something, so we didn’t worry too much about it. We seldom made stops and got there in less than the day it would normally have taken.

Upon arrival, we found bodies everywhere. Dark Moon had left. The guardians and warriors we sent for protection were dead as was half of Moonrise. We found the survivors and offered them aid. After we cleared the area, we headed for Dark Moon.

When we arrived at Dark Moon, they were waiting for us. Chaos broke loose. The Dark Moon territory became a warzone. My parents and I had thought that they had wiped out most of their warriors last year. We were wrong. Dark Moon had more warriors than we knew. We couldn’t see any women or children around. They must be in the underground bunkers. Hopefully all the missing girls were as well. It wasn’t as easy to defeat them as I had thought it would be. I thought we would overpower them. I was wrong. We were almost evenly matched in numbers. However, with all the extra training, we out matched them in skill. I found Alpha John Seki and made him my target. I took out several wolves on my way to him. When I finally caught him, he begged for his life. I laughed.

“Please, I’ll stop, just let me live,” Seki pleaded.

“You should have accepted our invitation. It would have spared your pack and maybe even you. But you refused. You also refused to accept me as your king, calling me a child. Saying you would never take orders from a child. For your crimes, you don’t deserve to live.”

“Please, I’m begging you. Spare me and my pack is yours.” He tried to negotiate.

“I have no use for your dishonorable pack,” and with that I ripped his heart out.

As soon as his body hit the ground in a slump, the rest of his pack stopped fighting. They all bowed to me in submission. I ordered those with me to arrest them. They were to be held in the pack cells until we figured out what to do with them. Then we looked for the bunkers and the missing girls.