Chapter 164: CHAPTER 164

After the battle ended, it was like everyone was in mourning.

Like we'd all accepted that we would be slaves to Zyrell. We even got reports that some more Alphas had sworn their allegiance to her.

Pathetic.

But in between my training and bonding every night with my mates to forget this feeling of hopelessness, I still felt like we were doing something wrong.

"Baby?" Hunter's voice made me look up. "You should eat your food, war is coming. Who knows when next we'll eat real food?"

"Haha, funny. I'm not hungry Hunter, I just feel like we're sitting ducks right now."

"But we're doing everything we can. Once my people get here, we're going to Full Moon to claim your Pack. Then you and Stephan will take a trip around to see if you can convince some other Alphas to join the fight. I feel like they're all waiting for somebody to make the first move and we will."

"You're so optimistic. I love that about you," I sighed, rubbing his arm on the table.

"Well once there's a plan in place, it eliminates all doubt and fear."

"When do you think our people will be here?"

He looks at his watch and then his phone.

"You know it's not easy moving that large amount of people especially in my absence. But they've been on the road for five days now. They should be here in the morning. Once they get here, you and I will head out and they can settle under their new Alpha without having to look at me and disrespect him."

"You have it all planned out."

"That's my job," he winked, "strategist."

Blood Moon arrived at dawn, just as Hunter predicted.

I watched from the Pack house balcony as hundreds of wolves poured into Red Moon territory, cars and trucks loaded with everything they owned. Liam was at the front, coordinating the chaos with a focus that reminded me why Hunter trusted him despite everything.

Stephan was out there as well, greeting them, directing them to the areas we'd cleared out.

He didn't flinch when five thousand wolves flooded his territory. He just absorbed it without drama, helping children and mothers with kindness.

It warmed my heart watching him play with a little boy before sending him off to his mother.

Gosh, look at me having baby fever.

After all of this madness, we'll definitely need to do something about that.

We'd been preparing for Blood Moon’s arrival, some Pack members were actually excited to have THE rogue Pack join us and they helped set up tents.

I begged Stephan not to force everyone to help, I needed the merging to flow naturally.

Maybe in a year or two, there won't be a demarcation between us. We'll all just be Red Moon.

I'd already dressed up for the journey ahead and was standing at the entrance to the Pack house, watching everything unfold.

Hunter found me on the porch.

"Ready?" He asked after kissing my cheek and wrapping his arm around my waist.

"No,” I sighed, a bit overwhelmed.

"Perfect, let's go.”

“Stephan?” I called out loud and he paused, turning around to look at me.

“Sweetheart, you're leaving already?” He asked, walking towards me.

I went to meet him halfway.

“We need to start going now so we can get everything sorted out soon. I don't want to be away from you for too long.”

He kissed me tenderly, and then wrapped me in a tight hug.

“You're both not about to die on me so can we get it moving? You can eat her up when we get back.”

“Shut up,” Stephan grumbled,. squeezing me once more before letting go. “Be safe for me alright?”

“I will,” I said, kissing his cheeks again.

“And you,” he pointed at Hunter, “if anything happens to her, I'll kill you myself.”

“Yes sir,” he grinned and then pulled me away from Stephan, towards the car.

The drive to Full Moon was quiet. Hunter was behind the wheel, one hand on the steering, the other on my thigh. A small team of warriors followed in two cars behind us.

I hadn't told Hunter everything about Full Moon.

He knew the basics, he ran a spy ring afterall. He knew parents were the Alpha pair, that they were murdered and that Micheal Harrison took over.

But I'd never told him about the dreams I used to have as a child, curled up in Marcus's basement, imagining what my life would have been like if my parents had lived.

I would have grown up here. Trained here. Become an Alpha in my own right. Maybe I would have met my mates through an alliance visit like every other Luna in our world.

Or during the Alpha's Convention.

Just something normal. Safe.

I would have been loved from the start instead of from the wreckage that was my life; I still remember Stephan saving my life.

But instead I was driving back to claim my birthright with a war looming ahead of me.

“Dollar for your thoughts?”

“You're right, they're too heavy for a penny,” I replied my concerned mate. “I'm fine. I just want to get this over with.”

He squeezed my thigh and said nothing because there was nothing to say that would make that better.

“We will and it'll be easier than baking pie.”

“Yea right, you've never baked a thing in your life, have you?”

He laughed and kept on driving.

We arrived in the late afternoon.

Full Moon territory was nothing like what my mother described in the bedtime stories she whispered to me before death took everything.

She made me imagine the paradise it was, keeping my real memories of the place alive even as I got older.

But now? It was a ghost of itself.

Alpha Zenith’s Pack was heaven compared to this.

The grand Pack house was worn down, paint peeling, windows cracked. The training grounds were overgrown. Wolves milled around with hollow eyes and thin frames.

Purposeless

My uncle and his family had bled this place dry.

"State your business," a guard at the gate said, his hand on a weapon, his eyes on Hunter with open hostility.

When did they start carrying guns? Was that where Dennis Blackwell got his?

I shook my thoughts free of the questions and summoned courage, facing the guard.

"I am Cassandra Harrison, The lost daughter of the late, true Alpha of the Full Moon Pack. I'm here to reclaim what belongs to me.”