by Bianca Griso
When we think things will get back to normal, things get crazy again. The Alphas left morning and afternoon yesterday to go back home. They are having mating ceremonies for their pack members. Anna and Ethan want it here, but they will be back in a month for it. Peter took over setting everything up for it; it’s going to be a three-day event. The first day is for average pack members who found their mates at the party; the second day is for Alpha Ethan and Anna. The third day is for Esme, and I’s mating ceremony. Then I will make the official announcement that we are at war.
I ask one of my omegas to get Cassius for me, and I mind link Tyler. Tyler hasn’t been updated about everything, so he’s getting one when I call the other Alphas. I’m not sure this call will end well before dialing their numbers, my phone rings. “Hello,” I said, answering the phone.
“Alpha Mason, it’s Crimson; they took her, they took my mate Emily,” Alpha Crimson informs me. I can tell the moment he speaks, he’s enraged, probably trying not to break something.
“Crimson, listen to me. I am going to send in my best men to find her; they are going to find her. I promise go out for a run and take a step back,” I advise him. I hear him trying to catch his breath from being so angry.
“Okay, Mason, I’ll call you back later,” Crimson said and then just hung up. I immediately mind link Aaron and Kyle back to my office. A few minutes pass, and a knock on the door. “Come in,” I tell them.
“What happened, Alpha?” Aaron asked.
“Change of plans, you leave today, they took Alpha Crimson’s mate Emily. Find her and find them. Get answers, and kill them all. Get the situation under control; before Crimson gets there, follow the scent of death. Bring a handful of muscle with you,” I order. They both nod in response. “You leave in three hours, find the best team you can get in that time. I’m sure you guys will have your work cut out for you today.”
Once they leave, I mind link Peter to grab Cassius for me, and I start to call the alphas. I also mind link Tyler to join the call. I dial Alpha Jack first, and that’s when Tyler and Cassius get here. “Alpha Mason, what’s going on?” Alpha Jack asked.
“I’m sorry to bother you, Jack, but it’s important; I’m dialing Alpha Ethan at the moment. I have Tyler and a man named Cassius; he will explain what’s doing this. I also have some bad news for you,” I explain a little.
“Alpha Mason, we just got home; what happened?” Alpha Ethan asked. I tell them the special guest that’s with us, and then I told them what happened to Alpha Crimson’s mate Emily. Cassius also explains what happened in the Great War, which was a world war but with supernaturals. He also told them about the hunters. They haven’t said much after that as it’s a lot to take in.
“Does Crimson know about the hunters?” Alpha Jack asked.
“No, he called me about his mate before I could call and tell you guys. He’s enraged; I couldn’t lay this on him right now. He has his mate to worry about. I’ll tell him when he at least calms down,” I reply.
“Good call,” Alpha Jack agrees that I made the right call. Crimson is an ally, but he’s also a wildcard, especially when he’s this angry.
“He’s going to want to kill all humans, including ones that aren’t hunters who have no idea that we exist, even more so that they are involved with the exiled vampires who just took his mate,” Ethan comments.
“Our extinction is coming, and this is the call that does it. It’s what our Goddess warned us of, and tried to prevent this,” Alpha Jack states. Worry is in his tone of voice; we know our enemy. I can see why Esme got those nightmares because of our morals.
“The reason why our alliance didn’t work the first time, your father, I’m assuming, wanted to kill them all, but we didn’t, and now history is repeating itself. Our finale war, the battle of survival,” I tell them.
“I don’t want to kill the humans, but if it is coming down to it, I pick survival,” Ethan said. I didn’t think we would have to go against our morals and kill off the humans. If we don’t all agree on this, it will cause a civil war within our packs. None of us will survive if we have a civil war during this one we are about to go in.
“We aren’t killing innocent humans; that’s not why the Goddess made us this way,” Alpha Jack states. We aren’t killers, we aren’t monsters, but we have to go into war with the hunters. They came after us. Now we go after them.
“The hunters aren’t innocent; they started this and now are going to finish it. My pack isn’t going to kill all humans either,” I said, laying it out there. So they know where I stand, and I’m willing to kill the enemy, but not innocent humans.
“I’m happy we agreed on this, but what about Crimson,” Alpha Jack comments. Crimson is a hard man to predict when it comes to war. It can make an alliance difficult. I hope we can sway him to stay in agreeing with us.
Chapter Sixteen
Esme
Today was crazy; everything we learned was a lot. We got Cassandra back, and she has a mate. He’s also a vampire, who is the Prince of Darkness. His clan rejected Cassandra and Cassius being together. They also won’t help in the war. Which we figured because it didn’t work out the last time. We almost killed everyone because the human race was almost gone too. We all took a big hit back then; we wanted to prevent all of that. Things changed a lot though, we might have to against our morals and may even fight each other. Right now, it feels like the end of us; things may have taken a dark turn to get this win.
Mason told me to take my friends out for a walk to get out of the house. So I figured to show them where the mating ceremonies are going to be, the Alpha’s Garden. It’s late, so we are going there tomorrow. Even with everything that has happened thus far, I don’t feel completely hopeless.
The night goes by fast, and the morning is here. I figured after breakfast we can go out to the Alpha’s Garden. I get dressed and headed downstairs.
“Hey Cassandra, how are you doing?” I greet her. She smiles and hugs me. I missed her so much; she hasn’t said anything about Marisa or anything about what has happened.
“I’m holding up. It’s weird not seeing her; I miss her Esme,” Cassandra said with a few tears coming down. I pull her back into a hug.
She pulled away and asked, “Was she in any pain?” Chelsea, I guess, didn’t tell Cassandra how it happened. So I tell her everything she deserves to know.
“She gave us letters, and she wanted us to tell you that she loves and misses you,” I admit to her. Cassandra pulls me for another hug. I hear Chelsea comes in and mouths, “what happened?”
I mouth back, “Marisa.” Everyone in our group knows Cassandra is the bubbles in the group. We love and support her, but she does cry a lot.
After Cassandra settles down, we head outside to the garden. The girls are in awe when they see the garden. We walk on the pathway that goes through the garden. Different kinds of flowers are everywhere. We walk over to the swing, and I tell them about the night of the party. “So, did you end up sleeping with your mates yet?” Cassandra asks.
“No, I haven’t. We want to wait for the mating ceremonies,” Chelsea replies. I look over at Cassandra with that being a weird question to ask; she seems somewhat disappointed that Chelsea didn’t have sex with Tyler.
“I had sex with Cassius; he even marked me so I wouldn’t go into heat,” Cassandra admitted. Something I didn’t expect, but at least that’s regular news. Cassandra moves her hair off of her neck, and there’s the mark. Cassandra doesn’t look happy at all by this reveal but looks like she’s going to cry. “We had to run away from the clan because of his father. We didn’t have anywhere else to go; we came here for help because we think I might be pregnant,” Cassandra said, dropping big news.
Chelsea takes a seat on the swing, and I sit on a stump. “Well, the first thing is to find out that your pregnant, so I’ll send out an omega to go to the store,” I assure her.
Cassandra paces back and forth in my room as Chelsea, and I sit on my bed and wait. Cassandra
keeps checking the test to see if the results are there. Cassandra walks back over there and checks. By her reaction, looking at the test, I’m assuming she’s pregnant.
Chelsea walks over and looks and confirms my thoughts. What do we do? Cassandra is pregnant with a baby hybrid. “Does the clan know?” I ask Cassandra.
“They know we are mates, about the pregnancy, no, but I’m sure they will be putting everything together and figure it out. A friend of Cassius’s helped us leave on short notice when he saw my mark,” Cassandra answered. So now I see why Cassius was saying that they wouldn’t help. Because they just started one with the vampires. From what he told us, this is what they fear the most. With us being all about the pack, they knew we would protect them, and we are. The question is, at what cost. This is going to be a war of survival with no mercy.
Mason needs to know because if it’s only a matter of time for Cassius’s father to figure that she’s pregnant and she went back home. I’m sure they will be here soon looking for his son and to kill Cassandra. We can prepare for their arrival if he knows about this now.
Cassandra left to tell Cassius the official news, as I am going to let Mason know what just happened. I knock on his office door, and he tells me to come in. He looks stressed, and I can imagine. Crimson is down his neck as to why we haven’t found Luna Emily. Aaron and Kyle found their base, but everything was gone and empty. No one was there. I believe Crimson also knows about the vampires and is all caught up, minus today’s news.
Before Mason can get up and hug me, I unload everything that I know. Normally we wouldn’t be so stressed out about someone having a baby with their mate, but none of this is normal. We may or may not have to up against vampires anytime soon. “Cassandra is pregnant with Cassius’s baby, and you think it’s going to be a hybrid. The vampires isn’t happy with them together and fled to come here,” Mason says as he pieces everything together.
“Regardless of what the baby is going to be, the vampires don’t want mixing of our DNA, and they know that they are mates and possibly would try and find them,” I remind him.
“Great, another thing to worry about, well I’m gonna have to warn the other packs if they just go up to different packs not sure which one it is, they should know they should be expecting vampires at their doorstep,” Mason said, not being very happy. A lot of info is being dropped on us lately, and it’s taking a toll on Mason. He was telling me to get out of the house; I think next time he should come too.
Now I understand why I had gotten those visions, not because I’m an albino werewolf, because I am Luna of Pack Rivers, and I’m the hope that’s going to help rebuild the packs.
Chapter Seventeen
Mason
The past couple of days have been stressful, very filled with disturbing information. The end is settling in, as I’m trying to gather and understand everything. We are at war with human hunters, might go into a civil war, and another war is to fight against the vampires. I know why the vision showed Esme the extinction. I wish I can tell Esme that it won’t happen because it’s looking like it might just come true. I think the Moon Goddess was trying to tempt to prevent all life extinction. She loves all, even the ones who don’t believe in her.
Outside of the war stress, Alpha Crimson has been down my neck about finding Emily. I mean, I understand, but I do have many other things I’m trying to deal with. I have a vampire in my house because the Moon Goddess thought it would be funny to pair him up with my mate’s best friend. Cassandra has been miserable during her pregnancy; the nurses and doctors in the medical wing have been watching her closely. As this is the first hybrid pregnancy, everyone is trying to learn everything they can about this unborn baby. Even Elder William has been taking notes on what’s different from an normal pregnancy and one with two different species.
It’s been a few weeks since we found out about Cassandra being pregnant, and as of now, vampires haven’t shown up yet, which is good because we aren’t ready for that yet. Everyone is sure that the vampires will come here to kill Cassandra and bring home Cassius. Cassius is the only choice for the throne, according to his father. Cassius is the oldest child of the king’s offspring. Also, apparently, Cassius has always been at his father’s side, helping with his throne duties. That is until recently when he found his mate.
The vampires have their own way of finding out who their mates are and on how to find them. Cassius explained to us that they talk to a seer, and they are creepy physics. One day the seer warned Cassius of Cassandra being taken and what she is. Cassius doesn’t seem to care that she’s a werewolf; he just wants his mate like us. Apparently, being lonely for all eternity is a big fear for vampires. So mates are very important to them also. They don’t have Gods or Goddesses. They pray to and thank for their mates. They find it weird in believing in a Goddess and living our lives on she would approve. Which we really don’t, and the only thing she really wants from us is to embrace the wolf that’s a part of us.
So with all of this stress, I have been a little on edge lately. Esme has been there for me the past couple of weeks. She’s even helping Peter with the blood oaths we have to do, and I think that’s tomorrow. The mating ceremonies are in two weeks; that’s when I’m going to announce war and explain everything to my members of the pack. Peter, I believe, scheduled it all ready for the day after of my ceremony.
Today I’m going to check up on a guest downstairs. I haven’t been able to see how the rogue has been doing. Everything has been crazy, although I have been going to the basement the past couple of weeks. Esme has been taking note of it. I’m surprised she hasn’t talked to me about it yet. I haven’t exactly been keeping it a secret nor telling her what I am doing down there.
I finish getting dressed and head downstairs; Esme is in the medical wing with Cassandra. Cassandra has been moving along with her pregnancy rather quickly.
I get the guards to move my prisoner in an integration room for my visit. The cameras are off in there. “Alpha Mason, what are these sudden visits about?” My prisoner asked. I sit down in front of him.
“Well, when you first came here, you said you had information. I want to know anything you know about the exiled vampires,” I explain to him. He has been here for a few months now; any kind of fat he had before is gone. Any type of color he had to his skin is gone. His hair is all dirty and messy. As a rogue, he stunk before, but now being in a cell is making it almost unbearable.
“That’s a new one to me, I’m afraid, didn’t even know they were real,” my prisoner said as he shrugged. I stood up and slammed his head on the metal desk. His hands and feet are shackled to the desk.
“The truth, and I’ll give you a nice meal, now talk,” I tell him. He sighs and nods his head in agreement.
“I personally never saw them, but my mate has met them. We were a part of a pack, and I’m not sure what happened. I left on a trip to get supplies, and when I came back, everyone was gone without a trace—no blood, no struggle, no scent at all. I didn’t feel any pain, so I knew my mate was alive. She still is, but she’s in pain and sick. She came back to me one day, she said some vampire freed her. They raped her, and she came back pregnant; now I’m here. That’s all I know,” he explained.
“Where is she? We can help her; my mate’s friend is pregnant by a vampire; her mate is one,” I explain to him.
“She’s by Alpha Crimson’s territory. We have been jumping from place another, not sure where to go,” My prisoner replies.
“I’ll send some of my best people to find her and to bring her here. My medical team will take care of her from there,” I tell him.
“And what of me, Alpha Mason?” He asked boldly.
“Undecided, thank you for this information, I’m having food sent to you, and then you will be sent back to your cell in the meantime,” I answer honestly. After my intense conversation with my guest, I mind link Aaron and Kyle to my office for a rescue mission.
“Alpha Mason, what’s going on?” Aaron aske
d as I walk into my office. I take my seat behind my desk.
“I had gotten information on someone’s mate; they are pregnant with a vampire and need medical attention. Go bring some nurses with you and some muscle. She’s by Alpha Crimson’s territory, find her and bring her here safely. Your team leaves tomorrow morning; you may be dismissed if you don’t have any questions,” I said, giving them another mission.
After I give them a new mission, I start my daily paperwork and prepare for tomorrow, which makes nightfall come quickly.
The following day we get ready for the blood oath ceremony for some newcomers. Esme, Chelsea, Peter, Selene, and a few others will do the blood oath. They will be able to mind link with me and other pack members who also did the blood oath.
Everyone gathers in the Alpha’s Garden and takes a seat. Wolf News is here to do a live broadcast to show all pack members. I stand up in front, and the new members who will be living in the Pack House are sitting up front. I look over at Peter, and he seems pretty nervous, and I understand. He will have to let go of his old title and his old pack, which isn’t an easy thing to do.
“Hello everyone, thank you for coming here today. The past few months, we had gotten new members of the pack, and today they do to the blood oath. Your Luna Esme and a few of her friends are also going to do the blood oath. Selene, you’re first,” I announce.
