— Mishka —

I don’t know what a spirit wolf is, but it seemed to unnerve some of the Brotherhood.

Since the incident this morning, the whole spirit wolf thing has spilled all over Blakemore. Some were curious, others worried, some excited. But ultimately, no one knew shit about them to really be able to give a proper opinion.

The Brotherhood’s behaviours had caused a far bigger scene though. Attacking a pack member then insulting the Luna at the heart of a pack. That’s some serious fuckup that is just not done.

I decided to ask to be assigned to the interrogation team mostly out of morbid curiosity. I got really surprised though when the Alpha came in. I wasn’t sure it would be important enough for him to get personally involved, but when I realized he brought in his mate. I got more than a little confused.

I know Alik knows stuff about her, but he didn’t tell me shit. No matter how much I pestered him.

On the upside, now I might be able to get some first-hand encounter, so I guess I won’t stalk him out too much to get him to spill the bean. Just a little bit of healthy stalking, nothing unreasonable. For me, that is.

No one seemed to know what to do with future Luna there, but she walked to the cells without a guide, went straight for the one the Alpha singled out and started the conversation in the oddest way.

“Could you look at me please?” she asked him.

“Why?” he asked, but he looked at her all the same. It’s actually a bit hard not to stare at her. I don’t know if it’s a spirit wolf thing, but she’s damn pleasant on the eyes.

“Could you listen to me please?” she asked him.

It was kind of odd to ask, as no one was talking to begin with, and she already had the man’s attention.

Then, she just stared at him for nearly a full minute, and the guy just stared back, his face getting more and more slack. Which is when I realized something was not normal. His eyes were a bit glassy, and he wasn’t moving other than a few rare blinks.

“What were you doing last night?” she asked finally, her voice calm and even.

“Looking for signs of fortified section of the packhouse.” He said, his voice bland.

Was he hypnotized?

“Did you find any?” she asked.

“No,” he said.

“Why were you looking for this?”

“Brother Bianchi asked me to.”

“Who is Brother Bianchi?”

“One of the senior Brothers at the capital.”

“Was he here?”

“No.”

Do you know why Brother Bianchi wanted you to find this?”

“He never said.”

“Do you suspect something yourself?”

“I think he wanted the artifacts.”

She blinked rapidly a few times, which is how I realized her eyes had changed colour to something paler and reflective, but they were now returning to their original colour.

They both left not long after and we were instructed to see if we could find anything more that could be interesting for the next twenty-four hours, then send them back to the capital.

— Eveline —

I couldn’t believe everything we’d missed in so little time gone.

We rushed everything to be back in time for the Luna Ceremony. I just couldn’t wait.

As next weekend was my brother’s wedding, Michael told us he would have liked to pay his respect and when this reached my mother’s ears, she made sure to get invitations to all of Darren’s family.

His father was not coming. Of all the time I’d spent there, I barely saw him at all. He mostly stayed in a room, alone and refused to see anyone but his wife. She decided to stay with him too.

I was getting worried about the man, and I was not the only one. I think Darren kind of hopped to be able to set things right with him once and for all, but it just didn’t work out this way.

In the end, Michael, Kevin, Kate, Fred and Ana were coming with us for the week.

Ana, as been an absolute mess. She had always been a mass of bubbling energy, but when I came, she hadn’t been able to leave her bed. I know that losing a mate is one of the hardest things—and I don’t know if I’d ever be able to cope with something like this, but it was so far out of character for her, that it scared everyone even more.

Actually, Michael had asked Darren and I if we could take her with us for a while, so that she wouldn’t be reminded of Timothy so much everywhere she laid eyes on. She had been mostly unresponsive to this offer, but we hoped being in Blakemore would help her a bit, and maybe she’d choose to stay for a while longer, get a change of scenery, some fresh air.

The thought alone of what she was going through has had Darren and I closer than ever. It’s things like these that makes you realize all that you have and all that you could lose.

At least we were going home, where we were safe, and we would celebrate good things, beautiful things, life, joy, love, all that really matters.

— Elaeya —

I was a nervous wreck.

I was so terrified of messing up and doing the wrong thing. There wasn’t that much wrong I could do, but the possibility still haunted me.

It wasn’t complicated, I did not have much to do other than being present, but nearly the entirety of Blakemore would be there. Actually, it had been a struggle to find a place big enough for this. My and Kaden’s mother went around the land looking for some place outdoor that could accommodate so many.

They settled for one of the oldest parts of Blakewoods. There was a large dolmen and a few megaliths that probably dated to the neolithic era and the land surrounding it contained traces of bronze age settlements. The forest had claimed back of lots of these early signs of civilisation, but it triggered my mother’s instincts on so many levels.

The energy of such spaces is different than the rest, and she could perceive this much better than any of them could.

I did not have the time to go and see it before the ceremony, but it lit a fire in my mother’s eyes, that I don’t remember ever seeing. She asked permission to make a call for ancestors and wear traditional grabs. Everything she asked, either Shae or Kaden authorise. I suspect she never expected to be able to indulge so much, and reconnecting with her roots. It gave a life to her aura that I was grateful for. I did thank Kaden and his mother for this. Shae’s response was that she found it absolutely fascinating, and Kaden’s was that he never asked for cultural assimilation of any who joined Blakemore and he would certainly not start with me and my family.

Not only did they indulge her, but they enabled her. When she chose the location, rather than say it was too isolated or forested, they sent a team to clear it up. More so, whenever she would ask to spare a tree, they would, whenever she asked to dig something up, or whatever else she asked, they did, no questions. Which has made my mother go a little wild.

I actually haven’t seen her nearly all week.

I did not bother me, but I was always a little worried someone at some point would say it was too much, or that she was hijacking the whole ceremony, but no one did, and most would just stare in curiosity.

Just like Alik had been given mostly free reign around Blakemore, so did she, any resources, tools, anything she could need was given to her.

There was also a small farmhouse that had been turned into storage that was now being transformed into a home for my parents.

The Devon’s had offered to build something bigger, but I knew they preferred this, and its location was in a densely vegetated area which they preferred.

There was a small cottage, which had probably belonged to indentured serfs in the past, with a little stone barn. They decided to renovate both, the cottage for my mother, and the barn for my father—as the door were wide enough for his wheelchair.

My parents had never been in love. They cared about one another, protected each other. This association had been in great part for their survival, and although I knew they were willing to go to great lengths for one another, I also knew that their heart was too scared to ever indulge in unrestrained love. It actually fitted them well this arrangement. They would live close together, but would regain an independence they had not been able to indulge in for a long time. And although they were at the edge of Blakemore and Blakewoods territory, they were close enough to travel to my home on foot.

There was a small creek near their home, and the footpaths were being restored for better travel for my father. He had equipped his chair for rough terrain, but it would be nice for him to not to have to worry about this too much.

Their home should be ready before the winter, and it would, somehow, be equipped with every modernity these buildings had never seen.

I had been told tonight was a great night for the ceremony. The confluences perfect. I did not master the knowledge of the stars yet, so I did not know how significant it could be, but I felt electricity in the air, a tension both sweet and inviting.

When Kaden and I walked to the site, I instantly knew why this was the place. There was a depth, an energy, a life, far beyond the seen. It had been a place of worship, or work, of festivity, or community, and of life. For millennia, this force had slowly trickled into the ground.

There was more than just residuals of the past though. I was fairly sure it had its own guardian spirit, which was probably one of the reasons why my mother had barely left this place since she had discovered it. She probably had reached to it, preparing the way.

I was sure that tonight, it was not just to a pack that I was pledging myself.

She would change that.