Slaved By The Moon God

13

Then I saw the movement. It came from the back, and I craned my neck to see what was happening. Evanora’s smooth voice cut off as she noticed, and the whispers increased. The front line broke to allow four people through. My jaw dropped as I recognized the large, rugged male from the falls, along with the others I’d seen right before I’d turned tail and fled. There was a female with him as well, one that I didn’t recognize.

He was dressed this time, at least partially. No shirt, just dark ripped jeans, and the heavy muscles of his shoulders and chest looked even starker in the firelight than they had under the light of the sun. Now that he wasn’t pinning me to the ground, I saw that his pack mark was on his upper chest. All three of the wolves with him bore the same symbol—a ‘U’ shape with a snake running through it. It didn’t look like any of the twelve Zodiac signs I’d been surrounded by since birth, but it was a pack mark all the same.

Whispers rose up, replacing the stunned silence. I heard the word, “snake,” muttered over and over again, and I wondered if they were talking about the tattoo on the man’s upper arm, which twined around his skin as if it was a real animal, and not just ink. But no, they were looking at all of the new arrivals, not just him.

The other three hung back from the Sun Witches, but the man, who must have been their alpha, stepped right up toward Evanora. He took his time, looking around the gathered packs until his gaze stopped on me and lingered. My breath caught. Out of everyone in the crowd, somehow he’d found me. Had he been looking for me? I felt a bolt of fear go through me, and something else too—something like need. Another whisper went through the ranks of shifters gathered, but I couldn’t move under his piercing gaze, like he was holding me down in the forest all over again.

Then, just as quickly as he’d found me, he looked away. Evanora was radiating hatred, and I felt the tension rise in the shifters around us, caught on the precipice of action.

“The Ophiuchus pack demands to be recognized,” the man said, his voice carrying over everyone.

Shock spilled out, replacing the anticipation. The word Ophiuchus echoed inside my head, digging at old memories that I’d half-forgotten, folktales that I’d learned as a child and abandoned with age and maturity. Ophiuchus was the lost thirteenth Zodiac pack. They were legendary, known as the "snake bearers," and said to be vicious traitors who had no sense of obligation or loyalty. They lived outside of normal society and didn’t interact with anyone if they could help it.

They were also supposed to be myths. I couldn’t remember ever hearing of anyone seeing a member of the Ophiuchus pack in my lifetime. The only time they’d been mentioned was when we’d been children. Be good, the adults had told us, or the Ophiuchus pack will come to take you away. They’d been the bogeymen of our childhoods, always the shadowy figures that had grown less threatening the older I’d gotten.

Now they were here.

The fear I’d felt as a kid was visceral, and it returned as I looked at these strange shifters, outside of any pack I recognized. And the alpha who had pinned me down in the forest? He was the nightmares from my childhood come to life.

“Moon Witch lovers,” someone muttered, and I remembered the other part of the tale. The Ophiuchus pack had been part of the Zodiac Wolves once, but they began interbreeding with the Moon Witches, who had cursed us all those years ago. As a result, the Ophiuchus pack was banished from the Zodiac Wolves. No one had heard anything from them since.

Until now. They stood in front of us in the flesh, standing toe-to-toe with the most powerful Sun Witch. I wondered if any of the stories were true, and they did have Moon Witch magic running through their veins. Could this alpha take on the High Priestess?

Evanora was the first to speak into the stunned silence, loud enough for all of us to hear. “You aren’t welcome here,” she said and pointed at the alpha. It didn’t seem to have the effect she wanted, as he simply waited, shoulders drawn back, meeting her gaze. “If this wasn’t the Convergence, and bloodshed was allowed, I would have cut you down myself already.”

The alpha drew his lips back in a parody of a smile—all the right motions, but none of the humor. “I’m not here to fight,” he said, and his posture went from threatening to neutral in the blink of an eye. I remembered the graceful way he’d shifted and moved in the forest. This was an alpha who had utter control of his body, who commanded each muscle. “But it’s time that you allow us to rejoin the Zodiac Wolves.”

“Never,” Evanora hissed.

“I will discuss it with the alphas, Sun Witch,” the alpha said, his growl rumbling low in his chest. “We may be on your turf, but this is wolf business. Even you couldn’t hold back the force of all thirteen packs if we decided to turn.”

“You’ll never be one of us, snakes,” someone called. I recognized the voice and found the alpha of the Leo pack standing. Dixon Marsten looked like a Viking warrior of old with long blond hair and a thick beard, and I could see people shrinking back from the intimidating bellow of his voice. Beside him stood his son, Jordan, who had his arms crossed. He shot me a look that practically burned off my skin before he jerked his chin back to the events unfolding in front of us.

“For once, we agree on something,” Dad said, standing as well. “Get out of here, before we change our minds about the no bloodshed rule.” It was an empty threat, but it got the rest of the packs nodding and making noise. I heard more than one jeer come from the Cancer pack before it was picked up by other packs and passed along.