Moonlight Run

Two

The next morning I awoke to Pipa poking at me.

“Hey,” she said repeatedly. “Isa, wake up. The guards are back. Let’s get the hell out of here.”

I sluggishly pulled myself from the bunk.

“Did you even eat yesterday?” She looked over to the tray in the corner that I’d left untouched when the guards had brought it by.

“No, I just slept.”

“Yeah, I know.” She rolled her eyes and elbowed me playfully. “Some roommate you were.”

I was wiping the sleep sand from my eyes still when I realized where the guards were leading us.

“You have got to be kidding me,” Pipa sighed. “Okay, I would take Phineas over him. Not gonna lie.”

The guards knocked on the office door and a voice called, “Bring them in,” and we were ushered in.

Our host sat with his back to us, typing at a computer desk that pointed towards the window on the other side of the room.

“Please sit, ladies,” he spoke, without turning around.

Pipa groaned as she made her way to the brown chesterfield loveseat that sat in front of the larger wooden executive desk that divided us from him. I came around the other side and took my seat.

Several minutes of silence passed by, with only his typing fingers to fill the gap, and the occasional click of his mouse. I let my eyes wander around the room, taking count of the many moving boxes that filled the space. The room was slowly being packed up. Rumor has it our future Alpha was moving out of the packhouse with plans to live on his own. It was an unconventional choice, and the subject of much conversation lately. Eventually my eyes settled on the college degree that hung from the wall. His MBA hung there proudly bearing his name, Nikolai Blackburn.

I applied to a few colleges last year and received an acceptance letter from each of them. I was overjoyed. But when my mother couldn’t find the records I needed to enroll— a challenge for many wolves as we are often home-birthed and many of us are even home-schooled — I wasn’t able to attend. I was currently taking an online course in bookkeeping, so I could get a job maybe doing taxes or accounting for a small business.

I was so lost in thought, imagining my life after I would finally save enough to leave this pack, that I hadn’t noticed that Nikolai had wheeled around to face us. He cleared his throat and I snapped to attention. As he was adjusting his tie, he looked to the guards. “You can close the door behind you, gentlemen.”

And then he stood from his chair, tapping his fingers on the desk.

“Pipa… Isadora…” He looked at each of us respectively. “I trust you both slept well in the cells?”

“I plead the fifth.” Pipa said with a dramatic stretch of her arms.

Nikolai sighed and came around to the front of the wooden desk, leaning himself against it, just a foot from the two of us. I held my breath, taken aback by his staunch overuse of cologne. He was the only wolf I knew who seemed to prefer to smell like bodyspray than himself; the latter of which was generally far more useful in finding a mate. I would have thought that would have played a more important role when deciding whether to drench himself in a daily dose of Eau de Douchebag. But I also knew that if there is a mate out there for Nikolai Blackburn, and she couldn’t smell him, she was probably better for it.

It was a shame, too, because he really was a good looking man. I suppose that most of the assholes are though. I'd seen him shirtless at training enough to know that he was ripped. And although Pipa always turned her nose up at them, his tattoos had a certain appeal, too. The colors of his full-sleeve stood out in particular against his otherwise fair complexion. The only thing that wasn't my cup of tea was his hair. He had dark blonde hair that wasn't long, per se, but it was shaggy around his ears and neck. At a more formal pack occasion, he might have put some gel in it, but most days he looked as if he could use a haircut. He did at least keep his thick beard trimmed. I'd heard some around the pack call him Red Beard over the years in jest. Apparently, that had become the nickname for his wolf form, whose fur supposedly matched his beard. I'd never seen his wolf for myself though.

Truthfully, it was his eyes that caught my attention above all. He had a steel blue gaze that could put out a fire. My eyes met his as I was lost in thought, and I continued to stare back at them even as his mouth began to move.

“Isadora,” he said for at least a second time. I was startled and sat up straight. "Are we awake then?"

"I-- I'm sorry." I flushed red as he continued to speak.

"While you may not be in your mating season yet, you are most certainly old enough by now to know the rules of engagement when interacting socially with single male wolves. Would you say that’s true?”

I looked down at his boots— he wore hiking boots. I just kept thinking they looked incredibly out of place with his otherwise tailored suit. I snapped out of my distracted thought and I answered with a simple, “Yes.”

He leaned in towards Pipa’s face. “But do you know the rules, Pipa? Since you are over twenty-one, and therefore subject to those laws, perhaps you could give us a refresher, since Isadora’s not quite there yet?”

“Says you,” I mumbled. Damn my mouth.

“What’s that?” He asked, putting his hand to his ear. “Please, do speak up, Isadora.”

I was not amused at his patronizing behavior.

“Respectfully, I’m an adult. And last I checked,” I repeated his wording with emphasis, “I can do what I want with my body until my mating season begins. I’ll only be twenty in June.”

“Right,” he nodded, smacking his lips. “I can see how you might feel that way. And I suppose that’s true, the council’s code of conduct offers no repercussions for making yourself available to whomever, for whatever purposes you desire, previous to your mating season… But do not for a moment misunderstand, the pack still has discretion on how we handle these matters in house. And I am telling you now,” he narrowed his steely blue eyes at me, “promiscuous behavior will not be tolerated. So get it together, because this is your final warning.”

Nikolai looked to the wall to the right of us where a calendar hung, “The good news is that it’s May yet. That means you have just a little more than a year to start conducting yourself like a responsible she-wolf in this pack before the council’s rules apply to you. Maybe start now?”

He turned back to Pipa, “And again, I ask you Pipa, what are those rules?”

She sighed. “You know, Nikolai, I’m sorry. There are just so many. Maybe if the council would stop inventing unnecessary rules so they could police women’s bodies, I could remember more of the important ones.” Pipa began to sit up to leave, when Nikola put his boot up on the sofa’s arm rest beside her, his long leg barricading her in the seat.

He tutted. “I believe the rules of engagement specifically mentioning staying the fūck away from outsiders, and I think that’s kind of important, all things considered.”

He looked at me and I frowned. “Did you know that Isadora?”

“But I didn’t do—” I began to protest his implied accusation.

“Oh, I know what you didn’t do. And thank the goddess you didn’t do it. Did you bother to learn anything about the wolf you chose to spend your time with last night?” He lowered his leg back to the floor, but stood firmly in front of Pipa now. She still couldn’t go anywhere.

I shrugged. “No, because it wasn’t like that. He bought me a few drinks, that’s all it was.”

“And over the course of these few drinks, did you so much as think to ask about him?”

Pipa interjected. “I made the setup. The guy I was meeting with was from the Three Rivers pack, and he said he was bringing a friend so we could all party together.”

“Yeah? But you didn’t do your homework, Pipa. And that friend of his wasn’t that friendly.”

Pipa and I exchanged confused glances to one another.

Nikolai held his palms in prayer position in front of his face, and then began to rub either side of his nose. “Girls… That man was a rogue wolfsbane dealer… wanted in connection with at least three overdoses, all young women like yourselves.”

I gasped, but Pipa rolled her eyes. “I wouldn’t have let her sleep with him.”

I turned to Pipa in shock. “Pipa! Did you know he had Wolfsbane?”

Pipa threw her hands in the air and mouthed ‘what the fūck’ defensively. “Look, he offered, I said we were fine with booze, and we had a good time. Didn’t we? No one was marked or mated yet, no one OD’d on anything— it was all within legal parameters, okay?”

“That’s your argument?” Nikolai scoffed, walking back around to the other side of his desk. He began searching through the pile of papers before him, looking for something. “Legal and safe are not the same things, Pipa.”

“You can drop the act, Nikolai.” Pipa snapped.

“And in what way am I acting, exactly?” He paused in his search, and raised a formidable brow at her.

Pipa stood from the sofa and leaned across his desk, extending her hand out to him, “Please, Niko, let me see your body count before you preach safety and mating laws to us.”

He narrowed his eyes at her. “You forget your place,” he said through barred teeth. He raised his hand to her and she caught it with cat-like reflexes.

“I forget nothing,” she said, looking at his wrist caught in her hand. She saw he had a stack of papers in it, and then she let it go.

A brief expression of surprise came over her face as he thrusted the papers into her chest. “Next time you decide to go ‘have a good time’, remember their faces, too. His scent and his… DNA… were all over these girls. And there were lethal levels of Wolfsbane, likely the same stuff he was going to give you, was in each of their toxicology reports.”

Pipa briefly shuffled through the papers before she dropped them on his desk in front of me. I turned my head quickly, but had managed to see a black and white photo of what was clearly a dead girl.

“Let’s go,” she looked to me over her shoulder. She was at the door already. “This bag of hot air isn’t going to do anything but suck and blow, and I know I’m better at at least one of those things than he is.”

I began to stand nervously to go after her.

“Isadora,” his eyes flash with warning when they meet mine.

I look hesitantly back to Pipa.

“Isadora,” he repeated my name in a calmer voice, “Before you go, tell me… what’s the punishment for sleeping with someone else’s mate?”

I steadied my breath and answered, “One year a rogue, outside of your pack. More if an Alpha or Beta is involved…”

“And what is the punishment for fraternizing with a rogue wolf?”

I knead my hands at the thought. I felt like such an i***t. That could have gone so wrong so fast…

“Isa, forget him.” Pipa’s voice broke me from my anxious train of thought.

“Answer me,” Nikolai’s voice remained calm. “It’s important that I know that you know.”

After a moment of quiet I replied, “Death,”

A silence fell around the room for a moment before he spoke again.

“You know, there are young women sentenced to live as rogues that still don’t get off as easy as the girls in these photos. Thoughtless actions have consequences,”

I couldn’t bring my eyes to meet his, so I just continued to stare at his boots again. I could feel his eyes scanning me up and down, and he let out a breath, seeming satisfied. “Do be sure not to have any close calls in the future?” He said the last bit like a question.

I nodded, and looked up from my feet to see him staring at me expectantly, as if waiting for something.

“I will... I’m sorry.”

“You can both go,” he motioned to the door.

“Why the hell are you saying sorry to him? You have nothing to be sorry for…” Pipa chastised me as she closed the office door behind us.

I stopped suddenly on my heels and scoffed. “How do you do that?” I asked, throwing my hands in exasperation at my side.

“How do I do what?” Pipa raised a brow at me, confused.

“I don’t know… just not give a fūck?” Again, I threw my arms out. “Do you understand what just happened there? Pipa, we’ve got like a year before that dude, the one you just love to disrespect so much, is going to be our Alpha.”

She let out an annoyed breath and crossed her arms. “So what?”

“So what? Pipa, do you understand that if you had played your cards right you could have been his Beta? Your father is his father’s Beta… that’s how it goes. But you have met him with disrespect left and right. I don’t particularly like the guy, but I would give anything to have the opportunities you have, Pipa. But it’s like you don’t even care.”

Pipa laughed. “Yeah, okay, because being stuck in the shadow of that guy is the opportunity I’ve been waiting for? No thanks, Dimitri can soak that up— we both know he’s much more cut out for that.”

I cringed at the mention of the name. It was true, Dimitri was more than likely going to be chosen as Nikolai’s Beta. He was one of the pack members who had come into ours with the merger. He was twenty-two, the same age as Pipa. While two years younger than Nikolai, the two were like brothers.

Dimitri was also my ex. We’d began dating my junior year of high school, when I was sixteen and he was eighteen. But when he turned twenty-one just before the new year, he found his mate soon after. She was from the Pilot Mountain pack in the Carolinas, a pretty redhead named Phoebe. Thankfully I’d mentally prepared myself for the possibility I wouldn’t be his mate. I’d seen it happen enough to other couples before us. One day we were holding hands and sharing french fries. The next morning, he’s standing in line at a coffee shop, waiting to order for the two of us before he's due to meet me for training, when he bumps into a woman who is with her daughter from out of town. An hour later Pipa brought me cold coffee and an explanation. And just like that, he wasn’t mine anymore.

‘He never was,’ my inner voice reminded me. My mind went to the scripture,

“Remember this when you see mother moon in the evening sky… she is still with us in the daylight; just as your mate has been in your orbit all this time, too. The promise of nightfall awaits.”

I thought of my mother and father; Ivan and Marisol were true mates, but not even Marisol was spared his wrath. The horrors of their relationship were a regular reminder that even my mate may not have my best interest at heart. I had to look out for my own interest, and I knew that started with getting the hell away from this pack before I turned twenty-one next year.

After the ordeal with Dimitri, I didn’t want to be anywhere near this place when I went into mating mode. I knew that meant I would have to go rogue. But I never missed training and always volunteered for patrol duty. Between that and the years of housekeeping I’d done for the packhouse, I felt I was well-prepared for life outside of the pack as I could be. By the end of the summer I would be done with my bookkeeping course, and I planned to send out applications and resumes soon after that. My only concern was references… I knew I couldn’t put anyone down around here. If they were called, they’d know I planned to leave.

Pipa was the only one who knew my secret and supported me. She said she’d buy a bunch of burner phones with different numbers, so I could put them all down and she’d pretend to be at least three different people for me. She was amazing in that way, and although I doubted the likelihood such an idea would work, I appreciated the eagerness all the same.

‘This is also the same friend that was eager to get you fūcked up on Wolfsbane,’ I thought to myself.

“So, when were you going to tell me Wolfsbane was in the cards last night?” I asked Pipa, who’d by now been walking a few feet ahead of me down the hall. At five-foot-nine she had more than half a foot on me. I stood a mere five-foot-nothing and perpetually felt like I had to power walk to keep up with her long legs.

Pipa laughed, “Seriously, Isa? Can you just live a little?”

“Um, you mean die a little? Because that’s what happens when you take too much of that shìt, Pipa... You die.”

She stops walking and turns around on her heel. “Okay, when you don’t know what you’re doing sure— it can go south real fast —”

“Well I’ve never done it, so yeah, it’s fair to say I wouldn’t know what I was doing.”

“Well I have, and you were with me, so it would have been fine, Isa. Jesus, can you stop being a downer today? It’s not like it even happened. It’s really not that big of a deal. Since when were you all high and mighty about getting a little recreational, anyways?”

“Pipa, there is a very big difference between,” I lowered my voice to a whisper, “smoking a little weed,” She rolled her eyes at my attempts to be quiet, so I said the next bit loudly, “And snorting fūcking wolfsbane.”

And she frantically threw her hands over my mouth. “Oh my god! Will you shut up? Someone will hear you!”

“Exactly! Because you know that’s a big freaking deal.” I said, ripping from her grip over my face.

“Whatever.” She stepped back and crossed her arms. “I was not about to take the judgy attitude from Nikolai, who, if I remember right, was snorting lines at the Lupercalia festival back in February.”

“We both know he wasn’t snorting wolfsbane, Pipa. And really, when you factor in our healing abilities, that’s like the werewolf equivalent of drinking a Redbull, at best.”

She thought for a moment. “It really is though, isn’t it?”

I shake my head. “Is there anything you haven’t done?”

“Would you believe I’ve never played Never Have I Ever?”

“No,” I said with an eye roll.

“Well I haven’t, and I won’t.” She winked at me. “I don’t like to lose.”