The Call of The Crescent

The rain beat down on me as I walked through the starry night, my hair soaked against my back, the water dripping off my black leather pants, the hood of my black shirt off, I didn’t care about the rain. All I cared about was bringing an end to the ones who had destroyed my world. I was aware of all the shocked looks I received as I walked through the house, the weapons in my hands, the rainwater dropping off me leaving puddles as I walked. They looked at me as if they had seen a ghost. Which was quite fitting as they hadn’t seen me in 2years. I opened the door without knocking, the man behind the desk looking up with shock in his face as I dropped my weapons onto his desk. He stood slowly, his face shocked, almost as though he couldn’t believe his own eyes. “M-Minx. You’re alive. I thought I was going crazy, I told them that you were alive, I knew it.” “Yes, Jake, alive and well. And I need your help.” “Is it true? You’ve been hunting wolves? I can’t imagine anyone else using the name.” “Yes. I am the hunter known as Minx. But that isn’t important. I need your help finding him.” Jakes eyes softened, “Minx, I’m so sorry about-” “Don’t say his name. Not until I avenge him and he can rest easy.” Jake nodded, “You want me to help you find Jesse?” “I want you to help me hunt Jesse. Side by side. I know he took Raya from you too.” “Yes, sent me her head in a bag. Lowe is only fifteen, but she can run the show while I’m gone. She is just like her grandfather.” I smiled sadly, “Was it quick? When Beth was killed?” Jake nodded, “Yes, she didn’t suffer.” “Good.” “Where are River and Masha?” “They’re safe.” River and Masha: my son and daughter. Riven’s prized possessions. Jake sighed, “Okay, let me sort things out here and we can get started. Do you want to see Lowe? She misses you.” I shook my head, “No, I can’t, not until I’ve found Jesse and ended this.” “Minx, I know that you’ve been through a lot, I know that this kind of grief changes a person, but are you sure about this?” “Jake, I can’t come back from any of this, I’ve crossed the line willingly. Now, save me the speech and let's go get this bastard.” Jake smiled, “Okay, Minx, let’s do this. Help yourself to weapons.” I placed my hand over my axe and sword, “I have my weapons.” “You’ve changed.” “Death does that to a person.” I stood outside in the rain, my weapons strapped to my legs, my heart filled with a mix of pain and anger. My head filled with nothing but the promise of revenge. Very painful and bloody revenge. I longed for normalcy but I could not allow myself to feel any of this until my job was done. I could not lose sight of my end game, not when I was so close; once this was all over I could go back to my life that I missed so desperately.  Jake walked down the steps to meet me, “Are you sure you don’t want to see Lowe?” “Yes. I have a team waiting for us, they help-” “Lowe deserves to know what you’re doing, Harley. She lost people too, they killed her mother. They took her grandfather.” “She’s not even sixteen yet, Jake.” “Minx, come on, she’s been helping me run things since Beth was killed. She isn’t a kid anymore she was forced to grow up the day she saw that wolf standing over her mother's body.” My eyes filled with tears, “Jake, if something happened to her because of me.” He took one of my hands in his, “I can’t tell you that I’m sorry because I know that it won’t make a difference. But, losing both Beth and Riven-” “I never saw his body.” “You think he’s still alive?” I shrugged, “I don’t know, Jake. I hope so, but I know it’s unlikely, he would have somehow made his way to me by now if he was. But I still have to keep that hope alive.” “Come back inside, speak to Lowe, please.” I looked back up at the house, “Jake, I want nothing more than to see her, but I can’t. If I walk back in there and see her I will break, and if I break I won’t be able to do what I need to do.” Okay, I won't push you, are we taking my car?” I gave a curt nod, walking towards the car. “Harley?” I froze, turning slowly to see Lowe standing at the bottom of the steps. “Harley!” She ran over, wrapping her arms around me tightly. “I’m sorry I didn’t come in to see you, Lowe. How are you?” She smiled up at me and I was taken aback at how much like her mother she looked, “I’m okay, how are the kids? Are they-” she broke off, taking in my appearance, “What is going on?” I glanced at Jake before sighing, “I, um, okay. You’ve heard about The Minx?” “The werewolf hunter? Yeah, we’ve all been looking over our... Wait, it’s you?” “Yes.” She frowned, taking a step away from me, “What? Why would you...” “I’m hunting Jesse. For what he did to your mom, for taking your grandfather, for Raya.” “But you’re killing others.” “I am doing what’s necessary to keep everyone safe again.  I know that it’s probably hard to understand, but-” “No. You are killing our kind! How could you do that? Do you think that mom or grandpa would approve of this?” “Lowe. I don’t need them to approve. Jesse got away, he has made such a mess of things, shifters are running around killing humans in broad daylight, the humans know about us now. Soon, they will start fighting back and they won’t bother to ask which of you is good, they will see you all as the same and they will kill you. So before that happens, I will rather put an end to all of this and have us all go back to living in peace. Now, if you don’t like that, that’s your choice.” I got into the car and slammed the door closed, Jake sighing as he got in. “That was harsh, Minx.” “She doesn’t understand why I’m doing this.” Jake sighed, “I get it, but it’s risky and it’s dangerous. And I don’t know how to feel about this. You’ve been gone for eight years, popping in once in a while, then the last two years you haven’t shown your face, we thought you were dead, Harley. Do you have any idea what that did to Lowe and me? And then you show up here and expect everything to be okay. We thought you were dead. You couldn’t just send us a text or something to let us know that you’re alive?” “I’ve been a little busy, Jake. They took Riven from me, I was scared for my kids, for myself. When they took Riven my whole world felt like it was crumbling down around me, so excuse me for not thinking about anyone else!” “You could have let us know!” he pulled the car to a stop on the side of the road, turning to me, “Do you even care? What did you do to us? Forest Pack has nothing. Their Alpha was killed, their Beta was killed, and their Luna is running around killing werewolves! You’re acting selfish, and you know it.” “I want to put an end to Jesse, I will figure everything else out when that’s done. You lost Raya, you should know what losing Riven did to me.” “Yes, I lost Raya and then I thought that I lost you too. Lowe lost her mother and her grandfather, and she thought she lost you too. I get that you’re hurting, Minx, but my God, we all were.” I looked away, “I’m sorry, Jake. You’re right, I didn’t think of any of this.” “Where am I taking you?” “Home. Take me to Forest Pack.” Jake smiled, “There’s the Harley I know.” Walking into the Packhouse was strange, it reminded me once again of Riven. The wolves knew that I was here to say something, Carl, the Beta of Forest Pack nodded and came over to me, “Harley, welcome back.” “Thank you. Let the wolves know that I need to address them.” He nodded and I stood in the front of the room, Jake standing near the door, his arms folded over his chest. I waited until the murmuring had stopped before I spoke. “Hi. As I’m sure you have all realized by now, I’ve been a shitty Luna. Beth was killed, and that hurt so much. Then Riven was taken from me, we presume he was also killed, it’s been two years with no word from him at all, and we all know that if he was alive he would have found a way to get a message to us. When I lost him, I feared for the life of our two children, I got them to safety and I mourned. But the grief turned to anger and I took on the persona of the Minx, I have been killing every bad werewolf that I could find, but the goal is Jesse. I would say that I’m sorry if I thought that it would help but I’m here now and I am taking over the role of Alpha. I will still finish what I started, so please be patient.” I walked away without another word, taking the steps to what used to be Riven’s office. I was aware that a lot of the wolves would not be happy with a woman Alpha, but I didn’t care. As I stepped into the office I took a deep breath, none of the others had changed anything,  it still looked like his office, and I still felt like he would walk through the door at any moment. Going over to the desk I closed my eyes, allowing myself to remember Riven, my heart still aching at my loss. “You okay?” I nodded as Jake came over, “Yeah. I just... I still miss him so much.” He pulled me into a hug, “I’m sorry, Minx, I wish I could say something to make it all better.” “I know,” I pulled away, “When did you cut your hair?” He chuckled, “After I married Raya.” “You guys were so good together.” He nodded, “She was amazing. She knew that I would always love you, and yet she still loved me more than I deserved. What I did to deserve her, I’ll never know.” “This is getting way too sad. I’m going to call King, he’s sort of my partner on this.” Jake raised his brows, “Ah, so he doesn’t know that I’m probably going to take his place?” I chuckled, “He knows. He knows everything about us actually, he’s been a good friend through all of this.” Jake stood silently as I sent out a text to King. “Okay, that’s done, it will probably take him about an hour to get here. I’m going to try and avoid involving the other wolves, I would prefer not to put anyone at risk.” “What is your plan for the humans? A lot know about us now thanks to Jesse.” “Well, I’m hoping to eliminate the threats and show them that not all werewolves want death and destruction. And then we all go ahead and live a normal life side by side.” Jake sat down, “I hope that works,” his eyes scanned my arms as I took off my jacket, “Where did you get that?” I glanced at the scar on my arm, “Jesse gave it to me as a going-away present right before Riven was taken.” “Where are River and Masha?” “With my dad. Since my mom got arrested, he and I have gotten close.” Jake frowned, “Oh, uh, sorry about your mom. How are the kids?” “They’re doing well.” “Do you think I could see them? It’s been two years since I’ve seen my god kids, and I miss them.” “They would love to see you, you know my dad's address.” “How long has it been since they’ve seen their mother?” I sighed, “Jake, I saw them two days ago over the weekend.” “Good, I’ll go with you when you see them again.” “Sounds good. They both miss you terribly, especially since Riven...” I sighed, “As I said, they would love to see you.” “Okay. Brief me on the Jesse situation.” “Over the years he seems to have tried to get Shadow Pack back up, but he’s also been working with a few Rogues. His end game was to kill Riven, to make him suffer. If my kids were there that night he probably would have tried to do something to them too. He hasn’t bothered trying to come after me because he knows what I’ve been doing. He knows that I’m coming after him and he’s gone into hiding like the coward that he is.” “I don’t get it, I’m the one that killed Janie, why did he go after Riven?” I shrugged, “I don’t know, but I doubt he will give us any answers.” Jake put his feet up on the table, “Why can’t this King guy find him?” “He can,” I took my seat, “But I don’t want him just yet. He has people around him that need to be stopped. I want to take all of them out before I get to Jesse. I meant it when I said that I wanted to make things safe again, and that means eliminating every one of them. Jesse can run all he wants, but I will get to him, regardless of where he goes or what name he uses.” Jake nodded, “Okay, that makes sense. So who exactly are we going after now?” The door opened and King walked in; his dark hair spiked, he wore his signature deep purple coat adorned with gold and silver coins along the hems. “Nice of you to join us, King, although I did think it would take longer. Where the hell have you been.” I asked. “Missed me already? I was out following Jesse around. He doesn’t seem to be running he seems to be waiting for you.” This surprised me, I had assumed that he would be trying to get away from me. “Why would he be waiting for me? Does he understand what I’m going to do to him?” “He spoke to me, said that I was to give you a message. He knows your plan, he doesn’t care, he’s quite sure of himself, said that you won't kill him when you get to him and that you should have fun trying to keep the peace with the humans.” “He’s made such a mess of things. What he did to us, not to mention the deaths he’s caused getting the wolves to believe that they should have power over the humans.” Jake held his hands up, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, I have missed so much along the way. Fill me in?” “Beth and Riven were just his private little game with us. His payback for Janie. He has put it into the heads of so many wolves that they should rule the humans, through fear and death. They’ve been killing people, taking over. Most of them were Rogues, but a few Packs have since jumped on the bandwagon and we now have some sort of war going on between us and the humans.” Jake shook his head, “You have got to be kidding me. We’ve been living in peace for so long, why the hell would Jesse do this? What does he get out of this?” “It looks like he is still just as power-hungry as before, maybe even more so now.” “He came after us to make a statement, but why wait so long, and then cause this much havoc? He must have a reason behind it.” Trust Jake to point out the obvious. “Of course he has a reason behind it, I just don’t care about his reasoning. He is going to cause an even bigger bloodbath between the wolves and the humans, all we need is the media running a story on what a bunch of savages we are. Yes, I want to kill him for what he’s done to us, but we must stop these wolves before things get even more out of hand,” I turned to King, “King, meet Jake, Jake this is King. King, I need our next target.” “Already on it, but it’s not a Pack. Jesse was seen having coffee with Alegra, the daughter of one of the deadliest Rogue’s, so my money is on them.” “That’s interesting. Get me the Rogue and his daughter at any cost. I need them alive though, so don’t go getting trigger happy.” “Jake, you and I are going to have a little press release, let the humans know what exactly is going on.” Jake nodded, “You know how I love having my face plastered everywhere.” I smiled, he sure did love his face everywhere that was for sure. I was well aware of the fact that most of my job was finished, but I wanted to make it clear to the humans that we were not all after power, and that we would keep them safe. We only had a handful of wolves to stop before I moved over to my next plan of getting my hands on Jesse. I had it all planned out, I would hold him hostage and torture him until I decided that he was ready to die for what he had done. I would put an end to the war that he had started and then I would put an end to him. King cleared his throat, “Is it a good idea to bring them back here?” “Yes, they won’t be getting loose to do any damage.” “Got it, see you later.”  I waved before turning to Jake, “Can you get us live? Time to come out to the world.” “Let me get the computer set up.” He came around the table, leaning down and typing once the computer came on, he was close enough for me to smell his scent, his true scent mixed with his spicy cologne. I had missed him more than I would allow him to know. “Okay, say the word and we will have our video live on the air.” I let out a deep breath, “Grab a chair, I’m not doing this alone.” He took a seat on the arm of the chair I sat on, “Problem solved.” “Okay, let’s do this.” I kept my eyes on the screen as our faces filled it. “Hi, as you will notice, words are not my strong point, but we have an important message to be heard.” Jake nodded next to me, “We are both werewolves. I am the Alpha to the Pack known as Crescent Pack.” “And I am Harley Alarick, widow of Riven Alarick. I am a werewolf. Riven was the Alpha of Forest Pack, which I have now taken over. I’m sure most have you have noticed an attack on humans, it has been said to be wild animal attacks. There are werewolves behind these attacks, I have been eliminating these threats to humanity, doing my best to keep you all safe. Riven wanted us to live a life of peace. We are speaking to you so that you are aware of what is happening. We will stop these attacks, but if they get to you before we do, silver is your best bet on defending yourself. And, Jesse, if you see this, I don’t care how many aces you have up your sleeve, I’m coming for you.”