Homecoming Luna

Chapter 6: Mooners

• •• •••Daen's POV••• •• •

"It's time," Mobby, my Beta, says into the brightly lit, mahogany panelled room.

I grind my teeth, knowing fully well what this s**t is about. Looking up from the papers spread before me, I sit back in my chair positioned at the long end of a mile-long oval table. He mistakes it for a go-ahead, clearly missing the working of my jaw.

"She hands down beats all the upgraded challenges thrown at her. Her infiltration skills are exceptional, with and without her manipulative powers. It's. . . it's something else, I tell you. Not to mention she singlehandedly fought an entire Red unit in the spur of seconds. I can safely say she's ready."

"I'll decide whether or not she's ready." I laser my eyes to his. If I didn't know better, I'd think he was a fan. Still, I hate to know he's been paying that much attention to the Avarion she-wolf. It makes something seethe in my gut.

"But the prophesy said—"

"I know what the f*****g prophecy said." I grit out, my stare turning steely and no doubt a little purple as my wolf, Raider, seeps through.

At that, he clamps his mouth shut. He's been getting on my nerves a lot lately. He isn't the only one antsy to put all our carefully laid plans in motion. My entire pack depends on this but for some reason I can't fathom, I'm delaying giving my approval on this one.

Al-Noyal, my other Beta, is smarter. He keeps calm, deep-set eyes reading the room. Just as always. It's for that reason alone I appreciate his input because when he does talk, it's with tact. Carefully thought out.

We are in the pack house, in the inner meeting room precisely. I've just dismissed a roomful of Council Members and Unit Leaders who'd just given me monthly reports, mostly verbal. My Gamma, Hartson and my Delta, Farr, are out on official pack business.

"Any news on Winter Moon?" I ask, deftly turning the ballpoint pen in my hand like a blade I'm about to impale on something. Or someone.

Noyal answers. He shakes his head just once as he abandons the tall window he's leaning against and looking out of.

"None yet but I've still got birds on the ground. Might be nothing but word flying is they're chasing their tails looking for a certain blue signet. Embedded in a necklace of some sort. It doesn't make sense still but one of their little witches said something about it."

I think about it for second. Winter Moon Pack is hardly one to waste their precious time on trivial matters if it isn't significant. Especially since we're this close to the foretold time. And knowing Noyal, he must have the same suspicions seeing as he mentioned it.

"Don't disregard that. Keep looking into it."

The prophecy didn't say anything about a signet or something of the sort but I'm covering all bases which is why I need to get my s**t together and give a go on the Avarion girl's missions.

Reflexively, a deep frown claims my face.

"Sure thing, Alpha,"

Necklaces with signets weren't rare so it'll help to know what signet we're looking for and what it means for us all. That gives me a sharp pause.

I go still. Deadly still.

Then I ask, very slowly and every word enunciated. "Noyal, what signet are we talking? Winter Moon's?"

"I don't think so, but it's said to assume—"

"—different colours depending on it's observer." I finish for him. I don't need to see the confused nod he gives me to know I'm right.

Fuck!

That only means a Mooner is alive out there somewhere. The realization makes my gut churn. The implication is massive. And catastrophic. The implication is not good at all.

Mobby, alarmed, looks from Noyal to me, and states the obvious. "That's the worst news right now. That only means there's a surviving Mooner out there." His voice is pitched high by sheer trepidation. His eyes equally carry the fear, half bulging out of its sockets.

Noyal appears lost, his face subtly says so. So I'm surprised Mobby knows anything about this.

The Winter Moon Pack is led by werewolf Lycan Kings. But before that, females held power when they were led by powerful Lunas, also called Mooners which were the one true rulers they recognized for centuries before the last Luna Queen had mysteriously disappeared and with that ended the reign of Mooners. Then, a new system of government was put in place.

But now, with one still alive out there somewhere, it changes everything. It gives huge credibility to the looming Prophecy.

And none of it means good for my people.