The Waning Moon Of Pain

Chapter Twelve:

The next few days were the hardest on Diana, having to go through all her memories with her past mate in the house they built together. Packing her things and his, keeping a keepsake box for herself of things she can't part with. Her family and Ulric have been there for her the whole time, supporting her and helping her through the pain of it.

Freki will be announcing his new Beta today to the pack and they will be moving into her old home. She has left the place furnished for the future owners, but they can do what they wish with the place, it is no longer hers and Darius's any more.

Packing up the last of Darius's things in a truck to be taken to a donation shop. She sighs, locking the back of the truck up. Ulric wraps an arm over her shoulder and kisses the top of her head. She smiles leaning into him,

"I'm proud of you." He whispers softly to her.

She looks up at him and gives him a sweet kiss, "Thank you for helping me through this."

"Of course Angel. Want to head back and rest?"

" Uh no, I actually wanted to take a walk and pay him a visit. I think it's been long overdue." She softly says, giving him a small smile.

"Would you like company?"

She smiles and nods, taking his hand into hers, folding her fingers into his. He gives her a warm smile and they walk together to where Darius is buried. They have the cemetery located about a mile in the woods behind the pack house on a nice lovely hill that looks out to their little land.

Following the path, hand in hand together, they stay silent just enjoying the nice weather and each other's company. They reach the cemetery and she leads them to where Darius is located. Slowly stepping over to his simple headstone, her heart becomes heavy looking at his name carved on the stone.

Ulric kisses her hand, then steps back letting her have her privacy, but still close by if she needs him. Diana steps up to the headstone and moves down taking a seat in front of it, cleaning off a few weeds around it.

"Hey you blockhead. I'm sorry for taking so long to come see you. I just didn't have the strength to do it until now, but I know it's not a good excuse. I really was just ashamed of what happened. Blame myself for failing you." She softly says to the headstone, her eyes tearing up.

Digging into her pocket she pulls out his future wedding ring, fiddling it in her fingers,

"I finished packing up our home today. It's going to the new Beta Tyler Black. You remember him right? He was always so serious, but he will be good for the pack, keeping my brother on the right path. He will make a good Beta." She says and chuckles, sniffling wiping the tears escaping down her face.

Taking in a breath, looking up at the bright blue sky for a second to calm her emotions, she smiles at the warmth of the sun on her face. Looking back at the head stone, she leans in resting her head against it.

"I miss you. I'm sorry I wasn't here to say goodbye to you. I was such a wreck after losing you, but don't worry. I am doing much better now and I plan to stay strong for now on for you Darius. The moon goddess was kind enough to give me another chance at Love, but know his love will never replace the love I will always have for you. I will always be yours. You might know him, it's Alpha Ulric from the Twin Moon pack? I don't think you two ever met, but he promises to take good care of me for you…"

She couldn't stop her tears any more, sitting there letting them fall for a moment, gripping his ring in her hand. Not wanting to cry so much any more, she takes in a sharp breath and kisses his ring, then moves to dig into the dirt in front of his headstone and place the ring in the hole she made covering it up.

"Rest in peace my Love. I will come visit you when I can, but I promise to visit at least once a year. We will find the one that took our pup and you from me. He will pay for what he did, I promise you that."

Looking at his headstone one last time, she kisses the top of it and sniffles, standing back up. Ulric steps over to help her and takes her into his arms, holding her as she clings her arms around him tight, taking in his scent to help calm her aching heart. They stood there in silence for a good minute, just enjoying each other's embrace.

Diana feels someone push on her mind, trying to connect with her. Opening her mind link, she listens hearing her brother,

'Diana, we have good news back from the team. Meet with me at the pack house with Alpha Ulric.'

'on our way' she replys

Lifting her head off Ulric's chest, she looks up at him,

"Freki got word back from the team. He wants us to meet up at the pack house." She informed him.

He reaches up, cleaning her face free of any lingering tears, "Okay, you can rest when we return if you want, it's been a hard few days for you Angel."

She smiles at him, loving how caring and sweet he is with her,

" I am okay. I promise. Besides it being a heartache for me the last few days, I feel much lighter as well. This was good for me, I promise I am good. Having some good news about finding this rogue will cheer me up."

He smirks looking into her beautiful emeralds, he can tell how much stronger she has gotten in just a few days. This recovery has done her well and she is almost completely back to good health, he can barely notice the malnourishment her body was in for so long. Seeing her body healthy like this has also made it harder for him not to keep his hands off her.

"Let's go then Angel." He says taking her hand and they walk away from Darius's grave, heading back to the pack house.

Arriving at the pack house, they head to her brother's office. She softly knocks and enters after hearing her brother to enter. They spot Freki behind his desk, Tyler is there as well, he was caught up with everything yesterday when Freki summoned him to the pack house giving him the news of making him the beta. Freki's leader of his team and Ulric's leader of his team were there as well.

Freki stands and moves around his desk to lean on the front of it crossing his arms over his chest, looking at his sister and Ulric,

"They found the location of the rogue's hideout and it's not what we expected. It's not just a small group of them." Freki says, getting right to it.

Diana looks at him confused. Ulric turns to his man named Dave, " How many are there?"

"About thirty of them, Alpha. I have never seen so many rogues in one place. That's not the only weird thing. They also are well off, living in a well kept place. The land they are on is not owned by anyone, but something's not right here." He openly reports to him.

" I believe there might be someone helping them, but I don't know who or why." Freki chimes in.

" Is the rogue we are looking for there?" Diana asks not being able to help but ask.

" We couldn't tell. There were too many of them and there could be more that we didn't see. They all smelled the same with how strong the rogue smell is and we didn't want to risk getting too close." Ulric's man tells her.

Diana would have known if she was there. That smell of the rogue wolf will never leave her memory. She should be able to pinpoint the rogue, they will just have to storm the place, but this has gotten more dangerous with how many there are.

'It's time Diana. We should shift tonight.' Rin says to her in head.

'Yes I agree. We need to get in shape for this fight.'

"Return to the location and get as much information as you can, how many there are, who the leader of them is, and the landscape of the place to find the best way to approach them. Catching them by surprise. If you are spotted, get out of there and return right back here." Ulric orders his man.

Freki nods agreeing to Ulric's order, letting his man know to follow his order as well. The two wolves bow their heads understanding their orders and leave. Ulric turns to Freki,

"I can call for more men if you think we could use it." Ulric offers.

" I think that might be best, Thank you. I have a strong team, but to handle thirty plus rogues might be a bit much for us. Sister, are you sure you still want to do this?"

Diana looks at her brother and nods, " Yes, it's time we put these rogues in their place. They have been attacking our pack for as long as I can remember. At least once a year and around the same time."

Freki furrows his brows, why has he never thought of that before. Ulric looks at them both,

"They attack every year around the same time? Is there something special about that time of year that they would attack that often?" Ulric asks them.

Freki thinks for a second, then moves back around his desk and starts to search for something. He checks his calendar from this month to see what would link the rogues to attack around the same time every year, he then spots the Alpha group meeting they had just two weeks ago. He growls slamming his fist feeling stupid for not thinking of it sooner.

"This happens after our Alpha group meetings with our neighboring packs. We go over our peace treaties, making sure everyone is still on the same page with it. Everyone gets attacked by the rogues like us and we all have about the same size packs, but every year we get a visit from Alpha Roukan asking us to step down and join his pack. We refuse him every year."

Ulric growls in disgust at the mention of that sorry excuse of an Alpha. Alpha Roukan has the third largest pack in the United States. He hates having to deal with that man every year, they have a peace treaty together beacuse the man isn't stupid to go against his pack or Alpha Arnou's pack, the second largest pack. Roukan is a horrible Alpha, treats anyone lesser than him like trash, wanting to be worshipped like a king. He tries to expand his pack more every year, hoping to get enough power to take on the Twin Moon pack or Alpha Arnou's pack, the Silver Moon pack.

The Silver Moon pack and the Twin Moon pack are on the best of terms. His dear Freya came from the Silver Moon pack. He met her at his 18th birthday party that the Silver Moon pack threw for him. That was the craziest day of his life, besides being surprised by his second beautiful mate.

"That makes a lot of sense, I wouldn't be surprised if he has rogues under his payroll to put pressure on the small packs for him. Bet he mentions the rogue attacks and promises better protection from his people?" Ulric asks.

" Yes, but we will never join him. That man is a disgrace to the Alpha name. How he ended up in charge of so many wolves, I'll never know, but if this is true, we are going to have a bigger problem on our hands." Freki says and sighs, taking a seat in his chair.

Ulric steps over standing in front of Freki's desk,

"Do not worry, you have the support of my pack behind you. The Silver Moon pack hates the Blood Moon pack just as much as everyone else. Get in touch with the other Alphas you meet with, warn them about what we found and tell them the Twin Moon pack is behind them as well, with no need of anything in return. I'm sure the Silver Moon pack will be behind me on this as well once I talk with Alpha Arnou."

Diana steps up, moving to Ulric's side,

" If I may. I don't think that would be a good idea."

Freki looks at her confused, " Why, the others need to know about this."

Ulric gives her a smile and nods, "Speak your mind Angel, you are going to be an Alpha of my pack as well, you have the right to speak." He reassures her, seeing her a bit nervous about stepping in.

She smiles and nods, "We need proof first before we go to the Alphas about this. First we should take care of the rogues, capture the leader and get him or her to talk. Once we have proof then we will go to the Alphas about this, if we are right about the Blood Moon pack being behind this. You two should know how hard headed Alphas can be, they will want proof."

Ulric smiles more, proud of his second mate for thinking more level headed about this, even though they started this out to just get the revenge she deserves and the closure she needs.

"You're right. We shouldn't get ahead of ourselves without the proof to show it. We shouldn't point fingers at the Blood Moon pack without knowing the full truth. Thank you Angel. We will just stick to getting information on the rogues and coming up with a plan to take them down." Ulric says looking between them.

Freki smiles and nods, standing to shake his hand, " Then we will start there. Thank you for the support, Alpha Ulric."

Shaking his hand, he smirks, " Your welcome Alpha Freki."

Diana gently takes Ulric's hand into hers, "Can I speak with you for a moment?"

"Of course Angel."

"I'll keep you two updated with the team." Freki says.