Blood moon

Chapter 30. Moonlight

They left the house feeling happy. Hunter knew that the people would be looking to blame her in one way or another, she did not want them to judge her without knowing the whole story. Even if she didn't know the details of her intimate relationship with that man, she had seen how he had raised his hand with the intention of attacking her, plus he had tried to do it again in the company and even dared to try to blame her.

—I want you to know a very special place— he had decided to take her to an exclusive area for the pack, by this time of day there might be a few werewolves prowling the area, but Hunter's scent was enough to keep them at bay.

—In the middle of the forest? You're not planning to kidnap me, are you?— Andrea watched the back of the man who was guiding her, both had backpacks on with some supplies they prepared to have a nice lunch in the middle of the place.

She felt happy to be able to share this kind of scenario with him, but at the same time she felt worried, because she realized how little she really knew the man. She wanted to find out who his contact was within the Halland's company, because she had such a sense of familiarity with Harley and Mr. Halland, they even seemed like family.

Could they be? Andrea wondered. If so, that would explain a lot of things, among them how the sheriff seems to know about the love affairs she seems to have, but the man in front of her didn't seem open to tell her those sordid details, about whether he really had that kind of blood connections.

—If I was going to do that, I would have done it the first night we stayed together— he commented in a joking tone —Better hurry up before the clearing fills up," he exclaimed running a little, getting out of her sight.

Andrea ran to meet him, he was absolutely right, she said to herself. It was beautiful, the way the trees covered the area looked like a scene from a painting, then when she took one more step, she realized they were not alone, it was a wolf.

Its nose had poked out between some bushes, you could see how its breathing was heavy, its claws were digging deep into the ground and its eyes seemed to be analyzing its every move, Hunter realized that the human was terrified watching one of the females of the pack.

He cleared his throat to make her notice who it was in case her scent hadn't been enough of a warning, the she-wolf immediately lowered her head feeling bad for meddling in the affairs of one of the alphas of the pack, the little Omega made a crying sound before running away at full speed, fearing what kind of punishment they might give her.

Andrea put her hand on the man's chest, feeling that her world was upside down, she felt as if it was the last minutes she had in her life, her heart was pounding against her chest, Hunter held her in his arms, feeling guilty for not having warned her what would happen.

—I'm sorry, breathe, I should have warned you before coming— the man puffed out his chest with a big breath —This clearing is called "Moonlight", it's common to see wolves coming to drink.

Andrea took a couple of deep breaths.

—Wolves?— she looked a little terrified

—You don't need to be afraid, most of them are used to seeing humans in the area— she seemed not to believe him -They won't attack you and this is a protected area to preserve them.

—I had never heard of that.

—It's because we don't want it to be full of tourists that ruin everything, even if you ask the younger people in town they won't know about the clearing, it's something private that we keep for the founding families of the town— the way she said it, the pride she carried made Andrea feel guilty for being scared.

It was evident that the werewolf was opening up to her, he wanted her to be part of the pack little by little.

—That's a funny name for a lake, it seems to have something to do with werewolves— Andrea joked looking for a place to sit on the ground, the air was cool under the tree she chose.

—Actually, it's because of the goddess.

—Goddess?— I asked curious.

—Yes, there is an ancient legend among the men of this town, it is rumored that since before colonial times, when the men walked on the land they found two wolves, they were small puppies, they had lost their mother, but they did not leave her body lying near this lake, Then the man adopted them— Hunter felt uncomfortable sharing the history of his people with her —The man buried the body of the she-wolf, he helped the cubs, years went by, when they grew up they were gigantic wolves, they helped him hunt, he created his own tribe— there was a long silence.

—What happened?— the human dared to ask, fearing that a not so pleasant part of the story was coming.

—The man considered the wolves his children, until he had his own. The animals played with the children who became men, everything was going well until there was a disease that began to kill the humans, they were desperately looking for the cause, but they couldn't find it.

—They blamed them— declared Andrea.

—That's right, even if it didn't make any sense they did that, the man to protect them sent them back to the forest by the lake, he begged them to stay here that he would come to look for them, for about two full moons they waited for him, but the man didn't come.

—Did he die?— was the only thing he could think of that could have happened.

—No, he was seriously ill. A guru had told them that the blood of the guilty animal could heal him, then they thought of the wolves, one of the sons who grew up with the wolves came to kill one of the wolves, he was too weak to defeat the animal, he fell to the ground hurting himself, when the wolf approached to see if he was ok, with the greatest treachery he stabbed him— These stories were the worst part of his story, he felt very sad to have to tell them this —the blood of both covered the lake that day, the water took on a red color that stayed. It was then when the other wolf arrived, seeing his dead brother and the human he once loved by his side, he understood what happened, he felt anger and sadness.