Under A Divided Moon

CHAPTER 2- NYRA WINDSOR

Rhys’ pov

I don’t usually get enough sleep, but this time it was worse.

Every time my eyelids shut I saw her.

The way she stood in front of me, the way the moon illuminated her frame, the way her silver sparkled in the light.

The image didn’t leave my head and it still hasn’t.

It followed me all the way to the estate and into my room, refusing to go away despite all my attempts to convince myself to be rational.

My wolf didn’t help either.

It became even more restless beneath my skin throughout the night stopping every attempt to sleep.

Mine.

The word was becoming increasingly irritating.

I had no clue who she was and she wasn’t part of pack.

Hell, she crossed my territory.

Yet somehow my wolf had concluded that she belonged to me.

A knock echoed through the room.

“come in” I answered

Kruz stepped in, “the council is now in session”

I glanced at my wrist to check the time.

“its still early”

“yeah I assume its an emergency”

I nodded. “what do you need?”

“your father wants you there”

of course he did.

“why wasn’t I informed beforehand”

“like I said, emergency”

My father doesn’t just want me at the meeting, he expected me to be there and he doesn’t ask for anything twice.

He has never had to.

Being his first son meant I had certain expectations to meet, an image to carry, a reputation to maintain. Being the next in line meant I had obligations and duties to fufil. And being the future alpha of stormhawl definitely meant there were barely a few morning I get to decide that I didn’t want to attend to my roles.

“ill be out in a second, let me finish up” I said

“we will be waiting”

“before you go,” I started “got any info from the guards?”

His expression changed, “they got nothing unfortunately”

“what about the symbol?”

“no where else”

“good, don’t let anyone get rid of it”

“I didn’t intend to”

“good, you can go now”

He hesitated for a moment, “theres something else you should know just incase”

“whats that”

“your father ordered the meeting himself”

I nodded and he left.

The council hall was almost full when I arrived, each pack and their representatives present

Different conversations, different arguments, organized chaos.

The stormhawl representatives sat to my fathers right, which were Kruz, atlas, thalia and i.

Ironclad had already started arguing about the border breaches, which meant that it wasn’t just stormhawl that got visitors.

Duskveil stayed quiet as usual and observed.

The aurelian pack tried to maintain order when they needed to.

And across the hall sat silverpine.

In that instant my senses caught the same smell, the one I got the night before.

The silver wolf.

Just like it did yesterday, my wolf went still.

Then my head snapped in the direction of the scent.

A female.

She had the kind of face that made people look at twice while walking, the kind that made you stutter. She had shoulder length hair, loose untamed waves that framed her face perfectly, hazel brown eyes that seemed hard at first glance.

There was a quiet intensity in her demeanor.

She doesn’t look half as polished like the rest of the people she’s sitting with but she didn’t need to show and she knew it.

She doesn’t look half as fazed or curious as others.

I’d never noticed her but she felt so familiar.

I stopped staring before anyone could notice.

It was her.

Not the silver wolf.

A woman

The wolf I’d been thinking of all night was a woman.

The wolf that kept me up all night was a woman

A voice called from across the room, “nyra windsor”

I looked up.

She answered.

Her name is nyra windsor.

She got up and her eyes met mine.

There was no surprise, no fear, nothing.

Just acknowledgment.

Then she looked away.

She knows.

“Did you find out who crossed the border yesterday?” my father asked causing me to divert my attention to him

I cleared my throat, “no we didn’t”

“I think it’s the same person that has been violating the border rules” thalia said

“Possibly, but we have to be sure”

The discussion about the border violations continued.

It was established that it was an organized breach consisting of at least three people and the last one was yesterday in duskveiland ironclad.

Unlike duskveil and ironclad, it was only one wolf that crossed our borders which means she isn’t apart of the organized breach but that’s a guess I still have to question her to find out what she was doing in stormhawl territory.

Kruz mentioned that my father called the meeting but knowing him he wouldn’t call the meeting because of one breach, something else happened that I’m not aware of.

“why was the meeting called?” I asked

“can I have everyone’s attention now” my father announced

The room came to a decorum before he spoke again

“so as we all know, there has been border breaches and violations from one or two of the packs gathered here today but I will not be pointing any fingers till I am sure but that’s besidesthe point. There was a symbol found carved on a tree in stormhawl and its recognized as the duskveil symbol but its an old carving nothing more.”

Everyone was attentive now.

“from now on, no wolf is allowed to cross another packs territory without a written authorization until the people behind the breaches are identified. And when they are identified there will be a serious penalty for the violation. That’ll be all for today, thank you for coming.”

After he concluded his speech, everyone separated to converse with people from various packs.

My eyes searched for the woman that caught my attention before.

I found her standing by the door away from everyone, alone.

Perfect.

I walked towards her and she noticed me approach.

She turns to leave but I caught her in the halls before she got far.

“you were at the stormhawl border last night”

She stopped then turned to face me.

“was i?” she tilted her head in question

“you were” I stepped closer, carefully.

Like I didn’t want her to run away again

“you seem to already have your answer”

“are you confirming it”

“can’t confirm nor deny”

I smirked, “tell me why?”

“is that an order?”

She scoffed

“take as whatever you’d like”

“well then you should know that I don’t answer to you”

I smiled.

Shes intriguing.

Her expression changes for the first time into something I couldn’t decipher. She covers her arms.

my moonmark burned almost instantly and our eyes met.

Mine.

She is mine.

“you felt that too”

She didn’t answer

“look, whatever you think happened last night. Forget about it.” She insisted

“why should i?”

“just forget it, I was never at the border”

“im not good at forgetting things, nyra”

“then learn” she rolled her eyes and walked away

I went back into the hall after my conversation with nyra.

People were still talking to one another but I wasn’t interested in talking to the other pack members.

I spotted my sister talking to her friend from ironclad and I walked over to them.

“thalia, when are we supposed to leave here” I spoke as I got closer

She turned to look at me as I approached

“I don’t know, dad said he wanted to speak to you before you left though.”

“about what”

“I heard someone from aurelian saying they’d preferred if we didn’t ignore the symbol so my guess is they want you to carry out a proper investigation”

“great, ill go speak to him”

“have fun”

My father was speaking to people from duskveil when I saw him.

“greetings”

They all smiled in response.

“oh rhys, we were just talking about you” my father said

“yes, we were talking about the symbol you discovered. Aurelian has assigned you with a silverpine to investigate since your territories are closer.” A member from duskveil spoke

“that’s alright, when are we supposed to start investigating?” I asked

“later today, I don’t know who they chose so you’ll find out yourself” my father replied.

From the way he responded I know he wasn’t happy about the arrangement but it made the most sense so it didn’t seem to argue about it.

Stormhawl and silverpine has never gotten along, I never questioned the rivalry cause it dates back to before I was aware of anything.

“well then I’ll leave you to it.”

I said my goodbyes to everyone before I exited the hall to prepare for the investigation.

I’m not entirely sure about what needed to be investigated but I assume my partner was resourceful.

Silverpine.