Blood Moon Rising: Book One of The Moon Series

Chapter Four || The Prophecy (Xander)

Chapter Four || The Prophecy

Xander probably fed right into Valus’ plan by even glancing down at her a*s. Walking perfection. He gathered all his strength to look away and walk up next to her. “I’ll link Kane and inform him we are on our way.” Xander offered as smoothly as he could already tell the type of effect this is having on both of them.

Taking a moment to think back to the start of the ceremony, Xander thought about when he realized who he had seen that one night by the ocean. As she stood on that stage, beautiful in black. Her hair cascading down her back, flawless in that open-back dress. Legs for days leading all the way up to her thigh. One of the places he’d love to—

“Alright. They’re in the holding cells of the dungeon right?” Valus asked and Xander nodded. Dungeons aren’t nearly as bad as they sound, given that no one has actually been held in years. They were built in each pack’s compound after the rogue wars over a century ago.

Valus’ eyes glazed over, she must be linking someone. Xander did the same as they continued down a long set of stairs.

Kane, the Sea Princess, herself, is coming. Xander chuckled.

That’s great! Because you both are gonna wanna hear this. Kane said seriously over the link, which means this is a dangerous situation.

“Xander… Alpha?” Valus was attempting to speak with him. “Yes. Sorry, I was communicating with Kane. He says the rogues have something interesting to tell us.” Xander smiled. Valus nearly stopped before she looked away quickly, “Cora said her and Remus have everyone secure and taken care of. So no need to worry there. A few of our pack members will be cleaning up the area, and that should be done before we return.”

Nodding as they reached the door leading into the cell area. His wolf is combating him internally over Valus entering such a dangerous situation, but Xander knew better. He had watched her fight long and hard during the attack and how strong her resolve was before leading them to this spot. Xander was not going to be the one to tell her she couldn’t participate.

Valus paused for a moment, causing Xander to look over at her. “Have you ever done this before?” He asked and she surprised him by shaking her head. She didn’t try to be brave or pretend; no, Valus was honest with him and that made him happy. “Well, no fear, neither have I. But it seems to be pretty cut and dry. If it gets out of hand, both Kane and I are here and I’m sure Alpha James will be the first down here to put an end to it all.” Xander offered to reassure her and it seemed to work because he swears he almost saw a smile at the corner of her mouth before it disappeared. Valus lifted the bolt and walked into the cell area with him in tow.

Kane looks up, the rogue before him was passed out and bloodied. “Ah. Hello. He will be awake again soon.” He looked so sheepish, it caused Xander to laugh. Valus jumped visibly only to have Xander pat her shoulder “No it’s okay! He got carried away.” Xander breathed deeply, walking over to the rogue. “So what do we know?”

Kane sighed, “It was a lot of babble honestly. Making it really hard to decipher but I managed to figure out why they were here.” He paused, Valus spoke out “Well???” And Kane smirked lightly before his face turned serious again, “Calm down haha. Anyways, they’re here because of you both. Not just her. Sure it happened on her ascension but they made it seem like the fact that you two were in the same place at once was a big deal.” Kane finished and arched an eyebrow at the silence in the room.

Xander crossed his arms and leaned against the wall, clearly thinking. “So nothing specific right?” Valus spoke out again, “Just a random detail about Xander and I? And are you positive it was about HIM and I?” She visibly pointed at each of them respectively.

Xander could tell Kane became irritated by her questioning of his methods but seemed to calm down relatively quickly, “I’m only sure because both your name AND his name were the only parts I DIDN’T have to beat out of the guy.” Kane chuckled, causing Valus to blush ever so slightly, clearly embarrassed by the bluntness that Kane tends to have.

Xander spoke up, “Okay, okay. So I think the next logical step would be to speak with the elders and our parents. See if there’s any small information they could provide us.” Valus nodded in agreement, “And Kane, continue to work on our friend here. We will keep him to see if he has any friends. I also have a plan for him later.” Valus spoke with a commanding voice, Kane looked sideways at Xander to ensure that those were his orders to which Xander tipped his head just slightly.

“Now, Valus..” Xander places a hand on her shoulder to turn her to face him, “How about I walk you home? We could talk.” He bent down, a lot, to meet her eye to eye. Watching her visibly gulp before her head went up and down in a slow acceptance of his proposal, “Alright then, Kane I’ll check in with you in the morning. I’ll also let Alpha James know we will be staying for the night.” Kane saluted and turned back to his post as Valus and Xander exited the cell holding.

He didn’t stop to think about what he would say to her now that they had a moment to breathe. Oddly enough, this s**t storm happened way too fast and it just didn’t set right with him. Xander huffed to himself and raked a hand through his hair, messing it up more than it usually is before looking over at Valus.

“You’ve been quiet.” Xander mused as he shoves his hands into his pockets, bending slightly to catch her eye, “You don’t seem like the one to be so quiet.”

Valus stopped and looked at Xander, “Usually I’d jump all over this opportunity. Hell! I did!” She laughed, catching Xander off guard. “It’s just I’ve had a lot on my mind that I’m trying to understand.” Those blue eyes scanned his frame, “A LOT of things...” She muttered. Xander chuckled, shaking his head “Trust me. While I may not totally understand tonight’s events, I can understand having a lot on your plate.” Xander smiled at her and Valus let a small smile graced her lips before she looked towards the house. “ We have a guest bedroom. I’m assuming you’re staying for the night since Kane will be here?”

Xander’s wolf pouted because he thought he was getting somewhere here. “Yes ma’am. I’ll happily accept your offer, thank you. I’ll be giving my father a link in the morning to inform him of what we just found out and see what I can learn.” Valus agreed, “I’ll be doing the same thing, except I’ll be in the library around noon to see if there’s anything about a badass soon to be alpha and a mutt together.” She winked being snarky as she walked away. A deep rumble sound came from Xander’s chest as he followed her into the house, goddess she will be the death of him.

Once inside the house, Valus has led him up the stairs and to the right. They arrived in front of a door, presumably leading to the guest room. Pausing, Xander looked down at her. His gaze made her shuffle on her heels which made him a little happy. “Thank you for escorting me.” Xander smiled at her which earned him a smile back. “Good night.” She said quickly and turned, quickly taking her leave. Xander watched her scurry away with his head tilted slightly and a smile pulling at the corner of his lips. A chuckle came softly across his lips as he turned to the door and opened it to a pretty nice room. It wasn’t magnificent but he wouldn’t expect it to be with it just being a guest room.

He stepped in and closed the door behind him quietly and walked over to the bedside to turn on the side lamp. Craning his neck from one side to the other he turned and sort of just dropped onto the bed. His wolf is running amuck inside him at the proximity of their mate but the inability to reach her is driving it insane. Murmuring to himself, Soon. We just have to give her time. He flopped the rest of his body onto the bed after kicking off his shoes and closed his eyes, falling into a quick dream filled sleep.

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“Yes Father.” Xander pinched the bridge of his nose as his father spoke. Nothing came of the conversation besides the sense that Michael did not want to be bothered right now. Xander rolled his eyes as the link closed. He growled, “Stupid, useless..” He takes his hands through his hair. Alright, maybe the books might help. Plus he’d get to see her... Xander paused in his thoughts, he really needs to stop this for right now. The situation is too dangerous. In addition to that, he knows he affects her but that does not mean she feels the same. He really thought this mate thing would be a very different feeling.

He paced the room as he opened his mind to Remus. How’s it going?

Remus sounded groggy as he replied, Good good. Just woke up. Cora gave me a place to rest. Everyone seems settled so Cora was going to take me to meet up with the Blood Moon pack’s gamma in training, Liam.

That’s good. Kane is still working over one of the two rogues we got our hands on. I’ll be rejoining him soon. For now, I’ll be meeting with Valus to look into some information we obtained last night. Xander decided to start getting dressed.

Remus chuckled through the link, I’m sure you’re finding some pleasure in all this. Getting to be holed up with your Sea Princess.

Shut up. Xander closed the link as he started pulling his shirt over his head. And just as the door slammed open, “Guess what I found—!” Valus stopped mid sentence, catching Xander with his shirt half on. A smirk appeared and he not so quickly fixed his shirt, “Do you all not knock around here? I mean I’m not complaining since it’s you, but I’m sure we will have some problems if an omega graced me with their presence.” Xander chuckled, turning his body towards her, crossing his arms.

Valus stuttered, “I’m SO sorry! I was just excited to say I found what we were looking for. Do you need some more time?” She asked, watching him. Valus was in black short shorts with a plain black tee shirt and barefoot. “Nope. No more time needed. What did you find?” Xander motioned for her to follow him to the study table in his room to which she did.

“Alright!” She sat the book down, the name so worn he could barely make it out. Valus continued, “Okay so this is a really old book from a collection that stays in my father's study... don’t ask'' Xander shut his questions down, “Anyways, it’s basically a tell about a prophecy. Do you know about the original wolves created by the Moon goddess?” Valus glanced at him and he quickly nodded, “Yeah, the first asked for a companion and they go on to populate the world.”

“Alright, good! So apparently, while we are all directly descended from them, there have been pairs across history perfectly matched for each other. If they stay on the Moon Goddess’ path, they will lead the packs into a new part of the legacy. Basically every time we’ve advanced as a race, one of the pairs were involved.” She paused and looked at him while he studied her, “I’m still listening. Go on. What happens if they don’t stay on the goddess’ path?” Xander asked with a smile.

Valus was bent over the book, and started turning pages quickly, looking for something and stopped. Pointing at a passage, “Okay, so if they don’t; it’s supposed to bring an end to the peace. A peace we thought as a whole; the Blood Moon pack, Harvest Moon pack, Waning Moon Pack, etcetera we kept ourselves. No, the peace only remains as long as the pair does what they’re supposed to, but that’s not listed anywhere I could find.” Valus’ eyebrows came together in confusion as she flipped a few more pages.

“So..” Xander stopped her page turning, “Does that say anything about the rogue wolves? I mean, we haven’t had such a high scale attack from them since the rogue wars.” Valus’ body perked up as she turned the book to the middle somewhere, “See! That’s one of the times a pair left the path. That war set us back... decades! The peace was dissolved within mere inches of us turning on each other.” Xander nodded along, starting to see where this was going, “So the rogues are here again but apparently WE” he thumbed back and forth from himself to her, “are the fated pair, correct?” It once again reminded him of the goddess’ words… this is definitely becoming a lot bigger than he thought.

Valus nodded slowly, “It seems to be the only logical explanation to why only our names came up. But we aren’t a pair, HELL we’ve barely known each other for more than 24 hours. Even less than that actually.” With that she grew quiet into her thoughts.

Xander sat back in his seat, arms crossed again as he contemplated all the possible solutions. “Maybe we don’t have to be together as a mated pair. Just together in the sense that we will do what’s best for our packs.” Xander offered and he didn’t quite understand why it hurt a little when she nodded in understanding, “Of course! But we won’t really know unless we can find some examples from the past.” She smiled at him and his wolf clawed to get out and embrace her. To forget all of this and start building for each other.

Xander stood and patted her hair, “You seem to be good at finding information like this so I will definitely leave this to you. I’m going to meet up with Kane and see if anything new has come up. You should also check in with your beta and gamma.” To that Valus nodded and replied “Great! Just let me know what you find okay?”

“Always.” He grinned before leaving her to her book.

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Xander met up with Kane in the dungeon cell holdings. “How’s it going man?” He walked in and Kane was relaxing against the wall. Kane looked up, “You’ve got to hear this. I would have linked you but I figured you’d be busy with Valus.”

Xander nodded, “We found the information and it turns out to be a prophecy telling about a pair of wolves destined to either carry on the Moon Goddess’ legacy or destroy it. Depends on how they fall on the chessboard.” Kane took in that information and chuckled, “You sound infatuated Alpha.” Which earned him a punch in the shoulder from Xander, “No one asked you... Anyways, what’s going on here?”

Kane pushed himself off the wall, motioning for Xander to follow him to a cell different from last night. “Meet Jax. He isn’t their leader but close enough. Apparently their Alpha got away in the scramble last night. Anyways,” He kicked the rogue's foot hard, “Wake up, you Mutt. Wanna tell my friend here what you told me?” To which the rogue snarled and snapped at Kane, earning him a swift but easy punch to the jaw. “I thought we talked about this last night, mutt. Play nice and speak up.”

The rogue chuckled and looked just down right evil as he looked directly at Xander, “The prophecy will pass. Maybe, you should ask your mate about her past. Maybe she isn’t daddy’s little princess. Maybe she was born to destroy your world.”

Xander raised an eyebrow at the cryptic, creepy man. “All doom and gloom of course.” Xander glanced at Kane with a smirk, “Isn’t that something all the bad guys have to perfect to be… well, bad guys.” His chuckle came from low in his chest, crossing his arms. The rogue stared at him, clearly being serious and looking annoyed at the mocking. “What prophecy are you talking about?” Kane asked him. Ares shook his head, “All we need to do is get her on our side and we will rule like we should’ve been doing this entire time.”

“What I don’t understand is… rogues deflect from pack life because they cannot handle being a part of it. Why would you turn to being a grunt for yet another “alpha”?” Xander shrugged his shoulders as Ares chuckled himself, “The things I like doing, well, weren’t exactly approved of from where I came. But now I get to do what I want to do.”

Just as Xander was going to open his mouth, Valus came running down the dungeon stairs, “Cora and Remus are gone!” She huffed out in a slight panic. Xander glanced at the rogue then to Kane. What the hell is going on here?