Run! The Black Wolf's prey.

Chapter 46 - The Luna's gathering

Rebecca was nervously looking at the door, waiting for Warren to walk in. He didn’t though. This was not so surprising; he had said he would refuse to attend this meeting. Still, she had been hoping for him to change his mind. He had been more reasonable in the past, she thought.

She stood up and walked over to the door, and as she was standing in the doorway with her eyes closed, she tried to sense him… But no, nothing. He wasn’t there. And if she couldn’t sense him, it meant he was so far off that he had to be in the woods. He was probably patrolling the pack borders…

He had started doing that again since John left. At least running eased a little of his frustration! It was hard for him and his wolf to deal with John so clearly disobeying his orders. She opened her eyes and closed the door to the great room, turning around to face their guests.

“Thank you all for gathering here today with such short notice,” she said warmly, smiling at the people in the room.

Present were the Lunas of the other packs in the Western tribe, along with a handful of their esteemed elders. Of course, the River Valley Pack's own elders were also attending the meeting.

Rebecca’s mother-in-law Aerwhyna was seated at the left side of the empty Alpha seat - Warren’s massive chair in burnt oak and red velvet. Meanwhile, Rebecca took her place in the Luna seat, a chair similar in style to the Alpha's, but slightly smaller, situated to the right of the Alpha's throne. She faced the others in the room, all settled comfortably in a circle of armchairs.

“As you all know, we have a very urgent matter to discuss,” Rebecca started the meeting. “But it’s also a rather delicate one, and I would appreciate your discretion.”

Everyone nodded.

“Where is Warren?” Aerwhyna frowned. With her long grey hair styled in a low bun, she looked tiny, sitting in that large oak chair. Nevertheless, she used to be quite an intimidating woman! As the pack's Luna, she had been a true matriarch, and a fierce warrior during the Northern Pack Wars. It was still shining through, somehow, even if she since long had retreated to become a full-time grandmother. Everyone respected her greatly, but the pups had always affectionally called her ‘nana’, seeing her as the kindest and most gentle person in the world.

“I don’t think he will come,” Rebecca smiled wearily. “He doesn’t think this is worth discussing. I think he’s forgetting how stubborn our eldest son is, and always has been.”

Aerwhyna shook her head and sighed. “Stubborn as his father, that is.”

“Yes, but I think we’ll manage. Maybe even better without him when it comes to this.” Rebecca looked at the other Lunas and elders in the room. “John, the upcoming Alpha of the River Valley pack, as well as our future leader of the Western tribe, has fallen in love with a human.”

Whispers and gasps rippled through the room. Most of them had heard about John seeing a human, but they didn’t realize it was this serious.

“Do you mean in love, like… Like he wants to mate with her?” the Luna of the Doomridge pack looked at Rebecca in disbelief.

“I’m not really sure what he is thinking, to be honest,” Rebecca clutched her hands in her lap. “All I know is that he has been seeing this woman for a while, and that even though we had agreed upon him leaving her, he has gone back to her, and now… he wants to bring her home. Here, to us.”

The other Lunas gasped. This was the most shocking thing they had heard in a long time!

“Is this the woman that everyone is talking about? The woman in the city, that is affecting every young male wolf that comes in her way?” The Luna of the Woodland Hunters arched her brows. “The one who might be a witch?”

“John is certain that she isn’t. He claims her to be an ordinary human. But I don’t know,” Rebecca raised her hands with a puzzled face, before clutching them again. “All I know is that he is determined not to leave her. And I can tell you, last week when we had convinced him to do so, he was miserable. It was obvious he had a hard time focusing, his mind clearly being somewhere else… And honestly? It was as if the light in his eyes was put out.”

“But that doesn’t necessarily mean he loves her,” Rhianna, the Luna of the Moonvalley Warriors, mused. “Maybe that is simply him addicted to the witch’s scent.”

“True… But I spoke with him yesterday. Now, when he’s with her again… It was quite obvious to me, I could hear it in his voice. He's in love with her. And my son has never been in love before.”

Everyone was looking at Rebecca with shocked eyes. How could they possibly have an Alpha with a human mate? And how could he possibly be the leader of their tribe?

“Well, this was… surprising news,” The Luna of the Yellow Pine pack cleared her throat. “How are you going to proceed?”

“This is why I have gathered you all here,” Rebecca smiled softly. “So that you can help me. I need your advice. And I am especially interested in the wisdom from all our elders,” she looked at them, one by one. However, one of them had fallen asleep, his head fallen back and his mouth open.

“Calder,” Rebecca laughed. “Wake up, old friend.”

The old man woke up with a startle.

“Forgive me, my Luna,” he looked ashamed. “I’m so tired these days.”

“Of course,” Rebecca smiled gently at him. “Do you have any advice for me?”

Calder was the eldest of the elderly in the room, his crippled old frame almost disappearing in his big armchair. He was the great-grandfather of Zack, the Alpha of the Silverstreak Pack, and there wasn’t much regarding the history of the wolves that he didn’t know of.

“Regarding your son…” Calder looked puzzled.

“Yes, my son, John. The future leader of the tribe. And his unfortunate affections towards a human.”

“He’s not the first,” Calder chuckled. “Many men have fallen for those little creatures. Some find it very attractive with their helplessness…”

“No, he might not be the first… But the problem here is not only that John has fallen for her. He is in love. And he refuses to leave her,” Isabel looked at him patiently.

“That is very unusual,” Calder nodded.

“He has to come to his senses,” The Luna of the Doomridge pack intervened. “We all admire John for his knowledge and his battle skills, but this is not acceptable. If he perseveres, we might need someone else to step in as the leader of the tribe.”

“And why is that?” Clovis, one of the other elders belonging to the Yellow Pine pack, asked with one brow arched. “John is still the same. Having a human mate doesn’t change anything.”

“Oh, but it does,” the Luna of Doomridge objected. “He would be weak. His mate would be useless. She wouldn’t be able to become his Luna, and she won’t give him any pups,” she scorned.

“I’m sure my grandson would be able to rule without a Luna by his side,” Aerwhyna said with a calm voice. “He’s a smart boy. And very strong. He will find a way to protect this human of his, and still be able to lead.”

“But they won’t have any pups!” The Luna of Doomridge repeated. “You won’t have an heir!”

“It’s not impossible…” Calder mused with a pensive gaze.

Everyone turned to stare at him.

“What do you mean, Calder?” Rebecca asked.

“Well, as I said before, he’s not the first wolf to fall in love with a human… And I know a few cases when the human has given birth to a child... A wolf child.”

All the Lunas in the room stared at him with disbelief.

“Impossible!” The Luna of the Woodland Hunters exclaimed.

“It’s very rare, I give you that. But impossible? No…” Calden looked up at the ceiling, seemingly deep in his thoughts. “It was a very long time ago,” he nodded, recalling his memory. “And unfortunately…” he paused and closed his eyes.

After some time, Rebecca started to believe he had fallen asleep again.

“Calder?” she said impatiently.

“Yes?” he opened his eyes.

“You were telling us about humans giving birth to wolf pups…” she reminded him, quirking up a brow.

“Ah yes. Unfortunately, those humans... They didn’t survive childbirth. Giving birth to a wolf child is not something a human should do.”

Rebecca shuddered.

“I’ve heard this story,” Aerwhyna’s eyes twinkled as she suddenly remembered. “But I always thought it was a tall tale… I was told that these pups became the most vicious wolves.”

“That’s not entirely true, my lady,” Calden smiled sweetly at Aerwhyna, a few of his teeth missing. “I recall that one of them became very vicious, yes. I think it’s hard to tell whether it was because his mother was human, or if it was because he grew up an orphan.”

Calden paused, squinting his eyes.

“But I have met one wolf once who claimed to have a human mother. He was very late to shift, though. When his younger half-siblings, from a wolf mother, started to shift in adolescence, and he didn’t, his father thought he would stay human forever…” Calden coughed a few times. “The father was a reasonable man, though, even if he had chosen a human mate when he was young, nota bene! So, he let the boy stay as a full member of the pack. And that was very wise of him… Very wise indeed because a couple of years later, the boy shifted. Several years later than the others. But since he had been human for so long, he had much better control over his wolf than the others.”

The room became dead silent, everyone deeply affected by Calden’s words.

“He must have been a very weak wolf, then,” the Luna of the Woodland Hunters eventually broke the silence.

“On the contrary,” Calden shook his head. “He was very powerful. Just as strong as other male wolves, but maybe a little more refined, I’d say.”

“And where are these mix-breed wolves now?” Rebecca asked cautiously.

“The vicious one died a long time ago,” Calden recalled. “During the war, of course… The other one… I think he went south eventually. Or maybe east. I don’t remember.”

“Do you know if he had any pups of his own eventually?”

“Yes, I think he did. Ordinary wolf pups, if I remember correctly. But that was with a wolf mother of course.”

“So… in such case…” Aerwhyna mused. “It’s not totally impossible that John could have pups with his human girl.”

“No, not impossible. However, not very probable,” Rebecca stated.

“But she wouldn’t survive childbirth,” Aerwhyna looked Rebecca straight in the eye.

Rebecca nodded slowly.