Preparations

Cassie started unloading the truck with her sisters. Everyone was working hard to get ready for that night’s festivities, and she definitely couldn’t be seen slacking. Tonight marked the beginning of the Harvest Moon festival, and her pack, Sableridge, was hosting for the first time in 19 years, the last time being the year of her birth.

Evelyn carried in the extra decorations, while she and Nora brought in boxes of plates and flatware. There was a nervous energy in the air, full of wary excitement.  The last time that their pack had hosted the festival was marked as the beginning of a great upheaval for them and all of the packs in their country. A war had broken out between all those assembled. That was when they were born - Cassie and her sisters are triplets, the only children born to the Alpha and Luna of their pack. They were born in a shelter where their mother, Luna Helena had been hiding with the others who were unable to fight. It was there, aided by the older women of the pack, that she gave birth to their three daughters. It was rumored that the rush of power their father, Alpha Brahm, felt from their entrance into the world was what gave him the edge to defeat the other warriors and maintain this land, and more, for his people.

There was a lot of excitement surrounding the festival, chief amongst those, the hope that the three sisters might find their mates that very night. It was well known that one had the best chance of finding their one true mate at the annual festival, when most of the packs came to celebrate together, with the hope to form new, and more powerful alliances. Cassie, for one, wasn’t particularly moved by this thought. She had no immediate desire to find her mate and settle down. To attain and manipulate power, bring forth children and continue their family line. She knew that was what was expected of her, Evelyn and Nora, but she couldn’t find it in herself to get too jumped up about it.

As they helped move tables, hang decorations, and make sure that the caterers had everything that they needed, the sisters talked excitedly about that night’s festivities. Nora desperately wanted to find her mate. “Don’t you just want to know what he’s like?!” She sighed. The idea that some handsome, brooding stranger was going to show up tonight and change her world, was practically all that she thought about. 

“Please…” scoffed Evelyn. “The only thing that these wolves care about is power. They’re hoping to arrive, be mated to one of us, and take over the pack from father. I don’t have time for any of their false promises. I hope to God that I’m not mated to anyone foolish enough to show up here and think that they’re immediately going to rise to power.”

Nora whined, “Come on Evie, don’t ruin it! Cassie, tell her how amazing it’s going to be!”

I wanted to help my lovelorn sister, but all I could do was shrug. “I’m honestly not that fussed about it, sis. Whatever is going to happen tonight is out of my control. I’m not actively searching for anything, I just hope that everything goes well and that no one dies because of anyone’s power-crazed madness.”

“You’ve both gone bananas.” Nora said with a heavy eye roll. “No one is going to die tonight, why are you so morose? Not everything ends in a war.”

“How can you be so naive?” sneered Evelyn. “We were literally born during a war that broke out during the last time we hosted this insanity. I’ll be more shocked if nothing of consequence happens, and it all goes smoothly.”

Before they had time to let the smoldering of their argument ignite into a full-blown inferno, a booming voice brought them to attention.