*Marcus*The notice was prepared almost immediately, with Ben overseeing its creation. But sending it out was proving to be more difficult than its writing. It wasn't such a simple matter of just dispatching the letter.Our pack lands had borders, and between the borders were no man's lands, places where no pack laid claim to and no wolf lived in. It was the safest way for the packs to exist since it limited fighting between the packs. It was the way that we had done it always, and it had always protected us.But it also made communication harder. Almost impossible.And some packs were worse than others.But we still tried. I would try every possible avenue to save my mate.We took heralds to the borders of every pack territory that we could reach. Thankfully, we didn't have to cross into any pack's territory to reach any other pack, that would have been a nightmare in and of itself, and I had no solution to that. It wasn't something that we had to encounter. The Dark Road
*Marcus*The woman still kept her hood covering her face. Her cloak was dark green and heavy, the kind that would be good enough to sleep on, the kind that would protect the wearer through everything.It was little more than an accessory, given that we were wolves, and impervious to all of those things either way.She didn't want to show her face.I had seen her before, but years ago, when I had still been a child. And I didn't remember her, but even if I had, I doubted that it would help in any way. She had probably changed since then. We all had.She spoke very little, and even when she spoke, she acknowledged nothing and gave nothing away."I have not summoned you," I told her simply, denying her words and the implied meaning. "I sent a request to every Alpha and Luna from every pack. And with that request, there was a condition. The same condition that is attached for breaking treaty, for entering pack lands unwarranted. A simple request and simple condition, in our wor
*Marcus*"Follow me," I told her. There was no need for any further arguments or discussions, and there was no time.I had no idea how long it would be before Arealla would succumb to her wounds. So we moved quickly to the room that she was being kept in.I entered first and turned to watch as Vanessa came into the room. I wanted to see what her reaction would be, and I wondered if I would be able to gauge any new knowledge from that.But even as Vanessa entered the room and went straight to Arealla's side, nothing in her face changed. And I learned nothing new.The woman regarded Arealla silently for a moment before speaking."It's poison," Vanessa said, looking down at her daughter. "Someone has poisoned her, I'm not sure that I could say what the poison even is, but it looks painful. She will die from it if she isn't given the antidote."I pursed my lips. That was something that every single wolf knew. That was what I had delivered in the message. The woman had been st
*Arealla*The world was jarring, after being in the Moon Sleep for so long. The Goddess had come to me again. This time, she had stayed so very long. She wouldn't say if I would survive or not, and I don't think it was because she hadn't known. I think it was because she had wanted to give me the chance to see for myself.But she had answered more than a few of my questions. Especially those about myself, and where I came from.I should have gone to the Moon that much sooner.But now she was gone, and I was staring up at the woman that was my mother.I pushed myself into a sitting position, with Marcus cautiously helping me. But I didn't need the help. I knew that I had been dying, that I had been weaker. But everything was different now. I could feel my mother's blood coursing through my veins. It was like liquid gold, healing and spinning everything into place.Once I was sitting, I regarded my mother. She looked so much like me. We had the same eyes, the same lips, the s
*Arealla*My mother's story was sad, and I truly felt for her. But it wasn't everything. She was keeping some things back, and I wasn't ready to let that happen. I had been waiting for so long to hear the truth of everything, I wasn't about to accept any half-hearted truths right now."Okay," I told her while still sitting on the bed beneath the moon. "But how did I end up with Lucille?"I didn't share any exact details about anything Lucille had told me about my origin. I wanted to see if the stories matched, and I didn't want to give Vanessa anything that she would be able to use to fill in any of the blanks."That part of the story is still a ways off," Vanessa answered, and I could tell that part of what she was telling was absolutely the truth. "And there is so much to tell before that."And then she turned away from me, looking into the distance of the horizon, where the dark earth met the black sky.Vanessa didn't speak immediately again, but none of us pushed her. W
*Arealla*I turned to Marcus. I would give him the few minutes that he asked for, but there was nothing that he could say that would make me change my mind.These wolves had thrown me away. They had so many options, so many choices before them. And they had chosen to just give me away to a random human.They could have given me to Marcus' parents. They could have at least tried to get my wolf back. But they didn't. They wouldn't. They would rather have made their daughter an orphan, surrender her to the humans, than do anything that might seem like it was giving in to their enemy.Not even for their daughter's life.There was nothing that Marcus could say that would make me overlook that. I would move the earth for him. But I wouldn't go back to them. Not after the Moon Goddess had guided me to him, and brought me back to the Dark Moon despite all of Vanessa and Thibault's efforts to separate me from him and the pack.I would tell Marcus all of that, and I would say it befo
*Arealla*"What is the third option?" I asked Marcus.Because I knew him. I knew that there had to be something that made sense. There was no way that Marcus was going to put impossible choices in front of me. And definitely not ones where I just died either way.Marcus took a deep breath. And I knew that I wasn't going to like what he had to say."Go back with them," Marcus started to say."Marcus!" I threw my hands up in the air as I spun away from him. "What part of that makes sense?"It was the same thing as option number two. And it meant that we would both just be in excruciating pain. It meant that we would just suffer.Not to mention, it was the exact thing that I just didn't want to do. I didn't want to go back with them, I didn't want to go back to the Crystal Mist. And who would?If I went back with them, it meant that I would have to go back to the people that had just thrown me away. And I would have to forsake the ones that had taken me in. And that just w
*Arealla*I stared at him as he spoke. I had never once seen his expression so open, it was like I was staring at his heart."I want nothing more than to just keep you here with me," Marcus said again. "I want to keep you safe so that nothing happens to you, so that you are never in need of any of them healing you. I want to give you everything that I have to offer. I want to keep you a part of this pack."Marcus spoke easily, and I could hear the truth of his words."But that would not make either of us happy," he said again, shaking his head. "We would come to regret what we had done. I am Alpha, and you are Luna. Our pack needs us. Both of our packs. They are fractured into two pieces, but they are one. And we have the chance now to fix it, to make it whole again. And if we turn away from this now, then we will blame ourselves and each other for the rest of our lives."I knew that he was speaking the truth, it was just that it was too hard to have to accept right now. Marc