Upper Moons Novels & Stories

Alpha Ulric let the men talk amongst themselves while they took in the information. “What packs are doing this? What Alphas and Alphas-to-be are doing this?” Alpha Reese from New Moon said. “At least Cold Moon, Eclipse, Far Side, Storm Moon, Mead Moon, and Crescent Moon. I suspect there may be more,” Alpha Ulric said. More murmurs and talking.

Luna, in turn, regaled them with cosmic anecdotes, weaving a tapestry of celestial wonders that captivated the Blackmoon audience. As the night deepened, the moon cast its silvery glow over the Blackmoon landscape. Luna, surrounded by the warmth of newfound friends, felt a sense of cosmic kinship that transcended the boundaries of realms. The Blackmoon enclave, once veiled in shadows, now stood as a testament to the transformative power of celestial intervention.

he said quietly. The moons above flickered faintly. For a brief moment, one of them seemed to fade into shadow. Then something impossible happened. Far beyond the familiar moons, a faint new light appeared in the sky. A small, pale moon slowly emerged from the darkness. Lyra stared in disbelief. “That’s not possible,” she whispered. There had always been twenty moons. Always. But now… there were twenty-one. The strange new moon glowed dimly, almost like a ghost hiding behind the others.

How fucking lame is that? ‘The mobile,’ Ares grumbles from the abyss. His reminder brings my attention to the hanging structure above my son’s bed. Walking closer, I gaze at it. It is beautifully crafted. The tent covering the moon is a beautiful navy blue, constellations’ decorate the top, reminding me of the night sky. Underneath sits the triple moon. Upon closer inspection, a key sits in the full moon at the center. Wolves circle the moon, their howling and running figures hanging by fish wire.

Ben leaned forward slightly, his expression serious. “The Luna Moon,” he said. “The day of your wedding and coronation coincides with the Luna Moon. It’s when the moon is crescent-shaped and at its apex in the sky. A celestial event has been the foundation for every coronation and royal mating ceremony for generations and yours is the Luna Moon,” “Yeah,” Atticus chipped. “For my parents, it was the Aurora Borealis. The Northern Lights.” He added.Realisation dawned on me, and I sat up straighter.

“Almost as if—” “Dad!” Nick slammed his hand on my bedside table. The water glasses rattled. James pressed against my side. “Are you mad?” he whispered. “Like Mom used to get?” Everyone froze until you could hear a pin drop. I saw Ethan’s hands clench into fists. “No, sweetheart.” I stroked James’s hair. “Just grown-up stuff. Tell me more about those moons.” “Well…there’s one called Europa that’s covered in ice! And Io has volcanoes! And—what about Lila Junior?” he suddenly exclaimed. “That’s a good name, right?”

He gulps the last of his water, crushes the empty bottle in his hand until it scrunches into a ball, then hurls the fisted plastic into the farthest depth of the forests beyond us at inhuman speed. The baritone in his voice drops a notch below. “We’ll end him.” I'm about to ask what the plan will be in detail, when my mind drifts to the date of the next full moon. Only a few days away now, the date coincides with… the night of the School's Winter Formal. Shane balls both his hands into fists, inhaling, then stares up at the reddening sky. “Dreadborn will fall on the next full moon. I'll make damn certain of it.”

“Baby . . . no. There’s no atmosphere up there. You’d just be a pincushion for radiation.” “Weres on the moon?” Zaneasks, walking up to me in the kitchen. He doesn’t look like he slept much. I hand him a mug of coffee. “Yup.” “Have they been over moonless planets yet?” “Yes.” “Can’t howl ’cause sound doesn’t carry?” “Yes.” “Pluto’s five moons?” “Also yes.” “The asphyxiation?” “Just now.” “Great. They must be about to wrap up.” He reaches for the sugar. I stop him with a hand on his wrist.

All of them were the living memory of what this pack is. The space between the moons. She had read about it in the first notebook, the first year Ivory Voss was in the territory. The space between the moons is not nothing. It is, in fact, where we live. She had read it many times. She understood it now in the way she understood things that had been true before she named them. The space between the moons was not the dramatic arc. The space between the moons was not the peak of the thing or the arrival of the thing or the naming of the thing.

"Because I asked you to." So, I stayed. I sat on the east wing window seat with the curtain pulled back three inches with my notebook in my lap and nothing written in it, while I watched the grounds. The perimeter lights ran in a chain along the north wall and bent around the west corner and the gap between them. At midnight the grounds were still. At twelve-eleven they weren't. Two figures moved through the exact gap with deliberateness like they had memorised where the light stopped. They weren’t running; rather they were walking, low and fast, following the line of the treeline along the north edge where the shadow was deepest.