Under the Crescent Moon

Chapter 10

Devon’s POV

I don’t want to spend even a minute apart from my mate, even if she doesn’t want me. Even if I have to hide myself so she doesn’t know I’m even there.

I get out of the vehicle, and walk back towards the Mason’s camp site, not really caring what Troy does. As I get close to the campsite, I head a ways into the trees, undress, and shift into my wolf River. Then I hide in the bushes near enough that I can see and hear pretty much everything that the Masons do. A few minutes later I was joined by Yarrow, Troy’s pale gold colored wolf.

So what happened, man? Troy asks via mind link.

She knows everything, I answer. I shifted in front of her, and it didn’t go well. I warned her not to run, but she’s afraid of me.

Did she reject you?

Not yet, I answer. Then I explain to Troy about her agreeing to date me, but that she had insisted on me telling her how to reject me. And how she had questions about turning, and the status of our potential children. I get the feeling that she intends to reject me as soon as she’s 18, or not long afterwards.

Im sorry, Troy says. It was way too soon to spring all that on her.

Maybe, I agree. But she also said that it was better that she knows now, that she would have been really pissed off if I had hid all this from her. So it’s hard to know what would have been best.

We watch, hidden away, as Tara’s mom begins making dinner while the boys tell their parents about their awesome day at the lake, and how they went zip lining and water skiing.

“What about you, Tara?” Her dad Mike asks. I see that he’s using a rather large knife to turn a large branch into a walking stick. “Did you have fun today?”

“I guess,” She answers. My ears perk up to listen to what she says. “Devon goes to Washington state university, and he says he wants to date me.”

“Do you like him?” Her mom Jessica asks as she chops some vegetables. “He seems like a nice young man.”

“I guess I like him,” Tara says, and I start to feel a little spark of hope. “He’s maybe a bit intense, though. I promised I’d go on a couple dates with him, but I don’t know if I’d be all that interested in anything serious or long term.”

“Good girl,” her father says, giving her a kiss on the forehead. “You’re still young! Enjoy yourself, and don’t just settle for the first young fella to catch your eye.”

“Says the man who claims to have fallen for me at first sight!” Jessica says, setting down the green onion she was about to chop, and then they kiss deeply.

“And I’m still madly in love with you!” Mike claims when they come up for air, giving his wife’s ass a squeeze. Tara shakes her head at them and heads into the tent.

“Yuck!” Jayden shouts, and runs off into the forest not far from where Yarrow and I are hidden, Gavin in hot pursuit of his younger brother, who begins to taunt him.

“Nya nya, Gavin can’t catch me!”

I’m still not positive those hooligans aren’t wolf pups in disguise, Troy claims.

Do you suppose one of us should keep an eye on them, that they don’t get lost?

Eh. Might accidentally frighten them. Anyway, it’s easy enough to track a human child with our noses, Troy reminds me.

True.

I watch as the Masons continue to work on making dinner, since I have nothing better to do. Apparently Mrs. Mason is making some sort of middle eastern chickpea fritter thing called felafel, along with a cucumber and tomato salad, and pita bread. It reminds me that I hadn’t considered dinner, and I was starting to get hungry.

We could still hear the boys playing off in the distance, but the sounds were becoming faint. I don’t recall ever reading or hearing anything about a human’s natural ability to find their way around, unless it was about how easily they get themselves lost. I could tell that Troy/Yarrow was starting to grow concerned as well.

Fine, let’s go collect the hooligans.

But then I hear something between Tara’s parents that causes me to pause.

“Do you think we should tell Tara about what I am?” Mike is saying quietly to Jessica.

“No. She’s human,” I hear Jessica reply softly. “Why would you bring that up?”

“Because those boys she’s been hanging out with, I’m pretty certain are werewolves.” Mike says, and I’m absolutely floored! How had he figured that out? Who told him? “I may not have a wolf, but I know my own kind. I wouldn’t want her to get in over her head and mixed up with some wolf man, only to end up rejected and heartbroken like I was by my mate. That was the absolute worst feeling in the world!”

“But then you met me,” she reminded him, and they kiss once again.

“And we lived happily ever after!”

“Yes, we have!” Jessica says with a smile at her husband. And she starts whipping up some weird sauce called tahini thats supposed to go on top of the chickpea fritters. Then she is checking the temperature of the pan on the little camp stove, as she gets ready to cook the fritters. “Dinner will be ready in about 15 minutes. You might want to go round up the boys.”

“Sure thing, sweetie!”

Can you believe this guy? I say to Troy/Yarrow, and we follow behind Mike as he heads in the direction of his sons voices. A little ways in, Mike suddenly turns around, brandishing the knife at us. Troy and I instantly shift.

“Why would you want to keep Tara and I apart if we are fated mates?” I ask the man. “Especially when you know exactly what it’s like to be rejected!”

“You heard all that back there, huh?” He asks, putting the knife away when he sees that it’s us, and we don’t immediately attack him. “Well, I don’t want my daughter hurt like I was, do I?”

“I have no intention of hurting Tara,” I tell the concerned father. “I want to make her Luna of my pack. She’s the one who wants to reject me! She was terrified of me when she saw my wolf. Why doesn’t she know what you are?

“So you’re an alpha, huh?” Mike says, thinking for a moment. “Well, it never mattered before. I’m just some nerdy rejected omega with no wolf, married to a human, and so far all the kids seem to be human. So it never seemed important to tell them anything.”

“You sure about those boys?” I say, thinking I had sensed something about them. “Because I swear they act just like wolf pups, and I’m absolutely certain the youngest is a wolf, and possibly the older boy as well. When does Gavin turn 16?”

“December,” Mike says, sounding uncertain. “Are you sure? You’re not just winding me up, are you?”

“Nope.” I say. “I can’t sense any wolf from you or Tara, but those boys most likely will have them.”

“Alright,” the man replies, resigned to the fact that he needs to talk to his family about this, and soon.

“So which pack are you from!” Troy asks the man.

“Emerald, and I work for Emerald industries as a computer programmer,” he replies. “But because my mate and kids are human we’ve been living off of the pack territory. I figured it was safest for them.”

“That was probably a pretty wise thing to do,” I say. “Contact me if you need any help explaining things to the boys, or if you want any help when they have their first shift.”

“Thanks, I appreciate that!” He says. Then he calls out to the boys that they need to be heading back for dinner now.

Troy and I shift back into our wolves, and run off just as the boys come into view. We decide to head back home for our dinner, thankful that we could have BBQ ribs for dinner rather than that vegan stuff that the Masons were eating.

After dinner, I shift once more into my wolf River and head back to the campground. I intend to stay there and watch over my mate until they leave. The family isn’t at their tent, however.

I have a hunch they are enjoying the hot springs one last time. Thankfully I had brought along a sack containing my swim shorts and a towel, just in case. As well as some snacks.

After shifting back into my human, I pull on the swim trunks, then go pay the entrance fees for the hot springs, praying to moon goddess that they are inside. And I find that my prayers are answered. I see that Tara is in the same hot spring as her folks, but sitting some distance from them and looking glum. She looks up as I walk past. Her brothers I spy are in the Olympic sized swimming pool.

I choose to sit in one of the other hot spring pools, just in case Tara doesn’t want to talk with me. But if she feels the mate bond even a tiny bit, I doubt she can resist. And not more than 3 minutes pass before she joins me.