I am the Moon Spirit

Mates, rogues and conspiracies

"I'm glad you have kept your word, Danielle." Alpha Henry was the first to speak when they all finally settled in the living room of the Lewis pack's main house. "Despite our agreement I still feared you would not come."

Danielle nodded her head softly. "I was hoping I wouldn't have to. But it was only fair I did, since you kept your word."

Victor, Leo and Aiden exchanged a look before glancing at alpha Henry, who was grinning.

I hate that you're always right, Leo complained through their mind link.

I'm more bothered by the fact she considered not coming, Aiden pointed out.

She's exactly like Leo's grandmother. Henry informed them.

Aren't we going to talk about the fact a human knocked out several of our men? Victor furrowed his brows a little.

Alyssa, Nash and Logan were all having a particular conversation of their own as well. Even though the main subject was Alyssa's runaway act.

Meanwhile alpha Samuel, his daughter and Marlene were quietly staring at the huntress with interest.

"She doesn't look like much," Samuel's daughter said in a very small voice, but Danielle still heard her.

"Looking extraordinary would defeat the purpose of what I do," she replied without really looking at the girl. "When you look like a threat you can't really surprise your targets, can you?"

The girl didn't say anything back, so Danielle turned towards her.

"Besides I like it better when they underestimate me." She smirked. "Winning tastes better that way."

Danielle's grin only grew wider when she heard the other woman growl at her defying tone.

Sensing the sudden tension in the room the other werewolves all turned their attention to alpha Joshua's daughter. It all happened too fast.

One moment the woman was advancing towards Danielle. The other, they were both on the floor. With the huntress on top pressing a very sharp looking blade against the she wolf's throat.

"Okay..." Leo got to his feet first and approached Danielle. He placed a hand on her shoulder in a friendly manner. "Let's not get too excited."

Danielle hummed in reply and accepted his help to get to her feet. She didn't turn away from the other woman though. She had dealt with enough supernaturals to know when they were plotting something. But she wasn't the only one. Joshua seemed to know his daughter quite well and by the look on her face he had just reprimanded her through their mind link.

~x~

After the small commotion things went much more smoothly. With Marlene and alpha Henry ushering everyone to the dining room so they could eat and move on with the main event: questioning the supposed Moon Spirit.

Danielle was never going to admit how nervous she really was about being surrounded by so many alphas. She already felt significantly comfortable around Leo and Alyssa, because both had friendly and easygoing personalities. But their mates were the complete opposite. Well, at least Alyssa's was.

The man named Logan, and Leo's mate was also a prince. As a matter of fact, the huntress learned he was one of Alyssa's brothers and that he was quite playfull. But it was clear by his constant menacing glares to Joshua's daughter that he should not be meesed with.

Aiden was just a typical rude werewolf. Danielle didn't like him, but she understood him and his behavior. She had dealt with many like him before. Men like Aiden usually got carried away by their instincts and wolf spirits. Despite not knowing him very well - and not wanting to - Danielle knew he was a loyal person and would pose a challenge if they ever had to fight each other.

As lunch went by the huntress used her time to give all the unknown faces a name and to learn a bit about them. She did not engage on their conversations, no matter how many times they tried to pull her in. She would answer a few questions, but not all.

When they were finally done eating it was already late in the afternoon, Danielle noticed. She didn't comment, but she wanted to leave and would be grateful if they simply asked what they wanted to know about the rogues so she could leave as soon as possible.

Marlene and a few other members of the Lewis pack helped clean the table before their Luna sat back down.

"I think it's time we address the reason we're all here today," alpha Henry started and all paralel conversation ceased.

This man might be able to read minds after all, Danielle thought a bit amazed.

"This is Danielle," he gestured over the table in her direction. "We've crossed paths by chance, but each and everyone of us have been affected by her actions."

Everyone listened attentivelly to the man's speech. He told them about how she helped save Leo. And even mentioned several of her killings and the impact it all had in preventing wars she didn't even know were about to happen. In fact, the informations was so surprising she found herself more and more confused by it all.

This doesn't make any sense. Danielle furrowed her brows in deep thought. Henry mentioned there were sightings of warriors scouting other pack lands and killing patrollers on the area and that tension was building up between the alphas. But as Danielle remembered how many of the rogues she healed were simply cursed it reminded her of something one of them told her. "This war you're talking about."

Her voice was small, but still managed to silence all the alpha and everyone's attention was turned to her.

"What about it?" Joshua was the one to speak.

"Someone..." The huntress' eyes were all over the place as she organized her line of thought. "Someone is trying to start a war."

"No one is trying to start a war, stupid" Joshua's daughter mumbled, as always not as low as she expected.

"Cursed rogues do what they're ordered to do. Those rogues you're talking about, the ones I managed to heal, they were unaware of what they were doing and when they woke up they didn't even know where they were. But the attacks you're describing were structured."

Danielle looked at the faces staring at her for a second - eyes lingering a bit longer than she wanted on the man they called Nash. He had beautiful clear eyes and a kind expression that reminded her of how peaceful and safe it felt when her brother was still alive.

"Please, explain what you mean." Marlene asked with a bit of a worried expression.

"What I mean is that the rogues I healed, which supposedly stopped a few wars from happening were not from here. They were being used by someone else." Danielle gestured with her hand as if to get her point across. "Someone else is trying to get the packs here against each other. Rogues can't really strategize. Mourning rogues are quite literally brain dead, and cursed ones are like animals on a leash."

Marlene gasped. Alyssa sat up straight on her chair.

All the others were now paying doble attention to her words.

"You wanted me to explain what I said the last time I was here, so pay attention." Danielle sighed softly. "Every supernatural can turn rogue. Usually they can't help it. There are two types of rogues though: mourning rogues are beings that lost their mate, while cursed rogues are beings that have been bound by magic and blood."

"Mourning rogues are always violent and cannot be trusted. They're creatures of pure instinct and have no regards for honor, rules of engagement, nor common sense. They can't be healed. They're hurting, so they take out on anything that crosses their path. But sometimes they retain some of their past memories, so they can show up at strange places and do weird stuff." Danielle took a sip of the juice Marlene had offered her earlier. "Cursed rogues are not like that. They are just trapped in a sleep like state, and they're controled by someone else. I'm not sure, but it's almost like another conscious takes over their body."

"So, like they're possessed?" Logan questioned, just to make sure.

Danielle nodded.

"And you can heal these rogues?" Danielle felt a shiver run down her spine as a new voice reached her ears. When she turned to look at the person she found those same clear eyes and kind face staring calmly at her.

"Y-yeah..." she almost felt breathless. But was able to regain control of herself soon enough and managed to look away.

Her reaction actually managed to get a small smile out of Nash as he kept looking at her wainting for her to continue, but Danielle didn't see that.

"I know how to knock them out without killing their bodies. I only need them down for long enough so that I can break the curse. The only problem is that I haven't been able to track down the source of the power holding them. It's usually easy, but whoever is doing this is either extremelly powerful, or not working alone." The huntress played with the juice glass for an instant. "It's just... Up until now I thought it was just some wizard being mischievous. But if there's really someone trying to start a war, as it seems to be the case, it means I'll be extremelly busy very soon."

The table was silent, so the sound of Nash's low growl startled everyone.

"I swear to the goddess..." Victor rolled his eyes when he caught sight of the future king's glowing eyes as he stared at Danielle. "Too many matings. Too little time."

"You're not dealing with this situation on your own," Nash said in a slightly irritated voice.

"Ah, shit..." The huntress mumbled while getting to her feet. Danielle was panicking internally.

There's just no way!

'You knew this was going to happen someday, Dani.' A quiet voice echoed inside her head. 'I told you Claude wasn't the only one.'

But I don't think I want anyone else.

There was a moment of silence until the voice spoke again. 'Look him in the eyes. Are you really going to hurt him?'

Danielle did as she was told. She wanted to nod, but all she managed to do was take in a sharp breath as the odd feeling that had been ghosting over her for the past hours came back one more time. But at least now she knew the reason for it.

"Fine..." she mumbled and saw Nash's slightly aggravated expression change. She gestured with her head for him to follow as she made her way out. "We can talk. But if you bite me, I'll stab you."