Moonlight Avenger

Vow

Cya drew lazy patterns on my stomach with the tips of his fingers. “Morgan?” he whispered his voice husky with want.

“Not right now, Cya, we need rest,” I answered without opening my eyes. “There will be plenty of time for that later.”

“It’s not that, I mean it’s not just that. I can’t deny I always want you,” he chuckled softly into my ear. “But this is about more than that.”

As his patterns continued on my stomach the question he was about to ask dawned on me. No, why couldn’t he just let me be? Just be happy with what we had, how hard was that?

“Morgan, have you thought about having kids? With everything that happened our pack has been pared down.”

“Cya, I’ve already explained this to you and Hades. He gets it, I don’t know why you can’t. My life is not the life a kid should be brought into. I’m not a caring mom type, I never have been.”

“But, this situation is different, you’d make a great mom.”

“Let me put this simpler, Cya. I do not want kids. I just want to enjoy my life with my two mates, and that’s all. When we get out pack back and settle down again, I won’t change my mind.”

Cya’s hands stilled. “I wish I could change your mind, Morgan.”

“You can’t, Cya, just accept that, please.” I resisted the urge to shove his hand off of me. Why would he even think of something like that when we were on such a dangerous mission. “Are you done now, can I go back to bed?”

“Please don’t be mad at me,” he whispered as he started to kiss down my jawline. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

That was the problem, he never meant to upset me but when it came to this conversation I always got upset. Hades had accepted it when I told him that I didn’t want cubs. “I still haven’t made up my mind about tomorrow.”

He started to trace circles on me again, his touch just light enough the pads of his fingers made contact with my skin. “If there are any left that is following us we’d take them straight to her, wouldn’t we?” he swallowed hard at his words.

“Yes, I don’t sense anymore, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have more after us. We have to always be vigilant and keep an eye out. It’s important that we don’t lose any more time or give them anything that would lead them to Maya.”

“Then I understand, we should just go straight north in the morning. I’ll have to just believe that they didn’t find out about her.” A wet sheen misted over his eyes and I hugged him close to me in the big bed.

“You’re going to wake Hades,” he whispered as I started to kiss at his neck.

“He can sleep through anything, and I’m not trying to have s*x with you, Cya. Not yet anyway. We really do need our sleep, but I appreciate you taking this serious for me, for us.” I glanced over at the snoring Hades. “Do you think he’ll agree?”

Cya shook his head. “No, I think he’ll want to go back. He can say all he wants that we don’t have time, but he’s as worried about mom as I am. Just, if they really are following Koda then we’ll just be leading them straight to them.”

I sat back against the pillows. Koda had insisted on us staying in the best suite which set off alarm bells. He was up to something I just hadn’t figured it out yet. “Cya, get some rest, I’ll keep watch.”

“Morgan, your eyes are always closed,” he whispered against my ear. “Go ahead and sleep, I’ve got this.”

I cracked one eye open. “I can do it, just rest.”

He waved a finger at me. “No, not only are you my alpha but you’re my mate so keeping you healthy is all that matters. Besides, do you think they’d try to attack again?” He tilted his head as he studied me. His wandering fingers had traveled up to my collar bone now and he rubbed it in soft slow circles with just the right amount of pressure. I leaned into his touch. “We’re going to make them pay for all of this, Morgan, I promise.”

I nodded to his words as I drifted off for a moment before jerking awake. Cya was fast asleep curled against me and all but pushing Hades out of bed. The other twin was on the very edge of the bed. Maybe it had been longer than a moment since I had fallen asleep. I brushed Cya’s hair out of his eyes and he turned into my touch with a silly smile pulling at his lips. Spoiled.

I slipped out of bed and padded back outside into the courtyard. I knelt by the graves and said my own prayer to the Goddess for each. They were not my people and yet they still were part of them. I would never forget what I learned from those that had passed on and the cruelty shown to them. I sniffed at the air and frowned. It was faint but there was the musky scent of those foreign wolves near again, too near.

I had left my weapons in the room so I did the next best thing, I shifted. I moved to the shadows and moved in absolute silence even going so far as to control my breath so it would be almost impossible to hear me. From deep inside the complex I heard Koda snoring. I had forgotten that he was just as bad as Hades. Further ahead I could make out the bulky outline of Mana. The zeta had not chosen to sleep inside the boundaries, but just outside it.

As I got closer he turned and stared into the darkness finding me easily. “Why are you awake, Alpha?”

“Do you smell them?” I demanded as I sniffed the air. In my wolf form, it was far easier to detect the aroma in the air. It was still far but closer. “There’s more coming.”

Mana tilted his head his ear flopping over as he did so. “I do, but you all need rest before we start our journey in earnest. I can keep watch. I don’t require as much rest as you do, not when the Goddess is on my side and her power flows through me. Did you have any other injuries that needed to be healed? I should have checked earlier but it hasn’t been a great day to think straight.”

“Nothing that I can’t live through,” I said with a sigh. “You smell them, you know they’re out there and yet you think we should just sleep? These monsters have to be stopped, and if I have to go out there by myself and do it, I’ll do so. I’ve fought demons before this before.”

Mana raised a furry eyebrow. “You have battled the Goddess’s enemies before?”

I nodded. “I have, and survived. He could turn into a hell hound and the pain he put me through was far worse than what those cats have brought so far.”

Mana nodded but his eyes were distant. Instead of staring at me, he stared beyond me. “I don’t think those are their strongest. The whole unit was far too easy to defeat. They attacked all at once, but they didn’t try to go after your two mates or even myself and Koda. It was sloppy.” Those dark eyes of his pinned me down now. “I can’t help but feel that their attack is part of a larger ambush, and even this scent that is so faint is just a trap.”

My eyes narrowed. Why did a zeta know all this? These were supposed to be warriors of peace, fierce yes but it was odd that he knew battle tactics or strategy at all. There was something more to this giant furball than I had realized. “The best way to deal with a trap is to spring it yourself. I’ll go do that, can you keep the others safe?”

“No, I’ll go. With the Goddess on my side, I can’t be defeated, not yet.”

“Yet?” I questioned.

He chuckled. “That is a story for another time, Alpha.” He bowed his head to me. “Now, go back inside, I’m going out to find this trap and spring it myself. Keep Koda safe until I return, please.”

He bounded off before I could respond the ground vanishing behind him as he took massive leaps through the grass. As hard as I tried to hear there was not a single sound from the mammoth. I looked over my shoulder and flicked my ears towards the room I had left the twins. Everyone inside was still snoring. If I left they would be vulnerable.

I trotted into Koda’s quarters and shuddered at the memories that tugged at my mind. No, this was more important than that. I wasn’t surprised to see him in wolf form fast asleep. He always did prefer to sleep that way unless he had a woman in his bed. I bit his leg none too gentle and my former alpha jerked awake blinking at me. “I didn’t know you liked to play so rough nowadays, Kitty. Guess having young ones do that to you, huh?”

“Mana is going after another group of them not too far away. I’m going as a backup. I need you to get your ass up and defend this area till I get back. And if you dare touch a finger on my mates’ heads I will make what I did to Mason look like a joke to you. Do you understand?”

He c****d his head at me as his tongue lolled out. “I like when you’re bossy, Morgan. It’s a different side of you. I saw a glimpse of it before but I’m going to have a lot of fun discovering more of it.”

I snapped. My teeth latched onto the scruff of his neck and his eyes widened at me. I threw him out of his comfy pallet and onto the floor. “Get this straight, Koda, I expect you to act like an alpha, a true alpha that cares about his people and the land his pack lives on. I’m not an alpha for you. I’m a true alpha despite it being something I never wished to be. You will take this seriously or I will leave your ass here and take your zeta with me up North. Now, go guard,” I snarled.

My wolf’s desire to obey had faded completely as Koda slinked out of the room his head and tail dragging. In fact, she was even wagging her tail at the display. It was about time she realized where our place in the world was. We weren’t meant to be under the domain of any of the alphas, not even our own mates. No, the ordeal with Mason had taught us our true place in life and this whole incident just stressed the entirety of it. It wasn’t enough to save our lands from these abusive assholes, no, alphas from all over were going to have to be taken down, and I was just going to have to be the one to do it.