Red Moon

5 : Jane

Harry was lying on his back, his lungs were on fire, and he was coughing from the heavy impacts on his ribs. He turned over onto his stomach, propped up on his elbows, and spat blood into the dusty dirt of the vacant lot behind the Crossroad Café.

"I think that's enough for tonight. A year that I've been training you, and you're nothing like you were when I said I'd take care of you," Wayne said warmly as he pulled on his red and white plaid shirt.

Harry let his forehead fall to the floor.

With every exhale he made, dust rose from his nostrils and his eyes burned from the intense perspiration of physical exertion.

"I know I can do more, Alpha Wayne," Harry said before grunting under the pain. The healing power of his wolf was in full swing, and the now nineteen-year-old could feel his ribs repairing and repositioning themselves in his rib cage.

"Oh, I'm sure you can do more. But there's no need. You gave us a hell of a hand during the harvest. The omegas told me you put on a show carrying a mountain of crates on your back. The kids have been talking about it all day," Wayne says gratefully.

Harry rolled onto his back again and spread his arms across his body before giving the Serene Moon Alpha a big smile. The usually sad-looking young man with the weight of responsibility was glowing with an almost childlike sparkle at that moment:

"I'm not used to seeing so many children around me, or at least not at such a young age. Usually, Alpha's aura keeps them away from me. And, then, I guess I have to release more waves of aggression than average because of my status as the Red Moon pack leader."

"It's true that it's damn hard sometimes to be around you without feeling threatened! And you're only nineteen years old! How come you started playing with the kids? We've known each other for a while now. Excuse me for saying so, but I don't remember seeing you play once, or having fun with anyone, even back when you were just a kid in diapers."

Harry nodded.

"It's part of my Red Moon education. I have to stay focused at all times. I must always be ready in case of an attack. Today, I don't know how to explain it, but seeing the kids smile at me for working my a*s off, did something to me right there," Harry smiled, clapping his heart with his right hand.

Wayne came and sat down next to him and put his hands back for balance. He reached out an arm and rubbed the redhead's head paternally, "It's an honor for me to know that the Serene Moon Cubs have caused this in you. It shows that your Alpha blood is getting stronger every day, and you are becoming more aware of the little lives we are responsible for."

"Clowning around in front of the kids isn't really what I call strengthening my Alpha blood," Harry calmly denied.

"You could have continued working without paying them any attention. By the moon goddess, you could have even made them scurry away just by leaving your wolf on the surface. But, you naturally made time for them. You're a good guy, Harry."

Harry suddenly frowned and looked up at the starry sky above them.

"Will being a good guy be enough for the Mad One to leave me in charge of my pack?"

Wayne raised an eyebrow at him before straightening his head in turn, looking up at the stars.

"Is the Red Moon that important to you?"

Harry curtly turned his head towards the Serene Moon Alpha. Reproach and pain were now visible on the expression on his face.

"What are you trying to tell me, Alpha Wayne?" he asked without trying to hide the outrage his trainer's question had caused him.

Wayne let out a sigh and shook his head.

"You're still so young. You could be doing a billion things: traveling, seeing the world, having a girlfriend or two..." he had to shut up when he heard Harry's disapproving grunt. Wayne raised his hand and gave him an amused smile. "If I could behave normally in front of a woman, I guarantee you... No. I don't think it would have made any difference to my current situation."

Harry sent a light punch against Wayne's shoulder and laughed, "You and I know perfectly well that we're waiting for our soul mates. Personally, I am in no hurry. But, the day she stands before me, I wish I could fall in love with her. Not because she's the perfect half that the Moon Goddess will have created for me, but because I want her presence by my side to give meaning to my life. By the goddess. Never to be lonely again, to start a family, to grow old, to see my children grow up and take over from me..."

PPPPRRRFFFFTTTTT.

Harry kept his mouth wide open as he watched Wayne, that sweet, gentle colossus, blow his nose into the bottom of his shirt as he cried his eyes out.

"Forgive me, Harry. I'm a simple man, and I want simple things too. I'm going to be thirty soon, and I really fear moon madness. You are so young, and it would be best if you were allowed to have fun and..." Wayne stopped talking and suddenly put a hand on Harry's chest to push him back.

Wayne's wolf was on edge and seemed to be trying to get the better of his human side. All traces of emotion were gone from his face, and his gaze suddenly became much harsher. "Who's there?" he asked quietly. His nostrils twitched, showing that his wolf was trying to identify the owner of the scent that had reached him, carried by the wind.

They saw a young girl appear through the tall grass. Her eyes, nostrils, and ears were bleeding as she staggered to walk. She was dressed only in jeans and a white T-shirt stained with her own blood. Her limbs looked disjointed, and it seemed like every move she made was pure t*****e.

"Please... call Alpha Black. Don't tell his Beta..." then her eyes rolled back.

Wayne had leaped forward and caught the girl before she fell to the ground. His eyes went wide, not understanding why his body had reacted so quickly to a woman who had no connection to him. Then he was startled when he saw Harry beside him.

"Holy crap, it's Jane!" the young wolf declared. He had recognized her from sometimes playing with her when they were kids. "Let's hurry and go into the Café and call for help."

When they reached the front of the Café, Old Al was already waiting for them there and beckoned them inside.

"I've already called Alpha Black. He's on his way," said the Wind Tribe leader as a golden glint shone in his eyes.

Old Al pointed to one of the large couches near the large fireplace, but the girl let out a howl of pain as she clung desperately to Wayne.

"I know this is uncomfortable for you, Alpha Wayne, but it doesn't look like she wants to let go," Al said simply, placing a hand on Jane's forehead.

The Wind Tribe leader closed his eyes, then began chanting an ancient song to soothe the young wolf. He struck a slow rhythm with his foot as small golden glows appeared here and there around the girl's body.

Jane let out a few more sobs before she stopped moving. Her fists, however, remained firmly clenched on the back of Alpha Wayne's shirt.

He was red with shyness and didn't know where to put his hands. He didn't even dare to look at her and was sweating under the panic of having a person of the opposite s*x so close to him.

The door of the Café opened abruptly, revealing the Mad One dressed in a jogging suit left at the wolves' disposal at the establishment's entrance. His expression was perfectly icy, and only his hasty step testified of the importance of this young girl to him.

Alpha Black raised an eyebrow as he realized who was holding one of his pack members.

Wayne had puffed out his cheeks and looked like he was on the verge of an aneurysm.

"By the goddess! Take her, take her, take her!" he begged.

Black ignored him royally and looked at Old Al.

"What happened to her?"

"The spirits are singing...," the old man began to answer before he was interrupted.

"I don't care about the spirits. What's wrong with her?"

"She was rejected," Old Al muttered.

The three Alphas present tensed up before their growls of rage shook the Café to its foundations.

Jane opened one eye and cried as she recognized her Alpha before her.

"Don't tell him! Don't tell him! I'm begging you. Don't tell Duncan."

Black got down on one knee so she was at the same level as his face.

"Who?"

"I don't want to tell you. It's over anyway," she wailed, her voice choked with sobs.

"Who?" the Mad One repeated.

"I want to go home. Take me home," she begged, raising her arms to him.

The Mad One growled in anger, making the girl cry even more.

"You don't touch me, and you don't order me around, Jane."

The girl immediately lowered her eyes in submission and continued to cry silently.

"I think you'd better hold her to go back, Alpha Black," Old Al murmured. His eyes were golden, and he gazed sadly at the girl before him.

"Mind your own business," Black began.

"She doesn't have her wolf anymore," Harry muttered in horror. "Jane usually smells like chocolate and hazelnut, but this. I don't smell anything."

Black curtly turned his head toward his Beta's little sister and snorted forward. For the first time in a long time, an almost human expression came over the Mad One's face.

Jane buried her face against Alpha Wayne's chest and let out another howl.

The Serene Moon Alpha instinctively wrapped his arms around her and began cradling her. He was utterly stunned by what was happening and didn't know what to do.

"Jane," Black grumbled. "Give me his name. I guarantee you'll feel a lot better when I kill him and his people..."

"Ahem. If I may say so, I think that's exactly why she's not saying anything," Harry objected.

Black finally looked up at the redhead. It had been over a year since he had seen him again, and the young boy had grown much more robust than he remembered.

"I can walk her back to your pack house, Alpha Black," Wayne offered calmly. "We all know here why you don't want to touch her. And, my wolf doesn't seem to want to risk you dragging her...I mean, I don't have anything else to do."

Black furiously ran his hands through the thick mass of his black hair and then nodded.

Then he straightened up to his full height and looked Harry straight in the eye. But contrary to a year before, the young man held his gaze firmly.

Black made a curt head movement and declared :

"Starting tomorrow, I'll be training you. It's time for me to prepare you for the Council's missions."