Guardians of the Opal Moon

Chapter 8

Stunned silence makes the silent room somehow even quieter. Jade is the one that is the fastest to recompose herself. She has rolled with the punches for the rest of her life, so this is just another bump in the road.

"It was you?"

The moon goddess smiles gently, somewhat enjoying the shock that her words bring. After all, she rarely gets to interact with her creations, so having eight of her favorite in one room is also a slight thrill for her, but she doesn’t get lost in it, because, of course, she doesn’t randomly do anything, everything has a purpose and this is one of the most important.

"Of course, how else were you all meant to find each other? I can only guide you all to each other, eight lines for eight people"

Jade nods, it makes sense to a certain extent, how would she have found these random wolves with out the mark, but there is a glaring question. The why is answered but it only opens up a million more questions. Making eight wolves meet eachother wold never be the end goal.

"For what purpose?"

"You are all my chosen guardians. You all have your own individual talents but you have all been chosen for a purpose. In each pair, usually in our world, there is one strong and one weak, but in all your cases you are stronger together, all the trials you have all been through, while harsh, have been a learning experience, a test if you will, of your relationship to each other, to yourselves."

Everyone in the room has their minds going a million miles a minute and their mouths open and close, but no words can be heard. What? This is earth-shattering news, to be selected by the moon goddess herself to be guardians.

"So there are just the eight of us?"

Jade is feeling a bit brain dead with her stupid questions, but it is a lot to process so she goes with the simplest question.

"Yes"

"You say guardians? What are we guarding?"

"I will tell you that soon"

Alina comes back to herself and finds her voice again.

"What are we meant to do?"

"Together you all have to fight the force that is threatening our kind"

"How? What about our packs?"

"Along each of your journeys you have met people that can help with that, Jade, you know how to weed out the ones without true intentions don't you?"

Jade nods, they have done it with their own pack, Opal moon is so large that they need lots of people in power and with the extra responsibility they were already shouldered with they had to hand over more duties, now it just seems like the burden has increased, but they do have a way of knowing a persons true intentions, is it loyalty or is it for their own selfish gain and power?

"Yes of course"

"My time with you is almost up so I will tell you who you are guarding. It is the next generation of royalty"

"Who is it? and how do we find them?"

Have they also got marks? But everyone within power was here today and there was only the eight marks in total. How have they not found any royalty? How have they not heard of any royalty? It is an important thing. How could they not know?

The Moon Goddess drops the bombshell of all bombshells, leaving the room to erupt.

"Jade, the pups you are carrying are the next generation of royalty"

Simultaneously, all eyes move to Jade. Jade herself is not sure how she has actually managed to stay upright on her chair, all her composure is long gone, her mind is blank, just one singular word repeating over and over again. Axel is not in a much better state, pregnancy is one thing but a multiple pregnancy. In the midst of this and they are somehow royals, what is even happening? Jade’s rationality is crumbling and she has turned into a blithering id*ot, her power and authority seems to have dwindled to make her seem like a scared little girl, but no one in the room judges at all, it is huge.

"P...…p....pups?"

The first shock for the others was to learn that Jade is pregnant, then with multiples, then with royals and then they realize they are being tasked with protecting unborn babies. What type of gargantuan responsibility is this?

Alexis snaps out of her stupor and looks back to the corner. The moon goddess is no longer present. She swallows back the questions that she wanted to ask and looks back at Jade, wondering how to comfort Jade at this time. She looks around the room and determines that she would most definitely be the worst candidate to offer comfort.

Axel pulls himself together, but he is so tentative in his speaking, worried that Jade will go from zero to hundred any minute, she might even take it out on him.

"Jade are you alright?"

Jade looks at him with hostility. What a stupid question. How could she possibly be alright? She snaps, she doesn’t want to take it out on Axel, but she needs to take it out on someone and he is the best candidate.

"No, of course I am not alright"

Axel rubs her back in a calming motion. He was expecting a punch in the face, so a grouchy voice is the best case scenario, but the punch is still possible, so he puts on his best coaxing gentle voice.

"Calm down babe, we will just go down and see."

Axel helps Jade to stand up, since the shock seems to have rendered her legs semi-useless, her nerves are shot. The others just stand up and trail silently behind. They don’t know how they all managed to get involved in this but they are suddenly stuck in the thick of it, so they want to see what is going on. Jade is too out of it to worry about them and Axel doesn’t say anything because, if they are really tasked with keeping Jade and his pups safe, they are just as much part of this as Jade and himself.

Alina and Phoenix fall to the back of the group, looking ahead at Axel helping Jade. Alina links.

‘What do you think?’

‘I really don’t know this is crazy’

‘I know, but we haven’t been against the moon goddess will before’

Phoenix looks at her smiling.

‘Well you did try it once’

‘And look where that got me? I am glad I didn’t or it would have been the biggest mistake of my life’

‘I am glad you think so, because I would not make it through this life without you. But I am worried about our pack’

Alina and Phoenix have only got a new Beta on the scene recently, after some unpleasantness, so to just leave the Sunset Pack virtually unguarded is not the best idea. They have only started to lift conditions and quality. Leaving for an unknown period is a scary prospect. Will it stop all the progress already made? Would it also go back to what it was?

‘We will just have to ask about it later. If what the moon goddess said is right, this is about the fate of all the werewolves, what do we do, go back to our pack and watch our kind fall? I am not sure what the moon goddess sees in us, but if she really believes we can help, shouldn’t we take it as a compliment?’

Alina is shocked, sunset pack is relatively small compared to the others and they have been putting in a lot of hard work lately to build it up and it is getting better everyday but it is far from being ultra powerful. Seeing all the options for Alphas and Lunas at the meeting today, she cannot believe that they have been bestowed with such a task. It is scary but she can’t help feeling a little proud, but how could she not be worried about the prosperity of the sunset pack, the moon goddess said there is a way around it, so Alina will just have to wait and see.

Ava grips Hunter's hand in a mixture of shock and excitement. Never did she think that all this would be happening. Meeting the moon goddess is not an honour that many actually get, to top it off, being trusted by the moon goddess to such an extent.

Hunter is just amazed by the turn of events. They have moved from nothing to Alpha and Luna in a hostile takeover only a month ago. They haven’t even got their head around everything at the new moon pack and now suddenly they are guardians.

Alexis is going with a completely different train of thought.

‘I think we better be more careful. I don’t want pups yet’

‘But imagine little smart ass mini yous running around’

‘Better than little arrogant mini yous’

‘But if they are mini mes at least they will be good looking’

‘Are you calling me ugly?’

Lucas laughs softly and pulls Alexis closer.

‘Nothing like that, I am just amazing looking’

Alexis tries to do as much damage to him as possible without drawing attention. Lucas just smiles down at his vicious little fire cracker with a gentle smile on his face, paying no mind to the damage happening to his body.

The eight of them burst into the pack hospital in a rather aggressive fashion. They weren’t intending it that way. It's just the pace plus their imposing aura makes everyone want to fall to their knees and beg for forgiveness to something that they haven’t even done.

Jade’s mind is still a blur but she somehow manages to spot the doctor and put together a coherent sentence.

"I want my ultrasound now"

Even in her stupor, she manages to have so much authority that, of course, the doctor would never reject. The doctor casts a glance around at the other random wolves in the main room. He struggles to be in the same room as his Alpha and Luna. How could he perform his job to satisfaction with all these tag alongs? His wolf might be crushed under the pressure. He doesn’t dare to look up, doesn’t dare to meet any of their eyes, just looking at the ground as he builds up enough confidence to say.

"The rest of you can wait out here"

Jade shuts down the request instantly, even though she doesn’t know these people, the more people to share this burden with her the better.

"No they are coming in"

The doctor chokes on his words, but decides to try and persuade his Luna.

"Luna Jade....."

Jade has had enough of everything, she just wants to know and she wants everyone in the room to know at the same time. She shuts down the doctor resolutely.

"Don't argue"

The doctor wants to continue to argue, maybe even resorting to begging, but the look on Jade’s face indicates all his attempts will be in vain. Ava, forever the soft touch, pats the doctor on the shoulder in encouragement as the large entourage marches past the scared man.