Guardians of the Opal Moon

Chapter 12

Jade can’t help but breathe a sigh of relief, at least the first hurdle of many is passed. Axel can feel the rising tension in Jade’s body slowly release as the younger wolves all accept the massive responsibility. He can’t help but feel the first tinge of pride in the wolves in front of him. They are selflessly taking on a massive task. For them to care so much about something other than their own pack is an amazing thing.

All eyes are on Jade and Axel. Jade wasn’t really expecting this result, she thought at least one couple would pull out, so she hadn’t planned much beyond asking their opinions.

“Obviously, you will need to go back to your own packs to get things settled. Whoever needs help to settle leadership let me know and we will send her to your location. Is four days enough time?”

Everyone nods, it is short, but the obvious sense of urgency doesn’t allow for much down time. Jade wants to start training these wolves. Only during training will she be able to gauge levels, what strengths and weaknesses they all have. They could all talk for weeks and she will never know as much as one or two training sessions. Without seeing their capabilities she can’t make a game plan.

But Jade does not want to start training until all their minds are on the task, not wandering constantly back to their packs. It would be unreasonable to keep them at Opal Moon without at least packing up some clothes and sorting themselves out.

As everyone agrees and files out of the room to head back to their respective packs, the 'get to know you' hasn’t even started yet they are leaving, but truly, Jade is really happy with the outcome.

As soon as the others have left, Axel and Jade are the only ones remaining sitting in the large room. Jasper and Cressida enter and await their orders. Jade looks at them.

“Both of you attend all three of the packs make sure everything is settled and in place. They are making a big sacrifice for us, so we have to help as much as we can”

Cressida nods. While her skills aren’t extensive she is happy to utilize them wherever she can. Of course, Jasper is happy to follow her wherever she goes as her helper and as her protection.

Jasper and Cressie leave soon after. Jade picks up her phone and makes a call.

“You have four days”

She says before she hangs up, Axel looks at her and nods, he stands and kisses her on the head before running out to make the necessary preparations.

Jade sits alone is the spacious, dead silent meeting room, staring blankly at the white wall with her fingers interlaced. Her green eyes flick to the corner of the room.

“I know you are there, you can’t hide your aura, so why do you hide yourself?”

In the exact spot she appeared yesterday the Moon Goddess materializes. She just stands silently observing Jade. Jade finally breaks the silence.

“Are you sure you have the right person?”

“You are the perfect person”

“Why do I feel like it is too much and I am going to fail and let everyone down?”

“You would be crazy if you weren’t having self-doubts, but you have to pull through them, your pups need you, Axel needs you, the other six are looking to you for guidance, the entire werewolf population needs you”

Jade smiles grimly as she massages her neck.

“Yes, that meant to make me feel better?”

“I am not here to make you feel better. I am here to tell you that I wouldn’t have given you the task if I didn’t think you could handle it. Everything that has happened before has led you to this point. I know none of it has been easy and I am really sorry about that, but you are so important to your kind”

“Would it matter if I said that I didn’t want to be important?”

The Moon Goddess lets out a small chuckle.

“What do you think?”

The moon goddess smiles fondly as she looks over her favorite creation while she disappears from sight. Jade sighs.

“I didn’t think so”

She says to thin air, the boring white corner of the room looking as bland as ever.

As Axel arrives outside, he watches the two cars loaded with the eight wolves disappearing from sight. He takes a deep breath in and looks out at the green grass, the sun is shining and it is a pleasant Autumn day, but Axel can’t help but feel slightly cold. The impending darkness seems to be increasing speed toward them. He looks at the sun feeling like it will vanish at any moment. He is not even sure if this is the calm before the storm, as he seems to see the storm raging right in front of his eyes. He shakes his head to clear his messy head before running toward the center section.

In the lead car, Jasper is driving while Cressida is in the passenger seat. Alexis and Lucas are in the back. They don’t have a problem with finding people to run Blue Moon. They have a competent crew and are not worried, hence why Jasper and Cressie chose to travel with them first, giving the others time to weed out candidates.

Alexis is squeezed between the two seats staring at Cressida intently, her eyes filled with excitement.

“Are you really a witch?”

Cressida is somewhat surprised by Alexis’ attitude, while wolves and witches do not cross paths much, Alexis is staring at her like she is waiting for her to pull a rabbit out of a hat.

“Umm yes I am”

“Wow can I touch you?”

Alexis reaches out a hand before Lucas pulls her back and confines her within his arms.

“Sorry, she is still reasonably new to this, she is a bit over excited”

He smacks Alexis on the ass stealthily, linking her.

‘What are you doing, you can’t just start touching people?’

‘What ever you bore’

Lucas suppresses the urge to lay Alexis over his lap and smack her ass till it is red raw, him a bore? Because he told her she can’t just randomly touch strangers? He starts thinking up all sorts of punishments for her when they are alone again.

Lucas’ words peak Cressie’s curiosity. She turns and looks at Alexis with interest.

“New to this?”

Alexis looks at her and smiles, see Cressida didn’t mind at all.

“I was human”

Jasper’s foot slips and he stomps on the brakes, smoke pouring off the tyres as they pull up quickly, Lucas keeps Alexis in place and Jasper’s arm juts out to save Cressida from hitting the dashboard. He composes himself before taking back off like nothing happened.

Lucas was expecting as much, so he was prepared for inertia. Cressie glares at Jasper, not understanding the big deal.

The amount of wolves that are actually turned from humans that are living can be counted on one hand. First, there are special rules to abide by before a wolf can be turned. They can only be turned by a person in a position of power and they themselves have to be in a position of power. Their lives also have to be at an end.

Second, after they are bitten there is no guarantee that they will actually survive the transition. It is a taxing process for a body that wasn’t meant to have a wolf to get one suddenly. The person needs to be incredibly strong to be able to take it, but coupled with their half dead status is bordering on impossible.

For all those factors to actually work out and be adhered to, it is pretty amazing. Cressida doesn’t care about the technicalities of it all because she doesn’t know those rules.

She looks at Alexis with new-found appreciation. It is easy for someone born as a wolf to slot in to a Luna position, but for someone outside the world to be able to slot in so easily is an admirable thing.

Cressida starts compiling questions for Alexis as she feels like they have a lot in common. Obviously, she is not in such a disadvantageous position. At least she was part of the supernatural world and knew werewolves existed. She is also not a Luna but suddenly becoming a beta female, especially when Jasper runs a section of Opal moon as an alpha. Anyway, it has been a big adjustment. So Cressida plans to spend her time wisely, picking Alexis’ brain about anything she can.

Alexis understands Jasper’s reaction to a certain extent but she is a bit confused by Cressida looking at her with shining eyes. She feels like she is being looked at like a monkey in the zoo. Alexis understands what Lucas was talking about now as she was looking a Cressida in the same way moments earlier. Jasper can’t contain himself any longer.

“What happened? How did it happen?”

Alexis shrugs her shoulders.

“I was dying. Lucas bit me, then we both died and now we are here”

Lucas stifles a laugh, who would think the worst two days of his life could be summed up so simply. Jasper looks at Lucas’ expression in the review mirror before the whole car breaks out into joyous laughter.