The group don't spend too long relaxing in the dead of night, splitting off to go to their respective packs. Sleeping is a luxury they cannot afford. The first round of the game was lost badly, but they understand a lot more now.
Jade is beyond tired and has fallen asleep hunched over the fallen tree. They say the first trimester saps all energy. They are right, she would be tired in normal circumstances, but now she has found a new undiscovered level of exhaustion.
Axel watches as the other wolves run off. He smiles as he looks at his mate, her dark brown hair spilled over her beautiful face, adding a layer of gentleness that he doesn't see from her during the day.
She is strong and never allows herself a moment of weakness, even though she is out of her depth, just soldiering on, charging head on into everything.
He gently lifts her, cradling her against his chest as he runs smoothly back to the blood moon packlands. They cannot afford to be exposed for long. Without the extra protection of the others he doesn’t want to keep her out in the neutral zone for too long even though the blood moon has been proved to be unsafe.
He lays her down on the bed before organizing food to sit beside the bed for when she inevitably wakes up hungry.
He kisses her on the forehead before pulling her into his arms. It is already three am and it has been a tiring day both psychically and emotionally for every one involved, there is not a single person that has made it through this unscathed.
Alexis and Lucas are the first group to arrive back in their own pack. Green Meadows has moved during the dead of night, already managing to be relocated. As soon as Christian and Kira got the call, they dropped everything, called every member back and after a meeting, everyone followed willingly.
Kira is a firm believer in anything to do with the moon goddess. The moon goddess blessed Lucas with Alexis and her with Christian. She is not about to second guess the moon goddess.
Christian trusts Alexis enough to know that he wouldn't stuff around with something like that, she would never ask them to do such a gargantuan task. If it wasn’t required, they wouldn't ask without proper reasons.
She knows the Green Meadows pack. She loves the Green Meadows pack. She would never disrupt their whole lives on a whim.
As soon as the dark gray wolf comes into view, a small blonde bombshell tackles her jumping on her neck and hugging her tightly.
A small dark-haired girl is close behind her.
The blonde wolf stands off to the side, completely unloved. His own twin doesn't even bother to acknowledge him. Kira moves her head, finally looking at Lucas.
"It is just because Alexis is so much better than you"
The blonde wolf lift his head and snorts turning his back and walking off.
Alexis shifts and embraces the two girls. Sidney knows exactly what Alexis is like, knows her lack of shame and slips a large t-shirt over her head before anything else.
The blonde wolf joins a dark-haired man as they walk towards the pack house, Lucas shifts and Christian naturally hands him clothing.
"So the reason you stood us up at the gathering is because you have a mission from the moon goddess?"
"Unbelievable right?"
Christian laughs.
"I expect nothing less from the two of you"
"You know why we are doing all of this?"
"While Alexis said it all within one breath, I get the gist"
Lucas places a hand on Christian's shoulder.
"We are going to be relying on you to work with Oliver to keep this mess going"
At new moon, Ava and Hunter arrive to a very excited Tyson, an equally excited alpha Max, Ava's father, an indifferent luna Violet, Ava's mother.
As the blonde wolf and the black wolf arrive, they are barely a step slower than when they first started running. They feel like they haven't slept in days, but sleep is on the back burner at the moment. There is a lot more pressing issues than that boring waste of time.
Violet looks over the blonde wolf that resembles her mates and her son's wolf so much, is nearly a foot higher than her own wolf.
"Ava, you finally decided to show up, do you think it is just an easy task to just uproot the entire pack and you're not even there to help us"
Hunter has only just lost his mother, so finds it hard to say anything to Ava’s mother, but hearing the blatant disrespect for his own mate, even from her own mother, really irks him.
Hunter’s golden eyes hold such an intensity they look directly at her and she can't help but feel it like a shiver down her spine.
Ava shifts in front of Tyson and Tyson slips a t-shirt straight onto her. Ava’s hand moves straight into the fur of Hunter’s big wolf as he she moves toward Ava, her side is nearly buried in his soft fur.
After all her worry and everything she's been through the last few days. The last thing that she was expecting was the first words out of her beloved families mouth to be rude.
She does not say a word to her mother just looking straight at Tyson and Max.
Tyson pulls her straight in for a hug.
"Why did I spend the first eighteen years of our lives making sure that you never faced much danger? Now in the last six months you can't keep away from danger"
Ava laughs into his chest, still keeping her hand on Hunter.
"It is a skill I swear"
Her father hugs and next.
"I'm so proud of you baby girl. You have just jumped from one honor to the next"
Violet snorts before walking away. She hates the way mate and her son dote on Ava like she is something special.
"Don't worry about her, she is just annoyed about having to move"
"Are you all annoyed?"
"Baby girl, I know you wouldn't tell us to if it wasn't important"
Ava smiles and hugs her father closer. While she is never had a close relationship with their mum, at least she has the best dad in the world.
At the Opal moon pack, Phoenix and Alina arrive back without the presence of Axel and Jade, but Daniel has already been informed, so he has made preparations. They're the only ones to actually move from their pack lands not have people moved to them, but the pack that is happy with the leadership and is happy to follow Phoenix and Alina's orders, knowing that they will only do what's best for the pack.
At the blood moon pack Jade slowly opened her eyes at the first light of dawn comes in. Ice-blue eyes stare at her with about two-hundred millimeters between their faces.
Jade nearly rolls off the opposite side of the bed in shock a gasp escaping her mouth.
"Goddess damn it Cressie, if you don't want to see blood and gore, it might be in your best interest to think of another way to make me up. Because you may be a whole lot of blood and gore and you might be able to see your own demise as you float up to join the goddess"
Cressida laughs with joy. It is not often that she's able to get one up on Jade. She couldn't believe that she got to this point. The hyper-vigilant Jade would really not even notice her being in the room, let alone her managing to get that close.
"Only you could utter so many death threats first thing in the morning, especially to your witchy best friend that traveled through the night to be here with you today"
"Witchy best friend?"
Jade laughs and continues
"And that is the only reason you are not dead right now"
Axel and Jasper wander into the room. Axel is surprised to see Jade awake. Jade knows that look.
“You are surprised when you let a psycho stalker into my room? What type of husband are you?”
Cressida stands off to the side nodding with a smile on her face, she says.
“A bad one”
Jade nearly shouts.
“Damn right, a bad one”
Jasper and Axel just look at each other, knowing there is no point going into battle with an emotional, sleep-deprived woman unless they are willing to sacrifice their lives. Cressida seems to be getting more and more comfortable, deciding to throw more fuel on the fire. She has to have some entertainment to keep herself awake.
“I was just checking your vigilance, I must say it is non-existent”
Jade throws her hands in the air, she knows that, she hates that, since she is no mood to blame herself, it all goes to Axel.
“Maybe I am too comfortable thinking my mate will protect me. I have learned my lesson, never again”
Jasper and Cressida exchange glances keeping their laughter to themselves as Axel sits on the bed trying to earn back Jade's trust. They head out at first light to collect the pendant. Cressida pulls out a normal food storage container. Axel looks at it.
“Are you kidding me?”
“I have researched and all I need is a sealed container to cast the protection spell over, this was all I could think of so quickly”
So the pendant that nearly cost two powerful wolves their lives and nearly made Alexis lose her mind sits in the most basic clear plastic container. Looking like a joke, as basic as basic can get.
After a tour of both the site of the murders and the site of the hideout, Cressida senses no more than the others.
They pack up and head back to the airport. As they are handing their tickets to the hostess, a phone starts ringing.
Jade’s heart sinks as she looks at Axel. His heart sinks as he digs through the back pack on her back. Jade’s heart is not even in her feet, it has jumped out of her body and is making a run for it.