Guardians of the Opal Moon

Chapter 13

In the rear car, Phoenix casually maneuvers the car around the front car as it brakes suddenly. He looks in the rear view mirror as the car takes off again, knowing that they are fine he continues on the task of driving to the airport.

In the back seat, Hunter stays silent but Ava happily strikes up a conversation with Alina. Ava is bubbly and easy to talk to. Alina has long withdrawn, as it has seemed near impossible to have friends since she became luna, everyone is scared to voice their true thoughts or to go against her, no matter how many times she tries to tell them that they don't have to fear her. The experience has led to a deeper understanding of why Phoenix became what he was. It also makes them so much closer because they are everything for eachother.

But even though she has slowly lost all her friends, she finds Ava's friendliness irresistible. Ava is easy to talk to and conversation just flows.

“So do you have candidates for taking over?”

Alina looks at Phoenix, it is a strange situation to be in because usually one will try and hide their glaring deficits, try everything to hide the fact that beyond themselves, the leadership and trusted people are only new. Most of the time they don’t want to let other people know their weaknesses, most of all other Lunas and Alphas, but this is special circumstances and not being forthcoming could actually be a downfall, they are all tied in together for better or worse.

Alina can tell from the look on Phoenix’s face that the decision is up to her, he will back her in anything she does and will go along with whatever she chooses.

“Not really. Our beta is good but he has only come in a little over six months ago”

Ava and Hunter both raise an eyebrow at that. In most circumstances, a beta is not bought into a pack, they are mostly raised within the pack. Ava wants to ask but Hunter shakes his head. They don’t know each other well enough to ask such questions, it was already probably hard enough for Alina to tell them that.

“Well, we were going to contact some of our ex class mates of Alpha academy to find someone to take the post. Why don’t you try that?”

Phoenix’s hands tightens on the steering wheel. He didn’t actually go. He doesn’t know who is to blame for that, his father or himself. He has been able to correct his shortcomings with Alina by his side, but now he knows what type of Alpha he wants to be and what type of mate he wants to be. He wonders if his whole journey would have been a lot smoother if he had of attended. He is sure that Alina would have been a lot more open to the idea of being his mate in the beginning and he wouldn’t have had to work so hard to get where they are now.

Alina knows that this is a bit of a sore spot for Phoenix. She places a hand on his thigh and squeezes showing her support.

“He didn’t go”

Ava hides her shock. There are smaller packs that choose not to send their future alphas, but Phoenix has a strong wolf. Her wolf can sense his power, so she wonders how much of a hard time he had without going, but she isn’t going to judge or make him feel bad for something that cannot be changed.

“Well, what if I contact our friends and then, if more than one is interested, then we can both use them after a check from Cressida?”

Alina turns around and looks at Ava, her eyes lighting up.

“Really?”

“Of course”

Ava smiles gently, Alina seems so excited by the prospect, it doesn’t hurt them at all, it is really nothing. Ava pulls out her phone straight away. She was going to wait until they got back to the new moon pack, but finding but is a slight bit harder and she will genuinely try to help the other couple, she phones future alpha Clay and future alpha Sam, two of their close friends from the academy. After getting the approval from their friends themselves, she phones their fathers. She can hardly just steal future alphas from a pack without going to the alphas for permission and calling them direct instead of getting Clay and Sam to ask is more official and a whole lot less rude.

“Yes it’s Luna Ava from the new moon pack”

“I am fine. How are you?”

“Okay, the reason for the call is a little odd but we went to alpha academy with your son, without getting into too much detail because I can’t, we have a mission from the moon goddess and have to leave our packs for an unknown period of time. The reason for this call is that we are wanting to borrow your son to help take the leadership until we are able to return. It will be a good learning experience”

“Yes it has something to do with the Alpha meeting”

“Are you sure?”

“Thank you so much”

Ava breaths a sigh of relief as she hangs up the phone.

“Done, Clay is located closest to you guys, so he will meet you there. He should be there tomorrow”

“Thank you so much”

Alina looks at Ava with genuine appreciation, not just for helping out. The fact that such a young wolf can be so levelheaded and strong. She didn't stammer on the phone, just speaking to an alpha she has never met without a inflection in her voice, she was poised.

***

Four days later they all arrive back at Opal moon suitably stressed out. Handing over all operations to others without being able to give a proper explanation for their absence has been hard, especially for Phoenix and Alina after meeting someone for the first time and having to hand over power of the pack, it is nerve wrecking, but after the okay from Cressida and the fact that Ava and Hunter vouched for him, they just have to give their trust to him and put it out of their mind, which is easier said than done.

Once three cars arrive at the same place they left all the occupants remain seated, they are not sure what they are waiting for they just know they are waiting for something. A massive black wolf with blue eyes runs around the cars, the cars all restart and follow the wolf as he leads them to another location. As they drive cautiously through the narrow path of the trees that is just wide enough to allow a car to fit through, the occupants of the car are slightly confused, only Jasper and Cressida know where they are going. They have all trusted enough to this point, so they assume they are not getting led into a trap.

The trees open out to reveal a modern two-story house, its facade made of dark gray bricks and timber, the modern house looking slightly out of place in the heavily treed area, yet it fits in so nicely. On the grass area around the house are two training rings set up. Some of the grass looks like it has only just been laid.

Standing in front of the house is Jade, the large wolf that led the group to the location is sitting beside her as she rubs the wolf behind the ears in a gentle and practiced motion, her mate leaning into her touch. Jade casually waves at the arrivals with a smile on her face. It is obvious to everyone that she is in a lot better place than she was before they left and it is true, Jade has come to terms with the challenge and accepted it like she has everything else.

The cars all get parked in the large gravel area to the side of the house where a car is already parked. Everyone gets out of their vehicles and stands in front of Jade, leaving their luggage in the trunk for now.

Jade continues to caress the wolf beside her as she watches the wolves all arrange themselves in front of her. She smiles, feeling proud that these six strangers are selfless enough to give up their own packs to come to the opal moon and help out. She knows that her and Axel would have been the same, that they would have jumped on the opportunity, but that doesn’t matter, it is still impressive.

“Welcome back to Opal Moon, this is Axel’s and my house that we have been building for way too long. With the final push, we have managed to get it over the line. This will be our base of operations. Even though I trust our pack members, the less people that hear things the better, the more we can do in private and the less that gets filtered out into the population, the better. We have a room for each of you, with a bathroom attached. Take this as your own home. We are not sure how long we will have to be here, so we want you to be comfortable and we don’t want you to feel like guests”

Jade looks around and clears her throat awkwardly.

“Obviously, there is a lot of power and dominance within the group and us all shoved in one house is going to be extreme, even though I know it is against our nature, we hope we can talk through disputes. It is impossible with all of us shoved in the one place that it will all be sunshine and daisies but we don’t want any in-fighting. Our fight is against the witch, not each other. If you can’t talk it out, go for a run. If that doesn’t work, train it out”

This has been the thing that Jade is most worried about. It is an unvoiced fact that Jade and Axel are in charge of the group, but trying to get a bunch of Alphas that are used to being in charge to fall into line may be harder said than done. Her main plan is just to train everyone so hard that they don’t have the strength to fight amongst themselves.