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I was practically glowing with pride, knowing I impressed him. My skin jumped when I thought I was being attacked from behind, but Rosie's cheery voice told me it was her rushing to hug me. "I'm so proud of you, baby!"
I laughed shyly. "It was nothing."
"Any amount of progress isn’t nothing," Rowan's low rumble echoed as he stood up, holding out his hand for me to shake. "You did good, son. Be proud of that."
My face heated with all the attention I was getting as I shook his hand. I never felt like I accomplished anything in my life, so to feel like I did something right had me wanting to preen like a proud peacock. I knew it was ridiculous, but I felt good. I wanted to relish the feeling. It was short lived because seconds later, my heart constricted with pain, and I dropped to my knees at the sudden burst of anger and rage flowing through me.
"Kai!" I heard Rosie scream my name seconds before my vision bled crimson. No, this couldn't be. Why was the Berserker Wolf acting up now? I wasn't angry, I felt great. What happened? "Kai, are you okay?" Rosie asked, dropping to my side and was about to reach for me.
Joaquin jerked her back at the same time I growled at her. My body's responses are no longer in my control. I was about to worry that I was going to hurt someone, but Rowan jumped in and wrapped his arms around me, holding me in place. I then felt a stabbing pain in my brain, something trying to tear the berserker rage away from my mind like a bandage, giving me some room to break through and push the rage further back. Looking up at Roxanne with her eyes flashing, and glowing magic radiating off her outstretched hand told me it was her doing. I was grateful for that.
"Come on, Kai. Snap out of it," Rowan growled in my ear.
I'm in control.I repeated to myself in my head.I'm in control. I'm in control. I'm. In. Control.
The red slowly vanished from my vision until I no longer felt the anger consuming me. Rowan released his hold on me, letting me fall on my hands and knees panting. A sheen of sweat dripped down from my brow. I felt drained, but I was okay. "What... happened?" I panted. "I wasn't even angry."
Feeling safe enough to touch me, Rosie reached for my face, turning me to face her so she can inspect me. "Are you okay?"
"I think so, but I don't know what happened."
"Wait," Joaquin spoke out. "Isn't the full moon tonight?"
Rowan nodded. "It is. I can feel it's energy now even though it hasn't risen yet, but it shouldn't have anything to do with Kai's berserker rage, should it?"
"It does if it's the Blood Moon," Roxanne answered.
Rosie cursed under her breath. "Of course. It's October, which means—"
"This month's full moon is the Blood Moon, which is the same full moon that gave Kai the berserker rage."
Of course, how could I've been stupid enough to forget? "Roxanne's right. Around this month, when the full moon is out, the pull from the berserker rage grows stronger. I completely forgot about it."
"What happens when the Blood Moon is up?"
"I honestly don't know. When the Blood Moon is up, I black out because the pull from the berserker rage is too much for me. I come to the next morning covered in blood."
"It sounds like what happens to us when the Wolf Moon is up," Rosie said. "When the Wolf Moon is out, or wolf's natural predatory state takes over and we don't really know what our wolves do around that time."
"But what a regular wolf does and what a Berserker Wolf does are night and day," Roxanne pointed out, then looked to me. "What do you usually do around this time?"
I rubbed the back of my neck as I sat up and said, "Well Kao usually drives me away from Kingsrose so I could shift, and I'm away from civilians when the Berserker Wolf takes over."
"I usually tell Pierce that Kai and I are planning to go camping for Halloween," I heard Kao say as he approached us with Byron following beside him. "It lets Kai do what he needs, while I... um... go out?"
Joaquin frowned. "Go out on a date, he means. So, while your brother is out on the loose with no way of controlling himself, you're out getting laid?"
"Yeah, Kao, is that what you're telling us?" Rosie stood up with her hands on her hips, glaring at Kao. If not for the tightness in my stomach and the growing migraine, I would've laughed at this.
Kao's face flushed with embarrassment as he looked everywhere but at Rosie and Joaquin.
"Okay, hash this out later. Right now, we need to figure out what to do about Kai," Roxanne said.
At that moment, I cried out through gritted teeth. My eyesight blinking from clear to blood red. My arms wrapped around my stomach, the pain growing strong.
I'm in control. I'm in control. I'm in control.
With as much willpower as I could muster, plus Roxanne intruding in my mind to help me push the berserker rage back, the pain dulled. It wasn't going to last, though. In fact, it was only going to get worse considering the sun was already going down.
