AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I think they remind her of when she and Kassie were little,” Uncle Lalo nodded.
“What do you need from us, Cory?” Uncle Helios asked once the conversation settled.
“I have Evergreen looking for all the communication in and out of the pack. He’s using an AI program to flag certain keywords so we don’t abuse people’s privacy, but we need your permission to do it in Guardian Moon, and we need Uncle Rhett or David to agree. Whoever...whoever is taking over Blue Moon.”
“I’ll talk to Rhett,” Alpha Markus agreed.
“I can’t believe we’re down to thinking someone in our pack is selling out their own people. Everyone in Guardian Moon has been through so much together, and so has Crescent Moon. Are we sure this is necessary? Once we start suspecting people…something gets lost.” Uncle Helios sat back with a sigh.
“If I may Uncle Helios,” I spoke up finally.
“Of course.”
“Who all knew that Aunt Nat was going with you?” I asked.
“Everyone here and the pack. Why?”
“Because Tozi and I were thinking. It’s not just that they knew Blue Moon was the least protected pack or that they knew the full moon celebration was taking place there instead of one of our packs. They knew Aunt Nat wasn’t here to help heal the wounded. They didn’t just want as much blood spilled as possible. They wanted us in chaos and fear. They wanted to create trauma. With Aunt Nat here, the people who were wounded would have been healed in minutes. Without her here, how many people waited in distress with their loved ones on the edge of death?”
“But for what purpose? Death, I get. Distress does nothing but bring us together,” Luna Celeste asked.
“To divide us?” Uncle Helios guessed. “Maybe they think Blue Moon would stop gathering with us. They want to weaken our alliances.”
“But mom is right. This tragedy united us more and angered Blue Moon into joining the fight,” Cory said, frowning.
“But maybe they don’t know that,” I said, making everyone look at me again. I wanted to fidget, but I held my hands at my sides and explained.
“They aren’t werewolves, correct?” I asked and they all nodded. “They don’t think like us. We need a pack. We need our people when we’re at our lowest, and a shared tragedy only brings us closer to each other. It makes us band together. The people who are preparing to go to war against us, they don’t have that. They don’t have the type of connection we have to each other. They’re used to betraying or abandoning when they have no use for each other. Maybe they thought we would run and hide or our pack members would leave and weaken us.”
“That’s a good theory. Maybe you’re right. Maybe we’re looking at this the wrong way. This whole time, we’re trying to guess what they would do, but we’re still thinking like us. Because we were the ones hunting once.” Uncle Helios looked over at Luna Celeste, a small flash of regret filling his eyes before he turned back to us. “We need to think like them, not us, because even at our worst, we were a family and we stuck with each other.”
“So, what’s first then?” Uncle Theo asked.
“We keep looking for the mole, and we figure out the phones. I feel we’re going to get the most information from those two things. In the meantime, keep your eyes open. We can’t let them catch us unaware again,” Alpha Markus said.
“Cory, can you lead me to where you found that smell?” Uncle Helios said when the rest of us started filing out. Tozi whimpered in disappointment. She had been hoping for another run with Tenoch.
“Of course,” Cory answered, his eyes flickering to me briefly, making me wonder if he was feeling the same way. I walked out the back door and started walking toward our pack grounds when I heard someone call my name.
“Evie! I thought that was you.” Paolo came running toward me. He was only wearing shorts, and his chest was covered in sweat. He looked good. I had to admit he was a lot more fit than when he was in high school. His broad shoulders and defined abs could rival that of an alpha. Almost, I thought, thinking back to Cory that night we shared the apple pie.
“Hey!” I answered back cheerfully. I heard the cracking of bones behind me and Uncle Helios’ wolf went running past me. Shortly after, Tenoch trotted after him, walking so close to me that my hand brushed the side of his soft fur. He looked back sullenly before taking off to catch up.
“Sorry. What did you say?” I asked, realizing I’d been staring after Tenoch while Paolo was asking me a question.
“What are you doing over this way?” he asked.
“Just a meeting about work. I’m on my way back to my office. You? You look like you’ve been training,” I asked.
“Yeah, it just ended. Can I walk you back?” he asked. I hesitated for a moment but nodded.
“How are you liking your new job?” he asked, falling in step next to me.
“It’s great. The new employees have just started arriving, and we’re pretty busy.”
“Being a big boss woman is sexy. You’re going to have everyone hitting on you,” he teased, pushing me with his shoulder. I snorted.
“We’re talking about nerds here Paolo. It’s a whole different type of beast,” I reminded him.
