The Chronicles of Moon
Chapter 5

Morning Swim

Ben has difficulty hiding his relief once all the contracts are signed, but he’s a little worried when Alpha Colin requests to stay the night. Alpha Colin claims they want to get a better idea of the land and surrounding woods to inform their warriors of the details and have the best plan of defense in place as soon as possible.

Ben is hoping these new allies don’t plan to betray him and take the pack for themselves by force. Ben hates that the clan needs help, but they have just run out of options, and he needs the pack to be safe for his people and his new pup. Moon comes walking by the office holding little Rose.

“Hey, Moon, will you come in here?” Ben says. Moon backs up and walks into the office.

“Yeah, Ben, what’s up? Me and Rosy Posy are going for a little walk so mommy can take a shower. Baby puke is not a good smell, especially when even I can smell it,” Moon says, wrinkling her nose up. “Rosy got all clean and smells fine now, but poor Emily. It was in her hair.”

Ben shakes his head and holds his hands out for the tiny baby. Moon hands Rose over after cooing at her.

“So what did you need me for, Ben? Are you going to yell at me for the woods? I know I should have got help…” Moon questions.

“What, no! You saved Sam! No, I just want to let you know about the deal with Alpha Colin.” Ben has a worried look on his face, and Moon knows the look well; usually, she is the cause of that look.

“So, what is the problem?” she prods, waiting for Ben to spill what he’s so worried about. Moon plops down in an empty chair.

“They want to stay a day or two and get a lay of the land,” Ben declares. Moon isn’t thrilled they are staying, but she shrugs, getting up.

“Well, I guess they would want to, but it is strange in a way. Why not just send the warriors we need, and they can work with us?” Moon heads to the door, puzzled as Ben bounces the fussy baby in his arms.

“So they are staying in the pack house, right?” Ben nods, and Moon rolls her eyes. Having them stay the night wasn’t her plan, and she can’t do anything about it.

Moon strolls her way to the kitchen. Once she is there, she is quickly makes herself busy by looking in the pantry for the chocolate chip cookies. She is so distracted, she doesn’t hear someone come into the kitchen. When that someone clears their throat, she jumps, hitting her head on the shelf of the pantry.

“Ouch, do you make it a habit to sneak up on people?” Moon scolds, turning on Alpha Colin and rubbing her head.

“Sorry, I didn’t know a wolfless girl that takes on rogues was so jumpy,” Alpha Colin says a little sarcastically. Moon can’t tell what he’s thinking; his face is blank.

“Well, I wasn’t just going to do nothing,” Moon shrugs and returns to searching for the cookies, smiling when she finds them. When she turns around, and she’s surprised to see Alpha Colin still in the kitchen.

“Do you need something, Alpha Colin? Dinner will be soon.”

Moon is unsure what to say to him. She just wants to take her cookies back to her room and read. Her head hurts now, and the few buses and scrapes she has are aching for a nice warm bath. Moon is trying to figure out if she can fit by the large man blocking the door or not when he moves closer to her.

“You can’t eat cookies for dinner. Also, has anyone looked at those?” He points to a rather large bruise on her arm.

“I’m fine with cookies, and no one needs to bother with just a few bruises. Thanks for your concern, but I’m just fine. I’m wolfless, not made of glass, and a few bruises aren’t anything to trouble people over.”

Moon walks briskly and stomps up the stairs, irritated at him. He thinks she is weak just because she has no wolf. She really doesn’t need to be reminded again that she is wolfless. Tomorrow is all the reminder she needs, her birthday. It is the worst day, and she wishes she could forget about it. It is the day she didn’t get her wolf, and the day she lost the one person who understood her and loved her no matter what. Moon makes it to her room, sitting on the bed with her cookies.

“Stupid Alphahole,” she mutters, flopping back on the bed.

All Moon can hope is that they leave tomorrow. She thinks gramps had the right idea in keeping away from the Alphas like the ones she met today. Two of them didn’t even bother to help during the attack. Not to mention all three gawked at her like she was such a strange oddity. At least Alpha Colin had the decency to help during the attack, but she still finds something about him annoying. Maybe it’s his sarcastic tone or unreadable face, even if it is a handsome face with dark eyes and dark hair.

Moon sits up and heads to her bathroom shaking her head and rubbing her aching shoulder. She has had enough for one day, and a bath and bed are the only things she wants to focus on right now.

***

By the following day, Moon is even stiffer. Her shoulder aches more than it did last night. She didn’t go to the office last night to review papers like she usually does. She just took her bath and fell asleep. The day had been more than exhausting.

Moon sits up, groans in pain, and pulls open the drawer of her nightstand, grabbing the little bottle of painkillers. She takes a couple and gets up, trying to stretch out her aches. This only causes her to wince a bit more.

She gets dressed and hopes moving around will help. Maybe the dip in the cold water of Moon Lake will help. It’s still a birthday tradition for her, no matter how much she hates the day and refuses to celebrate it. She is pretty sure that with everything going on, everyone has forgotten that it is her birthday at all. Moon can’t decide if she’s glad or sad that people have forgotten what day it is.

It’s only five in the morning, but the summer days have been hot lately. Even in the early morning hours, Moon can tell today will be just as hot as the rest. She is definitely looking forward to going to Moon Lake.

Once she is dressed, she heads out of her room and down the hall. Moon is confident that she will be the only one up in the house. She has always been the first one up; she likes the mornings and watching the sunrise.

In no time, Moon is at the tree line of the woods behind the pack house. She keeps feeling like someone is watching her, but she can’t see anyone no matter how many times she checks. She is starting to feel like she is just being silly as she walks into the trees.

The sun is just starting to peek over the horizon, turning the sky to light blue, and rays of golden light stream threw the trees and kiss the ground. Moon decides to push her worries aside and enjoy the morning. Birds are chirping, and she is going to her favorite place in the world; she only wishes her body and heart didn’t ache so much.

She walks slowly through the trees and listens for anything out of the ordinary, but all seems fine. She starts humming to herself, deciding that she is just being paranoid. The walk takes longer than usual. When she does make it to the lake, she smiles and looks out across the water. The morning fog is just beginning to burn off in the first rays of the sun. Moon is sure there is no place as beautiful as this.

She slips off her shorts and pulls her shirt over her head, wincing again. The bruise on her shoulder and arm is a deep purple now. She can’t even see the freckles anymore that cover her shoulders.

With a sigh, she walks out into the water, taking a sharp breath at how cold it feels. Once she’s entirely in the water, it isn’t so bad. The cold water numbs the aches in her body. Moon relaxes and floats in the water, just letting the ice water do its magic. The snapping of sticks and branches gets her attention, though. When she looks in the direction of the noise, she suddenly wishes she wasn’t there alone. Three men she has never seen and can only assume are rogues are watching her. Moon has nowhere to go and no way to tell any of her pack that she is in danger.

“Come on, sweetheart, why don’t you come to shore? We can have a little fun,” one man says. Moon swims out a little farther in response.

“Are you really going to play hard to get?” the same man asks. “Well, I will just have to go get you then.”

When he starts to undress, Moon starts swimming faster, hoping if she reaches the other bank, she might be able to get away. Moon swims hard, pushing through the pain. She can hear the men laughing.

The splash into the water makes her turn. She can see the rogue wolf swimming fast, but her foot touches the lake bottom. She starts fighting her way through the water to the other shore. She can’t see the other men, but she’s sure they shifted too. Moon is in a complete panic, knowing she has to try to get away from them. How can she possibly escape three wolves? This morning’s swim was probably a bad idea after all.

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