Moon Bound Episode Two

Ivy

I stood there in the middle of my mother’s den while she ranted and raved. The idea of my being mated to the alpha was not what she wanted to hear.
“Look, it’s not like I wanted it either,” I snapped.
Erik glanced at me, and I narrowed my eyes at him.
“This is your fault,” I said.
“Mine?”
“If you had just stayed away for two months, I’d be out of this shit,” I said, my anger boiling over. This was the last thing I wanted, even if the feelings in my body were screaming this was right.
“What were you even doing out there that late at night?” My mother asked. She ignored Erik altogether.
“I was talking to Sam,” I said. It wasn’t a complete lie. We were talking just about the witchcraft my mother refused to let me learn about. “Look, I’m almost twenty-three. I can spend time out in the park or wherever I want.”
She took a breath, and I waited for her to yell at me, but she didn’t. “Why didn’t either of you say anything in the beginning?”
“I didn’t want this,” I said and glanced at Erik.
He shrugged. “I didn’t want to be alpha. I thought one of my brothers would take it and I could be free to do whatever.”
“So, neither of you wanted it and both of you got it,” she sighed. “Now what?”
“I don’t know,” I said. My entire chest was on fire with how close Erik was right now. It was more annoying than the fact I was going to be stuck as his wife.
“We put on a show. I take the alpha position to please my father, but we don’t do the mating. We can say it was a mistake later.” He glanced at me, and the hurt in his eyes almost broke me. “We can say it was a lie so I could be alpha.”
“But you didn’t want that,” I said, and he smiled at me.
“It doesn’t matter. My pack has plans to expand. All three of us are going to be alphas,” he admitted, and I shook my head.
“That’s not what this pack wanted,” I said.
“It doesn’t matter. We have to hold the line against the vampires. They’re looking for a reason to take us out, and not being unified would be all they need.”
I took a breath. I’d ignored the vampires since they started attacking nearby. The truth was, I didn’t want to think they could be after us. They’d been in the shadows so long. Why strike now?
“I’m going to a few nearby packs to see if they will form an alliance with us. Not unify like our packs did, but at least agree to come if more than a few tries to take us out,” Erik said. He glanced from my mother to me. “I trust you can stay out of trouble that long.”
I rolled my eyes. “I didn’t mean to get into trouble in the first place.”
“She’ll stay close by. All we need is the Alpha’s future mate to get killed or worse,” my mother said.
“Not his future mate,” I mumbled.
I thought I caught a slight smirk on Erik’s perfect lips before he turned and walked from my mother’s home.
“What were you thinking?” She crossed her arms as soon as he was gone. “The future alpha and a Laric?”
“I didn’t do it on purpose, Mom,” I said and walked past her towards the couch I’d curled up on for years.
“What happens when he finds out about the other half of you?”
“I didn’t even get any powers, Mom.” I pulled the blanket over me and grabbed one of the books sitting on the little coffee table I’d started reading and stopped for some reason. “The wolf part seems to have taken over.”
“Ivy, this is not a joke.”
“I know, Mom. You’ve made sure to tell me my entire life how it’s so bad I’m half a witch. You seem to forget you were the one that created me with a witch.” I glanced at her and quickly looked away. She never talked about my dad or what led up to me. The only thing she told me was, he’s dead.
“That was…” She shook her head. “It wasn’t what you think.”
“Then what was it?” I said, glancing at her. “If it wasn’t love.”
“It was complicated,” she said, dodging the question like always.
“Every time I ask about my dad, you do that.”
“Ivy, the witches and the wolves, they don’t get along.” She took a seat beside me and leaned back. “If they found out about you, it wouldn’t be good for anyone.”
“So, no one gets to know me for what I am,” I mumbled.
“I do, and I love you enough to keep you safe.”

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Erik

Walking away from the home, I couldn’t help but think about how everything was changing for her. As much as I fought the idea of her being my mate, I couldn’t fight the urge to keep her close and protected. Even if she didn’t want that.
The other part of me wanted to send her away from all this. Maybe if she was exiled, she’d at least have a chance at life. My hands curled into fists as I thought about the choices we didn’t have.
I almost missed the red Mustang my little brother drove pulling up to me. His head popped out with a silly smile on his face.
“Looks like I didn’t have to take one for the pack this time,” Jaylyn said, that smile getting bigger.
“Not yet, but you know father won’t stop here,” I said, stepping past the car towards the other side. “You want to go talk to some other packs closer to the action?”
“Does that mean we might get to fight some vamps?” His smile widened.
“Maybe, but my priority is to find out what they’re up to,” I replied.
“Probably is a good idea,” he said, slipping his head back into the car.
I opened the door and sat on the passenger side, taking one last look at Ivy’s home. A part of me did not want to let her be on her own after what happened last night, but we weren’t mated yet. She still had to agree.
“Let’s go,” I said.
“What direction?”
“North. We’re going to the Crimson Moon pack,” I said, and he shot me a look.
“That pack is… less than civil.”
“That’s what they say about us,” I answered.
Jaylyn sighed and put the car in gear.
None of this was going to be easy. Crimson Moon was one of those packs that we stayed away from. They’d already dealt with their share of vampire attacks and somehow managed to stay standing, but the stories from there recently were… interesting.
“They say there is a witch who works with those packs to the north,” Jaylyn said.
“Stories,” I answered, but honestly, if they’d managed to negotiate a peace with the witches of The Order of Fate, they were one step ahead of us and could be a great asset.
“How far is it?” Jaylyn said, taking a quick glance at me.
“Just a couple of hours,” I answered. “We won’t be gone long.”
“Good.”
“Are you that ready to see what pack father has for you?” I smiled as I spoke.
“How do you know it won’t be Gavin that gets his pack first?”
“You know, father,” I answered.
“He’s probably already got a list of places he finds… strategic.”
I shook my head. “At least you’ll be away from him. I have to take on the entire pack and the new one. You just have to deal with the new pack.”
“You know how well that goes. When a new alpha is installed to an existing pack, things are difficult,” he sighed.
“I think you can make them like you,” I said. “You’re a good man.”
Jaylyn didn’t say anything. I knew he had his own demons, but I didn’t press him. Those were his to deal with. I just hoped he’d find some kind of happiness. He deserved that much.
The drive was quiet, but we’d started later than I wanted to. Which meant driving back in the dark was inevitable. I sighed at the thought, even as we crested the small hill and into the city center. It was smaller than I’d expected. Almost like a ghost town where the ghosts refused to leave.
“This is where they live?” Jaylyn looked at me and shook his head. “It’s smaller than where we came from.”
“The pack is small now. They had a run-in with the Warlocks.”
“Oh,” Jaylyn said. We all knew what happened when you crossed the warlocks. They held all the power. Even the witches couldn’t get out of their control. They had all the power and influence needed to take over the magickal community. The worst part was you couldn’t even kill them. They just came back with more power than before.
“Should we just park and get out?” Jaylyn said.
“Chances are we’re going to get the alpha’s attention at any moment,” I said, raising an eyebrow. “They’ll come to us.”
Jaylyn looked at me as if I were some crazy person. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
“It’s the only one we have,” I countered. “We talk to the alpha and get the hell back home.”
“You mean back to your home,” he said, raising an eyebrow.
I narrowed my eyes at him, and she chuckled.
Jaylyn put the car in park at the school that looked like it should be torn down, but the swing of the metal gate when the wind picked up told me it was still in use.
It didn’t take long for an old beat-up truck to barrel into the parking lot. I leaned on my brother’s car with my arms crossed like I couldn’t care less even as the truck door slammed and a dark man with short black hair stalked towards us.
“What the fuck are you doing in my town?” He growled.
“I don’t mean any harm or anything,” I said carefully. “I know this is your territory.”
“Do you?” He mocked. “It seems if you did, then you’d know better than to be here.” He glanced at Jaylyn and back to me. “You should know better than to come into my town, Larics.” He spat the last part like it was dirty.
“I’m coming here as a wolf. We need your help.”
“Help?” He laughed. “You are nothing but killers and snakes. Why would I help you?”
“Because you want to stay alive as much as we do,” I said, taking a step towards him. “The vampires want all of us dead. Why?”
He cocked his head at me. “Not here.” He walked towards his truck and then looked back at me. “I’ll talk to you this once and then you will get the hell out of my town.”
“Deal.”

Ivy

The last thing I was going to do was listen to my mother when she told me to let the witch half of me go. There was something more there I didn’t understand. Like it was everything I was missing, even if I didn’t know how to use it.
“What if I was right when I told my mother the wolf seemed to be the only thing I had?” I looked at Sam and shook my head.
She picked up her glass of some cheap whiskey and took a drink. “Look, if my research is right, then it wouldn’t have shown up until now.
“Why, because I finally found my mate?” I mocked her without thinking. The whole idea was ridiculous. The amount of research I’d done on what Sam called moon witches stated that it was a powerful magick and that’s why it wasn’t something many witches had. It gave them some kind of extra hold over the spirit element, apparently.
“You act like it’s impossible to be a part of you,” she said with a snort. “You’re pretty set in your ways.”
“No, I just have plans,” I sighed. “When I found out, and most of the pack did too, I wanted to just get out of here. What’s the point of being tied to wolves that don’t want me?”
A laugh caught my attention, and I glanced across the bar Sam insisted on bringing me to. Several of the pack guys were playing pool and drinking heavily. Before long they would be a problem I didn’t want to deal with.
“Ivy, you’re not just one thing or another. You are both,” Sam said. “I wish I could find out more about witches who were men.”
“There aren’t any. According to the books anyway,” I said with a shrug. Then it dawned on me. What if my mom was cagey for another reason? “Warlocks and witches get together to make witches if they’re girls and warlocks if they’re boys.”
“You don’t think?”
“What else could it be?” I leaned back in the chair. “No wonder she’s so afraid to tell anyone outside of the pack.”
“If your dad is a warlock, that means you could have a whole different future if they find you.”
“Well, now that I’m supposed to mate Erik, I don’t think that’s going to happen,” I said.
“Unless you leave,” Sam said, taking another drink.
The fact that I hadn’t caught this earlier made me feel like the stupidest person in the world. My mom was trying to protect me, like always. She never talked about the time she spent outside of the pack. Only that it was something she regretted, minus me.
A slam of a drink on the pool table made me look back at Sam. “We should get out of here before it gets worse,” I said. “I don’t think I’ve been here on a Friday night they haven’t gotten into a brawl for something stupid.”
Sam smiled and swallowed the last of her drink. “Let’s get out of here. It’s getting late, and I’m bored here.”
“You can hang out at my place. My mom’s gone to meetings all night about this vampire problem,” I said. “Bring the books.”
“I love learning about your magick,” she said, standing. “Makes me wish I were a witch hybrid.”
“When you say it like that, it makes me cringe,” I countered, pushing my own chair in.
She snickered, but the way her face changed made me sigh.
“Leaving already?” A tall guy dressed as if he’d been in the latest documentary about hunting and outdoor living.
I recognized him and crossed my arms as I faced him. “Cade, you’re more than capable of taking care of yourself. You don’t need us here.”
He laughed and leaned closer; his breath smelled like bourbon and cigarettes. “Come on, you know that new alpha isn’t going to do it for you?”
I stepped back. “Cade, you need to go home.”
He stepped closer again. “I will be with you.”
I gave him a hard shove and backed away. “Not interested.”
“It’s not like I want to be your mate. Just having a little fun,” he said.
“She said no,” a voice I hadn’t heard before said from my left. I turned just as one of the men I’d seen at the mate ceremony a few days ago stepped up to Cade. “She’s been claimed and if you don’t want to face my brother when he gets back, I’d be moving on. Larics have a reputation, and we live up to it.”
Cade glanced at him and then back to me before walking away, cussing the entire time.
“I know you,” I said and furrowed my brow. “I just don’t know your name.”
“Gavin,” he said simply. His features weren’t as soft as Erik’s. He had dark eyes that took in everything in the room all at once. The way they shifted between me and the men still hanging out at the pool table and back to the doors told me a lot about who he was in this family.
“Erik’s brother,” I said. “Makes sense.”
“You shouldn’t be here without him,” he said, grabbing my arm and pulling me towards the door.
I pulled my arm away and gave him a look. “I was leaving, thank you.”
He grumbled and looked at Sam. “Who’s she?”
“My friend,” I snapped. “Thanks for stepping in, but we were on our way out, anyway.”
“Good,” he said. “Stay home until Erik gets back.”
“Are you always like this?”
“What?”
“Demanding,” I said, cocking my head. “I mean, I barely know you, and here you are demanding I go home.”
“I’m just keeping my brother’s mate safe. He’d do the same for me.”
“I get it. I’m leaving,” I said, putting my hands up in surrender. As soon as I turned back to Sam, she was watching with a huge grin. “What?”
“They seem to want to keep you safe,” she said, that smile never leaving.
“Just because I’m perceived as important right now,” I mumbled, and she laughed.
“OR because they see you as the woman you really are,” she said.
“Right, not because his brother and I seem to have some weird connection I don’t want or need,” I snapped, and she shrugged.
This whole mate thing was getting on my nerves.

Erik

“You think he knows anything about the vampires?” Jaylyn said as we pulled up to the little house behind the truck. It looked as if it were barely holding on. Much like the rest of the town.
He stepped out of his truck, and I followed suit. “This is your place?”
“It does the job,” he said. “Are you really that concerned about my home?” He shook his head. “I thought you wanted information about vampires.”
“We do,” I said. “What do we call you?”
“Why?”
“I like to know who I’m speaking with and giving favors to,” I said.
“Who said you were doing me a favor?” I waited, and he sighed. “Axl.”
“You’ve been the alpha here for a while, huh?” I didn’t know a ton about their pack. Most of the time they stayed to themselves with the exception of matings.
“I’ve been the alpha for twenty years, and after me, my children will take the helm if they can win against any challengers,” he said.
I nodded. A lot of the old packs still did the challenges. It was an old custom, but not forgotten by all. We did it a bit differently. “What do the vampires want with us?”
“What do you think?” He said with a slight laugh. “They want to keep the packs divided.” He watched me, and I waited. “They hunt us to keep our numbers down. The only way to stop them is to be stronger than them, but they seem to be gaining in number.”
“You think they’re creating more.” I shook my head.
“They can’t turn witches or wolves, but they can humans. They’ve been moving to collect as many as they can,” he said. “My people have tracked the movements to keep out of their way.”
“So, you know the patterns,” I said and nodded my head. “Would you mind sharing that with me?”
“Why would I give you our movements? So you can take over my pack?” He glared at me, and I shook my head.
“That’s not my way,” I said, taking a step towards him. “Look, I know in the past Larics have been ruthless and taken what they want, but it’s time for a change.” I kept my eyes on him. “I want to form an alliance. One that will keep us both alive and our packs.”
“I won’t join your pack,” he growled.
“I’m not asking you to, but if either of us is in trouble, maybe we can come to the other’s aid.” I waited for him to think about that. It would be good for both of us to know there was another pack of wolves that could come and help if we were attacked and, maybe through that alliance, we could form some kind of community again. One that would help us ultimately win against the vampires. Especially if they were gaining in numbers like he said.
“An alliance where I maintain control of my pack?” He looked as though he questioned the entire idea.
“Yes,” I said. “No one is coming to take your pack. I swear.”
“Fine, it couldn’t hurt to have help once in a while, but know this, Laric, you would never beat me in a challenge.”
“Noted.”

Ivy

“So, it works with the moon cycles?” I stared at Sam sitting on my bed with a book in her hand.
“If you have the moon magick stuff, yeah,” she said. The smile on her face, like she’d discovered the best secret ever, made me kind of want to throw the book I had in my lap at her.
“I think you’re full of shit,” I said, and she laughed.
“Oh, come on, you know you have something in there. It’s just buried,” she slid off the bed and sat on the floor in front of me. “You knew before the vampires attacked.”
“That was luck,” I said.
“But what if you could sense it?” She raised an eyebrow. “That’s like one of the biggest things all witches can do. They sense the change in the energy before the being shows up.”
“I don’t…” I didn’t know what I felt. One moment we were talking about this ancient book and magick and the next we were ducking from vampires. “We should be studying vampires, really.”
“Why?” Sam said, and I gave her a look.
“Why do you think?” I closed the book and leaned against the wall behind me. Everything was such a mess. First, I get attacked by vampires, then forced to at least pretend I’m mating an alpha I don’t want to even look at. Even if he makes me feel tingly inside when he’s around. It didn’t take away the straight anger I felt every time he tried to tell me what to do.
“The elders always keep the vampires away. They’ve been trying to attack for years,” Sam said, blowing off the idea that anything was happening.
“They’ve never been this close,” I countered. “Sure, a rogue one or two up the road in a neighboring town was normal, but I heard my mother. They are organizing.”
“All the more reason for you to find your power,” she said. “You can help.”
“I can’t show my power to anyone. If the Larics know, they’ll use it for their own power.”
“You really think Erik’s like that?” She watched me, and the truth was I didn’t know. He hadn’t spent enough time with me to know exactly who he was and what he was capable of. Could he use my power, if I even have one? Probably. A smart alpha would, but every time I thought of Erik, I thought of how his lips took mine and how his hands were gentle when they wrapped around me. If he had wanted to use me, he could have done it right then and there.
“What do you think he’s going to be like as alpha?” I didn’t know whether I wanted the answer. It wasn’t like I would be around once that happened.
“I don’t know, but anything is better than his father. He’s the reason everyone is afraid of the Larics,” she said. “He started so many wars between packs, and all for power.”
“That’s what worries me,” I said. As soon as the words left my lips, I felt something weird. My stomach dropped, and I furrowed my brow.
“What is it?” Sam watched me, and I shook my head.
“I don’t know,” I answered honestly. “Something’s coming.”

Erik

I followed Axl through his door. The home was much nicer on the inside, and I couldn’t help but wonder why he made it look like he had so little. The living room area was huge with a long couch against the far wall with plush cushions. To the right was a small hallway that led to what looked like a stairway to the upper floor.
“You’re wondering why it looks so nice in here versus outside,” he said, studying me. “The pack lost so much. I just want to keep us together.”
“I understand,” I said. To be willing to care about your people before yourself was one of those things that was still pretty rare, especially in the world right now. Too many wolves were in it for themselves. Including me, if I hadn’t had my mother to guide us.
Just thinking about her made my chest tighten. It’s been years, but I still felt her death as if it were just yesterday.
“The vampires are attacking in waves. They send a couple out to scout and then the larger formation comes.” He pulled out a map with red markings on it. There were dozens up and down the coast. “They seem to be hitting each pack one by one. Taking the ones they want to use for whatever and killing the others.”
“Why haven’t the warlocks stepped in?” I knew that was probably a stupid question. If there weren’t money involved, they let us rip each other apart.
Axl laughed. “Like they care about wolves. They probably want us to kill each other so they don’t have to do it later.”
“Where are they now?”
He pointed out some areas on the map. Some further south into the Carolinas, and one went to the west, closer to Ohio. “They haven’t been super precise until lately. They’re looking for something.”
“What?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know, but whatever it is, they are going to tear everything apart until they find it.”
“They attacked my mate’s pack last night. Just two. You don’t think they’re coming back that fast, do you?”
“If they attacked just recently, I would expect it any day now, and this time, it won’t be just a couple. If you don’t get your pack together, they will kill them all.”
I glanced at Jaylyn. “Call Gavin and tell him to get everyone prepared just in case.”
He nodded and walked outside to make the call.
“How many?”
He shook his head. “It’s hard to know. Depends on how much trouble they think you are.”
“Considering I killed one of them last time, they are going to think my pack is a lot of trouble.”
“And the fact you’re a Laric, that’s going to make it that much more tempting.”
“Thanks Axl. I’ll be in touch.”
“Remember what I said,” he said as I started for the door.
“I know.” I glanced at him. “You have nothing to fear from me, Axl, or my pack.”
He watched me, and I just walked through the door and towards Jaylyn, already waiting at the car.
“What did Gavin say?” I watched for Jaylyn to get in his car first.
“He said he’d let them know and that your little mate was already getting into trouble at the bar,” he said with a slight smile. “If you wanted a wallflower, you’re out of luck, it seems.”
I sighed and got into the passenger side. “Let’s get back before it gets too late.”
“Axl rattled you, didn’t he?”
“I just don’t like that we might have to deal with a bigger threat before we’re ready. We haven’t even gotten things working with the new pack.”
He drove through the little town faster than when we’d come here, which was fine with me. The sooner we got back to our pack, the better. We drove for maybe half an hour before Jaylyn spoke again.
“You know I can feel your tension,” he said, and I laughed.
“I just want to get back.”
“You just want to get back to her,” he said, glancing at me.
I shook my head, and something caught my eye in front of us seconds before we hit it and the entire car slammed to a stop. My body flew forward until the seat belt pulled me back and the pillow of the airbag smacked me in the face. The horn was blaring, and I groaned.
“Erik, are you good?” Jaylyn strained to get out.
“I think so,” I said, slowing opening my eyes.
The first thing I saw was the same goddamn blond vampire from the night before with a feral grin on his face.
Fuck.