* * *

Hayes had stayed with Sage in the infirmary, but being close to Rue all this time passed over the pup cold to their mother. And it was what was causing her to feel incredibly weak, in addition to an overpowering migraine.

Her immune system was now working overtime, leaving her curled up in an aching ball in the infirmary trying to get some sleep.

Amy had brought over some pup things so the twins wouldn't get bored just sitting around with their mama in the hospital. But the entire staff in the infirmary made their way to visit the Alpha children once in a while, while Remus made good on his word to not hand over the files.

Jules however, got in contact with her former pack and went to seek out the Luna's suspicions. And then returned with an entire folder, plopping it on the Alpha's desk.

Which caused him to groan.
"Please tell me that's not the Council's filing for our arrest."
"No. The council has been giving a lot more funds to Eclipse, Moonlight, Blue Moon, Shadow, and Moon Valley than we think. The others hardly get half." Remus' chair scratched back as he looked at the files, bringing them to the window behind him to read better in the light.

"What the fuck?!" Jules handed her mate another copy and Eli scoffed.

"I thought the Council was punishing the other packs for disrespecting Sage? I don't think a million dollars is really—"
"That's our fucking funds!" Remus said with a growl, his wolf felt as though he had been walked on all this time.

"It gets worse..." Jade mumbled, flipping to the back of the packet. And Eli's shocked face couldn't put into words what it was that caused that type of reaction.

"Remus...Your father—"
"What did my father do now?! Other than starting a war and cursing my name to the fucking ends of the earth?!" Eli slid his copy of the file and the image of Sage was featured loud and clear.

Right beside Willow.

"They knew?!"
"No...Nono. Read it. They have reason to believe that Randal sought out Luna Willow, to purposefully kidnap her—which lead to her being given to the Underground."
"The silver rope..." Remus mumbled, but it caused the Alpha to flail his arms.

"What the hell would that do—Other than...put Mystic Grimm against us."
"They thought Randal caused Willow's death, that she was assassinated. But now they know she was taken for a reason." Remus felt his hand starting to rub against his growing facial hair, trying to piece together some sort of solution.

His wolf was pacing, thinking a hundred miles an hour where he didn't look like the son of a fucking monster.

"Sir—"
"If it's bad news Jackson, I need another minute." The three of them watched in pure fear as the Alpha actually started pacing, there was hardly a feeling to match what he was battling through right now.

His mate was angry, weak, sick, and freshly attacked. Not to mention disappointed in him after his rather male-dominated way of seeing her as just a mother to his pups.

Though he hardly recognized that as bad, a rather sexist notion his father installed in him.

"Uh...Sir, the council is coming tomorrow."
"I said a minute, didn't I? What do they want? To make amends or turn Hayes against me now?" The others tensed up, as one would when an Alpha would enter a room.

Remus turned his attention to the door to see Hayes surveying the room with his own judgmental eye. "I got the council memo...And I'm being summoned back."

"I need to talk to you," Remus said, gathering up the packets and dismissing his Betas and Delta. And with the way they ran out, Hayes could only huff at the impatience.

"Don't tell me you pupped out and gave them the system?"
"No. Jules did some digging. The council has been picking favorites for certain funds, my trio and Mystic Grimm's trio, as well as Arctic Crest...We aren't being represented fairly, just like Sage has been trying to say since--" Hayes let out a faulty breath and shook his head, the number was clearly in front of him.

The council was being divided and lies were stacking up, and it was only now everything was coming into the light. "And the part where they want to turn me against you?" The expression was one Hayes had seen hundreds of times from his own children.

The look of disappointment was familiar and his wolf was starting to pace in worry.

"Son. Take a deep breath, you're scaring me." The term of acknowledging him as his son only made Remus' eyes burn more.

"My father...Was the one to put those silver ropes on your land, he took your mate. He took her and gave her straight over to the Underground...That's what the Council has managed to theorize and didn't say anything." Remus watched the male in front of him take a long inhale with closed eyes, only to see them turn into a pitch black.

"The way my Betas were theorizing, it sounds as though they were waiting to use that against me..."
"Because they want to see Crescent Moon Fall...Moon Valley is falling, Erika and Conner will need a new pack to lead." Remus recalled the number of deaths that pack had the last time he checked. While four didn't sound all that much, the following month's total was twenty-six.

That's almost half of the wolves his pack saved from the Underground's truck.

"Fuck the Council, Hayes, we'll find all that we can about Willow. The Council has been pushing it off for so long now."
"We find out what happened to mate. Call my pups. I'm going for a run." Remus didn't mind being ordered on that end, in fact, he was thankful that the male was so understanding.

But what type of logic would it have been to kill him on the spot?

Remus set up a conference call between six-packs this new information affected, it's hardly ever been done before. But with the problems Crescent Moon was having, they were just as eager to get to the bottom of it.

"You mean to fucking tell me..." Harlow began, his voice growling with the same magnitude as his father just twenty minutes before. "....That the council not only is being a bias corrupt kingdom, but they're making an assumption based off of what?! Randal Moon?"

"Does the council really think that Randal was after mom enough to send her to the Underground?" Haylee asked with a sniffle, and Remus caught Drake kissing his mate's shoulder and rubbing her affectionally.

He would be doing the same if Sage had the stomach to see him now.

"Sage made it clear she doesn't trust the Council, and I'm sure everyone here can put some confidence that what my mate says has some merit to it once in a while." The collective nods made his wolf feel proud, especially when his eyes turned away from the screen to see a picture of his family.

The pups were hardly a few days in skin before Elenor snapped a photo and had it framed.

"What do you propose happens next, Moon?" Kendal asked, and Remus smirked back to the camera at Moon Ridge's question.
"We play it smart, we wait for an opening. The council doesn't know we know any of this, so when they ask for help we simply refuse. Make-up lies. Sage predicted that Alpha Nathan won't be punished—" Remus had to pause as the uproar of the she-wolves on all ends of the calls shared their anger.

Even Kendal's beta female chimed in, as Kendal did not have a mate to stand in as his Luna.

"—He came with charges at the ready, they held back Hayes with a lie saying they were going to try and weed out the packs that might've been behind Alpha's Nathan's attack. He's still working on a list on who to trust." Harlow nodded, as did the others.

"I know you aren't close with Arctic Crest, Remus, but they favor Sage. Luna Irene shared her interest in meeting Sage the last time Jade and her spoke." Mystic added, and Remus started to rub his hand against his chin in pure thought.

"Yeah, Irene and Xavier always voice their distaste to the council and their ways. The only people who are keeping it afloat are those with alive relatives. Sage is right, and I hate that it took her not even a glance to see it when we couldn't. We're unrepresented, collectively we have four out of the possible fourteen Alpha and Luna's that could've been helping us, while they have eight out of the possible Nine." Jade said with a full face of conviction and preparation to start a revolution.

"You figure it out?" Sage called out, not knowing that he was on call. And the laughter that the computer made at the look of fear that washed over Remus' face caused his mate to frown.

Her arms crossed over her chest, she wasn't expecting to hear from Julia when she came to the infirmary that Remus was in a meeting with the collected Alphas.

I said I want to be involved.

Sage, you're sick and on maternity leave—I can sum everything up later.

I don't want a sum up, I want to speak as Luna. But fine.

"Sage, are you okay?" Jade asked, and goddess was Sage not okay in any regard. She didn't respond to her sister-in-law and instead walked out of the room with a slam of the door.

Making everyone flinch at the sound.

"Goddess, she's pissed," Drake mumbled, earning himself a growl from Haylee.

"Yeah! I'd be too after finding out my mate's dad had captured my mother to sell her to the Underground where I'd be living the next twenty-odd years of my life." Haylee interjected, and Remus sucked in a breath.

"I haven't told her yet." And it was Remus' turn to hear the roar of the females being directed to him.

Of course, Jade started to lecture. "Remus, you have to tell her. Even if she is emotional and—"

"Oh for fuck sakes Remus, we all heard it from here that she's pissed. That intuition of hers and caring for the pups, to be attacked in the same fucking day is weighing on her!" Harlow said, interrupting his mate.

"That's why I want her to stay out of it!" He defended his stance yet again, but it was clear that males with mates all started to shake their heads.

"Rem, this is Sage's fight. It was always going to be her fight. These are her reformed Rogues, her grudge against the Underground. Her siblings are right behind her but...It sounds like you're blocking her from doing what she needs to do." Issac said, with no remorse coming from his voice. Only conviction to solve the problem.

"She got the pup cold from Rue...How—"
"You sit her down and talk to her, Remus. She's swallowed much bigger pills than this." Harlow interjected once again, which caused him to curse himself into oblivion.

He needed to talk to Sage.

"Go talk to her, we'll stay and try to figure out something in the meantime. You're not alone in this, Rem. We've got your back." Issac continued, and Remus found himself leaving the call.

The others knew that Moon's trust issues were deeply embedded, and while Remus didn't say it out loud. Harlow and Jade found it rather strange that when the two went to visit Grey Hallow, only for Mary's vision to miraculously return.

Fiona even theorized that perhaps the Moon Goddess always had plans for Sage. Them being lost was simply another way of letting time try and sort through it.

Remus, on the other hand, rushed out of the room in an attempt to chase his mate. Once he got to the bottom of the stairs however, he met the same solemn faces from both Eli and Jack.

"Where did Sage go?" He said, his breath starting to pick up as his wolf ached for his mate.

"Went to get the pups and head home...Sir, before you—" Eli tried to get another word in but Remus was off. The Beta couldn't deny telling where the Luna had gone when the Alpha asked, but Sage said she wanted to be left alone for a nap.

He was surprised how quickly Sage had gone from the packhouse, to infirmary and then back to the house.

"Sage?" Remus called out, but his eyes instantly caught Amy downstairs entertaining the twins. "The Luna went down for a nap, the healer prescribed her something to take since she refused to stay at the infirmary." Her mate could understand the hatred she felt for it, but he hurried along upstairs to their room.

Only to see it was empty, course—He should've known that she was mad at him enough to sleep in her room.

And in peeking through the door, it earned him a huff then a moan.

"Kenze give me meda-cation, I'm sleepy now."
"I...I know I say sorry a lot, Sage. I hate that I keep doing this, I hate that you're shouting at me to listen. I just...I don't know what to do." Sage's eyes blinked a few times as she hummed, especially when he bent down and grasped his hand into hers.

"I'm on the phone with the packs we can trust."
"Friends?"
"Yeah hun, friends. It's better to warn them now that we shouldn't trust the council, especially if shit's about to hit the fan." Remus sighed, realizing he cursed and would need to apologies again.

But Sage let out a small smile as she ran her hand through his hair.

"Why is papa mad?" She mumbled, her big doe eyes just screaming for an answer—And while he realized this before, he should've been consistent with the fact that Sage did not want to remain in the dark any longer.

"Your dad is angry because the council theorized that my dad...gave Willow up to the Underground." Sage's pupils had dilated right there in front of him, all before switching to the pure black, just like her father had.

"He took mama?" She whispered, her voice so close to tears. And Remus nodded, his hand going to cup her cheek in an effort of comfort. He was thankful that he was able to finish what needed to be said, to get it out in the open.

Now Sage knew the truth.

"I learned this today hun, you're right, we shouldn't trust them. They've been around twelvish years and know the ropes by now. Everyone just started to run loose...Harlow suggested we add Arctic Crest to the list of people we trust—Friends." He concluded, and Sage thought for a moment as she cleared away her tears.

From hearing that Willow was killed by Rogues, to being captured by Rogues to be thrown to the Underground—To that having been orchestrated by Randal?

Direct orders from Randal managed to screw over his own son's future...It was the decided karma. But realistically, Remus couldn't have done anything, he was seven at the time of Willow's death, and his own mother held no power up until her death in the following few years.

"Remmy?"
"What's up, Munchkin?" Her thoughts were jumbled from the amount of medication pumping through her, but she managed to piece together what was needed.

"We fight council...They don't have people to fight for them. They're only in power because you say they have power, you let them make choices...Stop giving money to them. Stop answering emails. Stop talking to them." His smile trickled up before he knew it, however, it failed within seconds to stay.

"They're coming tomorrow to take Alpha Nathan."
"We make stand then, say we want him dead. See what happens." It was a wonderful idea, fucking brilliant even.

And Remus didn't hesitate to lean down to kiss his mate, which she groaned on about in defiance.

"Rest up sweetheart, this will be all over before you know it." While Sage smiled at how hopeful her mate was being, even she knew right then and there that this would take a lot longer to fight against.

She just didn't have the energy or will to ruin his excitement.

______

Date: 01/11/2022

Time: 12:02

Words: 2866

Author's Note:

Things are brewing up in Crescent Moon!
With the council hiding important theories and research from the rest of the American packs, it makes you wonder what else they could be hiding.

I did say that this story would be very politically heavy compared to the previous ones, and here it is!

If you're ever confused, there's a list of packs, locations, and names in the -Important details- chapter at the beginning of this book. And if you have any questions, let me know!

Alrighty, see you on Friday for the next Blue Moon update, and Wednesday for -The Luna of Crescent Moon- update!!