* * *

Crescent Moon wasn't a stranger to bloodshed, but the sixty or so Enforcers from the council were difficult to process—Just about half had been killed, and Hayes was just thankful that nobody from their own pack had been in that count. Just a few injured here and there, though Remus was still in critical condition.

Hayes didn't waste time in calling for aid from either Issac or Chris, since their packs were much closer than his son's.

But explaining what had happened was another story entirely.

Hayes wasn't surprised that the Issac and Mary had called to action within mere hours with the collected help of healers and supplies, yet the father of three Alpha pups hadn't been there to properly greet the new arrivals, not wanting to leave his daughter for more than a few minutes.

She hadn't spoken in hours, her onyx eyes still remaining. And the truth of the matter was, her sweetness of holding the Alpha position was still reigning strong.

Even after the chaos had finally stopped.
Even after she had been cleaned up, bandaged, and on the path of healing.
She still remained as an Alpha prepared for another strike.

It was a theory among the higher-ups that Sage wouldn't return until Remus was awake to reclaim it.

The first day Hayes didn't think she was aware of the surplus of wolves from other packs coming and going in the infirmary, she simply stayed in Remus' recovery room watching and waiting.

She hardly ate, the only distraction that could tear her gaze from her mate was the pups. And that was mainly on the senses in being categorized as an instinct.

Hayes tried to be supportive of a mate being close to one another to promote healing, but the way the healers were describing it—Remus was simply not waking up.

They diagnosed him as being in a coma, leaving many to assume that they had lost the Alpha. And with Sage still charged up with her mate's title, it left Eli as a Beta—Not that it was a major problem, he managed well enough.

Though there were sometimes the subordinate wolves would look at Hayes instead, as he was still considered an Alpha when he walked into the room.

However, after a full day and night, Sage emerged from the infirmary with the clear instructions that she wanted to be informed the second there was anything to report.

One of the only real benefits Sage was blessed when acquiring her mate's strength allowed her to battle the rest of the pup cold, pushing it out of her system. Sage entered the Alpha's study without a second thought, and all eyes looked at her in pure confusion—Especially when she spoke.

"I want Blake back on pack grounds and I want to hear what council say." Julia made her way up to her Luna and pulled her closer to the group to settle her in a seat.

"Sage, maybe you should stay with—"
"No. What Moon Valley, Blue Moon, Eclipse, and Shadow Pack say?" Hayes smirked and nodded in approval to see his daughter control the room.

But in the distance—Way off in the distance, in another dimension, in fact, Remus had stared down at the scene below. Only to cause him to stutter in confusion as to why his mate looked so rigid and tense.

"What the hell?!" He bustled, his voice even feeling like a song verse as it echoed and floated off and around him. In looking at his body he couldn't feel anything, and he certainly recalled what the last moments of consciousness felt like.

And it was awful.

"I don't think that language is acceptable here, nor was it in my house." The voice appeared similar to his, but it startled him as there was hardly any confusion as to who it was from.

He turned fitfully around from his mate and pack to see the first-ever she-wolf he loved.

"Mama?" Emery Moon was just like he remembered, a sad sort of light illuminating her entire aura and figure. And goddess it was highlighted so beautifully here and now, her hands extended forward and Remus didn't question how he found the ability to move forward as the clouds covered the majority of his lower half.

"You've grown into a lovely young male, sweetheart. I'm sorry that I left." Remus could feel his throat starting to close, a rather painful sigh escaping him as he closed his eyes. Though it was feeling a mother's touch that caused him and his wolf to remain calm.

"Wasn't your fault." He reminded, and Emery simply smiled at her son and shook her head.
"I could've done more to stop your father. But we're not here to talk about him...Your mate, she's beautiful."
"You'd love her mama, she's—"
"I've known her for a while, I was graced with a wish and it was granted."
"What...What wish?" Emery's eyes turned to her son for a moment, he surely inherited his father's height as she had to tilt her head up to truly get a good look at him.

She waved over the scene of the Crescent Moon meeting and Remus flinched in seeing the image disappear.

"I asked the moon goddess to send me to your mate...This is the first time I had ever met Sage." Remus prepared himself for what he was about to see, and thanked the goddess that she was simply in the cage and not fighting against anyone.

"The Moon Goddess couldn't see her though, she—"
"That's true, Selena couldn't see Sage. But the will of my wish fought the enchantments and protections that were surrounding Willow and Sage."
"Willow...Have you met Willow, is she here?" Emery's face had remained placid, and Remus wasn't a stranger to what that look meant.

"You can't tell me..."
"No son, I can't. But what I can tell you, was that Sage is much closer to the spiritual side of it all. She had others watching over her, not just me...Look." Remus tried to ignore his young mate living her life in confinement.

But something intrigued him, Sage was looking directly at him. Both him and his mother.

"She can see us?"

"Yes. It was until she received her wolf that she could no longer see or hear me. I switched between you and her as much as I could." Remus felt relieved that his mother spent time with Sage, but when he realized what that meant, he sighed.

"I don't deserve her."
"That's your father talking sweetheart, so were your actions towards her in the beginning and now. You have a beautiful mate standing beside you, running your pack while you can't—That is hard to find, Remus. I only wished I knew about Willow before."
"How am I here? Goddess, I need to get back! Sage—"
"Sage and everyone are handling it, what you need to understand son...Is that this is much bigger than you're expecting, you need to start trusting her. Embrace the changes, because once you return to her...It won't be the same."
"How?"
"Because there will be war, the tension is already high and the pack's former Alpha's that Sage and her father killed are looking for punishment...Mystic Grimm will be targeted just the same as you are now, the unity will need to be stronger than it is. And the biggest question, what will replace the Council?" Remus knew his mother was trying to help, but it was evasive to the truth—When he turned back to the scene before him, he was thankful to see Sage with the pups, but her new attire made him frown.

"Time moves differently here, before you go, sweetheart. You need to find all that your father has done."
"He kidnaped Willow, didn't he? Tell me the truth mama, that my father damned my own mate."

"The council was right, but you need to find the reasons." The term 'reasons' could translate to anything he realized, but when his mother leaned in forward to give him a hug he was met with the same feeling he had when he was a pup.

When he was told his mother had been killed.

"Did...Did father kill you?"
"Not directly, no. But his actions might as well have been his claws."
"A-and Romulus? What really happened to my brother—What—"
"He didn't survive, he was born with difficulties and wouldn't have survived a shift...Your father did what he needed to do." The question was on the tip of his tongue but his mother shook her head.

"I won't tell you that, Remus, you being born first or second doesn't matter. You are your father's heir. His son." He nodded, his mother's reassurance of it not mattering ended his worries almost imminently.

"Now...You're going to feel awful when you get back, but I want you to cuddle and hold those grandpups of mine for me. Rue Emery...I think it's perfect."
"I wish you could've met them all, mama."
"I'm always watching Remus, it makes it easier not to jump this way or that." The final goodbye wasn't as damning as he would've thought, it was bittersweet instead.

Until it wasn't. Until another figure with a rightly grayer skin tone had approached him.

"My son mated to a Mystic..." The voice had sent instant chills through Remus' transparent frame as he turned fully around to see both his parents side by side.

"You would've like Sage, father. If you could get past her blood."
"Her blood cursed me to—"

"Her blood is the same that passed through our pups! Her blood is managing Crescent Moon! Her blood is mine!" Randal Moon had looked to his son, then to the scene behind him.

It was true that he looked every once in a while to what the progress of his pack had been, but his sins didn't allow him much more than a peek every now and then.

But what he did like was the rage his son possessed, the Alpha voice that had been passed and refined. And the sick smirk that graced Randal's face made Remus' stomach twist and turn.

Yet the pleading look of his mother caused him to turn back to Sage, the day had shifted into night and the twins were standing up in the crib trying to reach up and get out—Ronan even attempted to climb over the edge.

However, Sage turned over her shoulder and huffed, stopping his action and showing either baby that she was making them a bottle.

"Go Remus, they need you..." Remus felt the need to walk forward, and he didn't dare listen to his father's taunts and laughter off behind him. For once he could put on a deaf ear to his voice, and the sounds of Sage and the pups graced him rather suddenly.

Instead, he was met with the darkness—His wolf giving out as the energy it took to speak to his parents was something he didn't account for.

______

Date: 01/24/2022

Time: 10:43

Words: 2012

Author's Note:

Look! I did it, I posted before the day is up! 

Anywho, this chapter hopefully gave Remus some closure--While we know that Emery died unexpectedly, it was on Randal's account. Which will be explored later on in this book.

We'll be finding out what the other packs think about Crescent Moon's move in the next chapter! And let me just say, Sage isn't the only one to take a title they were born into *Wink* *Wink*

Quick question--
I'm working on another werewolf story, this is going to be a quick short story one book. This idea has been in my head for a while and I want to start posting it once it's finished and edited.

Would anyone be interested?

What does it involve?
-Royalty
-Werewolf and human relationship
-Mature rating (For violence and tasteful sexy times)
-Rogues as the big bad

___

Alrighty, see you all either Wednesday (For The Luna of Crescent Moon) or Chapter Eleven of Blue Moon!

Have a good week!