* * *

Sage stood beside the given set of pack members who were strong enough to continue fighting, the witches stood a decent step back, and Torin was intrigued by not only their fighting style but also the unity of both species into one elected unit.

"Tell me you're thinking the same thing," Grey spoke aloud, though his words were directed to Andy and Severin.
"And what would that be?" The Alpha questioned because, at this point, the conversation would be anywhere.

"That the walking dead aren't coming to hound us because the Luna said that vampire's name... Could a name be cursed?" Sage hummed along with Grey's theory, but Torin confirmed it.

"This vampire you're referring to, Luna Sage, must have summoned them...Their name is tied to these beings and now they have been called." Torin had agreed that perhaps there was more to it than a simple curse calling upon the Dragur. However, his warning had caused the wolves that chose to fight in skin to ready their stance, while it was the Viking that fired the first shot into the air.

His arrow lightened the way and created a much more detailed battlefield, as they were relying heavily on the moon and her natural light to spot the oncoming fleet of undead wolves.

"Don't go for the heart. They need to be killed by impaling the head or detaching it." Torin's words of advice had been met with a plethora of nods and grunts. But Andy felt a sense of pride when his pack members hadn't backed down from such instructions.

Instead, they took it in strides and hadn't thought twice about the incoming undead fleet.

Torin had been the first to yell out the demands of war, and Andy should've expected this little female to feel the same rage. It was met with the same furious temper as the rest of the females had, giving the Alpha a once over to his highest tiers in question.

"Have to give it to the Viking. He has a way with the ladies," Grey said, swirling the handle of his sword around to gain a sense of weight to balance out within his next movement.

The rest of the males flanked the enraged females, and it was as if they had taken the spirit of Sif herself—They reigned havoc with the assault of seething wolves ready to pass their disease and onward.

Yet Sage managed to slash and impale every opponent in her path with Thalia and Bree just beside her, making it nearly impossible for them to be surprised from behind.

Both of the males were correct. The sword was heavy, but the adrenaline and rage coursing through Sage and the rest made their weapons light as a feather. Given that they were all too eager to get this done and over with.

The smell of Draugr and their blood resided as fuel for their temper, and once they were all finished and dead—Sage fell to the floor in a sense of failure.
This was not a victory, not with the way the males and those from Half Crescent were treating it as.

This just meant the fight wasn't over with Armond, and the name itself had been linked to these beasts.

Both Thalia and Bree had dropped down to catch Sage, but her troubled sobs at seeing another sign of Armond's symbol caused them all to quake in fear.

Andy felt distraught in seeing his Luna in such agony, and instead, he plucked her from the ground and carried her inside—Not caring about her fallen weapon nor the mess outside their shelter for the evening.

Sage clung to Andy with all she was worth, but fear laced her every breath. It was as if they hadn't run far enough.
That their escape meant nothing if these Dragur beasts were out searching for them—For her.

When Torin returned in with the others, he voiced his offer of full reigns of the abandoned inn. Truthfully, he hadn't bothered to use the majority of the place and made his home spot in the main room.

Yet he hardly managed to let go of Sage with the way she held onto him.
Fear still wracking her overworked body.

There was something always so emotionally raw about needing a hug, and right now Sage couldn't think of anything more than holding onto Andy. Wordlessly, he kept a tight arm around her as he followed after Elena to a private room in the back of the Inn. Soon, the two found comfort underneath the dusty blankets for their combined body warmth to fight the cold air.

Andy would have to light the fireplace in here if they planned to be this far away from the main room, but he needed to stop Sage trembling before he thought of anything else.

"He's not going to touch you again, Sage," Andy said, wanting to give the devotion, "I promise you. He'll never—"
"Mate says that too. He says I won't go back to life in cage. You can't promise me that, Andy." Sage had stopped him, not wanting to hear a repeated promise that had been broken. It hurt more than being stripped away, that she allowed herself to get too comfortable, too spoiled about what could happen or not.

What was worse is that everyone had thought she would be safer in Mystic Grimm with the pups, yet things would've been simpler if she had just stayed in Crescent Moon by her mate's side.

"Well, I can sure as hell try. I'm not your mate. Sure, yeah, fine. But I made you a promise. A promise to protect you, to protect your pups..." Andy reminded, huffing at the thought of rejection, "I am responsible for everything, safety included when I offered my pact. Our binding promise, do you understand that?"She nodded into his chest, breathing in the softness of his words and promise.

As Sage had fallen asleep in a fit of tears, Andy kept tabs on the rest of the pack through Severin and Grey.
Black Crescent's females were still on edge, and nobody forgot that the Vampire's name had ultimately been the reason for the attack.

Nor would they play around with said curse.

It would take a day or two to heal fully, and that was if they were diligent with the medicated paste. Though Torin didn't hesitate to make more batches, the male had endless supplies. In the meantime, the witches began preparing a feast, all in an attempt to make things more comfortable. As it was a thank you for the hospitality and saving in the last few hours.

But Andy knew better. The Witches needed to have a task to keep themselves busy.

It hadn't been that long until Severin had knocked on the Alpha's door, delivering a hefty serving of stew for each, along with half a kettle of tea.

Yet Sage held no appetite, still troubled that she'd been met with Armond's symbol, but made do with her tea and nibbled on the few pieces of potatoes and meat that she fished out.
Andy was eyeing her, waiting for her to speak, but Sage didn't want to talk about it.

Yet Andy knew she wasn't one to be picky and blamed her anxiety about their pack members and her eagerness to return to Crescent Moon.

After all, they had just learned in between all of this that the Packs in America were worse off than what Alpha Julian had shared.

He, too, felt sick to his stomach, the idea that this vampire—Who captured, tortured, and betrayed almost half of the pack—managed to call upon an actual legend to come and aid his terror?

It was difficult for him to place his thoughts, so he snuck out that morning to catch Torin stoking the fire.

"Do you ever sleep?" Andy asked with a low growl between his question, and the Viking chuckled. 

Which sounded like a heated wave, especially with the way he clicked his jaw.

"There's too much to do," Torin gestured, "We'll be snowed in by morning."
"Perfect time for you to show us how to properly kill these things." It was clear that neither male liked the other, but under the conditions they were being led on—They needed one another.

"Your female is strong. You must be proud of her." Torin praised while Andy hummed. Though the hosting male had enough of the hostility from the Alpha, and while he didn't want to, he tilted his head to showcase his.

Andy assumed he offered his neck in submission, but the Viking had smirked.

"Now you can stop glaring at me, tåpelig mann." [Foolish man] The mating mark took up a reasonable part of Torin's neck, but it had ended Andy's heated stares once and for all, but that still didn't take away the common attraction others had with his female.

"Hun får meg til å oppføre meg tåpelig." [She makes me act foolish] Andy said, huffing as he needed to redirect his anger. Yet what he said, or rather, how he said it, caused Torin to raise a brow.
He hadn't expected much from this group of Rogues, though they weren't like the other travelers he'd met.

They were put together and motivated, clearly, or else the little Luna wouldn't have been so fired up about killing the Draugr.

Though Torin did not mask his surprise well, "I didn't take you for a—"
"Anything. Most of my pack escaped from human facilities, others are born Rogues. You don't know anything more than that." This caused the Viking to throw his hands into the air in a slight agreement and white flag.

However, either male's attention had shifted when Sage had peeked her head out, her bear fur strictly around her shoulders—She certainly didn't look all that happy that she'd woken up in the room alone, though when Andy patted the space beside him, she took it within the moment.

Having waited for an invitation rather than just joining them outright.

"I heard you didn't eat your dinner. Why?" Torin questioned, which earned him a light-hearted gruff as she rubbed her eyes in aggravation.
"I tried." She claimed, which led to Andy asking about the possibility of the previous bite creeping through.

"May I?" The newly acquainted male, and a light smile popped up on Sage's face as she leaned her head forward for Torin to take a feel.

"You feel warm, but I do not blame that on the bites. My mate and pups do not take well to the harsher months either." He claimed, tapping on her reddened nose as he backed away.

"You have pups?" Sage asked.

Torin nodded along. "They aren't pups anymore, Luna. They're fully grown." 

She smiled lightly, pulling out her own pride and joys. Handing off the pebbles, she kept close, her two favorites. The twins.

Leaving Remus strictly behind.

"My pups. Ronan and Rue."
"Are they not with you?" he asked, and she shook her head. 

"No, they are with my mate. But the facility with the vampire took away my mate bond. I meet Andy after I escape with my females." She explained, and a hum followed as Andy tightened his hold around her.

As if reminding her, again, of his promise.

"I couldn't help myself. It's like you said, she's a strong she-wolf." Andy claimed, while Torin began to admire the pups, complimenting on the name, but frowned at the rest of the explanation. 

After all this time, Torin wrongly assumed the two were a couple.

But that had been proven wrong instantly at the mention of pups. "Where is your mate?" Torin questioned, and Andy truly hated when others asked Sage that question.
He felt his wolf wanting to respond to the question, but he remained silent.

"Crescent Moon, Andy promises to bring me back to find pups. But now we have to tell them about the Draugr." She explained.

Torin's eyes widened in excitement, as this was not at all what he had expected. "You're traveling to a pack?"

It earned him a nod once more, and that caused the Viking to sigh in relief. "I'd like to accompany you. My mate and I have tried countless times to get close to a pack. But they won't accept visitors or any form of nomad in the vicinity." That certainly didn't sound like the packs she knew, at least...

"What packs did you try?" Sage asked, but Torin's body shifted towards her, eager to speak and join them. Desperate for this sudden opportunity.
"Moon Ridge, Silvertail—Mostly, the packs are on the East Coast, considering they have a better reputation. I was going to try eventually Crescent Moon, but I was tracking this larger pack of Draugr that I managed to get off course. Grey Hallow failed as well. All these packs are keeping their borders tight and enchantments high." 

The explanation caused Andy to smirk.

"Well, we have a pass right here, and there are plenty of witches to settle any enchantments. You're more than welcome to join us...If—" Andy claimed, a proposition just a breath away, yet the gesture of being a 'pass' caused Sage to wiggle in torment. "—You teach our pack how to kill them properly."

This earned Andy a round of approval from Sage, but Torin chuckled as he nodded. Agreeing with the offer, he smiled in amusement as he turned to look at Luna. "I'm not sure how much there is to teach. Your female looked like a natural. All of them did."
"I need to learn how to hold them better. It was heavy. You were right," Sage offered, gesturing to the redness still etched into her hands.

Clearly, there needed to be a bit of manufacturing, and Severin knew exactly where they could head off to.

"Off North East, sure we can find some dulled silver—Best to get it fresh from the source. It'll make it easier to kill, easy to clear." Torin suggested, and that had been the beginning stages of their plans, or would've been until Andy mentioned one of Sage's favorite words.

"Any chance there's bears in that direction?"

______

Date: 08/18/24

Time: 9:40

Words:  2398

Author's Note:

So for the whole week, I thought I uploaded this chapter and am only coming to find out now it never went through. I trusted the publish later button, ugh, I'm sorry!

In some more exciting news, I'm working with an artist and hope that I'll be seeing some artwork coming soon. It'll be featured in the *published version* of Lacking Humanity!

However, I might give you all a sneak peek once we get there!