* * *

The following day, Andy slipped out into the undercover of the rising sun. He went about his normal morning routine but stalled when he reached the guest room—now Sage's room.

Perhaps it was risky to allow this female so close, even without getting anything out of it, but Andy couldn't fault the woman for missing her family.

He couldn't name a single wolf or witch on the property who didn't. Him included. This is why, today, he was going to get a plan together for Sage to make it into town with the chance of making some type of call.

However, he couldn't allow his help to come without a cost, not when there was more at stake than just leaving the territory. Instead, he focused on the bigger picture, given that if his plan to join the conclave succeeded, he would have a bigger job to retain not only popularity but business with the rest of the packs. This meant he would have to make the pack bigger, and upgrades needed to be made.

In the back of his mind, he was tinkering with an option, one of which was surely going to have Sage leave for Crescent Moon within the hour after hearing.

Or, on the off chance, they would strike the deal.

He felt dirty for playing with her lack of knowledge and the possibility that her mate might be dead, but wolves had the potential for a non-fated mate to become theirs. It used to be considered a strategy between packs—a method to keep the Alpha gene going strong.
But now everything was so heavily mixed that he was damn sure that Sage was more than rare, she smelled too much like an Alpha.

Yet now she smelled like him after sitting in his bedroom chair for an hour. And he was basking every minute of it when they sat down together at breakfast.

Perhaps winning her help was much simpler than he had in mind. It also helped that the smile on her face indicated that she was much better at managing her headache.

Have a good night, Alpha?

Severin teased, but Grey's laughter in the Link told Andy that this was a three-way chat. But he did great work keeping to his meal of deer and potatoes. Though he was waiting for Sage to take his share, it seemed the she-wolf enjoyed the cook's potatoes even more than himself.

Yeah, an Alpha female—Tell me, top or bottom?

Andy growled instantly. The blatant disrespect from Grey was starting to weigh thin. As did his fist against the fork as he tried to stop his wolf from retaliating, however, the soft voice that entered his mind caused the fork to drop.

Are you okay?

She called out, and he soon found himself in a daze. Her eyes held mountains of concern, and he could only nod, though Severin wiped his finger to the side of his lip. Indicating that the Alpha was drooling, though he wasn't—And if he was, there was a decent reason for it.

Because the question lay pure in his head for the entire day.

Was Sage a top or bottom?

It was going to take a lot more than sharing potatoes during meals to win her affection, but he planned to use the most out of their mealtimes and meetings as she seemed more approachable.
Given that the closed doors offered privacy from suspicious eyes.

In fact, Sage had been present to the coming of four new Rogues who heard from others of the location, earning him a question that he had to decipher because she couldn't manage to say it verbally.

However, when he caught sight of Ethel with Yaxel, he called them both over for the witch to translate the now Latin phrases Sage spoke out.

"She doesn't trust the male, says there's a...A black aura?" Ethel was now joined in on the newcomers and confirmed she felt it as well. However, the look of confusion from Yaxel and Andy to one another genuinely caused more questions than which position Sage would find herself in the bedroom.

It certainly overtook his mind from planning to head into town. However, he didn't have to fight the debate in his head much longer as Sage walked into his office after a quick knock, leaving him to greet her with a smile and rise from his chair to come over towards her.

After two full days following Sage's move into the pack house and down the hall, she joined various new places surrounding the pack, upon invitation —no strings attached. There, she joined the more important meetings, hoping that he could convince her that they were suitable and that her joining would better so many lives.

Even if she was only meant to stay for another week at the most, Severin wasn't too supportive of the idea, that lying to the conclave about their Luna status after Sage leaves was asking for trouble.

That didn't matter, given that he was currently packing his hiking bag, hoping to appear as two lost campers in need of a phone would hopefully make at least guilt one human into helping them.

However, when he caught Sage's switch into normal clothes, it had nearly caused him to rear back, given that Andy was becoming familiar with the usual look of her bear pelt.

That would surely give away their position and prevent them from gaining the empathy Andy was hopeful they would.

Either that, or he could use his face to his advantage.

"Is everything okay?" he asked, but she only blinked for a moment, then tilted her head up towards him with a twitch of her nose.
"Yes. But I need to talk—tell you something." He flashed his teeth towards her in a smile. Her voice had a strong gruff quality that always enacted and called to his wolf when she was near.

Yet he hadn't a clue why.

"Don't tell me you don't want to go to town today. We might not be getting this good weather for the next few days," he said, gesturing to the window.
"No, we can go today. It's...I need to tell you something important." With that, Andy's hand had cast over his heart with a groan, which she'd seen males around her do a lot. Both Jack and Remus, for instance, when either Aurora or herself had said something that offended them. "Important? You're making me nervous, bear-slayer."

She huffed, not liking that he was still joking around, and to gain his attention, she reached for his hand and pulled it away. "It's not bad. I don't like lying." It was certainly the truth, but it was better for one or the other to come.

His brows narrowed, and his hand gripped hers tightly. Feelings could not get in the way of his leadership. He'd seen the result of it far too much in his life that he'd be damned if he turned into a hypocrite now.

"What type of lie?" Her eyes darted this way and that, until they closed, and her breathing became long and even. Yet he caught the change she was trying to show when they popped back open. The pairing of a single onyx eye to a grey one was strange at best. But it didn't enact an answer like she would've predicted it would.

"I am Lycan, Alpha She-wolf. But I have more blood in me. Grandma is a witch." His silence didn't offer much of an answer, nor did his tightening grip.

Perhaps it would've been better to share that she was a Luna to Crescent Moon instead of just an Elwood mate? Clearly, she hadn't thought this through and huffed impatiently at the fact that Darius was still muted from her head.

She hated going about this all wrong, and she was constantly left unsure of her own choices. Or the simple idea of checking over an action would've been helpful, but he left when she exhausted all her energy.

Sage wanted to think that he was off with Willow, helping her with her own horror. It made her feel better at night when they had no connection except the ones around her in Half Crescent.

"You're a witch?" She pulled up her free hand and gestured her fingers, stating that she was only a little bit of a witch. "Your grandmother was a witch who mated a wolf?" She nodded, whispering the term Alpha-male in response to his question.

"Mama not born in fur, but she gives birth in fur...Just not me." Andy frowned, asking her to repeat it again. So she nodded, not as aggravated as before. However, this time, she came with a notepad from his desk.

Having it drawn out in front of him, minus the names, making it easier for him to understand. "So you're a witch...Is that how you can see the aura of the newbie?" She nodded with a slight smile, though when she turned to her water pouch, she let the cork go and began to bend the water out into the open with a steady line flying through the air.

"What the fuck?!" He said a gasp, his breath leaving him to choke on thin air as he watched in awe. It was genuinely hypnotic to see her go about with the movements, but it was the first honest smile that came upon her face for the day, that is what made it easier for Andy to understand her better.

"I heal cut?" She questioned, and he scoffed. Pulling his shirt up his shirt up to reveal the lower half of his torso. Sitting right on his desk, Sage had managed to direct the water to bubble up around her hands. The clear glow enacted her healing ability, one of which Aurelia had mentioned prior—That it was a Halliwell trait to heal.

Or perhaps just Willow's. One of the two, Sage couldn't quite remember which.

It truly hadn't taken that long, and when she pulled away and retracted the water back into the small leather flask, she was instantly interrupted by Andy's anxious hands locking her gaze into his. As if he was looking for an answer, to see if her eyes returned to normal, his abrupt movement had caused her to gasp. Unaccustomed with his touch, they flashed the familiar blackened hues of her wolf.

Not the sweet essence of a witch he was encountering.

"I don't get it...I've never heard of—Well, I guess you're a hybrid then, right?"
"Witches tell me later, after they collect blood, that the witch in me is waking up. But in facility, they take away my wolf. That is why I can escape. Witches have silver chains and can't use magic. But I can." The explanation was choppy at best, but with a clear-cut movement, Sage gripped his hands from her cheeks and settled them between them before letting go.

"I don't think I've met anyone like you before, I don't even know what to think. You're—" He hadn't meant to look at her so thoroughly, but he couldn't help but imagine how the Conclave would react to this female, decked out in her full glory--Bear pelt and all.

"Goodness, have mercy on me..." He whispered, but an intruder abruptly interrupted them as the door flung open, and a familiar set of shoes came raging in—Andy had turned to frown at the female before him no, it was not Grey, like Andy had first assumed. Given that he had the male scout out the surrounding area, instead, it was Maeve, with Grey just a few steps behind her.

Again.

"I'm sorry, Alpha. She wouldn't take no for an answer." He said with a tone of disgust. Clearly, Andy had informed his Delta of the type of relationship Sage had with Maeve. And while it wasn't anyone's business how Sage dealt with someone who was possibly seeking revenge, the way the female had glared so harshly at Sage had spoken volumes.

Especially when Andy caught the obsessed crazed eyes of the former Delta female. Sage gave the title in an attempt to offer a bit of comfort to her females and allow them to know that they were going to survive.

But also allowed for a simple grant of structure for all of them to follow.

"What the hell is this?!" The female called out, and Sage frowned upon the first words that she managed to offer. "What?"
"N-no, you don't get to play dumb with me, Alpha. I'm yours, n-no—you're not really going fall for his deal, are you? If you become Luna, then we'll never leave!"
"You talk to Elena?"
"Yes! And you're nuts for even thinking of taking it! I was supposed to be your Luna!" Sage blinked at the she-wolf in both confusion and annoyance, a quick flicker up towards the male accounted for the fact that she wasn't the only one confused by the statement.

"No. You are not my Luna." As if it shouldn't have been a thought, clearly, Maeve has something more going on than just a simple vendetta.
"But him?! You would rather—" Andy stepped away, this was a catfight waiting to happen. And his ego surely didn't need a—
"My wolf trusts Andy, yes. We are going into town to make a call to my pack. To get help. I try to look for you and you run away. Luna's or Delta's do not do that." Sage managed, and that seemed to enrage her further.

Perhaps Elena was just as fed up with Maeve as the rest of Black Crescent. The female was getting flustered far too easily when being put in her place.

Sage could admit a mistake, but to have Maeve become her Delta surely couldn't be any worse than right now.

"So it's okay for you to cry out by the lake, but when I'm falling apart, everyone picks and harasses me! Even you—" Neither Grey nor Andy could've seen Sage move any faster, but the way she handled to silence her Delta in one swift move was beautiful if not well-tamed.

She held Maeve just above herself so her feet wouldn't touch the ground, and all the weight went straight to where Sage had her by the throat.

"I cry for pups, my pups, my family, and my lost mate. You run away because you don't like Alpha-male. Do you want to be in a pack? Then you need to learn. Not in cage anymore." Sage hissed, and without fail, she dropped Maeve down to the floor without a warning or gentle lift.

Andy managed to lock eyes with Sage for a moment, but she only pressed forward to retrieve her fallen bag. "Not Delta anymore. Leave the room," she said, her back turned to the door behind them both. Which caused the Alpha-Male to nod off toward Grey in an attempt to remove Maeve from the room.

The shouts and screams undoubtedly caused a commotion, leaving Sage tenser than before she entered the room. To distract herself, Sage ripped open her bag and started sorting through her supplies.

She wanted so desperately to get a move on, but she sensed that Andy's gaze still lingered so heavily that she wasn't all too surprised when his voice filled the dooming silence.

______

Date: 04/11/23

Time: 3:02

Words: 2581

Author's Note:

Unward to town!
I had this chapter planned for awhile, back even before I planned to rewrite the entire story...There were plenty of comments wondering why Sage just didn't call Crescent Moon.

So here we go, exploring more options before taking Andy up for his offer.

Hope you enjoy and I'll see you soon for the next update, hopefully this weekend!