* * *

A miracle came, but not in the way Sage had expected. 

She had been just sitting at the breakfast table reading her book as Andy was discussing pack functions to the right of her, course Grey made it difficult to properly focus, but the nudge set her off outright.

"Easy, did you hear what I said?" Grey asked, and Sage huffed as she nodded.

"I can do two things at once...And females can do patrol too, Alpha. Females run faster." Sage said with ease, although she hadn't been prepared for the scoff she received was followed up by a conjoined pair of all the women in the room to send their scowl in his direction. "Rest case."

"It's 'I rest my case,' but yeah. I guess I'm fucked." Grey said, sliding his back down the chair as Andy shook his head into the coffee. However, he caught Sage's smirk behind her book, which earned a sanctioned huff, catching that the male had been amused as well.

The two hadn't managed to speak one-on-one in a while, and besides the demand of pack needs, it was hard to get a chance to talk about anything in the realm of planning. "What can the she-wolves do?"

"Anything and everything." Sage claimed, all without hesitation. But the groan from Grey's position beside her had spoken volumes.

Did he realize his mistake or just dig himself a deeper hole?

"I didn't mean it like it that, I meant where would they want to go? Did you like Patrolling in your old pack?" Grey asked, rephrasing his poorly received question. It caused her to still her reading as she turned to him, ultimately deciding on a shrug.

"I do lots of jobs because I can't find one I like. But I'm in school with tutor, then I train—Then there is bear hunt training. No time to patrol."
"So you never were given a job?" Andy questioned, picking up the conversation to his left, and Sage nodded. But then caught herself in a tilted head. 

"Not graduated yet. Evie said few more classes." Sage said, almost sad to admit to it.

Yet the name had instantly caught Andy's attention.
It was on purpose that Sage didn't give out names so freely, as she'd protected the right not to accidentally to slip her mate's name. 

Andy was still under the impression that her mate was an Elwood and that she was related to a Mystic Grimm wolf.

So he jumped at the opportunity. "Who's Evie?"
"Ms.Evelyn is my tutor. She's very nice...Also, I help with the Rogue program." She smiled in delight, bringing her own mug of tea to her lips. And before Andy could even manage to question what she meant, another female had come forward and captured Sage's attention outright.

"Are you training with us today, Luna?" A she-wolf near the end of the table asked, but it was a sore topic, as it had been almost a week since Sage's Heat, and Andy was still adamant for her to take things easy.

But there were only so many times she could use it as an excuse, and it was not Luna's nature to become lazy, so she nodded.

"I can help, maybe a few spars." She offered, but Andy bided his time until the female had left before he returned, and Sage's expression almost dared him to disagree.

Severin had managed to clear his throat, diverting Sage back to her tea and current read, but alas, the morning was about to take a drastic shift.

And it had started with the way Chase had run inside and heaved just beside the Alpha and Luna's chairs.

"Alpha—No Link." He breathed, causing Andy to frown. He had blocked himself from the pack for all of twenty minutes to enjoy this breakfast and discuss with a few pack matters with those around him. 

Surely the pack could've managed to—

"What's up, Chase?" Grey greeted with a smile, but the panic caused him to look directly at his Luna instead.

"Alpha Noah is here..." 

It had instantly caused the plates to clatter at the movement of Andy, and Sage couldn't help but jump in surprise. Granted, it was Grey who managed to calm his Luna down before she blew a fuse from the light fixtures above them.

He hadn't been the only one to see that they had started to flicker.

"What the hell do you mean—?"
"It's the first of the month, Alpha." Grey's reminder had caused Andy to groan. That had called fault directly towards himself and his Beta and Delta for forgetting something important.

He had been so distracted by Sage, her Heat, and the idea of planning for her trip that he forgot the meeting entirely.

"Fuck!" He roared, taking hold of his coffee and chugging it down. He was prepared in the meeting sense, but not mentally, no.

And Grey's voice soon pulled him out of his panic. "Alpha, I don't...Well, what do you plan on telling him about Luna Sage?" The in-place Luna's eyes started to calm down slightly, but not entirely. Not when the looming threat of a strange Alpha male could be dangerous.

"She's my Luna, simple as that," Andy claimed, but it wasn't the only thing they would be hiding from the visiting Alpha.
"And the witches?" Severin interjected, and that caused her to shake.

"Hide witches, Elena can do that," Sage answered, getting a nod from Sev at the order, and Andy smiled lightly, helping her to her feet and ultimately into his hold to the side of the room.

"...Sage? Do you know what a temporary mark is?" The Alpha questioned, and Sage shook her head. The term spoke for itself, but she was in no position to assume.
"It's what wolves used to do when they were off to war. It wasn't safe to mate entirely...It'll look like a normal mating mark but—"
"No. You promised no claim." She returned, and he instantly caught her from leaving.

"It's not permanent, it's just a placeholder...The legend and story behind this is if I went to war I'd give you it as a promise. That in the future we'd mate, do you understand? It looks the same and Alpha Noah won't be able to tell the difference." Andy explained, awaiting anxiously for her response, but Sage wasn't easily convinced.
"It goes away?"
"Yes, in a few weeks if I don't replace it." It was clear that panic was written all over Andy's face, but Sage had her own.

No, this would not do. Even if it was meant to protect her, she knew this was not the place to discuss this in front of the rest of the pack.

In tugging on his sleeve, she led him to the stairs. "I promise, it would only take a moment to—"

 "We come back soon. I need to talk to Alpha...And my name is Hera!" Sage announced to the room, hoping that the pack would abide by this sudden change. The only good thing about the idea of an isolated pack was that Sage was able to use her name freely.
But with a conclave member coming, it was better to be safe than sorry.

"A bite does not take a moment, Andy. Bites make things different, and I do not want different. I need to focus on helping Half Crescent and leaving before winter. Not about Alpha Noah." She said, storming upstairs before taking the lead into his bedroom, and thus, she closed the door and reached for his shirt. And all Andy could do was stand there in awe—

"Uh, no offense babe, but I'm getting a hot and cold answer from you..." Andy replied, but with a rather harsh yank, Sage sniffed his shirt—Knowing what she had to do.

Not only would this eliminate suspicion, but it would also allow Sage to smell like Andy and vice versa. So shifting into fur and rolling around his shirt to pass the scent with ease, though when she took the piece of clothing in her mouth and gestured it up back towards him, he was now the one to sigh.

"A temporary claim would've been easier, hun." Andy offered, but as Sage shifted back, she narrowed her gaze off towards him and scoffed.
"And leaving right now is easy, too," she dared, sniffing her bear coat and accepting the slight difference.

"Alpha Noah ask, say fac-il-ity takes away mate mark and I'm hurt. Wolves don't know about Underground. Can lie." It was a decent lie, given that Noah's last visit had been well over a year ago.

A lot could change in a year, and a female could be the perfect instance. However, another thought had occurred.

"Hera? Is that really your name?" Andy asked, trying his best not to appear affected by her scent.
"That's my name if I was born in the pack. My papa told me. But mama named me Sage before I was taken away." She calmly recited, and that caused Andy to confirm and announce to the pack that Sage would be titled as Hera for the entirety of Noah's stay.

If Sage wanted her official name to be Hera, there was no reason he needed to be in the way of that.

"So what would your birth name be, hun? Hera...?" Andy attempted, but he felt her still in his hold she understood the question.
Yet a wicked smile returned. "What's yours?" She asked, just as devious as he'd expected her to be after what he'd ask.

"Alright, you got me...I get it, really. It's hard to think about my family too."
"Maybe we can find your family too...Everyone. Rogue blood is the same than—"
"Not always, and most of my family is dead." He honestly admitted, unable to meet her curious gaze. Yet with them sharing the same space was sure to create an intertwined scent.

And it did help that she had announced her acceptance to the Pack as well as his Luna.

In a moment of weakness, Sage had moved forward and wrapped her arms around him. It was tender, warm, and eased her empathy as she felt his unease starting to fester.

Not only had she denied his temporary mark, in front of a plethora of wolves, but Sage also brought up his family.
Sure, he misunderstood what a mating mark is, that whatever sort of bite on her neck would be the same in her mind.

The only male she would allow would be Remus, and the only male she would return such devotion would be her mate—And Armond, in the aftermath of her dream of decapitating him.

 A day she looked forward to for sure.

For Andy, however, her offering embrace had caused his heart to sour. The last time he touched a female was a simple rutting, he's an Alpha after all.

The urge and find a female was easy on a regular day, but finding a Luna was different. He hadn't lied when he said that he was attracted to and wanted Sage differently.
He thought he would make a good mate. Show his love and affection to someone for the first time in his life since—

"Alpha is still downstairs. We need to go and see him."
"I'm just enjoying this hug, babe." Sage's nose scrunched, turning to look at him and nearly ruining her offering before he pulled her back. "Nope, stuck with me for a little while longer. It'll get my scent on you quicker."

She couldn't argue with that logic, but in truth, Andy did not want to leave this position. Not when he caught her resting her eyes and breathing so softly to herself.

It was safe to say that Sage was enjoying this as well.

______

Date: 05/25/24

Time: 11:20 PM

Words: 1994

Author's Note:

I finally bit the bullet and bought software that will help me format my stories!

So excited to experiment around with it, and better yet, revisiting the first chapters of Crescent Moon is so bitter sweet.

I almost miss how innocent Sage was before all of this.