* * *

Andy had almost cried when Sage told him that her period finally stopped. Yet the last thing she expected was to be engulfed into a hug, it was just something so silly that she couldn't help but laugh and enjoy it.

The happiness was so contagious that Andy decided that they should celebrate. A small one, to use up the ale they worked so hard to brew this summer.

It was delicious, the small sampling tastes that Sage had managed—But after realizing it was alcoholic, she claimed that she and alcohol don't mix well.

Not even bothering to explain how she turned hysteric over something as simple as a puppy video.

"I'll drink for the both of us, hun." He decided, though everyone was limited to one or two just because of the predicament they were in. The crowd was surrounding the pack's makeshift cafeteria. Sage was sitting on her tucked-in legs, enjoying the energy of the pack with Andy just by her side.

But her eyes sadly scanned the perimeter. Remus wasn't in this picture. They were much more lively than the cold stares she'd deal with in Crescent Moon. Maybe it was the open wound or the worry for the future—But Rogues always worried about the future.

And Sage was starting to understand the difference between formal and Rogue packs. It was safe to say that there was nothing demanding about being here. If she wanted to do something, Andy hardly battened an eye. Realistically the territory was too dense to travel alone.

The idea of ranks wasn't offered the same way. Nobody was outright an Omega—Everyone took turns in the kitchen, even Andy, which surprised her when she caught him cooking a beautiful Italian dish beside her.

It didn't matter in the end, with those who decided that they would stay away from the bloodshed that was undoubtedly going to happen. There was still a crowd to be had surrounding them.

Sage leaned further into the couch's plush cushion, soaking in the joy, and Andy smirked at providing something so simple for the pack to enjoy.

However, as comfortable as Sage had become, it stung a bit, as every time she'd leave her imagination to picture Remus in his place, she wondered how different things would have been if she hadn't tried to escape everything and go to Mystic Grimm.

This idea tore through her heart and then some, but the addition of a few sips of wolf booze sparked an even more relaxed bear-slayer.

While she didn't have a male to lean on or enjoy as Elena did, Sage was plenty happy to see her female become so comfortable in Severin's arms.

Sage could hardly enjoy the nights following their hard labor, but Andy categorized it as a lightweight to the few sips he'd let her have. Sure enough, he carried her in his arms and settled her in bed beside him.

He had been sort of glad that her room was in the state it was in. It meant that they were together and able to protect one another, as wolves weren't usually meant to sleep on their lonesome.

Yet this was the perfect time to do something he's meant to do for a while now. He had brought Sage into the pack by inciting a blood pact, but there was another step he wanted to perform.

Another promise he wanted to issue.

In kneeling at her bedside, Andy had begun to whisper into the semi-dark room.

The only light coming from the windows was the goddess herself, blessing them with her moonlight.

The rock itself had been small, but asking for a quartz crystal from the group of witches in the pack was quite easy to secure. But once that had been finished, he leaned over onto her bedside before returning to his position.

"This day I pray for calm, for health,
And the wisdom to see the beauty of
Each waking moment.
Blessings abound.
So mote it be."

It was simple, he asked the witches for advice, and perhaps won their favor in some regards. He still had a piece to add to it— "Sage...You have granted me such peace and worth that I can't lose you. I don't want to do this, but I've had no choice. I will bring you to Crescent Moon. I will bring you back to your pups. But I didn't promise that I wouldn't challenge your Mate for the chance of claiming you." With a final blessing to the goddess, Andy had placed his words in the open.

Instead, he beckoned a moment of praying for her forgiveness, wondering if it was at all possible in the coming weeks—Months? Truly, he didn't know how to go about what was happening in terms of getting her to Crescent Moon.

Yet,  doing all of this caused his chest to feel lighter. It wasn't often that he clasped his hands together and bent down before the deity.

He lost most of his religious beliefs when his mother died.
Hell, he blamed her for taking his mother away and leaving him to fend for himself.

Lost in the years and stress, he hardly remembered her. Just that she smelled heavenly and had a lovely singing voice when he couldn't fall asleep.

But now was the perfect time to fall asleep, with a buzzing head and a warm female beside him...

Yet Sage had soon slashed forward in a rise of panic. Andy had almost fallen out of bed with the rushed display of movement—However, as she rushed towards the window, it became clear what was happening.

"Andy...They're here," Sage hissed, and it didn't take a genius to understand what she meant. It hadn't been a moment too soon as she spotted a small moving flame come directly towards the house.

"What's—" The male had taken quick note of what had been thrown at the pack house and instantly dove to get his female out of the way. Cushioning her fall as the planted Molotov quickly shattered and broke at the edge of the carpet.

ATTENTION! EVERYONE FOLLOW PROTOCOL. SWIFTTAIL IS FIRING FROM THE NORTH!

His shouts had been desperate as he layered himself over her, their eyes dancing for a solution. But in seeing her bear fur and backpack being threatened, she jumped into action, forcing her leather drinking pouch to disperse the room of water and clear out the growing flames.

"Fuck...We need to go. Grab bag?" Andy reminded, and Sage nodded. It was easy for the witch to get dressed—Really, all she needed to do was summon the clothes while Andy jumbled around, or would've if Sage hadn't managed to do the same for him.

Dressed and prepared, they looked out the window once more—Yet in seeing another set of Molotovs on their way, a quick hand had been thrown up in retaliation.

"Mittent!" Sage casted, and thus, it pushed the bottles back to the attackers, causing them to shatter and expose their hiding spot.

Andy had thrown over his own pack and gripped his Luna's hand as they weaved their way through the building. "I have to go—" Andy explained, but Sage cut him off without hesitation.
"No! We stay together, we stay—"
"Sage, I need to grab a few things. This building is done for. Get the pups—The witches. That's what Lunas do." It was easy to panic in this situation, but the addition of Grey had caused her to breathe a little easier. "Get her and everyone out. Meet at the bear cave."

"Yes, sir!" Grey cheered, and from there, the three split up, but Grey didn't dare let go of her hand as they redirected those who didn't know where to go.

"Delta! Delta! I can't shift!" Sage's head whipped around to the female, the dozens of other wolves running around and grabbing supplies and weapons—Some were even trying to build up the pack house so they wouldn't be allowed to come in.

"Fire is starting! Get out of pack house!"
"Evacuate the pack house. Stick to the south! Bear!" The codes had been there, but now it made Sage aware of why Andy's words had produced an action with everyone downstairs.

"Did you get hurt? Can you hear your—" Grey had attempted to get a clearer picture, especially when it was clear that this type of panic was not the normal explanation of an attack. Not when it was planned.

"Did you drink tonight?" Sage questioned. 
"What? Y-yeah, a glass or two...W-why?" The she-wolf didn't realize what she had done wrong. However, Sage had turned to the majority of the crowd with a booming voice to silence and stop them from moving around without a task.

"I want witches together! Wolves who drink last night, over there—From Underground over there!" The sections had managed to listen, and Grey added to the mixture.

Raise your hand if you can hear me.

His directive was much easier to place, and Sage smiled and nodded. "Going to bear cave, can't shift, needs to be careful. Half witches and half shifts go with no shifts." With the getaway team all set and ready, Sage watched as they left in the undercover of darkness, and the screeching caw of the birds in the night sky almost translated from Leah's anger as she soared to take a look at the terrain and the army.

"At least fifty heads I caught. What's the plan?" Sage blinked as she looked around the remaining few. The females that remained were Maeve, Elena, Viki, Kira, Bree, and Cicil. Their ability to shift came from the sheer fact that they were immune to silver, much like the ladder.

"The plan is to kill them all," Andy said, coming down the staircase and joining the remaining few dozen.
"What?" Grey breathed, never hearing his Alpha so brutally violent or blunt to a cause. But Severin growled in confirmation.

"They're clustering off to the North. I don't think they know that there are witches here," Leah claimed, her eyes still her familiar bird eyes as they continued to fly around and count the heads once more.

"Gearing up for another round of those fire thingies."
"They're cocktails, Leah. We can try redirecting them, but the forest will probably go up in flames." Andy looked up, the smell alerting them that the pack house was more than the main target.

"Make sure everyone is evacuated as you set out to target them. Stay in pairs or more...Alright, let's go!" The roar of an attack had showered the town and hit the main focal points. The ripping roar of the wolves caught Sage's attention. However, it didn't help that Andy had gone elsewhere, once again leaving her alone in the company of Grey.

"What's the plan for us, Luna?"
"We fight too. I told Noah I don't submit, and I won't." She claimed, shifting and allowing her paws to tear through the town's dirt roads—Her jaws attacking the first of many wolves her own beast deemed the enemy.

It was anticlimactic.
Clearly, they were hoping for a weaker turnaround. But Half Crescent was anything but. Having lost a majority of their fighters, they still managed to take the numbers head-on—But Sage couldn't feel Noah that close yet.

We find Noah we finish this.

I like the way you think. But I doubt he's even here.

No, he is. My wolf knows he's here. She's angry.

Then we'll track him down, hun, round back towards the front. I'll meet you there. I think it's—

Sage felt his wolf disconnect, and sweet goddess, she felt the jolt in her heart.

Never mind the sound of a gun.

Why was it that those trying to protect her always attracted guns?

Deep down, she knew the answer, Luke called the council's attempts to assassinate her father and Remus was the coward's way out. And now she knew very well what type of character Noah is.
He's a coward.

SAGE?!

I'm okay! Where's Andy?

I don't know, but we have to go!

Severin's voice was booming as though he was right beside her, but leaving was not an option. She was already forced to leave home once without her male. She was going to be damned to let Swift Tail keep Andy.

Darting in the opposite direction towards the sound of the gunshot, Sage crept up towards where the scene had taken place. And goddess have mercy on their souls in the next few moments, because they were stationed right beside the lake.

A Dowser's dream.

A sick smile appeared on her face, causing her to shift and move away. Taking the slight detour to whisp and dive straight into the water.

For whatever reason, she couldn't link Andy, and the possibilities of him being unconscious ranged higher than the others.
He was immune to the silver, much like she was, ytet the vision of his unconscious body from the tree lining caused her to remain still.
How did she see that?

The distraction didn't stall her much longer, not when she began walking out of the water with the divine right to kill possibly everyone in sight. The tether holding Alpha Andy within the pack was being torn and ripped, and Goddess, she wouldn't be able to survive another heartache like the last one.

"I miscalculated...Wouldn't you say, Andy? I only have a little experience managing that silver brew, but I forgot that you and your misfits are all escapists." She caught Andy's spat of blood to the ground, his body chained to the tree—pinning him down perfectly for an execution.

"It wouldn't have worked anyway." He coughed, though it surely sounded like a laugh to Sage's ears.
"Oh, but it did. Those Alphas below us paid me a pretty penny for it, too. All to get rid of the Moon family, and it's unfortunate—" The clatter of the chains didn't allow for Sage's ears to pick up the next few words from Alpha Noah, but it finally became clear to her.

Noah had unsuccessfully tried to poison her, again. Or perhaps not her specifically, but enough to fuel a Rogue attack—The only difference here is that the ones that were attacking were pack members to a peaceful territory of Rogues.

"Funny how it still irks you."
"Funny how you've been sitting on this plan for what? Months?"
"Since you turned your burned face around these parts, you're a ghost, Andy." That certainly had caused the final straw on Sage's account as she rose from the water and doused each and every wolf in the area with water.

While that in itself wasn't the full attack—It confused them enough for her to work out a proper plan, and damn, was Andy happy to see the ice crystals build up on one of his captures, and better yet...His chains.

"What the—" The solid punch to Noah's jaw was the only relative warning that he had gotten. Otherwise, it was a surefire attack from the woods that directly lined the pack house.

The now illuminating pack house.

Andy had given himself one last long look at the impending doom that was his salvation, all the work in bringing Half Crescent to what it is had suddenly been burned at the crisp. And no amount of Sage's healing or dowsing could put out this fire or pain. However, it did elect the perfect trait in his own wolf that had been tormented for years.

The sounding call of the Alpha as he laid waste to those in his way off towards his Luna had made the fatal mistake in trying to protect their own.

Sage had never witnessed what a full-fledged Alpha male could do, but seeing Andy hardly bat an eye to snapping a wolf's neck to the point of separation had caused her jaw to drop.

Quickening his pace to the last location, he saw her in. Sage had the same approach—The only issue being that Noah was advancing as well.

The failing Alpha had managed to subdue the Luna in her off chance, and as she struggled, she realized that perhaps the wolf beer had done something to her own beast. Considering that since she had been attempting to save Andy, it had been a fuzzy and out-of-body connection that she'd never felt before.

The hold he had on her was daunting, and he hardly had to pull much before she called out in a scream of pain and agony. Sage had broken countless bones before, but this certainly took the most pain as it was in the temptation of flaunting it.

"Wouldn't want your pregnant Luna getting what you deserve now, would you, Andy?!" He yelled out in a taunt. Sage cursed at her short height as the elderly male had no issue picking her up with the said arm.

"Asshole." She growled, and his sickening grin widened all the same.
"Where's your little Mate now, pup? You're all alone. Nobody here to save you." Having been dropped unceremoniously, Sage cradled her arm to her chest and watched a small wolf who had tried to best the Alpha.

And instantly, Sage knew who the wolf was—Maeve—Taking a stand that would no doubt cost her her life.

______

Date: 05/12/24

Time:6:07 PM (LATE I'M SORRY)

Words: 2901

Author's Note:

Hi! Completely forgot that I missed an update on Monday, and even worse, I wanted to post an update on Sage's birthday!!

June 6th is Sage's birthday, but it's also the day she, Luke, and Liam escape the Underground in Book 1. 

A bittersweet day to celebrate, but one that's important for the story.

Anywho, I will most likely plan for another update on Friday, considering I'm working all weekend!

Hope you're all doing well and I'll see you then!