* * * 

"I can't have my pups back..." 

Hayes instantly threw his hands into a calming matter, saying the words she wanted to hear. But she shook her head. "You're lying! Ronan is the next Alpha and he needs to live in Crescent Moon." Sage shouted to both her father and brother, Andrew's hold growing tighter which each passing moment.

"As his father figure, I agree, but—" Harlow attempted, but was quickly shut down by Andy. "But nothing. Even I know that the future Alpha has to live at least ten years of their life on the land they're meant to lead. And we know he isn't going to be Mystic Grimm's next Alpha." Hayes had let out a growl, and Andrew smirked.

"We're not finished with you, Clark."

"And who do you think she's inclined to help right now?... Goddess, Grey go get Torin. I can't keep holding her back." Grey had followed with a quick 'yes sir' before an even larger fellow than Severin had surveyed the room.

"Salvie...What's the matter?" Oh, that was certainly a loaded question, and she slashed out of Andrew's hold and turned off towards her blood relatives. "You didn't help Remus, you just took. But did you help?"
"We helped by—"
"By taking his wolf?! I couldn't feel his wolf anymore and I thought he was dead! That's why you can't feel mama, because she doesn't have her wolf anymore. No wolf needs to feel that. Give him his wolf back!" Torin scoffed at the idea.

"And who...By the goddess herself, dared take a man his wolf away?" Hayes had puffed his chest and tilted his head towards the Viking.

"Me, on the course that the wolf endangered his pups."
"You cannot judge a male by their situation if you aren't in his skin or fur. I realize you lost your mate, but not when your children were hardly a year old. I pray the goddess has mercy on you. That isn't a punishment worth any crime." Torin differed as he approached Remus, the pressing against Remus' forehead by the viking's thumb had been almost blinding.
His eyes rolled back to his skull as a small chant had filled the room.

No more than three heartbeats had Remus' scent and built begin to slowly return, but not what it once was. It was still lean, but wasn't as sickly as it was before.

"I would never wish the cruelest man on this planet that punishment, that is for the Moon Goddess and her alone." Sage had caught wind of her mate—Her male.

But he let out a defeated growl.

"I suppose we need to take this as Sage mated with another male and then found her true mate...His mark will last another few weeks at most." Torin dwelled, but that didn't stop him from pulling Remus up by the collar of his shirt. "If you hurt those pups though...I can promise you that you'll be beaten from an inch from your life. Is that understood?" Remus and his beast nodded to this large male.

There was no use arguing, not when he agreed.

"And in any culture, direct blood overrules these bullshit parental rights you've pulled out of your ass."
"We've taken care of the twins for months!" Jade called out, but Andrew scoffed. "But you ditched Remus? You took the pups and then left him with nothing? Not even a fucking holiday card to enjoy or bring them over for Christmas?" Andrew fought back, and Harlow stepped forward now.

"I won't be lectured by a Rogue who rose from the grave."
"Really? Because that's what your sister's done. And she isn't your biggest fan right now. Better chose your words more carefully." He spoke, and that certainly didn't bode well.

As Harlow didn't respond to threats. "Sage wouldn't hurt a fly."

"That's before she returned back to that vampire and lived life as an Alpha away from politics...Besides, from what Torin has claimed, the Draugr are headed your way now." That word confused the entirety of the other side and thus Torin laughed.

"And in the event that Mystic Grimm isn't the safest anymore, I think that gives plausible cause that the twins move. Wouldn't you say, Sage?" Sage tried to rally her thoughts and squeezed her eyes shut, swaying for a moment as the idea of suppressing her admission of power set her back a few beats. But thankfully Blake and Andrew had been near her.

"Great. You guys stressed her out that she defused, congratulations." Blake declared.

"Defused? What the hell is that?" Harlow beckoned and Blake gritted his teeth.

"She didn't want to hurt anyone and so she held herself back." He explained and thus, the room took a cautious step back. "I just want my pups."
"And you're getting them back, just not now." Harlow claimed and Andrew recoiled in disbelief.

"'Just not now,' and when do you think 'now' implies as?" He shot forward.

"When she has control of her wolf and powers and when Crescent Moon isn't in a power struggle. Remus still hasn't improved, and Sage can't control herself." Leaving the room scratching their back as Sage stepped forward.

"I can control myself, brother. That's why you don't fly out my window." She challenged.

"We took care of your pups for months and we don't even get a thank you." Was all her brother responded and thus, Hayes had finally interjected.

"Sage, you can't come back and expect changes like this all of a sudden. The pups are used to their life in Mystic Grimm." Hayes stated and that surely caused her to snap. "Then you don't need to know about Dragur, because you can't change quickly. You can all go home then." She decreed, going forward to the back door as she needed to breathe.

The air was too toxic for her.

"Sage! Don't you dare walk out that door! We're not finished here!" Her father ordered, his yell managing to surpass the static in her mind.

"And I told you...We would not make it to Mystic Grimm, I told you." She said, pointing to her father. "And I said I didn't want to go to Mystic Grimm because I said it was a bad idea. I say all these things and nobody listens to me, and again nobody listens to me. You know who listens? Witches and wolves outside listen, because you don't see me as Alpha. You see me as a pup. I'm not a pup. I've never been a pup!" She shouted, but when Harlow had taken the first approach she did exactly as she mentioned prior.

Harlow had been thrown through the window and a quick whisper had been sent to fix it up.
"If you aren't a pup you wouldn't act like this." Jade threw into the mix and that caused Sage to forward again.
"And you would do anything for Hardin like I would my pups." She dictated, but the smile on Hayes' face couldn't grow anymore than it had. He came forward and pulled Sage in for a hug, he could admit defeat in an argument.

If someone had taken his pups, he knew Willow would do everything in her power to take them back. To claim them back from whoever was caring for them. Harlow had simply gotten attached, everyone had—Especially since it was the last piece of Sage and Willow.

Little Rue looked exactly like either and they were left thinking it was their last connection.

"We won't be taking the pups back hun, they're yours." Jade looked as though she wanted to argue with Harlow. But the male had simply laughed. "Yeah, that's Sage for sure."

Andrew gawked at the others in the room. Though there was still a level of anger between them, it was certainly a test to prove that she wasn't replaced or changed.

"Pups are staying here."
"Of course, of course they are. We just needed to make sure, sweetheart. Blake was worried that you could've been possessed." That certainly caught Sage's attention, and the former Rogue-turned-coven member had let out an awkward wave.

"I love you, hun, but there's a whole lot of shit on the witch side of it all we have to worry about. They're being targeted." Sage did not want to hear this at all, not only that but Jade huffed.

"That wasn't the reaction I was prepared for, she needs to—"
"Nothing, Jade. Don't start. I probably only saw a fraction of what happened in those nine months, but she has all the right to react that way. The pups and Remus were the biggest part that motivated her to come back. We're in the way of that right now." Drake said, feeling the daze of Sage's transfer of what happened in the facility. Instead, he came straight over and gave her a hug—Something they had failed to do before.

"You did all you could, it's alright..." He claimed, and it certainly calmed down Haylee from the idea that all the effort had been made. But realistically there was little to be done, Willow sacrifice had managed to get the word out that she is alive.

"So...This bad vampire man, he has my Willow?" Hayes questioned, his eyes offering more than just determination. He was out for pure blood.

"Yes. He has symbol on Draugr, and has same symbol from letters in the mountain." Andrew groaned out loud after Sage's offer of explanation.

"I'm so fucking dumb, that's why it looked so familiar!" He cheered, and Sage nodded quickly.

"It's probably how Randal so easily sold you off, son. We'll need to be careful from here on out." Hayes offered, and the entire room agreed.

"So this bad vampire have a name, or are we calling him 'A' for the rest of our lives?" Jackson questioned and those in Half Crescent were the ones to still at the thought.

"You can't say his name," Sage whispered out, pure terror written on her face. But the entire room had thought this for a different reason, that he was the male behind her life of torment. No, it was that and more.

"Not afraid of some lowlife that thrives on having played with the threads of our lives."
"No. Name is cursed." Sage said against her father and that certainly caused the wolves to tilt their head, but left Blake to frown.

"Cursed as in you say his name a clap of thunder happens?" Sage nodded but Andrew waved a hand.
"It's a little more than that, it's why we said the Draugr were targeting after Sage and maybe even the other escaped females if they're hunting witches." His explanation didn't render anyone as understanding as he hoped. So Sage caught the house phone still on the counter and hurried off towards the notepad and quickly wrote the name.

Though it took a second to sound it out.

"Ar-mond—Armond? Really, that's the name bad vampire man we're up against—" Jackson had failed to see Torin cross the room in record time and lift him by his shirt.
"You were warned twice, do you think this is a joke, male?" Jack bit back a snarky comment, yet he was saved by the fact that the Viking had made his way toward the door following the rest.

Sage was a step behind with the sword in her hand, Andrew very close to the existing line of Half Crescent. "Wait! Wait! What the hell is—" Remus shouted after them, but was interrupted by Sage's authority.

"Usque ad circum argentum, et ecce venient Draugr!" [Round up the silver, the Draugr are coming!] The order hardly took a few seconds to enact to the lounging group. But the party inside the Moon residence watched in awe as Sage took charge of the surrounding wolves and witches.

It was clear that they weren't switching, and so Sage turned back. "Pack stays inside, link Elwoods. Tell them get silver bullets for the guns." Sage ordered the others, and that was certainly on Jackson and Aurora's effort as their link with them and the pack hadn't been severed.

"This is a code Blue, Remus." That certainly rang a bit of familiarity, one that drained any remaining color from Remus' face. "What the fuck—Drew, what's happening?"
"Draugr likes the name, they can hear it...I don't know, but they're coming." Sage said, grabbing onto Andrew's sword from another pack member and Andrew had done a fun little twist.

"Remus, where are your firearms?" They were in the basement and the code had called out into Sage's mind. But when she caught Remus attempting to make it down the stairs, she shook her head.

"If you get bit, it makes you sick. You're too sick already. Please stay with the pups." She said, her hands on his chest as she docked her sword off behind her.

The mere touch now had caused the familiar sparks to course through, it was all in the effort of the Moon Goddess to tear her away from Andrew and back towards Remus.

A very deepened growl had emerged and thus, she jumped back. Of course she felt the intent and the quickened beat of her heart, but the fear of her pup and what Remus' wolf would do on the account that she is pregnant.

"You're lucky you have a pack at your side hun, otherwise I'd follow." She smirked and nodded, taking a small squeeze of his hand before following after the given few who already spread out in terms of preparing for the attack.

"You still never told me what our son's name is gonna be."

"Shut up, Andrew."

______

Date: 02/20/23

Time: 8:26

Words: 2362

Author's Note: 

Slight change of plans, and family drama is put on hold--Dang it Jack, Sage wasn't lying when she said it was a cursed name!

Let's hope that Crescent Moon can band together with the Rogue pack that just arrived on their doorstep to fight of the incoming Dragur.
And yes, the twins are staying with their mama in Crescent Moon! It was a slight double-check on Blake's behalf, though I'm sure Jade has a bit to say.

On a side note, I am working on another werewolf story that I'm still tweaking and it might pop up in the next couple of weeks. Very excited!

Things are happening, slowly, but surely!

Alrighty, I hope you all have a great week, drink lots of water, and treat yourself a lil!

Until then✨