* * *

Anger swept over Sage like a brewing storm, and it was that type of motivation that enacted just that.
"I am Alpha Sage Moon of Crescent Moon, are you sure you want to fight?" She questioned, passing by her brothers and former trainees. Knowing full well that Calvin and the rest would not want to fight their former pack members, even if this Carter fellow looked young—Born in a different generation.

It meant they were still here, didn't it?

Sage what are you planning?

Getting Nymphs out.

And then? What about us?

They don't want to fight, wait until Crimson members speak up.

Remus wanted to intervene, but seeing how white Sage's eyes had gotten meant there was no room for any suggestions. Carter, who was growing impatient and angry at not being taken seriously, had spat out orders.

But the mere motion of Sage's hand and foot that stomped into the earth had stopped any thought of an attack. Not only that, but gave her the very clue she needed to continue further.

"They send almost Master of Arms to deal with me?" Hayes tried to grab Sage, but it was too late—Whatever type of magic she enacted was too strong to bare, as she whisped straight to Carter and held him by the throat. A gentle wave of wind came to join in on his useless threat, and even a crack of lightening to showcase that Sage Moon was not joking or taking the threat seriously.

Not one bit.

"W-wait! We can work something out, p-promise! I-I'll t-take you to my Alpha. H-he'll want to speak with you!"

"I can't smell you. Why?"

"We have enchantments up! Witches lent them to us decades ago!" He spewed, and it allowed Sage to drop him to the floor, her eyes returning back to normal as she laughed. Throwing her now free hand out into the sky to reverse the call that she demanded upon the earth.

"Okay! We go meet the Alpha now!" She cheered, and Hayes was not the only one with their head in their hands. Though they were in various forms considering everyone was still shifted.

Blake, however, was letting out small puffs of air as his wolf couldn't hold back his laughter.

"Carter, I want to apologize on my daughter's behalf, I'm former Alpha of Mystic Grimm, Hayden Mystic. We truly do come in peace..." With Carter's hand still on his throat, he threw up his own snarl. But he ultimately recognized the male who spoke.

"Daughter? That makes sense...And the rest of you?" This much more friendly question had allowed more of a conversation to build up. Though Sage gestured behind her and introduced everyone, not specifically a job set for a Luna, but an Alpha of their own rank.

It did lighten Andrew's mood when she still referred to him as an Alpha.

However, Sage caught the unrestful movements of the Crimson wolves as the former refugees introduced themselves. While it wasn't brother meeting brother, it was most definitely sparking memories in hearing names once again.

Granted, when Carter had turned back towards Sage—His cheeks burned with both embarrassment and anger.
Course Sage had only smiled brighter, given that she still had a bone to pick with him.

"You keep Nymphs locked away."

"Uh—I—I don't, it's just how the pack keeps a handle and maintains the produce of food."

"Nymphs can't be contained."

"R-right, so maybe you can tell the Alpha? Right? Bring this to him?" Sage thought for a moment, perking her lips, and turned to Remus who was coming to her side.

"My mate doesn't like when creatures of any species are trapped against their will. So we better get to this meeting before she lets them out on her own." Carter swallowed upon Remus' voice, already adding to the spectrum that this male was not prepared to take over as Master of Arms.

Blake had come forward with a smile and slapped Carter's shoulder. "Wow, you lasted longer than I would've the first time meeting Sagey."

"Last I remember, you didn't last that long anyway," Hayes claimed off behind them as he came to join the forefront of the conversation. And Blake scoffed— "It was a tie!"
"It was brutal!" Liam laughed, and Sage smiled, remembering that her brother was there that day when they met Blake.

"So uh...I've linked the Alpha, our base is this way. It's not too far of a walk so we can stay in skin." Remus offered his appreciation to the opportunity and started walking forward with Hayes in pursuit, though Blake had remained still in response to Sage's lack of movement. And he wasn't surprised when her voice trickled into his head.

Male is lying.

Lying about what?

Base is under mountain behind us, I feel it. I feel movement in tunnels. Like ones in Crescent Moon. I don't know where we are going with Carter.

Blake stayed quiet for a second before sighing, this was not how he expected this to go. For Sage to turn all stormy on them, or to threaten a poor pup who hadn't grown into his fur yet.

Pretty amusing if anything.

"Hey! Are you coming or staying?" Carter called out, and Blake turned back to the mountain. "Nah! I think I'll go knock at the front door if you don't mind!" He responded, and Sage had certainly caught him in an easygoing lie.

"Goddess, Sagey. What would we do without you?" Blake whispered, and Carter was at the mercy of three very unimpressed Alphas that were demanding an explanation.

"Look—Look! We don't usually have guests, and we haven't had trespassers since we upgraded the wards again. I don't know what that female is saying, but the guest entry is this way. The main entrance needs a pass to enter and I'm not high-ranked enough for it to let us all in." Sage frowned.

Not high-ranked enough?
Didn't he claim to be the Master of Arms' son? Surely that meant he was at least high enough to be given special privilege, Remus had certainly done that for Luke, hadn't he?

Sage inhaled and felt better in allowing the male to lead, given that he didn't try to hide the fact that there was an entrance that way.

But it also gave her a sheer bit of confidence that she would be able to break out of the earth—Though it still didn't pass over with most, if not all of the pack members.

And it was only when Sage realized that the former Underground victims weren't the ones feeling indifferent caused her to huff. Completely impatient.

"It's like bunker, bunker is okay, right?" With that relation, the group had followed in pursuit of a burned and broken house, where the room was caved in and allowed natural sunlight to fill the space.

Much like Sage had seen before in the Snyder's residence, he pushed aside the better half of the bookcase and the backwood that was pressing up against the wall, or thought to have been since it pushed back, exactly like a door would.

"Fucking goddess have mercy, you want us to go down there?" Grey cursed, and the Crimson warriors had all turned ridged.
"We don't speak out against the goddess, it's blasphemy!" A Crimson warrior spat, and Sage tilted her head. "And goddess doesn't allow execution without test-i-mon—Remmy, what's the word?"

"Testimony." He clarified, and that had most certainly caused another round of curiosity.

"What verse—"

"2-13. Open the door or I will dig a nice hole in the colored house." She pointed through the wall and Carter huffed for his males to be quiet, and the beeps from the keypad had sang a small song in regards to entering in the right password.

"Is now a good time to say 'beep-beep' because I—..." Liam said with a shake of his head, going to join the line waiting to get in. But Sage smiled up at her brother with just the right amount of confidence he needed.

If Sage wasn't scared, then why should he—Oh, that's right, his sister just threatened to dig a hole to the center of the earth if things went south. So technically he shouldn't be scared, not with her on their side.

"It's bigger than you think, if that helps any." A younger wolf had offered, but Liam had picked up his head. His father wouldn't want him to show any sort of weakness, not when his brothers were just by his side.

He was the third son of Leo Elwood, the former Master of Arms for Crescent Moon—He had the same blood as Carter, knew his title as an Enforcer, and could settle the matter just the same.

With a wave of silence washing over them, Carter offered his arm out for half his males to go down, followed by the visiting pack, and the further they went, the colder it seemed to grow.

Making Sage grit her teeth, hating that she was feeling the dread fill her lungs. This was what she didn't want, and while it might be a new feeling for Remus and the others, this was exactly the type of climate she endured for the better part of her life.

"Is Alpha Daniel still leading?" Hayes called out, hoping it would break the silence as they descended further into the earth. And Carter hummed.

"Yes, but we're preparing for our new Alpha to rise, so I have a feeling you'll be meeting both. And the Luna as well." Sage had taken in a long breath, but blinked to see the concerned look on Remus' face.

Are we going to talk about what happened, hun?

I am mad they keep Nymphs locked up to work, they aren't happy.

We'll talk about that with the Alpha, yeah? And maybe we can get Crimson to help us look for clues. This isn't something we can handle together, but we're here to search. Clearly, my dad didn't break this pack like he bragged about.

Maybe other packs Randal kills is alive too?

Remus was open to the possibility of believing that packs went into hiding and taken the status of being terminated off the American map. But that meant Crimson could have had a spot on the council, and it wasn't as though Carter looked all too surprised to hear Sage's name.

How much do they know and how little was their group walking into?

That question had soon answered itself as the narrowing staircase had ended at a door, one that Carter had to speak into a little box that made Sage laugh—Amused that the tall male had to bend down to speak into it.

But also at the idea of a voice in the wall.

"See something funny over there?" Carter called out, and Sage pointed to the wall where he spoke. "There's a voice in the wall."

"Yeah, and?" Sage blinked up with another smile, thinking that was the entire joke.
Which Blake growled in warning about.
"It's above your title, Carter." The male narrowed his eyes, as he walked through the door as it pulled up—Allowing access to the main building.

If Sage thought the wall box was funny, then it's funny. No ands, ifs, or buts about it. Not when she had so little laugh at in the past—life. It was better that she was laughing at it than being scared of the damned device anyway.

That, and Blake just wanted another reason to put this pup into his place.
It was one thing to threaten him, but goddess, he threatened Sage?

It unnerved him to no end.

As the group had congregated at the landing, Sage looked around. Thankful that the interior resembled the bunker, like she claimed. But it caused her to frown once more, seeing dozens of wolves coming and going in these sorts of mute-toned jumpsuits.

There was no color and no scent and nothing to speak of comfort.

"Right, so uh—We need to get all the guests signed and checked in. We have our coordinator coming, but you can all get dressed." Carter discussed as they followed in pursuit of what only could be described as a lock room. But Sage stared at the female jumpsuits and shook her head.

"Not changing."

"Uh...Ma'am, we have a dress code." She didn't want to be difficult.
Up above, she was feeling much better with her elements there to comfort her. But here in this metal tin can, holding a rough feeling jumpsuit that only screamed of what she wore in the underground, she couldn't do it.

Even the rest of the pack had done the same—Or those who weren't imprisoned in the Underground before.

"Hey, this is better than the shit they gave us before, right?" Blake offered, taking the steps to be the first of the Underground numbers to take the lead.

Yet as her gaze connected towards Liam, his eyes turned glossy as he couldn't feel his own breath—This was for the leads, this was to uncover clues.

In swallowing her tears, Sage had pulled up the pants before hooking her hands into the shirt part. No, Sage favored the witch's clothing Birdie's people managed to create, they were vibrant and comfortable.

Designed to feel the earth.

This was not at all breathable, rough against her skin, and it added to an ache going wild in her chest. Even with Remus kneeling down before her, she looked away and squeezed her eyes closed.

She did not want to see anyone she loves in it, but upon seeing her father wearing the grey color, it was making her shake. "Shit, is this what you wore in the Underground?" He asked, but it was Liam who took reign over answering it.

Though even his voice was unsteady at best.

"She wore scrubs. Basically the same fucking thing, only worse." Liam answered, his body already feeling itchy and confined from moving as freely as before.

"Good Afternoon everyone! My name is Catherine, you can call me Kat—I'll answer to both but prefer Kat. Good Goddess, Carter, what happened to you?" The female spoke, but as Sage drew her attention to the newly arrived she-wolf, her lips parted.

What's that face for?... Oh, maybe we can ask for a colored one, huh?

Blake teased, kneeling down just where Remus was stationed and pointing to the fabric. "We're guests here, we can leave whenever we feel like it. Alright, we're not back there." With the conversation between Kat and Carter going back and forth, Andrew noted Kat's disapproving sigh as she returned back, her clipboard held tightly to her chest.

"Right, so how we operate, we rely on badges to get in and out of certain rooms. Given that this is based on rank and such. They'll be created by the time we exit this room...Is there something wrong?"

"Yeah, I'm trying to tell my mate that this is not like the Underground but it's getting harder to convince her when it's starting to sound like it regardless." Kat blinked at Remus' snarling remark but didn't react much more than that, only Sage's eyes were still locked on said female.

Disbelief was clearly written on her expression now.

"I uh...You don't have to wear it...What's your name—?" Kat's voice had fallen short in seeing Sage trying to calm herself down, she had talked too confidently for the others to trust her, but here she was crying over a bunch of clothes.

"I'm okay. My name is Sage."
"And your last name?"

"I have a lot of last names..." Kat looked up from her clipboard for a moment, as patient as could be and Sage smiled down at Remus. "Sage Moon."

"Sage Moon, and your rank?"

"Luna of Crescent Moon." It was a bit of a menial task to put in information, but as she read it over she gasped. "L-Luna Sage? W-what are you doing here?" She gasped, and Carter tried to nick her in the side, which she swatted him with.

"Trying to find clues."

"R-right, we'll get you to the Alpha. Carter, can you help me?" She asked, passing over another tablet clipboard and going around to ask for names and ranks. Though Sage sat idly by as Remus was speaking with Hayes, and Carter came around towards Blake to ask him.

"Blake Warren, Rogue General."

"That's not a valid position," Carter replied, and Sage sighed rubbing the top of her head.
Could this get any more aggravating?
"Rogue recruiter? Look, I help Sage train former Rogues to be integrated back into pack life. There isn't a name on that fancy tablet, then I don't know what to tell you." He shrugged, and Carter huffed and typed in something before turning away to the next wolf.

Though Liam came forward with a small-looking device and hooked it to his chest pocket. "Kinda cool, says my name and rank. Feels a little military for me." Sage took a peek to see that it did indeed say 'Liam John Elwood, ENFORCER Level 8'

"Wonder what yours will say, huh Sagey?" He teased, but she shrugged her shoulders and turned to see the other helper passing out the little devices.

"Here you are, Luna Sage. It's an honor to meet you." Sage was just about to say thank you, but the younger wolf blushed and hurried away. Leaving her to think over what she said.

Why is it an honor?

"Seems like Crimson is a little more up to date with current events than we think..." Blake grumbled, taking hold of her little device and fashioning it onto her chest pocket, just like Liam had.

With a small beep, it turned on and started to integrate the level of clearance that Sage was allowed.

"Holy fuck—"

"What the—" Both Blake and Liam cursed as the clip had not only added color to Sage's uniform, but stripes and badges.
"I like." She cheered, not only was there a Crescent Moon patch on her opposite breast pocket, but the stripes on her shoulders and the other little bits added to the pristine title she was given.

'Sage Moon, Luna of Crescent Moon, Unlimited Access'

With Blake reading it out loud, Carter scoffed on the side with his arms over his chest. Clearly, his black-tinted jumpsuit was not high enough of a level to confront Sage's.

Or Remus', for that matter, as he came forward with a similar color, Moon badge, but minus the strips.

"See? Crimson Moon already likes you. Nothing to worry about.

"Everything to worry about." She returned, and Remus placed a hand on her thigh and waited until everyone was badged and ready to move on.

"What kind of joke is this?!" Blake roared, snatching off his badge and holding it in front of Carter. "You didn't give me a proper title, so I gave you what I see fit."

"An Omega?! You don't know what you're messing with, pretty boy—I'll—"

"You think I'm pretty?" Carter was smiling up a storm, especially when he caught Kat coming towards him and placing her hands between either male.

"What the hell is going on?"
"He put me down as an Omega!" She took one look at Carter and frowned, all while tapping on her tablet and changed it, changing it so easily to a custom title of Rogue Recruiter.

"Clearly he isn't an Omega, Carter. They're guests."

"Yeah, guests who are already overstaying their welcome." The conversation between the two had turned to stares and shifts in expressions on their faces, but Sage had no means of tapping into the conversation of Carter getting reprimanded.

Not when she was still shocked at Kat's appearance.

When she turned to Remus, she tugged at his jumpsuit and he turned down to look at her.

What's up, Munchkin?

Kat is Kendal's mate.

______

Date: 07/03/23

Time: 10:48

Words: 3316

Author's Note:

With the long weekend, I nearly forgot to post!
But here we go, welcome to Crimson Moon!

How do we feel about Carter?
More importantly, how do we feel about Catherine/Kat?

Hope you all have a fantastic week!!