* * *

It was strange. Leo hadn't had to do this in ages. But with Andrew's terms and background with their own terminology of what they faced in the years of war that Crescent Moon endured, the bunker's siren could call out to everyone in the pack. Everyone of age would know what Code Blue meant, which allowed the Half Crescent pack members to plow through the land and return to their skin.

Moonlight, I swear to the goddess above, if you get one scratch or die on me after I just got you back, I will not hesitate to follow you.

Then I'll kill you again when we get to the moon. Watch the pups.

Sage's grip on her sword only tightened, especially when she felt Remus' wolf linger in the back of her mind—With his beast having been returned, it almost revived and resurfaced all she had been missing.

"Luna, are you alright?" Grey questioned, and she nodded. Yet Andrew knew what was happening, the internal battle was screaming at her to return back to her mate—But the fight was still in her and she needed to concentrate.

Especially when the scent was growing closer and stronger.

"Get ready! Stand in formation! Can't afford to make enough for the stragglers out in this pack."

"No worries, everyone here will know what those sirens mean," Andrew explained off towards Torin, though it was Sage who shook her head to disagree.

"Not the pups! They're too young!" That certainly was a fallback, and that caused her to link Liam and the rest to make sure everyone's family had a headcount of their household.

Especially the pups.

We have snipers starting to reign in. We have eyes on you.

"No shooting us!" She shouted, spotting the waving males off on the roof in the distance. How they managed to do that so quickly, she wouldn't know—But an even better mention was when her father's voice managed into her head.

Almost bringing me to tears with what you're wearing, sweetheart. but it's hard keeping your male in the house.

If he leaves the pups, I'll beat his ass.

That a girl! Now go slaughter those Draugr, and when you get back I'll make you some more tea.

Her laughter caught on some of her pack members but they didn't mind the attitude. Especially when the sounds of clattering swords had started to trigger their impending attack.

"By Odin's beard, may this be glorious!" Torin shouted, and while the witches had their own deities to worship, right alongside the American wolves. Andrew knew both, as he was raised with a Norse twist.

"It's too early for us to dine in Valhalla, stick in pairs. No reason to get sloppy now." The witches divided up, giving them another few seconds to properly spread up the group of wolves and witches.

Remus watched in pure awe from the pup's window upstairs to see the pure chaos that erupted. All over one word.

"Who was it that triggered this?" Severin questioned and Sage sighed.

"Jackson, I'll talk to him later." She deemed and thus the Beta had backed off—For now.

Instead, it had been their turn to flock to the dozens of Draugr that had swarmed inwards.

Make sure pups are okay too, don't have enough paste to heal lots of hurt people.

Right, you are Luna—Alpha—Fuck, alright, when you get back, we're discussing this whole title—

With a tap on her shoulder, she followed after Torin and Andrew to start her own sequenced attack. It had become much more difficult to block out her family's warnings. Especially when they caught her slicing a wolf just at the throat and having to impale its head to properly take it down.

The others around her acted the same, no matter the injury they acted too sick to feel anything more.

Bubbles, duck.

The order implied just as she enacted, and she smirked at her father's accuracy in taking a headshot from her home.

Now get that brute next to you to do the same.

"Chief, duck!" His designated nickname allowed his wolf to listen with ease.—He hardly gave her order a second thought as he fell down to his propped elbows ready to bounce back up.

Though he chuckled at seeing the snipers' accuracy as his almost kill wasn't the only one to go down. However, Sage's yell had caused a number of their wolves to shift and try to tear apart the Draugr that had Sage's arm locked onto her mouth—Though her wolf knew just as well that she needed help.

The shadowy figure emerged with just the right amount of fire and the perfect angle to separate the two, however, it was Torin that surrounded her.

"Get your wolf back in you, she cannot get bit!"

It was as if the Draugr could hear his order as they soon targeted both her human and fur.

"Retreat! Let the guns handle the rest!" Andrew shouted, sensing their shift in the directive. This prompted Torin to instruct the witches to encase them for an easy shot. Course when he finally managed to get to Sage, it was the chance to properly get her with his arm over hers in an attempt to walk away.

Harlow and Drake had been armed, entirely at the ready as Hayes was still pointed out one of the windows above them. However, they didn't hesitate in front of others coming out of nowhere. "There's never been this many before—You have an extra gun?" Andrew questioned and Drake didn't need anything more than to hand him the extra pistol he had on his waist.

"Has about seventeen shots." He warned, and once he caught Elena bringing Sage inside, his attention wained, if only for a moment.. "I want it wrapped and pasted before I get back Elena.." "I got her, sir! No worries! Please help Sev." With that, Andrew left while Elena started to struggle with Sage. Her body attempted to stop the poison coursing through her veins. Making it worse that her wolf took the chance to escape her form—Leaving her to be just a witch.

"What the fucking—Fuck!" Harlow shouted, his gaze flickering from his aim towards his sister. Both skin and fur.

"Not the time. Help me before my Alpha gets back." Jade hadn't hesitated after being called to need aid, and of course, Remus had ditched his snipping position to aid downstairs as well.

"What happened?!"

"They targeted Sage, is what. He has to be after her. This just confirmed it." Elena explained, attempting to get her out of her gear as Sage began to convulse and stutter. Yet the damaging part was the foam, causing her to choke.

Elena's focus had turned off towards Sage's wolf and held her by the cheeks. "Please go back, she needs you with her. She's safe now, I promise. Please go back." Hearing the plead of the Beta female's voice, which certainly caught everyone's attention to the random wolf—Until they realized that Sage hadn't just grown in skin, her wolf looked beyond what she had been the last time they saw her.

"Sage. You get back in your skin right now, I listened to you and now you have to listen to me." Her head attempted to go after the idea of the wolves outside—Her pack. But Remus sighed further when he realized that she was probably worried about Andrew.

Yet a silent blessing of Rue's cry caused the she-wolf to pounce. "The faster you get back in there and heal, the faster you can cuddle and play with them. Right? We can enjoy Christmas as a family." She pulled away from his hold and sprung into the air, almost pouncing on Sage's heart as she entered back into the fold of her spirit. In an instance, Sage's mouth had cleared with a sharp gasp—Leaving her to look around the room to see those she loved, completely fearful of what was to come.

"Cursed name." She repeated, and Remus sighed in relief. As did the rest of the room.

Seeing the way the bite had reacted to the paste caused the others to turn away in disgust, clearly, it wasn't an easy trek to travel from Canada to here. Not when these Draugrs were hot on their tail.

Thankfully, they had managed well with the leftover dozen, and Half Crescent didn't waste any time to follow Torin's lead and start gathering firewood and kindling to burn the corpses of the undead.

Remus watched intently as he had dozens of questions to ask both Andrew and the Viking, but mostly because he was still confused about Sage's condition.

How could a bite cause that type of reaction?

The most sickened Rogue would give is a slight illness and possible death if untreated.

This was different, and even with the way that Sage was sweating out the toxins and drinking the tea that Jade was lightly letting her sip... It was all causing his heart to be left unrested.

But he was framed from what he truly wanted to do, to shift and try to must up whatever their bond could provide. Yet he settled on a simple question of—

"How's she doing?" He questioned just as he neared the surrounding females.

"I'm fine." She grumbled, though that was hardly the truth as she looked more than ready for a long night's rest.

"Torin will need to check this, but it'll hold for right now," Elena said, nodding to herself as she smiled off to her Alpha and Luna. "Is anyone else hurt out there?" Remus questioned, and Elena peeked her attention to her pack's link.

"No, they retreated back and let the guns handle it. They should be done burning the bodies soon. It's the best way to deal with them, in case they weren't killed entirely." She responded, earning her a small caress from her Luna. It was truly a representation of how close Sage was with the females at her side, and Jade couldn't help but feel left out.

She'd cared for and nurtured the twins for months after being chosen as primal guardian with full rights. Part of her didn't want to give them back up. They were hers—And her wolf felt the same.

Harlow begged her not to make another scene, apologizing that he hadn't told her the full story behind the plan Blake had conjured. That it was simply just to check if Sage possessed. And while everyone was seemingly welcoming at the fact that she returned, Jade was apprehensive.

She grew up with a standard belief that remaining pure and devoted to a mate was the way a wolf should live, and by standards, anyone should live. Yet her falsely placing her pack's teachings onto a she-wolf who hardly had a decent two years of being integrated into a normal pack setting didn't consider what was proper or not.

So, being unmated with a high-ranked title was against every unwritten rule in the book.

And Sage surely caught the relatively placid face of her brother's mate.

For her entire life, Sage was at the end of people's judgment. And if Jade had a problem she'd have no issue in sending her some of her memories—She doubted Jade had to deal with a whole Heat away from Harlow, or any other challenge that Sage had managed in the past two years to being reclaimed back to her people.

So unless Jade voiced her opinion out loud, Sage would remain silent. For now.

When the chaos had been finally uplifted, the warning siren soon silenced itself—Stating that the threat had been taken care of.

The multiple males that had entered Remus' living room caused him to make a mental tally.

Course Torin was the easiest, and Severin had a small hatred for calling Sage 'baby girl' just an hour ago. Otherwise, Grey and Jackson managed to make the perfect pairing and laughed right alongside each other.

However, Severin had caught Jackson's presence and stormed after him, fulfilling what everyone from Half Crescent wanted to do since he uttered the Vampire's name. "Your lack of consideration for a near-perfect warning endangered my Luna, Mate, and pack. Not to mention put yours at risk." The male proclaimed and the rest of the room fell silent.

"One of them was bound to say it out loud. Stand down Severin, Elena is fine." Andrew claimed, though he was only really doing that because he knew the strain of another argument would leave Sage. Trading places, Andy had sunken down right beside Sage and the relief was evident on his scarred face.

"I think Rem said something about getting bit—"

"I'm fineeee!" She cheered, and both of her males chuckled.

"Sure. I don't think they did any permanent damage, yeah?" She hummed. Truthfully, she was feeling worn down and tired, but she wasn't going to admit that out loud.

Not when she wasn't the only one. And as Remus gazed off to the rest of Half Crescent—He knew that they'd all need to get their bearings together.

While he was about to ask Jackson to link Gigi, he cut out the middleman and did it himself. He doubted that any of them would feel that displaced at the fact that they'd have to room together, but in a foreign pack, he wasn't sure if they actually wanted to be that far away from one another.

"There are extra rooms in the pack house, it might be a tight fit for the rest of Half Crescent to—"

"No offense, sir, but I don't know how far they'll want to be from their leaders..." Severin interrupted and Remus nodded instantly.

"Then, hopefully, a few can fit in the basement?" Sage had caught her Beta smiling and nodding along, she didn't really plan for those two to start liking one another, but it was Grey and Jackson's instant friendship that left her truly smiling.

But soon enough, the commotion had caught the room's attention as it shifted to Hayes, who continued to laugh all the way down the steps.

"I haven't had that much fun in years!" Hayes claimed, holding the rifle in his arms with a smile on his face. And that caused Sage to lean up on the couch, though most of the males surrounding her had ushered her to stop.

"That was not fun. Now they know where we are." She ushered, and that certainly changed the temper of the room. Her aggravation had easily triggered her dad's misinterpretation of the situation.

"Good. I'd like to meet this vampire. I have a few questions for him...Among other things." He said with a darkened grin, but Andrew simply calmed her nerves and said that he'd get the witches on a new shield.

"No worries, I called Raven and she's bringing a few members from Ember Circle. They should be here in a few hours." While she did want to see her witch friends, she sunk back into the pillow. This alerted Torin and earned her a hand to her temple.

Finding that he didn't like the heat he felt.

"We need to keep her temperature down." With the consensus being a bath, it was up to Aurora and Elena to help the female into the tub upstairs, and she felt the surreal moment of returning to her former life almost suffocating her.

Thankfully, the company beside her kept her grounded for the time being.

______

Date: 12/23/24

Time: 12:44 PM

Words: 2621

Author's Note:

Hellooo!

Uploading this chapter before I head into work, as I've run out of scheduled chapters, and as of right now I'm on track to have an extra chapter for this week!

It's not much of a holiday gift, but I'm doing my best to keep a steady pace with editing, writing, and creating a story that people want to read.

Though the urge to write a short story for The Brave Human Mate is lurking in the background, aka my notes.

I'm looking forward to the new year, so much is happening and I cannot wait to dive in.

Until the next chapter!