#1 The Rise of the Crescent Moon

Josephine

“Untie him, now!” I yelled at Dru and Theo again,

“That’s an order.” Dru finally came back to life and cut off the ropes binding my brother’s hands together.

“You are such an idiot.” I yelled at him, throwing my arms around his neck and hugging him close.

“Well excuse me, the last time I was here I had a slightly different welcoming committee.” He chuckled.

“And I apologize for that, Mr. Valentine.” August’s voice broke the silence. I pulled away from Jared and raised an eyebrow at my mate,

“Mr. Valentine?” I mindlinked him.

He just shrugged.

“It’s all good, Alpha. I appreciate the lengths taken to protect my sister,” Jared smiled, walking up to August and reaching out his hand,

“And please, call me Jared.” August shook his hand graciously.

“I wish you would have told us you were coming, Jared.” August said, looking around at the scene he had caused. I stepped up to my boys then,

“Me too.” I said, elbowing my brother in the ribs.

“Sorry about that, it was sort of a last minute trip.” Jared smirked, shrugging his shoulders.

“Where’s April? Is everything okay?” I asked, suddenly concerned about my brother’s arrival.

“She’s at home, everything’s fine. Can’t a brother come to check on his sister?” It was then that Jared noticed the bandage on my forehead. He reached out a hand and pushed my hair away,

“What happened?” Jared nearly growled, his eyes resting on August.

“Oh knock it off, Jared.” I rolled my eyes at his testerone and planted myself between the two Alpha wolves. I felt August’s hand snake it’s way around my waist.

“There was an accident, I’ll tell you all about it inside.” I said, nodding my head towards the cabin and led the way inside.

Jared watched as the 6 patrol wolves and Gamma Hayden dispersed around us. Dru, Theo, and Ford took their patrol positions around the cabin while the others returned to the packhouse. Gamma Hayden took point, standing guard outside the cabin door.

“You have them wrapped around your finger, don’t you JoJo?” Jared laughed, sitting at one of the bar stools in the kitchen.

“She sure does.” August replied, smiling at me as he leaned against the refrigerator. I jumped up on the bar, dangling my legs over the edge.

“You know, there are more chairs?” Jared rolled his eyes and I shrugged.

“Tell me what happened?” Jared’s face turned serious as I told him about the witch and the rogue.

“What do you know about this deal?” I asked him. Jared shook his head,

“Nothing really, but it does make some things father said make more sense.” He replied thoughtfully.

“Like what?” I asked eagerly.

“Like his frustrations at me taking a human mate. It never made any sense, how angry he got. Dad knew how important the mate bond was. Not to mention his lack of interest in mother, like he just wanted to tuck her away but it was so obvious he loved her when he let himself show it.” Jared was talking so fast I could hardly understand what he was thinking.

“Why does our parents’ relationship have anything to do with this?” I asked, annoyed.

“If what that witch said was true, mother had a wolf once. Father mated a wolf and, in order to protect his pack, he had to give up his ability to create a strong Alpha bloodline.” I stared at Jared like I didn’t understand a single thing he was saying.

“He was ashamed of her, of their bond.” Jared said plainly. I glared at him,

“Excuse me.”

“She couldn’t give him an Alpha bloodline, a strong bloodline. Her job as Luna….” I slapped Jared across the face,

“Don’t you dare finish that sentence.” I growled. Jared looked at me startled and August laughed behind me. I turned my rage on him,

“You want to say something, Alpha?” August held up his hands in surrender,

“Not at all.”

“Sure, walk away with your tail between your legs.” Jared huffed.

“Say one more word Jared, and I swear to the Moon Goddess….”

“I think what Jared is trying to say is,” August interrupted my death threat and pried my fists from Jared’s shirt.

“Your father, as Alpha, felt shame for not being able to protect his pack in any other way than to weaken his pack. I think that, maybe, being around his Luna made him feel that shame and that weakness even more because it was his mate who lost the most.” August bore his eyes into mine,

“I can’t imagine what it must have felt like to sacrifice his mate that way. I don’t know if I could have been strong enough to do it.” He added. I searched August’s eyes and noted the pain that was hidden there. Snapping out of it, I turned and glared at Jared,

“You couldn’t have just said that?” Jared rolled his eyes and made a kissy face at us.

“But, I also think that Jared was right, too.” I sighed, looking back at August.

“My father wasn’t the most sensitive man. His pride and ego as an Alpha was the most important thing to him. I think he felt shame for not being able to produce a strong line of Alpha’s, maybe that shame was even projected onto my mother. He could be a selfish man.” I admitted.

It felt like my heart was being ripped from my chest to say those things about my father. I adored him, but, in his death, it was easy to pretend he was a better man than he really was. August rubbed my arm and smiled sadly at me, but said nothing.

“What do we do now?” I asked the room, looking between my brother and my mate.

“We keep you safe.” Jared said, I felt August nod behind me,

“Agreed.” I rolled my eyes,

“Great plan.” I stepped away from the two boneheads and started brewing a pot of coffee.

“Benji is asking around to see if he can learn anything more about it, and we’ll do the same.” August said, trying to reassure me.

“We need a witch.” I said plainly.

“What?” Jared asked.

“A witch made this deal with my father, so a witch can give us the details.” I shrugged, grabbing coffee cups from the cabinet.

“You cannot trust a witch.” August shook his head. I smirked,

“I bet witches say the same thing about wolves.” August and Jared shared a look as I handed them each a cup of coffee. I swung open the front door and handed another cup to the Gamma.

“Coffee’s up!” I yelled to the woods, sitting three more cups on the porch table and winking at Hayden before shutting the door again.

“You spoil them.” Jared commented.

“Thank You!” August yelled out. I glared at them both,

“I hate this more than I thought I would.” I grumbled under my breath.

“Find me a witch or I’ll do it myself.” I shamelessly threatened them.

“Okay, okay.” August agreed.

“You spoil her.” Jared noted.

“Shut up.” August grumbled.

“How’s April?” I asked Jared smugly. It was his turn to roll his eyes at me,

“Fantastic, if you must know. She wanted me to give you this.” Jared handed me a sealed envelope. I looked at him skeptically and tore open the envelope. I pulled out a little black and white photo and started screaming.

“What? What? What’s wrong?” August was on full alert, standing protectively at my side, but I was completely ignoring him.

“I’m going to be an aunt?!” I shrieked, throwing myself at my brother.

“Goddess, JoJo, my ears.” Jared whined but hugged me back anyway.

“I’m so happy!” I grinned, clutching the ultrasound picture to my chest.

“Me too, sis.”

“Congrats, man.” August smiled, shaking Jared’s hand.

“Thanks, Alpha.”

“You know, you can call me August.” August chuckled.

“Shouldn’t you be with her, then?” I asked.

“She’s barely into the second trimester, it’s still early. I wanted to come see you before she got further along and I couldn’t.” Jared said.

“How long do you plan on staying?”

“Until I know you’re safe and this deal situation is taken care of.” Jared replied sternly. I sighed at him but knew better than to argue,

“You can stay here. I….” I paused and looked at August,

“I’m staying at the packhouse.” August’s face broke into an earth shattering grin and I couldn’t help but match it.

“I figured you were.” Jared said, taking a sip of his coffee. I looked back at him,

“What? Why?” I asked, my eyes pulling together in concern.

“Why do you look so weird? And what’s wrong with his face?” Jared sat down the coffee cup, suddenly noticing our interaction.

“I’m going to go….be somewhere else.” August murmured, stepping out the front door to check on Hayden.

“What’s with him?” Jared asked. I sighed,

“I wasn’t staying at the packhouse. Today was my first day there, I wasn’t even sure if I was going to stay tonight let alone in the long term.” I admitted. Jared started looking at me funny and I realized he was trying to find my mark.

“You won’t find it.” I said.

“You haven’t marked each other? You don’t live at the packhouse? What’s going on?” Jared grabbed my hand and studied my face.

“I don’t really know what to do, Jared.” I sighed.

“It’s not that complicated, JoJo. He’s your mate, you’re meant to be together. Why overthink it?” I shook my head at my brother, he was always so literal.

“I’m human, Jar.”

“Yeah, and? No one here cares. I’ve been here for 10 minutes and I can see that they are obsessed with their Luna. They nearly killed me on sight when they thought I was a threat to you. You trained like a wolf, like an Alpha. You know what to do, you know how to lead and you know how to fight.” As Jared lectured me, I looked down at my fingers.

“Which is why that’s not what you’re worried about,” He said, realization coming to him,

“You’re worried about being his mate.” I looked up at him through my eyelashes, mortified to be having this conversion with my big brother.

“Maybe I should call April….” He trailed off.

“Forget about it, it’s silly.” I grumbled, shaking my hand away from his.

“It’s not silly, Josie. April had the same fears, but she had Mom.” I froze at that,

“What did you say?”

“Just because Dad was a jackass, doesn’t mean that Mom was. She stayed in contact. I think Dad always knew, he just pretended like he didn’t. She talked April through so much. Another thing that makes more sense now. She knew a lot about being a human mated to an Alpha, but she always knew a lot about being a she-wolf. She was amazing, she talked April down from a few ledges. I know April would love to do the same thing for you.” Jared put his hand on my shoulder and gave it a squeeze.

“Okay, I’ll call her.” I promised, sighing in relief that I had someone to talk to. Jared kissed my forehead and left the kitchen.

“Glad I came along then, to kick you out of the house.” Jared jokes, making himself comfortable on the couch. I shoved the back of his head, causing an uncontrollable laugh from my brother.