#2 When the Moon Turns Red

Noah

About two hours later, Evie had an Alpha, Beta , Gamma, and the Alpha’s brother assembling furniture that was in a frustratingly large amount of pieces.

“Whyyyyy!?” Jack threw the instructions down on the ground.

“Where the hell is piece F?” Greyson grumbled, staring at the discarded pieces of what was supposed to be a desk.

“Finished!” Sawyer grinned proudly at his completed bookshelf. I walked over to the shelf and tapped the side of it, watching as the whole thing wobbled and fell over.

“Not exactly level.” I observed. Sawyer cursed at me and went back to work. Evie was laughing on the other side of the room where she was organizing her supplies into bins, for the tenth time.

“You guys are great.” Evie smiled.

“We live to serve you, Luna.” Greyson smirked, earning him a glare from my mate.

After Evie was satisfied with her organizing, she helped Jack and Greyson with assembling the cubical storage unit. I was busy fixing the bookcase Sawyer attempted to build himself. It took about another hour to finish with the furniture and anchoring it to the wall. Evie set to work on filling the desk, bookshelf, and cubical unit with all her bins and supplies. Jack and I hung the curtains while Greyson rolled out the rug in front of the desk.

“It looks so good, baby.” I wrapped my arm around Evie’s waist as we admired the newly converted art studio. I kissed her cheek and earned a beautiful smile out of my mate.

“Thank you so much.” She gushed, leaning back into my arms. Before I could respond, her phone rang in her pocket. She wiggled out from my grasp and answered the call,

“Hello?” I heard her twin brother, Elijah, on the other end,

“Where are you?” He asked.

“Why?” Evie’s eyes pulled together in concern.

“You’re not at home.” Elijah said and I began to worry. How did he know she wasn’t home? And why was it any of his business? My protective instincts began to get the better of me.

“How would you know that?” Evie accused him.

“Because I’m at your house.” Evie’s eyes went wide as she mouthed, oh shit in my direction.

“What?”

“I thought it sounded like something was wrong when we talked the other weekend and Mom said you’ve been dodging her calls, so I figured I would come out and surprise you.” Her brother explained.

“Elijah…” Evie sighed. I could tell she was excited about seeing her brother but nervous about everything else.

“What’s going on, Evie?” Elijah asked. Evie pressed the phone to her shoulder and looked at me,

“What do I do?” She whispered.

“Tell him the truth?” I shrugged. Her eyes got even bigger,

“Are you nuts?”

“Okay, maybe not the whole truth. Just tell him about me and that you’re living here.” I suggested.

“If I tell him I’m living with a guy I met a couple of weeks ago he’s going to think I’ve lost my mind. Not to mention this place is like a compound.” Evie spoke a million miles a minute.

“What do you want to do?” Clearly nothing I said was the right answer.

“Fake my death?” She shrugged helplessly. I laughed at her and nodded towards her phone,

“He’s yelling.” I said, my wolf hearing picking up on what she couldn’t hear coming from the phone. She sighed and brought the phone back to her ear,

“Listen, Elijah, the truth is there is some stuff going on and I’m not exactly sure how to explain it. I’m going to give you an address to drive to, okay?”

“What address?” Elijah’s voice was clearly worried.

“It’s where I’m staying.” Evie proceeded to give Elijah the address to the packhouse. I mindlinked Greyson informing him of our new guest. I told him to wait at the entrance gate for Elijah’s arrival and then escort him to the packhouse.

“What are you going to tell him?” I asked Evie once she hung up the phone.

“The truth, I guess.” She shrugged.

“The whole truth?” I asked. I would support Evie with whatever she decided, even if that meant telling her brother about werewolves. This was her life now and she deserved to be as honest with her family as she wanted.

“I think I’ll leave out the wolf part, for now anyway.” She replied, exiting her art studio. I followed her as we made our way down to the lobby.

“We can take him to my office.” I suggested, Evie nodded absentmindedly. I snatched up her hand and gave it a squeeze.

“My whole family is going to know after this. Elijah can’t keep a secret to save his life.” She said.

“Is that a problem?”

“I’m not sure.” She replied quietly. I pulled her into one of the hallways off the lobby, hiding us away from prying eyes. I held her face in my hand and stroked her cheek soothingly.

“I’m not worried about them meeting you, Noah,” Evie assured me,

“I’m just worried about them understanding all of this.” She gestured around the packhouse and I knew she meant more than just the physical home. What we had was intense and hard for humans to understand. It was hard for Evie to understand and she was in the middle of it feeling all the emotions alongside me.

“I’ll just have to win your parents over.” I grinned. She smiled back weakly.

“We’re just going to have to dial it back in front of them. The fact that I’m practically living with you is going to be enough to handle.” She mumbled.

“I’ll be on my best behavior.” I said seriously, stiffening up my back and proving to her that I can be as calm as a cucumber. She rolled her eyes at me and a genuine smile finally graced her lips.

“You’re dumb.” She grumbled pretending to be disgusted by my advances to kiss her. She finally gave in and awarded me with a quick kiss.

“He’s here. Driving into the parking garage now.” Sawyer mindlinked me.

“Your brother is here.” I said, taking Evie’s hand again and leading her towards the front door. I mindlinked the entire pack while we waited, informing them of the human visitor and to not act like feral idiots.

Sawyer pushed open the door and the male version of Evie walked in behind him. He had the same beach blonde hair and startling blue eyes. However, he was much taller than Evie and very muscular. Evie squealed when Elijah entered and threw herself at him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and he bear-hugged her in return. I grinned at the reunion, glad that my mate was so happy.

“Elijah! It’s so good to see you.” Evie practically screamed. Elijah pushed her away,

“What is going on?” He was immediately all business, eyeing me from over Evie’s shoulder. I stepped up to him,

“I’m Noah.” I said, extending my hand. Elijah shook it wearily.

“Noah’s my….he’s my…uhm….boyfriend?” Evie stumbled, eyeing me helplessly. I chuckled at her under my breath. It was odd naming our relationship. We’ve never used terms like boyfriend and girlfriend before and, honestly, those aren’t terms wolves use anyway. But, I suppose, you can’t introduce a male as your mate to the human brother.

“Uh huh.” Elijah was looking between us curiously.

“And where are we?” He asked, looking around.

“This is where I live.” I said.

“And I’ve been staying here, too.” Evie added timidly. Elijah’s head snapped towards her in surprise.

“Why don’t we take this to my office.” I suggested, gesturing down the hall.

“Your office?” Elijah mumbled as Evie led the way. We all settled into my office, staring at each other in awkward silence.

“This is your house.” Elijah finally said, raising his eyebrow at me.

“Technically, yes. This whole area is a small village started by my great grandfather,” I explained, thankful that we already had a cover story in place for the humans,

“Our people live in individual houses throughout the reservation. My family is considered the leaders and we live here, in the main house. But, everyone is welcomed here to use the community amenities.”

“Reservation? Like, Native Americans?” Elijah asked.

“Yes, we’re a sect of the Chitimacha Tribe.”

Again, not a complete lie. The Chitimacha Tribe were the original settlers in New Orleans. They were very much aware of werewolves and housed many of them. My great-great grandmother was a member of the tribe, the daughter of the chief. She fell in love with an outsider, a werewolf, my great-great grandfather, and had a child. That child was a wolf as well. As the werewolf population grew, they decided to create a tribe of their own.

“And you’ve been staying here?” Elijah turned his attention to Everleigh. She nodded slowly,

“For about a week.” She said.

“I didn’t even know you had a boyfriend let alone one serious enough to live with.” Elijah mumbled.

“I met him my first weekend here and we just hit it off right away,” Now, that was a lie. Evie’s eyes flashed over to me quickly before turning her attention back to Elijah,

“I can’t explain it Elijah, we just work. I’m just staying here, I haven’t officially moved in or anything.” Evie shrugged, trying to downplay our relationship. I wasn’t a fan of her tactic, but I understood why she was doing it.

“If you’re so right then why have you been lying?” Elijah’s tone turned sour and I shifted uncomfortably in my chair, trying to remain calm. Evie shot me a warning glare.

“Chill out Elijah,” She snapped at her brother,

“I haven’t been lying. I just wasn’t ready to have the family descend on us, yet.” I suppressed a grin at how she handled her brother and was glad to know that I wasn’t the only one who submitted to her. Elijah huffed in defeat.

“Fine.” He grumbled,

“How do I know you’re a good guy?” He turned his glare on me.

“Because I say he is.” Evie answered for me.

“No, that’s a fair question, Everleigh. What do you want to know?” I said. Elijah looked back and forth between Evie and me before grinning for the first time since he arrived,

“Oh no, I’m good.” He chuckled. I looked at him in shock and noticed that Evie was smiling now too.

“What did I do?” I asked, confused.

“You said no to my sister and called her Everleigh. She really must like you, which means you have to be a decent dude.” Elijah smirked.

There was a knock at my door and it opened before I could respond. Molly came waltzing in, clearly unaware of my meeting. She stumbled to a stop, looking shocked at the unfamiliar face in the room. All at once, her smile vanished and a low growl escaped her lips. I knew immediately what was happening and rushed to Molly’s side. I grabbed her wrists and locked her arms in place, forcing her to stand still.

“Molly, get a grip.” I ordered her in my Alpha tone.

“Mate!” She growled.