Chapter Twenty SixThe romantic music that had been playing in Naomi’s head since she had arrived at Daykan’s place came to an abrupt stop with a horrifying screech.She was such a fool.It felt like she had been sleeping and having the most wonderful dream. Then Daykan had come along and tossed a bucket of ice water over her, rudely waking her up and bringing her face to face with reality.It wasn’t compulsory that he had to like her but she had really thought that they were on the same page.Had she been reading him all wrong?There was an intense sadness brewing in her chest like a kettle on the stove.The last time she was rejected had been in first grade. She had sent a card to David Snaxx, asking him to be her valentine and he had rejected with “Ewww, no! You have cooties.”She had run home to Daddy and he had told her that she was the most special little girl in the world and David didn’t know what he was missing.She had still been sad but had felt better after a couple of day
Chapter Twenty Seven Daykan slid to the floor and put his back against the door. He carefully listened until Naomi started her car and left.He cradled his head in his hands and tried to breathe steadily, but it sounded shaky to him.Had he really done the right thing? Why did it feel so wrong?“You had your reasons remember? They were good reasons.” He whispered encouragingly.Damn! What were his reasons again?Maybe listing them out would help.Daykan held up a finger and enthusiastically nodded. “Umm, well for starters; it would be such a weird conversation explaining how I can turn into basically, a gigantic dog.” Was that a good reason? Although a mateship between a human and werewolf was rare, it did happen.He held up a second finger. “The pack would absolutely hate her and I’m not ready to leave them.”But what if the Moon Spirit popped up through the Moon Seer like last time and forced the pack members to treat Naomi properly?Boy, the thought made him feel like a child rep
Chapter Twenty Eight Sure werewolves were supposed to keep their existence a secret but it wasn’t like it was prohibited for them to associate with human beings.A lot of them just preferred to avoid any unnecessary contact. For the most part, it did seem like it made things considerably easier.While werewolves looked and acted like humans, there was a slight difference in their aging process; and the older they got, the more likely it was that it would be noticed. This was especially true if they had been living in a particular place for majority of their lives.Generally, werewolves lived longer and took more time to age.A ninety year old werewolf could easily pass for a sixty five year old human. When werewolves were younger, it was easier to lie about their ages.Daykan was twenty eight years old but no one would raise brows if he said that he was around twenty two. But after a considerable number of years, he couldn’t just keep rolling into town and no one would notice that
Chapter Twenty NineA lunam rixam was an old tradition that started from when the first werewolves existed. Generations later and werewolves still abided by its rules and used it to settle grave personal disputes.It loosely meant ‘moon brawl’ or ‘a quarrel with the moon.’ The former translation was more applicable in the context the werewolves used it for.When a fellow werewolf did something to another that was unforgivable, the aggrieved could issue a lunam rixam challenge.It was basically a fight to the death under the light of the moon. It was usually done in their werewolf form.It didn’t always result in one of the participants dying. It could end in a draw.In some occasions, the winner could decide to the spare the life of the loser. But that was rarely seen. It took a great force of anger and hatred for things to get to a lunam rixam.People didn’t just throw around the challenge because of a little disagreement or slight issue. It had to be something that had eaten deep en
Chapter Thirty There was a functional hospital within the Moonstruck Estate. But since werewolves didn’t really get sick, it wasn’t used that often.The patients there were offspring of werewolves who weren’t fortunate enough to receive the Wolf’s Mark; purebreds and half-breeds.They were basically a little more advanced than the average human being. They were faster and stronger but nothing compared to a werewolf that possessed the Wolf’s Mark.They lacked the healing abilities of werewolves and were more susceptible to sicknesses. On rare occasions, when a werewolf with the Wolf’s Mark had to use the hospital, it was mostly related to bone fractures. The ability of werewolves to heal relatively quickly was both a blessing and curse. If it would take six to eight weeks for a human’s bone fracture to heal, it would take a werewolf just a few days for that same kind of fracture.The werewolf’s bones would start knitting back together almost instantly.But it didn’t always heal the
Chapter Thirty OneNaomi couldn’t sleep.She had spent almost an hour tossing, turning and rearranging her pillow but to no avail.She considered watching a comedy to help with the sadness she was feeling but she wasn’t up for that.She loved romantic comedies. But it didn’t seem like the best time to watch a lovey dovey couple work through their issues and run into each other’s arms for an emotional happy ever after.She would probably scowl, boo and toss popcorn at the TV screen.She loved love and didn’t want that to change.In the past, she had never been too convinced about that soulmate stuff. Yes, there was someone out there for everyone. But if that didn’t work out, you could move on and fall in love as many times as you needed to until it felt right.Now, the soulmate stuff was starting to make sense and that was because of Daykan’s arrival into her life.It felt magical when she was with him. It was disheartening that after what had happened tonight, the fairytale scales h
Chapter Thirty TwoLacan had always been a firm believer in the ‘happy wife, happy life’ saying and now was a prime example.His mate was clearly unhappy so life wasn’t looking so good. Hell, that was an understatement; she was positively fuming.He had just arrived from a meeting with an outside pack as a representative of the Moonstruck Estate’s Council of Alphas.He had expected to get home, kiss his beautiful mate, go for a solo run if the pack had already ran, take a relaxing shower and cuddle with Areria.But all his plans had gone down the toilet.He had gotten home, sat on their bed and only managed to take off his shoes before Areria had stormed into the house with a shocking tale.Now, she stood with her arms crossed and hovered over him as she waited to hear what he had to say.“Welllll? Say something.” She impatiently tapped her foot on the floor.“What did Jeycob do? Daykan wouldn’t just attack him out of the blue.”“He said something about his mother or stuff like that.”
Chapter Thirty ThreeDaykan was walking to the Council’s meeting room. It was more of a hall but a small one compared to where they held their general packs’ meetings.It was where the Council sat to determine issues that affected the collective interests of all the packs within the estate; Daykan was obviously one of those issues.Individuals were rarely ever summoned to such meetings and never for a fight between members of the same pack. It would have been slightly different if the parties were from different packs. But then, the Alphas of the affected packs could sit together and discuss. There wouldn’t necessarily be any need for a Council gathering; unless all the packs had been involved in the fight. He could imagine that; it would be a bloody melee.So dealing with little ol’ him was equivalent to a bloody melee between the five packs; the story of his life.Perhaps he had always been looking at this the wrong way. He should have ditched the negative outlook a while ago and