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
Chapter Thirty FourSThere was about a five second pause.“Lacan, could you repeat that? I don’t think we heard it clearly.” Algorne recovered first.Yeah, repeat that, Daykan echoed silently.They had all heard what he said; a room full of werewolves with more than average hearing.But you could hear something so unbelievable that you would be convinced your mind was playing tricks on you.“You all heard me. Daykan should be free to go because he hasn’t done anything wrong.” Lacan said firmly.“Excuse me? Hasn’t done anything wrong? We all know what he did! He admitted to it himself! We all heard him! The boy in the hospital is more than enough proof.We all went there and saw the condition he was in. It was horrible!” Licia said adamantly.“Don’t misunderstand me. I didn’t say that he didn’t do anything. I said he didn’t do anything wrong.” Lacan said slowly because he was tired of being asked to repeat his statements or being misinterpreted.“So, attacking another werewolf in such
Chapter Thirty Five“Pop, are you sure we should be out here by this time?” Paul Caddie tried to keep the quiver of fear out of his voice.He mistakenly stepped on a twig and jumped at the unexpected sound of it breaking.His jump caused him to trip and bump into his father, who was a few steps in front of him.Paul stumbled back with an apologetic look on his young face. “I’m sorry Pop.”Simon Caddie turned around and barely managed to keep a lid on his irritation. “For God’s sake Paul! You’re a twenty one year old man and you need to start acting like one. So stop fidgeting like a damn schoolgirl and stay in one place before I accidentally shoot you. You’re annoying the shit out of me!”“I’m sorry Pop. I’m just a little nervous. I was wondering if we should be out here by this time. How about we come back when it’s less creepy?” Paul swallowed nervously. An owl hooted nearby and he barely managed to hold back a squeal of surprise. Any more irritating sounds out of him and his dad
Chapter OneLana had always dreamt of this moment; holding the hand of her soul mate as she struggled to give birth to their child. While other women might not be particularly enthusiastic about the process of giving birth, it was something she had always yearned for. She had always been prepared to embrace the pain because she felt there was no greater joy than being a mother.The contractions that caused her teeth to clench in pain did not seem to hurt so much as she gazed into the eyes of her significant other.“You are doing fine baby, just keep pushing and it will be over soon,” Erek encouraged as he gently squeezed Lana’s hand. He was terrified because Lana was bleeding a lot and he couldn’t imagine losing her. It was fairly common for a she-wolf to die on the birthing bed and with Lana being a human; her chances of survival were less than average.“Just a little further Lana, I can see your baby’s head,” Zera called from between Lana’s open legs. Zera had helped give birth t