My beautiful Goddess, my mate, is sitting in front of me, staring into my eyes with the most beautiful smile. I’m lying in a bed completely naked. Hope straddles herself on top of me and wraps her arms around my neck.
‘What happened? Where are we?’ I ask.
‘Alpha Tate and Alpha Liam are dead. I ordered our new pack members to bury them all,’ she says.
Smiling, I cup her face, ‘I see you’re already adjusting to being Luna?’ I smile.
‘Well, you were knocked out from the Wolfsbane, and everyone began to bow down to me and kept chanting Luna! So, I got them to help carry you here to rest, and then they all stood around waiting for more orders. I wanted to do the right thing by the dead, so they were all buried except for Alpha Tate, Liam and Sam. I had their bodies burned to ashes,’ she smiles.
‘You are a true Luna indeed!’ I say, kissing her on the forehead.
I swing my legs off the bed, and everything sways.
‘Oh no, you don’t!’ Hope says.
‘You must stay and rest until all the Wolfsbane is out of your system. I’m going to stay here by your side, okay?’ Hope says, trying to lift my feet back on the bed.
There’s a knock on the door. Hope runs over and opens it to find a woman holding a tray of food.
‘Thank you,’ Hope says, taking the tray.
She returns to the bed with the tray and spoon-feeds me the soup.
‘This reminds me of when I fed you the rice with the chopsticks that day,’ I laugh. Hope giggles, ‘Well, I’m glad I can return the favour and feed you back,’ she smiles.
There’s another knock at the door, ‘Come in,’ I say.
Sally enters the room smiling, ‘How are you feeling, Alpha Maximus? Is that what I should call you?’ she asks, confused.
We laugh, ‘Well, you’re not a pack member of mine, so you can just call me Maximus. How are you faring after Alpha Tate stabbed you?’ I ask.
‘Well, lucky Hope here was able to heal me. It didn’t even leave a scar!’ she says proudly, smiling at Hope.
‘So, you aren’t freaked out about werewolves existing?’ I ask.
‘Well, at first, I was obviously freaked out, but now I think it’s kind of cool. In fact, I think I may even be a little jealous that I’m not a wolf!’ she says.
We laugh.
‘Sally, I want to thank you for saving Hope. If you hadn’t knocked Alpha Tate out, I don’t know if we would have had the same outcome as this. And a frying pan of all things Sally?’ I laugh.
‘Well, I had to improvise! It’s not like I was able to shift into a wolf, like everyone else!’ she laughs. Oh, and you are very welcome! I would gladly hit anyone in the head with a frying pan again if it meant helping to rescue Hope!’ she smiles.
After we stop laughing hysterically. Hope stares up at me with a serious look on her face. ‘So, what now?’ she asks.
‘I will contact Alex and tell him the good news. Alpha Greg and his pack should be arriving at Alpha Dan’s tomorrow. They will wait until we are there, and we will then fight for our home and the Blood Moon pack to be reinstated as it once was,’ I say to her.
‘Well, hopefully, the Wolfsbane will be out of your system by then,’ Hope says.
‘Okay, I’ll come and check on you both later,’ Sally says, walking to the door.
Hope tries to help me stand up and helps me into the bathtub. Then, she takes her clothes off and steps into the bath with me.
She sits with her back against my chest. It makes me aroused—my member presses against her back. I wrap my arms around her waist and begin kissing her shoulder and neck, making her moan.
She tilts her head back to look up at me as I lean down and rub the tip of my nose onto her nose and peck her on the lips.
Hope swirls around presses her breasts firmly against my chest, and nuzzles her face into my neck. I feel her teeth elongate and lightly graze my marking spot, teasing me.
‘When did you become so naughty?’ I ask her.
Hope giggles and blushes, ‘I can’t help but feel naughty when I’m around you,’ she says as she is about to straddle me.
There’s a knock at the door, and we sigh. Hope steps hesitantly out of the bath and wraps a towel around her to answer the door.
Moments later, she comes back in and puts her dress back on, ‘Sally thought we should know the new pack is worried about what is to become of them and the terrible state of the packhouse and surroundings,’ Hope sighs.
I step out of the bath, ‘How are you feeling?’ she asks.
‘I’m feeling better than I was before,’ I reply.
‘Would you like to go back to bed and rest, or do you want to come downstairs and we can address our pack members?’ she asks.
‘I’ll come with you downstairs. Give me a moment to dress.’
We walk hand in hand down the stairs to a room half filled with pack members. They all lower their heads as we enter and take our seats.
‘As you all know, you are now all members of the Blood Moon pack. Tomorrow Hope and I plan on going to Ash wood, where we will join Alpha Dan’s pack and Alpha Greg’s pack from the Drycrest pack.
We intend to fight back for my territory and residence where your Luna and I live, you all have the option to stay at the village, or you can remain here and reside at this territory I now own,’ I say to them.
The room becomes full of chatter as everyone starts to speak amongst themselves.
One man steps forward, ‘Most of us would like to stay here, but it’s becoming quite old and run down. We would need to do a lot of repairs. The soil here is perfect for growing food and farming as well. If we had the money, we would also be able to make the crops we have much larger and supply food to all the pack houses you own all year round,’ he says.
‘Yes, this place is quite withered and old, and the landscape is incredibly lush and thriving. I noticed many of the Pack houses I took over were quite poverty-stricken, yet the Alpha’s wore the finest clothing while the pack members had barely any food to live off,’ I noted.
‘Is there any way you can help us make this place more livable and the other pack villages?’ he asks.
I stand and walk away. Everyone bows in silence. I nod at Hope on my way out.
‘I think he’ll be back in a moment,’ she says to the pack.
I return to the room and throw the brown backpack at the man. He catches the bag and gives me a look of confusion, ‘Open it,’ I say to him.
The man empties the bag onto the table, and bundles of money tumble out. They gasp at all the money.
‘I am going to leave you in charge as the treasurer. There is almost one million dollars in the bag. You are in charge of the money to ensure it is spent on needed things and renovations. I will designate a treasurer in my other territories and give them money to do the same. When the funds have run out, you can contact me again. So I can organise another sum of money until no werewolf is living in poverty and we have the farm up and running. Make sure to create a proper liquidation on how you use the money. We are all family now, and I don’t want any corruption and stealing,’ I motion.
They all cheer in thanks, and then one by one, they thank me and Hope for our kindness and generosity.
It’s now dark, and the pack members invite us outside to join a bonfire. We listen to their stories, and they play music while dancing around the fire.
Hope and Sally join in twirling around the fire. I can’t keep my eyes off Hope. It brings me great happiness seeing her free and happy like this.
By the time the fire is out, Hope is half asleep on my lap. I lift and carry her into the bed and snuggle up, wrapping my arms around her body.
I’m so glad to have Hope safe in my arms again. But I still struggle to sleep, knowing the war isn’t over yet.
We still have to conquer our home back and fight off multiple packs at once. So I pray to the Moon Goddess to keep Hope safe and to help get our home back.
Hope stirs. She’s having a bad dream, tossing and turning, ‘Nathan!’ she shouts.
I gently wake her up, and she immediately sits up, gasping for air, ‘Hope are you okay? You were having a bad dream.’
‘I dreamt about the explosion, about Nathan,’ she cries, wiping away her tears.
I wrap my arms around her, scoop her onto my lap, and start caressing her face and comforting her.
‘I wish he were still here,’ she whispers. ‘Me too,’ I whisper back.
