Dad?

-Adam POV-

I’m in my mother’s office to discuss the findings on Eve’s mindlinking when I see she’s mindlinking in the middle of my story. “Mom! That’s just rude.. You were talking with me!” I say annoyed.

The look in her eyes says enough, and I kept my mouth shut. After five seconds she says: “Problems, Adam. More intruders at our borders. Come, I need you. Call Joshua too. Five warriors are keeping them off bay right now, but I’m not sure for how long..” and mom quickly stands up and hurries to the door. But before she leaves she says: “I’m going to have a chat with mister Jones. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

I yell after her: “Where, mom? Which side of the border?”

*The Eastern, again..*

She mindlinked me, of course. She wouldn’t mind running back to answer me. I chuckle, she hates mindlinking when we don’t need to. She thinks it’s important to always keep our human side awake and healthy. That means we do not use our wolf abilities if we don’t need to. But now, I can’t blame her, she did. I like it.

I quickly mindlink Joshua and Eve, I want her at my side, and run to my room to change in loose clothing. I’ll maybe have to shapeshift. The moment I’m changed and run to the front door, I see Joshua, Eve and Crissie standing outside. “Come on!” Eve yells, “.. we were waiting for you, mister. Hurry!”

She’s right, although we have to hurry - I’m much more comfortable in my sweatpants and loose shirt. It just costs me 30 more seconds, I think we will be fine. We run towards the
Eastern border when Joshua asks me: “Should we shapeshift?” I nod my head. “No, Crissie can’t and I’m not sure if Eve’s ready too.” referring to her only shapeshift a few weeks ago. It probably was not the most easy and quit one for her. I don’t want her to have a second, not pleasant, experience. Shifting should be nice and liberating, not awful.

I can see on the look on his face, he understands. Good. I don’t want to argue right now. After 15 minutes of running, we arrive at the border. I can see the five warriors have shifted and are growling towards a group of strangers. Our warriors are standing in half a circle, making sure nobody is crossing their path.

I mindlink the senior, Levi, of the group: *Hey guys, you OK? What happened?*

*Hey Adam. I’m not sure, we had to fight a bit - I think Morris is hurt.*

I look over at the grey wolf at the right I know is Morris and I can see he’s hurt. His left ear is bleeding and blood is coming off his left paw. The fact it’s still bleeding after fifteen minutes, is a bad sign. I need to take care of that later.

*Who are they?*

Levi gives me a quick look. *Not sure, I think they’re from the Shadow Pack. They’re not talking…*

I look over at the group of strangers. One, two, three.. I think they’re with six. But they’re covering their body’s behind the first ones. They’re all standing in human forms and seem fine. I know our warriors are trained well, but I don’t understand why the humans are all fine and my warriors have the damage. Something’s off. I look at Eve, and she looks fine to me. I have to keep an eye at her, I don’t like the way this looks. I speak up: “Hello, I’m Adam WhiteMoon and you’re standing at our border. What do you want?”

The one in the front is answering: “War.”

Wait, what?

“You’re here to declare war?” I ask, surprised. “With the, uuhh, six of you?”

“Yes we are, but no. Not with the six of us. We’re not alone.”

Then I see it. Holy shit. Tens, maybe hundreds, of eyes are staring at me from the woods. I can’t see their faces or body’s. But their eyes are glancing. I try to not show my fear when I answer: “Why? Who are you?”

“Because you have something we want.” And I can see how his eyes shift focus and he’s now looking at Eve. She’s staring back, not showing any emotion. I feel proud, that’s my queen! At the same time I feel how anger wants to take over and I growl. “Never! I assume you’re sent by the Shadow Pack, aren’t you?”

The stranger looks back at me. “Well, they’re not the only one who wants more power. But yes, sort of - you can say that.”

“If you want war, you can have it. But you’ll never have one of ours.”

I’m staring at the stranger and he’s staring back at me. I feel how my aura is starting to glow and I’m happy to feed it with my anger. I growl at him, showing I’m serious. First, he seemed to be surprised and took a few steps backwards but then he’s smiling. “Well, well, well.. They didn’t tell us there were more. Interesting.”

I feel her body close to mine and it feeds my hunger to destroy all of them. I look to the left, my queen is standing next to me and she speaks up: “Yes, there are more. In fact: the two of us are not the only ones. Beware, we are strong. We’ll be prepared for when you come back.”

I smile, she’s going to be a great Luna someday. Mý Luna, my queen. Then I notice. It’s small, but she’s radiating too. I think this is the first time she’s having her aura! I squeeze her hand a bit and look back at the stranger. But before I can answer, I hear mother’s voice:

“Ethan?”

I’m surprised by the sound of her voice. It’s almost… broken. I turn my head towards her and I’m staring at a ghost. She’s as white as a sheet.

I mumble: “Ethan? Who’s Ethan? Do you know each other?” and I look at the stranger and mom, back and forth.

Mom whispers: “Ethan is your father.”