Children of the Moon

• chapter eight •

"Okay, Scarlet Claw." I addressed the pack, seeing Cecilia and Andrew standing off to the side, triumphant smiles upon their faces. After yesterday's events, the pack was a lot more welcoming toward me, they brought me various gifts, cooked things for me, and started calling me Luna.

Something I had told them on countless occasions was not necessary because I wasn't their Luna. Not yet.

"Tonight is the full moon." I saw looks of dread upon their faces and I smiled sympathetically. I couldn't imagine what they were going through. "Now, as Beta Andrew has told me, you have some old cells that are no longer in use since the rogues stopped being a problem."

The nods and murmurs of agreement told me all I had to know. It had been years since the rogues no longer presented a problem, so the cells were more than likely filthy and the greenery overgrown. I had been informed that there were three hundred cells which were six metres by eight metres - a figure which would easily split into 8 cells to house the pack members. If I did the math right, that would give me two thousand, four hundred cells - not nearly enough for the close to four thousand pack members who had shifted. But, from previous experience, the elderly weren't strong enough to take on another werewolf, and wolves didn't go for people of the opposite gender, or those they were mates to, so I though it would be safe to put the elderly couples in the same cell.

I knew one thing for certain; out of control wolves never attacked their mates. So I had two hundred and fifty cells for the elderly couples, that left me with around three thousand five hundred people of a strong age. Let's say around half are mated, that leaves me with one thousand seven hundred and fifty single cells and around eight hundred and seventy-five cells for mated couples. See? Math is useful in real life.

All the cells combined meant I needed around two thousand, eight hundred and seventy five cells, and I only had two thousand four hundred. That could be a problem.

"Can I get all those wolves aged eighty-five and up to make a group behind me, and can you split into mated couples and those without mates, please?" I instructed, watching as a mass of people made their way behind me, sorting themselves out.

I turned to the main group. "Can you now split into a group of mated and non mated, and those who are mated, please hold your mates hand so I can see who is with who." I smiled fondly as they began to follow my instructions obediently, without a single question.

I turned and made my way to the elderly group, seeing that a mere seven wolves were without mates. I nodded in satisfaction and began pairing the males and the females together.

I was flooded with a memory and stopped short when I realised that it was not a person of the opposite gender the wolves didn't attack, it was their sexual preference. I mentally face palmed and readdressed the group of seven. This was going to be a weird question.

"Okay weird question, but since your wolves don't attack a person of your preferred gender, I need to ask you all your sexual preferences."

I mentally cringed, I was basically asking a group of people more than eighty five years of age about their sex lives, and I shivered in disgust. That was something I never wanted to do.

Two people raised their hands, one identified as a gay male, and the other a bisexual woman. I smiled kindly at them and repaired the rest of the group, before asking the bisexual lady if she would go with the other male that had been left over. She accepted happily, and I was left with my apparent new best friend, who was recounting stories of the "good ol' days" where he would pick up other men from the bars in town.

"Firstly before we start, can I have a single gay male around the age of eighty-five to come and be this lovely gentleman's partner, please?" There were a couple of people step forward, before I chose one and assigned the rest of the males in the small group to get into partners with each other. "Can you join the elderly group over there and can one of you count the number of pairs please?" They nodded and I turned back to the rest of the pack.

"Okay, pack, listen up! When you lose control tonight, your wolf will automatically want to protect those whose gender you prefer. That is to say, if you prefer males, your wolf will not want to harm males; they'll protect them instead. Same goes if your preference is females. However, there are some cases where the stronger wolves do not see the gender of the other wolf and will try to attack regardless. The only exception to this is mates. Your wolf will never harm your mate. That is why I have split you into mated and not mated. The group of mated wolves, can you line up in a rough age order and can I have one couple out here to see me please?"

My head was spinning. I hadn't even gotten to the cleaning of the cells and I was already exhausted from the logistics of fitting everyone in.

A couple broke through the crowd and came to stand next to me, looking at me expectantly.

I addressed the two girls, "Can you, one they have lined up, count the number of mated couples we have in this group, including yourselves?"

"Of course, Luna." They bowed and turned back to the group to complete their task.

"Luna, there are two hundred and four elderly couples." I thanked the man who had counted them and walked over to the group of non mated wolves.

"Okay so I have a plan to make this counting as quick as possible. Split into four or five groups and line up." They did as I said and within minutes I had five neat lines in front of me. Gesturing to the people at the front of the line, I continued, "The people at the front will start with one, and then the people second will say two, and we will count up like that - each person saying one number each, until we get to the end of the line and those people come and tell me their number please."

I left them to figure out the counting while I went and received the numbers of mated couples. By the end of the counting I ended with a list:

'2400 cells

204 elderly couples - 408 all up

1003 non mated strong

3411 strong all up

2408 mated strong

1204 mated strong couples

need cells for 204, 1003, 1204

all up is 2411

would like to have 20 cells spare so we only need 31 more cells.'

This was going to be difficult.