Under A Blue Moon | #ONC2022

Epilogue

4 months later.

The bitter liquid slid down my throat as condensation dripped onto my cheek. It was shit, but then again, I didn't exactly pay for the good stuff. I huffed as I eyed the clear bottle of vodka teasing me from behind the bar. It was practically calling my name.

"You good, mate?" I looked the older bartender up and down and a growl threatened to slip out. All I wanted was to be left alone, but he hadn't done me wrong. It wasn't his fault that he picked this shitty town to live in. Well, technically it was.

"Fine," I replied through clenched teeth. He raised his bushy grey eyebrow but didn't press. Smart move.

I swallowed the rest of the beer slamming it down on the counter harder than I intended. Thankfully though, it didn't shatter. I doubt the bartender would have taken kindly to that and I would hate to have to pummel his face in.

At the thought of violence, my wolf raised its head, and I gritted my teeth as I attempted to keep him in check. Bloody thing has been aching for a fight nightly. Normally, I would indulge him, but not here. Not in this town.

I made my way outside and just my luck it was raining, and I didn't have my car. I had decided that going for a run to the bar was the better option. Groaning I made my way down the street lit by street lights and storefronts still operating. It was around six or maybe seven. I honestly didn't know how long I had been sitting on that stool drinking. All I know was that it wasn't anywhere near long enough to get me drunk. Around me, people bustled around going about their nightly activities. It was more active than the last time I was here. Then again, I spent most of my time in the woods and only saw this place in the early hours of the morning.

A woman much shorter than me shouldered me as she walked past chatting animatedly with her friend. I went to snarl at the contact but stopped when her innocent brown eyes looked up at me and for a moment, I was frozen as I pictured another with her wolf-cut hair and permanent glare always aimed at me. But the woman's soft sorry snapped me out of my vision and I watched as she and her friend scurried off. I raked my hand through my overgrown hair. I really hated it here.

My phone buzzed in my pocket. Pulling it out I sighed at the caller I.D. "Cousin!" I greeted cheerily.

"Where are you?" Ryker asked in a gruff voice.

"Oh, you know, just enjoying everything this incredible town has to offer," I replied, sarcasm dripping from every word.

He snarled and both my wolf and I flinched. "Are you drunk?"

I rolled my eyes. "No." Unfortunately.

"Good. We're heading out in ten. Be back before then or run home." His tone was short and left no room for argument. Not that I would. Putting this town behind me was at the top of my list of priorities. But I had a feeling I knew why he was being so cranky.

"She won't come back huh." I took his silence as confirmation. Ryker had come up with some crap story about coming here to make sure that the people we were hunting weren't hiding out somewhere here or close by. But they weren't. In fact, we had tracked them closer to the city. No, he came back for Addie.

After a beat, I asked in all seriousness, "Is she okay?"

He scoffed. "About as okay as you are. Even worse actually. None of them are okay." And who could blame them? It had been four months since the necromancer's attack on the Parsons' pack. The remnants of what happened those two days were still felt by all. Many had died that day, including Pierce.

The memory of that morning surfaced without warning, and I had little time to brace myself. I had just helped realign the arm of a wolf when I heard Addie screaming. When I got to the church Ryker was holding a hysterical Addie as she fought against him, wailing for Pierce. My stomach had dropped and that's when I saw Samuel bent over a smaller body. His cries stabbed my heart as I realised what had happened. His second, Ethan, and a few others had finally pulled him away from her and that's when I collapsed.

I'll never forget seeing her laying on the floor caked in blood and her burn marks visible along the left side of her body. It was like I had been hit by a truck and then dragged through glass as I stared at Pierce – beautiful, fierce, Pierce, who was lying dead with wounds more horrific than I had ever seen.

I threw myself down an alleyway as the memories forced me into a crouching position. Bile threatened to rise as I remembered seeing her bones where her skin had fallen off. Apparently, we could thank whatever fucked up thing the necromancer had tried to raise for those wounds. For weeks after the only thing I could think about day in and day out was the fact that she was dead. Pierce Parsons was dead.

From in my hand, Ryker's voice broke through the haze bringing me back into the present. "She can't leave. Not yet at least. I'm going to give her until after we've dealt with this situation."

"And then what?" I asked, grateful for the distraction. "It's not like her pack would just let you kidnap her."

"She's to be my wife. She can't stay here."

"Ryker, her sister died along with numerous others in her pack. Four months isn't enough, especially with how close they were. If you force her hand before she's ready the two of you will be back to square one. Hell, they may even call off the union, screw the consequences." He growled in response, but he knew I was right.

"You've now got eight minutes." And with that, he hung up.

I huffed at his pushiness, but I was glad for the distraction from the memories. The sooner he and Addie got back on good terms, the better it would be for me. He's been more invested in what I do and don't do, and it's been pissing me off.

Finally, making it into the woods, I shifted with little care for my clothes which ripped as my wolf broke free. I shook my fur and I inhaled the crisp air and all the scents that came with it. Behind I could scent the various foods and ahead I could pinpoint where a couple of kangaroos were still milling about.

I relished the feeling of my muscles sprinting me faster than my human form ever could. The wind raked through my fur. It was honestly a feeling like no other running in my wolf form. As I closed in on the Parsons compound the wind shifted and an unknown scent caught my attention. I skidded to a stop, my eyes scanning my surroundings. The wind blew again and there on the current was the scent of something supernatural, but it wasn't clear what.

I took off after, following the scent until I came up to a cliff overlooking the vastness of the woods. Standing on the very edge was a large wolf with its back to me. From this distance, I could get a better scent, but it only confused me more. It was a wolf, yet not. My hackles raised and I crouched ready to attack. Then it turned.

My eyes met a bright amber eye surrounded by almost black fur, but the other eye was milky white. The fur down the left side was a lighter brown dispersed amongst the darker fur. But it was the fur hanging over pockets of bones covered in thin withered skin that stopped me.

It was a beast. One that shouldn't exist. Yet the longer I stood here the more there was something almost familiar about it. It snarled at me, and a chill broke out at the haunting almost demonic sound that skated over my body shaking me to my core. I wanted to run, but I was frozen in place.

With a snort, it turned and then jumped. That snapped me out of it. I ran to the edge and looked over expecting to see a large body broken on the cliff's edge or splattered onto the forest floor, but there was nothing. I scanned the trees, but still there was nothing, Impossible.

Then I heard it. A howl chilling to the bone. It wasn't a call. More like an announcement. I shivered. I really did hate this town.