The Moon Wolf

Chapter 9 (1st Draft)

Penn nodded, but said nothing else as she watched his eyes drift off for a moment. It was clear he was remembering more details. Had he been there that fateful day? Was he one of the many wolves who had come for the annual tournament held by the Phoenix pack? It was certainly possible. As a Master at Arms it was likely he'd been invited. What a spectacle he would have seen that year, Penn thought with a sigh of discontent. Perhaps she hadn't buried the shame as far down as she had imagined.

Anex heard her sigh and looked back over at her. He remembered alright. He remembered she was an oddball even then - a misfit - an anomaly in the Phoenix pack but no more than that. And he remembered that her jerk of an Alpha had exiled her publicly at the games as if she'd committed some kind of unspeakable betrayal. The memory was like a sour taste in his mouth. It had never set well with him then and it didn't sit well with him now.

It used to be, in years long gone, that pack leadership would exile members of the pack who committed some grievous act of disloyalty or double-dealing. Members were exiled, rather than out-right killed either to avoid war, if the wolf in question had powerful ties to another pack, or to humiliate the wolf's family and make a lasting example of them.

Only, Anex was there the day this girl had been exiled. She'd done nothing to deserve exile, but without a governing council overseeing all the packs in and around the mountain ranges, well, no one could do a thing about it. The Alpha was the ultimate authority in his own territory, and the visitors could only watch helplessly as it all unfolded.

In order to turn the decision around that day someone would have had to challenge her Alpha for his position. But that was rarely done anymore. The role was something a wolf was groomed for most of his life. It wasn't often that someone not hand picked for the job would challenge the presiding Alpha.

"I was there that day," Anex confessed to her. He felt a pang of remorse. He wished then and now that something could have been done to reverse the decision. "I'd been going to the Phoenix pack's annual Strongwolf Tournament for a couple decades. That was the last year," he told her while staring her straight in the eye. Not going back was his way of protesting what had transpired that year. Not that it made any difference.

Penn nodded. She had thought as much. Though she could not say she recognized him, she did think it was highly likely he'd been to the tournaments.

"By the moon that was a strange day," he said sombrely.

Penn saw the pity there and the remorse but she said nothing. There was nothing to say. No one could have anticipated what Alpha Carson was going to do. And, no one could have changed the outcome short of challenging him or declaring war on the pack. And for what? She was no one's mate. She was not a wolf of any particular rank. She had never quite fit in her own family let alone the pack as a whole. There was never going to be another outcome. Penn swallowed the sigh that wanted to escape her lips as she absently played with Mia's loose hair.

She looked back up at Anex when he started talking again - remembering again. "He was a new Alpha who thought he had a lot to prove. That's what I remember most about him back then."

'Back then,' - the phrase made Penn wonder just what Anex knew about Alpha Carson and her old pack now. Were they doing well? Had Alpha Carson become a better leader in the past decade? Was her family well? Had they survived the shame of having an exiled family member?