* * *
Even though Remus had arrived home late and hardly got the same amount of sleep as his mate, he showered her in kisses that prompted the pups to want to do the same.
That's how Sage woke up that morning with a smile on her face to see her three favorite wolves crowding around her. "Goodmorning." She sang, and once the pups realized that their mama was awake they stopped their little attack and started yapping—Causing her to quickly sit up and cuddle them in an attempt to shush.
Yet an impatient huff caused Sage to turn to her male and kiss his snoot. "Thank you for the licks, birdie says witches heal different and now that witch blood is alive in me I'm going to heal different."
I guess that's the bad side of having so much power hun, but at least now we know your menstrual cycle is normal.
"I can feel you again...That was weird Remmy, I can't feel you and my wolf was worried." He shifted outright and it earned him an applause from his pups. "Just your wolf?"
"Me too, and the pups. I think they wait for you to come home, they wait at the window and look at the door." His heart swooned over the idea that they missed him, and thus he cradled his younger in his arms so that Sage could get the proper chance to get up—However, in seeing her getting up, he caught another bruise and essentially where the bite had been on her arm.
"Sage—"
"I'm good, birdie gave me witch tonic and I have wolfsbane, I won't get sick, just really tired." He nodded, realizing that as a hybrid she had to be a part of both worlds and both customs in the event that something happened now.
"I might need the recipe for that tonic hun."
"You can't make potions, Remmy. Only witches can make potions. But birdie gave me books to study, and Raven is learning too." He frowned, realizing his help would only go so far.
"Why can only witches make potions?" Sage leaned up to him and gave him a kiss, whispering the one word that made him smile once again. "Magic."
Remus refused to let Sage carry either pup downstairs and she huffed the entire way down only to be introduced to the smell of bacon, eggs, and pancakes.
The hunger of the Luna sparked instantly as she peeked over Blake's shoulder. "Did you sleep better—Alpha! I thought I heard some noise last night." He said with a grin, and while Remus was going to reprimand him for making a joke on the Alpha's activities.
Sage beat him to it, making the light fixture above start to flicker at will. "Alright alright! Forget I said anything, goddess, I swear. My hair is already thinning at the idea that the pup's going to be a daughter!" Sage's nose twitched for a moment as she looked down, speaking of a daughter—It seemed like someone had a smelly diaper.
"I be right back." She called out to Remus and he frowned in seeing her and Rue heading back upstairs. "Hey hey, I can do that." He offered, and sure enough, it earned him an eye roll.
"Remmy you need to eat real food, go eat. Five minutes and I come back downstairs and we can talk about mountain." The female hadn't waited to see his reaction as she hurried to go and change the lil pup's diaper, but he felt awful in putting the responsibility on her to care for the pups.
So he settled in getting his heir ready for breakfast instead, popping out a little bit of fruity mush that he could only identify as banana and apple sauce. He had been hypnotized by the spoon that Remus was entirely invested with the task that he completely missed out on how Sage was staring at the interaction with a pure smile on her face.
"I already have baby fever, can you two quit it!" Elenor called out, and that startled both mother and daughter as she turned to greet her friend.
"Lots of people coming, we eat outside?" Sage questioned and in truth, it's better that the pups ate now so they can play in the grass. It was much easier than trying to conduct a meeting with two babbling pups throwing their food at each other.
Remus tried that once and it didn't work.
Instead, Sage had placed Rue in the high chair similar to her brother's and began feeding her the same mush that was being passed around. However, it was hard to follow the conversation around her when Rue was trying to talk.
"Sage...Did you hear me?" She turned her head, suddenly becoming aware of all the people in the room as her eyes looked around before locking onto her mate. "No, sorry, what?" Remus sighed, he didn't want to put the pups down either, but if they were going to get to the bottom of this they needed to push aside distractions.
"It's alright Alpha, witches are more prone to the lethal side of rogue bites. The tonic is making things a bit hazy for her to focus, it should wear off before lunch." Aurelia informed and Remus took in how timely it took for Sage's eyes to follow in suit of the conversation.
"...I'm going to put Rue in the playpen alright? She's going to play with Levi and Casey." Sage nodded and kissed the baby on the temple before cleaning up. Most of their guests were already waiting outside now starting to make a dent in the feast.
With Rue on her father's shoulder heading down the porch where they had a pup set up, Rue's eyes didn't stop gazing at her mother. "Mamamamama." Remus stilled instantly, as did the rest of the guests.
It took all of one moment for Sage to understand what happened, and a small sniffle escaped her as she went to follow and hugged the little girl. To say Sage was a blubbering mess was an understatement, especially when Rue was repeating the phrase again and again.
The mother showered her pup with kisses and nuzzled to gain that beautiful pup scent. It was a beautiful milestone to witness for sure. And while the table had once been filled with bleak faces, now held smiles and most importantly, hope.
Eli had started to rub Julia's swelling stomach and Blake playfully nipped at Raven who swatted him for being an animal at the table. That one action on Rue's part had caused a pass in the worry.
"Alright so listen here pup, I want to hear you say 'dada' first. Alright? I'll get you anyth—"
"Eli Rivers! You will not corrupt our pup into a bet before they leave the womb. And last time I checked, I'm the one carrying so help me goddess this pup doesn't say mama first I'm going to—" The two made nice with a settling kiss that Jackson couldn't help but smirk with Aurora on his lap.
The two were relatively fine with not having a pup yet, after all, they had just met recently. There was no rush on their part, and Rory had the most trust that the goddess would bless her with a beautiful heat when the time comes.
Besides, if they wanted to play with a pup they could certainly come here and entertain the twins.
After another moment with the pup, Remus managed to settle Sage down at the table. Though her happy tears were nothing short of a blessing—Especially when she started listening to the mission she had missed out on, though her wolf favored being at home base.
Sage had a lot on her mind now, the idea of Emery knowing about the factory to what the factory entailed made her shiver.
"So factory makes silver rope?"
"Yeah, they had machines hidden behind the...The cages. Rebekah took pictures of everything." Sage turned to look at the witch and sure enough, they were printed out for this morning, and Sage wasn't the only one whose breakfast felt like coming back up after looking through the first few.
"Bad Vampire man has those cages." Hayes narrowed his eyes to the picture that Sage had been looking at and he huffed in response. "And these letters? How are we going to go through hundreds of them?" Rebekah smirked and threw open her laptop.
"Enzo didn't sleep last night so he managed to put them all up on a digital scale and make them files, we can search through them by words and see if any keywords were mentioned." Eli hummed behind his sip of coffee and nodded.
"You witches are a lot more techie than I thought." Eli retorted and Enzo grinned with pride. "My Rebekah taught me most of these techniques, she's a computer major, or almost is—She's promised to finish her degree."
"He won't turn me until I have a degree." She said with a pout and Enzo shrugged his shoulders.
But Remus knew that Enzo would find another way to halt that growth in the relationship. Though it wasn't his place to say as they weren't entirely his concern, it was simply nice to be an ear for Enzo—Almost like a friend.
"And Andrew? Why is he in mountain?"
"I dunno hun, but there's no record anywhere of that building being there." Sage remained silent for a moment and she pouted.
Darius? What do you think?
What I think? Well my sweet wolfie witch, I think there's a little blockage in everyone's memory.
Magic block or demon block.
Same realm, hun. It's all in the same realm.
Sage pondered the conversation she had with Darius, only to fall short of those talking in front of her.
"—What was found in the mountain was not your fault, son. Nothing on that monster's account is under your name. Like that demon said, he's in purgatory in punishment of the Moon Goddess. And good fucking riddance."
Hmm, papa's getting angry. But he's right, Remus is blaming himself, sweetheart—He needs to get past that.
But not his fault, why is he sad?
Because your Alpha is one of the most empathetic of his kind in this day and age, Crescent Moon has received so much hate and rumors that it's time to put an end to it all. Tell them what I told you.
She tugged on Remus' shirt and instantly earned his attention. "Darius says magic blocks memory, but I don't know if magic is demon or witch." She said, and the silence caused her to huff.
"I dunno what that means, Remmy—Oh. You're thinking." She said and kept her mouth shut, and just as she was about to ask another question. Remus rose up and placed her down onto the chair while rushing into the house.
She frowned and crossed her arms over her chest, which only caused her father to chuckle. "He's going too fast to catch up with."
"I run fine."
"Not running, he's thinking, Bubbles. He's a spinning wheel." It was clear the analogy went over her head and it caused the father to just pat her in response.
And just like a pup, she huffed in relation to being treated as such.
Her face started to turn red in embarrassment and either Beta and Delta smirked, there was hardly any time when the Luna was caught being embarrassed. However, in looking at the scattered pictures she caught the strange symbols and frowned.
Remmy I don't know what you're doing but can you grab my notebook, it's on my desk.
Cutting it close munchkin, just passing your room.
She let her laughter mix in with the linking, and he returned with his own set of evidence. And while he placed Sage's book calmly in front of her, he held up another leather-bound book.
"I found this after I took the Alpha position, half of it is empty. If what Darius is saying is true, it sounds like there's more magic hiding shit." Remus said, and it took Aurelia to take an offered look—though it was quick to burn her.
"Sounds like Randal had a few more things to hide, that's a demon's doing for sure...I wouldn't recommend letting others touch it, it's bound by blood." Remus apologized but truthfully, the damn thing hadn't seen the light of day ever since, Remus had to go digging for it in the attic.
"So we still need to find this demon contract that could still be in the shape or form of anything?" Eli questioned, but that is when Jackson took out the map they took.
"There's plenty of spots to check out, I don't think we built anything on them so we should be good to get some digging." The manual labor was set in stone to be mandated by a few pups who were still waiting for punishment and wouldn't dare touch the bunker.
Luckily, some pack members had volunteered for the task, and the Alpha was most thankful for that.
The day soon proceeded as Remus held a meeting with the rest of the Alpha's in Summit to share what he uncovered, and to say there were mixed feelings was an understatement.
Sage could see that Kendal was having trouble believing that Remus didn't know about the building before, but after revealing what the factory was—Harlow defended that Remus didn't recognize the rope on Mystic or Crescent Moon property.
Though there was still a boatload of questions, it was soon dissolved when Amy came in with the pups. One of who was shouting at the top of her lungs the words she discovered today.
"Oh, that's adorable! I remember when Hardin said mama first the first time, I think I cried more than Harlow—"
"I did not cry!" Sage grinned up to her mate after picking up both the pups, and heading over to the small playpen in the corner of the office.
And Remus smirked lightly to himself as she caught Sage trying to get the pups to say 'papa', but Rue refused to say any other word. It turned out that in the young girl's mind that both her parents were 'mama.'
Though Remus was meant to focus on the meeting at hand.
Realistically it was difficult to process all that's happened, that the letters being read through were still not pinpointing much of a mission other than making the silver rope, breaking mate bonds, and creating an army at the demand of killing mates.
It was the inspiration that drove Randal to these options that really caused a sense of worry and dread. Whoever the former Alpha was conversing with, whether it was the bad vampire or the bounty hunters—There was a monstrous need of charting and plot everything in a sequenced order.
Leaving the higher-ups, both males and females, were all there on the pinboard in the Alpha's office, and while most of the room was talking. Sage was caught looking at the picture of her mom.
For whatever reason, Sage hadn't realized that Remus was only seven when she was born—And not much older when his own mother was killed. It truly hurt her soul, and while she hadn't been that vocal in the meeting it didn't mean she wasn't listening.
They were organizing the letters, analyzing the pictures while the witches were trying to look over the symbols. Yet it still didn't take away the ache in her chest, the idea of something coming scared her.
"Sage?" Hayes called out, but the she-wolf couldn't hear him. She was miles away just looking at the portrait of her mom that it was damning her soul to break further.
If there was one thing in this world that she wanted, it was to see her mom.
Remus frowned as his mate remained silent, and the hand on her shoulder only made her jump. He curved it up to make the hair in her face hook back behind her ear but she was simply thinking too much for her to follow suit on one thing.
She was like her parents in that way.
"Come on hun, let's take a walk." The Luna looked like she could use a break, however, the second he had led her outside and down the steps. She puked up part of her breakfast by the side of the house.
"Hey hey...Bubbles, what's wrong?" It didn't take a genius to know what her eyes were screaming out to say, but the words were lost as she stumbled over them. "Mom...I want mom." She whispered in a slight sob, as her throat was burned after puking up her anxiety.
"I know hun, we'll find her...We will." Hayes said with the purest intent of making it up to both his daughter and mate, that she couldn't deny the motivation and devotion. It made her feel better, but only for a moment.
"Can't talk to her, I dunno how...I tried, birdie tried helping me but it doesn't work." The firm arm holding her up and into his side was the only source of stability she had. "She's somewhere, we just have to find out where." She nodded, but neither was ready to get up and rejoin the meeting, not when there were still so much unspoken plans.
"...When your siblings were still young, we'd set up a sled and attached it to my wolf. Like a sled dog, maybe you can get your brooding mate to do it."
"Harlow do it?" She questioned with a devious grin, and Hayes provided a photo that he received from Jade under the radar. "I want Remmy to do that too, but I want pups to say papa soon. Or dada, I think that will make him happy. He's always frowning."
"Remus was always like that, sweetheart. Even before you met him. He's lost a lot of people that were close to him, his mom and friend—And now everyone's being brought up. They were hiding things that are just now coming back. It's hard." She nodded, realizing that she shouldn't have mentioned him frowning.
"I frown too when I see cages, they make me feel cold." The instinctual feeling of a father to a pup did his best to stop the phantom feelings of what her life was like before she arrived.
"I hate that you weren't born on Mystic grounds. That I couldn't be there to protect you or your mother..."
"You don't know I was born. And I don't know what a dad is, I only know my mom name is Luna." Hayes was always taken by surprise by the resilience of his youngest child, which caused him to lock her arm around her neck to meet her cheek for a smothering kiss.
And much like his grandchildren, she tried to wiggle away. "Noo!" She giggled and it was pure music to Hayes' ears, even if she hadn't met Willow...The carbon copy of the woman was right in front of her.
"When we find Willow, we'll go hunting in the mountains. A Mystic family adventure, the pups too."
"And Remmy?"
"Yeah, I think there's room for your Remmy to come to the party. But I'm not sure if he'll like our mountains, they're the same with some silver...Builds up our wolves to listen to each other. It'll be good for the pups, and the twins can hang out with their cousin." Sage smiled as she imagined both Roe and Rue getting along with Hardin, would he be protective?
Would Roe and Hardin cause trouble together?
"I'm excited for more pups." She whispered and Hayes growled. "You're not going into heat yet sweetheart, are you?" He questioned, wondering if he should take a quick trip to Mystic Grimm after all.
"No, not my pups. Jules and Raven's pups. But I want more pups too." He chuckled, yeah he figured after a taste of the puppy love in person that Sage would want more.
"And what's your Alpha Remmy said?"
"Only four."
"Only four? I think you can wiggle your way to more. But only after the war, alright? Promise?" A beautiful laugh graced Sage's ears as she turned to see Remus eavesdropping.
"Snoop." She growled in defense and the male shrugged. "I can't be that mad when I've been caught, and for the record, I said after the war and everything's settled," Remus said, but that hardly did anything to relinquish the glare he was receiving from Remus.
"That can be held off...Keep your paws off my daughter, then you can really put that on record." The male stilled at what his in-law was implying, if either Remus and Sage didn't mate, the Moon Goddess wouldn't gift them a heat as it was clear that they needed to adapt to the pups.
Though Remus wouldn't put it past the moon goddess to gift Sage her heat now, regardless if it had happened without a claim—Something he needed to still look into as well.
"But date night." Sage pouted, and it caused either male to freeze. Course she wouldn't feel the awkwardness of it, Sage still had such a pure idea of mating that it didn't disturb her kind smile.
"Date night can wait until after." Hayes dictated and Sage huffed. "Then Eli and Jules can babysit pups." The father gasped but quickly laughed at the fact she was so quick to build a punishment.
"I think nows a good time to head to Mystic, in a few days—Then you can have your 'date night'." The father said and Sage pouted for a moment but smiled at the idea of her dad seeing Hardin.
Her pups had been spoiled with Hayes being here, but realistically, it was strange for Hayes to not have a home base. Usually, he'd live at the council and holidays would be reserved for his pup's packs, but now everything was toppled upside-down.
"Alpha, is the Luna her—Oh thank goddess, this thing has been going off!" Jackson rushed and handed Sage the phone, just as she was trying to read the caller, she received another call and in a rush she returned it.
"Hello?"
"Sage! Goddess, are you with dad?" Hayes instantly snatched the phone and placed it on speaker. "Yeah sweetheart, is everything alright?" The male said eyeing Remus, a very easy indication of what could be at stake if White Paw was being attacked.
Especially considering how cornered in they were for Coldridge to attack. "Of course it is!... But Grandpa HayHay should get ready for another pup!" Remus bit his lip and look off to Sage, and while the she-wolf was trying to control all her excitement in the form of a sentence, the interruption of Hayes' growl silenced everyone.
"You're pregnant?"
"Oh come on dad, don't say it like that. Sage is younger than me and has two pups!"
"Change of plans, Remus. I need to go to White Paw to kick someone's ass."
"Dad! For fuck sakes, can you just be happy? Now you'll have four grandkids!" The wholesome moment turned heavy as Hayes started threatening Drake over the phone and Sage curled up into Remus' side.
"I think papa likes you better." She whispered and earned herself a kiss that made her giggle with contentment. Though Hayes was on thin ice with his wolf, so much so that he gripped Remus' shirt and pulled him away.
"Remus, I swear to the goddess above, I can only handle so much in one sitting, unless you want to end up with the same ring fight as Drake. I suggest you keep your hands off my daughter." "Meanie."
"Yes I am sweetheart, because I cannot have two pregnant daughters at a time." She pouted and leaned into Remus just as Hayes had let go of his hold on him.
"I am not a personal punching bag," Remus growled and Hayes already held his signature onyx eyes. "No, but you're the closest." Seeing her two males going at one another caused Sage to laugh, and it was heavenly contagious as the family crowded around the good news.
The Luna had said it before, the sign of pups was a strong beacon of hope. Remus was just wishing it would stay this positive for a little while longer, even if he didn't agree with the start of the war—This needed to happen for the packs to move on from the past and escape the reigning dictatorship and favoritism.
______
Date: 03/28/2022
Time: 11:28
Words: 4242
Author's Note:
Just a recap on whose expecting pups!
Julia and Eli--The Beta baby will be here first!
Raven and Blake--Hybrid baby🥺 I can't wait for Papa Blake!
And just announced, Haylee and Drake from Whitepaw pack!
So many pups! Don't worry, everyone will get their chance eventually. But Luke and Elenor have their hands full with their new position AND have adopted Levi. Not to mention Jackson and Aurora have just met.
Maybe in the next story?👀
Alrighty, that's it for this phase. T-Minus ten more chapters! Hopefully I get an ETA on when the next story in the series will be released by then, I don't want you all waiting too long for it
Wednesday-The Luna of Crescent Moon, which is ending in a little bit!
Friday-Back to the regularly scheduled program!
Hope everyone has a great week! See you soon🤗