Lacking Humanity | Moon Ridge

Chapter Eighteen

* * *

With the warmer weather on the horizon, a sense of dread had washed over her in the past few days—Kenzie confirmed that there was no pup. And telling Andrew was just as difficult as confirming it herself. But after looking at a calendar, she realized that the pup would've shown itself a long time ago.

But with one issue, revealed another at hand, Sage was currently unmated without Remus' mark on her neck—A current mark at that. But a part of the trauma of returning back from the soul swap, she didn't want anyone near her neck.

Couldn't.

It made rekindling their relationship difficult, even the idea of cuddling had made Sage's skin crawl. Of course, they tried, especially when a nightmare had plagued her. But Remus had shifted to make his reasons apparent.

Even if she woke up in a panic, the morning was much calmer with a big wolfie head snoring away on her chest. Calista had recommended a weighted blanket, focusing on the combination of warmth and pressure on her body.

But even that hadn't helped keep Sage's fears at bay.

"What's the plan for today, Pumpkin?" Sage looked up from her book and smiled at Andrew. He was wearing sweats pants, no shirt, and a towel over his shoulders.

"Check out witch building and Half Crescent Camp with pups, and then take a walk." He nodded, lingering a moment to see if she wanted him to join. But as her eyes took to glancing at the bathroom where Remus was showering, he understood.

Even if their wolves weren't mates, there was still love between them. Just not the same, and it wouldn't be able to return to normal, not when Remus was her fated mate.

While Andy wished for something more, he had made a promise, he was only her mate if Remus wasn't alive.
Whatever Sage wanted was on her own will.
It just so happened that those will's overlapped one another.

"Want to come and see Half Crescent?" She asked, but it was an obligation considering they were the leaders of the newly entered group of wolves.

"Sure, I'll meet up with you after the witches." With a nod, the two departed. And it was only replaced by the equally as awkward conversation with Remus.

He had mountains of work to be done, especially if they planned to propose the tournament to all the Alphas in America properly. Given that this was such a delicate subject to bring up with an already struggling nation of packs across America, but if they could just try and reinstate the council underneath the said King, perhaps it would give leeway and allow the rest of the United States Alpha's to at least hear him out.

"I was thinking...Maybe we could take the pups to the park after I'm done with my meeting. The weather's getting pretty warm out." Remus had taken to Sage's weakness, and that was whenever he made plans with her it included the pups—Focusing primarily on doing something with the twins.

"Park or garden?... Rue wants to see all the flowers." The witches had certainly blessed the pack with fertile soil, in addition to the active Nymphs surrounding the pack's wooded area. It made a perfect start to the Spring season.

"Garden sounds perfect. It's supposed to stay sunny the rest of the week." It earned him another smile, but Sage had looked off toward the window. "Everything okay...With other packs?"

It was a question Remus was undoubtedly waiting on, so he took the seat in front of her and nodded along. "They're getting by, Torin's been a big help. He's given us new ways to ward them off, and we're the only pack besides Mystic that know that there's a trigger word. We'll get by." While things didn't sound too bad, it wasn't all that great to know that she'd need an army of guards whenever she left the house.
Or even now, there were a good number of pack members in both skin and fur ready to lay down their lives for the sake of the Alpha family.