Alpha to the Moon Goddess

1 - Madness

"Where is the Luna?" Eiron bellowed.

Chaos and confusion ensued around him as he and everyone else grappled with trying to understand what was happening. The once peaceful and musical lullaby of the lunar air was saturated by screams, snarls, and wails of madness and pain.

"Where is she?"

The Vampires, wherein once they were docile, calm, and tranquil, screeched instead with agony and insanity, gripping their heads, muscles bulging with the tension pain of a torment tearing beneath their skin and skull. They clawed at their eyes.

Eiron stared at them, horrified, as the Undead immortals he had come to know over the millennia twisted into something unrecognisable.

But the Vampires were not the only ones suffering unexpected torment. Deep within Eiron's blood, it burned. Every Werewolf of the Moon, of the Circle Pack, were afflicted by the same burn.

Yet for them, it did not mar their judgement nor sanity.

"Alpha!"

Eiron's keen ears picked up the call.

"Alpha!"

His head whipped to the call, wavy black hair brushing his shoulders as his clear silver eyes landed upon his Gamma, Onna, from across the Opal Courtyard. She grappled with a Vampire attacking her with feral ferocity.

"The High Court!" She grunted, deep voice booming out across the keening screams. "The Highlords took the Luna! Zeth went after them with his unit!"

Tightness clutched Eiron's chest with disturbed unease. The Highlords were the elite of the elite. They governed the Moon under the Luna's guidance. They served her the closest. The only other ones who served her as closely with as much loyalty and devotion, were the Circle Pack.

What gave Zeth reason to go after the Highlords? Zeth most certainly had not lost his mind. Therefore what did the alternative mean?

The possibility, the very real possibility, was too frightening to consider.

The Luna was in danger.

"Go!" Onna shouted. "Go, Eiron! We will hold them!"

Onna thought along the same lines as he. The same trepidation, the same fear and unease, the same burn, honed their focus into searing clarity. The Werewolves were bound to him through mind and he was to them. But spiritually, they were ultimately bound to the Moon. To their Luna.

To the Goddess, Nalaf.

Eiron met Onna's brown eyes across the sea of fighting as the Vampires turned on the Werewolves. The Vampires were all moving in the same direction.

Towards the Celestial Palace.

The Vampires outnumbered the Werewolves catastrophically. Onna's unit will hold them, for they were strong.

But they will not win, Eiron thought in silence. He knew that, and so did she as they held each other's gaze for a moment longer. She was a warrior of a woman, older and a member of the Circle longer than Eiron had been alive. She taught him almost all that he knew, and more. As wise as a sage and as steady as a mountain she was, this time, Eiron did not know if he would see the veteran again.

: Go, she spoke to his mind, her deep voice low and steady. Something has gone terribly wrong. Find the Luna and secure her, and then we shall see if we meet again.

Onna gave him a subtle nod, from Gamma to Alpha, but also, from an old friend to another old friend.

Eiron ground his teeth together, but returned the nod.