Bewitched

chapter 15 - new moon nightmare

(This chapter has been edited)

The tension was thick inside the car while they drove towards what her father had called 'the meeting grounds'. It was a very long, three hour drive all the way to the North of their territory. There was a small patch of unclaimed land in the mountains of Colorado where Alphas met up together. It was neutral ground you could say. When they arrived, Vivian couldn't help but think it looked a lot like a campsite. They weren't the first to arrive and thus there were already other people sitting around, pitching tents on the grassy land and building fire pits. The open field was surrounded by tall trees and mountains in the distance. The plan was to simply spend the rest of the day and night there. The following morning they would make their way back to the pack house. Augustus, Vincent, Daxton and some other high ranked wolves were quick to walk away from the pack to meet up with the other pack Alphas and Betas, leaving the other members of the pack to set up camp for the night.

As the sky slowly started to darken – the night completely black since there was no moon tonight to shine down upon them, the pack wolves and Vivian made their way towards the giant pyre that was built in the very center of the clearing. As the fire was ignited, a loud cheering went through the group of people gathering around. Everyone seemed enveloped in joy celebrating the new moon cycle, when a hand was raised by Augustus himself causing everyone to silence and face him. Vincent stood behind him with Daxton on his left. Next to Vivian's father stood two other men, each having two other men behind them as well. Augustus nodded towards the crowd in appreciation of their silence.

"I want to thank you all for being here tonight, to celebrate with us – Blue Starlight Pack from the south, this beautiful New Moon", Augustus spoke with a voice that showed nothing but a fierce authority. Vivian had never heard her father speak in such a fiercen voice before – not even when he had spoken about the Rogues to his entire pack. But Vivian understood. Now, he had to prove he was worthy of his Alpha title not only to his own pack but to two other packs as well. "With this New Moon we celebrate a new beginning, a new moon cycle. We honor the Moon Goddess and thank her for her gift to us, the gift of existence – the gift of life. We thank her, we celebrate her, we shall pray to her and hope she will hear our wishes for the upcoming month. We will ask her to lead us through this very difficult time, we shall ask for her blessing and pray that all of us shall be victorious in our battles. We shall ask for no great bloodshed – no great killings. If we do all of these things, I believe we can beat these rogues and run them out of our territories once and for all. As many of you perhaps know we are not here just for celebration. We need to share knowledge and combine our powers together in order of beating these rogues. We have to work together in order to survive which is exactly what we shall do. This is what I, as an Alpha, believe; that we can survive this threat as long as we are willing to work together!"

Once her father had finished his speech and another bulky man who stood on the right of her father stepped forward, Vivian stopped listening. She expected his words to be close to her fathers; blessing the Moon Goddess, talking about the upcoming war against the rogues and celebrating the start of a new moon cycle. Instead, she found her eyes drifting to Vincent, who was still standing behind her father covering his right flank. She had expected to find him staring at the people before him but instead she found him staring at only one person in general; her.