The Downfall of the Luna

Chapter One: The Day to Catch the Rogue

(Not Edited)

He knew the second that the rogue had entered his territory as it fled from one of the neighboring packs, he just hoped that the rogue wouldn't realize there was a trap until it was too late. For the past five years the packs across the country had been trying to catch the rogue, and while it had been an aggravating time it had actually helped to bring the packs closer together. There once had been a werewolf council, where the Alphas and Betas of the packs would meet every three years at a summit that would be held at different packhouses, but the council had been disbanded years ago. Too many packs started creating individual alliances, and too many hot headed Alphas had clashed over insignificant pack matters. But this rogue had somehow helped to bring all the packs together.

Rogues were always a sore subject for packs, although not all rogues were bad. Some rogues were werewolves who had very good reasons to have left their packs, and others were the innocent children of rogues who had never had the chance to belong to a pack. When a rogue crossed into a pack's territory they were always brought to the Alpha, where the Alpha would listen to the case and make a decision about what to do with them. Innocent rogues of different circumstances were let into the pack or were introduced to Alphas of neighboring packs, but the not so innocent rogues were dealt with swiftly or incredibly slowly depending on the decision of the Alpha. Some rogues would lose their humanity if they stayed in wolf form too long without a pack, and those wolves who became feral and were caught were always immediately put out of their misery. There was no way to save a feral wolf, so it was better to let them succumb to darkness instead of stay caged in a pack prison, completely out of their mind, until the wolf finally killed itself.

There also were the dangerous rogues, who left their packs or were kicked out of their packs, with evil hearts and bitter hatred towards pack lives. Dangerous rogues like those were the reason that rogues had such a bad reputation; mothers would tell scary stories of the bad rogues coming to take away their children if they didn't brush their teeth, while old men would take turns sharing their worst tales of the rogues around fires with their glasses of bourbon gripped tightly in unintentional fear. Those were the rogues that the Alphas and their packs despised, the rogues who kidnapped and murdered Lunas. These rogues had no problem stealing away mates in the night, destorying the packs temples to the Moon Goddess, and pillaging, raping, and murdering the smallest packs.

And this rogue that the packs had been trying to catch for the past five years? No one knew if it was innocent, feral, or dangerous, because no one could catch it. Alpha Pearce had never heard of a rogue being able to escape a pack for so long, let alone keep away from all the packs together. At the beginning the rogue wasn't considered a problem or a threat, it was just a wolf that was crossing through territories but somehow not being caught; but as the years started to pass, the need to catch the rogue grew. No rogue had ever gone so long without being captured, and the longer that time went on the more the packs began to fear it. The Alphas were all enraged that they couldn't seem to catch the rogue no matter what attack formations were used or what traps were set, a rogue this cunning and smart was a dangerous threat, especially if certain rogues were able to learn its techniques. Not only was the rogue's ability to evade the pack warriors and leaders unnerving, but it also was hurting the pride of the Alphas. After the third year of the sly wolf never being caught, neighboring Alphas began to start planning together and they started sharing strategies. After the fourth year every single Alpha was committed to catching the rogue, sharing pack resources and ideas, and working unanimously as a team to finally get the rogue.

It was after the fifth year of the hunt for the rogue that the Alphas became obsessed with catching it. A young boy from the Ashen Stone pack had somehow wandered away from his mother and ended up slipping into the trap that the pack had set for the rogue. Imagine the pack warrior's surprise when they were alerted that the trap had gone off and rushed to the site, only to find the young member of the pack safely sitting a few hundred yards away from it and claiming that a wolf had helped him out. But it wasn't the fact that the rogue had helped him out of the trap that got the attention of the Alphas, it was what he said about the rogue. Alpha Bendethyl of the Ashen Stone pack had put the little boy on the conference call with the other Alphas to explain what had happened during the failed trap, (which the alphas had been organizing for over two months), and the Alphas could not believe it when the little boy told them about the rogue.The rogue was not only almost as large as the Beta of his pack, but the young child was absolutely sure that it was female. The Alphas had never been more shocked from receiving information about their prey, and the need for the hunt to be successful grew more than they knew to be possible.

For the only female wolf that could be almost the size of a Beta wolf, was a Luna. Mates were chosen by the Moon Goddess, and predestined before birth, but the queen of the moon also favored the wolves that she created in her image. The Moon Goddess made sure that not only would every one of her children have a soulmate, but that the women she made in her image would be fiercely loved, treasured, and protected. She created the mate bond, but in the mind of her favorite children she made the bond only affect the men. A male werewolf would not be complete without his mate, but once he found her he would have to earn her love. The Goddess wanted to make sure her mirror images were treasured and valued above all else, but she also knew that creating a one-sided mate bond could potentially cause issues so she created the claiming bond.

The claiming bond was to help the men earn the love of their soulmates, each step of claiming causing the mate bond to affect the women more and more. Once a female wolf was completely claimed by her mate, she would be just as affected by the bond as her mate was when he first laid his eyes on her. The Moon Goddess also made sure to create the importance of the mate bond by creating Lunas. Lunas were unlike any other female werewolves, they were made to be the mates of the Alphas and to strengthen the Alpha and the pack. An Alpha would not be complete without his Luna, and a pack would not be complete without a Luna. Lunas were the silent leaders of the packs, the mother of all members, the heart of the Moon Goddess herself. Lunas were the secret message from the Moon Goddess that while no pack was whole without a Luna, no werewolf was whole without his mate. Lunas were treated as queens, every member of the pack would feed off her attention and every warrior would swear their lives for her protection. A pack was not whole without a Luna and all werewolves knew it.

If a female wolf was found to almost rival the size of the Beta, the Alpha of the pack would immediately call all unmated Alphas and those Alphas would drop everything to come see if his mate had finally been found. When the young member of the Ashen Stone pack revealed that the rogue was potentially a Luna, the packs knew there was no chance in hell they could stop their hunt. There were currently five packs that were missing a Luna, and Alpha Pearce's pack was one of them. And if this rogue was indeed a Luna, one of the five packs were going to have one of the strongest Lunas in history: a Luna who was able to evade all of the packs for five years.

But there was not going to be a sixth year of this chase, Alpha Pearce swore to the Moon Goddess, the trap was set after four months of preparations and cooperation from all of the packs. Today was the day to catch the rogue, today was the day he was going to catch a Luna.