Midnight Sun: Book 1

Naiomi

“Ms. Naomi, why did you leave your pack?” The question was innocent enough, coming from a pup of just six years old. He holds to my hand, looking up with those big brown eyes, through long thick lashes that little boys all seem to have. Sebastian is about as precious as a kid could be, and he is what keeps me here, rooted to a pack that I don’t belong in.

“I’m a rogue. You know that, Sebastian.” I offer him a small knowing smile, letting go of his hand to ruffle the fluffy black curls on his head. His deep almond eyes squint up at me, unsure and unsatisfied by my answer. The boy is sharp, sharper than most children his age, made wise by loss at too young an age. I stick around mostly to make sure he isn’t forced to grow up any faster. I smile down at him, waiting for the next ‘but’.

“But the kids at school said you’re only a rogue when your pack doesn’t want you or you did something really bad.” He continues, as I knew that he would. I know what the adults all say about me, they don’t try very hard to hide it, but I hate that the kids are hearing it too, especially Sebastian. I could care less what the members of the New Moon Pack think, so long as they let me live in peace. Sebastian, however, is so young and so attached; the nasty words would hurt him. The last thing I want is for this precious little boy, the only member of the New Moon pack who isn’t wary of me, to suffer on my behalf. He’s already suffered enough.

I see a few boys up ahead, struggling, looking over towards Sebastian from time to time and I immediately know who put him up to this line of questioning. She bent at the knees to meet the boy eye to eye but spoke just loud enough for the other kids to hear. They are all at the age where their wolves were beginning to awaken. Most had started to develop enhanced hearing at this point.

“I did do something bad. So bad that I can never go home to my own family. That is why I am grateful that the Moon goddess was kind enough to give me another chance and find a home here in New Moon, with you.” Sebastian smiles.

He loves the idea that I am here just for him. Still, that ought to feed the rumor mill enough for the other kids to leave Sebastian alone for a bit. “I am very lucky that she brought me here to you.” I stand and ruffle his curls again.

“I’m glad she did.” He said, not seeming fully satisfied with my answer, but still sincere. He knows why the pack had accepted me, everyone did, but no one knows why I left home except for the Alpha.

Alpha Hunter is the only one who knows everything, and he’s been kind enough to keep my secret and let me stay. He is magnanimous as far as pack Alphas are concerned, though I wouldn’t recommend pushing him. I’ve seen firsthand how ruthless he can be when warranted.

Apparently, the locals are getting anxious again. It happens every once in and again. Packs tend to get this way with anyone they deem an outsider, I discovered the hard way. This is one of the reasons why I never stay in one place too long and avoid wolf packs: too many questions. It is much easier to live amongst the humans in the wide-open world. The small, tight communities of my own people are too curious, and curiosity kills a lot more than cats. I’d have left New Moon long ago if it weren’t for Sebastian.

My heart sinks at the idea of leaving as I look down at the small boy who has unofficially become my ward. I love this kid. The kind of love that I didn’t know I could hold for a person. The kind that I would kill or die for.

I’ve stayed here for 4 years already for his sake, but that is far too long. Long enough for my past to start catching up to me. I like it here, despite the typical small-town gossip that comes with living in a pack. As it turns out, the quiet, simple life suits me.

“You know what? The Alpha knows what bad thing I did, and he knows that it makes me pretty scary to everyone else, but that’s why I get to look after you and the other kids. He knows that while I’m looking after you, you are safe. I am far too dangerous for anyone to cross.” I emphasize that last bit for the other kids who are pretending not to be listening and try not to giggle as their backs go ramrod straight.

Let them take that juicy tidbit back to the others. Of course, Alpha Hunter will be pissed when the gossip inevitably circles back to him. Deshawn is not a fan of theatrics, but I’ll deal with that hurdle when it arrives.

“Cool,” Sebastian whispers, excitement gleaming in his bright brown eyes. I love seeing him happy. He has so many reasons not to smile. I came into this pack because of him, but for the worse possible reasons. I try to wipe out the images of the pup, sobbing over the body of his father, lifeless on the ground, but I never can. He took a silver blade to the heart from the back. He never even had a chance to defend himself.

The small group of wolves were all shifted, except for Sebastian’s parents. He was too young to shift, and too distraught to hold on to his mother’s wolf on his own without falling off. They were forced to fight in human form. A horrible night.

I’d only intended to watch. I came to the woods in hopes of communing with the moon goddess in silence and peace. When I heard the wolves, laughing, playing with their pups, settling down for their moonlight picnic, I was enthralled.

I rarely ever involve myself with wolves, but they were so beautiful, my people. I was so caught up in watching them longingly from the shadows, that it wasn’t until the 1st body dropped that I realized something was wrong. I try to shake off the memories and distract the happy boy before me.

“Hey, have you finished your chores today, Sebastian? I’m not covering for you with the Alpha if those tomatoes in the greenhouse start dying back. You know how he feels about his precious heirlooms.” I chide.

Alpha Hunter is particular about the pack’s community garden, though garden is a bit of an understatement. What he calls a garden, most would call a homestead or small farm. Those who stayed at the packhouse are responsible for keeping the gardens in ship shape, which means s Sebastian and I are on full-time garden duty, year-round.

I wasn’t thrilled about it at first, but it came to be my favorite part of my pack duties. I can get out there in the garden and get lost; forget about everything else. Those without a family group lived at the packhouse and serve at the behest of the Alpha. In some packs, this could be a cruel fate, but Deshawn Hunter is not that kind of leader. He can be a hard ass, but he is fair, and he can even be kind when he wants to be.

“Oops!” his eyes widened to disks. “I’ll see you later!” he yelled back. He stops in tracks, eyes wide and looks back to me. “Just two weeks, right?” He asks, excitedly. His next moonlight lesson is coming up. I’ll be teaching the pups how to reach out to their wolves for the first time. All of the pups in his age group are excited, but Sebastian is bursting at the seams. Our wolves are part of us, members of our family, which is something the boy sorely needs.

“Yup, two weeks, if you can handle yourself. If your chores aren’t managed, you aren’t coming.” I place my hands on my hips trying to exude more authority than I feel. It’s too difficult not to smile with him with him and those adorable dimples looking up at me.

“I’m going!” He yells, turning and running ahead to the pack house, or rather the gardens behind it. The kid is getting fast, and he is excited, most of the pups his age are. The Festival of the Wolf Moon is coming up in a few months, and the pups will be going on their very first pack run if their wolves emerge, which generally happens at 18. Sebastian will only be 7 then, but he will finally be old enough to stay up and stand watch. Even we non-shifters have ways to take part in pack runs.

Alpha Hunter assigned me the responsibility of training all of the pups on the history surrounding their change and the first run once he realized my extensive knowledge of the culture. I don’t mind. I never realized it before, but I kind of like kids, who knew? Taking them out into the woods when the moon comes out to teach them about their culture is one of my favorite things. It helped a lot in getting Sebastian to stop being so afraid of the woods. It’s been a tough few years for the kid. He could really use a win. I am happy to use my knowledge as a way to benefit him and the rest of the pack.

It helps that Alpha Hunter has seen what I’d done to protect his pack members in the woods that first night. He knows that the kids are safe with me. He’d been the first on the scene. He’d seen how I had dispatched of the vermin who descended on the families, my back protectively towards Sebastian and his wounded mother, making it clear that getting to them meant going through me.

The vampire, or whatever the hell those things were, had no chance. My ripped jeans and basketball jersey were already soaked in their cold blood. I hadn’t even shifted. I didn’t need to. I was stronger than the average she-wolf; that was no secret. The only secret I kept was why.

“I’ll see you for dinner!” I call after Sebastian, already a good distance away from me. He is so fast. I can see his wolf preparing to emerge, just under the surface. There are signs when a child was getting close: their sight, their hearing, their strength, or even their speed. They wouldn’t turn, not for years, but typically, at age 7, most could commune with their wolves. The turn wouldn’t happen until they hit 18.

Sebastian would turn 7 soon, and he’d probably meet his wolf before or at the Moon Festival, should they choose to show themselves. I’m hoping that I can guide him there at his next moonlight lesson in a few weeks. The problem was that sometimes there could be complications.

Experiencing trauma could affect your wolf, and I’m terrified that Sebastian’s wolf won’t show up, that he’d choose to remain dormant. Bast would be devastated. It wasn’t common, but enough pain and suffering could do the trick, and Sebastian had experienced more than his fair share of loss after losing his parents the way that he did, being there to see it. He didn’t speak for more than a year after the incident. Something like that could scar a child and their wolf.

I head back to the pack house to check in on dinner preparations for the night. While just a few stayed in the pack house, it wasn’t unusual for the table to be filled in the evening. Trevor, Deshawn’s gamma, frequented the dinner table, along with the few warriors he kept as his personal detail who didn’t have wives and children to get home to. Most nights, Alpha Hunter’s twin sister, Beta Dakota and her kids would come over and dine. He liked a full house. It could get raucous there in the evening.

“What’s on the menu, Samira?” I ask the petite woman, already busying herself around the kitchen with meal preparation. We make quite a contrast; Semira is small, no more than 5’3, incredibly petite with a head full of soft curls, whereas I am fairly tall, 5’9, with ample curves and an athletic body, like most people of my lineage. A body built for war with the silver eyes of a Lycan noble, a trait rarely seen outside of the royal bloodline.

Samira has the most bewitching green eyes that I have ever seen, and that was saying a lot since I know my fair share of actual witches. If I didn’t know better, I’d think that the girl was of the fae court with her head full of auburn curls and matching freckles across her peanut butter complexion. F

ortunately, I do know better; there is nothing remotely terrifying about Semira. Anyone who has ever dealt with fae-kind knows to always be wary. I’d rather deal with a pack full of angry wolves than cross a single fae. They were not all terrible or terrifying, but that is what made them so scary. It was not all fae-kind who should be feared, but it could be any of them, and one never knew.

“How do you feel about lamb chops tonight?” Semira responded sweetly, pulling a curl behind her ear.

“Nice! I’ll have Bas bring you some thyme and rosemary from the garden. He’s out there now. What should I make to go with it?” I ask, already halfway to the door. The vegetable garden sat right outside of the back doors, just past the wrap-around patio, looking out over the woods. The pack lands were expansive and opened up into the woods of the nearby mountain range. It was a beautiful little slice of the west, ignored by much of the rest of the empire, much like the pack.

Alpha Hunter protected both fiercely, to the point of taking on-call work as a ranger in order to ensure that the cameras, drones, and everything else the developing world could whip up were pointed away from New Moon.

I find Sebastian tending to the heirlooms in the greenhouse, as expected, but not alone. I muffle a chuckle watching Alpha Hunter modeling the perfect prune of a sucker vine on his prized tomatoes and Bas listening wide-eyed and enrapt.

“Bas, when your lesson is complete with the Alpha, Semira wants some fresh thyme and rosemary for dinner as soon as you can,” I call out, interrupting the lesson and the Alpha mid-sentence. Alpha Hunter scowls.

“Traditionally, pack members don’t interrupt when the Alpha is speaking.” Alpha Hunter glares.

“Oh, I know Alpha, and I do apologize. It’s just that Samira is making your very favorite for dinner, and she didn’t think you’d be happy to wait. She cannot rub your chops for you without the correct herbs. You do want Samira to rub your chops, don’t you, Alpha?” I tease in a way no one else can. Sebastian looks between us, completely confused and missing the innuendos that I’m throwing around with abandon.

“Sebastian, go and get Samira what she needs for dinner.” The Alpha grumbles, shooing the boy away. Bas has the good sense to leave quickly and not get caught between us. “I really wish you wouldn’t, Naomi. If anyone were to hear you say something like that, they might get the wrong idea.” He huffs, suddenly wearing far less bravado in his voice than he had when Sebastian was present.

It’s one of the gifts of our relationship, either of us has to wear our titles when we are alone. He can just be Deshawn and put down the heavy weight of being Alpha Hunter of New Moon. I can put down all of the silent names and titles that I wear, today’s being a dangerous rogue.

“I’m sorry, Deshawn, I was just teasing you.” I punch him lightly in the shoulder. “You’re just so stiff sometimes. You have to laugh once in a while.” I add, hoping this stubborn man will take this as an opportunity to exhale for a moment.

“How can I relax with the reports that we are getting from the pack? I thought we’d gotten rid of those leeches after the last attack when you joined the pack, but now they’re back, sneaking around the borders of my territory. You tell me how I am supposed to relax while that is going on?”

Deshawn leans heavily against the frame of the raised garden boxes that he and the others had built. They are strong and sturdy, strong enough to withstand the fall winds with hardly a creak. “Besides, do you want one of the gossipy pack members to hear you say that? You know how I feel about rumors and foolishness. What kind of nonsense would everyone be saying then?” he huffs again.

“Probably more of the same, that you are collecting beautiful, single rogues in the packhouse and using it as your own personal brothel.” I tease. He growls, but it just makes me chuckle more. He’s as close to a brother as I have ever had. The idea that he and I would hook up was ridiculous, but he is far too stuffy to be amused. “Oh, stop acting offended. I am hot. You should be so lucky.” I push him further.

“Knock it off, Nai.” He shoves me back. “Now you’re being as obscene as the gossips in the pack. And stop talking about Samira like that. She’d be offended.” He makes a point to correct me.

“Yes Alpha,” I smirk, but I know he means it. “How many more reports?” I ask, not forgetting about his concerns at all. The Vampyre, who aren’t traditionally a big problem in sunny places like the western end of the empire, were incredibly active for what was only once a small community.

“There have been two sightings in the past week, just outside of our borders, and three in the two weeks before that. It’s like they’re looking for something.” Deshawn stares off into the distance and scents the air out of instinct. Just discussing the threat puts him on high alert, and I get it.

“I’m thinking of canceling the summer run. I don’t want the whole pack out there, out in the open, when I don’t know what’s going on.” He adds, mostly for his own benefit. I don’t run with the pack. I can’t.

“That’s only reasonable,” I confirm. Deshawn isn’t looking for confirmation, I know, but I offer it anyway. The last thing he or anyone wants is to take away this important pack event and put everyone on high alert, but sometimes being in charge means making tough choices.

As Alpha, Deshawn often carries the weight of those choices alone. The least I can do is offer support. “It’s the right thing to do to keep everyone safe. Besides, you can always reschedule for another time when things seem safer.” I add for good measure, not just because it’s the right thing to do, but I feel it too. There is a strange energy in the air.

Even now, there is a strange pricking of my skin, and the hairs at the nape of my neck stand on end. It’s dogging my mind, like I am supposed to recognize it. It’s the feeling of waking from a nightmare, knowing you were just terrified, and having no memory of what you dreamt or why it left you so shaken.

“Yeah, I’ve doubled the shifts and rotations on the pack borders, and the warriors know to keep alert.” He continues. “I just wish I knew why they were so interested in my pack. There is nothing special going on here. We keep to ourselves. We stay out of the politics and infighting of the other shifters. There is nothing going on in our borders to draw them here.” He says, looking out at the horizon.

“Unless they know.” I add, keeping my tone as nonchalant as I can, as if I’d said nothing of importance. The truth is, if the vampire know I’m here, even if they haven’t figured out my exact identity, they would come sniffing around. Any species in hopes of rivaling the Lycan would. This is why I’m supposed to stay as far away from Lycan-run territories as possible. Live among the humans. And I did, for years, for this very reason.

“They don’t know.” Deshawn counters, his voice terse. He turns back to face me, his deep brown eyes brimming with determination. “They don’t know, and you don’t need to leave.” His statement sounds more like a plea, one to the moon goddess herself, and my heart aches for him. Deshawn. This pack. They’ve lost so much already. He doesn’t want to lose me as well, I know.

“We have to consider the possibility, Deshawn.” I attempt to reason, sure not to seem overly concerned. If I do, Deshawn will assume that I know something that I don’t and panic. No good ever came from a panicked Alpha trying to protect his family, and to him, to both of us, that is exactly who I am.

“The pack doesn’t even know, how could outsiders get wind? It doesn’t make sense,” he refutes, but I can practically hear the gears grinding in his mind. He is considering the possibility. Any alpha would in his place, and he is more than just any alpha.

Deshawn is smart, strategic, and vigilant when it comes to his people. It is why his pack thrives under his rule. Still, he has been keeping my secret for four years. I’m not a wolf shifter. I am Lycan, and a noble at that. No one knows except for Deshawn, Beta Dakota, and his mom. I trust all of them deeply, but it is possible that my secret may have gotten out.

“I’ll go patrol outside the pack borders tonight and see what I can find out. I can slip out behind patrols.” I suggest casually, as if it were no big deal. It isn’t really, not for me. A common Lycan easily has the strength of 3 or 4 wolves, a noble? At least 10 under the right circumstances. I know Deshawn still won’t see it as an advantage.

My inability to shift makes him nervous. He acts as if I am a wolf, and not being able to shift makes me as good as hum, but that isn’t the case. Because I’m a noble, it just makes me about as strong as a common Lycan, which could still kick his ass. Despite being much younger than me, Deshawn is still incredibly overprotective. It’s precious, really, except when it is a liability, like right now.

“No, absolutely not. I can’t have you go out there and invite unwarranted attention to my pack. It’s out of the question.” He says with a measure of authority. I won’t push it any further, at least not right now.

Alphas can be stubborn and mule-headed when they feel pressured. While Deshawn is generally quite levelheaded, I won’t give his alpha nature a chance to show itself and ruin my plans, and I fully intend to see my plans to fruition, whether the alpha likes it or not.

“You know I can nullify my scent or mask it from anyone except other lycans, Alpha Hunter. I’ll be safe, I promise. Something is going on. Let me help figure out what it is.”

“It’s too risky, Nai. No.” He says with finality, turning back to his tomatoes and giving me his wide back. The tension is visible in his shoulders as he walks away, pruning vines as he goes. I sigh in resignation. I won’t follow him. I don’t want to argue. Deshawn is my closest friend. I can tell that he needs space.

I look out into the wilds, the woods just passed the pack borders, and I feel it again, like a searing just beneath mt skin. I fight the urge to squirm. I turn back to the packhouse, trying not to think about what nightmare from my past might be trying to force itself back into my life.