Under the Moon

Episode: 1: Wolf Enterprises

POV: Charlie

Charlie Hernandez.

CEO of Wolf Enterprises and Luna of the Moonwaters pack. Not just any old regular pack either. She had thrown out the traditional ways a long time ago.

From the shadows of dimly lit subways and skyscrapers, Charlie had led the pack into a new era. She refused to allow them to live in some old dusty pack house, crammed together like stray puppies in a kennel.

With enough money, sweet-talk and a little...uh…force, they were able to buy an entire neighborhood of New York town homes. All lined up and bustling with young werewolves. The pack house still existed outside of the city in rural Massachusetts, just an hour train ride away. Its current inhabitants were mostly older, retired werewolves or families with young cubs.

But most young adult werewolves chose the big city and a position at Wolf Enterprises, shedding the old ways like fur after a shift. It hadn’t sat well with the elderly community, but you have to break down old walls before building new ones.

The dawn of a new type of werewolf pack had begun, and Charlie swelled with pride knowing she was behind it all.

The city was no longer reserved for the vampires, and soon, it would all be hers. In fact, dealing with the vampires in this city was at the top of her to-do list.

The elevator dinged and Charlie stepped into Wolf Enterprises, her red Louis Vuittons clicking along the tiles as she made her way towards her office.

The company had just gone through a re-launch. They had originally owned hundreds of machine shops, employing machinists to thread piping. The piping was then used in oilfields to retrieve oil, but Charlie had phased them out completely.

The company now manufactured solar panels for homes and commercial buildings all over the world. And the best part? They were doing pretty damn good. In fact, just yesterday she’d done a photo shoot for Forbes and the company was labelled one of New York’s fastest growing modern companies.

She made her way into her office and plopped down on her leather sofa.

“Good morning.” Tori Winters head of marketing, popped her head into the room. “You look like you dressed for Vogue. Cute.”

Charlie laughed. She’d chosen a tight black knee length dress today, with one exaggerated pointed sleeve. She’s opted for a red lip, high bun and long earrings.

Dress like a boss, lead like a legacy.

“Well.” Tori walked over and sat next to her. “We got the Harrington deal.”

“I knew we would.” Charlie smirked.

“Aren’t we feeling a little cocky today?” Tori chuckled, her dark brown eyes crinkling as she laughed.

Charlie had known Tori since she could remember. Her father had been her father’s Beta and now Tori served as her Beta. She was a beautiful woman with smooth honey-brown skin, a perfect array of black curls and a smile that lit up the room. Charlie only trusted three people in her life: her father, Tori and her dog Snickerdoodle.

“Rightfully so.” Charlie smirked. “We’ve been smashing it lately.”

“That reminds me.” Tori said. “Are we ok to push the pack meeting back to six? Some of the elderly members are still squabbling over how they plan on getting all the way into the city.”

Charlie sighed. “I told them all I was sending a bus!”

Tori shrugged. “You know how they get.”

Charlie could only laugh and nod.

“Now for the most important questions.” Tori smiled slowly.

“I said no.” Charlie whined.

“It’s your twenty-eighth birthday on Friday.” She winked. “So I’ve made arrangements.”

“I’d rather not celebrate getting older.” Charlie sighed.

“You look incredible.” Tori laughed, standing and straightening out her long flowing dress. “I’ll see you at Soho City at eight o’clock sharp on Friday. We have a VIP section.”

“Fine.” Charlie muttered, opening her laptop and logging in.

Tori walked from the room, a smirk of victory on her face.

Charlie opened her schedule for the week and ran her finger along the screen, reading each appointment time and the corresponding names. Her finger froze on one particular name Connor O’Neil. A small smile tugged at her lips.

She’d had a crush on Connor since she could remember. He still hadn’t found his mate, and she had hoped that when they became eighteen, that they’d be mated to one another. But here they were, ten years later, without mates.

Unlike many werewolves, Charlie didn’t feel a desperate desire to find her mate, nor was she scared of catching moon madness. Moon madness only happened when you were far past your expiration date, without following through the mating process. If worse came to worse, she could always find a single male werewolf with the same problem and just follow through. She hated the tradition of mates and the entire misogynistic idealism behind it. Being owned, being possessed…

No one owned Charlie Hernandez.

A few hours passed as Charlie’s fingers flew across her keyboard, her inbox emptying just as fast as it filled up. She let out a satisfying sigh as she hit ‘send’ on one last e-mail. There was no better feeling than giving a professional ‘fuck-you’ to old businessmen who thought having a penis gave them some sort of authority over you.

Her victory was short lived when she remembered that she needed to head to the pack meeting. She stared at her reflection in the darkened window at the corner of her office, her stomach twisting in knots.

*

Charlie had managed to rent an event room for the pack meeting in the same building as Wolf Enterprises. She had made her way there, entering from a back door so she could walk directly onto the stage and avoid anyone seeing her.

She didn’t have the strength to be bombarded with questions before she even began. The curtains were still closed and she could hear the loud hum of the gathering pack, their scent hitting her like a familiar warm hug. She took a deep breath and moved through the small opening in the curtains.

As soon as the first click of her heel could be heard, she was greeted with silence and a sea of faces, the eyes of her pack expectant and uncertain.

She scanned the crowd, until she found her father. Isandro Hernandez. A legacy amongst all werewolves.

His fierce eyes locked onto her, his jaw set in a firm line. Despite his wrinkles that now framed his battle-scars, he gave off an aura of power. His once-black hair was streaked with grey, yet Isandro could still defeat three young werewolves in a battle-on a bad day.

Her father didn’t care for Charlie’s methods of leadership and stuck his nose up at her decision-making. If anyone was going to react poorly to her decisions today, it would be him.

“Hello everyone.” Charlie smiled warmly at the audience before her. “I am so delighted to see you all here today. Please take the time to travel up the elevator at some stage during dinner and have a look at our headquarters.”

Some audience members returned her smile, while some wrinkled their noses at her. They’d come around and if they didn’t, their children would. Charlie began her meeting per normal, giving updates on profits, security and giving congratulations to the newest member who had found their mate.

“There is something of top importance today.” Charlie began, her heart fluttering as they all turned to look at her in unison.

“It’s…” She sighed. “The vampires.”

Whispers could be heard moving through the crowd.

“As we all know, here in New York, there are quite a few underground covens.” She began. “They haven’t taken too kindly to werewolves moving in.”

She saw a few eye rolls and heard a few sarcastic laughs. She knew what they were thinking…

You brought us into their territory. You power hungry bitch.

“We have to be quite aware of this situation.” She said. “I’ve set some plans in motion. Our members here in the city are adequately trained, as you all know, we train almost daily. It’s non-negotiable.”

“However,” She continued. “We can’t simply sit around and wait to be attacked.”

A few more mumbles fell through the crowd and a hand went up. It was her father.

“Dad?” She asked.

“Why can’t you simply move everyone out?” He asked, sticking his hands out in front of him. “That seems like the easiest solution. Vampires are usually fine as long as you leave them alone and don’t prevent them from feeding off of humans.”

“Could you really say they would not have made their way to Massachusetts?” She replied, her hand firmly placed on her hip.

“Yes.” Her father said. “Why would they have bothered with us?”

“They’re vampires dad.” She spat. “They use our blood as a weapon in their coven wars. We’re sitting ducks, waiting to be captured so our blood can be drained from our bodies. We are sheep, heading to the slaughter.”

“How do you know their coven wars are still happening?” He said quickly.

Charlie waved at Tori who stood nearby. Tori pulled out her iPad and cast the screen onto the projector behind Charlie. An image of a man laying in an alleyway appeared. He was a large and tall man, with pale skin wearing a dark black suit. Protruding from his heart was a long wooden stake, coated in what appeared to be a purple substance.

Werewolf blood. Werewolf blood was purple.

“The New York covens are some of the oldest covens to have ever existed.” Charlie continued. “There are royal clans here.”

Tori stepped closer to Charlie and looked out at the crowd. “As we all know, royal vampires can not be killed by a simple stake to the heart and they’re not even effected by silver or sunlight. The only way to kill a Royal is with werewolf blood. It’s the only weakness that their bodies have not evolved against.”

“Which means.” Charlie swallowed hard, trying not to let her voice waver. “We are the closest werewolf pack to them. Whether we are in Massachusetts or whether we are here, we are the closest. Does anyone know where they got that werewolf blood from?”

The crowd remained silent.

“We don’t know either.” She whispered, knowing their werewolf ears could still here her words. “But Scott Johnson has been missing since last week.”

The crowd erupted into a series of yells, gasps and a few werewolves rose to their feet.

Charlie’s meeting had been a success. There’s nothing more dangerous than a pack of pissed off werewolves.