Lotus Moon

Chapter 1

Something was wrong with Elise. Sebastian could feel it in his bones. It was as if her soul was begging for him to comfort her. Fear, pain and something more. He couldn’t put his finger on it. The feelings were so strong he couldn’t help but wonder if she was in danger. Not likely he thought, since she was being guarded by an entire werewolf pack and several Master Oni’s. She was probably just not getting her way. Elise has done nothing but pout and carry on like a spoiled teenager since the day they arrived at Wolf Moon. He tried to push the feeling aside. He was after all, in the middle of a very dangerous battle and couldn’t afford to be distracted. Besides, technically Elise all but rejected him. Well, she would have rejected him if she could open her precious mouth and speak to him. He could still remember the day Elise and her brother’s teleported into Wolf Moon.

The Wolfoni clan had just finished calisthenics when they felt a shift in the air. Adalyn as the clan leader knew someone had just teleported into their territory. She told them all to stay where they were and maintain silence while she and Oliver investigated. Oliver is Master Oni, Adalyn’s promised mate and also the Wolfoni clans Strategist. Sebastian sat there for well over an hour not moving just thinking about what was going on. He was jostled out of his thoughts when he heard a collective gasp. He shot to his feet and caught sight of several people he’d never seen before walking into the room.

There were three in total, one female and two males. The males were huge. Most likely body builders probably twice Sebastian’s width. He also assumed they were identical twins. They were tall with broad shoulders with short mop of red hair. They smelled like wolves... then again the males had something more to them. Still, it was the female that held his eyes. She looked so much like the males yet different at the same time. She was the most angelic woman Sebastian had ever seen. She had deep red hair that hung below her waste, a gorgeous heart shaped face and the most perfect kissable lips.

The three of them walked calmly but resolutely into the room without any fear. They looked left and right as they continued to move closer. The males seemed like they were at ease, but the female felt skittish. Then, her scent was carried on the wind to him. She smelled of apple blossoms. Not just any apple blossoms but the sweetest apple blossoms in the world. That’s when he realised he was in the presence of his promised mate.

The guy next to his promised mate took another step forward and blocked his line of sight. Sebastian didn’t mean to, but he growled low in his throat. He wanted to see her. He wanted to see all of her. Her eyes opened a bit more before she realised what Sebastian was to her, then she stepped aside so he could see her again as one of red head guys started to speak.

“Good evening all, I am Ernest, the new Wolfoni clan beta. He pointed left to the other red head guy and said

“This is my brother Elijah” then he pointed at Sebastian’s promised mate and continued with

“And my sister Elise” Then nodding in Sebastian’s direction he added

“And I believe your promised mate.”

Sebastian spent the next few hours trying fruitlessly to get to know his promised and her family. Oddly, despite the fact that they were triplets, and both of her brothers were Oni as well as werewolves, Elise was somehow born a run of the mill werewolf. The brothers looked identical as humans but when they shifted into their wolves it was clear all three of them were definitely fraternal. Of course since they have a twin sister it was a no brainer anyway.

Their adoptive werewolf parents were brutally murdered in an attack when they were very young, only five years old. The perpetrator is still unknown to this day. Though it was clear Ernest was holding back. Anyway, luckily Elise was adopted by the werewolf pack alpha but the boys were rejected because of their mixed blood and instead went into the human foster system.

Those were tough, dark years according to them. There only light was knowing that Elise was being treated well and that some day they would all reunite. They spent a lot of years not knowing or understand what they were. When they were fifteen they left the system on their own and travelled from place to place in search of answers and Elise. Sebastian could see the faces of both Ernest and Elijah reflect the same emotions of grief and regret.

Ernest made a sad face as his brother shook his head. Then his face reflected and emotion that everyone including Sebastian easily recognised as sorrow. Grief was in his face, his eyes and even in his unspoken words. Even though Ernest was his age for some reason he felt like he was so much older. Maybe it was because he was his beta or maybe just the hard years of travelling from place to place.

Sebastian felt his promised mate cringe as she listened to her brother’s talk about the past. Ernest alluded to the fact that as children, the humans weren’t very good to either of them. It sounded as if both of them had been abused and violated. He didn’t say it out loud, but everyone understood that their last foster family were no longer among the living. At one point Adalyn asked about Elise’s childhood. Before either brother could say anything, Elise jumped in and said in an odd yet clearly deceptive voice

“Not much to speak of. I was raised as the Alpha’s daughter, with all the privileges one would expect for an Alpha’s daughter. Just bon bons and parties. A truly blessed life...”

Then her voice faded off and she got this far away look in her eyes. Sebastian wanted to ask more, but Elijah had a look on his face that said it needed to wait. Sebastian became convinced something was wrong but it was clear none of them were going to say what it was so he decided that he would wait for Elise to be comfortable with him as her promised mate before he asked again.

After that however, Elijah launched into the story of their first year on their own looking for Elise. They knew she was probably still with the alpha living deep in the western plateau of Australia also known as the Australian Shield. Exactly where was the question. He spoke of the difficulties they faced just trying to find food, water and shelter in the desert.

The Australian Shield, is Australia’s predominantly made up of ancient rock. It is damn near two thirds of the entire Australian continent; 2,700,000 square kilometres of arid land including large parts of Western Australia, South Australia, and the Northern Territory. For comparison, it is roughly four times the size of Texas, or the same size as the whole of continental Europe from Poland west to Portugal. Rain seldom falls in this region and aside from a handful of permanent waterholes, surface water is absent at all times except after heavy rain. Most of the territory is flat sandy or stony desert with a sparse covering of scrub or tussock grasses. Average rainfall varies from one area to another and is highly unpredictable. There are no permanent watercourses. The general trend is for run-off to flow inland, but there is insufficient rainfall to produce any marked drainage pattern.

Sebastian shook his head to clear that night and Elise from his mind. Why did he care so much? Elise was very clear she wanted nothing to do with him. Hell, she barely wanted anything to do with her brother’s and she’d been with them for the last three years. No he had to stop thinking of her and her childish emotions. He needed to concentrate. Something was right behind him. Before he could turn his head, he felt a severe sharp pain in the right side of his body. Then he saw blood bubbling from his chest as he dropped limply to the ground. His last thought before he was sucked into the darkness was that he would never know what Elise’s love could feel like and that he didn’t care if she was a spoiled brat.