Warriors of Blue moon

I waited until the following morning to visit Zara. She was practically giddy as she showed me around her one bedroom apartment in her black jeans that were slightly baggy and a grey jumper that hid her tiny frame, but the excitement in her voice was evident that she was already enjoying her newfound freedom. “Oh, it’s so cosy, don’t you think Luna?”

“It’s lovely, it’s all fresh and new and I’m sure over time you’ll add your own taste to it”.

She nodded as she sighed happily, sitting down on the plush cream couch. “It’s so strange being here. I didn’t sleep at all last night. I feared I’d wake up and it would all just be a dream and I’d be back in my cell. I can’t believe I’m really here, that this is all happening and it’s all thanks to you”, she looked at me with grateful watery eyes.

I smiled as I sat on the armchair opposite her and took a cup of fresh tea she had made for us. “It’ll be strange for you for some time I expect, just take it one day at a time” I looked down at my cup as thoughts raced through my mind, thoughts of doubt, that maybe I had acted too hastily on trusting her and I had to speak on them ”Everything you said to me, it was all true, wasn’t it? I mean, you’re not going to...”

“Do anything against you again?” she finished my sentence as she looked at me with sadness. “I know I have done nothing to earn or deserve your trust, but all I know is, in time you’ll see I have no intentions of ever doing anything against you or anyone again… I just want a quiet and peaceful life, Luna, a life I can feel proud of”.

“Ok, well then, I trust you will always do the right thing”.

“I can’t imagine how much everyone must hate me” she shuffled nervously. ”they won’t trust or forgive me anytime soon. To be honest, I’m quite scared of going out there, to face them…. what if...what if they”

“Zara” I interrupted “one day at a time… ok! It will be hard for both you and them, but it’s just as you said, in time you’ll prove you’re no threat to anyone. But for now, just concentrate on getting used to living normally again, enjoy the new fresh bed, a hot shower, proper food and clean clothes, and once it’s sunk in that you have a second chance, then you face the world outside, but do it when you’re ready”.

I handed Zara a bag of Florence’s old casual clothes. I had spoken to her earlier on the phone. Of course, she was shocked to hear that Zara was given her freedom, but like me, Florence too believed in offering mercy to those who she felt had repented. She had offered her casual clothes she left behind for Zara to wear until she had more of her own, but of course, she had to get a job first, which I suspected wouldn’t come any time soon.

There had been some commotion this morning, especially from my parents, Nicholas and Mila, when they heard about Zara being pardoned. Me and Layton had been in meetings with many concerned people in the pack about it, but once they knew of our… or rather my forgiveness towards her and a brief explanation of her parents’ brainwashing and pressure, their tension on the matter eased up.... ever so slightly!

Accepting Zara back into the pack would be a long road for many, but if Zara has changed for the better, at least the road would be worth it and my trust in her wouldn’t have been in vain. I could only hope I was right in my decision.

I got back to the Palace and changed out of my blush and cream gown and into a long cream skirt and pastel blue blouse and as I made my way to my lounge area, the maid was already setting out the wine, cheese, crackers and olives as I greeted Dakota, Maisie and Lola who had all just arrived.

Maisie’s belly was bigger as she was expecting her first born baby girl in two months. ”Your belly is growing so well”. I marvelled as I bent down to kiss her bump, “only two months and our Maisie will be a new mummy”

She squealed happily as she plonked down on one of the cushioned chairs and reached for some crackers. ”She’s so heavy now, I can’t wait for her to finally be here, this baby is keeping me up at night and she isn’t even born yet” she rolled her eyes in amusement

“Well, I’ll be first on the list for babysitting duties” Lola giggled as she sipped her wine.

I poured a glass of fresh lemon water for Maisie and was about to pass a glass of wine to Dakota when she shook her head in refusal as she cleared her throat. “Actually, I have some news”

We all looked at her in suspense as she grinned widely “I’m pregnant too” she blurted out and we all screeched with excitement and surprise as we rushed to hug her.

“How long have you known?” I asked

“Well, only a week, but me and Sam visited the pack nurse and she said we’re two months along”

“Aww we’ll have two little ones to coo over” Lola grinned “I’ll have to do more baby shopping!”

After we spoke for some time about Maisie’s and Dakota’s pregnancies, I turned my attention to Lola “So what about you? Any baby plans?”

“Mmm no not yet” she muffled with a mouthful of cheese ”but, we have planned, however, to visit Jay’s cousin and his wife at their pack in France. They have a big enough home for us to stay with them and they’re going to take us to do some sightseeing. Apparently, his wife knows France really well as she’s human.”

“Human?” We all repeated in surprise. Although it wasn’t unheard of, it was still rare. We only had about two humans in our pack, but we had never met or known them personally.

“Mmhmm, they’ve been together for ten years, but she never really had any family. Her parents abandoned her when she was seventeen and she was always travelling France on her own and one day she met Wayne, Jay’s cousin. They fell in love and when he told her what he was she didn’t care, she wanted to move to his pack and be with him, so he mated with her and that’s their love story”.

“Wow”. We all swooned

“How do you even know all this?” Maisie asked.

"Jay told me, duhh! He and Wayne have always stayed in touch, and he’s told Wayne all about me. We’re heading there in a month.”

“How long are you staying there for?” Dakota asked with uncertainty.

Lola looked at us for a moment with a small smile “Well, we decided to stay for six months.”

“SIX MONTHS?” we all screeched at the same time.

“Why so long? What happens if you love it there? Will you stay?” Maisie asked looking shocked

“Well, Jay doesn’t have any close family here and what with mine all dispersing and doing their own thing, we just thought it might be good for us both. Neither of us are close to our family here and some of Jay’s Aunts live there too with their mates, so it’s an opportunity to have family around us”.

“But we’re family” Maisie stated looking disheartened.

Lola grinned and chuckled “I know you are all my family and I love you all, but this is what we want, and I guess... we’ve all got our own lives now, so much has changed, and we’ve all grown. I just think it’ll be nice for us to have a proper family and, yes, if we want to stay, then that might be the decision we make”. she rushed looking exasperated at having to explain herself.

I got up and sat next to Lola and took her hand in mine as I smiled to mask my sadness. ”Lola, if you’re happy there, of course we’ll support your decision to stay, we’ll just miss you… a lot that’s all”.

She nodded as she looked at us all “I know and I’ll miss you all so much… but I do want this, I really do”.

We all smiled and stood up to group hug as we laughed at ourselves trying to hold back tears of mixed emotions. It changed things enough when I left and all that time passed without us being all together. It seemed so forlorn to have yet another one of us leaving and perhaps for good, knowing that the days of our youths, all our times spent together, were becoming a thing of the past now as we all set into our new lives and new roles.

After the girls had left, I changed into my armour and headed to the training grounds to assist Gabel. All the trainees were passionate and dedicated, but there were three I noticed that I could already foresee would be great, strong warriors. They were excelling at every task Gabel, and I gave them.

I took two trainees, Josh and Emma, to one side as we did sword practice. We were training casually, focusing on moving the sword swiftly in our hands as we clasped the wooden swords together with soft hits. Me and Josh were almost laughing as we bounced around from foot to foot when Emma suddenly started to clash her sword against ours harder and harder. I was just about to tell her to calm down when it crashed down against my wrist. I gasped as a sharp pain shot through my wrist. I pulled my arm back and stared at her wide-eyed in shock, when she just stared at me in an unfazed manner.

Josh looked from me to her as his mouth fell agape. “Emma! That was too hard! What are you doing?”

She rolled her eyes as she kept them focused on me. “Well, she is the legend Luna! I would have thought she could handle it!”

I could smell the smug attitude wafting from her, she was purposefully trying to make me feel disrespected and it struck a nerve! “Emma” I glared at her as I ripped the sword from her hand. “You know we don’t practice that hard, if you want to do that, that’s what the dummies are for, or you ask me or Gabel for tougher combats, and we’ll go one to one with you! Take this as a warning Emma, don’t do that again, to me or to another trainee!”

“Ugh, whatever” she sighed as she turned her back on me.

I jumped up and over her, turning in mid air and landed hard on my feet in front of her. She stepped back in surprise, and I heard her gulp in panic.

“What did you just say to me?” I stared at her daringly.

“Uhh…. uhh… I” She stuttered, and I took a step closer to her, leaving only an inch between us.

“You ever disrespect me again and I’ll have you thrown off this course with a letter of disapproval to your parents! You better hope your Alpha doesn’t hear of this, cause he definitely won’t let it slide so easily! Now go and sit on the bench… you’re done for the day and perhaps, watch everyone else be more respectful than you have been!”

I motioned my head for her to go “move!” I demanded her and she shot off nervously to the benches and I turned back to Josh, “Shall we continue?”

“Uh yes, of course, Luna” he agreed excitedly as we took our stance to practice.

I knew Emma was watching and I took a mental note to speak to her properly. Perhaps she just needed a few lessons in manners, before she ended up walking a thin line with Layton’s fury!

The following morning while Layton was out of the office, I thought it would be good timing to call Emma in to go over what happened yesterday. I was sat at my desk in my long black silk gown when I heard a tap at the door. “Come in”, I called, and Emma slowly walked in and quietly shut the door behind her, looking alarmed.

“You… you wanted to see me, Luna?”

“I did, please sit!” I waved out my hand for her to sit in the chair opposite my desk. “I want to discuss privately what happened yesterday. Is there any reason why you were disrespectful towards me?”

“No”. She shrugged.

“Hmm, only I can’t imagine you doing that to snr Luna Mila!”

I saw her flinch as she quickly shuffled in her seat to hide it. She turned her gaze down to the floor, trying to look unperturbed, but it just proved to me what happened today was personal.

“Emma!” I called for her attention in a raised voice, looking at her sternly “You do not want to piss me off!... Now I’m going to ask this one last time… Is there a fucking problem?”

She huffed as her lips started to quiver and tears brimmed in her eyes. My shoulders sunk and I felt confused by her reaction.

“Emma?” I asked again more softly.

“You let her go!” she breathed out as she bit back her tears.

“Let who go?”

“Zara!”

“Oh” I nodded in understanding “I see. That’s what this is about?”

She stayed quiet but stared at me bitterly.

“Emma, do you just distrust her or is it more personal?”

“Its personal” she whispered through gritted teeth.

“Ok, How so?”

“My brother was injured in the last battle”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I truly am. Did he make a full recovery?”

She nodded as a tear fell. “But that’s not the point.”

“I know” I sighed. “Look Emma, I know how you feel and how most of the pack feel about her. I mean even my own family dislike her and have found it hard to accept what was decided.”

“That’s what I don’t get! I heard she turned against you first, and then she caused all these deaths and you just let her free!”

“Emma, believe me when I say, I hated Zara for a very long time. In fact, I had thoughts of coming back one day and attacking her for real and leaving lasting damage.”

“So why didn’t you? Why is she allowed to be free among us?”

“Because I learned that she was very young when her parents convinced and inveigled her to hate our Alpha and Luna. They kept pushing her over a few years of her life, turning her against everyone and especially against me. They made her believe that being herself wasn’t good enough, that she had to be more like me, she wasn’t enough…. They were her parents, and she was very young, and she soaked up everything they said to her. Getting me banished is what she’s guilty of. She acted on that, but the battles…... those weren’t her actions, she stayed out of those. She didn’t fight, she didn’t even know any of her parents plans to rebel against us when they made her leave Blue moon.”

“And you just believe all that?” she asked sourly.

I nodded “I suppose I do. I spent a lot of time with Zara while she was our prisoner, and I could see it in her face, I could see she was being truthful…. I could feel it.”

“So, just because you trust her, the rest of us have to?”

“Well, first of all, I’m your Luna, so yes! And secondly, don’t you think you’d want a chance to redeem yourself if you made a reckless choice? If you felt complete remorse, wouldn’t you want someone to give you the chance to prove yourself? Look, I’m not asking you or anyone else to trust her, but I do ask that you give her time to prove she can be trusted. Emma, she’s guarded heavily, she’s watched constantly, and she knows if she dares to step one foot out of line, I’ll kill her myself, and I wouldn’t make it quick and easy either, not to mention Alpha Layton would probably be more furious than I would”.

She sighed heavily as she flung her head back in frustration “I just….”

“I know you don’t trust her or want to and that’s fine, but remember Blue moon isn’t just known for its strong warriors, it’s also known for the mercy we offer where its due, and I feel Zara’s due to be shown mercy at this point” I tried to persuade her softly, just so she could feel a little more at ease with Zara being out there.

“Ok, I’ll give her time, but I’ll never fully trust her, even if she does prove she’s not going to do anything”

“Good, well that’s all you need to do, just stay away from her, let her live her life, while you live yours”

“Ok”

“Ok! But I don’t want another problem, if you have something bothering you, you talk about it”.

“Ok, I will…… and I’m sorry for yesterday”

“That’s ok, we’ll forget about that”

Emma left after our discussion and I felt exhausted just about this fight alone, and it just brought forward to me just how many problems there will be now Zara’s publicly a part of the Blue moon pack. I had to keep reminding myself that it was going to be a long and bumpy road, but it would be completely worth it if I am right about Zara.

One month later.

We all hugged and laughed through our tears as we clung to Lola while Jay loaded the last of their bags into their car.

"Drive safely” Dakota spoke as she tried to hold back tears,

“Call us as soon as you’re there and tell us what it’s like” Maisie demanded.

“Good luck and stay safe” I chimed in.

“I will, Maisie and D, make sure you call me the moment you have those little darlings!”

“Of course, we will” Dakota croaked as Maisie smiled and wiped her tears.

We spent a few more moments hugging and sniffling back our tears before we finally broke from our hugs and let our arms unlink from around each other. Lola wiped her tears as she backed away toward the car.

Opening the door, she took one last look at us all and smiled as tears ran down her face. “I love you all”

“We love you”

She waved lightly and got in as she shut her door behind her and unwound her window to wave as Jay drove the car slowly out of the pack gates and down the narrow, wet road that was surrounded by trees.

We all waved manically until they drove round the bend and out of view. We all looked to each other and let out shaky breaths “Maz’s for a hot chocolate?” Maisie asked us, hopefully.

Me and Dakota nodded in unison, and we all linked arms as we walked through the village to Maz’s but sitting at our usual table with Lola’s chair remaining empty only brought her departure to feel even more real. We sipped our drinks as we moved to more positive things and gushed at what it’d be like for Lola in a different pack and her visits around France. She had promised to send us pictures and videos of all the new places she’d see and what the Ruby Pack was like… a Pack that might evidently be her new home.

If we realized one thing today, especially as we sat here without Lola, was how different and busy our lives had become, our weekly catch up’s that we used to have resulted to once a month and once the girls had their little babies to look after. We knew it could be even less. We made a strict promise that day before we had to leave and carry on with our own duties, that we would never drift apart and forget how important we were and are to each other. Because despite everything that’s happened over the years, we’ve always been bonded as best friends for life.