Moonchild

"Flappy!" Traven yelled, at the top of his lungs. It had been over an hour since the lab had disappeared. Alpha Jacob was searching the area and asking people if they had seen him, to no avail. Traven was doing the same. Lucky stayed at the restaurant in case he showed back up. Traven was beside himself, if anything happened to that dog he would never forgive himself. It wasn't like him to wander off. He was a very well behaved dog. This made his disappearance even more frightening.

He loved that dog more than life itself. He was like a son to him, and he had been so glad he was finally going to be able to take him to a place where he could be the spoiled, heart stealing little monster he was supposed to be. He pictured the space around Desert Moon, all packs had land to run on. Knowing Flappy had a remarkable ability to bond with wolves, he had been so thrilled to finally let his dog feel like part of a pack.

He checked alleys, knocked on doors, followed the scents of other dogs. Where was Flappy's scent? It suddenly occurred to him that he hadn't caught even a trace of it since leaving the restaurant. He turned to head back, determined to find something to go on. He had to find his best friend.

Upon arriving and stepping on to the patio, he noticed that Lucky was nowhere to be found. Panic seized his heart and squeezed, almost doubling over from the weight of it. Then he heard a beautiful sound. The sound of Lucky laughing. He followed the sound to the kitchen, where he discovered Flappy carefully watching the cooks, ready to swoop in and grab anything dropped on the floor.

One of the cooks put a huge pile of ground meat on to a plate, and set it on the floor for Flappy. The lab looked like someone had just told him every day was his birthday for the rest of his life. He looked up and saw Traven, a brief look of guilt flashing in his brown eyes at his owner's demeanor. 

"I'm not mad, buddy, you just scared the shit out of us." Flappy gave a soft woof and quickly began devouring his prize.

"Should have guessed he would be back here making friends and getting treats," Lucky looked as relieved, shaking her head and smiling at the silly dog. "He's going to be the fattest dog on the planet, the way he eats!"

Alpha Jacob arrived back at the restaurant, looking disappointed until he caught sight of Flappy, shamelessly scarfing down over a pound of ground beef. "That dog," he pointed at Flappy, who remained immersed in his little taste of heaven.

"I thought he was gone," Traven's voice shook, as he squatted down next to his four legged friend, who had finished his plate of ground beef and was now looking at everyone expectantly.

"Let's go back to the table and continue the conversation we were having, or better yet could we get our meals to go and we can go back to the hotel and talk?" Lucky was eager to find out what Alpha Jacob was talking about. Marked? Did he mean her mating mark? She was confused, and getting tired of being confused. Nyah was wide awake now, but seemed unfazed by anything. She was attentive, but did not seem surprised by the Alpha's reaction to her "mark," so she asked her wolf if she knew anything. As it turned out, she did.

"I didn't want to bring it up yet because you have been through so much and I didn't want to make you worry more. The thing is, that vision you had, that was the Moon Goddess. Not all werewolves can talk to her like you did. Only werewolves who are blessed before birth, by the Goddess herself. You are very special. Your mother gave birth to you, yes. But you were created by the Moon Goddess, the moment she blessed you, you became one of her children."

Lucky was stunned. "Well aren't we all her children?"

"Yes, of course, she created werewolves. But not all of them are chosen to be her children. That is extremely rare and speaks to your importance to the werewolf world and even to the rest of the world. You are here to do something important."

"Like what?" Lucky wanted clear answers but everything she learned just created more questions.

"We will know when the time comes. You will hear from your mother again, and you must trust your intuition. This is not a bad thing, Lucky. You are a moonchild. This comes with power and responsibility." Nyah explained, patiently, as she knew Lucky's whole concept of the world had shifted within a matter of days. She had watched Lucky grow up, had been with her since she was a child. She had watched from the realm of souls until that moment that the Moon Goddess told her it was time for the two souls to bind together. That had been the night Lucky would have died without her intervention.

Nyah had been angry with Selene, the Moon Goddess, for not allowing her to go to Lucky sooner. She wondered how Selene could remain so calm when one of her children, especially a moonchild, was suffering. Nyah knew that fate was a complicated matter, with so many different choices that could completely alter the future, but she understood that Selene could not control everything, even as a Goddess she was limited by the free will of living beings. They were predictable, but sometimes they made choices that were so random and surprising that all she could do was let events unfold, only able to step in if the balance of life was threatened.

That was part of the reason for werewolves like Lucky. Being able to communicate with them gave her an edge when it came time to take action.

Such times were rare, which was why moonchildren were rare. Lucky's mother had been one, and her destiny had been altered by unexpected choices made by others. A mother blessed by the Goddess didn't always have another moonchild, it skipped generations, sometimes for so long nobody remembered anymore. The last one before Lucky's mother had been centuries ago, and had been all but forgotten with the passing of time. Only direct descendants of the original werewolves could be blessed by Selene in this way.

Every moonchild that had ever been was from Midnight Moon. Lucky's mother had known about it, but she had been so young when her life was taken, she had only started to research ancient archives, had never manifested her full power. Selene had blessed Lucky when she was conceived, knowing the circumstances of her birth put her mother in danger. Sadly, her intuition had been correct. Fate could be so harsh.

Lucky listened to Nyah explain all of this, finding that it was more like listening to Nyah's thoughts than the voice she was used to. What did she mean the circumstances of her birth put her mother in danger? It was like trying to put together a puzzle with missing pieces. Nyah would only say "the answers are at Midnight Moon." Great, now her wolf was starting to sound like that Moon Goddess!

Traven cut in, "are you okay?"

She mind linked him back, "I'm just listening to my wolf." They had gotten their food to go and were headed back to the hotel, with Traven holding tightly to Flappy's leash. Flappy seemed a bit annoyed at the restraint. Traven promised that they would go for a real run soon.

He wondered if Flappy would run with the pack. Would they allow that? If not he was sure his new friends would be glad to participate in a run with his beloved Labrador. Although, if Flappy kept suckering everyone in to giving him treats like this, he would have to call it a roll rather than a run.

Lucky chuckled, and he remembered the mind link. "Listening to my thoughts?" He asked her, out loud. She laughed harder. The thought of a "pack roll" amused her. She imagined a bunch of giant wolves rolling down a hill after the fattest yellow lab the world had ever seen, and she couldn't help it. The image was funny. Traven got it, she knew because he started laughing just as hard as Lucky. They actually had to stop for a minute in the parking lot, laughing hysterically while Flappy sat obediently, blissfully unaware that he was being laughed at.

"Time for the Desert Moon Pack Roll," Lucky managed to say between fits of laughter. "We will have to tell Alpha Jacob."

They reached the hotel room and went inside to wait for the Alpha, who should have been able to beat them there in his super fast car. Alpha Jacob was going to meet them at the hotel, he didn't want to leave his Hellcat parked where he couldn't see it. He was very attached to his car. A moment later, a knock at the door startled them, and Lucky opened the door to find Eli standing there.

"Alpha told me to meet him here. He just wants to talk about some stuff. He didn't tell me what." He explained.

"Of course, come on in." Lucky stepped aside.

"He's probably making out with his car," Eli said with a laugh. "He loves his car." Eli often called the car "Luna," suggesting that the car was Alpha Jacob's true mate. He was one of the few Alphas who staunchly refused to take a chosen mate. He maintained that while it would strengthen a pack to have a Luna, none would strengthen it like his true mate, and he refused to settle for less. He was 38, not old by any means, but it was unusual for an Alpha to go without a Luna for so long.

Jacob had taken over as Alpha of Desert Moon when he was 25. His father was alive and well, enjoying retirement with his mother, who still did the Luna duties along with Jacob's sister, Jenna. His parents were true mates and he knew that he would never settle for anything less than the love he saw between them. The love between true mates was a force so powerful and beautiful. He loved to watch his parents interact, they had been such a good example for the pack.

A true mate balanced you, made you whole, and filled your heart with love, which affected every decision you made. Desert Moon was a strong and loyal pack, known for their fairness and for the way they treated everyone with respect. All pack members in Desert Moon felt like they were a part of something bigger than themselves, and all were treated as important members whose voices carried weight. He led well because he earned the trust and respect of his pack. They followed him out of loyalty, not fear.

Alpha Jacob had no tolerance for cruelty, for bullying, for those who exploited vulnerability for their own gain. He knew that being vulnerable was not the same as being weak. Weakness often manifested itself as brute force, using it to intimidate and victimize. That was why he had gotten involved with the human police force, as a detective they called in to help with their most difficult cases. This latest one, the human trafficking organization that forced young women into sex slavery, had been eating at his heart.

When he had first heard about what happened in Las Vegas, he suspected that someone had mistakenly targeted a young werewolf, although he wasn't sure exactly what had happened until hearing Lucky's story. He had a plan, still forming, but he thought he might have found a way to end the scourge that was human trafficking once and for all.

Lucky being a moonchild was a surprise. He felt like the Moon Goddess was weaving him in to a web that would catch a terrifying evil and destroy it. He felt a tingle in his mind, in his body, and with this sense of purpose he parked his beloved car and headed up to the room where the key to a better future was waiting for him. He could only hope she would agree to fit into the lock.