Extinguishing Wildfire
Chapter 18: Harvest Moon Festival

Aaliyah

The Harvest Moon festival was today, so we didn’t have training or work today as the entire pack celebrated. It was our most important day as our pack was named after the Harvest Moon. During the day, we had carnival games and family activities with a big barbeque, and then we’d end the night with a big run and bonfire. Growing up, it was always my favorite day of the year.

Today, however, I was nervous about the day. I told Jordan I’d give him an answer today about whether I’d accept him or not. After everything we’d been through since I got back, I wasn’t sure if I had it in me to reject him again, but officially this time. I was still scared to completely accept him, though. Hope kept pushing me toward Jordan, and was already completely enamored by Neo.

The nights were starting to get cooler, but the days were still rather warm, so I put on a cute dress and left my hair down. I was meeting Carissa for breakfast, but I wanted to look cute if I ran into Jordan.

“Girl, someone is trying to attract attention today.” Carissa gave me a once-over as she walked up to me. “Did you make a decision yet?” She laced our arms together as we walked into the dining hall.

“I think so, but I don’t know. I’ll know when I see him, right?”

“You’re joking, right? Your horney wolf will take over when you see him, and he’ll be so far inside you that there’ll be no way for you to even think about saying anything but yes to him.”

My eyes widened at her words, “Way to be crude.”

“Oh, come on, like you weren’t thinking it. I’m just a teeny bit jealous that you have a sexy mate to have fun with, while I’m over here still waiting for mine.”

“We’re still young, you’ll replace him soon.”

We grabbed our food and sat down in our usual seats.

“I don’t see any of the Cobalt Falls guys, I wonder where they are.”

“There you are, Aaliyah.” My guard, Emma, came to sit by me with my sister-in-law and her Beta female, Clara, closely behind. How could I have forgotten about my guards?

“Have you talked to your brother yet?” Ellis sat in her usual seat, but my brothers and Beta Gabriel were notably absent.

“No, should I have?”

“I suppose not, as it’s not super urgent, but the Council agreed to provide support against Wildfire. We’ll have a few more foxes and bears joining our training, starting next week. He’s meeting with all of the guys right now to fill them in on everything the Council decided. I think this will all be over before October ends.”

“Goddess, I hope so. That would mean no more guards. No offense Emma, you’re great and all, I just hate having to be babysat.”

She waved my words off, and we all continued eating. I finished my meal and was about to excuse myself to catch up on homework when I saw Jordan walk in with his Beta and Gamma. My heart involuntarily skipped a beat, and Hope started drooling. It looks like he dressed up today, too. He wore jeans and a nice button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up. His curly hair was perfectly mussed, and his smile was contagious. One of the guys made him laugh. He really did have the nicest, warmest smile.

“You’re drooling,” Carissa whispered.

“I am not.”

’Yes, you were. We both were, but can’t say I blame you, our mate is one good-looking wolf.” Hope’s words made me blush, and I was sure everyone at the table saw.

“Are things serious between you and Jordan? He doesn’t seem like the type to just mess around with girls.” Ellis looked my way.

“He’s not, but we’re, umm…just seeing where things go for now. I have school and the war and everything…” I trailed off embarrassed at the inquiry.

“It’s such a pity about his mate, a good guy like him deserved someone who would cherish him instead of just dumping him without even giving him a chance.” She shook her head in disgust, and my insides roiled. I tried my best not to cringe at her words, but Ellis was right, he did deserve better, and now that he was giving me another chance, maybe I could be that better for him.

′You’re accepting him, then?′ Hope started prancing around in my head.

‘I haven’t decided.’

‘But you said you wanted to be better for him. You can’t be better if you reject him.’

I always hated it when Hope made sense, but she was right. If my thoughts were any indication, I had already decided to accept Jordan…even with all my fears and doubts.

“I hate to eat and run, but we have a few last-minute set-up things for the festival.” With that, Ellis and Clara rushed off.

“I need to do some homework before the festival, so I have to head out, too.”

“Mhmm,” Carissa eyed me, “Are you sure you aren’t just avoiding talking to Jordan now that he’s here?” I rolled my eyes at her, but she wasn’t wrong. Emma followed me and stood guard at my bedroom door while I headed inside to finish up some reading.

Jordan

The festival had started, but Aaliyah was still nowhere in sight. Noah had been dragged off by Gema to some games and my sisters were at one of the food stations. I wasn’t sure where Cristian was, but I could only imagine Evie had dragged him off somewhere.

“Jordan! Are you having fun?” Oren ran up to me with a big spool of half-eaten cotton candy.

“Hey, little man, I’m good so far, just…uh…waiting on a friend.”

“You mean my Aunt Liyah?”

“What? Who said anything about her?”

“I heard my Mom and Dad talking about you and Aunt Liyah.” He leaned in conspiratorially and whispered, “If you want to get in good with her, her favorite’s the candy apples.”

“Thanks for the tip, I owe you one.” I played along with him and once he ran off with his friends, I looked around for the candy apples. It wouldn’t hurt to give her something she liked. I bought her the shiniest one I could replace and waited for her to show up.

After 15 minutes, I wondered if she had played me again. I could feel Neo getting agitated, and I was thinking we should go look for her.

‘Have you talked to Hope? Has she said anything, can you feel her?’

‘This morning, but all she said was they were going to meet us here as planned.’

‘What if something happened to her?’

’We would feel it, so there’s no use worrying about that.”

“That’s true, should we go look for her?′ I was about to make my way inside when she burst through the packhouse door.

“I’m sorry, I lost track of time. I was reading for school and didn’t notice it was past time to meet you.

“It's okay, you're here now. I got you this.”

“A candy apple?” She smiled as she reached for it, “They're my favorite. Thank you.” Oren for the win. I’ll have to thank him again later.

“So, what do you want to do first? We can eat or play some games…or go somewhere more private to talk?”

“Umm, yeah, let’s do that. Emma and Ethan will be watching me, but they said I can go anywhere as long as it’s within the festival grounds. I don’t know how we’d be able to go somewhere more private.

“Let me go talk to them.” We walked over to where the two were standing. “Hey guys, I need to talk to Aaliyah about something a little private, and I was wondering if you two would let me take over her watch for just a few minutes while we talk.”

I work closely with Emma and Ethan for training, so we had a level of familiarity. Ethan chuckled and nodded at me, “Sure, man, go have fun…but keep your eye on her. It’s our job on the line. We’ll give you ten minutes, if she’s not within sight by then, we’ll come after you.”

“I understand, but thanks. She’s safe with me.”

We walked past the forest line, and into a small clearing.

“Well…we have ten minutes, so I’ll just cut to the chase. Did you make a decision?”

She swallowed hard before opening her mouth to speak. “I did. I made a decision.” She was nodding quickly, and I could hear the pounding of her heart. “I want to accept you, to be your mate.” The last words came out as almost a squeak, and Aaliyah’s usual confidence appeared non-existent.

“You’ll be my mate? Really?” Neo was jumping around for joy at her words, and I practically jumped with him. She had changed her mind for me.

“I promise I’ll be the best mate ever for you. We’ll start looking at schools as soon as this war is over. You can go to school for the rest of your life if you want. I’ll make it happen for you.”

Her eyes started glistening with tears, but she gave me a small giggle and smile, so I pulled her into my arms. As I was about to kiss her, we heard some rustling in the trees.

“Did you hear that?”

“Yes, is someone else here? Can you sense them?”

“No, but I think we should head back to the festival. I suddenly have a bad feeling.”

She nodded and allowed me to take her hand. However, before we could get far, a large, brown wolf came out of the trees and lunged for us. He snarled at us and snapped at my arm. I managed to pull away before he got to me, but another wolf came from the other side.

‘Alpha!’ I mind-linked Kedrick, ‘We’re under attack. I’m with Aaliyah, we’re west of the festival grounds.’

‘I’m on it. The was already triggered at the border. We’ll be right there.’ He was calm, but I was certain he feared for his sister. I moved to stand in front of Aaliyah and continued fighting off the two wolves in my human form. A third person approached, this time it was a man in human form. I could feel his aura, so he was a ranked wolf, but he didn’t feel all that strong. He swung at my face but missed. While I was busy dodging him, one of the wolves bit down on my thigh, making me drop to the floor. The man took that opportunity to inject me with something in my neck. It burned, so I was left to assume it was some kind of mixture of silver and wolfsbane. I felt blocked off from Neo, so I knew I wouldn't be able to shift.

“Jordan!” Aaliyah screamed out my name, and the man turned toward her and backhanded her. She fell to the ground, and her apple rolled away forgotten. I tried to stand but stumbled, feeling dizzy from the effects of whatever was in my system. The blood loss from my wound had also left me weak as I wasn’t healing like I normally would.

Aaliyah was knocked out on the ground, and I swung out to punch the man, but he merely laughed as my fist was too far to the left. I was seeing double and felt sluggish. I stumbled again and tripped as my leg gave out. One of the wolves lunged at me and ended up running their claws down my side. I fell back at the pain, and the last thing I remember was being kicked a few times before everything faded to black.