Their forced luna
Chapter 47

Zale

"Ares!" I roared in my mind at my wolf.

For his credit he didn't cower from me. He simply nodded in acknowledgement. "I know what you're going to say."

"Then why the fuck did my mate run? What happened here? Explain it to me, right now. You can walk through the minds of my mates, you're not a normal wolf. Why didn't you stop her the very second she had such a stupid idea as to run from us?"

"I was blocked."

I snorted. "You're a Prime wolf, Ares. How the hell were you blocked? She's our Luna, but she doesn't have power to rival us."

My wolf went silent.

"Useless. But it doesn't matter. Even without you I'll replace her again. But damn it, Ares, now we have another damn wizard to fight. One was bad enough, you know that."

"Zale!"

I looked up from my internal argument and scanned the area. Javier and Bo had both caught up. Javier was tugging along Amanda's kid. The woman fell to the ground and threw her hands over her head, shivering so hard her teeth rattled in her damn head. "Please don't hurt me!"

"Tell me what you know, now," I growled low. Ares put his full Alpha tone into it.

We were going to get our answers.

"But, I don't really know anything," she squealed. She sat up straight. "Wait, I do know one thing, but not the details." She trembled, hugging herself tight. "Mom said she had no choice but to run. She'd made a promise with the Moon Goddess, but I don't know what it was."

The Moon Goddess? Why would that make her run from us? I scowled. This was not working out how the oracle had predicted. I needed to visit her and soon. The course of my kingdom and those in it was swaying too far out of what was promised. Without Amanda, we couldn't escape this eternal winter.

Javier's arms were crossed over his chest the entire discussion. His nostrils flared and he glared at Clara. "That's not enough of an answer what happened. Why did you agree to escape with her? Extra, you better give me a compelling reason or I don't care who you belong to. I'll tear you into so many small pieces the birds will be feeding on your remains for weeks."

Clara yelped again, returning to her trembling turtle mode. "Javier," I growled at him.

He glanced up but the curl to his lips was still there. "You're not seriously trying to say I should be treating this extra soft are you? She's the reason Amanda is missing."

"No," I replied with a sharp shake of my head. "I'm blaming Amanda's running away on you, Javier." His head jerked up and his arms fell to his sides. But I was in no mood to deal with him right now. Instead, I took a step forward. "You had one job." I growled the words and he shrank away from me. "What was it, Javier?" I demanded.

"Be babysitter to the extra," he answered. He couldn't meet my eyes as he spoke but that didn't mean I would let him off any easier.

"And what did you not do?"

"Amanda wanted privacy-"

Ares took over snarling so loud and vicious that Javier quit speaking. He knew better. "Try again," I snapped.

"I didn't keep an eye on her," he replied staring at the ground. His anger melted away into obedience, just like it should always be.

"No, you didn't, and she ran off."

"What are we going to do?" Bo asked. He glared at Javier. "You had one job, how did you fail at it?"

Javier's lips drew back from his teeth. "I didn't fail."

"You failed," I corrected before the two got into a bigger fight. "Bo, you're off training duty. I'm leaving you in charge of Clara. Make sure nothing happens to her."

Clara peeked out from between her fingers. "What? You're not going to hit me?"

I scoffed. "If what you said is true, I have no reason to. I'll track Amanda down and I'll bring her back, kicking and screaming if I have to. I don't care about some promise she made to the Moon Goddess. When it comes down to it, I'll fight her too if I have to. Amanda is mine and nothing anyone says will ever change that."

"Fight who?" Clara questioned, tilting her head to the side. "Fight mom?"

I snorted at her. "No, the Moon Goddess."

Clara's eyes turned wide. "You're serious?" she whispered. "But, it's the Moon Goddess. You can't just fight a Goddess."

Javier chuckled despite himself. "You don't know Zale well enough, Extra. Once he's got his mind set on something, nothing will change it. If he says he'll fight the Moon Goddess for Amanda, that's what's going to happen."

"But-" Clara interrupted again.

"No," agreed. If Zale is saying it, that means it's going to happen. He's more accurate than our Oracle is."

Clara blinked owlishly at us. "Oracle?" she repeated, glancing from one of us to the other. "What's that?"

Oh? Did they not have an Oracle in their pack? I leaned closer. "She's the one that told me where your mother would be in the first place. I'll take you to see her. If she can't give us answers, I'll have to start my war with the Moon Goddess early. She'll know that I'm serious."

"Wait," Bo interrupted, glancing over at me. Worry thrummed through our bond. "Zale, it sounds like you're planning to hurt the oracle if things don't go our way. I'm just misunderstanding, right? That's now wha you're about to do?"

I reached down and grabbed Clara by the arm, hauling her to her feet. She leaned against me, too weak to walk. I shrugged and picked her up, tossing her over my shoulder. "That's exactly what I'm planning to do. I'm getting my answers, one way or the other. Bo you can come with me since you're watching Clara, but Javier you're returning back to the pack and training them. You're going to at least do that mission right."