Rescuing His Captive Mate: Saving The Future Luna

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Star

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It seemed that there was an entire field of flowers that sprouted among the people that had gathered in the clearing. There were even flowers for the people that were with us and not just the ones that were strangers. Artem, Reece, and Kent had red flowers around them that smelled of very strong spices. They made me think of something or someone that was angry. 

Trinity's flowers were a cross between red and purple. They were perhaps a little more reddish in color than purple. To me her colors spoke of a mixture of sadness and anger. She was mad at these people but she was also sad for them as well. That was definitely something a queen would feel towards her people when they were doing something so stupid.

It was easy for me to tell what everyone was feeling right now. And with them manifesting as flowers like this I didn't have to feel the emotions personally. This made things a lot easier on me, since I didn't have to feel them for myself.

Looking at the flowers was all I needed to do to find the person or persons that I was looking for. Those black flowers would be near those dangerous people. I searched the clearing as quickly as I could. There were hundreds of flowers but the colors weren't what I was looking for.

There, that was a black flower. Yes, I found one. Wait, there was another. I found two people while scanning the clearing. I needed to check for more.

There, that was another. And now a fourth one. Five? No six. Those ones there make seven and eight.

That seemed to be it. Finally, I had tracked them all down. Still, eight people. Eight of them that have an evil or murderous feeling to them at this very moment. What were they going to do? What was going to happen?

While I had been searching the clearing, Trinity had been getting herself situated above the crowd. She was now high enough that everyone could see her with no problems at all. She seemed to be preparing to speak to the whole gathering.

"My name is Trinity, and I am the Goddess Incarnate. I have been blessed by the Goddess Nehalennia. What this means is that I am the Luna Queen. I am the highest authority in all of the shifter world. It doesn't matter if that shifter is a wolf, a feline, a bear, a bird. Any and all of the shifters in this world are my people. I want to do my best to lead and rule you all but I cannot let the practices you have been using here to continue."

"I agree. That stupid young Alpha needs to get wise and understand that he is wrongly trying to change things." One of the hecklers from earlier, one of those people with black flowers surrounding him, yelled out as he interrupted Trinity. That didn't seem to be making Trinity very happy. She apparently hated to be interrupted.

"You are wrong." She snapped at the man who had been rude and interrupted her. "The ones who have been wrong are the rest of you. Artemis has been trying to correct the wrong behaviors that this pack has been practicing."

"Which practices are wrong?" Nico and Kent's father was the one to ask this question. He was another of the ones who had black flowers surrounding him. He had more of the evil looking foliage than any of the others. I think he was very angry that Kent, his son, had killed Timothy, his father. I could imagine that it would be a hard situation to see.

"What made any of you think that it was proper, even expected to treat any child of your pack the way you treated those boys over there. I also know that several of the boys of the past have died at very young ages. Some as young as eight years old."

I felt a motherly sort of protection rolling off of Trinity then. She was feeling strongly about the way the children of this pack had been made to live in fear.

"That's how things have always been done. It's the way of life for all packs, isn't it?"

"No, it is not." The flowers floating in the air around Trinity were now pure red. The sadness was fading from her. "You all let yourselves be corrupted by an evil warlock and you stupidly followed along with him and never fought back. You and all your parents and grandparents were fools. This was ridiculous."

"No, you're lying. This is how things have always been." That same heckler looked like he didn't quite believe her.

"Don't listen to her. She wants to talk about warlocks, just look at her, she is not a wolf."

"You're right that I am not just a wolf. I am a hybrid. I am half wolf and half witch. I am the queen of all shifters as well as queen of all magic users."

The heckling started again. The men and women in the crowd who didn't quite understand what was going on were scared and yelling their fears out.

"You're an abomination."

"Get out of here you freak." There were more but I just ignored them.

I could see that Reece was getting angrier as well. He didn't like that they were yelling these things at his wife. There seemed to be a rippling around him, some sort of shifting that was about to take place.

'Watch what you say about people's wives!' Those words came out sounding like the guttural growls and grunts I expect from a wolf. Reece's voice was nearly unrecognizable under it all but I knew it was him.

There seemed to be an explosion then. Reece's body changed. He was no longer a giant wolf that was standing on all fours. No, now he was a wolf man that was standing on just two legs. He was the exact image of a werewolf I had seen in a book.

Only this werewolf wasn't wearing the scraps of clothing that one would expect them to be wearing. Nope, Reece was standing there naked with very human looking bits dangling from the front of his body.

Reece was a very, um, well endowed man. Artem had been the only naked man that I had seen before now. It was not something that I was prepared to see and frankly it was a little shocking.

The Alpha King's nudity was not the point right now. It couldn't be further from what was most important. The major thing right now was the fact that the Alpha King was standing in front of us as a true lycanthrope. I didn't know that we were capable of that.

"W-what are you?" The lead heckler had paled the moment he had seen Reece in his new, larger form.

"I am your King." Reece growled, the words coming out more normal this time. "I am her husband." He pointed at Trinity where she floated above us all. "And she is the Luna Queen. You will listen to her and treat her with respect or we will have to stop being so nice."

"That is enough, Reece, I will handle this for now." 

'No, this is my pack, and I will handle it from here.' Artem's voice rang loud and clear before he shifted as well.

Apparently this was the night of the hot naked men. Because when Artem became a man again he was standing there naked. Thankfully though, Artem seemed to have come prepared. There was a pile of clothes sitting near the stone platform. He grabbed a pair of shorts from the pile and slipped them on.

Once he was semi dressed Artem stepped back up onto the platform. With a firm glare he looked out at all of the people gathered.

"As you can see, these people here are not your ordinary wolves. They are indeed the Alpha King and Luna Queen. Their power is beyond anything you could ever imagine. If you try to defy them you will be punished severely. I am not exactly certain why none of us haven't just killed you all with the way you've behaved. Let me just settle this all right now."

I watched as Artem slowly looked around the gathered crowd of people. He looked at each person individually for just a split second before he continued to speak.

"There are only two options left for you. Comply with the new regime and accept me as your Alpha or leave. You will accept the new rules and formation of the pack. You will treat all fellow pack members with dignity and respect. You will not look down on anyone due to strength. This will become a peaceful pack that the Moon Goddess could one day be proud of again. Perhaps if we show that we are not as closed minded as we have been we will once again earn her favor."

"What do you mean by that? What would the Goddess grant us if we earned her favor?" A young man around my age spoke up.

"Perhaps everyone will find their true mate. I know that those who don't live by the old ways have found their true loves, myself included."

"Really? We can finally be mated?"

That caused a stir to run through the crowd. Artem was winning them over. This was good. But I was still feeling that murderous rage from someone out there. Who was it though?