Page 3 of Bound By the Moon

“I get it, Ash. I do.” I smiled, and grabbed hold ofthe hand she had tucked under Willow’s back. “I’m really happy foryou guys!” I reached out and patted the protruding bump on herabdomen. “I am a horrible friend for not realizing sooner!”

“Shut it, and just marvel with me at this preciousbaby girl you made. She is perfect.” Ashley cooed down at Willow,talking to both of us at the same time. “She’s going to be astunner, Jess. You better hope I’m having a boy, so he can watchout for her, maybe beat the other guys off with a stick orsomething. They’re going to flock to Willow whenever your back isturned!”

“I doubt that very seriously.”

“What? Why? Have you not seen this beautifulgirl?”

“Of course I have, but I also know her daddy, andany boy would be a fool to even think about trying to date her, letalone break her heart, or mate her.” We both laughed at that. Iwondered what Mikael would do if our daughter ever came home markedthe way his brother, Evan, had marked me when we first met. It wasprobably best not to bring that up with him though.

~*~

Two nights later, under the full moon, I wasparading Willow through the pack lands, on our way to her LifeCelebration Ceremony. The lake had become our pack’s go-to placefor life and death celebrations since Jack’s sending off. Itoffered us a full circle, under the moon, with all the elements ofnature present. As we approached the rest of the pack was waitingin a semi-circle that started and ended on the pack’s side of thelake. With the moon reflecting their presence, it appeared asthough there was a full circle. A young woman with chocolate brownlocks stood waiting for us just beyond the circle. As we joinedher, it was obvious she was still recovering from her ordeal, but Irefused to have this ceremony without her. After all, we werecelebrating the fact that she was still with us as much as we werecelebrating the birth of my daughter.

“Tamara, will you join us this evening incelebrating life-both newly given and newly appreciated?” I askedher as I approached.

“I would be honored.” Her response was no more thana raspy whisper as her throat was still healing from the trauma thevampires had inflicted upon her. It was unreal how much she lookedlike me. We were the same height, our hair about the same length,and nearly an identical color under the moonlight. The differencebeing that where I had bright green eyes, hers were a bright bluereminiscent of the waters of the Aegean Sea. Willow was cradled inmy left arm, and I held my right out for Tamara to guide herthrough the circle with us. As we approached, Mikael split apartfrom the rest, allowing us to enter beyond the barrier thesemi-circle of our pack had made. We walked to the center, at thelake’s edge, and turned to face our pack-mates.

“This night, we celebrate the lives of two veryimportant members. Willow Ash St. Marks De’Lune was born to thispack two nights ago.”

“We welcome you, Willow Ash St. Marks De’Lune.” Thepack intoned as one voice raising into the night sky.

“That same night, we welcomed Tamara Anne Simms backinto our pack after she was nearly lost to us. We are thankful thatshe was returned to our pack and granted a second chance atlife.”

“We welcome you, Tamara Anne Simms.” The packintoned as I finished.

“We welcome you both, and together we are one.”

“One pack.” The pack voiced in unison, and then allthose who could shift did so, howling their acceptance of ournewest pack member, and the newly returned, as one spirit under themoon. Tamara took off in her wolf form, a great gray beast, to runwith the rest of the pack. I stood firm, in my place as a mother,watching over my baby as the pack took off into the forestsurrounding the lake. I felt their energy and excitement ebb andflow through the trees as they went, and I was exhilarated as if Iwas with them too. That was what it meant to be linked as a pack inspirit. I had never known, because I had been sheltered from thatpart of pack life growing up. I understood why my parents had doneit, but I was thankful that Willow would always know what pack lifetruly felt like as she grew.

Warm, strong arms encircled me as I stood there bythe side of the lake with the others who were pregnant and couldn’tshift, or looking after those too young to join in the run. “Howare my beautiful girls doing?” The spicy-man scent of my mate clungto me as he pulled us closer to him. His warmth seemed to seepright through my clothing and into my soul. It was an amazingfeeling having my family together this way, with the pack energyall around us, and the illusion of safety in numbers.

“We’re doing just fine, now.” I turned so thatWillow was nestled between mine and Mikael’s bodies. He wrapped hisarms around my waist, pulling me into him, so that we all fitsnuggly as one family unit and then he kissed me, underneath themoon as we celebrated the life of our daughter.

“I woke up this morning, and once again I thoughtmaybe it was all a dream, yet here we are.” He shook his head indisbelief. “I never thought to see the day…” his voice trailed offwistfully as the tell-tale glimmer of tears sprung up, misting hisemerald laden eyes.

“Here we are. Your family. Your pack. Why don’t yougo run with them?” I, myself, looked out longingly at the forest.The wolf in me wanted to join the fun, and run and play with theothers, something we’d missed out on for too many years. The otherpart of me was content to stay right where I was though. Wrapped inthe security of my mate’s arms while holding my own daughter was ajoy all its own.

“I don’t need to run, Jess. Everything I ever wantedis right here.”

How could I argue with that. Those very wordsstomped down my antsy little wolf’s feelings, and make her takenotice of the truly important things in life. We were happy, foronce, and it was time to soak some of that in and enjoy it beforelife crept in again and ruined everything.

***

BLESSINGS

“I didn’t get a chance to talk to Tamara before theceremony the other day. Can someone fill me in on what happened toher?” I asked as I sat down at the kitchen table with my coffee,seeking the answer from my parents or Mikael, all of whom deemed itnecessary to crowd my space before I got to take my first sip ofthe magical anti-cranky brew. They all shared a quick look thatimmediately put me more on edge. Apparently, they were trying todecide if they should hide something from me. “Well?”

“There were three vamps.” It was Mikael who spokeup, finally. “They attacked, but weren’t going to use her as food.She claimed they were talking about getting her to ‘the site.’” Hetossed up air quotes around the words as he spoke. “They werearguing among themselves about whether she was the one, and howsomeone else wouldn’t be happy if another was drained and it didn’twork.”

“If what didn’t work?”

“I suppose, that’s the question at hand.” My fatheradded dryly. “Unfortunately, the information Tamara gave us justended with more questions than answers. The plus side is that weknow the girls are all being taken to a specific place to bedrained.”

“That doesn’t help unless we know where they’rebeing taken.” I added.

“No, but it does tell us we need to find one centrallocation that has seen a lot of blood in the past few months.”

A sick feeling bubbled up in my stomach then at thethought of the number of girls who had gone missing from both ourpack and the pack run by Avery Daniels. “Has anyone spoken to Averylately? Are they still having problems over there?”

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