Return to the Moon
Moonstone glittered like dust along the road up into the stronghold. The mountainside opened into terraces hewn into living rock; stairways cut into the stone led to carved doors and narrow windows where lanterns glowed like steady pupils watching the valley below. Silver Moon had never been a fair fortress — it had always been hard and efficient, a place whose beauty lived in utility — but at night, with torches lit and smoke rising in disciplined columns, it looked like a living thing breathing in the dark.
Triss – once again Tiffany in this world - watched it pass by from the cart's low seat, her fingers wrapped around the blanket at her knees. The wind had worked off the grit of the road and painted the folds of her hair in moonlight. She had seen this place in maps, in whispered legends, in faded diagrams Marco shown her. Seeing it now, up close, gave it a weight she hadn't expected — not only the weight of stone but of a history that had been buried with so many choices and bargains.
She was originally of Dark Howl and that was a life that had to be scratched out and what you had and what you obtained was work of your own hands. There was no magic, no sacrifice of others for your sake. Here it was different. Here magic flowed freely like life giving water.
It was utterly beautiful to her.
Marco sat beside her, shoulders broad beneath the travel cloak, his profile carved in shadow. Here he could be Marco — not Stefan — it was a return home for him. He was always an Alpha but here it was not just what he had earned it was what flowed through his blood. It was his DNA. He rode with rode with a pride that was only know by royalty for he was of the royal line of the Silver Moon Pack and he was returned to make sure his royal lands were still flourishing, as he had left them.
"You ready?" he asked, low.
Tiffany shrugged. "of course. Why wouldn't I be."
She tossed the blanket from herself as the cart came to a halt. She stood with that steady confidence he admired in her and always felt she was entirely too young to have. He stood beside her and they surveyed the courtyard before them.
A carved arch greeted them; twin statues of wolves — older, angular — flanked the gate like sentries frozen mid-howl. His ancestors, a previous Alpha couple that had ruled Silver Moon. They jumped from the cart in unison and walked to the steps leading to massive doors carved into the mountainside.
Doors opened before they reached those steps and men in the colors of Silver Moon came forward: Sentries, then officers, then a contingent of those who answered to Dale and Caleb. Eyes slid over Marco's shoulders with the reverence reserved for a returning Alpha. Some bowed, others did not — only those who had once been wholly theirs did not need to bow. But all submitted. He was not only their Alpha, he was their chosen Alpha.
Most of them he had pulled from ruin or near death and they all owed him portions of their souls.
"Marco," Dale said first, breathless with the kind of energy that lives on the edge of fear and loyalty. "You're finally back. All is as you left it."
There was a clamor of voices behind him, steps that tried too hard to be quiet and failed. Tiffany thought of the wards nested inside these stones, of the maps of cisterns and the lines that funneled blood-essence and old rites beneath the floors. This place smelled of old fires and oiled leathers and the faint, metallic tang of something kept for battle.
Marco's mouth was a hard line. "Report."
Caleb stepped forward, chin up. "Shadelings have been working none stop since they arrived." He flicked a look to Tiffany before he continued. "We've been rotating scouts along the eastern spine. We are not sure what they are exactly doing." He hesitated. "We found remnants of new constructs near the marsh. Not native. Something… altered."
Tiffany rolled her eyes and walked passed them all. "They are doing as I have instructed. Do not worry about them they are loyal to me and Silver Moon. I will see to them My Alpha. If you need me I will be on the eastern spine."
Marco nodded to her back and looked to Caleb and Dale. "I want to know about Silver Moon business not that of my little sister. Speaking of sister was are Jess and my Beta?"
Caleb stepped forward his voice ringing clear in the cold air. "They have not returned from Dark Howl yet My Alpha. They are still in mediation at last check-in."
Marco nodded.
"Now. I need a full report of my stronghold. And I will be spending two days at the sacred walls. Come let's start this." He beckoned them all and lead the way deeper into the mountain.
Tiffany's lab was nestled deep in an eastern facing cleft in the mountainside. Visitors rarely saw it; it was essentially her sanctuary and most were too afraid of her and afraid of offending Marco to enter it.
Torches guided her past racks of glass, cages with slatted lids, and jars that grew darker in the lamplight. A low hum wove through the air. She had a wide range of experiments. Some cruel and some inane all vital to her understanding of the mind, spirit, and soul.
She opened a large door to the back of the lab an walked in without hesitation nor reservation. The Shadelings had changed. They were more corporeal and their auras were dense and fierce. She smiled. She had chosen well.
Marco sat in a large circular throne that sat in the center of a circular room within a circular pool of moonlight. He closed his eyes and felt the hum of the moon's power flow through his body. The others positioned themselves according to rank and standing within the pack.
Marco watched quietly, gaining an understanding of the current dynamic of the pack. He saw that Dale and Caleb maintained their positions but it seemed that a young wolf from the mercenaries had risen up to stand relatively close to them. He saw how the young one stood he was not their match but no other behind him dared to challenge him. Marco would need to get to know this wolfling.
Marco nodded.
Once all the movement stopped he observed them all. His thoughts in too many places at once. He focused and looked to his three leaders.
"Report"
"We have repositioned the night watches," Dale answered. "Increased Psi sweeps. Caleb's people reinforced the cisterns' runes. We're patching, but the problem keeps slipping like water through fingers."
Caleb began next. "It is not so much as we have had problems but the Vamps have started creeping. I think they feel this is an easy way around to Luna Azul."
Dale looked at him sharply, his canines extending. "Is that not a problem?"
Caleb shrugged. "ask the twelve we staked and the six we have down in the water caves."
Dale didn't answer he just continued to look at him and Caleb simply shrugged again.
Marco paced, the motion contained but urgent. It was his way of thinking. The stronghold had stood for millennia it would continue to stand, he was not concerned about that. He looked up abruptly and several werewolves in the rear flinched.
"And the sacred walls. They remain as they were?"
"Yes Alpha. They are of magic and remain as pristine as they have always been."
They walked the perimeter that night. The moon hung a little thin. Tiffany watched both Stien and Cros as they walked ahead of her. They had shown her how they were evolving. Now they were their natural selves, half of mist, and half of imagination. The mind filling in the blanks in horrid ways.
That was their innate ability. To bring fear and doubt when anyone saw them. But in the lab they had been corporeal. Picking up items to physically reposition them or manipulate them in some way.
They moved with efficiency and they had both voiced a desire to continue their evolution. It had been too beneficial. They were smarter, stronger, and more powerful. Why would they not want to reach new heights?
She had already told them that they would continue moving forward. That they would work together and create a group of Shadelings that would be powerful and loyal to only her and her Alpha. They already understood the price for betrayal. They knew what she was capable of and that she was not afraid to destroy either of them and start her work over fresh.
The other werewolves maintained their distance. She understood but she still smirked. She was already able to ignore their stench.
Marco walked the man-made corridors of his ancestral stronghold deep in thought. He was ready to see the sacred walls. See the ancient techniques and see their names, feel their spirits.
It seemed to be so long ago. Since he had a chance to think about his Alisa or his parents. Now he understood why.
As he thought of her his heart twisted to think of how excited she was to have his child. He also knew she would berate him for his vile thoughts of revenge against an indirect participant and by using his own flesh and blood.
She would also make him face the fact that there was a genuine kernel of love for Amber deeply rooted within him. He had felt it long ago but it was not until now, not until he returned to this place and to their auras that he actually acknowledged anything.
Something inside him sank, twirled sickeningly, and stabbed deep into his gut. He knew seeing her would hurt and maybe even give him bit of power to his wolf but it didn't matter, he had to see her, he would see her.
Marco turned and entered a large dining area. He couldn't help but smile when he caught sight of Tiffany. She was such a small werewolf but the power and ferocity radiating off of her was beyond anything anyone would expect of her.
He was proud of her and proud to call her his sister.
He sat next to her, never looking in her direction and spoke to her telepathically.
'I hear the shadelings are a bit horrendous and have an indescribable stench.'
'They are evolving yes and of I can ignore their smell all werewolves should be able to do the same.'
'And what will you do with them?'
'You need a special unit and I think they can be it. They will forever be loyal to you. I have the means to assure it. I will form a new mind link with Stien and Cros that will allow me to speak with them and control them no mater where they are.'
'Be careful with this and I want to be a part of this link."
Tiffany actually frown, but she had been sipping her drink so she had frown3d into her cup.
'I don't think you can Shadeling minds are vastly different from the human mind.'
'That may be but I will connect with them. Get me when you want to do this.'
'Of course my Alpha.'