Curse of the Moon Goddess
Jace's Parents

At last, we made it to the clearing where the fight was to take place. I silently cursed when I saw what was displayed before us. A dead wolf. And four extremely angry rogues. This is not good.

I started to question my sanity in agreeing with Sage in letting her do this fight. This was no longer a squabble where a wolf comes out on top and the other walks away. No, this was a revenge match. Which means it was a four against one match to the death.

Despite the dread seeping in, I couldn’t help but smile at the carnage of the remaining four wolves. Despite our incredible ability to heal, the lead wolf had one completely black eye, a huge gash on his lip, and a major goose egg on the top of his head. The other three weren’t much better. One had a broken arm, another a broken leg, and one had his ear completely flat against his head. I’m pretty the ear was my doing. Not to mention the thousands of cuts and bruises each of them wore on almost every inch of their body. I smirked inwardly as my wolf pranced around. Between Sage and I, mostly Sage, we had mutilated those mutts.

And they had the nerve to come back for a death match. Apparently, they missed the memo she isn’t human. She’s a werewolf and a very dangerous one at that. Before I could question the sanity of these guys out loud, I heard a voice that I did not anticipate.

“What’s the meaning of this?” my father boomed out as he approached us.

He and my mother stopped just yards away from me. I could tell he was mad. Really mad. This isn’t going to be good. I silently prayed Sage would leave this to me and stay quiet for once.

“Dad, mom,” I greeted as nonchalantly as possibly. My dad’s hazel eyes briefly flickered to me before turning his attention to everyone else.

“We’re here for a revenge challenge. A member of your pack killed our friend,” the lead rogue smirked, “and we won’t leave until we get our fight.”

My dad looked even more furious as he shouted, “Who in their right mind killed their friend?”

I opened my mouth to speak, desperately praying now Sage would be too intimidated to speak. Apparently, my prayers fell on closed ears. My heart dropped as I heard a surprisingly confident voice answer, “I am.”

I couldn’t help but gawk at her. She had just signed her death note and she had no idea. No. judging from the way she was standing she did know. She just couldn’t keep quiet, could she?

Thankfully Lukas was too preoccupied gawking at Sage as well to notice me staring at her. If he saw me again, I’m pretty there wouldn’t just be one fight today.

I watched mesmerized as she stared my father down. He was measuring her. And to my complete confoundment, she was measuring him. I held my breath for several minutes as the stare-down continued. I looked away briefly once to see my mother’s bright green eyes dancing in amusement to see my father struggling against a newly discovered wolf. Seeing the light in her eyes made me giddy inside. I had to remind myself this isn’t my mate or Aleina. So why did she affect me like this?

At last, my father looked away. I couldn’t help but stretch my eyes wide. My father submitted to no one. When his gaze caught mine, I understood. She’d found it. My father’s weakness.

I had found his weakness when I was just a kid. My newest dad is a very stern man. He never gave away any emotion unless he was upset. Even then, he did it more for show. He never showed his hand. Being the previous alpha, no one dared look into his eyes except my mom since she was his mate. One day, I dared to look into them myself. That’s when I saw it. My dad had green flecks of kindness floating in them. That’s when I realized my father is a very kind man. But this kindness would be mistaken as a weakness to other wolves. Normally my father’s eyes turned black when he stared down other wolves. This kept his weakness safe. And now Sage had seen it.

“I don’t know who you are but learn this lesson. If you fight a pack of wolves, you kill them all. Otherwise, they can come back and challenge you,” my father scolded, making sure to keep minimal eye contact with Sage. No one else would be able to tell as he still looked in her direction but being his son, I knew he didn’t want her to keep seeing it.

I figured that would be the end of it, so I allowed myself to breathe. Then Sage retorted the last thing I expected her to say, “Thanks for the advice. Next time I’m lying on the ground losing consciousness I’ll be sure to tell my lazy backside to get up and finish the job.”

I couldn’t hold it in anymore. I covered my mouth and nose in a desperate attempt to try and hide my laughter. I noticed Sage now staring at me, a beautiful smile itching at the corners of her mouth.

“Son,” my dad warned.

“Sorry, dad. But you got to admit she got you there,” I wheezed out.

I sneaked a look at my dad and saw a slight smile playing on his lips before it faded. She’s really good if she can get my dad to show a smile.

“Yeah, yeah, all right. Let’s cut to the chase. We’re ready to fight,” the lead rogue stated, obviously annoyed with us.

“All right then,” Sage said, confidently turning to face her opponent, “So, who am I fighting?”

A sickly wicked grin etched itself over the wolf’s face. My smile disappeared as I knew the answer that was coming.

“All of us dear.”