The Summer Moon
Chapter 98 -

Malia

"Do you really think I'm part witch?" I asked Ty as we drove over to his parents house. I admired him as he leaned back in the seat, his hand casually resting over the steering wheel. His wet t-shirt clung to his chest clearly showing the definition of his muscles underneath and it made me salivate. His hair still dripping wet as he pushed it back from his eyes.

"I think my now soaking wet clothes would say yes," he laughed at me. His eyes came over to meet mine and I watched that same playful sparkle that I loved so much light them up. I thought back to the tree breaking through the wall, the rain that poured down as I ran towards the forest. Could it really be possible that I had done that? Did my mother know what I was capable of? And if my grandmother had these so called powers, then did my mother have them as well? "Ty this is crazy, I don't know anything about witches. I didn't even know they existed," I mumbled feeling overwhelmed by the thoughts claiming my attention. Once this whole Jordan business was over with I would need to have a serious conversation with my grandmother and mother.

"You didn't know about werewolves either, and look at you now," he smiled at me reassuringly and I knew he was right. I had come a long way since Ty had first told me about the werewolves. He reached over and took my hand in his once more, our fingers interlacing as we fit together perfectly.

"Yeah but I had you," I smiled up at him. These past months were impossible to imagine getting through without him.

"And you still have me Lia. I don't know a lot about witches either, but we'll figure this out together. We can talk to your grandma, your mom too, if she knows anything. This isn't a bad thing," he gave my hand a squeeze and I felt my nerves relaxed. Sighing, I rest my head against the window. He was right, we could get through anything together.

"Ty I can't feel my wolf, it's quiet. Like before my birthday," I whispered the words that made my heart ache, my lip quivered as I spoke. She had been so quiet, it made me fear something was wrong as a sinking feeling was growing in my stomach. And as I ran to the forest today the idea of shifting seemed completely impossible.

"You don't need to be anxious, everything is fine. They must've given you wolfsbane, I can smell it on you faintly. Your wolf will come back," he assured me and I felt all my nerves settle. As I looked up to the sky, I watched as the remaining dark clouds cleared to reveal the clear blue.

A few moments later though my anxiety began to build again as he pulled into Ty's parents driveway. How exactly do you go about telling someone that their son has gone crazy and is trying to kill your other son?

"Mom, Dad," Ty greeted his parents as we walked together into the house, then nodded his head towards Jared who was anxiously stirring around his bowl of cereal. By the look in his eyes as he stared at me I knew he was awaiting bad news. Ty's father grimaced, while tears came to his mother's eyes and she ran forwards to hug me.

"Malia, we're so happy you're okay," she mumbled into my ear while Ty squeezed my hand refusing to let me go. He was definitely being a little over protective, not that I minded though.

"We need to talk," Ty said, his alpha tone coming out strong. His mom pulled back from me and I leaned into his side once more. William's eyes fell to the floor and I had a sense that he knew exactly what this conversation was going to be about. From Ty's mind I knew that Jordan's scent was all over this house, clearly having been here just yesterday when he chased me up the stairs. It was undeniable, and all his lies were now falling through the cracks. The room fell quiet and Ty was the first to break the silence, "We know that Jordan's alive, we know that you planned an attack on him with the Dark Moon pack, and now we want to know why," he demanded.

Jared dropped his spoon into the bowl the milk splashing onto the counter. I swear I heard him mumble, "Jordan's alive?" But Diana was quick to hush him. She turned to her husband, waiting for answer, as if her own words were lost. She was not surprised by any of this however, confirming out suspicion that she was in on this too.

Taking a moment first, William finally sighed and leaned back against the counter. "Jordan was fit to be an alpha by every mean, he was strong, decisive, assertive, and he wanted to be alpha more than anything. As we leaned into his final weeks of training and I started handing over some of my duties to him, Jordan found his mate and a darker side started to show. He was breaking alliances with other packs, becoming more demanding of our pack members, and planning secret meetings right below my nose. Then one day I searched the office and found plans for an attack on the Dark Moon pack. He was planning to kill the alpha bloodline, he wanted to take over the pack," William explained. "All of this started after he met Kassandra, so we started to do some digging and found out that Kassandra was actually a rogue before they had mated," Diana added in and I could feel Ty's thoughts spinning. "Actually a pack of rogues, if you can believe that. Kassandra convinced him that they could take over other packs and become the strongest wolf pack to ever exist," William's head fell again and I knew he was grieving the loss of his eldest son. Ty's mind drifted to the mate bond, and I remembered him telling me how your life shifts to focus on them. With a love like that I could understand losing yourself in it, just as Jordan had lost his way in Kassandra's criminal thoughts. "We tried to keep it quiet, but there were a few pack members that knew about what Jordan was trying to do. Some of them approved of what he was doing, they wanted to help him, it was through them he found out about what we were planning," William continued, and I immediately jumped to Liam's parents. They weren't helping Winston take over our pack, they were helping Jordan. "We went to Winston and began to plan an attack strategy. The goal was to capture Jordan and keep him contained, hoping we could convince him to break his bond with Kassandra, hoping we could get him back. But they knew we were coming, they had no choice but to abandon the pack and become rogues." Everything suddenly was becoming so much clearer. This was why Jordan's scent occasionally lingered on our territory, this was why William continued to relentlessly search for Jordan knowing he was the leader of all the attacks. This is why William was so determined to have Ty make new alliances with other packs before Jordan could do the same.

"So you knew there were traitors in the pack. You knew the reasoning behind the attacks. You knew they were coming for me," Ty spoke slowly, his voice was cold and flat. His body tensed at my side and I could tell his anger was building towards his parents.

"Yes, but we didn't know who the traitors were. It was only a matter of time before they revealed themselves to us," William said, only partially answer Ty's questions. I squeezed his hand tighter, reminding him to calm down. This wasn't the time for a fight, we still needed our questions answered, and Jordan would still be lurking in the woods waiting for another fight. We needed to save our energy for that, we needed to all being working together on the same side for once. "And why didn't you tell me about any of this? You could've saved us so many battles. I could have come home sooner, I could have helped Jordan before things went this far," Ty began to raise his voice and my heart ached for his. Guilt was spreading throughout him as I realized that Ty felt he had let down his pack. He hadn't been here when all of this with Jordan began, and he knew he had come home too late to stop anything. He too, mourned the loss of the brother he once knew.

It was Diana's turn to answer this one as she stepped forwards, her husband's shoulders falling like he had been defeated. "On the day of the battle, things went too far. We only wanted to capture him, but Kassandra-" she paused only for a moment. "A member of Winston's pack killed her." Ty's heart crashed into his chest and I knew what he felt, imagining what it would feel like to lose my own mate. "Ty we didn't want to tell you because what happened that day is our biggest regret. We lost her, we lost Jordan, we couldn't lose you too. What if you took his side? What if you blamed us?" Tears flowed down Diana's cheeks and I could sense the emotion coming to her voice. She had been holding this back for a while. Ty's body pressed harder against mine as he shifted his weight. But he was different than Jordan, even if his parents couldn't see it, because right now all Ty could think about was how much it must've hurt Jordan to have the connection of his mate bond broken. Ty pitied his brother, but his stronger instincts were begging him to protect his pack. Jordan had clearly gone crazy after losing his mate bond, lashing out at Ty as if this were his fault. Taking over the pack, replaceing his own mate. Jordan was attacking purely out of revenge.

"So Winston's pack is not our enemy," Ty announced, his mind drifting to the meeting he had just had a day earlier. William shook his head in response.

"Winston has been keeping his distance after what happened with Kassandra, and he has been quite annoyed having to deal with my teenage son and his rambunctious friends, but no they are not of any threat. I had only suggested you mate with Chloe in order to bring our packs together. We would have a much larger defence system if we were aligned with them," William explained, everything making sense as he spoke. His mind was always focused on business, on what was best for the pack. "But you met Malia, and with her not being from here I worried that she would turn you the way Kassandra turned Jordan. For that I would like to apologize Malia," he said bowing his head towards me slightly and I managed out a small smile.

Once more the room fell quiet and I looked up at Ty. The gears in his mind were grinding quickly as he sifted through the information that had just been shared with us. Even if it had come too late, we still had an unfinished war on our hands; a battle to finish. Then finally Ty cleared his throat, "so we're not declaring war on the dark moon pack, we're declaring war on Jordan and a bunch of rogues," and his family's heads fell in response knowing that this were in fact true. "I guess we should start preparing then," Ty nodded to his family one last time, then took my hand and led me out of the house. He was finished with this conversation, maybe finished with the lies from his family as well, but he wasn't one to hold grudges. I knew he understood, even if he didn't want them to know that yet.

Ty and I climbed in the car and headed towards the hospital. "Are you okay Ty?" I asked him and he let out a deep breath. Leaning back against his seat, he reached over to hold my hand, his thumb rubbing slow circles against the back. I felt his nerves relax under my touch and I squeezed gently.

"I'm okay. It's a lot, but I'm okay as long as I have you," he smiled at me, saying the same words he had once told me before. "I need to talk to Liam though, and I figured you'd like to check in on Alana since apparently she was injured during the attack," he said as we pulled into the parking lot. My heart sunk, the last thing I wanted was for Alana to get hurt. I really hoped this wouldn't cause any more problems in her relationship with Liam considering things between them really didn't seem to be getting any better.

As we walked into the hospital, we found Liam leaned against Alana's bed as he rest his chin on the mattress. Alana was lying back in bed, scrolling on her phone but he eyes lit up and she instantly set it down as she saw us walk in. "Malia, thank god you're okay!" She shouted, reaching her arms out to hug me as I approached. I wrapped my arms around her then looked her over noticing a cast over her ankle, but other than that she seemed okay. "And thank goodness you're here," she said nodding to Ty now, "your friend here won't leave me alone."

Liam let out a low growl but continued to pout on the side of the bed. "Come on Liam, we've gotta talk," Ty said and Liam followed him out the door. Alana and I caught up while the boys were in the hall, Ty catching Liam up on everything that we had learned from his parents. My conversation with Alana quickly drifted back to Liam which made me smile, knowing that even if she pretended to be annoyed with him, the mate bond was still working it's magic. "He hasn't left my side since I got here," she mumbled, looking down at her hands as she picked at her chipping away nail polish. "I guess it's kind of sweet though," she whispered as a small smile pulled at the corners of her lips. "He really likes you Alana," I said to her, even if he had done a poor job of showing it.

"Well if he likes me so much, I don't understand why he hasn't made another move yet. I mean he hasn't even tried to kiss me again," she whined and before I could even respond Liam was coming through the door once more. Practically running to her side, as Ty leaned against the doorway laughing at him.

"Wait you want me to kiss you?" Liam's eyes went wide as he looked down to Alana in shock. Alana looked back at him, as if she were surprised by her own words but I knew she had meant what she said. Then with each slow step forwards I watched the heaviness lift from Liam's shoulders, his eyes lighting up and his lips turning their corners. In an instant his hands grasped either side of her face and his lips touched her.

"I guess we should give them some privacy," I giggled to Ty as I returned to his side. Looking at me out of the corner of his eye he smiled at me.

"I think we need some privacy of our own," and with that his arms snaked around my waist, pulling me against his chest. His lips meeting mine and the fire igniting inside of me.

Alana was discharged from the hospital shortly after that and the group of us hopped in our cars and headed back towards the pack house. We needed to come up with a strategy for how we could take down Jordan. Little did we know, we were already too late. As we walked in the doors of Ty's office, our eyes instantly met Jordan as he casually leaned back against the desk.

"What are you doing here?" Ty snarled at him, his canines extending in the slightest. His arm wrapped around me, protectively pushing me to stand behind him but Jordan seemed unfazed. His eyes were locked on Ty, narrow and cold. "I'm here to take my pack back of course," he said, a wicked smile turning the corners of his lips.