* * *

"I've been waiting for this my entire life for those two to fight." Jackson laughed, and that caused Grey to lean in closer to listen. He knew Sage mentioned brothers before, but the Mystic Grimm brother wasn't ringing any bells.

Not when the silence started to draw out further into the room.

"...Sage?" Harlow asked, his voice coming off as unsure.

"Now. I wait too long to hold my pups." She argued with a world-threatening growl to quicken his response.

"Dad! Fuck, stay on the phone, please, just—We'll be on our way soon, just one second." The chants and muffles of the panicked male on the phone caused Andrew to frown, but Remus smiled as brightly as could be.

"Alpha Harlow Mystic is her brother." He said with a grin as wide as possible, and that certainly managed to drain the color out of Andrew's face as he picked his burial spot.

Jackson's laughter had been a blessing, although what followed hadn't been all that funny. "Hey Rem, how do you think Hayes will feel about a male taking advantage of—"

"Jackson, I learn a lot of Hocus Pocus. Please be quiet." Sage said, taking her mouth away from the phone and shifting impatiently before turning to her choice mate who could rally a vampire's complexion at the moment, "And Papa won't hurt you, maybe a spar but no killing." She warned.

But Luke pulled up a hand to intervene. "I don't know, Sagey, Dad might be just as angry," he reminded, "who goes after a mated female anyhow?" His eyes lingered on Andy's person. However, Andrew hadn't been all too innocent either, not when he previously had thoughts about killing Luke Elwood.

Thoughts that crossed his mind more than once.

"If I knew she was my best friend's Mate, don't you think I wouldn't have made a blood pact?" Andy argued, and that turned into another segment as Remus' eyes turned to Sage.

"A Blood pact?!... Sage, why didn't you tell him I was your Mate?" Remus questioned, and Sage frowned.

"Darius told me to be careful who I tell my name to. And it's a good thing because Alpha Noah doesn't like Crescent Moon. Or Oak Wood." Andrew wondered why she had gone as Luna Hera in Oak Wood now, but then he frowned at the odd name—"Who's Darius?"

Sage licked her lips and closed her eyes, the headache was starting to fester louder and louder—And the only antidote she thought could soothe her was her pups. "Darius is my demon shadow." While she had said it exactly as it was, Andrew had turned around the room.

"You have a fucking Demon, and you didn't tell me that?"

"I lost him," Sage mumbled, saddened by the reminder, "I haven't talked to Darius since we leave facility. I think bad vampire man took him away when he bit me."

The room had fallen silent.

"WHAT?!" The interruption caused Sage to jump as she placed the phone from her shoulder back to her ear.

"Papa! I missed you. Can you come to Crescent Moon?"

"Oh, Bubbles, you best believe I'm coming over. Don't worry..." Hayes said directly, though he sounded out of breath, "Haylee is coming too; Harlow just called her. We need to clear the tarmac. I know you want to see the pups, hun. Just wait, we're on our way." Sage sniffled and nodded, mumbling an okay through her sobs. 

"And then when I get my hands on fucking Andrew Clark I swear to the goddess herself that he's—"

"No, you won't. I need to tell you what happened in the facility, and if you touch Andrew, I won't tell you. I see you soon, Papa." She said, hanging up the phone before he could even manage to speak again.

"So do we get to know that too, or are we just sitting around and—?" Eli's voice was entirely muffled as Blake Warren's welcoming voice sparked throughout the home, and Sage's tear-stained face caused him to clutch his chest.

"Oh, come on now, Sagey. Are those tears really for me? Come over here!" He cheered, and the relationship of charge and mentor had been instantly reinstated. "I'm sorry I couldn't protect you, hun. I should've stayed in the bathrooms...I should've stayed and—"

"It's okay. I'm okay," Sage said, though it was clear she wasn't okay. The marks on her neck ranged from a Remus scar to a newly placed scar that Blake was all too familiar with, given that Raven had a few similar to it on her own body.

Thankfully, the conversation had been stalled for another moment as Half Crescent had been filled with smiles to greet him kindly— "Goddess, big fan, I'm Grey, we heard a lot of stories about you."

"All good ones, I'm hoping...Alpha Eli." Blake said with a slight nod, and Eli looked annoyed.

"He's just petty because Sage beat his ass and took the title." Liam shared, and Blake turned to the Elwood brother, then back towards Eli before laughing.

"Yeah, well, paybacks a bitch. And you're probably going right back in there when she finds out what the hell you two were up to." Blake said, as his shoulders still buckled. Yet Sage blinked towards her charge, and he smiled towards her again. "I'll let your dad manage that one, and look at you—Swords? A new fur coat? I'm almost jealous." At that instant, Sage pulled up her travel sack and began digging the remnants of the pack.

"I made pup clothes, but I don't think they fit anymore." She said, her arms having trouble getting all of them at once, but Elena had hurried over to help her Luna to sort them out.

"I'm sure the witches will help make them the right size." She offered, but Elenor couldn't handle the thoughtfulness when she had been handed one too.

"How did you know?" She whispered out in disbelief, and Sage allowed a shy smile to slip.

"I don't forget you. Any of you...I wish I come home sooner but it was really hard." Sage issued, and Elena nicked her head towards the sack. "Why don't you show them the pebbles?" While it sounded strange, Andy had found himself nodding.

Clearly, everyone felt left out in terms of being Sage's favorite to the most memorable, so when Sage began pulling out the endless supply of flat pebbles, it looked stranger than normal.

But once laid out properly, they made sense when everyone crowded around the now-covered dining table.

"Huh, you got my good side," Eli commented, though his voice's gruffness had yet to fade away, making Andy eye him outright. A silent wave of curiosity had sprouted after what Blake said about the Beta couple.

While Andy didn't understand the tension between Sage's Charge and former Beta, he smiled off at Luke. Even if they weren't in the best stance, he remembered his fond memories with the Elwoods.

"Dad wants to come in—Can't hold him back much longer before breaking down the door." Luke offered, all while looking directly toward Andy before his eyes shifted to land back on Remus.

It felt strange to see the male actively engaging in a conversation, considering the past few weeks were nothing but silence and the occasional drop off of food to make sure he ate.

"Yeah, then we can fill him in so Andrew could get the first round of ass beating." Sage turned over and glared at Liam, though the intention was just to scare him, her hands managing to twist at his shirt were starting to do more than just—"Whoa whoa whoa! I was the one who heard Rue's 'beep-beep!' Why am I the one getting—"

Sage's eyes went wide at the thought, and a proud smile erupted on her face. "Really? Rue said 'beep-beep'?"

Sure, Half Crescent didn't know the value of the word, and Remus confirmed what he heard from those who were there. However, the guilty faces of those she'd seen last had all sparked a sense of apology.

"It's okay, I promise. I'm back now." She reminded, but a small part of her wasn't feeling the same with her dad. Speaking of Dad, Papa Leo had come straight through the front door and took in the sight of the odd number of wolves in Remus' living room until, finally, he locked eyes with his adoptive daughter.

A quick laugh escaped him, though, like most, it resembled a painful cry. But he didn't hesitate to hurry over toward her, pinning her into his chest as though she would disappear any second.

"My little flower, Goddess have mercy for whatever you did to get here. I'm sure it was a ride." He said, giving her a well-deserved kiss on her temple as she hummed in recognition.

"Yeah, Sage didn't like the cargo plane we took from Oak Wood. Didn't even get up from her seat once." Grey said with a light smile on his face, but the idea of a plane instantly gave everyone PTSD from the previous time their plane was hijacked.

"You were in Oak Wood and didn't think to call?" Remus said, and Sage shook her head, unfamiliar with this level of disappointment or judgment from her Mate.

"I tried...I tried to call, and I did call. But Alpha Julian doesn't like Crescent Moon, and I was worried about getting caught. Mystic Grimm answered. I talk to Beta John. But the phones don't work when I try to call." Sage's explanation had pressed a grand level of confusion for those in the room, and Grey had taken hold of the landline and held it to his ear to find a nod.

That there was working fine.

"Might have been because you called from the human town...But besides that, Sage had to deal with a possessive ex to this one. Hey, I told you, Alpha, it was going to bite your ass eventually." With Grey's mention of Lucy in the air, Sage huffed. "Trouble's my best friend...And so is poison I think. Lucy tried to poison my tea."

Remus found himself lingering on Sage, whatever trails the Goddess decided to place on the both of them wouldn't be easy.

"Oh, can I tell it?... Sage knew she didn't know how to use the knives as they did in Oak Wood, and so she managed without them the whole time! She ripped the she-wolf's heart out, right from her chest!" The excitement of Grey had given the room a lofty feel, and an appreciated smile lifted on Sage's face as she was thankful for him trying to make everyone comfortable.

"That true, sweetheart?" Leo dwelled and she nodded along. "Alpha Julian was on the phone with Harlow. Harlow said that the packs aren't doing good and they can't take in Rogues?" She questioned and that caused everyone to turn rather somber.

"Yeah, it's been pretty rough after you well...When we thought you died. And Remus stepped down after the war ended and we still couldn't find you. None of Coldridge knew what happened to you, it was pointless." Liam digressed, leaving Sage to be blindsided.

"With everyone hurt, I took Luke's position as Master of Arms. Luke turned into the Delta and Dad's Gamma. We lost a lot of Wolves since April." That certainly didn't fit in Sage's image, and her nose twitched.

It didn't make sense.

If Remus wasn't Alpha anymore, then how could he lose the pups?

______

Date: 11/13/24

Time: 11:33 AM

Words: 1944

Author's Note:

I am so sorry!

Here I am thinking I uploaded the chapter, and it's just sitting my drafts, my bad!

Things are slowly looking up. Editing wise isn't as great as I want it to be. Besides that, I had a bit of writer's block and a cold over the weekend.

Anywhooo, I'll see you in the next update!