Nature is not a place to visit 9

Chapter 9
“To win any battle, you must fight as if you are already dead.”
-Miyamoto Musashi
Twenty-seven is a bad number.
Sure, it can be a good number – like if you have twenty-seven cars or twenty-seven houses.
But twenty-seven warriors about to walk into a fight against hundreds of bloodthirsty werewolves? As much as I love the
occasional lottery ticket, even I can tell you that those aren’t great odds to gamble on.
Not to mention, more than half of that twenty-seven were sporting wounds or injuries that would slow them down.
As it stood, Rae and I were the healthiest of the group, and I liked those odds even less. I was confident we could both
kick some ass, but we’d also never been in a real fight. Training with the pack warriors would be drastically different than
a life-or-death match with a Blood Moon.
“We should hit their south border,” Marcus suggested, pointing to the hand-drawn map of the surrounding pack
territories. All twenty-seven of us – plus Hudson – remained in the pack room, poring over the details of this impending
fight.
Luke, who’d also volunteered to go, stood on one side of me while Rae positioned herself on the other. I hadn’t said a word to her when she silently made her way over to me or stood at my side.
“You’ve got to the experience here, Marcus, so I’ll defer to you…but I think you’re right. That’s usually their weakest
spot,” Hudson agreed, “The geography of it makes it hard to defend. If you go in through the south, you’ll have your
best shot. But I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re expecting us or if they’ve beefed up their patrols because of it.”
“Please,” Rae scoffed, “If anything, they’ll assume we’re back here, still nursing our wounds like we did ten years ago.
Also, we should attack through the west, not the south. The west border gives us much easier access to their Alpha’s
home. We’ll be able to take them by surprise and kill their Alpha before they even know what’s coming.”
“That easy access is also why the west border is so highly defended,” Marcus countered, “We’re better off going through
the south and making our way there safely, even if it takes a little longer. Besides, they’ve got the numbers advantage. We can’t forget that.”
“They’ve got quantity, we’ve got quality,” Rae shot back, crossing her arms over her chest. I could tell that she didn’t
agree with Marcus or Hudson’s decision. Hell, the whole room could tell. “Whatever numbers they may have there, we’ll
wipe them out.”
“As someone who’s actually fought the Blood Moons,” Luke piped up from my other side, “I hate to break it to you, but
they’ve got quantity *and* quality. Their warriors are vicious and they won’t hesitate to kill. I’m all for taking the safe
route.”
Rae scoffed again, her eyes narrowed into slits as she looked over the room. “You’re all acting as if we’re already dead,”
she said, “And in that case, why fucking bother at all? We might as well stay here and do what we’ve done for the past
ten years – let the Blood Moons ravage us for all we’re worth and pick up the damage without a complaint. If we want to
take back some of what they’ve taken from us, we need to be risky. They’ll be expecting us to play it safe, to attack from
the south. But they won’t be expecting us to swoop in from the west.”
The room remained silent but Rae hadn’t finished yet. “We’re all here right now because we lost someone to the Blood
Moons,” she continued, “Our parents. Our spouses. Our families. Our Alpha. It’s time to stop playing it safe and take a
risk. Show the Blood Moons we’ve got nothing left to lose, and we’re done playing the doormat they can trample over.”
Across the room, there were nods and murmurs of agreement. Not everyone looked convinced, but I could see the gears
turning in some of the warrior’s heads. No doubt some of them agreed with Rae’s logic.
However, Marcus was not one of them. The dark-skinned man did not look at all moved by Rae’s speech. “It’s a nice
sentiment, Rae,” he said, “But you’re not leading this mission. I am. You haven’t been to real battles. I have. All that fire
you’ve got pumping through your veins right now? It’ll get you killed. So, you can fall back and follow my lead or you
can stay here. The choice is yours.”
Rae looked like she wanted to argue, but to my surprise, she took a deep breath and nodded tightly.
“Alright,” Marcus said, “Then we’ll go through the southern border. Blood Moon territory is about a day’s run from here,
but we’ll need all of our energy. We’ll stop halfway to rest, spend the night, and pray at the Moon God’s crypt – as is
tradition.”
*Praying at the Moon God’s crypt – I almost forgot about that wartime tradition*.
Before going into battle, it was tradition for werewolves to pray at the Moon God’s crypt first. You’d ask for his blessing
in the fight, and that was meant to bring good luck and fortune in your battle.
*Kudos to whoever built the Moon God’s crypt, temple, tomb – whatever you want to call it. At least they made the thing
centrally located, so it’s not out of the way.*
While I didn’t buy into the superstitious Moon God stuff, there was a small part of me that didn’t mind the detour. It gave
us a reason to rest up before we walked into a bloodbath. If I had to pray to some fairytale to get a little shut-eye before I
died, so be it.
“We’ll go over the details more closely once we’re traveling,” Marcus continued, “But for now, make sure you pack lightly
and bring enough food for a couple of days. We leave tonight at midnight…unless there’s anything you’d like to add,
Alpha.”
Hudson shook his head. “I just hope you all know that there’s no pressure to walk into this fight,” he said, “You’re risking
your life for the honor of Alpha Roman, for the honor of those who we lost long ago…but nobody would look at you
differently if you decided you couldn’t do it.” His gaze fell on me as if he was expecting me to suddenly speak up and
proclaim I didn’t want to go.
But that wasn’t going to happen. I wasn’t going to back out.
*Is this a suicide mission? Definitely.*
*But it’s a suicide mission where we need every man we can get, and that includes me.*
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complete story. Head over there to dive into the next chapter—it’s all free! Unlike the others, I wasn’t motivated by revenge for those who’d died. Perhaps there was some small part of me that wanted to avenge my parents, but that wasn’t why I was going on this mission.
I was going for the living, not the dead.
I was going for Rae, for Luke, for Marcus, for the people who I saw and spent time with every day. I couldn’t stand by and watch them walk into a losing battle, not when I was capable of helping them win.
“But if you’re all set on leaving,” Hudson continued after a beat of silence, “Then I wish you all luck. I will pray to the
Moon God for your safe return, and when you return, we’ll be here to welcome you back as warriors.”
The group began to disperse at that point, most of them heading back to their homes to say goodbye to their families
and pack. I’d barely even moved from my spot before Hudson had latched onto my arm and was pulling me out of the
pack house.
“Hey! Watch the nails,” I said. His nails were digging into my arm, but as soon as we’d made it about ten feet from the
pack house and out of earshot, he let go of me.
“Are you crazy?” he hissed. Like a mask, the blank expression that Hudson had worn during the pack meeting and the
warrior meeting suddenly dissipated. There was nothing but rage on his face now. “You cannot go with them. You’re
staying behind – end of story.”
“No way,” I replied, “You said volunteers, and I volunteered to go.”
Hudson growled. “If you think I’m about to let my little sister walk into a fight I can’t even be there for, you’re wrong.”
I sighed. Beneath that anger, I could tell Hudson was worried. Of course he was. If the roles were reversed and he was
gunning to go on a suicide mission, I’d be pissed too.
Unfortunately, Hudson’s brotherly concern didn’t change the facts.
“If you’re that concerned, call off the entire mission,” I said.
Hudson narrowed his eyes. “Is that what you’re trying to do? Manipulate me into making the decision you wanted all this
time?”
“Not really,” I said, “It wasn’t my intent when I volunteered. That was genuine. But I still think it’s a terrible idea.”
He exhaled sharply. “I can’t call it off, you know that. We need to display strength as a pack right now, and an attack on
the Blood Moons will do that. Even if we can’t kill their Alpha, it’ll show them we’re willing to fight back,” he explained,
“But that doesn’t mean you need to be there for it.”
“Actually, it does,” I said, “You’ve got less than thirty warriors you’re sending into a pack with hundreds of warriors. Every man – or woman – counts. You need as many healthy warriors as possible. I know I wasn’t at the top of my class, but hey,
I’m capable of kicking ass as well as anyone else. I know you’re worried, Hudson…but you know that I’m needed with
them.”
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complete story. Head over there to dive into the next chapter—it’s all free! Hudson glared at me, but slowly, I saw some of that anger give way to something else: fear. It wasn’t often that I saw
Hudson fearful. I could probably count the number of times on one hand. He was always strong, always pulling himself
together.
And yet, he looked like he was about to unravel in front of me.
“I don’t want to lose you,” he said quietly, “Not to them, not like the way I lost mom and dad. You’re all I have left, Ollie.”
There was a painful tug in my chest, and I didn’t hesitate to pull him into a hug. Right now, all I wanted was to feel the
comforting embrace of my brother.
“You’re all I have left too,” I murmured against his shirt, “But you’re not going to lose me. I’ll come back. I promise.”
“As your brother, all I want to do is keep you from going,” he said, squeezing me tightly, “But as your Alpha, I know you
need you to go for the sake of the pack and the other warriors.”
We embraced like that for a moment, but eventually, Hudson pulled back. He’d donned the mask of indifference again,
like the anger and the fear had never been there a all.
Still, the blank expression on his face couldn’t hide the puffiness under his eyes, and I just couldn’t help myself. “Were
you crying?” I asked.
He scoffed. “What? No!”
“Yes, you were,” I said, “Your eyes are all red and swollen. They weren’t like that a minute ago. You were crying. Over me.
That’s so sweet. Man, I wish I had a camera so I could –
“I was *not* crying over you, Ollie,” he cut me off, rolling his eyes, “Stop making things up. You need to pack anyway. You
better not steal any of my clothes for this trip either. I expect all of my sweatshirts to be in my drawer by the time you
leave tonight.”
This time, I rolled my eyes. “I don’t steal your clothes, you just lose them.”
As we walked back to our camper together, the fear of what I knew was coming still lurked beneath the surface. Some
part of me wondered if this would be the last conversation I’d ever have with my brother, the last time I’d take this walk
back to the camper.
I was going into a battle, a real one. If the next couple of days didn’t kill me, they’d certainly change my life.
Looking back, I’d had no idea how much my life was actually about to change.
I’d had no idea what – or who – was coming.