Beneath Midnight's Moon
Chap. 6
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After
assuring his aunt and uncle that he’d cook Drew’s portion of the catch, Eclipse
then had to assure Drew that he would do the killing... this time, for he’d
insisted on nightly excursions up until his cousin’s birthday, which happened
to be the day before the full moon.
Eclipse smiled as he made his way through the woods.
Balder, and so Eclipse decided to follow the she-wolf’s scent trail from the night
before. He’d considered bringing Drew
with him, but then decided a human among loups garous would be stupid...
and dangerous above all things. He
wouldn’t put his cousin into a situation either he or Midnight couldn’t
control.
They
were like brothers. As children, they’d
always been close. Run in the woods
together, climbed trees together, and discovered girls together.
hadn’t minded, as though he just knew that his cousin was
different. After Changing for the first
time at age six, Eclipse had known there was someone watching, but he couldn’t
stop it. It would have been like a
teenager saying, “Excuse me, Puberty, can you not make my voice crack
when I’m around other people?”
He’d
been thrilled — after Aunt Melody found him — that there were humans who could
accept his loup garou nature. Of
course, if there were those who accepted, then there were those who rejected,
as Midnight had told him later.
Midnight, who had been assigned to him since their births.
garou who chose to wield the magic bestowed upon them, and Midnight
belonged with Eclipse. Twilight, a black
she-wolf with a cinnamon-colored star on her forehead, was Midnight’s
litter-mate, as well as Aunt Alyssa’s familiar.
They’d explained that after a loup garou is born or turned, a
familiar is chosen to be their guide through life, as well as to help channel
their magic. If a loup garou
refused to use the magic given to them, then that familiar was re-selected for
someone else.
Eclipse
stopped, the she-wolf’s scent growing stronger, and he knew he must be close to
her and Balder’s hiding place. From his
right, he heard the familiar rustlings of Midnight settling down on some leaves
to give him strength from the sidelines if he should need it.
covered with ivy. A small stream ran
parallel with the wall, going all the way down to a lake that Eclipse had once
frequented as a child.
Suddenly,
a bear walked out from behind the ivy.
No, not a bear... it was a man. A
man who might as well have been Uncle Thomas’ brother.
Uncle Tom had brown eyes while this man had eyes as blue as the she-wolf’s had
been. The other difference was that this
man was loup garou.
This
must be Balder, the eldest, banished son of Nina and Cyrus.
niece, Eclipse’s bride-to be.
He
shook his head, “Mom said she’d reconsider it if I managed to get her in one
place long enough for the two of them to talk.”
Balder
was washing a pair of ceramic plates in the stream, and Eclipse thought it was
odd to see such a powerful-looking man bent over washing dishes.
enough to dry them with a towel rather than on his jeans.
accenting the loup garou muscle he’d been granted.
raven feathers had been braided in among the cords.
couldn’t quite make out the pattern.
“If
yer so bold as to come onto another man’s territory, why don’t ye just step out
of them bushes, Lad?”
Eclipse
froze. He lay in the most scented clump
of flowers, so he hadn’t been found by scent.
He’d made no noise, and he was completely hidden, blocking sight and
sound. So how, then, had Balder known he
was there?
And,
most importantly, what would he do to Eclipse for trespassing?