Dark Moon

16

Ashton's POV:

I'm not entirely sure what emotion possessed me when I intimidated the young Alpha that I forced to follow back to our pack, but I don't regret it. I was terrified that he was a spy that was going to follow us, but after his panic and tears, my fear was lessened. Maybe I should have been more compassionate, but something inside of me forced me to make sure he wasn't a danger to my mate and then figure out what to do next.

Thank the goddess that I don't have to make decisions because I had no clue what the next step was supposed to be. Hazel took over and Sage made sure to comment on my sudden change of attitude, but he wasn't upset about it, thankfully.

I've tried so hard to be a good mate and the last thing I want to do is scare my mate by a random attitude spur.

Sage is still asleep, cuddling against me and breathing softly against my chest. He's wearing a shirt because it's freezing outside and it got colder in our room than we were anticipating.

I've had a hard time sleeping because that Alpha was unfamiliar to me and he smelled like my old pack. Even if I didn't interact with a lot of the other Alphas in the pack, I knew who all of them were because we were a small pack.

I'm worried they're rebuilding and what that means for my new pack and my mate. I have no doubt in my mind that our old pack Alpha will recognize us and try to harm us and our mates for deserting, so I'm definitely anxious.

We did get confirmation that the collar was destroyed, which means that our old pack won't know that their runaway is with us, especially with the snow and our pack scent taking over the space.

Sage groans, pulling the blankets up and trying to get warmer.

I hold him closer to my chest and he sleepily nuzzles into my neck. When I look down at him, I see his eyes are open a little bit and he tries to shut them so I won't notice he's awake.

"I know you're not sleeping," I say and he smirks. "How long have you been awake?"

Sage smiles and purrs. "Only a few minutes," he says, yawning. "It's cold in here."

"It's not that bad."

His smile drops. "That was supposed to lead into you cuddling me more," he deadpans. "Whatever, guess it's time to get up."

I try to grab him, but Sage is too fast and squirms away.

He runs to the window and opens it, letting light flood into the room. "Wow... thank the goddess we chose to leave last night and didn't wait until this morning," Sage says, so I join him at the window.

There's got to be at least three feet of snow and it's still falling. Thankfully, this means that my old pack probably won't be able to attack in this weather, but I was not expecting this much snow!

"No wonder it's cold in here," Sage says, putting on one of my sweatshirts and holding the wrist of it up to his nose. "I haven't seen this much snow since I was a five!"

I nod in agreement and put on a bigger sweater of Sage's. It smells amazing, as does every article of clothing that Sage owns.

Well, and Sage himself.

He smells amazing on his own.

We go downstairs and find the pack house crowded with pups and the people who live here. Alder is on the couch holding two extremely young babies and Hazel is starting a fire in the fireplace.

The Alpha from last night is in the kitchen with Zach and Owen. He looks more relaxed than he was last night, but he tenses up when he catches my eye.