Rise of the Crescent Moon

Chapter 49 August

Arlo trotted over to Josie, bumping his head into our mate's leg as she treated one of our wounded wolves.

"Arlo, you aren't helping here." She giggled, swatting at our head.

"So sorry about your Alpha's rudeness Mathew." She rolled her eyes at the man laying on the bed in front of her. He had minor injuries, a dislocated shoulder at worst.

"Why don't you go shift so we can have a civilized conversation?" Josie ordered in her soft voice. Arlo bowed his head in submission and ran off to shift in privacy. A few minutes later, I returned to our mate on two legs.

"The borders are clear." I informed her,

"But, I strengthened the patrols for the time being anyway." She looked at me and I knew I had done something wrong.

"The warriors need to rest, August." She sighed.

"The injured are resting, anyone else is willing and able to serve." I assured her. She pressed her lips together, unhappy but not enough to continue the argument.

"You're good to go, Mathew, just rest that shoulder." She shot a pointed look my way before moving on to her next patient.

Before the battle, our gracious Luna had created a medical tent to ensure that our wolves were properly taken care of. We suffered some casualties and even more wounded but the outcome was so much better than we had hoped.

"You're going to need stitches, Morgan." Josie informed the she-wolf sitting in the chair. I eyed Josie, impressed at not only the care she took of our pack, but of the fact that she knew everyone's name; I'm not even sure I knew everyone's name.

"Great." Morgan sighed, rolling her eyes,

"Damn witches and whatever spell is stopping us from healing." 

"August, your wolves are the worst patients I've ever had." Josie smirked after performing a couple dozen minor medical procedures.

"Well, they've never had stitches or broken bones that required casts before." I shrugged.

The witches had done something to the wolves that halted our ability to heal. It was similar to whatever they did to me the night I was a patient in Josie's cabin and when they attacked the village. We still weren't sure what we found in my blood, but Mayze confirmed it was of witchy design. Josie was taking samples from out wounded to see if she could match any markers from their blood with mine. There was talk of trying to create an antidote or even a vaccine to prevent it from affecting us.

For the time being, however, Josie had her hands full setting bones and closing up wounds. My pack was, admittedly, being very whiny about the whole thing.

"They need to man up." She huffed, blowing a stray piece of hair from her face. I tucked that hair behind her ear and planted a reassuring kiss on her lips,

"That's true." I laughed at her.

"Alpha!" Ethan came running up to me with a wild look in his eyes.

"What is it, Ethan?" I sighed at his dramatics.

"I have a problem." He replied,

"What's the problem?"

"I found my mate." I heard Josie drop something behind me before she appeared at my side,

"Oh, Ethan!" She squealed.

"No, no, it's bad, very bad." Ethan was pacing the tent, shaking his head. Josie and I exchanged a glance before I planted myself in his path, pausing his pacing.