Chapter 7 — Before The Next Crescent

The next crescent was the first revelation of the moon during the period when it grew into a full moon. The moon's appearance meant meetings for the packs and all pending communal events were held within. This, however, wasn't a special time than when she the moon, wore her yellow dress as a full orb, sailing her way through the clouds.

She was the goddess of both the town and beyond for she heightened the strengths of the paranormal creatures whenever she appeared. The times she was full and yellow were exclusive to the packs and the peoples of this town as it increased the intensity of their strengths and sorcery hence the reason why the town was called so. To some other towns, she shone blue, red, or green at the same time.

Yellow moons appeared once after three full silver or regular moons and meant general meetings amongst the thirteen packs of the town in which Pompey presided as the sitting Grand alpha.

The nights came cold as usual. Mist had begun to hang visibly, after dinnertime. Lupe has driven back to the mansion and Paco retired to his house not so far off — it was a one he'd drawn and built all by himself as he would always boast to anyone who cared to listen. The ladies were to sleep alone and they would do so often.

"There you are," said Norma as she perched on Winter's side on one of the lawn stretches before the hedge fence that marked the end of the land on which the family house stood. The sound of Gabriella fondling with the ukulele at her room's window was well heard given that the street was sleepy. Her tiny voice crooned alongside the instrument as if she were singing a newborn baby to sleep.

"The moon would be out the day after next tomorrow." Norma said, "Gabriella's also going to be making her first attempt to break out just before Paco and Bernie's mating duel."

"I can tell that you're anxious," replied Winter.

"I think “worried” is the word." Norma sighed. "I'm not worried because I think Paco will lose but if he does, I don't think he's going to be the same towards mating again. Nina already promised suicide if he loses."

"Do you think he has the same tendencies?"

"I don't know. He's not weak, but he's not so strong either." Norma's voice quaked a bit with emotion.

"How strong is Bernie?"

"Well, we could say pretty strong given that he's a Beta. He's from the white pack. They're the closest to us. Folk has it that their ancestor was an immediate elder brother to ours. Bernie was a high-school mate but he was way ahead of me and had graduated before I made it to senior high so I don't remember much of him."

"Do you think your brother stands a real chance against him?"

"Yes," Norma said, confidently, although she'd hesitated a bit before answering. "If he trains well enough," she added.

"You seem very educated in folklore. What do you know about the origin of the packs? How many are they again?"

"They're thirteen packs and each one comes from a patriarch whose traits they inherited. The thirteen patriarchs are the sons of Osiris who they call the Grand Patriarch. He'd come to this town hundreds of years ago, made friends with the human settlers he'd found here, and started his own family out of which spring the packs of Yellow Moon town. Our pack's patriarch was a Beta and he was born gray. Bernie's pack patriarch was also a Beta and he was born White. It applies to the other colors. That's what Poppa told me."

"I could imagine. Perhaps someone needs to put it into more detailed writing. It would make an interesting read. You perhaps."

Norma laughed. They sat silent for a while afterward, staring at the star-spangled sky awaiting the moon in three days and the now deadened street. Gabriella's lullaby was more potent. Winter broke the silence then, cautious about how she approached the subject.

"I don't think Alphonso's a bad-looking guy. I think he's good-looking. Perhaps, you should have taken those flowers."

"And he's going to keep bringing them," Norma replied, curtly. "I'm not attracted to gamma males. I prefer to be with more dominant males. Yes, we don't always get what we want from life and all that but then I'm not dreaming of being the wife of an alpha, I simply want a more dominant male. There's quite a number out there who'd want a more submissive female."

A smile played on Winter's lips which Norma didn't see given that her gaze was focused at the street before at that moment given the anger she was trying to control. The thought that caused the smile was triggered by the word “submissive”. Norma wasn't submissive.

"You seem like a girl with your own opinions, though. Submissive people often live without theirs," Winter judged.

"Well, there's a lot you don't know about me. Wait till you find out even if I wasn't, there are much better options for Alphonso."

"Like Gabriella, you mean?"

"They seem perfect. The thing is I can't force myself into liking him and it wouldn't be right to do so. I've tried letting him know that and at some point, I felt he was being deceived into thinking that he could change my mind."

She knew, however, that she couldn't picture Alphonso as a brother-in-law yet and that she only took the possibility of him and Gabriella being a real couple as something that wouldn't happen. If by chance they did become one, she knew she'd feel like a loser in some sense.

"What about you? Did you ever date someone in the city?"

"No," Winter replied quickly, shaking her head as if dismissing the very approach on the topic of her dating life. "I never thought myself to be dating material. I'm an outlier you see, and there's a chance that my destined mate or affair would be of the same nature."

"Does that make you open-minded?"

"I think love is overrated. Yes, I long to experience it sometime in my life, and yes I'm open-minded, but I don't think it's all that important. Strange, don't you think?" she turned to see Norma's reaction but Norma let time pass with their eyes locked before mustering a reply.

****

*Norma's POV*

I'd never identified as a queer. The fact was that I wasn't before she came. She comes out of the blue with this air of mystique and qualities I felt ideal for a guy — my type of guy. Maybe she only revealed a part of myself that I didn't know was there. Maybe I was queer before and she was just a key.

Our eyes locked as I desperately searched for hints of mutual feelings in hers. I couldn't find any understandable clue but my heart beat with overwhelming lust. I'd played with this fantasy for days since we first met in the mansion. How receptive was she going to be? How was she going to view me if it all turned out bad?

"I think..." I began, searching for the courage to confess my feelings or to let go of sanity, damning whatever aftermath.

"My wolf dances to your kind of strange. It's not a thing I can control. I think that I'm deeply attracted to your aura. There's a lot of this mystical masculinity that you emit unconsciously...it's almost hypnotic. It takes a lot of courage to say."

I threw my face away in a mix of shame and fear. Had my voice quaked with these emotions? I couldn't tell but I think it had. The silence that followed afterward was an eternity. The night winds rushed through the lit streets, then between us, and through my face. My heart raced thrice it's normal pace. Her gray eyes widened in some sort of surprise — pleasant? I couldn't tell. Gabriella's ukulele had now gone and it was all quiet on this starry front.

"That you're a deviant?"

"No...no, not that," I stammered. "Maybe yes but the thing is that this feeling seems peculiar to you. I never felt like this before I met you. I always dreamt that it would be a guy. Some Beta."

How many Betas had I come across in my lifetime? How many could make me feel like this?

"Well I don't think it strange," she said. That was all she had to say. She seemed confused, undecided and I was blinded by lust. I reached for her lips and kissed them like some thirsty traveler in the desert who'd come across fresh water. She was limp.

"I don't think we should be doing this," she said, breaking the kiss. "I don't mean to hurt you but have to process my feelings at least."

"Right." I agreed ashamedly. "I'll just go to bed now," I concluded and rose to go immediately, half running. Instinctively I knew that I'd just been rejected and it pierced like a dagger. I knew that I couldn't face her tomorrow.