Twelve |

I merely watched as the two wrestled in the dirt of the entrance. My jaw was on the floor as Jax seemed to hold his own against this brute of a man. A soft chuckle had me looking over to the person who had came with the brute. Or rather, the woman.

She was slightly shorter than the man, with long black hair tied back into two slim braids that seemed long enough to reach her butt. She wore a pair of black leggings, and a black tube top that showed off her own tribal tattoos marking her tanned stomach, chest and arms.

Who were these people? She turned her gaze over to me, piercing green eyes watched me carefully. We stood, merely studying each other until the woman sighed. She turned towards the two guards.

"Make sure to close the gate behind us," she ordered.

"Yes Luna."

Then I watched as she walked over to Jax and the brute. In astonishment, I watched her merely slap the brute in the back of the head, then kick Jax straight in the stomach. The brute grabbed his head in pain and Jax merely dropped to his knee and wheezed for air.

"Enough playing around. We have a new guest whom you are scaring," the woman, Luna hummed to the brute.

"As strict as ever my love," grunted the brute before he looked up and over at me.

I tensed, my hand hovering over my knife. The brute smirked, crossing his arms over his sweating chest. My eyes narrowed.

"I almost overlooked her. She's a skinny little thing," the brute chuckled.

Skinny little thing? I snorted, excuse me for not being tall and bulky. Not to mention the woman at his side was tall but she was almost as lean as I was. I said nothing as he walked over to loom over me. My head tilted up to look at him, my teeth gritting at his ignorance.

"What's your name?" he asked.

"Mira."

A long, drawled out airy breath caught our attention and I looked past him at Jax. He pushed himself up off the dirt path and looked at the woman who had kicked him.

"Why did I get kicked and not him?" he snapped annoyed.

She batted her eyelashes at him, "I could never kick my husband."

"Bullshit! I've seen you throw him across a room for less!"

I watched them bicker back and forth, Jax and the woman, until she ended up throwing her shoe at her. It hit Jax straight in the nose, and I watched as blood began to gush. The two were so ridiculous I started to laugh.

All eyes turned to me, and my hand flew to cover my mouth from the odd noise that had fell out. How long had it been since I laughed so hard? My eyes drifted to Jax whose eyes were wide open towards me, blood still dripping down his face were making me burst out laughing again. My hands held my stomach as it began to ache from laughing.

"What's so funny?" Jax demanded, amusement clear in his voice.

I pointed at him best I could.

"You look like an idiot!" I gasped.

He narrowed his eyes at me, wiping the blood onto his sleeve and opened his mouth to reply just as a groan sounded behind me, near the back of Baby. She reared up, and in fear for the horse my hand moved to pull my knife out.

I spotted the zom a few feet away from Baby who began to panic. I reached towards her reins, pulling her forward and away from the danger. She pushed me to the side, making me stumble slightly as she ran towards the open gate.

Catching myself on a tree, the zom of some sort of mailman stumbled towards me swinging his arms. Other than four bites covering his exposed leg, and dried blood against his shirt he looked relatively normal. Well, other than his skin missing pigment and his veins pitch black.

He reached towards me, so I crouched low to the ground, and swung my foot. Sweeping his feet from under the zom, it fell clumsily to the ground moving slow to get up. I moved forward, straddling it to shove my knife into its eye socket.

It stopped moving under me, and so I pulled my knife free and got up. Wiping my knife free on my shirt, then putting it back into the sheath at my side.  

"Whoa miss, you move quick!" One of the guards gasped.

I shrugged, hiding the smile of the compliment. Looking up, I spotted Jax holding the reins of Baby and Beast while trying to calm down a frantic Baby. Happy to see the horses' safe, I felt a hand land on my shoulder. I looked back at Luna who smiled down at me.

"Alpha, I think you owe the girl an apology for underestimating her," she told the brute.

He smirked at me, and the brute – Alpha, nodded, "you're right. But I'm not sorry for calling you a skinny little thing. Alana should feed her people more. Stick around here, we'll feed you plenty of meat."

"Enough of that. Let's go inside before anymore appear," Luna ordered.

Alpha sighed, "Fine. Follow me, there's much to do."

We followed him through the gate, which began to roll shut behind us. I turned to watch as the two guards stayed on the outside of the gate – about a foot away. I wondered about the fence itself. Why did Jax tell me to stay away from the flimsy looking barrier?

The area soon opened up into a sort of large clearing, surrounded by forest and towards the west I spotted four large windmills. No doubt that was how they powered the gate. There were less people in this town than Alana's however, all these people dressed much like Luna and Alpha decked out in little clothing, and tattoos.

Up ahead, I spotted a large manor type building, and I soon guessed that was where we were going. Two people stopped briefly to exchange words with Jax and Alpha, then left taking Beast and Baby with them. We kept going, until we reached the manor.

Alpha pushed the doors open, and we stepped inside. I couldn't help but gasp at the inside. In the lobby of the house, there were two staircases at opposite sides leading up to a balcony which I assumed connected to the second floor, past the staircases however, there were two twin glass doors leading deeper into the house.

We stopped in the fancy tiled lobby, and I looked around the room more. The walls were painted a light crème colour, which seemed to match the two darker brown couches in the room. Alpha and Luna stopped to face Jax and I.

"We can discuss business later on. For now rest up. You may use one of the rooms upstairs if you'd like to nap," Alpha ordered waving us off before walking off deeper into the house.

I looked over to Jax for more instructions and he merely shrugged.

"I'm going to go talk to Alpha about something, you can do whatever."

Then he too left me standing there. How rude! I glared at him as the doors shut behind him and beside me a chuckle reminded me of Luna. I looked over at her for some instructions and she smiled.

"I'm sure you have many questions. I will get someone to run you a bath, after why don't we have some tea and talk?" she said.

I didn't get everyone's obsession with tea however, getting some questions answered sounded pretty good. I nodded, growing tired with lack of sleep. A bath also sounded wonderful, from the ride the layer of sweat clinging to my body was just disgusting.

"Good," she nodded.

A woman dressed in a long dress, with tribal tattoos on one of her arms entered the room from the first floor, and Luna spoke low words to her. The woman then nodded, glancing at me with curiosity then hurried off up the stairs. Luna then nodding towards the woman's retreating figure.

"Lisa will run your bath, follow her," Luna told me.

I smiled gratefully, "Thank you."

I followed after the fast walking woman, up the stairs and down a long hall of what seemed to be bedrooms. I noticed most of them had names hanging just under the handle, until she reached one that was blank.

"I'll put this on the door so it's known to be occupied," she told me, placing a little black hanger on the door handle.

I nodded, and she pushed it open. I followed her into the room then watched her walk into the bathroom to I guess begin a bath. Instead of following her now, I looked around the large room with my jaw hanging wide open.

The room had soft brown carpeting against crème coloured walls again. Other than that, the room was quite empty with a large, king sized bed with a brown cover and a few pillows stacked together, a dresser pushed to one wall, with a small side table beside the bed with a candle lantern on it.

"Your bath is ready, if you need anything else don't ask." The woman snapped before leaving.

Ok then. I stuck my tongue out at her exiting body then walked into the bathroom. It was also quite large, with spotless and shiny white tiles, against crème walls again and a stone counter with a cute little porcelain sink. The bath however, was a large square one which was filled just below the top with bubbles and smelled like honey.

I quickly stripped my clothing and slipped into the warm bath, moaning in delight at the comfort. My eyes drifted to the bottles on the side and I picked one up. It was marked as: Honey and moss soak. Strange flavor for a soak, however I guessed that what was in the bath. The other two bottles read: Wild flower soap, and blueberry and apple shampoo.

I washed my hair with the shampoo, enjoying the wonderful sweet and sour scent. Then I worked the soap into my body to get rid of the sweat and I took in the bitter, flowery smell of the soap. It seemed lately I had a lot of time to bath and relax. I chuckled bitterly to myself, I wondered what dad would think of me now?

"Don't get too relaxed. Soon this place will be ruined like the others," Dad said jolting me out of my thoughts.

I looked up at him from where I splashed in the warm water happily. To have found a place that had its own water heater and generator, what luck!

"We should leave soon," he sighed.

I frowned not liking that thought, "But daddy I like it here."

He pulled me out of the tub, wrapping a towel around me and working to scrub my hair dry. I giggled, daddy was always the worst at drying me off. Mommy was so much better at it. I grew sad thinking of mommy, my lips frowning deeply.

"Don't be sad Erin, the longer we stay here, and the more bad people could show up."

I opened my eyes, as a single tear dripped down my face and landed into the now cold bath water. If only Dad had known I was crying over mom and not the stupid house – would things have turned out differently? A sigh escaped my lips. Probably not. I was still only a child at that point.

Shivering slightly at a breeze that swept through the room, I stood up and stepped out of the freezing bath. Grabbing a towel off a rack that hug above the sink, I wrapped it around myself before picking up my fallen clothes.

However, to my surprise, someone had lain clothing on the bed for me while I bathed. But, that also worried me; those damn memories have been getting strong enough to block out the world around me now. And dad was gone now, so he couldn't help me.

"Damn it," I spat angrily.

This just meant I had to make sure I wasn't alone if I was outside the safety of any fences. If that happened when I wasn't protected, I'd end up as a zoms lunch. But that was thoughts to worry about at another time, for now I picked up the outfit laid on the bed.

A pair of dark green leggings, with a black tube top, a light sweater long enough to brush against the floor and a pair of flat shoes that tied to the top of my ankles. No doubt the outfit would be much easier to move and fight in, so I happily traded out my worn out boots and clothing but not before placing my weapons back onto my new outfit.

Just as I finished dressing, I ran my hand through my fair brown hair, happy to have it down for once and not tied back tightly. A knock at the door caused me to look up and I called to whoever was out there.

The woman from before, Lisa opened the door and bowed slightly.

"I will take you to have tea with Luna now," she said in a snobby tone.

If she didn't want to play nice, neither did I. I didn't bother answering her as I stepped into the hall, gesturing her to take the lead. She clicked her tongue towards me but didn't speak as she led me back downstairs but this time led me through the first floor.

The first floor was no doubt more of an open concept, however Lia led me through quickly giving me no time to explore more. All I could clearly see was people sitting about talking, and lounging about. I assumed, this place was equal to the bar back at Alana's town?

She pushed open another pair of doors – swinging doors this time, to a large kitchen. Luna sat at the counter, sipping from a mug as another woman served her tea. I was beginning to realize that Alpha and Luna must be the town leaders around here. No doubt these people treated them like royalty.

She looked up and smiled at me, placing her cup down. I walked over and took a seat on the other side of the counter, instantly a cup was placed in front of me then filled with tea. I awkwardly thanked the server, who merely ignored me.

Taking a whiff of the tea, I smelled honey and some sort of berries. Overall, it smelled delicious, and once I downed the first glass, another was poured for me.

"Now then, what would you like to ask?" Luna chuckled, watching me drink my tea.

I narrowed my eyes at her, placing the cup down, "The fence."

She looked at me surprised, but held her amusement back. She merely sipped at her tea, and leaned back in her chair to watch me. It reminded me a lot of Alana, however, this woman seemed less patient.

"An electric fence originally put in around the reserve to keep poachers out. This place, Wolf Cove used to be a wolf reserve. However, after Lyssasolanum broke out, the wolves seemed to either escape or get eaten. It wasn't until Alpha and I began to rebuild the reserve only this time, for people," she chuckled, "ironic, no?"

My eyes widened, then narrowed as I watched her. Again with people using that word. Lyssasolanum. I had thought that word was supposed to be kept a secret but then again, with their ties with Alana no doubt they were taught all about the virus.

But then again, I wondered if they had found out themselves. Who knows, it had been ten years since the original outbreak – word could travel fast and far in ten years. Not to mention, dad and I always avoided people for safety.

I could always ask her, I mean, Jax had already known I knew the virus's name. Not to mention how loosely the word had been thrown around. It shouldn't give anything away if I asked about it very carefully.

"What's on your mind?" Luna giggled, taking another sip of her tea.

Damn it. I needed to find answers.

Whatever, I just had to be careful.

"What do you know about Lyssasolanum?" I asked.

Her eyes peered up at me from her cup. Curiosity and amusement danced among those green flecks. Maybe I shouldn't have said anything. I licked my lips nervously, until I saw her lips twitch into a long, drawn out smirk.

"I don't know much, Alpha likes to keep the gory details away from me. All I know is that's what started all this mess ten years ago. That and it started off as the cure for everything," she sighed.

"I see." I had already known all that. Which made even asking a waste of time. Damn it, I was nowhere near closer to knowing anything. Nowhere near knowing anything about those other ones.

The other numbers.

"What information were you looking for? Have you tried asking Jax?" she asked curiously.

I merely shook my head causing her to sigh.

"I don't know who had hurt you in the past, but whatever burden you're holding onto know that there are people around you who you can trust," she told me softly.

I snickered, "Like Jax?"

She looked at me, green eyes burning with pride, as her smile faded away into a tight line of determination. I leaned away now understanding why she was one of the leaders to this town.

"The very fact that Jax had brought you here means he trusts you. And if Jax trusts you then so do I – and Alpha. I know whatever you're hiding must be serious however, don't close yourself off to those who wish to care about you," she ordered softly.

I frowned at her words, "Alana made me go with him – he didn't vouch for me to come."

The doors swung open and we glanced up to where Alpha and Jax were walking in. Luna smiled again, sipping her tea then giggled. I titled my head towards Jax who glanced around the room then seemed to relax slightly once spotting me.
"Are you sure about that Mira?" Luna hummed lowly.

Authors note: no they're not werewolves! They live in a former wolf reserve and so, to pay their respects to the land, they go by the titles of wolves! Wolves have an alpha, a Luna, and also an omega, a delta, etc. This is wolf lore not just werewolf lore!

Anyways, enjoy! ❤️