Chapter III: Do not cry for stupid people.

Roland Hartwell. She remembered it like it was yesterday. How she had met him. It is like a treasured memory, even if it was a while ago. She remembered she was a new student at Thebes spring academy. She hadn't always lived with her parents, she had lived with her grandparents at Ebyra Fell which was a whole sea away from Thebes town. After her grandfather fell ill she was sent back to Thebes to start Middle school. There, on her first day she met Roland Hartwell.

"Happy birthday, Ayo Moonchild." A gruff voice said, with thick brown eyes staring at her or more like boring at her.

The tall Alpha wolf with a well built frame, Army cut black hair, brown eyes, and a gruff voice looked at the birthday girl with entranced eyes, hungrily taking in her form as if he was memorizing every bit of her.

Alpha Wolf Jaxon Greystone; Alpha to be of the Silver-fanged Pack, and the young man who was completely infatuated with Ayo Moonchild.

Ayo was in a black skin dress with a bell shape waist down to the hem, a deep V cleavage, and a long sleeve net-weaved with a wide spread hem as well. She had her black hair let down with a light shadow makeup on.

Ayo collected the lilies handed to her by Jaxon. She had a crooked smile on her when she replied. "Thank you, Jaxon, I didn't know you would come for my birthday party, isn't the pack going for a run tonight?"

Jaxon gave a dry chuckle and subtly scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, it is a Rose Moon tonight but your birthday is more important." A starstruck smile appeared on his face.

Ayo couldn't help how wide her mouth opened. A Rose Moon or rather the Blood Moon came at least a few times a month and the wolves valued it very much. During the Rose Moon Werewolves would shift into their were form and just run together as a pack in the woods, most times the legal eighteen and above packages used the Rose Moon to fuck, believing the Rose Moon was a gift from the goddess to increase the rate of pregnancy.

Witches too used the Rose Moon but it wasn't for runs or fucking, but it decreased the rate of failure when casting powerful spells.

The Rose Moon had been scarce this time of the year. There had been sightings of only very few Rose Moons, making any Rose Moon during this year a treasured one.

"Ah, oh, thank-"

"There's the birthday ass kicker," A shorter man stood next to Calista Moonchild, he had a full bearded face, familiar hazel eyes, and a bald head.

Ayo's eyes shifted to the duo, and her hazel eyes suddenly shimmered with Joy. "Oh my…. Dad!" She yelled out loud, not thinking twice before thrusting herself into his leanly built arms.

Her eyes turned glassy with tears as she leaned into the hug. "Dad, dad you're finally back."

The man; Robert Moonchild, a third generation supernatural hunter, and also a respected Witch of the Coven in Thebes. Robert, who had spent almost three months on the road chasing after a couple of serial killer Werewolves, felt overjoyed and relieved he was finally home, and just in time for his daughter's birthday.

He rubbed her back fondly saying, "you have no idea how much I've missed you, ass kicker."

Ayo cringed and broke away from the hug after hearing the ridiculous nickname her father had given her since childhood. "Come on dad, you promised to stop calling me that!"

Her father did not reply to her, simply shifting his hazel gaze that had turned from the loving one he had given to his daughter to a blank/nameless one. "Alpha Greystone," he greeted Jaxon with a rigid voice.

Jaxon gave the supernatural hunter a curt bow. "Please Mr. Moonchild, I'm not an Alpha yet."

Robert chucked his hand towards Jaxon. "But you are an Alpha wolf." Jaxon took the hand and shook it readily.

Robert withdrew his hand and returned his gaze back to his daughter. "Ayo, I'll have to attend an emergency meeting, I'll be back real quick for the cake cutting."

Ayo's happy expression fell faster than Troy fell, and she began to whine. "Dad! You just got back!"

Calista immediately stepped. "Don't worry, we will be back soon. It's just that the Coven's meeting is very important."

As if on cue Jaxon heard a ding noise from his phone. He looked down at his phone in his hand and his playful expression dropped, his eyes widened for a moment and his free hand balled. "I-I have to go," he said.

"We'll give you a ride, Jaxon." Calista offered.

Jaxon shook his head. "No need Mrs. Moonchild, I brought my truck, happy birthday again Ayo." Jaxon revealed a small smile before practically running out of there but Ayo could tell it was forced.

"We will be back soon, ass kicker," Robert kissed his daughter's forehead then leaving quickly with his wife before Ayo could even register what had happened.

She stood there, dumbfounded for a moment before she began moving with the lilies in her hands. Her wide opened reverie was broken when the lilies in her hand fell from the impact of being shoved away by a strong force.

"Ouch," Ayo grabbed her shoulder and immediately looked at the guilty party.

The Perpetrator stopped and looked down at her. Ayo's eyeballs nearly popped out of their sockets as she looked from his neat white snickers, to his ripped baggy blue jeans, and then to the white tee-shirt with a blue jean jacket slightly bigger than him on top, though it did not stop the huge and taut muscles from showing. His neck length auburn curls were tied into a ponytail, and his perfectly constructed face with sharp ethereal features still held the usual stoic and cold expression.

She released an exasperated sigh, already feeling the burn on her body at their too close proximity. The boy with black eyes as black as the night stared down at her much smaller figure. He stuck his tongue out, the wet and soft muscles swiped on his firm and pale peach colored lips, allowing her eyes to catch the small silver piercing on the tongue.

As opposed to her belief he spoke. "Have you seen Lay? Is he here?"

Ayo found herself opening and closing her mouth for a moment like a gaping fish before she frowned and breathed out. "Lay? Lay Zheng?"

Lay Zheng was another enigma. He was the closest person to Devereaux Rosalind. He followed Devereaux everywhere and some said he was the mouthpiece of Devereaux as he spoke whereas Devereaux almost didn't. Lay was huge too but not as big as Devereaux, he had a lip piercing and was very intimidating.

Ayo was surprised at the question. What would Lay Zheng be doing at her birthday party? She had never spoken to Lay even once, and they had crossed parts very few times.

"Stupid bastard," Devereaux muttered. It was in what she thought was Russian again so Ayo couldn't understand what he was saying.

Ayo couldn't even get another word out before Devereaux pranced away from her, in an almost frantic search for Lay.

Ayo felt a compulsion to follow Devereaux but knowing better she stood rooted. Devereaux had attended her birthday party? An odd surge of excitement swelled within her chest but it quickly burst. Was he really here for her birthday? He did not even so much as wish her happy birthday….. he seemed more busy searching for Lay…..

"I think all hell is about to break loose," a familiar voice snapped her from her train of thoughts.

She yelled before turning and seeing her brother. "Josh, what the hell, why did you sneak up on me? And what do you mean by all hell is about to break loose?"

Joshua in a casual flannel shirt on top a tee-shirt and washed out grey jeans with an unopened can of soda in his hand had a disturbed look on his face. "He's dead, Ayo," Josh swallowed. "Elder Conan is dead." Josh whispered.

Ayo gasped, before slapping her palm on her mouth then dropping the palm down to ask. "Dead? How? When? Where?"

Josh shook his head and sighed. "I'm not sure when but he was killed in Elder Deacon's house. I heard mum and dad talking about it, they said he was mutilated, his body torn apart and his heart was cut off and squeezed to meat chunks."

"You're not lying are you? This isn't a sick jo-"

Josh hastily raised his hand. "Swear on a pentagon and hope to die. I'm not lying, Mum told Dad that Elder Deacon saw everything, it was some kind of monster. They even said it could be a beast from…." Josh hesitated for a moment then subtly leaned closer to his sister. "That it was a beast from hell."

Ayo gasped again. "And Elder Deacon is still alive?"

Josh's face scrunched up into one of disgust before he leaned closer and flicked Ayo's head. "I tell you Elder Deacon was the only witness and you're still asking if he's alive. Don't be dumb, Ayo."

Ayo puckered her cheeks in a pout and rubbed her forehead.

Josh continued. "Even the guards at the- unholy pentagon, is that Devereaux Rosalind?" Josh completely sidetracked, craned his neck towards the big Devereaux Rosalind who was conversing with Lay Zheng who looked seriously pissed off.

Ayo too followed in her brother's suite and looked towards Devereaux. He leaned against the kitchen counter and obviously scoffed at Lay.

"Yeah it is-"

"Hold my fucking grimore this is so bloody cool. Devereaux fucking Rosalind is at your party in our house. We…. We need to make this special, I should get him a soda or something…." Josh seemed to have entirely dropped the former conversation, completely fanboying over Devereaux.

Josh's hands holding the soda were shaking. Ayo frowned at the scene. "What's your problem?" She asked her trembling brother.

Josh breathed out. "I'm just trying to get my body to move but it's not working. This is so fucking cool," Josh squealed everything out.

Ayo rolled her eyes and snatched the soda from him. "Give me that," she said, marching towards Devereaux.

"Hey, why are you using your reggie to ruin my blues?" Josh whisper-yelled towards Ayo's moving figure.

Ayo marched towards Devereaux with conviction but immediately found herself halting like a soldier following their last command when she heard both Devereaux and Lay's voice.

"I do not give a fuck about you Lay. You wanna go out there and hand yourself over to Dimitri that's fine but keep my fucking name out of your useless mouth." Devereaux said in a terrifyingly deep yet quiet voice.

Lay scoffed and opened his mouth to speak but Devereaux was very quick to cut him off. "What, Lay? Is that challenge in your eyes? You're challenging me? Are you, lady's man?" Somehow Devereaux's voice had turned even quieter but yet deeper and more gravelly. Dangerous.

The fierce expression on Lay's face instantly died and he pressed his pierced lips together into a thin line. His eyes were downcast and his expression had turned pitiful. Ayo felt startled by the sudden change in Lay.

All of a sudden, lost in an eavesdropping escapade she jolted when she heard. "Have you heard till your fill Moonchild?"

Her mouth opened and she quickly kept up with her brain so she would not act like a gaping fish this time. "Um," she pranced in his direction, standing face to face with him. "Here, the other guests got free goodie bags but you were late so….. soda?" She managed a crooked smile.

Chucking against his broad chest, Devereaux found himself taking the drink from the girl with furrowed eyebrows. Ayo caught sight of the tattoos on his knuckles; a roll of a 1,2,3,4,5 on each knuckle. Ayo was aware beneath those clothes there were other tattoos, and her cunt against her wishes thrummed at the thought of seeing them on his naked skin.

"Aww, she took away from her time to get soda." It wasn't Devereaux who spoke but rather Lay who leaned comfortably against the counter.

Devereaux watched with a hint of what looked like….. surprise to Ayo before looking back at her, his entire expression shifting back to his hard one.

"Moonchild," as ever, from the little they had ever spoken- and only once had Devereaux called her by her name, he had called her Moonchild- apparently he was going to keep calling her by her last name. "Perhaps you should use your 'free time' to search for your boyfriend. I could have sworn I saw him going into your room with... What was her name? Mia Flemming."

Ayo blinked in an almost comical manner before without another thought dashing away and running to her room. She wasn't sure what she was expecting in her room but she had a vague idea.

Her small hand grabbed her door handle and pushed the door open. "Fuck!" She cursed out loud, a lewd sight before her eyes.

Roland Hartwell knelt on her bed with Mia Flemming in front of him, her skirt was lifted up and her panties shifted to the side as his lean shaft moved in and out of her pussy while he fondled her much bigger breasts, moaning quite loudly.

"Take my dick, baby!" He moaned out, slapping Mia's asscheek.

"Fuck!" Ayo cursed out loud again, and placed her hands in front of her eyes. This time she had caught both parties' attention. Roland in a rush pushed Mia into the bed and pulled his dick away from her and chucking it into his unzipped pants.

"Ayo!" He yelled at the black haired girl running down the stairs, away from him.

"Ayo! Wait!" He caught her arm midway down the stairs. "Please calm down."

Ayo struggled in his grip, trying to push him off her. "Let go Roland, you're hurting me!" She shrilled, trying harder to push him away from her.

"It's not what you think. Please, she's my mate!" Slowly her hazel eyes stretched, and widened unbelievably and with much more force she pushed his chest while muttering. "Mortis."

Roland was pushed away from her by an invisible force. He fastly recovered and continued after her, trying to catch her arm again when she hurried faster, glancing at his figure that had miscalculated and was currently going down.

She rushed down, gasping, and glancing at Roland that fell down the stairs to the ground. Stepping away from his rolling body while staring she found her back pressed against a much harder body.

"Ayo! Could you fucking listen and stop being a bitch!" Roland had obviously lost his cool, everyone gasped to his statement.

Somebody close to Ayo burst into laughter. "Cover your tool man, nobody wants to see your dick." Lay looked down at Roland's unzipped pants with mirth in his eyes.

Roland's eyes dropped down, and hurriedly he zipped his pants. "Ayo! Listen to me!" He yelled as he got up from the ground.

Ayo didn't even give it a thought before trying to walk away when Roland grabbed her arm…. Tightly. "Must you always act like a pretentious bitch?" Roland sneered, his eyes flashing red for a moment.

Ayo could tell it was the effects of the Rose Moon but she didn't care. She wanted his hands that had been touching Mia Flemming so lewdly off of her. "Let go!" She shrieked.

He held her arm even tighter. "No! I'm trying to explain to you but you're acting rashly! I didn't-"

"You might want to release her and calm your tits Roland." A deep hoarse voice which most people in the building had not even heard before reverberated.

Roland's eyes flickered to the huge figure behind Ayo. "Rosalind," Roland sneered. "Better fuck off, this is not any of your business."

Ayo against her will turned to the boy behind her. Devereaux with the most nonchalant of expressions bore at Roland. "No, it really is not, Roland, but I feel ecstatic today so I thought I should advise you to stop embarrassing yourself, ublyudok (motherfucker)," Ayo instantly shivered, the hair on her delicate skin rising at the unknown word at the end.

Roland huffed. "What's your damage Rosalind?" He brought his pointer finger and pressed it against Devereaux's chest…. Repeatedly. "You wanna swing, Rosalind? You wanna fight me?" Poke after poke.

Devereaux arched one thick eyebrow, looking down at the lean finger that kept poking his hard chest again and again. It was like it never happened, like the instant flash of light but Devereaux captured Roland's index finger that was poking him.

For the very first time Devereaux released the tiniest of smirks on his face, a slight tug on his firm lips, but instead of it looking graceful and beautiful as Ayo always thought it would look, it looked dangerous, like a wolf that had gotten its prey where he wanted it.

"Some conversations aren't good for public ears. Is it that Roland Hartwell wants to discuss with me in private?" The tiny smirk was still on his face whereas Roland's face had twisted into a pained expression. Roland parted his lips, gaping, while grabbing onto the hand holding his pointer finger. He tugged the hand tirelessly but he could not pull away Devereaux's hand from his pointer finger.

Suddenly, the sound of bone snapping resounded everywhere. Ayo glanced at Lay hoping he would stop Devereaux from going further but Lay was standing there smiling ear to ear with his arms wrapped around his chest.

Luckily Devereaux let go of the pointer finger. "No?" Devereaux asked Roland who was nursing his finger. Both of Devereaux's eyebrows jolted up and Roland without wasting time scrammed.

Ayo felt her heart pounding far too fast. She wasn't sure if it was the shock of seeing her boyfriend with another girl or if it was the rush of watching Devereaux threaten Roland and snap his finger. Then again…. It might be the thrill of being warmly pressed against the hard body of Devereaux.

A body that shifted away from her far too fast. "Don't cry for stupid people, Moonchild," Devereaux quietly said before chucking a familiar soda towards her which she had no choice but to collect.

With that Devereaux and Lay walked away.

She hadn't noticed that tears had been falling from her eyes. She cleaned her eyes with the back of her hand. Once she had spoken of how she would never forget the day she had met Roland Hartwell but somewhere deep in her she knew it was because she had met Devereaux Rosalind that same day.

°°°

An SUV zoomed past trees in the darkness of the night. A red haired girl sat at the passenger's seat nagging at the older male driver.

Mia Flemming groaned. "Dad, Ayo is such a bitch-"

"Language young lady," her father cut in, sighing after, and leaning forward to make out the road in the fog that covered the entire road.

Mr. Flemming had just had to leave the house and come pick his daughter who snuck out to a party she was not invited to even though she was grounded for being caught with weed in church.

"Hmm," Mia hummed, rolled her eyes, and leaned back against the car cushion.

Mr. Flemming suddenly squinted, his eyebrows furrowed and he leaned ever closer to the front screen. "Is….?" He paused, looking even closer. "Is that a person-?" With wide eyes he hurriedly stepped on his breaks, maneuvering his car as fast as he could.

The tires screeched as he swerved past the dark figure and managed to stop the car. Mr. Flemming lifted his head and blew out a breath. "Mia? Are you okay?" He asked his daughter who nodded.

"I've…. I've got to check if they're fine," he unbuckled himself and got down from the car.

Approaching the unmoving figure covered by the fog he asked. "Hello? Are you okay?"

The figure was still not moving. Mr. Flemming frowned and approached the person closer. His heart was thudding from his fear of the darkness and the clicking of his shoes was the only thing he could hear…. Then…. Then he heard it…. The softest of growling sounds emitting from the unmoving person.

Swallowing thickly he ventured further…. Until…. "Jesus christ!" Mr. Flemming yelled out at the top of his lungs.

Mia was shook from the yelling. "Dad? Are you okay?" Panic rises in her. She sought to come down from the car as she could no longer hear her dad's voice.

When it showed itself. An enormous giant beast with thick black fur, and red marking burnt to its skin. Its eyes were the darkest shade of red.

"Ahh!!" Mia yelled at the top of her lungs. The low growling beast wasted no time to shove its hand through the glass window, shattering it in the process and grabbing the neck of Mia.

Mia instinctively caught onto the car key and detached it from the car and as the beast dragged her from the car, ripping the entire door with its free hand Mia fastly swung the car key at the beast. It gave a small cut on its neck which did nothing but simply anger the beast.

It roared at her face and without thought descended on her, opening its wet wide mouth covered with shark like teeth and swallowing her head. It dragged her head from its neck with its mouth, spilling blood and flesh all over itself and everywhere close. It quickly spat the wet head of Mia Flemming on the ground and threw the body on the ground without care.

It looked up at the sky that had lightning surfacing all over it and thunder clapping in them with its red eyes. It will rain soon. It roared at the skies, blood and saliva slowly dripped down from its mouth when fire shot from its mouth, and its entire body.