Crossing Moon

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All thanks goes to IZABELLA and ANGELIKA for editing this chapter!

Once again, don't forget to VOTE and COMMENT! Thanks!!

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From Aveline Erickana Ruben's diary:

20th October 2008, 10.30 PM, my bedroom.

I should be studying. I have a test tomorrow but I can't concentrate. Not fully anyway. I couldn't even shake this feeling even after a satisfying round of sprinting in my wolf form with Carrie. We even caught a deer or two. I wanted to run more but Carrie had enough. She was all sullen and disheartened. She refused to tell me more when I asked her.

I should be bothered with that. She's like a sister to me. I should care but my emotional state isn't stable right now and honestly, I don't think I can handle a melodramatic wolf at this moment.

Sigh. I don't know what else to think about. I used to think that by coming to Lexton, I could prove to the others, particularly my father and Alven, that I am more than just a wolf who loves to shop. I'm not just an Alpha Princess waiting to be mated and bear puppies.

In truth, it wasn't because of that -- not entirely. Perhaps I was suffering from this self-obsession with vanity.

I was proud. I wanted this self-satisfaction of being able to say, "I did that." I wanted to go to the further lengths none of which the others have taken.

I was -- AM, pardon me -- envious of Carinelle. She's probably going to be the Alpha of her pack if she had wanted it. She, being the only child of Uncle Jerry and Aunt Fiorelle, had the choice on whether to be the Alpha or not. It depended on whether she had mated or not but it all weighed more on her wanting to be the Alpha. If, in any case, that she mated, her mate would automatically be the Alpha and she'd be the Alpha Queen. I, on the other hand, probably am stuck with the image of the princess-y wolf who loved to shop and create havoc.

Did I mention that I think I like Max?

Yeah, the idiotic human who turned out to be not so bad after all and I just... -- well, it's kind of hard for me to explain in words but I am worried.

What if I fall in love with him? A human, nonetheless! This is a blasphemy waiting to happen.

I think it's best of me to keep my distance from him and yet, his scent....

Sigh. He's got this pull on me, I have to admit that. Ever since I found him wandering alone in the forest, he's got this.... this power of pulling me in. This feeling of wanting to get to know him closer and closer but I must fight this feeling.

The Four Council will not let me be with a human even if that human happened to be deliciously scented. It wasn't food, I was sure of that... It was something else.

And Dad would probably get a coronary if he knew about this.

Avvie

From Carinelle Hynes Thorn's diary:

21th October 2008, 12.00 AM, my bed.

I don't think I can handle another day in Lexton. Really! I can't sleep well! I can't even focus! My heart and soul felt like it had been wrenched out callously!

What was I thinking? I can't keep on being in denial that the past twelve days have been nothing but torture to me.

How could he be so blind? How could he not see that I am the one for him? Why must he go over the taboo and stick to that useless piece of meat?

I guess it's my fault too, in some remote way. I should have told him how I really felt but how could I do that when he looked so happy?

He told me right after their DINNER DATE was over, that it was blissfully fun. He had gotten to know more about this -- this YVAINNE WILKINSON! My ears felt like they were being poured with acid just by hearing him talk about her. He said that he wasn't in love but I knew that he was lying. How could he not be in love with a girl like that?!

She's perfect! For a human anyway! But still!

Ugh! He even had the nerve to drag me down to the stupid Wolfy Cafe and introduced me -- HIS BEST FRIEND -- to her and the worse thing was that she was PERFECTLY beautiful, nice and warm! I couldn't even have the heart to HATE her for that!

And what's even worse, that stupid freaky -- OK, Adrian didn't deserve my outburst here -- Adrian was there. He didn't talk much to me but what was up with that look of pain in his eyes?!

I cannot stand it anymore! You know what, dear diary?? I am going to march straight up to Malcolm when he comes back from meeting Dad and Uncle James tomorrow afternoon.

GOOD-BYE LEXTON!!!!

I don't give a damn care on what Aveline or even Alven going to say about my leaving this stupid idiotic human school! I don't care anymore! Why should I care when my own heart bled like it's going to kill me at this very moment??

Sign me up for the next plane back home!!

Carrie.

***

Aveline bit her lips. What was she doing here? She felt like kicking herself. This wasn't entirely included as a way to avoid falling in love with Maxwell Jay Adams. He had been a pain in the neck in school, well; he didn't really do anything to annoy her. It was the opposite thing. He had been trying all day to talk to her but she wouldn't let him. She was anxious that every second spent with him might accumulate into what she had feared the most.

And now, why had she dragged herself to the front door of his house?

She peered through the window and saw the house was empty. She should feel relieved but funnily, she felt utterly disappointed. She missed him, in some weird way. It was hard for her to explain and she'd wanted to ask Carinelle about it but Carinelle had been so sensitive nowadays that she found it rather discouraging to go to her.

Her brother? Well, she could have gone and asked Alven on what he thought about this weird feeling in her but he's rarely ever home nowadays. The only time she ever saw him was in school and ALWAYS that human girl was with him, clinging to him like he was something precious to let go.

Her wolf on the other hand, felt angry with her.

Why are you so mad with me? She thought to her wolf and it howled and howled like she had wanted something but refused to.

She stood there for a few more minutes and finally feeling silly for standing there with no productive reason. She turned around and held her breath automatically when she saw him running towards her.

It all took a split second for her wolf to decide to run. She ran and jumped up the porch rail, and landed perfectly on her two feet. She risked a glance back and saw him calling her name and still running towards her.

She yelped and started to run full speed ahead, knowing that she had perfect chance of outrunning him if she reached the forest which was only a good 30 metres away.

She ran, flinging her book bag out of the way, regretting in her heart to throw such a perfectly good bag and her books. Guess I have to buy a new one later, she thought remorsefully, and beg Carinelle to lend me her notes.

She was a good runner but Max was faster and within minutes, he tackled her, just a few feet away from the safety of the forest. She shrieked in surprise as they rolled on the ground and then halted to a stop with him being on top of her.

She blinked at him, pure shock filled her face. "How did you outrun me?" she whispered but he didn't even say anything as he bent down and kissed her furiously on her lips.

Stunned, she froze in his kiss for a moment before melting in his arms. Her hands crawled up to his broad back and pulled him to her, becoming one with the kiss.

Once the anger seemed to vanish in him, he stopped, trailing kisses on the bridge of her nose and then softly on her lips. He trailed soft seductive kisses on her neck, his strong arms held her tight to him. She blinked, looking up to the blue sky above, realizing that this was something that she had entirely wanted to avoid.

He ran his hand down the curves of her waist and before he could even do more, she pushed him off her with all her strength. Tears was pooling in her eyes. He looked at her, feeling confused, "Aveline?"

But she shook her head, scrambling up to her feet and leaving the stunned Maxwell. She ran into the safety of the forest, running and running as fast as she could, ripping her clothes into useless unrecognizable pieces as she ran deeper into the forest and phased into her beautiful snowy form.

Max bolted up after her, a few minutes later but she was nowhere to be seen. It was like she had vanished into thin air. "AVVIE!" he called out, his wolf had, for a moment there, felt peace when he was kissing her ever so thoroughly and he wanted to know why it was so.

Why was she affecting his wolf so much? It was like, she had the power to subdue his rebellious tortured wolf. He went further into the forest, scrambling, trying to find any hint of her going there but there was none.

He turned and walked back to his house, not noticing the beautiful snowy wolf watching him, perched on the small hill, behind a wall of green lush trees.

***

Adrian was waiting for him when he came back. "I've contacted my old Pack," he told him quietly. Max just looked at his father. His insides were torn apart when he said that.

"I am not in the mood for this, Dad." Max admitted.

Adrian pretended to not hear any of that as he kept on going, "They're going to send Malcolm of Ruben Pack tomorrow."

"That's it?" Max scoffed. "You rang them up and they just accepted you happily like nothing happen?"

"It's not that easy, Max, for me to do this," Adrian reminded his son, trying to hold his anger.

"It would be a whole lot easier if you'd just say no to that piece of useless crap." Max retorted.

"Someday, you will understand that sometimes it is best to just accept who you are and not who you try to be," Adrian replied softly, "I might be hurting myself for coming back but there are more reasons than just to pay my deeds to Ray."

Max shut his eyes. He could feel the stress building up. His wolf rebelled inside him, waiting for the snap to let him free. He breathed out, trying to even his unstable emotions. "So, tomorrow night's the last day I'll ever be Max Adams, is it?"

"You're never an Adams. It's understandable of you hating my name and choosing your mother's, but yes, by tomorrow, you'll be Maxwell Rolf Thorn. This is something that you ought to have accepted a long time ago. You and I, my son, we are wolves," he paused, looking at his son, "And we can never escape from being who we truly are."

"I hate you Dad."

"You don't hate me," Adrian smiled grimly, "You hate what is half of you."

"This is it then?! I don't have a choice on who I want to be?!"

"You always have a choice, son but not in this matter. It's my fault for not explaining to you on how packs live together but where you and I will go, we are the low ranks."

"THE LOW RANKS?"

"A pack has an Alpha, the Alpha Queen, followed with their offspring... obviously we referred to them as Alpha Prince or Princess and then the in-commands followed with us, commoners. A wolf pack is similar to a human kingdom, Max, we're commoners, here and there in the pack as well. There's not much of a difference."

Max groaned, "I have to bow and show my belly in submission, is that it??"

"This is how packs are," Adrian told him, "With time, you'll see and who knows, things might be a little bit different for us and perhaps for the better."

"You do realize that you are helping some craps on stupid ideas of revenge," he told his father heatedly, "what if they find out about this, eh? What'll happen then?"

And for once, Adrian did not have an answer for his son.

***

Max couldn't stand being in the house any longer. He went through dinner but that was his limit. He couldn't pretend like his father that nothing significant was going on. He stood up from his seat. Adrian looked up but didn't say anything for he understood the rumble in his son's heart.

"I'm going out," Max told his father quickly.

He pushed open the front door, walking down the pavement and then midway, broke into a run into the forest where, strangely, he had started to feel safe in the place he had hated the most. He ran and ran, leaping up small fallen logs and snapping thin branches under his shoes.

He halted to a stop, panting for air, as he rested his back against a tall tree. He stared at the calm flow of the stream, feeling quite at peace as he stared the reflection of the moon on the stream.

The wolf inside him pleaded to be free, howling and yelping at him. He sighed to himself pitifully. What was it like to fully embrace on what he was? The other side of him of which he had denied for so many years and somehow, he knew that his father was right.

Mum wouldn't want me to blame myself, he thought to himself, his thoughts scattered between his guilt, his wolf's desires and of how his ever growing feelings for Aveline.

Why did she run away from him? Was she angry at him for kissing her without her will? He sighed again as he slid down the tree and sat on the ground, not caring the fact that he had dirtied his pants.

"Maybe I shouldn't have done that." He thought bitterly to himself but he couldn't help but do what he had -- well, his wolf had wanted to do it. It was confusing for him for he had never experienced such powerful pull before or even the sense of peace that she had brought upon him. "Maxwell Rolf Thorn..." he whispered his name. "Is that who I am? A common wolf?"

And then, his wolf interrupted, correcting him, 'a common wolf in love with a human girl'.

He smiled to himself. Perhaps this was just like how his parents had been before. His mother was human but she was too fragile. He would know since he was the one who caused her death.

He could still remember it clearly in his mind although he was such a young boy that time. He hadn't known what was really going on with him. His mother had taken him out in the forest for their daily walk. He remembered that his mother loved the forest.

"Because it's the forest that brought your father to me," she had told him a long time ago when he was a child.

He had felt stabbing pain in his body, slowly and gradually dispersing all over him. He had ignored the ache, he didn't even tell his mother about it. And then, in all split second, the pain was too much to bear. His mother yelled at him, trying to calm him down, screamed for his father when she realized that she couldn't control what she thought her son had become.

And then, it was too late.

Max groaned, not wanting to remember the pain or even the memory of the disastrous day. His clothes torn with his phasing to his wolf form and his mind was clouded. He couldn't think straight and he panicked even more when he saw how detailed and crystal clear everything had become. He could even see the speck of dew on the leaves.

His mother had been too close.

His phase had injured his mother. She was laying face-front on the ground, bleeding on her abdomen from the slash of his paws. He didn't mean to hurt her. She was just too close.

He panicked even more when he realized that he was standing on four paws. He could hear his father running to them. And he panicked so he sprinted to the other side, worrying of a childish worry that his father might smack him.

He should have stayed there.

At least, he could have been with his mother on her last few minutes before leaving them forever.

He couldn't understand. His young mind was confused at that time. He continued to run mindlessly all night long till his father had tracked him down in his wolf form in the early dawn.

Although, his father did not blame him for what had happened. Maxwell blamed himself.

So, he should be wise enough to realize that he and Aveline were not meant to be, for he was a wolf and she was human.

She deserved something much better than a broken wolf which refused to embrace on who it was.

But, sadly, his wolf wouldn't want to let go.

***

Aveline phased back to her naked human form and walked weakly a few feet more before crumpling and she curled herself in a fetal position in Rubenston forest ground. She had perhaps sprinted as fast and as long as she had never done before in her entire life. She closed her eyes, wanting to calm down the fire inside of her.

The kiss was strong and passionate. She almost gave in to her instincts but her conscience mind woke her up from such a beautiful slumber. She felt she was right there, perfectly at home with Max. Strange feeling of wanting to be one with him was still burning within her. She wouldn't be mated with Max if she had decided to sleep with him. First of all, Max was a human, so it wouldn't count as mating unless she had bit him. But who ever heard of a human-wolf mating anyway?

There would be absolutely no harm if she had chose to continue with kissing him and with how they had kissed. Their heat together would have lead to utter sex in open view. She shuddered at the thought of losing her purity in such an open place where people could have seen them!

Ironically, the scenario of people -- or rather wolves -- seeing her mating for the first time would definitely happen as that was how protocol dictated. Unless she had a choice like her parents had. She smiled wanly at that thought.

Her wolf howled within her, wanting to see Maxwell again and in truth, she wanted to see him too. It was weird because Maxwell was a human, so she knew that it wasn't her wolf recognizing him as a potential mate.

Perhaps, her wolf was just feeling super naughty tonight.

She stood up, not caring the fact that she was naked from head to toe. She brushed the dirt away from her curvaceous body and started to walk to the house where one of the low ranks had hurried to her side and offered her a silk robe.

***

Max stared at the moon. "Forgive me, dear Moon," he whispered, "I have forgotten you for so long."

He stood up, a sigh emitted from him. He slowly unbuttoned his shirt and folded it neatly on the tree branch near him. His chest was beautiful. He took off his pants and folded it neatly on top of his shirt. He felt strangely weird and satisfied to stand there naked. His wolf howled happily inside him.

He closed his eyes and for a moment there, he didn't know what to do. How was he to phase again for he had forgotten the way?

Follow your instinct, Max, he thought silently in his soul.

There was a crumbling wall inside him, containing the tortured wolf for so many years. The wolf scratched its claw on the wall just as Max closed his eyes and let the other side of him merge together into one willingly.

The wolf inside howled happily as the wall crumbled down, it sprinted and leaped inside him and he phased willingly for the first time in his chocolate brown wolf form.

He blinked his eyes. His vision was confusing at first for everything was crystal clear and high in definition. He started to run up the hill and then leaping above some huge boulders just to stretch those rusty muscles.

And for once, he felt complete.

His wolf then wanted to find the beautiful snowy wolf. He wanted to do that also, so he sprinted and leaped. Air swished past him as he went towards the forest where he had first seen the wolf.

And with his luck, the wolf was probably just a regular wolf.

***

She tied the silk robe to her body. She looked behind her and stared at the forest. The low rank waited for its Alpha Princess. "Are you hungry, milady?" the low rank asked politely.

She shook her head slowly and somehow in daze. She walked mindlessly a few steps to the forest.

"Milady?"

The low rank broke her trance. She smiled at him, "I'm all right."

"Malcolm had called in earlier," he told her, "He has very good news when he comes back tomorrow evening."

"That's good." She replied back, not really registering what the low rank had said. She took another step forward and then suddenly, broke into a run to the forest.