When night fell, each of the young women said goodnight and went to bed.
Luz performed the same ritual, brushing her teeth and putting on a light white nightgown to sleep. She lay down on the soft bed, closed her eyes, and began to dream. The first thing that appeared in her dreams were her parents, which brought her peace and happiness, but just like the night before, her dreams were interrupted by darkness. Once again, she saw images of war where different creatures were battling: wolves, bears, elves, dwarves, fairies, and others she couldn't identify, all engaged in battle and fighting against a dark and sinister enemy. She was filled with terror. Suddenly, she found herself in her room lying on the bed with the lights off. She heard the unfamiliar voice of a woman knocking insistently on the door. "Luz, Luz, are you there? Let me in, Luz." The soft but insistent knocks were repeated with the question of whether she could come in. Luz remained still, pretending to be asleep, but faced with the insistence, she said, "Come in!" She immediately regretted her words. As she said yes, she felt a cold air grab her feet, sending a chill up her spine. She felt a weight on her chest and throat, and once again, she was being strangled. She couldn't scream; the force pressing down on her throat prevented her from making any sound. She couldn't see anything because it was dark. Luz struggled and, unable to speak, used her mind to say, "Go away, get out of here, go away!" To her surprise, she felt that whatever had attacked her was gone. She sat up in bed and wanted to get up to turn on the light, but she was terrified. She didn't understand anything that was happening. Suddenly, she heard someone knocking insistently on her door again, and the female voice asked again to be let in. In the darkness, she could only make out a dark shape approaching her and growling.
Luz screamed, "GO AWAY!" Her scream was so loud that it woke everyone in the warehouse.
She ran desperately to Aliana's room while the guard covered his ears in reaction to the pain caused by the scream.
Aliana was dazed as Luz shook her, repeating, "They're attacking us, they're attacking us, the monsters are attacking us!" Luz seemed to be in a trance, her eyes open but lost.
Aliana was even more surprised when she heard the alarms sounding to warn that they were under attack.
Sarmiento took them immediately to the safe zone.
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"We're under attack!"
"I know that, tell me who we're fighting!" the Alpha asked his Beta anxiously.
Xioma continued, "An Antrax is approaching from the front. Our sentry saw it just before we heard that terrible noise that woke us up."
"Let's go," said Alpha in his commanding voice. 'We'll kill that monster. Gamma! Get the population to safety. You know what to do if we can't contain it.' 'Order,' said Cas. "We'll go to the front to block its path."
Gamma wanted to help in the battle, but he obeyed Alpha's order.
The monster wasn't one of the biggest, but it was still lethal. The Alpha, in his wolf form, lunged at the monster, followed by his warriors. They finished it off in a few minutes and prevented it from reaching the herd thanks to the sentry's timely warning.
"What was all that?" Beta asked as they dragged the monster's body away so as not to attract more of its kind.
"What do you mean?" asked the commander.
"This. I guess the noise that woke us up was the creature, the human."
Thanks to the commotion, the Alpha hadn't processed it, but now that Xioma mentioned it, he wanted to clarify things. Did the creature call the monster?
When they finished, both shape-shifters headed for the human's room, which was empty. Neither his sister nor the guard were there. A chill ran down the Alpha's spine as anger began to rise, his eyes darkened, and he ran, sniffing for his sister's scent. They reached the rooms of the Omegas who worked in the cargo house, which was also considered the safe zone. He could see Aliana among the population, who were still somewhat frightened.
"Where is she?" the Alpha asked his sister.
"Where is who?"
"Don't play dumb. Where is the human?"
"She's with the healer. She was attacked while she was sleeping. They were strangling her. She managed to break free and warn us that we were being attacked. After that, she fainted. Lina is treating her wounds. Her neck was almost destroyed, even more than when you squeezed her."
The Alpha and Beta's eyes met in disbelief. They couldn't believe the story.
"Brother, leave her alone. She's unconscious. Even if you want to get something out of her, it'll be impossible."
"Cas, come on," the Beta's voice sounded exhausted. "We have to reinforce our defenses and find out what's happening with the other packs."
They organized a large reinforcement with warriors and sentries. They would see what they found on the outskirts in the morning.
That night, Caspian slept only two hours. He wasn't used to monsters attacking the pack. They usually attacked when they were traveling or ambushed them in areas that weren't part of their territory, but he had never seen anything like this before.
He was intrigued by all this and wondered what connection it could have with the human woman. He wondered what had happened to the monster that had attacked her and left her unconscious. His men searched everywhere and found no sign of it.
In the safe zone, they had another concern.
"Luz, calm down, you can come out now, no one will attack you." The story about her neck was just a ploy by Aliana so that Cas wouldn't grab her.
What happened to Luz was only in her dreams, but they felt so real that they scared her. The good thing was that her scream alerted the sentry before the monster could get close.
Roxi advised Luz to sleep with her that night to avoid another bad experience with the Alpha.
Tomorrow everyone would be busy with the moon festival, so it was highly unlikely that anyone would take up the matter until the day after the festival.
"Are you sure the ceremony will go ahead, considering the monster attack?" Aliana asked Roxi.
"This ceremony cannot be canceled. Everyone is waiting for it, and neither the Alpha, the Gamma, nor the Beta are willing to miss this opportunity. They still haven't found their destined mates. They'll probably increase security to ensure a safe ceremony."
"How do they find their mates?" Luz asked curiously, still not understanding the process. The girl naively thought that the moonlight reflected on the couple, like spotlights, and that was how they found each other.
Roxi put her hand on her chin, looked up at the sky, closed her eyes briefly, and opened them after a sigh. "I'll explain it to you in simple terms. The Moon Goddess assigns each wolf a mate that they can recognize by their scent. When they are close to each other and have reached the age of majority with their pheromones working, the predestined mates perceive each other's scent. This scent is unique to each individual, and in the case of mates, they will feel that it is the best scent they have ever smelled.
Luz smiled slyly at Roxi's solemn face, but after her explanation, Luz couldn't help but think of the shape-shifters sniffing each other's rear ends like dogs to get to know each other.
Roxi was wise, she was absolutely right in what she said, the ceremony would take place no matter what. The single members of the different packs were already on their way and would begin arriving throughout the day, starting early.