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Trinity
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"You're just insufferable." Reece told him, but he was actually grinning. I think he was just mentally calling Michael what you call someone who assumes something.
"Fine, we've got it all figured out, we will have the same event at the same time." Michael said. But as he was about to stand, I stopped him.
"I've never been to the Hunter's moon events, could you explain them to me, at least briefly?" I looked at Reece and saw the frustration flash in his eyes, I smiled at him as sweetly as I could.
"Oh, that's right, you wouldn't know." Michael said in a kindly voice. "I will be happy to explain it to you."
"Thank you, Michael, you're so sweet."
"No." He smiled, blushing briefly before he continued. "You see, Child, the Hunter's moon event allows all pack members with a wolf to run through the forest and mountains in search of prey. We spend much of the night running freely. As we have to keep ourselves hidden from the humans, we're not really able to run through the forest in our wolf forms most of the time. We can manage it in small numbers or for short periods of time. And since the impact on the wildlife in the immediate area would suffer too greatly if we all started hunting freely year-round, we are allowed one night a year when we can hunt without having to worry. Of course, we can get permission from our Alpha to hunt, but we can't hunt in excess or it will affect the natural way of things."
Michael's explanation definitely helped me to understand why the Hunter's moon event was so important to the pack members. They would look forward to it all year. In that moment, I kind of envied the rest of the pack for having their wolf.
I started thinking about what I would be doing on that day of the Hunter's moon. Then I remembered what day the Hunter's moon fell on.
"Wait a minute, what about all the children?"
"They don't have a wolf, they can't participate." Reece answered firmly, as if he thought I was stupid.
"No, that's not what I meant. The Hunter's moon is on Halloween. How are the children going to spend it?" I asked them.
"Well, if they're old enough, they can go trick-or-treating alone. Or with friends and older siblings. But if not, I guess they'll just have to skip it."
"I've heard some grandparents are taking their grandchildren into the city, but there's simply not enough to take them all." Noah added. That broke my heart, the kids shouldn't have to miss Halloween.
"It's just a silly holiday, there will be more." Reece tried to put an end to the discussion.
"There will be others." Noah added.
"I'm sure the children will be fine." Michael finished for them. I just nodded my head.
This was breaking my heart. I know that it was an important day in our pack. But the parents have had several Hunter's moon events, they could skip it. It's not like the Hunter's moon was always on Halloween, the next time it happened their kids would all be grown, next year they could have both, but this year put family first.
Perhaps I was just taking this personally because I was never allowed to go trick-or-treating as a child. Every year I watched my cousins get excited about their nighttime excursion. They would get dressed up and head out into the night with Aunt Eve and Uncle Wesley.
Grandfather would always come on Halloween and pick me up, telling them I was not allowed to go. I had insisted on getting a costume a couple times, but then I by the time I turned four I learned that I would never be going with the others.
Seeing them leaving without me always made me cry. Grandfather would tell me to stop my blubbering, that it was not ladylike to cry as I was. I would be given extra studies on Halloween, learning something he deemed I needed to improve upon.
Sometimes, I used to tell myself that Grandfather was just worried I would disappear on him, like his daughter did that weekend. He had failed and something happened to his daughter. He never did believe that she had betrayed him, not deep down in his heart. And I think her suicide hurt him so much more than I, or anyone else, could fathom. That he was overprotective of me, and that he was just always a man that was bad with his words. At least that's what I used to tell myself, anyway.
The meeting was over now, and it was time for Michael to leave. Noah was showing him out. I was about to leave, as it was just Reece and myself in the room now.
"Did you enjoy delaying my day?" He asked me.
"I didn't do it just to be inconvenient." I told him honestly. "I truly hadn't ever been told about the event before." I told him.
"But you admit you wanted to be inconvenient?" He asked me. I just shrugged my shoulders. "You're playing with fire here." He told me.
"Good thing you're covered in so much ice." He arched an eyebrow at my words. "It'd be no fun if I melted you too soon after all, I need you to hang in there at least a little." He growled at me like he usually did. "Careful Benji, or I might need to rename the puppy again." I cooed as I walked to the door. "Bye, sweetie." I chanted in a sweet voice, batting my eyelashes at him as I left the room.
I hurried back to my room. I had a plan, and I would need help to make it happen. I shut, and locked, my door before flopping onto my bed with my phone in hand. It only rang twice before Juniper answered.
"Hey there Trin, what's up?" She asked me in a cheerful voice.
"I've got a plan, but I need assistants to help me." I told her. I could tell that her attitude had changed completely, she was excited on the other end of the line now.
"What do you need?" She asked me. I smiled at her eagerness.
"Do you know what day the Hunter's moon falls on?"
"Yeah, Halloween." She answered automatically.
"Uh huh, what do you think that means for a lot of kids?" I heard the gasp as she realized what was going to happen.
"Oh my Goddess, Trin, they're gonna miss it." Her voice was full of anguish as she answered.
"Yup."
"The poor kids."
"I want to do something about it."
"What can you do?" She asked me curiously.
"Well, I can't go to the event, so-." She interrupted me immediately.
"What do you mean you can't go?" She demanded.
"I don't have a wolf, Juniper." I reminded her.
"Oh, yeah, duh." She said laughing. "So, what are you going to do?"
"I'm going to throw the kids a Halloween party."
"Cool, where at?"
"Here." I told her. I heard her gasp at my declaration.
"You mean like out in the forest?" She was still in denial.
"Nope."
"You're going to throw a Halloween party for the kids, inside the Alpha house?" She asked.
"Yup, want to help me?" I was hoping she wouldn't be too afraid to come here and help me pull this off.
"Oh, you bet your tiny little ass I'm going to help." She told me firmly.
"What's that?" I heard Paul yell in the background.
"Trinity is throwing a Halloween party for all the kids at the Alpha house." She told him.
"Why?" He was confused.
"It's the same day as the Hunter's moon."
"Oh Goddess, I never even put it together until now. I can't believe we never even thought about it. We were only thinking about the wolf aspect of it I guess."
"Hey, ask Paul if he wants to help out too, you guys will have to miss the event though."
"You want to help Paul."
"Hell yes." He said.
"You'll have to miss the event." She told him.
"So, who cares, I've been to a few already, and there will be more. This is bound to be more interesting."
"Awesome." I was smiling to myself.
"Hey, can I help too?" I heard Cedar yell somewhere in the background. He must be at Juniper's house right now, that saved me a call.
"He was going to be my next call." I told Juniper.
"She said you saved her a phone call." Juniper answered him.
"You all should come by tomorrow, I don't want the wrong guards hearing about this, and since my room isn't being watched anymore, it's safer here than anywhere else." With that, my plan was set into motion, I just needed to get the rest of the help.
Over the next two weeks I enlisted the help of several others, secretly of course. Carter, Aunt Eve, and Uncle Wesley were of course willing to join me. Nikki would help but Noah had to prioritize his business as assistant but promised to keep Reece out of our hair while we got everything set up. He said, Reece just so happened to, conveniently, have a board meeting that day. An in person, in corporate office, meeting. I couldn't thank him enough, I threw my arms around him and hugged him tight as I thanked him for his help.
