Read covencraft 02.5 - carnival moon for Free Online

speak closer to her ear.
    “As guests of tonight’s carnival, we hold a special place - eating higher up in the pack ranking.”
    “But there’s going to be enough food, right?” Jade asked, suddenly nervous. What if there wasn’t enough for everyone? She looked at the buffet plates, piled high, and then at the crowd of people. It’s not like it was madly crowded, but there were a lot of good-sized people and they all did just spend however long running in the woods. Plus, everything smelled so good.
    “There will be more than enough. No one ever goes hungry at a werewolf party.”
    As if to cap off Paris’ sentiment, an excited howl went up sparking off about five or six more in chorus. Now at the front of the line, Jade was handed a plate by a shy young boy who looked up at her through his eyelashes and smiled. He turned away, blushing a bit when Jade smiled and thanked him. She loaded up her plate, trying to eye the dishes up ahead in order to make the best use of it.
    “What are you doing?” Paris asked, watching her crane her neck.
    “Buffets are all about real estate. Don’t wanna fill up too early and not leave room on your plate for something good at the end. Is that garlic toast do you think? Or like a sweet pastry bread?” she asked, pointing at something a table away.
    “Garlic toast,” the person behind her said, tapping her nose with a finger. “Heavy on the garlic.”
    “Nice,” Jade said in admiration, her mouth already watering at the thought.
    Once Jade’s plate finally full of delectables, Paris touched her arm once, drawing her attention to where Lucia and Galen sat. Lucia waved them over with a gracious sweep of her hand. There were a few circular tables set up, but the kids had chosen to hunker down on the floor, making impromptu little clusters that Jade and Paris had to weave their way through.
    The food was simply spiced but flavorful and tasty. Jade wondered if they grew their own vegetables or raised their own meat because everything tasted so real - the carrots were juicy, the meat was tender, the potato salad wasn’t salty and yet still tasted so good. She pulled apart her bun and wanted to whimper at the flaky goodness. While Lucia ate, several wolves would pause by her chair and she would rest a hand on their arm, give them a hug, or touch them in some way. Once the pack member had gotten a touch from Lucia , they moved on to another table, seemingly satisfied. While Lucia touched her pack member, her focus wasn’t ever pulled from the conversation she was holding with Paris and Galen about the latest Supernatural Council meeting. Jade wondered if her ability to split her focus was just the nature of being the Alpha or if it was something to do with Lucia personally. A few small children popped up next to Lucia, and she stroked their hair or kissed them on the cheek before tapping their butts and sending them along on their way, all without breaking stride in the conversation.
    The pack definitely seemed more like a family than the Coven did. Maybe that was because it was smaller, numbering about forty-five people to the Coven’s two hundred. Watching the pack interact Jade felt, however, it had more to do with their nature than their numbers. She didn’t know any group of witches, even as a subset of the coven, who were as tactile or as familiar as the pack seemed to be. They touched one another in passing, there was food sharing off plates, friendly slaps to the shoulders, kids running around with parents chasing after them. The werewolf carnival was a far cry from the Coven ball Jade attended a short while ago. The wolves were more relaxed and fun, without any formal speeches or ceremony.
    Jade wondered if she would feel more at home with the wolves than she did with the witches. Or would she be trading one set of problems for another?
    A small face appeared at her elbow, a child of perhaps five or six, wearing a crude paper-mache mask. Her pigtails bobbed and she looked