Their Forgotten Luna

The Heart of a Wolf

Cierra:

Dinner, training, it all passed in a blur of light and sound.

The shower I was hiding in was scalding away everything but the inadequacy I felt after the council meeting today. No amount of hot water could wash away how the elders looked at me.

Alyssa’s words played back, over and over, her poison dripping from each syllable.

Finally, I was able to pry myself from the tile wall, towel off, and throw on a baggy shirt and shorts before stepping out to discover Dom waiting for me.

“Hi.” I managed.

“Hi.” He said, patting the bed next to him. Something in the motion made my heart skip a beat. I felt like he was about to tell me something I didn’t want to hear. Instead, he took the towel from my hair, drying it softly and slowly until every last drop had stopped, then, in the quiet of the room, he brushed my hair.

“They’re all fools, Cierra. They have always been so foolish not to see what you are.” I broke then, the tears falling angrily.

He leaned against my headboard, pulling me into his arms. He braided my hair while I cried my anger out on his black t-shirt.

His fingers made lazy trails across my skin, sweet and tender, each trail leaving blazes of fire across my skin that lulled me into some sense of peace.

My eyes fluttered closed in his presence, in this sense of peace, then I heard her.

“You are not whole.” Her words came softly, yet it was like a punch to the gut.

“Did you hear that?” I asked Dom.

“Hear what?” He asked lazily. I only smiled.

“I think I just heard my wolf.” His eyes opened wider then.

“Well, tomorrow is your birthday. Maybe that’s why. Yes, you lost her, but most wolves don’t get their wolves until eighteen. You got yours at sixteen since you have Beta blood. But, maybe something in that magic that happens at eighteen will bring her back.” I focused on his words and prayed to the goddess above that he was right, then I drifted off to the feeling of his fingers on my skin, the sound of his heart beneath my ear, and the love in his presence.

Drifting and drifting until I woke up to the feeling of tall grass beneath my skin.

I sat up swiftly, confused at how I went from being draped across Dom to being here... wherever here is.

“It’s only a dream,” the same voice from earlier spoke in a sing-song voice, one meant to keep me from panicking, but did nothing of the sort.

I stood ready to fight, taking in my surroundings just like how Dom taught me. Only if I weren’t trying to focus, I would be enthralled by this place.

The air shimmered, spun fine as silver silk. Above, the moon hung too near, vast and watching, its light drenching the world in a glow that pressed every shadow flat to the earth. Forests stretched without end, their trunks tall and ancient, veins of silver running through their bark like lifeblood. Rivers cut through the land, not of water but of molten light, their currents whispering songs no living throat had sung in centuries. Wolves prowled at the edges of sight, forged of starlight and silence, their eyes deep as galaxies, and where the rivers bled together, she waited—sometimes woman, sometimes wolf, cloaked always in radiance. Watcher. Judge. Goddess. This was her realm, where souls were summoned to kneel beneath the eternal moon, to be bound, broken, or blessed.

“Calm down, Achilles, before you hurt yourself,” my wolf snorted, stepping from the tall grass into view.

I fell to my knees before her, weeping at her presence. I had no idea she was mine, only that I knew without a doubt that she was, and seeing her cracked something wide open in me.

“Happy Birthday, my girl.” She nuzzled into me, lying down so she and I were eye to eye.

“Please tell me you’re coming back with me,” I sniffled, my tears still falling as she licked them away before saying the thing I dreaded hearing.

“Not yet, you’re not whole yet. When you become whole, I can come home to you.” Her muzzle was soft and warm against my face as she leaned into me, comforting me.

“How do I become whole?” I asked.

“I can’t tell you that, I can only tell you not to listen to those d.i.c.k weasels who are trying to make us look bad. We rock, and you used to know that before those losers made you submit. Get your fire back, then I can come home.” I fell from grace with her parting words, hard and fast like razors through the wind, and when I landed, I landed softly in the arms of the man who put me to sleep, waking to the loud knocking of someone who sounded desperate for help.

“BETA! BETA! Have you seen the Alpha? Rogues have been spotted near the territory!” Those were words that sent a cold chill through my warmed skin.

“No, I haven’t. But, I will find him.” I yelled back, looking a wide-eyed Dom in the eyes as I covered his mouth.

His scent wrapped thickly around me, my body grinding against his on instinct.

“Prepare the perimeter, get more men out there. If they’re that close, they may already be on the territory lines. I will join you with Alpha Dominic in just a moment. I will find him, get moving!” I demanded letting my Beta aura slip on accident.

“Yes, Beta.” The warrior said, before leaving, as my lips crashed into Dominic’s.

“Mate!” I growled, slipping my tongue into his mouth, my mind knowing it needed to move my body to get dressed, to deal with the rogues, but my body only ground deeper into his, grinding hard against his bulging hard on until a moan of sheer need was forced from me.

He flipped me onto my back hard, his fingers digging into my skin, pinning my arms above my head, his teeth grazing my marking spot.

“Wait!” I tightened my legs, flipping him beneath me, shattering my bedside lamp with the force of the roll.

“We have to wait! Rogues.” I hummed, slipping my hands beneath his shirt, feeling how hard his body was, muscled with years of training to lead this pack with a brutal viciousness that I was currently interrupting.

“I know,” He snarled, ripping my shirt off, standing from beneath me, setting me gently on the floor as he stripped his torn shirt off.

“Get dressed before I take you against the wall until every frame hanging is shattered on the floor.” Words so full of promise that I almost wanted to test them, see if we could really shatter every frame on the walls around us. But, instead, I broke free from him, doing as he said and dressing in my fighting clothes before finally walking to the balcony where his massive wolf stood waiting for me to mount his back and jump into the territory that rogues were surrounding.