The Goddess's Omega

Jaxton - Awakening

I woke with a start. Someone was calling my name but they sounded so far away. Once I got my eyes to focus, I realized that I was not in the Red River pack house. I wasn't in ANY house as far as I could tell. I looked up and the sky was black with only the moon shining in the distance. I heard the voice calling my name a second time. I stood up and looked around me. I was in a field of flowers and the moon was shining peacefully overhead. I found it odd that it was a full moon, considering that when I had gone to sleep the moon had been nearly dark, almost a new moon. The voice repeated calling me, so I decided to follow it. I found a clearing with a garden table set up. There was a beautiful woman with long dark hair sitting on one of the chairs. When she noticed me, she indicated that I should sit in the empty chair.

"Do you know who I am?" She asked, after I had taken a seat and a sip of the tea she had waiting for me. I nodded. There was no mistaking who she was, and now that I knew who she was, I also knew where I was. I was in the Moon Garden. "Do you know why I have called you here?"

"I have an idea. It's about my sister, yes?" I replied after taking another sip of my tea.

"Yes, but it is also about you," she said serenely. "Do you know who Aegeus was and who he was in relation to you?" I nodded again. "The vision your sister saw is one of many futures that are in play at the moment. But even I cannot see which path the future will take. Alpha Mosley, for all that he is a good Alpha, has lost sight of what is most important, and that is protecting his people. He has become hungry for power, which is a dangerous thing in a man like him. There are wars brewing, both here in Red River and in the entire supernatural world. And you, your sister, and Luna Tessa are at the heart of it. The only path that I can see clearly now is the one in which you must make Alpha Mosley remember who he is and where he came from. I can't tell you any more than that." For a brief moment, Selene looked like a lost child, sad and alone. We sat in comfortable silence. "Jaxton Price, eons ago, I cursed your past life that he would never know happiness until my own child had been reunited with her love. I see now, that in my anger, I was wrong. Aegeus did nothing wrong; I was..."

"It doesn't matter what you were, my Goddess. I am here now. I will make sure Lexia finds the happiness she deserves," I vowed passionately. The Moon Goddess looked at me with what I thought were tears shining in her eyes. She pulled me in for a hug. I stumbled as she embraced me, and it was awkward as hell to be held by the Moon Goddess herself, but I felt myself relaxing in her arms, reveling in the feeling of being in a mother's arms.

She stepped back and gripped my shoulders, staring intently into my eyes. She placed her hand on my head, and her black eyes glowed with a silver light. I felt something pop in my head, and an intense pain filled my head, radiating out from where her hands were. I felt myself falling, and as I fell, I heard her voice. "Sleep now, my sweet Guardian. When you awaken, you will find yourself vastly changed. You and Nox."

I jolted awake as though I had been falling. As soon as my eyes were open, I groaned in pain. I laid back on the pillow and covered my eyes with my arm. The pain got more intense with movement, so I tried very hard to keep as still as I possibly could. This was a new feeling for me. I was used to feeling pain, but this was something new, and I wasn't too sure I liked the feeling.

"Jax. Jax. Wake up. Alpha Mosley is calling for you," I heard Lexia say. She sounded so far away, as though she were at the other end of a very long tunnel. I heard myself groan. I attempted to get up, but the movement sent a wave of nausea through me, and I clamped my mouth shut so that I wouldn't get sick all over her or the room. I fell back against my pillow, unable to move. "André! André, get some help! Something's wrong with Jax!"

There was a flurry of movement around me, but I didn't have the ability to process anything beyond the pain. I was vaguely aware of Alpha Mosley coming to our room, and then the distinct feeling of being lifted. In a very small part of my mind I marveled that there was someone who could actually lift me, but then I felt myself being strapped to something hard. A word came to mind: gurney. That was it. I was being strapped to a gurney. That made some sense in my addled mind. The lights overhead seemed to flicker as I was rushed out of my room and down to the pack's hospital wing.

I drifted in and out of consciousness. I was barely aware of Lexia or André placing cooling cloths on my forehead as my fever would spike and recede over and over again. Every time my fever would spike, the doctor would come in and put some medicine in the IV line that they had started for me. A few times I would wake up only to roll over and immediately get sick. The doctor would give me medicine for that as well. My world revolved around moments of clarity and moments of endless drifting. It was horribly unsettling for me. I had never caught so much as a cold, and it was impossible for any injuries to stay long enough for me to need medical attention for them.

The room was dark when I opened my eyes. They felt gritty and matted shut. I groaned reflexively expecting pain, but the pain was finally gone. Sure, I hurt all over, but it was more soreness than actual pain. A cold cloth was drawn across my head, and I glanced at the person holding the cloth. I was thankful it was André. I smiled warmly at him.

"Are you finally back?" The big man asked.

I nodded. "I could use a shower. I feel nasty. How long was I out?" I croaked hoarsely.

"It's been a week. You sure had your sister worried. The doctor finally had to give her a sedative because she wouldn't leave your side. It was undoing all of your healing. She's in the room next door. She refused to leave entirely. She's a spitfire," he laughed. "Come on. Let's get your shower, and then we'll go see her." He helped me up, and I wobbled as I stood. He took me into the bathroom and then helped me into the shower. That was the best shower in my entire life, bar none. I washed the week's worth of grime, sweat, and sickness, and scrubbed my body till my skin was red. I opened the shower curtain to find some clothes hanging there for me. Lexia burst through the door just as I walked out of the bathroom. She wrapped her arms around my waist and sobbed. I heard her say something like she thought I was going to die. I patted her back and let her cry.

The doctor came in and saw that I was awake. He did a quick check on me, and then pronounced me fit enough to be discharged. On the way back to our room in the packhouse, I felt odd. Different. Stronger. I asked Nox, and all he could tell me was that the Moon Goddess had done something to us, but we wouldn't know until the next time we shifted. Nox said that the next time we shifted we would be awakened. Whatever that meant.