ADAIRA
~
All the figurative butterflies in my tummy seemed to die at once. A cold feeling of dread settled in my tummy instead and I began to sweat for no apparent reason. My heart immediately tried to convince me that it couldn’t possibly be Tyler that said that. Maybe someone was just trying to play a prank on me, but then he spoke again and there was no doubt that it was him in there saying those words.
“I’m serious, father, I’m done pretending I care about her. She’s not even my type.” Tyler said in a tone dripping with disdain.
“I don’t care if she’s your type or not, Tyler, you will claim her as your mate tonight.” The Alpha growled at his son.
I could hear the anger in his voice and it made me shiver. Or maybe the shiver was for a different reason, who knows. I don’t really know what or how I’m supposed to feel except that it seemed like my heart was being ripped from my chest.
“She’s just an Omega, a weak Omega. I can never accept her as a mate. I only dated her because you made me do it. Every time I was forced to hold her or kiss her, you have no idea how badly it disgusted me.” He growled at his father.
“She’s not just any Omega, she’s a white wolf, Tyler. No pack has had a white wolf in centuries. Do you know the level of prestige we enjoy just because of her presence here? She may be a weak Omega, but she has been touched by the moon Goddess. There must be a reason for that, so we must keep her here. She must not leave our pack.”
“Chain her to her damn house if you really want her here, father. I have my own mate, and I’m claiming her tonight, not Adaira. I’m done playing your games. If she’s so important to you, then mate her yourself.”
“I would if I could you silly boy, but I already have a mate. White wolves usually mate with Alphas. If you don’t mate her, another Alpha from a different pack will do so. The other pack Alphas will be in attendance for this ceremony and their heirs will come with them. Do not let Adaira get away from you. We have no idea what the moon Goddess has in store for her, but it must be something important. Getting mated to her will make you a part of it too and it will also…”
I didn’t wait to listen to what more the Alpha had to say, I just turned and ran out of the house. I’ve heard enough. I ran all the way back to my house. I was already in tears before I even got back to my room. I heard my phone ringing but I didn’t even have the energy to pick it up. It was the ringtone I had set specifically for my mother’s number. Knowing that she was calling me made me cry even harder. It was probably time for the ceremony, everything they would have gained from me mating with Tyler will never be a reality now. I couldn’t possibly get mated to Tyler now that I know the truth. They would go back to being ordinary Omegas, not the esteemed parents of the Luna.
All the love I felt for Tyler was suffocating me from the inside and I just couldn’t stop the tears that were pouring in an endless stream down my face. I heard the door to my house open and close, yet I still didn’t move, I didn’t even care if we were being attacked by rogues. Maybe being dead was even better than this pain in my heart.
“Adaira! What are you still doing here? I’ve been calling you. The ceremony is about to start.” My mother said as she walked into my room, the door was already open.
“Momma.” I turned to face her with a tear streaked face and she frowned.
“What’s wrong, honey?” She asked but I didn’t reply.
I just moved towards her and let her embrace me. Being in the comfort of my mother’s arms made me cry even more, I just couldn’t stop.
“What’s going on? Why is she crying?” My father said as he joined us in my bedroom.
I felt my mother’s head move to indicate that she didn’t know why I was crying.
“Ady, what’s wrong? Talk to papa.”
I moved out of my mother’s arms and hugged my father.
“Are you scared of getting mated? I understand that it’s a new phase for you and a lot of things will change when you become the next in line Luna, but there’s no reason to cry. You’re going to be okay.” My father said as he tried to soothe me.
I shook my head that was still pressed into his chest, then I moved back so I could speak.
“I’m not going to be the Luna. I can’t get mated to Tyler anymore.” I said through my tears.
“What do you mean? Did something happen?”
“I went to Tyler’s house. He was talking to his father, he said he doesn’t want to get mated to me. He doesn’t want me, he doesn’t even like me. He thinks I’m just a weak Omega. His father is the one forcing him to mate with him because I’m a white wolf. It was all a lie, father, all the times we spent together.” I tried to hug my father again but he pulled back with a frown.
“Is that why you’re crying here like a child?” My father asked.
I looked at him in confusion, did he not understand what I just explained to him?
“Father, I…”
“Clean your tears and fix your dress. We’re going to the pack square and you will get mated to Tyler.” My father said and even my mother’s eyes widened in surprise.
“What do you mean, father?”
“You heard me. It doesn’t matter if Tyler is doing this of his own free will or not, what matters is that he’ll listen to his father and so will you.”
“I won’t mate with someone who has been deceiving me, someone who lied to me.” I said to my father and he grabbed my arm roughly.
I gasped because my father had never treated me like this.
“Don’t be selfish, Adaira. You know what your mating will mean for this family so suck it up. Once Tyler is mated to you, it won’t matter if he doesn’t want you, he won’t be able to separate himself from you except in death.”
I turned to my mother so she could help me convince my father that what he was saying was crazy. But, one look at my mother and I knew she agreed with my father. She may have been surprised initially, but I realised that prestige was more important to them right now than me or my feelings.
How did my life get so messed up?
ADAIRA ~ I walked with a smile on my face between my parents as they led me back to the pack square. My parents stood on either side of me like they were afraid I would run at the slightest opportunity. I wanted to, but I stayed for their sake. Even if it felt like my heart was being torn to shreds, I wouldn’t be selfish, they’ve given up so much for me, this was the least I could do to give them a better life. I would smile and pretend to be happy, I would mate Tyler even if he loathed my existence. It was a full moon, that was the only time this kind of ceremony could be held. Fated mates could have their mating ceremonies at any time, but those like me and Tyler that weren’t fated but decided to choose each other had to mate on the night of a full moon. It was a symbolism of getting the moon Goddess’ blessing for the union. The light of the moon always gave me comfort, and tonight was no different. I prayed to the moon Goddess for the strength to go through with this and what I
SOMEWHERE IN THE CENTRE OF ALL THE PACKS, IN THE PHYSICAL BOUNDARY BETWEEN OUR REALM AND THE NETHER REALMI was buried deep in the earth and have been here for centuries, yet, the howl was strong enough to seep through multiple layers of earth and get to me. Another one of the invisible chains that held me here loosened as a flare of light wrapped around it. I was bound to the female that howl came from, I could feel the bond from the moment that she was born. During her birth, it was a full blood moon, the strongest of moons, I could feel its power despite being buried so deep. The second her infant cry rent the air, announcing her birth, one of the three chains holding me bound loosened.Today, under the light of the full moon I could feel, she released me from the second chain. I just had to wait a little while longer for her to complete the keys: Blood moon, full moon, new moon. When all the chains are gone, I will awake. And once I am free, I will destroy everyone that was involv
ADAIRA ~ I should have known that something was wrong the second I saw smoke as we approached my old pack. I pointed it out to Raed but he kissed my cheek and told me to calm down and stop letting my nerves stop us from doing this. “Relax, babe. Shifters have festivals all the time, maybe they’re roasting the kills of the last hunt.” He said to me. As we got closer, my second clue was the lack of patrol at the pack boundary. Even Raed’s brow creased with a tinge of worry but he still tried to reassure me. “Maybe they were invited to the feast as well? I don’t know what your pack security protocols are like.” He said. “There’s always supposed to be guards at the boundary, no matter what festival is going on. They usually do one hour rotations on special occasions so each of them gets to enjoy themself, and the border would still be guarded. Except Tyler changed things around here when he took over, it’s so unusual for them all to be gone at the same time.” I replied. That was whe
ADAIRA~When I woke up after who knows how long, I was lying on my stomach in human form, and I was clean. Someone had bathed me, washed my hair and put a gown on me. I felt so violated and I growled as I tried to stand. How dare they touch me without consent?My back bumped into the top of whatever I was in and it made me even more angry. I looked around and discovered that I was in a fucking cage, I couldn’t rise up more than this. I only had two options in the enclosed space, lie down the way I was before I woke up or maintain my current crouch on hands and knees. Lying down would leave me vulnerable to attack so I decided to remain on all fours, it wasn’t much of an advantage if I actually got attacked while I was in this enclosed space, but it was something at least.My anger at being touched without my permission multiplied at the thought that I was locked up like a damn dog. I’m a shifter with an animal side, but it doesn’t mean I should be degraded this way, wolves deserve be
ADAIRA~It felt like someone was trying to fry all my brain cells and I pressed my lips together so I wouldn’t scream. I couldn’t afford to alert the rogues that I was awake. The element of surprise may be the thing that lets me outsmart these rogues so I can make my escape. If it was someone else, I would have shut them out immediately, but I held on because it was Raed, and he may have something important to tell me. At least now I know that he’s alive.“Raed.” I tried to speak through the pain.“Ady.” His voice in my head was strained, that was how I knew that he was in pain too.He may even be in more pain than I was because he was the one that initiated the mind link. I knew why this was happening, we weren’t members of the same pack, and we weren’t mated yet. He could only have access to me because he’s an Alpha, but the price of trying to form a temporal bond to be able to mind link me was the pain.“Fuck! I didn’t think doing this would hurt so much.” Raed cursed.“We need to
ADAIRA~I made the mistake of trying to get up again, forgetting where I was for a moment. I snarled and cursed as my back collided with the top of the cage. I looked around, momentarily confused why I was still in a cage, I thought we had already escaped. My eyes widened as I finally realised what had happened… O dear goddess, I was just dreaming. We never escaped.“Who is Raed?” The man in front of me growled menacingly.He was crouched in front of my cage and in my position, I couldn’t see his full frame, just his face. But I didn’t need to see him completely to know who he was, I felt the power that seemed to seep from his pores. He could be no other person but the Rogue Alpha that was terrorising the other packs with his pack of miscreants. He was beautiful. Brown skinned with curly hair that was in a complicated knot on his head with some tendrils loose around his face, full sensuous lips, and those eyes that were now more golden but still had a little swirl of red in it.I had
ADAIRA~I waited patiently and listened carefully. The rogues were being rowdy, and from the sounds I could hear, it seemed like they were being gathered together for something, like they wanted to leave, maybe to invade another pack. The Rogue Alpha didn’t send any of his wolves to guard me, and I didn’t know whether to be elated or insulted. One one hand, I knew that it was a good thing because my escape would be easier without someone constantly watching me. On the other hand, if he didn’t send any guards here, then he didn’t consider me enough of a threat to do so. Even if this was a better option for my escape, my wolf was annoyed at being disregarded as a warrior, and I was annoyed at her for letting me down.Now I wish I could actually communicate with my wolf, the curse words I would have used on her have not been invented yet. Instead, I settled for just projecting my anger about her actions, making sure she would feel the full brunt of my disappointment. She tried to send f
ADAIRA ~ I dodged the other two and ran towards the third one. If Gavrael returned here, our chances of escaping would be less than five percent. Because she was distracted by the mind link, she didn’t notice me coming for her till it was too late, I snapped her neck just as one of the two males pounced on me. They had both shifted to their wolves. I had an advantage, I knew that their Alpha didn’t want me dead so they wouldn’t strike to kill but I will. I grabbed the wolf at my back and tossed him aside just as the other one prepared to jump on me. They were trying to pin me down, subdue me and recapture me… over my dead body. I crouched as the second wolf dove for me, and swiped my claws on his soft underbelly. He howled in pain as he landed on the floor hard. I turned and faced the other one. Even after seeing what I did to his team mate, he still jumped to pounce on me. I crouched and did the same thing to him. They laid on the floor, bleeding from the deep cut to that sensitive
EPILOGUE ~ Using up so much power drained both me and Gavrael, and we both passed out almost immediately after. We didn’t wake up till after two whole days because our bodies shut down to heal and recuperate. When we finally woke up, we discovered that using so much power had broken the hold of the third souls we each had. I no longer possessed Selene’s soul and Gavrael no longer possessed the soul of the demon king. Their essence had returned to the volcano realm after their souls split from ours. They couldn’t be killed, she was a goddess and he was a god, but it would take a long time for them to recreate a physical form. For now, I was just happy that we would no longer be the victims of an age long war. Then came another problem, the issue of Gavrael’s possessiveness. He was no longer under the control of the demon king, but now that he knew I was pregnant, his wolf was just as easily pissed off as he was before. It was usual for the mates of pregnant females to become very ter
GAVRAEL ~ He calls himself Zephyr, and seeing him manhandle my mate made me angry. But my anger wasn’t enough to break myself from his hold and regain control of my body. “Kill them all, I’ll deal with her. I could only watch as he took Adaira away from the battlefield, knowing that she was their only hope to win the battle against his beasts. “How does it feel having so much power but being unable to use it? You trapped me for centuries, took my memories, took my powers, kept me in this mortal body. This is just a slight taste of that. So tell me how it feels to hate what’s happening but not be able to do anything about it?” I could feel his amusement as she tried in vain to free herself from his grip. He was enjoying her struggles and her helplessness. I couldn’t even reach out to her to at least let her know that despite everything, I was still in here even if I’ve been pushed so far deep in my subconscious that I didn’t know the way out. But he had put an impenetrable barrie
ADAIRA ~ Gavrael is gone and there is no way for me to get to him. I wanted to use my powers to get across to the nether realm but Theia warned me not to do so because I would never be able to defeat him in his realm, he was stronger there. Our best chance of winning this battle is here in this realm, which means we have to wait for Gavrael’s return. By the looks of things, he would not be returning as my mate but as the demon king, with an army meant to obliterate us all. “There has to be something else we can do.” I said to Theia after waiting for an hour with no sign of Gavrael or any danger. My wolf was restless because my bond to Gavrael was so faint now that I had to search deep before I could feel it. I was terrified. What if the demon king somehow finds a way to sever our bond, how would I be able to reach my mate and bring him back? “You need to calm down. Your restlessness is affecting your pack. They’re already dreading the fight we all have coming, and they only stayed
GAVRAEL ~Heat, rage and pain. Those were the only emotions flowing through me at this moment. It was like my blood had been exchanged with lava and my head was being drilled open by a thousand nails. I felt the power of the full blood moon before it even rose and cast its reddish hue over the earth. This past week, I had to stay away from everyone except Adaira because I was losing my temper at the slightest provocation. I knew it was just because of what was coming that my restraint was shitty but at the same time, I couldn’t control myself which led to my isolation in order to protect everyone from me. Adaira was the only one whose presence I could tolerate even in those moments. And the second those rays of light from the full blood moon touched the earth, everything became worse.Heat, rage, pain. Nothing else mattered but these, and the demon whose soul was bound to me feasted on them delightfully. He was much stronger now and he was actively fighting me for control of my body.
ADAIRA~I was eating more than normal out of anxiety. It was still better than worrying myself to death and overthinking everything though. My sleeping schedule was also wack but that was understandable. The full blood moon would rise tomorrow night and I just couldn’t bring myself to sleep even if it still was hours away. My wolf on the other hand was calm and mostly silent. After the night of the pack bonding ceremony where we all shifted to wolf form and ran as one pack to strengthen the pack bonds, she hadn’t made a push to be set free which was unusual. Usually, if I stayed for more than two days without shifting, she would be angsty and restless, whining to be set free, and I would have to shift and run even if for a few minutes. But it’s been days without shifting and she was still calm, I had no idea why and I was too preoccupied with everything else happening to try and figure it out. Maybe she understood the complexity of the situation we were in and was just trying to help
ADAIRA ~ It took two days of mating almost all round the clock for my heat to die down and for the both of us to regain our senses. And as this problem was solved, another problem presented itself, our lives were just a myriad of problems nowadays but who’s counting. When we returned to the pack after my heat passed, almost all the other packs had come to join us, just two were left and they were expected to arrive in a few hours. But as I passed through the crowd, all the males were still attuned to my scent even though I was no longer in heat. Females were also drawn to my scent but it didn’t make them lust after me like it was confusing the males. It was a big problem because it was causing chaos and it was making everyone restless, and I had no idea why it was happening. In fact, it seemed to be even worse now than when I was actually in heat. Sage wolves had also been arriving from the human towns close by. They were wary but they were all put together in one house to await my
ADAIRA ~ Just as expected, the rest of the pack took the news of Sage wolves with varying degrees of disgust, shock and wariness. When we announced the merger into one mega pack, they were even more shocked and awed. There were obviously protests especially when we let them know that we planned to get messages across to Sage wolves in hiding and have them come here to join the pack. But we also explained the great danger that would be coming against us and that we would only be able to defeat them if we work together. Next we let anyone with ideas step forward and speak. There was so much to be done; clearing the surrounding forest for instance, so those that would come to join us would have room to build their own houses, plans to build another general pack house where meals can be taken by a larger group because eating together was a shifter custom meant to ensure the pack bonds remain strong, same as hunting in a group and running as a pack on some full moons. There would also be
ADAIRA~I moved closer and held Theia’s mother by the hand. I forced myself to relax and put every doubt out of my mind. If I could protect the whole pack with the barrier, this was nothing compared to that. I didn’t really know what to envision, last night, it had been easier to see a barrier forming in my mind just like Gavrael directed. But now, do I imagine her using powers? Or imagine me giving her powers?It turned out that I didn’t need to do all that. While holding her hands, I felt some sort of vacuum, a hole in her essence. A missing piece. I didn’t need anyone to tell me that that must be the part of her where her powers used to reside, all I needed to do was to fill it up. I reached out to her with my own essence and I vaguely heard her gasp as she was zapped with it. Her hands were released from mine as she crumpled to the floor and her husband rushed to make sure she was okay.I opened my eyes to see that she was faintly glowing for a few seconds before the glow died do
ADAIRA~I was getting weird looks from everyone that saw me today. After eating by midnight and talking for a while, Gavrael and I had gone back to bed to sleep and woke up after dawn but later than usual, we were entitled to sleeping in after everything that happened after all. But as we left the room to join the others for breakfast, everyone was either looking at me with awe or fear or both. I figured out why when Gaby walked closer to us to speak to me.”Ady, did you really… you know, do that stuff?” She asked.She seemed unsure of how to ask her question and if she should even ask it. I also didn’t understand what exactly she was talking about, so I asked.“What stuff?”“The warriors that fought with you, they showed all of us what you did. We weren’t there but we could see it from their minds. It still seems a bit hard to believe. You were flying or floating, I don’t know, and you were glowing, and there was so much light. And you burned the dead ones, none of the creatures cou