Chapter Forty - Miracles of the Moon Goddess

“Something is wrong,” Jake said, “why did the other pack speed up?” They raced along in silence for a few minutes, then David spoke.

“There are unknown lifeboats chasing the Lune Rose’s small boats. It’s going to be a matter of who’s got the better engine. The fishing boats can’t get in any closer to help them out. It looks like the boat with Marguerite on it will make it back, but the boat with our pack members is heading for some sort of spillway or something. Sorry, I’m not good with maritime geographical terms. A bit of water that is always flowing into the ocean. It might be shallow now though, and they’ll be going upstream. They might get stuck. We’re heading there hoping to intervene.”

“This ability to randomly link you lone wolves have is really handy.”

“It isn’t something we can teach to you,” David said, “any Lone Wolf who marries into a pack or chooses to pledge to one, loses the ability. You have free communication, or you have a pack link. It can’t be both.”

“I know this road,” Dylan said, “Zin and I come up here all the time.”

“Here?”

“Ocean moon pack isn’t exactly friendly to werewolf visitors, but Zin loves the ocean. No offense Jake, but Cloud Lake is… well just a lake. Alpha LeGrand said we could come here and let our wolves run as long as we were peaceful and left the land as we found it. They’ll be turning right again in a moment, and they’ll have to slow down a lot. It’s pretty overgrown.”

“That’s the exact message they just sent me,” David said as he leaned forward to grip the dash. “Break hard, turn right.”

“We can probably run it faster,” Dylan said, “We can head straight down to the river and jump in. The first waterfall is small so we’ll have to get out before there and run down a bit before we can jump in again. From there the current will take us downstream to the second falls, the pool there is deep enough that we can just ride the water over. We can meet them coming up the river.” The words were barely out of his mouth when Jake threw off his shirt. Mark hit the brakes and turned right, but he pulled to a stop and the doors flung open, Jake, Dylan and David’s wolves all dashed into the bush and down into the ravine. One of the vehicles ahead of them stopped and some Lune Rose wolves joined the others on their downhill run.

The small boat was practically flying over the water. Everyone was speaking French. Lia had no clue what they were saying. She knew they weren’t in the clear yet, someone was chasing them. But at the same time, she couldn’t think beyond the pain in her leg. Jasper was beside her, cutting back her pant leg to see the wounds, using something from the first aid kit to try to stop the bleeding. Her mother was on her other side, her eyes closed, trying to help Lia’s wolf heal, but Lia’s wolf wasn’t helping. Either it didn’t know how, or it couldn’t focus through the pain. Every now and then Killian would translate something for Jasper, but none of it made sense to her.

“You’ve lost a lot of blood, little wolf,” Jasper said, “try to stay awake. Jake is just a few minutes away. Between the human tools and two mate bonds we should be able to save your leg.”

“Three,” Selene said. “David will be there too. He cleaned Lia after she was born, so he is bonded to her as well.”

Another shot rang out and the werewolf who’d been steering at the rear fell backward into the boat. Jasper turned to help him as Killian took up the spot by the motor. Lia looked around and noticed that none of the men were armed. She recognized one of them from the market in town. A fisherman. These were fishermen, not warriors. She reached into her shirt to grab the handgun, but it wasn’t there.

“I took it Lia,” her mother whispered in her ear, “I used five bullets to take down my mate. There is only one left. We must make it count.”

“Give it to Jasper,” Lia said looking at her mother, “he is the only soldier here. He won’t miss.” Selene nodded and slid herself forward in the tiny craft. Another shot rang out, but nobody fell. Selene held the gun in Jasper's line of site. “Just one?” he asked, Selene nodded. His lips pulled tight and his face looked grim, but he positioned himself low in the boat, facing the rear, and took aim at the oncoming ship with the barrel of the gun just higher than the side of the boat. They were being bounced up and down so much that Lia was sure there would be no chance of him hitting his target. One bounce, two, three… bang! Lia closed her eyes, praying that the bullet had taken down a man important enough to stop whoever was pursuing them. The unexpected sound of an explosion ricocheted in her ears, followed by the feeling of the back end of the boat being lifted, out of step with the waves they had been riding.

“Nice shot,” Killian said, “I wouldn’t have thought of that.”

“The motor was a smaller target,” Jasper said, “so a bit more of a gamble, but also the only one I could think of that was likely to put an end to the chase.”

“They stopped?” Lia asked, still not certain what had happened.”

“He maked boat go boom!” the little French girl said excitedly.

Killian eased off the motor and the boat began to slow at the same time the waves decreased. “We’re headed up the river now. The others are planning to meet us at the falls.”

Lia lay back on her mother’s legs and looked straight up. “The snowflakes look like stars,” she said, her eyelids blinking heavily.

“Those are stars,” Selene said, “and the moon is peeking out between the clouds.”

But Lia didn’t hear her.

Jake fell flat on his face as they ran down the side of the short waterfall. Dylan stopped to help him, but Jake was already on his feet, “Lia!” He cried out, “She’s...not there!” Everyone stopped and turned to David. “She is,” he said with relief, “but she’s weak. Jasper says she has a pulse but it is very faint. She has lost a lot of blood, but they think the bleeding is stopped. She’s not conscious anymore though. They managed to blow up the other boat, so they aren’t being chased anymore.”

“How?”

“Apparently Lia had a handgun.”

Jake’s face fell. “I knew she was hiding something. I should have taken it. Now she’s shot a Lycan.”

“No, Killian says Selene did that. And Jasper blew up the boat. Lia just provided the weapon. They’re on their way up the river, almost at the falls. With Lia’s leg and the one fisherman shot in the shoulder they won’t be able to make it up the hill.” All five werewolves jumped into the water simultaneously and let the current carry them toward the drop-off.

The clouds behind them parted, letting the moon illuminate the water for them so they saw the edge before they plummeted over it. Jake threw out his arms, shifting to human on his way over the falls so he could swim faster once he got into the pool of water at the bottom. He looked around as he fell, catching sight of the small boat that was bobbing on the rocks not far from the base of the falls. He hit the water and launched himself in that direction. The bottom rose up quickly so he got to his feet, he was going to shift to wolf so he could maneuver more easily over the rocky bottom when Jasper leaped out of the boat and lifted Lia into his arms. Selene followed him over the edge of the boat and they were all together in the middle of the pool within moments. Jake took his mate’s cold, limp body in his arms and turned around to face the moon.

“Goddess!” He called, “please, help us!” David stood beside Jake, holding Lia’s leg and channeling all the healing power he could, not being able to see beneath the bandages to her mangled calf and broken shin. Selene’s head was bowed, her forehead resting on her daughters as she gave every last of ounce of strength to her pup.

A warm wind blew over the rocks, picking up snow and swirling it up over the water where it continued to swirl and sparkle in the moonlight. Gradually the shape of a tall, slender woman formed, made of mist and moonlight, sparkling with snowflakes. Her face formed last, the wolf-like features flowing seamlessly from her human-like neck. Everyone watched as the familiar spirit’s silvery form slid over the pool of water and stopped in front of the little group. She looked at each of them in turn, then bent her nose to Selene’s human one. Selene gasped, grabbing her neck, then looking down at her wrists as her body shifted itself back into a wolf form. Selene bowed her head and trotted over to join the others on the rocky shore.

Next, the goddess turned to David, seeming to look in his eyes before she nodded to him. David bowed and backed away to the other bank, shifting to wolf as he left the water. They watched in awe as the form grew taller and wider, spreading up and around Jake and Lia, enveloping them in a shimmering bubble. Light, water, and snow swirled around the couple, obscuring them from view in a brilliant silver ball.

“Boule à neige magique!” whispered Marguerite.

“Snowglobe” translated Killian automatically, “a magical snowglobe.”

The werewolves on the beach all found themselves suddenly in their wolf form. Alpha LeGrand was the first to raise his nose to the moon and howl praise to the goddess. The others quickly followed. As the sound of their reverent vocalizations died, the veil of shimmering light settled on the water around Jake and Lia. She was on her feet, her arms around Jake’s neck and her head resting lightly on his shoulder. She lifted her head and looked up into his eyes, touching his face and kissing him gently before they turned to walk out of the water. She was leaning on him, still weak, but walked without a limp. Nobody made a sound as they left the pool at the bottom of the falls. They piled into the two waiting vehicles, most staying in their wolf form to take up less space and because the fur could keep them warm. The ride back to the pack houses was much slower than the ride to the river had been, and silent except for the herring noise of the heaters and the rumble of the engines.

It had been centuries since anyone had actually seen the goddess take shape. There had been a few unconfirmed visions of coarse, but never with so many witnesses. Not with such a miracle of healing.