Chapter Twenty-Three
“War?” Everyone froze.
Rowan’s hand tightened at my waist and I wanted to shiver, but I nodded. “War.”
“How do you know?” Toya leaned closer. Everyone had finally settled in and forgotten that the king of our kind was sitting next to me.
“Has the goddess ever spoken to you?” I looked at her.
“The goddess? Like the moon goddess?” Micca nearly fell from her seat, but I just nodded.
“Some of us are blessed to communicate with our goddess. Some get feelings, guided by her hand. Shamans get visions.” Rowan looked at me, and I could see the question in his eyes.
But I knew it wasn’t time. I shook my head slightly, and he refocused on Toya.
“Some others are gifted from the goddess herself. Lycans, when they come of age, are visited by the goddess.”
“Visited how?” Wendy was almost enthralled.
“When my father died, and I inherited the throne, and when I came of age, the Goddess visited me in my dreams.”
“How do you know it wasn’t just a dream?” Hanna asked.
I could feel my forehead burn and I rubbed it.
I heard a gasp go through the room, and Rowan chuckled.
“As you can see, our goddess makes herself abundantly clear.” I looked at him and he slid his phone out of his pocket and snapped a photo.
He turned the phone to face me and I was on his screen.
My black curls hung over my shoulder, my lips held a bemused smile, and my blue eyes were soft.
Hidden in their depths, I could see a hint of the longing I tried to deny for the man next to me.
But it was the blazing silver crescent moon on my forehead that caught my breath.
I nodded and he raised an eyebrow. “You are moon blessed?”
“Yeah.” I turned back to the girls, and they were just staring at me.
“Moon blessed…” Wendy’s voice held wonder. “I’ve read about someone being moon blessed, but the last one recorded was over three hundred years ago.”
“Fuck.” Toya swallowed.
We all turned to her. “What’s wrong?”
“My father’s pack is new. Newer than most around today. But he learned to be an Alpha from an old pack in Canada. It was one of the oldest packs known in the country. Almost as old as the Silvermoon pack.” I nodded.
“The Oakangan pack in BC.” I offered, and she nodded.
“They had the last Shaman before, the one that we have today.” Rowan pointed out.
Toya nodded. “Exactly. And the Shaman left them a vision that has been passed down since her time.”
“What?” Rowan’s hand tightened again, accidentally pulling me closer to his side. “I wasn’t informed.”
“It was supposed to be a secret. Alpha Warner told my father, and my father told me.” Toya wiped her face.
“I don’t even know if I should even tell you this, but…
” Toya straightened her back. “When the moon blessed appears, the shift has begun. If the moon blessed fails, if the Shaman is corrupted, the world as we know it ends. War will decimate our kind, and we will wither. The moon blessed is the first fight, and the Shaman is the second. Both will have to succeed to save our kind.”
“Both?”
“I don’t even know who the Shaman is.” Rowan had a slightly panicked look on his face.
“I do.” I grabbed his other hand with mine. I could feel his wolf settle as he stared at me. “We can do this.”
He nodded. And Toya sat back. “War really is coming.” Her voice was a little breathless. Rowan and I turned to look at all the girls, and I nodded.
“It is.” I squeezed Rowan’s hand. “But we’ll be ready.
And all of us will fight for our packs, our families, our futures and the future of our kind.
” I could feel Nix and Megan sliding closer to the surface.
“The rogues don’t care about the future of our packs, nor the future of werewolf kind. They are kept apart for a reason.”
Rowan nodded. “These wolves have either gone rabid, or they’ve been banished from their packs for committing heinous crimes.
These wolves are at the end of their rope and willing to change it all.
” Rowan pulled his hand from around me and he inadvertently trailed his fingers against the exposed skin on my back, causing goosebumps to prickle at my skin.
“How does a wolf go rabid?” Hanna asked.
This was such a hard question to answer. “We don’t know one hundred percent. But there is usually a high emotional loss to the wolf.” Rowan tried to explain.
I nodded. “Three years ago, a woman in my father’s pack was killed in an attack. She was eight months pregnant with a pup. I went with my father to inform the guard that his mate was attacked, and she was lost to the goddess.”
“Oh goddess. What happened?” Wendy covered her mouth.
I closed my eyes, remembering the scene.
“He dropped to his knees, and howled. It was the most heartbreaking noise I have ever heard. Then in seconds, his eyes changed from the crystal green they were to blood red. His face half shifted, and with the last remaining shred of humanity he had, instead of attacking us, he took off into the forest.”
“He went rabid that quickly?” Micca’s mouth dropped open.
“It isn’t a slow process.” Rowan clasped his hands and leaned on his knees. “It’s like the human soul is ripped from the wolves. Leaving the beast alone with the pain and having no way to work through it.”
I nodded. “There has been only one rabid wolf in history that has come back from it.” I remembered my father told me the story of the wolf after I watched the man go rabid.
“It was a she-wolf that had been betrayed by her mate. He killed their pup because it was a girl and he wanted a boy. She went rabid and stayed in the wild for a hundred and sixty-three years.”
“How did she come back?” Hanna gripped the edge of her seat.
“She processed the grief. And she found her second chance mate. They were able to mate, and they had three pups.” I smiled.
“How do you know?”
“She was the mother of my father’s Beta.” I answered. It was a secret Ronnie kept close to his chest, but his mother was the only wolf to pull herself back from the wild. “Her wolf was always a little feral afterwards, but her mate was able to calm her.”
Everyone looked at Rowan, and he just nodded.
“Shan was always a little terrifying.” He smiled.
“My father used her as my boogie man.” I laughed.
The ridiculousness of a Lycan being afraid of a she-wolf was hilarious.
But Rowan shook his head. “You laugh now, but when Shan was alive, she was terrifying. My dad was super close to Gavin and Ronnie, to the absolute annoyance of Vince and Garren.” Everyone furrowed their brows.
“Amy’s grandfather. He hated the fact that my dad liked Amy’s.
My father even hinted, very vocally, that Garren should step down when Gavin had come of age. ”
“Did he?” Wendy was invested in the story, I could tell, and I just smiled as I shook my head.
“Nope.” Rowan looked at me. “My dad started the campaign for Gavin to step up when he was still decently young. Around his thirties or forties. But Garren refused until thirty years ago. Gavin stepped up when I was young.” He slipped his hand into mine.
“I grew up with your dad being my uncle. And when my father died, and I blamed him, he took it hard.”
I nodded. “He never brought it up, but whenever you were mentioned, I could see his whole demeanor change. He was hurting, and he thought you hated him.”“I did. I hated him for a long time. But I realized recently that he wasn’t in charge of keeping my father safe.
Our guards were. The council my father appointed was.
And they failed.” He clasped his hand in mine and looked into my eyes.
“He was protecting what was most important to him. You and your mother. And then he was fixing his pack, then losing you and your mother. When I finally found out the truth about what happened, I knew he had his own demons to face, and hating him was wrong. He was just doing his best for his family.”
I nodded. “He has done his best for me in my entire life.”
“As a father should. As my dad did.” Rowan smiled and then dropped my hand. “Now that we have that out of the way and we brought the entire vibe of the room down, how about we eat?” Just as he said that, his stomach growled loudly.
Everyone laughed. “I’m starving.” Toya stood up and finished the rest of her beer. “And I need a new drink.”
I looked over at the table, but I wasn’t feeling it. “Yes.” I sat up and drank the rest of my drink. I followed Toya into the kitchen and Rowan stood after me.
“I’ll help.” I smiled at him over my shoulder.
“Sure.” I opened my fridge and handed Toya six beers and shooed her away.
She left Rowan and me in the kitchen with a quick wink and a smile.
I pulled out all the dinners I had and placed them on the counter.
“What do you want?” I turned to face Rowan and realized he was right behind me.
I reeled back, but I was pressed against the counter.
I could feel my heart pounding as he leaned in, and I thought, for a second, he might kiss me.
He leaned against me, and my breath caught. He was staring at me as he reached around me. I felt my eyes close, and I swore I could feel the slight graze of his lips against mine…and then he grabbed a meal and pulled away.