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Like a moth to a flame,the light beckoned them. It called to her soul in the same way the cave had that night she'd stumbled into this gods-forsaken realm. A fact that didn’t sit well with her. While the realm had given her Draven as her mate, it also took the lives of so many and kept them from the home they desperately needed to return to.
Draven’s hands drifted down her back and tapped her ass, giving her only seconds warning before he lifted her. She wrapped her legs around his waist and tightened her grip around his neck.
He leaned in, nuzzling his nose against the shell of her ear. “We go together, but at the first sign of danger, you run back to the cabin.”
“Draven, I—” she protested. She couldn’t leave him any more than he could leave her. He should know that by now.
“Flora, promise me.” He swallowed hard, and his voice broke when he spoke. “I can’t lose you.”
“I promise.” She’d said the words out loud, but even she doubted her ability to follow through with them.
His lips grazed her earlobe and he nipped the sensitive flesh, sending a shiver down her spine as he took off running with her in his arms toward the beam of light.
Draven stopped when they reached the place the light led, but neither of them was prepared for what they saw.
The cave was identical to the one that transported them to this realm. The stone altar in the center was bathed in the moon’s light through an oval opening in the ceiling. The soft sound of water trickled through the opening to the cave floor where it pooled. The only difference in this cave was the woman standing beside the altar. Her silver hair draped to her waist, and she wore a flowy gold tunic that shimmered in the light and floated across the top of the knee-deep water. She was perfect, almost ethereal.
They stood in the cave’s entrance, Flora still snuggly wrapped in Draven’s arms, pressed to his chest.
“Welcome.” Her voice was soft yet firm. It matched the curves of her body and sharp lines of her jaw and cheeks. She lifted her arms and opened them wide, inviting them in as if she were a host in this realm.
“Who are you?” Draven growled and Flora instantly knew that if he were in wolf form, the hairs on the back of his neck would be standing straight up.
“I have gone by many names,” the woman mused with a smile, “but you know me as the Goddess of the Moon.”
Flora’s mouth dropped open, and Draven’s grip tightened on her thighs. She wished he would put her down. This was no way to address a Goddess. Not that she knew proper etiquette. For vampire kings of nearly every nation, she could tell you the proper greeting, but she’d never dreamed of meeting a Goddess.
She wiggled against him, and Draven let out a low warning growl that made her freeze.
“This is your realm?” His voice was low, spoken through gritted teeth.
“It is one of many that are tied to me and those of my kind.”
“Your kind?” Her voice was small in comparison to Draven’s, but she wasn’t yet sure this Goddess was their enemy.
“The gods, the old ones. Me and my children go by many names.”
“It doesn’t matter what you go by. If you are indeed the Moon Goddess, then all this was your doing. You trapped us here. You hid the stone. You are responsible for cursing our people.” Draven’s tone grew with every pointed accusation. He was justified in his anger. This woman, Goddess, had taken everything from him and his people. She’d trapped every one of the cabin’s occupants and when they died, she took their souls and made them shadows. She might not be their enemy, but she wasn’t their friend.
“Cursed is such a negative way of putting it,” the Goddess mused, flicking away a speck of dirt on her finger as if what she’d done was inconsequential. “I prefer to look at it as teaching you a lesson.”
Draven tensed, his grip on her thighs nearly breaking Flora’s skin. She inhaled a sharp breath, and though he didn’t take his eyes off the Goddess, Draven loosened his grip and rubbed the spot where she was sure there were now crescent indentations from his nails. He gently set her down on the damp earth, and tucked her behind him before unleashing his wrath on the Goddess.
“Teaching us a lesson?” He let out a strangled laugh. “You know, the majority of my life I would have thought to fear you. I would have walked into this cave and cowered at your feet. But this little trip to your realm has been a wake up call and I don’t know how I’m supposed to worship a being who would make her people suffer.” Draven paused, his fists trembling at his side. “You took our wolves away from us and forced us to live as mere shells of what we should be. Then you make us go on a wild fucking goose chase for the moonstone—which is the only chance we ever have to be whole—and as a reward for getting close, you trap us in this fucking place with its shadow wolves and purple trees. Because this was your doing, wasn’t it?”
Flora placed a hand on his shoulder though she wasn’t sure if it was to calm him down or show her solidarity. Maybe it was both. This Goddess, though revered by his people, had also royally fucked them over. Flora understood her need to intervene, but there had to have been another option.
“You needed the time here, son of Sampson.” The Goddess replied, calling Draven by his pack title. “And don’t act as if it was all a hardship. I seem to recall giving you your mate and plenty of time to reunite yourself with your wolf.”
“For which I am forever grateful, but it doesn’t excuse the thousands of years you left your people to suffer.”
The Goddess tsked and pursed her lips. “They needed that time. Even still, there are many of my children who need to remember they are not gods themselves. My wolves were created to be extensions of me, yes, but not to rule in your plane. They were no doubt always intended to be monsters, but monsters I could wield, not petulant children.”
“Nearly two millennia, Rieka,” Draven ground out, the muscles in his back tensing as his hands balled into fists.
“You know my given name, and yet you dare to speak it?” Rieka’s voice bounced off the cave, shaking free rocks from the ceiling.
Flora winced, but Draven stood beside her with his chin held high. “I make it a point to know everything I can about those who hold the key to my future. My people have searched a long time for your stone. We’ve revered you, and given your name the adoration you demanded by only speaking it in the silence of our minds, praying you would help us. But dear goddess, my reverence is waning by the second. I am only half yours. The other half of me is more monster than even you could imagine, and so I suggest you give us the stone and allow me and my mate to leave this place.”
