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"You sure?"
I nodded, then sat down in the seat that Kai supplied me with, the twins sitting on either side of me as is afraid I'd combust if they weren't close enough to aid me. I patted both of their thighs and gave them what I hoped was a reassuring smile. It seemed to settle their nerves, even if a little bit. Wanting to get the focus off me, my eyes found Del. "Since we're away from Kingsrose, I guess now would be a good time to ask about what you found in your father's files."
Del's posture straightened as her eyes turned serious. She gave me a quick nod before looking off to her right where Caleb and Raph sat. "Caleb, grab my bag from inside the truck, please."
"Sure." Caleb got up and jogged over to their truck, pulling out a black duffle bag from their open window. He carried it back with him, dropping it in front of Del before taking his seat back. Del turned it so the front was facing her. She unzipped the front pocket and pulled out a large iPad. Lighting up the screen, Del did something with a couple swipes of her fingers before stretching the device out for me to grab, careful not to get it too close to the fire. Kai immediately got up to grab the device, then brought it back and handed it to me.
"I'll be honest, Rosie, not a lot of what was in those files made a lot of sense to me, but maybe it's because I'm not a shifter. Hopefully you'd find something useful that I wasn't able to see," Del said.
Even though I was a shifter, I doubted I'd fare any better. Only one way to find out. I lit the screen and opened the first tab. Right away the first thing that stood out to me was Mother Moon's name: Selene. There were a lot of written passages to what I assumed was about Selene—her origin story, and her role in the world of shifters. Wolf shifters were the first known shapeshifters in existence, created by Selene herself. She was the one responsible for giving birth to the first wolf pack. The first page alone was written in detail regarding the story of the first known wolf pack; how she blessed a hand-selection of humans with the gift of being able to turn into wolves under the moonlight. The more I read, the more I noticed the parallels between the wolf pack's origin story and the Wolf Moon fairytale Grandma told us about. Was the first pack the same one Mother Moon created during the war with the nameless entity?
"The next page, I think you'll find interesting," Del said.
Intrigued, I swiped my finger across the screen, sliding to the next page. I could see why Del thought this one would be important to me. It was talking about the Wolf Moon and the legend behind it. My eyes lifted to the hood and looked directly at Del. "Your father knew about the legend?"
"It would seem so," Del confirmed. "He never once mentioned it to me, and I doubted he ever told anyone else in our sector when I was working for him."
"He didn't," Caleb piped in. "This whole thing about the Wolf Moon is completely new to me too. If your father told anyone about it back then, I must've been out of the loop too."
That's right, I forgot Caleb was also a wolf hunter like Del. In fact, he was born and raised as a human until very recently. Turning him into a wolf shifter was what saved his life after we almost lost him. To think how much Caleb has had to adjust, now that he had a second soul living inside him. I hope he's been able to connect with his wolf without too many difficulties.
Right, the Wolf Moon.
If Wayland Young knew about the Wolf Moon and never told anybody, then what was he planning? And where did he get his source? As I scrolled through the page, which was mainly the same story Grandma told us at the dinner table, I stopped halfway when there was a passage that was new to me. I read it and reread it, making sure I was comprehending what was revealed to me.
"Rosie?" Kai frowned at me, seeming to sense my confusion.
"What is it?" Javier asked.
"This passage... it says—it says that Mother Moon and the first wolf pack… were all lovers."
ROSIE
I must've read the passage at least five times before telling the rest of our group what it said. I couldn't believe what Del's father speculated, but at the same time, it fit with everything that was going on. Why else would Mother Moon go against the fates by forging a bond with human men and forming a pack if she didn't share feelings for them. Wasn't that what I was doing now? Forming my own mini pack with the twins and Joaquin?
"What did you say? Kao asked, sounding just as surprised as I was.
"Are you serious?" Del asked, her mouth agape.
"I'm so for real. Listen to this." I cleared my throat and reread the passage out loud. "Sources pertaining to the first wolf pack believed that their deity, Selene, was romantically involved with the newly created wolf shifters of the pack. The pack consisted of six male villagers who were bewitched by Selene's charm, beauty, and magic. Many believed these men had fallen into insanity when they arrived one chilled morning day gushing over a beautiful goddess with raven hair and jeweled eyes. The six men offered to surrender their lives to serve under Selene in exchange for the gift of shapeshifting. Since then, the same six men recruited more people to join their pack and worship their beautiful Goddess of Moonlight."
"So, they were all fated to Mother Moon?" Kai questioned, not seeming to put all the pieces together.
"I don't think so," Caleb chimed in. "If that were the case, then there wouldn't have been a need for the Wolf Moon's gift. At least I don't think there would."
Caleb was right, which further confirmed what I concluded in my mind. "They weren't fated. Mother Moonchosethem and they accepted."
I wished there was a way to ask Mother Moon about this. All we could go on was what we were speculating with the little intel we had surrounding the gift. Everything was fitting into place, but there were still questions that were left unanswered.
"Did fated mate bonds even exist back then?" Del pondered.
To us shifters, the question was amusing. But Del was a human, therefore she didn't have the knowledge of our history. At least none that was relevant to her previous occupation.
"Fated mate bonds have existed since the dawn of time," Javier explained. "It exists in common animals, which is why many species mate for life. We shifters now share the same spiritual and genetic essence of the species we shift into, which means we also were gifted with the potential to find our fated mates for life."
Raph piped in by adding, "There have been many speculations of whether or not humans have fated mates as well, though maybe not as pronounced as us supernaturals. That's why even though Javier and the rest of us are fated to you, you were unable to feel the pull as strongly since you're human."
"Makes sense," Del said simply.
