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“I have so much to tell you both,” she said, and Kara came and lay at her feet. “We don’t have much time. Markus and Atlas are going out of their mind without you. You’ve been gone too long for their liking.” The Moon Goddess giggled, her sound ethereal and jovial. “You have them wrapped around your finger, you know? They fell for you from the moment they tasted your food.” I blushed at her words.
“I love them too,” I replied quietly, and Kara nodded happily, making her smile at us.
“I know you both do. Not to toot my own horn, but you two are one of my better matches. So, Toot Toot.” She laughed lightly before the smile slipped off her face.
“I wish your life wasn’t so difficult. I wish I could have been able to stop all the pain you had to endure, my child.” A tear slipped from her eyes. “It began when my mother, Coatlicue (koh-at-lee-kway), became pregnant with my brother, Huitzilopochtli (wee-tsee-loh-poch‘-tlee), the Aztec god of war and the sun. We’ve all had many names over the centuries. I am Selene now, but back then, I was known as Coyolxauhqui (Koy-ol-shauw-kee), the Aztec goddess of the moon. When my mother became pregnant, my brothers and I built Huitzilopochtli’s temple across from mine, excited to meet him. However, as my mother’s pregnancy progressed, we became concerned with her actions. We realized too late that Tezcatlipoca (Tez-cah-tlee-poh-ka), the god of darkness, was influencing my mother and our unborn brother, hoping to sway him to the dark side and take control of all the creatures on earth. We mounted an assault, hoping to capture my mother and remove the influence of Tezcatlipoca before my brother was born. Unfortunately, we were too late. As we attempted to take her, Huitzilopochtli was born, fully grown, and my mother convinced him that we were trying to kill him and her out of jealousy.”
Kara mewled and rubbed herself against Selene’s legs, sharing her pain. I was holding her hands and gave them a supportive squeeze. She paused momentarily, silently crying and looking away, lost in her memories.
“We fought for one hundred years, stuck in a perpetual fight. At one point, I realized the abundant loss people, my brothers and my wolves, were suffering.” She looked back at me, and her eyes were glowing. “I made the decision then. I gave up my physical life. I fed as many as possible with my life force, but I knew it wouldn’t be enough, so I got creative.” She laughed a little at this. “I merged the life force of my wolves with my brothers and warriors. Twenty-five thousand female shifters and twenty-five thousand males. Amongst them my four hundred slain brothers and sisters. Some I managed to give back their entire life force, but for most, I needed to merge them with some of the wolves, bears, and jaguars spirits in order to save them, making them shifter souls instead of returning their god form.” She looked at me, her eyes filled with sorrow, and more tears spilled from them.
“I knew there was no saving my mother. I had to kill her, lest the world be plunged into chaos and death, but my brother, believing us to be evil, swore to kill all my brothers and sisters, vowing to make me regret my sacrifice. I scattered them across the globe, erased their memories, and renamed them in the hopes of saving them from his wrath. I have watched for a millennium as he hunts down the descendants of my brothers and sisters as they can only return to the physical realm through their bloodline. There are only a small number of them left. Each of my brothers and sisters has been systematically eradicated from the earth. Their deaths were slow and horrendous. Each done under a full moon so that I may watch.” I gasped as tears came down my face, unable to imagine seeing four hundred of your siblings die at the hands of your brother, unable to do anything.
“You, Celeste, are among the very few descendants left of my sister Chantico, the goddess of fire. Kara was the wolf that I originally merged with her. She is only reborn every one hundred years to one of my sister’s descendants. You were blessed from birth, as has every woman in her line, but being paired with Kara activated more powers than even I knew. You have always had the power of sight, and she awakened the power of fire in you. When Kara awakened in you on your nineteenth birthday during a full moon, I also imbued her with some of my power. On rare occasions, you can both work together to heal, but it only activates when it is meant to. When someone is between life and death, that should not have been.”
“Like Maya. She was too malnourished to shift on her own.” I nodded in understanding.
“Yes. Maya, you and all the females of your pack should have had a normal life. But I must warn you that not every life is meant to be saved. Some are beyond broken, and the most merciful thing we can do for them is to help them start again in a new life.” She tucked a piece of my hair behind my ear tenderly. “What happened to you was catalyzed by my brother attempting to destroy your line. I cannot give you more information on him as it is forbidden. It is a journey you must discover for yourself. I was only able to give you snippets of the past for you to decode as you go and to provide you with some tools for your journey. I know you can bring an end to this suffering, my child. I trust you to make the right decision when the time comes,” she said. She looked off into the ether and then smiled.
“Markus and Atlas have almost found you. There are just a few more things I can do for you both. I have given Markus and Atlas the ability to share your many blessings. He should be able to draw from them as he is the other half of your soul. He will slowly figure out how to access everything, but you must both remember that the more power you display to the world, the more you will attract those hungry for it. Use them wisely, my daughter. My next gift is one you have complained about for many years.” She laughed when I scrunched my nose and cocked my head, confused. “Your sight did break when your mother passed, just as your heart did. I will fix it. No more migraines.” She smiled. “Now you will sleep. This trip has taken so much of your energy. Kara, you will have to explain to Markus while Celeste regains her strength. A storm is coming. He needs to trust in their bond so that he may unlock her gifts. If you remember nothing else, remember this. The stronger your bond gets, the stronger you will all be. I love you, my daughters, my sisters,” she said as she leaned forward and kissed my forehead. Once more, I felt her light fill my soul and my body, healing the scars of my past.
I heard Markus’s worried voice far away when she pulled back.
“Find your allies, my daughter. Those who are closest to you and Markus, I will make sure they find their mates soon. It will make them all stronger for the fights ahead. Go to where this all began, and do me a favor. Have Gillian practice his Spanish. Don’t tell him why, but it will make his mate very happy.” She laughed and winked as she stood. I felt the sparks of the bond shoot through my body, and Kara and I suddenly fell from the platform. I screamed as I flailed and looked down at what I was sure was certain death, only to see Markus and Atlas on the platform below.
Mate,Kara and I said together, and suddenly, I found myself in his arms, the sparks of the bond lulling me into a calm and dreamless sleep while the Moon Goddess continued to whisper in my ear.
Chapter twenty-two
Markus
Celestesleptforalmostthirteen hours. Breakfast came and went, as did lunch, and I was starting to get worried when I finally felt her stir in my arms. I spent the morning in our office, trying to catch up on some of the pile of work that built up while I searched for her, but I couldn't stop myself from walking back into the room every ten minutes, making sure she was still there. I left the door between the two rooms open so I could hear her heart beating steadily and her deep breathing while she slept, barking at anyone who came in and tried to make noise. Finally, I gave up on work shortly after lunch and crawled into bed with her, holding her as lightly as I could without waking her but close enough to make sure she couldn’t get up without me.
Her breathing changed, she snuggled further into my chest, and her beautiful eyes fluttered open. Her sleepy smile broke every bit of will in me to wait until she allowed me to explain and let me near her again. Desperately, I started kissing her with every bit of the emotions I felt in the last three days. I kissed her head, her eyes, and her nose. I kissed her mouth and tried to kiss her neck, but she grabbed my face and pulled my head back up to hers.
She looked into my eyes, and I saw one eye a crystalline blue ocean color while the other turned black before she crashed her lips onto mine, pushing me onto my back as she straddled my chest, never letting go of my face. She finally came up for air and looked at me while we caught our breath. She frantically pulled her dress over her head, slid down my chest, and released my hard, throbbing cock. She grabbed it with her hand and licked it from my balls to the top of my shaft, making me throw my head back and groan. She pulled my cock into her mouth and took it to the back of her throat. Once she had licked my cock wet for what felt like a glorious eternity, she positioned herself on top of me, guiding my cock to the entrance to her core, and we both moaned when she lowered herself onto me.
This was what I needed. I needed to feel my mate’s love through our bond and feel her body welcome mine as she became one with me. I needed to be inside her, to desperately know I owned her heart as much as she held mine. I needed to know that everything that happened three days ago hadn’t broken what we had created.
She bit her lip and started riding my cock, looking down at me with hooded eyes. I slid my arms from her hips to her breast, letting her control the speed. I kneaded her breast, loving the moans my touch elicited from her. When she dropped her head back in ecstasy, thrusting those wonderful breasts further into my hands, I felt my hips buck under her, my cock twitching when her walls tried to milk me. She gasped when I grabbed her hips and lifted her slightly, suspending her there as I drove my hips upwards to sheathe my cock into her dripping pussy over and over. She started moaning as my hips snapped up, making our skin slap hard, crying out my name as she got closer to her climax, making my balls draw up as I fucked my way to the edge with her. She dropped her body onto my chest and nipped at my neck when I felt her orgasm shake her walls around my cock. With a moan, I drove into her a few more times before finding my release. We stayed skin-to-skin for a few minutes as we caught our breath.
“I love you,” she said into my neck. The hands still gripping her hips tightened before I released them and wrapped my arms around her.
“I was scared you would never come back to me,” I admitted. Celeste lifted her head and searched my eyes. I felt her guilt crash into me and tears dropped from her eyes as I kissed each one away.
“I’m sorry, Markus. When I saw her kissing you… all I could think about was how much better she looked at your side. How much you deserve someone beautiful, poised and educated. Someone who carried no baggage so she could better serve as your luna. It hurt so much to feel like maybe you would be better off with someone like her,” she explained while she tried to remove herself from on top of me, but I gripped her tightly, flipping us over in the bed instead so that I was on top of her.
“Are you crazy? From the moment I met you, all I’ve been able to think is how lucky I am to be paired with someone as strong and amazing as you. Have you any idea what you have overcome? How strong and amazing you are?” I was almost yelling at this point, and when her eyes went wide, I crushed my lips to hers, letting my love and admiration for her flow through the bond. “If anyone got screwed in the mate department, it was you. I’m nothing but your average alpha. You are my Aztec goddess.” She squinted her eyes at that.
“How did you know that?” she asked.
“Know what?” I said, full of confusion.
“That I come from an Aztec bloodline,”
“I didn’t. It’s something Atlas keeps telling me you are,” I said, feeling the smugness from Atlas in my mind. “Are you?” I asked, and she nodded.
“I went on this trip. Vision? I don’t know how to describe it. I had a visit with Selene. There’s a lot I have to tell you,” she said and sat up against the headboard, placed my head in her lap, and caressed my hair as she began telling me about her time away from me. I listened to everything she saw while she was suspended in fire, which she didn’t know she did. My eyes widened as she told me of the visions on each platform. At first, I would have argued that it was likely just a dream, but she had information she should not know about. My eyes widened even more as she told me about us and sharing powers while trying to ignore Atlas’ I-told-you-so dance while prancing in my head.
