The Goddess's Chosen

The Wolves

Over supper I told everyone about the conversation I had had with Hecate. Rachelle was not a bad cook, she made roasted chicken with mashed potatoes and salad. I do not know what Ava was talking about, the food was delicious. “So, what you are saying, is that we get to see the elves AND the faeries?!?” Ava and Rachelle squealed with joy. I smiled, “seems like it, yeah.” I said. “We get to see werewolves, and soon?” Clara said with a huge smile on her face. She had met one a while ago with her mother and she has been swooning over them ever since. Gabe was listening, looking slightly uncomfortable. He had sworn his life to hunt and apprehend, sometimes, kill us super naturals, and now he finds out he is one, and he has to interact with the other species as well. I give him as reassuring smile as I can. This is going to be a long journey, and I don’t even know what she wants us to do after we get the others’ help. “What can you tell us about the hunters, Gabe?” I ask, trying to change the subject a little. He cleared his throat, “Well, they have been around for nearly as long as the witches, they were started because they felt that no being should have that kind of power, except for the Gods” he said. “Back when the Gods ruled over Greece, Hecate had slept with a human and their children became the first witches. My father had said that Hecate killed the man because he wanted to keep her children here and raise them as mortals, but she would not allow it, and so she killed him and had her children burn the rest of the village. His brother became the head of the witch hunters, he vowed to capture Hecate and her children and make them pay for what they had done to his brother and the other innocent people.” Gabe sighed “but I don’t believe that version anymore.” he said. I nodded. I knew the story, well, the true version. “Hecate had come down from Olympus to gather herbs, and she met and fell in love with a farmer. His name was Alexandros. She spent a lot of time with him, and they ended up having children together. When he found out who she was, and what their children were, he tried to murder them. She helped her children escape and fought him. He had rallied the rest of the villagers, they all wanted to eradicate the witch children. She had protected her children with a spell so that no one could find them.” I told our side of the story, one that had been passed down generation to generation through time from when it first happened, told by her children themselves. “I guess we now know what happened to Hecate.” I said sadly. “They used the talisman of Clytius’s, with his blood they could block her powers and took her captive.” The thought made me sick. Our Goddess has been in chains for thousands of years. I wanted to rescue her. I needed to set her free. “We have to find her and set her free.” I said, not just a statement but an order. “But how would we find her?” Rachelle asked. I thought for a moment. “Clytius’s blood blocks magic, we could try to scry the map and see where the magic doesn’t work.” I offer, knowing that it would not be that simple. “You said we needed something from the other three supers, right?” Clara said. I nodded. “Well, with their strength, speed and light, and our collective powers, I am sure we can find her. Maybe that is what she wants, and how we are to unite her.” Clara’s words gave me hope. “If we can find her, that is how we get our power back, that is how we unite the witches and take back what the hunters have taken from us.” I stood up, my voice strong and confident. I know what we must do, and it won’t be easy, but we will save our Goddess and take down the monsters that have hunted us for so long. The witches that have lost their way and turned to dark magic only did so because Hecate could not answer their prayers and they lost hope. Maybe with her back they will find their way back to the light. It was a solid plan, but first we needed all four pieces of magic to guide us. “We will sleep tonight, and prepare tomorrow, then first thing in the morning we will leave for the wolves.” I said, getting up to help Rachelle and Ava clean the dishes. After cleaning we all went to our rooms and tried to get some rest, not sure when we would get another good night's sleep. 

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 The next day passed in a blur of potion making and spell writing. Once Ava, Rachelle and Clara had had enough of me ‘trying to help’ they threw me and Gabriel outside to practice our powers again so we would not be in their way. I made two more golems, one for each of us, and made sure that our powers would not intersect again. By supper time, we were both worn out but were getting a better grip on our powers. Both being relatively new, it was a lot of practice and even more meditation. I had shown him my technique for meditation, and he caught on rather quickly. Once we felt more secure, we decided to go upstairs and shower before supper. Once in my room, I quickly stepped out of my sports bra and leggings, and ran the water. I stepped in the shower once the water was the right temperature and instantly relaxed. I used some oils that Rachelle had made that were supposed to relax and reinvigorate you, and it worked. I finished my shower and got out and put on my pajamas, which consisted of a black tank top and red and black plaid pants. I brushed my hair and put it into two side braids and threw my dirty clothes in the hamper. I should really do laundry because who knows when we will be back, and they will smell so bad by then. I think to myself. Grabbing up my laundry hamper, I walk into the living room and ask if anyone else needs laundry done before we leave. Ava came out with an arm full, Rachelle had a few items, as did Clara. I threw all their clothes into the hamper with mine and walked over to Gabe’s room. The door was slightly ajar, so I pushed it open with my foot. “Gabe?” I call out. “I am doing laundry, want me to throw yours in as well?” I set the hamper down and waited for a reply. “Well, I only have this on outfit....” He said, coming out of his room with nothing but a towel around his waist. “OH my...” I said, quickly covering my eyes, I couldn’t see him smile, but I could hear him laughing at me. “Shy, Cas?” He asked, his voice much closer to me. I shook my head no. “I need to do laundry, I may have a larger pair of bed pants, I bought some at Walmart and they were all kind of big...” I was rambling tying to fight the urge to look at his shirtless. “Turn around, please?” I ask, uncovering my eyes. He laughed and turned around. Looking at his back was not much better. I had never seen a back that I wanted to rake my nails down before, until him. NO CASSANDRA! I mentally scalded myself. Not right now, we have more important things to do. “So, about those pants...” he said, tapping his foot. “Oh, yeah, be right back.” I said and ran back to my room to find the black pajama pants I had mentioned. They were a little big on me but should fit him comfortably. I brought them back to him and saw he had thrown his other clothes in the basket, along with the towel. Aw hell, I thought to myself. “The pants are on the back of the couch.” I call out, quickly tossing them on the couch and grabbing the basket and leaving his room before I lost whatever control I had. I threw the laundry into two of the washing machines, Ava’s laundry took up one whole washer on its own and headed back upstairs for supper. Clara was cooking tonight; she was making her homemade macaroni and cheese with a salad. I went into the apartment, and everyone was already at the table. We ate and talked a little about our plans. The drive to the island would only take a few hours, with another ferry ride, then from there we would go to this large village by the forest there, as we suspected that would be the best place to look. The island is mostly for werewolves to live in peace, but they allowed tourists to keep money flowing in. We would speak to their Alpha King, named Alpha Jonas, show him Hecates talisman and hope to the Goddess that he agrees to help us. We finished eating and cleaned up, and double checked to make sure we had everything that we would need. We went over our lists, we had the potions that Rachelle had made, being healing, sleeping, concealing, you name it. Ava had written every protection spell she could think of. Clara made us all sandwiches for the trip, which was nice as we would be leaving at the c***k of dawn. We all packed our clothes except for the clothes we will wear tomorrow and our toothbrushes, as well as our other hygiene products, and a few spell books from the library that Clara and Ava thought would come in handy. Once we had everything loaded into the car, we met back up in the apartment. We only talked for an hour or so before we all headed off to bed, we had to be up early and wanted to be well rested. Tomorrow was going to be the start of a series of long days, and I wanted to get as much sleep as I could.  

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     I had my alarm set for 5:00 AM, but ended up waking up at 4:15 instead, so I sat there awake for about 45 minutes, until my alarm went off and Clara sat up in bed yelling something about pancakes. I begrudgingly got out of bed and got dressed. Today I was wearing my black jeans with my Korn band tank and my leather jacket, as well as my black combat/hiking boots. I took my hair out of the braid and raked my fingers through it to release the curls from each other. I did not bother applying makeup as I had no idea what today had in store, and I was not going to worry about mascara running down my face. I quickly brushed my teeth and splashed my face with cold water and grabbed my black leather backpack and headed to the living room where Gabe, Clara and Rachelle were waiting. “Ava is doing her makeup, I told her it was a waste, but she said she had a spell prepared that should help keep it on.” Rachelle said, rolling her eyes. Gabe laughed and flopped back onto the couch and spread out, it made me happy to see that he was fitting in and feeling comfortable with us, and maybe, once this is all over, maybe we can try something, but I would not allow myself to get into that with so much on the line. We ended up waiting another twenty minutes for Ava. I went to knock on her door and as I put my hand up, her door flung open. “I thought your sister was the makeup chick, not you.” Gabe said, sitting back up. Rachelle threw a pillow at him, “I love making makeup and putting it on people, but even I know when is and is not a suitable time for it.” Rachelle stood up and walked over to her bag on the floor. “We are going to see Werewolves for crying out loud.” Ava said, emphasizing the word ‘werewolves.’ “You know, big, muscular, sexy, tasty hunks of man. I need to look good.” I rolled my eyes, I am so glad I wasn’t like that, but I wonder if I would dress up and do my makeup once this is all over, for Gabe. I found myself staring at him, and he noticed and smiled that breathtaking smile with both dimples showing. NOT RIGHT NOW! I had to mentally scald myself again. It was just so hard NOT to look at him. Once we were all ready, we headed to the car to start our journey.  

     It only took about 4 hours to get there, so it was still early, we had eaten the sandwiches, but we were still a bit hungry, so we went to Tim Hortons near East Point, where we were going, and we all got our medium double doubles and bagels. When we went inside, we got quite a few dirty looks, to which whispered in my ear “werewolves are not fond of me. They can smell the hunters stink on me still, I am going to go wait in the car.” I nodded and off he went. We all ordered and went to sit in the car with Gabe. We ate quickly and continued towards the village we saw on the map. It was only a few kilometers north of where we were, I am not sure how many miles it would be, but it did not take long before we pulled into the driveway of a gorgeous log mansion. The courtyard we very well kept, the grass was green and there was a beautiful fountain in the middle of the yard with a wolf howling at the moon and the water was coming from its mouth. There were rose bushes and flowers beds everywhere, but it was all very tasteful. We Parked the car and before we could even get out, two exceptionally large men, with long dark hair, dark eyes and six packs came up to the car. “What are you doing here, witch?” The one by the driver's side door said to me. “I need to speak with Alpha Jonas.” I said sitting up straighter in my seat. “What is your business with the Alpha?” The one by the passenger door asked. “I need to ask his help, I was sent by my Goddess, and I know that sounds crazy, but if I can speak to him, she said he would understand.” I said, admitting that we looked like a bunch of trouble making witches. “I looked up at the man beside me and I could tell that he was mind linking with the someone as his eyes looked like they were focusing on something far away and were kind of glazed over. “State your name and rank, witch.” He said, looking back down at me. “Cassandra Thea Green, daughter of High priestess Endora Grace Green, of the Maine coven.” I said, feeling my heart breaking a little when I said my mother's name. The man’s eyes glazed over again for a moment. “The Alpha is busy at the moment. We are to take you to the foyer where he will collect you when he is finished with his business.” The man by me said. I turned off the car and we all got out and followed him up the walkway into the mansion. It was even more brilliant on the inside and smelled of freshly cut wood. There were dark greens and blues everywhere, not clashing with the brown of the logs. There were stairs leading to an upper floor, and a hallway leading to a series of doors. The two large wolves led us into the foyer and instructed us to sit. “My name is Devin, and this is my brother Camden.” Devin, the one that was on the driver's side, gave his introduction, and then walked up the stairs, leaving Camden down here with us. “Why does this one smell like a hunter?” Camden said, eyeing Gabe up and down. “Why does he also smell like a witch?” Camden scrunched his nose in confusion. “I was raised by hunters, but I recently found out that it was all a lie, my mother was a witch, and I have some of her powers.” Gabe said, as if the situation were normal for everyone. “Men don’t have powers.” Camden said, getting angry now, I assume because he feels like he is being lied to. “Show him.” I said, looking at Gabe. He shrugged, as if to say ok, and he put his hands up as if he were holding an invisible ball and after a moment, he had summoned a ball of lighting. This is one of the things he worked hardest at yesterday, being able to control it enough that he could hold a ball of it like this. I could see how much concentration and effort it took to be able to hold it like this. “Breathe and imagine it going back inside.” I said, moving beside him and laying my hand on his shoulder. I could hear him breathing in and out and slowly moving his hands together, until the ball disappeared. “I DID IT, HELL YEAH!” He shouted and did a fist pump, and high fived me. “Did what?” a gruff voice sounded out of nowhere. A man, roughly 6’8”, very muscular, long dark hair, tan skin, and dark green eyes, came from around the corner. “This man is a witch! He summoned an electric ball, Alpha!” Camden sounded nearly as giddy as Gabe. “Wait...” Camden said and started sniffing again, but this time he was walking towards Clara. She looked nervous as he approached her and bent his head down near her neck and inhaled. I couldn’t see his face, but I could see his whole body became tense and he froze. “She is my...mate.” He said almost too quietly for me to hear. I could, however, hear Clara gasp. She had been infatuated with werewolves since she saw one on a trip with her mother, and now she is mated to one. “Mate?” she whimpered, and I heard him say mm-hmm. “Well then we have more to discuss than I thought.” The man I guessed to be Alpha Jonas said. “Follow me, we can talk in my office.” And he motioned for us to follow. “I could hear Ava and Rachelle whispering behind me but could not make out what they were saying. Gabe was walking beside me, very closely, and ahead of us, Clara was walking beside Camden, holding hands. Once we got the Alpha’s office, he held the door open for us to enter. It was a decent-sized office, and the walls were lined with bookshelves, some of the books appearing to be extremely old and worn down. He had a large L-shaped Mohagany desk at the back of the room, next to the window, with enough chairs set up around it for each of us. “Please sit.” Alpha Jonas said as he walked around his desk to his chair. “Cassandra Green?” He asked and I raised my hand like I was still in high school, and quickly put it down because I felt foolish. “Thats me.” I said, shuffling nervously in my seat. I reached into my pocket and pulled out Hecates talisman and handed it to Alpha Jonas. “Oh...” he said. As he took it from my hand, I could feel how much warmer he felt that we did. I watched as he felt the talisman and rubbed his thumb over the moon symbol on it. “Hecate gave this to you?” He asked, handing it back to me. “Yes sir.” I nod, taking the talisman back from him and placing it around my neck, like it was meant to be worn. “It was prophesized that a witch of great power would present the talisman to unite the supernatural beings against the hunters.” He said, not really speaking to me, just aloud. “What do you need from me?” he asked. “Hecate said I should ask to borrow your strength.” I said, fidgeting in my seat. Gabe slid his hand over mine and it calmed me down instantly. I loved and hated how he affected me. Alpha Jonas looked like he was contemplating what I had said. Then his eyes glazed over like Devin’s had. “Our elders will be here momentarily, in the meantime, my gamma has mated with your witch friend. I am not keen on sending my gamma away, but it seems as though you need her.” He said after a moment. “Alpha, if I may, I would like to join them. I know you do not want me to leave, but if this is what our Goddess intends, for me to be with her, then shouldn’t I?” he says with his head bowed. Alpha Jonas once again seems to contemplate Camden’s words. “I suppose you are right. If the Goddess fated you to her, then I cannot stand in the way.” He said. “You may join them, but I want you to return to me once you have completed your quest, we can figure out what to do from there.” Camden nods and smiles and leans over to Clara and kisses her cheek. It was good to see her find some happiness, she deserves it, she has been through so much.  

     The Elders came in and spoke to us about how to gain their strength. There is supposed to be a ritual on a full moon, and they have to conduct the ceremony. I will have to stand on a rock in the moonlight, naked, of course, which isn't an issue for the wolves, but I am not fond of nudity, in the presence of Alpha Jonas, also naked. They have to recite an ancient incantation to draw on his strength and seal it in the talisman. But before we can do any of this, I have to go on a side quest, if you will, to gather the herbs necessary. Clara and Rachelle offered to grow the herbs, but the elders insisted that I must go gather them myself, and I can bring one companion. They already forbid Clara and Rachelle out of concern that they would go against the ceremony and grow the herbs for me. Ava would be of no help to me in the woods for two days to gather the necessary herbs, so I chose Gabe. Next to me, he is the most rugged of us any ways and learned how to live without magic and can survive in the wilderness. This whole thing is to ensure that we are worthy of the Alphas strength. It had been decided. Gabe and I would leave tonight after sundown to gather the herbs, and we would be gone for two days until the next full moon, if we do not gather the necessary herbs and do not return by the full moon, we fail, and they will not grant us the Alphas strength. Oh joy, I thought to myself bitterly.