The Moon Goddesses’ Promise

Identity

Present Day

The sun was shining brightly into the cabin. Kiera had been laying down, staring at a spot on the wall for several hours, remembering all the events that had occurred the night before. She knew she had to get up and move but had no desire to do so. Her body was still aching, her heart broken, all she wanted to do was lay in this bed forever. She wanted to be able to close her eyes and never open them again.

As she had that thought, the feeling of butterflies fluttering started up again in her stomach. Instinctively, she put her hand on her stomach. This was a reminder to her of the life growing inside her body, that she was not allowed to give up.

“Hi little bean,” she whispered, adopting the nickname her father used to call her.

Sighing heavily, she swung her legs over the bed and pushed herself up into a sitting position. Slowly she stood up, wincing as her head pounded in protest. Kiera walked to the bathroom, after using it, she washed her face. Looking in the mirror she was surprised at how much she didn’t look like herself, thanks to the potion.

Her eyes were no longer a bright emerald green, but a dark brown. Her hair was no longer her long auburn hair, but blond and reached to her soldier. Her cheek bones were much higher, her lips thinner, her nose rounder, and she had freckles. Staring at herself she said “Cassandra Davenport,” reminding herself of the name Kat had come up with for her.

While staring at herself she felt the butterflies, a little stronger this time, fluttering in her stomach. “You are very active today.” Kiera said out loud.

Kiera knew she needed to move on quickly, although she didn’t look like herself, she was concerned about Michael’s soldiers scourging the woods for her. Michael would have quickly realized that she was no longer at the castle after the invasion last night.

Quickly going to the closet she grabbed the bag that Kat had left for her. Looking in it she saw a few outfits, nothing like the designer clothing she had worn most of her life. There was also a black hoodie, an ID for Cassandra Davenport, and she found $500.00 at the bottom of the bag. This would be enough money for her to get to the Coven of the Star Sisters, located in a small town to the north of Detroit, Michigan.

Kiera’s stomach grumbled loudly, reminding her that she needed to eat. Damn human needs, she thought. Looking at the refrigerator Kiera found a brown bag with some essentials: a container of yogurt, grapes, some granola bars, and a couple of water bottles. Kiera ate quickly, leaving the brown bag on the table.

Putting on a pair of jeans, a pink shirt, and throwing on the oversized hoodie, she tied her hair back in messy bun. She grabbed the bag, swung it on her shoulder and put the cellphone in her pocket. She opened the door and walked out into the midday sun. Squinting in the bright light she turned towards the left and slowly started making her way to town.

Sterling was a little over 6 miles from the castle. It was a small, quaint town that Kiera had visited only a handful of times. It was mainly inhabited by humans, who surprisingly had very little knowledge of werewolves that had roamed the forest near their town. The people who lived in Sterling rarely ventured to the forest that boarded her kingdoms land. They knew there were a lot of wolves that lived in the forest, due to the amount of howling they would often hear at night. As for the castle, the townspeople believed in a rumor that an eccentric billionaire lived there.

Kiera approached the town, going straight for the bus stop. Looking at the schedule she saw a bus that would leave in 2 hours that went to Portland, Maine. After which she could by a ticket to get on a bus to Boston, then New York City. In New York she would buy a train ticket to Ann Arbor, MI and take a bus to Detroit, where she would call Kat to come and get her. The total journey would take around 5 days. Feeling exhausted Kiera bought her bus ticket, knowing she had needed around $300 for traveling. This would she would give her around $200 for food and drinks.

Turning away from the bus station, Kiera went to the local coffee shop, less than a block from the station. The coffee smell hit her as soon as she walked in.

Remembering the pack doctor telling her that 8 ounces of coffee was safe for humans who were pregnant, she ordered a small coffee with cream and a pumpkin muffin. Sitting in the corner of the cafe, covering her head with her hood, she sipped her coffee and ate her muffin,

As she was finishing up, the cafe door opened and in walked two men wearing long black jackets, with long. dark hair and beards. Both standing almost 7 feet tall and towering over almost everyone in the store. They looked around, as if searching for something and smelled in deeply. Kiera gasped quietly, they were werewolves who were likely looking for her. Kiera prayed to the Moon Goddess that they would be tricked by the potion.

Carefully, so as not to draw attention to herself, Kiera stands up and goes to the trashcan to throw away her trash. She turns towards the door as one of the men makes eye contact with her. She stares back at him while trying not to let her nerves show. She quickly looks away and tries to step to the side of the man staring at her and tries to exit the cafe.

The man steps front of her, blocking her from the exit, and smirks at her.

“Hi beautiful,” he says to her and takes out a picture, showing it to her. “Have you seen this women?”

Looking down she sees a picture of herself from a few months ago.

“N-no,” she stuttered quietly. Get control Kiera thought.

“No, I’m sorry, I haven’t seen her,” she said with more control and a little louder.

She again tries to step past the man but he reaches out and grabs her arm.

“What’s your name, beautiful?” he asked her, tightening his grip on her arm.

Kiera tried to pry her arm away from the man. If she still had her werewolf strength she would have been able to get out of his grip easily. She could tell that he was an ordinary werewolf, despite his build, there was nothing unique about him. Probably just a rogue for higher

“Derek, let her go!” commanded the other man, walking towards them with two cups of coffee. “We are not here for you to play with some girl you find hot.” This man had more power about him, he was ranked and the disdainful look he gave his partner showed that he felt was much better than the other man.

“Oh, come on James. I was just going to have a little fun!” exclaimed Derek, snickering at the man he called James.

Turning his head to look at Kiera, Derek smiled with lust in his eyes and let go of her arm. He grabbed a napkin, wrote something and forcefully put it in her hand.

“If you ever want to have a good time hit me up!” Derek said, winking at her.

Quickly, Kiera turned away and walked out the cafe. The first trashcan she saw, she threw away the napkin.

Once she arrived at the bus station she went straight to the bathroom and washed her hands. Rolling up her sleeves, she did the best to wash off the part of her arm the man had grabbed, trying desperately to wipe away his scent.

Staring hard at her face in the mirror, she wondered if she would ever get used to seeing Cassandra’s staring back at her.Cassandra was cute, but nowhere as beautiful as Kiera was.

The bathroom door opened, causing Kiera to quickly grab her bag, pull the hood over head, and exit the bathroom.

The bus began loading, Kiera made her way to the back. Sitting by the window she was grateful to see the bus was not full. There was a couple with a young daughter a few rows up from her. A young man with a suitcase, towards the front. An older couple waving to a young man and women who had two children waving back. Finally, a middle aged women walked on, stopping and smiling at Kiera. Kiera did not return the smile and turned her head towards the window. The women, getting the hint, took a seat on the opposite side, one row up. Kiera felt the presence of a few more people come on to the bus but didn’t look up at them.

Soon the bus began its slow journey to Portland. In a car Portland was less than two hours away. In a bus it would take about 30 minutes longer.

Staring at herself in the window , Kiera began to feel her true identity slip away. She tried to grasp onto the memories that flooded her head. Most filled with Stephen and Bella. She decided to focus, for now, on Bella, not ready to confront the memories of her mate.

Tears began forming in her eyes. Normally, when a werewolf lost their wolf, often times through the sacrifice of the wolf to keep their human alive, the human counterpart rarely survives. If they do survive then they would more thank likely ho insane.

Losing Bella was not normal, Bella did not die. She gave up her consciousness to help keep Kiera and their pup safe. Kiera knew that Bella was somewhere locked in her mind, she just didn’t know if she would be able to open up that part of her mind again.

Kiera continued to look out the window, not really noticing what the bus was passing. Kiera’s mind was wandering back to her shifting ceremony, the first time she met Bella.