My Mate, My Mystery

The Luna arrives

~POV Aurora~

The wind smelled like salt, stone, and secrets.

I stepped off the plane and onto the dark Irish soil, every instinct on edge. The chill in the air seeped straight through my bones, but I barely felt it. My hands stayed protectively over my stomach, where the twins rolled and pulsed with the kind of energy that made even seasoned witches uneasy. They were mine—celestial, magical, and very much alive. Even now, I could feel them reacting to the land around us, to the ancient magic humming in the ground beneath my boots.

“Easy,” I whispered. Whether I was speaking to myself or to them, I wasn’t sure.

Xena needed me. That thought had dragged me across an ocean. My Gamma, my sister in every way that mattered, was paralyzed by a magic none of our pack could understand. Not even our most gifted witches dared name it aloud. Whatever had her, whatever had sunk its claws into her wolf… it was old. It was cruel. And it was watching.

Anthony met me outside the Castle. He looked ten years older than when I saw him last—his shoulders sagged, his eyes dull with exhaustion and grief. I barely had to ask.

“She hasn’t moved,” he said, voice low and tight. “Still breathing. But not there.”

My heart squeezed. Xena was never still. She was wind and fire, laughter and fury. I nodded silently and stepped inside.

The moment I crossed the threshold, I felt it. Cold—not physical cold, but the kind that lives in your soul when something is wrong. The air was thick with shadow. The castle, once warm and alive, now felt more like a mausoleum.

She lay on the bed, her strong frame too quiet, too still. Her tanned skin had dulled, and her once vibrant aura barely flickered.

I dropped to my knees beside her. “Xena,” I breathed. “It’s me. Your Luna.”

The magic in the room shifted. The twins moved inside me, pulses of heat and light. My own power rose to meet them—deep, golden, ancient. I didn’t try to stop it. I couldn’t.

A voice slithered from the corner of the room, cold and brittle. “The Gamma saw what should remain hidden. She belongs to the dark now.”

I stood slowly, heart thundering.

The shadows coalesced, forming a woman’s shape—faceless and full of malice. I didn’t flinch.

“No one belongs to you,” I said, my voice laced with every ounce of Luna authority the Goddess had ever given me. “Least of all my Gamma.”

I felt Anthony shift behind me, his wolf rising, ready to defend. But this was my fight.

The twins flared inside me again, and for the first time, I let them. Light exploded from my core, a beam that sliced through the shadow like it was nothing more than mist. The figure shrieked, curling in on itself.

I moved to Xena, hands trembling as I placed them on her chest. “Come back to us,” I whispered. “Come back to me.”

There was a heartbeat of silence—and then she screamed. Her body arched, light pouring from her eyes and mouth like starlight, raw and wild.

Then… silence.

“Xena?” I whispered.

Her eyes opened. Slowly. She blinked, dazed, and then—“Aurora?”

I laughed and sobbed all at once, pressing my forehead to hers. “I’ve got you. I’ve always got you.”

I felt the magic shift around us again, but this time it wasn’t dark. It was reverent. Like the land itself recognized what had happened. Who I was. Who the twins were. And who we would become.

I was Aurora. Luna of the Silvermoon Pack. Mother of prophecy. And no darkness would ever take one of mine again.

Anthony ran to Xena's side, rigid but happy to have his mate back. He kissed her fiercely like he was afraid to let go. He had come so close to losing her and I feel how much it scares him.

Xena looked up at me in in awe, as I was still glowing with power heavily surrounding me.

"It was a trap for you" she said with a sob and tears filling her eyes. "I didn't know, I swear I didn't know. I would never put you or the twins in harm" she could barely get out the words between the sobs and voice was filled with so much regret and pain.

I took her in my arms, prying her from Anthony's grip, hugging her as tight as I could. " I know you would never put us in harm, how do you it was a trap?"

Xena explained everything that happened after she touched the pouch in the woods, how Athena was lost to her and she thought she had lost her for good. She explains how she felt and saw Athena's last moments before everything went black. the voice that played out the trap they had set. Xena unable to talk or link to anyone had to sit there and wait for my arrival, praying that the plan would not come true.

"I thought I was going to lose you too and it would have been all our fault!" she spit out with another burst of tears. My mind started to wonder as I tried to think of who would want to take my babies. I immediately called Zeke to tell him everything, unfortunately the distance was too far to mind link intentionally. it was odd that Athena's mind link was able to reach me. Was that part of the magic, part of the plan?

Zeke ordered me to get in the plane and come back home tonight. there is no way to tell if the person weilding the dark magic was still here or if my powerful display may have caused them to run. I turned back to Xena to see her in a state of panic. "what's wrong?" I asked running over to her.

"Athena isn't there, I thought I felt her briefly and maybe she was just weak but I don't feel her at all now and our mind link won't open" She exclaimed looking at me with horror filled eyes. Even the strongest of werewolves die when they lose their counter parts. I looked down at her with sorrow. "lay down, let me try to see what I can do" I say as I help her back to a laying position.

I kneel beside the bed, placing my hands over her scanning her body with my energy, trying feel for any signs of Athena. I send out burst of healing energy as I am doing this helping to ease Xena's worry and her pain. My scan comes up empty I do not sense her wolf at all, as a matter of fact, even Xena herself smells different to me, she smells human. My heart shatters into a million pieces and my face must have shown my heart break because Xena let out a blood curdling scream that turned into a muffle cry as she buried her head into the pillow.

My eyes went to Anthony who stood there emotionless with his mouth wide open, unable to speak. I motioned for him to go to her and he took a few minutes but then broke his own trance. I left them alone and went to another room to Zeke again, needing the comfort of his voice.