Memoirs of a mourning Luna

Mates?

We walked along in silence for a bit. Molly at the lead, myself close behind, the man in purple to my left and the others close in tow with the man in black at the rear. At this point I feel awful that I haven't learned any of their names, I can't keep referring to them by the color of their clothes. As we continue to climb the endless stairs, I clear my throat and turn my head towards the man in purple," I am very sorry we keep getting interrupted. How about I go first?" He almost seems shocked that I spoke, but nods his head rapidly. "Ok, my name is Samantha Vasquez, and obviously not from around here." He chuckles and his face breaks into a half c****d grin, revealing a beautiful white smile and a cute dimple on his right cheek. Now I giggle and he looks at me curiously. "Oh sorry, it's just that you have a dimple." I reach out to touch his face where the dimple is, but stop myself. Why am I acting like this? I've had no interest since my husband and..... I don't want to think about that right now. I already have enough on my plate. He seems to notice my inner struggle and diverts the topic thankfully.

"Samantha is a beautiful name, my name is Ian Cortez. I am not from here per say, but I am familiar with the area." I like the way my name rolls off his tongue a little too much. Almost shaking my head to disrupt the thought entering my mind. He continues, " This is my brother, Val Cortez and for lack of a better term right now mi amigo, uh Mo." Mo then turns to Ian, apparently disgruntled at this. "Mo? That is the name you give to this ," Gesturing to me," exquisite rose of a woman!?" Mo then turns to me, at this point we've finally reached the top of the stairs and paused for a moment. He reaches out and takes my hand to pull it to himself as he bends to kiss it," Please bella dama, call me Porfirio, or Rio for short."

I giggle at this, but as soon as Rio's lips touch my hand I hear a low menacing growl coming from Ian? I retract my hand instantly and cast my gaze towards Ian and notice he is practically staring daggers through Rio. Instinctively, I grab Ian's arm to calm him and I immediately feel the electricity spark from our touch. He must feel it too because he's frozen in place as his features completely mellow down and he visibly relaxes. The only intensity is the gaze he has toward me, almost pleading with his eyes for me to stop? Continue? I'm not entirely sure, but Molly grabs my arm to shake me out of this trance. I forgot we were supposed to be following her.

"Come on, we have to catch them before they check out."

"Who?"

"Hopefully the one with answers to all of this." She gestures to me and Ian at this point who has now taken my hand in his almost protectively. I don't pull away this time, only because I think the contact is keeping him calm. Molly, myself and Ian are quiet for most of the remainder of the walk to whomever it is we need to see. Though I can hear Rio and Val discussing something heartedly in Spanish.

Val," Ha estado muy distraído desde ese maldito bar."

Rio, "Relájate, volverá a enfocar una vez que reclame a su compañera."

"Mate? That's a bit possessive in this day and age don't you think?" I say over my shoulder casually.

Ian appears dumbfounded, "You speak Spanish?"

"Well I don't speak it very well, but I do understand it. I learned from my husband and his family. He was..." I stopped speaking as the realization hit me of the past tense I was using and a wave of sorrow hit me. I retract my hand from Ian's grasp at that point. "Sorry, now's not the time for this." and I quicken my pace to catch up to Molly since she has stopped in front of a large set of French doors at the end of the hall. I sense more than see the concern coming off of Ian and his friend Rio, but I can't look at them right now. I focus on Molly," So who are we meeting?" Trying to change the subject quickly, but I know Molly senses something wrong too as she looks at me with concern. I just shake my head and look at the door and then back to her.

She hesitates, but answers," Well this is the room of Ghàidhlig. I'm hoping they can help us." At that point she knocks.

"They? How many people are we meeting?"

"Just one, They just don't like to be confined by singular definitions of any kind. Be it species or gender. They are all and none at the same time. They feel it gives them better insight to help others. Higher state of consciousness and all that." The door then swings open to reveal a very lavishly decorated room.

The entrance seems to be a sitting area that is dimly lit by several lamps around four high back chairs in the center circling a round table. There are sheer fabrics hanging from the center of the ceiling and trailing out to the walls as if to make a tent or canopy. "They have a tendency to be a bit dramatic, just go with it." Molly whispers in my ear.

Just then a door to the far right opens and out comes what appears to be a hooded figure, but I can't see any features. It almost appears as if it's just a cloak floating through the air toward the chair at the back of the table closest to the door They came through. Ghàidhlig then speaks, " Please sit." Their voice sounded like many both masculine and feminine and many different languages all at once. Ghàidhlig sits at their preferred seat and then myself and Molly take two chairs. Ghàidhlig beckons for Ian to sit also, "This will also concern you Alpha." Did they just say alpha? I look at Molly, wondering what the hell is going on now, but she just shrugs her shoulders as Ian sits beside me to my left looking just as lost as we do. Ghàidhlig speaks again, " Dear child, how long you have lived in the dark, and suffered so much. Tell me what it is you wish to know." Since I can't see who They are looking at I assume They are speaking to me, " Uhh, well if you are speaking to me. I would like to know what I am and what's going on and why I keep smelling honey dew melon and lemongrass and why I feel the need to be close to this one," pointing at Ian," but I don't want to be with anyone after everything that has happened and I don't know if that's even possible and why did you call him alpha and...." Ghàidhlig raises their hands to stop me, at least I think its hands, the ends of the arms of the robes lifted but again I can't see any body parts. "Patience child, to answer your first question, I'll need some of your DNA." I suddenly felt a sharp yank on one of my baby hairs as Molly had reached over to me and then handed it to Ghàidhlig.

"Ow." I rubbed the spot along my hairline that Molly had pulled from.

"Oh don't be such a baby." She said as she stuck her tongue out at me.

Ghàidhlig then put the hair Molly had yanked from my head into a vial they pulled from their robes that was filled with a brilliantly blue colored liquid. "While we wait for that, perhaps I can answer a few of your other questions. As to what's going on I assume you are referring to the massive amounts of mythical beings that you have been living amongst all your life without knowing?" I nod. They continue, "Well that is a bit harder to explain but the easiest way for your mind to grasp right now would be that there has always been truth to the nursery rhymes you've grown up with. Unfortunately our kind must stay hidden for different reasons. Some stay in Tera merely because of want. Others because of need. Some are able to roam the surface if they choose and do so with the understanding they have to keep Tera a secret from the humans." I nod in understanding and wait for more, "Now to the subject of the gentleman to your right. The reason I called him alpha is because he is the alpha of his pack of skinwalkers. His group just so happens to shift into wolves so they stay together as a pack and function as such. There are other skinwalkers of other species and they tend to emulate what their animal likeness would do as far as say a bear being a solitary creature or a wolf being a pack creature. It varies from species to species. He is also the reason you keep smelling honey dew and lemon grass, he is your mate. Just as why you smell like vanilla orchid and grapefruit to him. Neither of you can be complete without the other. Most likely you are also a wolf shifter, but I like to run my tests to be certain. It is rare for shifters of different species to mate, but not unheard of entirely."

I am absolutely in shock. Me, a skinwalker? Much less a wolf? Did they say mate? Oh no I can't have that, I don't think I can handle being with someone now if ever. "Look I don't know what being someone's mate means but I don't want to be in a relationship right now..." All of a sudden Ian seems to be having a heart attack, he grasps his chest and breathes heavily. "Are you saying you reject me hermosa?" Tears are streaming down his face and he's so pale as if he's seen a ghost. "No, I mean, I don't know this is a lot and I need to process. Much less if I am a shifter how am I just now finding out about this?" Again I reached out to calm him and he grasped my arm to pull me toward him and sat me in his lap. I start to struggle but he pleads, "Samantha, please. Holding you calms me and my...wolf. I know you don't understand but if you don't want me to rip this room apart just let me hold you for a second please?" I turn to face him as he places his arms around me, not holding me down forcefully but not letting go either. To be honest, I feel calmer myself so I nod my head and turn to face Ghàidhlig while Ian buries his face into my hair and inhales my scent. I can feel him relax drastically underneath me and wait for Ghàidhlig to continue.

"As for the reason you've never shifted, it's hard to say until my vial completes processing your DNA but I assume as with many others with dormant abilities you have ancestors that mated with humans over the years and eventually stopped shifting. Suppressing the need to be in a pack, thus suppressing your other abilities. Though I will say you have retained the trait of staying youthful."

"What do you mean?"

"Aren't you 37 years of age? In human years that is? Yet you still have the youthful appearance of someone in their early 20s. Do you not find that odd?"

"I just assumed it was good genetics, my mother always looked youthful, and I moisturize frequently per my grandmother's advice."

They chuckled, "Indeed it is good genetics, but not in the way you were thinking." At that point, the vial that had been floating above the table since Ghàidhlig added my hair to it, turned a bright sky blue with shimmers of swirling glitter. Then a bright light flashed and it turned a milky golden hue. "Strange..." They whispered, I almost didn't catch that they spoke.

"What's strange?" I ask.

"Well the sky blue indicates there was a deception spell used, whether upon you or an ancestor is uncertain. Those types of things can be passed down through the generations. So in short you were disguised as a human, but in fact you are a shifter of the wolf variety. At Least that's what the golden hue reveals. It is trying to mimic the glow of the moon, particularly a harvest moon. The bright light was my potion breaking the spell that had that one hair disguised as human."

I'm speechless by this. The moment I heard it could be possible I was a shifter. I didn't want to believe it, but I figured my luck it was true. What had me more worried was why was it hidden from me?

Ian spoke next, "Can the disguise spell be undone? If she wants it to be undone?" I turned to look at him and as he met my gaze it was as if he was apologizing for even asking. I don't want to live a lie though, I feel like that would only complicate everything else going on further. I gently squeeze his hand and give him a reassuring smirk and turn back to Ghàidhlig. "Yes, can this be undone? Possibly soon because I need to get back home. I'm certain my kids are worried to death." I feel Ian's demeanor stiffen at the mention of kids. I'm sure I'll have to explain everything eventually, but I'll get to that on the way back to the surface. Hopefully Molly can take me back.

"Ofcourse, let me get a few things from my room. I'll be back momentarily." With that, Ghàidhlig gets up and goes to their room to fetch whatever it is they need. The room is deadly quiet. I'm the first to break the silence, "So mols," She jumped about a foot and looked at me, "Do you think you could get me home after this?" She blinked a few times as if I had disturbed her from a deep sleep. " Well, unfortunately now that I've made an appearance in the lobby. I'll have to attend to a few problems that my employees have been having trouble with, but I'm sure Mr. Alpha here and his friends would be glad to help?" She looks at them and I myself turn to look at Ian. I really didn't want to be alone with them, but what choice did I have? Also maybe he could shed some light on the mate thing. Ofcourse Ian seemed over the moon (pun intended) Rio seemed enthusiastic about the arrangement. However Val was less so and who I guess was their body guard (never learned his name yet) looked like he could care less.

"Of Course bella, we can escort you home. Hopefully get to know each other and discuss some things if that's alright?" Ian looked at me waiting for a reply.

"Yea, sure , that'd be fine." His face split into the widest smile I think I had seen yet. It made me smile involuntarily knowing that I put that smile on his face, but again I shake the thought from my head. I have to figure this all out and fast. About that time, Ghàidhlig came back into the room and sat at their seat while placing a cloth bag onto the table. It rattled a bit and seemed heavy as they placed it in front of me. "What's this?"

"It is the ingredients and instructions to the potion to reverse the disguise spell placed upon you. Be warned if done incorrectly this could not only affect you, but everyone affected by this spell. Now I do apologize but I must rest, this has been a taxing day." Then Ghàidhlig vanished, seemingly into thin air. I looked at Molly as she snickers and says," I told you they have a thing for theatrics."

"Well, I think I should get back to the front desk and see what I can do for that cyclops couple whose reservation was lost. You behave." Molly makes a point to look at me and wink. "And you better keep my girl safe, or you'll be part of the next set of ingredients I give to Ghàidhlig." She gives Ian and his compadres a warning stare. Ian laughs at first, then realizes she may actually be serious.

"Si, yo tengo." Ian says nervously.

We leave the room and back into the hallway and as we get to the lobby, Molly hugs me and gives me a quick peck on the cheek. "If they cause any problems you call me." She hands me a business card. "This is my number down here, cell phones usually don't get service here obviously but you can reach me at this number anytime." She started to walk off to the front desk and turned one more time to wave goodbye. Then she looked at Ian and pointed at her own eyes and then at him to say she was watching him. He shifted on his feet nervously. That had me chuckling. This tiny pixie of a woman had this mountain if a man nervous she was gonna kick his ass. I guess she just has that affect on people.

I look to Ian and his crew, "Well, I guess you should lead the way." He gave another half c****d grin and grabbed my hand to lead me to the elevators.