The Goddesses Time

Earlier than Expected

**Tameras POV**

As I wake up, I can hear the rain outside my window and the constant buzzing of my phone alarm. The sun hasn’t risen yet, but you can hear the ravens cawing and playing outside. I stretch with my arms high above my head, stretching my whole body, letting out a small squeak as I do so.

I grab my phone, look at the time, and shut off the alarm. It's 4:05 a.m., and I'm ready to run and train. I throw the covers off, walk to my dresser, pull out my workout clothes, and get dressed. As I head downstairs, I see my mom and dad heading out the door.

“ Hey, honey, food on the table. Get a good workout in and then get to school. Love you, baby, see you later tonight,” says my mother, and she walks out, shutting the door behind her. My mother and my father are pack warriors. My mom has white hair and bright eyes, while my dad's hair is brown and wavy. They both have a very warrior physique, broad and muscular, with my mom only slightly shorter than my dad.

I quickly ran to the window to see my parents shift and take off. I can't wait until I get my wolf. Only three more days until my 16th birthday, and she will be able to speak to me, and I'll be able to shift. I can already feel her in my mind. She's restless and ready to get out.

I'm so preoccupied with my thoughts that I almost miss my parents' shift. Mom is a white wolf with black hair on her paws, the tip of her tail, ears, and a black collar framing her chest. She's so beautiful. Dad's wolf is black with a white face, paws, and blue eyes.

He calls himself a panda wolf. They look back at me, point their heads down the drive and back towards me, then bow and take off towards the pack house. I see my friends arriving in their cars as I look down the drive.

Dani and Cam are her mates. Dani and Cam are a few years older than me, but we've known each other since I was born. Their parents are warriors, but Cam's dad is the head warrior. They exit the car and wave at me, and I wave back. This is their senior year and the start of my sophomore year.

I walk over and open the door for them, and they come in and head to the kitchen to get breakfast. Cam throws me a sandwich over his shoulder. I catch it easily as they watch TV in the living room.

“So you're headed off to train, right ?” says Dani as she sits down and eats her sandwich.

She's a taller girl and well built, too. What can I say? We're warriors; all we do is train. She has brown short hair and hazel eyes. Cam sits next to her, taking up most of the room and forcing her to scoot over to make room. Cam is huge. You’d think he was an alpha with his size. He's over 6 feet and just a mountain of a man with reddish brown shaggy hair and a full beard at 19.

“Yeah, okay, so why do you train alone in the forest again ?” asks Cam as he takes a bite of his sandwich. The dam thing is almost gone in one bite.

“I don’t know, to be honest. It's just a gut feeling that I have that I should.” I answer, raising my shoulders in a shrug.

“Well, it's weird for sure,” he answers, looking back at the TV.

“Oooor, maybe it's her wolf telling her to. Her family does have white hair. And you know what they say about that,” remarks Dani as she glares at Cam.

“Ha! Yeah. I'll eat my left shoe if her wolf turns out to be the reincarnated Moon Goddess. She hasn’t been reborn in like …… I don’t know 600 years ?” he phrases the last part as a question, raising his hands and looking between us.

I look at Dani, and she looks at me, and we both shrug and look back at him.

“Yeah, see, exactly. But stranger things have happened.” he leans back on the couch, pops the last bite into his mouth, and flips through the channels.

Dani rolls her eyes at him but cuddles into him, then looks at me and says, “See ya’ when you get back, sweet heart. And then we’ll all head off to the training grounds for the pack run and then head to school.”

I nod at her, “ Sounds good,” I say as I walk out the door. I'm just about to shut it when I hear Cam yell in his booming voice

“SHOW THOSE TREES WHO'S BOSS KID !”

I can't help but laugh as the door clicks shut. I begin to jog into the woods.

“GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR”

“WHAT THE f**k WAS THAT !” I yell. I've just made it into the woods and I hear a growl. But it wasn’t out and around me …… it was from inside my head! Was…. was that my wolf ?!? But it's still 3 days until my birthday. She's not supposed to be able to talk to me until then. What is going on?

“Run deeper into the woods. Go now, child. I can't wait any longer. I want to come out.”

OMG IT WAS MY WOLF!

“Wait, wait, why can I hear you? You aren't supposed to be able to show yourself until my birthday ?”

“All will be explained when we shift. Just go deeper into the woods. We can't be seen yet.”

“Okay, okay, I'm going.” I run by a stream as fast as possible to my usual spot.

“AAAAAAARRRGGGGHHHH!” I scream as a pain like no other begins to rack my body. I start to breathe heavy, my heart is pounding in my chest, and I begin to sweat profusely. I look at my hands, CLAWS.

“AAAAAAARRRRGGGGHHH !” I fall to my knees as I begin to feel my back break and shift.

“Relax. Just let the change happen. The more you fight it, the more it hurts.” My wolf coos in my head.

I try to let all the muscles in my body relax. The change begins to happen faster now. I take a quick breath as I feel my face become snout and a tail start to come out of my backside. I slam my eyes shut and try to focus on my breathing. It seems to take hours, but finally, I hear her in my head.

“It is done. Ah, it feels so good to be out.” She stretches her body, bringing her front legs out in front of her, dipping her head, and curling her toes.

I look at her legs….. well, I guess our legs—stark white. No, I take control, run to the stream, and look at myself in the water. No ……., no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! I back away slowly from the water in shock and horror. This can't be happening! Why me?

“Why you ?!? Excuse me? This is a great honor! You are the reincarnation of the goddess herself.”

“I DIDN’T WANT THIS. EVERYONE IS GOING TO HUNT ME…. EVERYONE IS GOING TO WANT US,” I yell in my head.

“Well, of course they will. Look at us. We're positively gorgeous.”

I stroll back up to the water and look again. The eyes looking back at me are pretty stunning. They look just like the moon. You can even see the craters the moon has in them. I look up at the brow. A crown of moons floats around my brow—all the different phases of the moon.

“We are quite striking,” I say reluctantly.

“Come from the water, little one. Let's stretch these muscles and get some wind in this fur. Let me take control and show you the world from my eyes.”

“Okay….. wait. What is your name ?”

“Celest,” she says as I let go and focus on her eyes.

She walks away from the water and looks around at the trees. I'm in awe. She can see everything: the birds at the top of the amazingly tall trees, every bristle on every branch. The more she focuses, the more she sees. She looks down at the moss-covered ground. I could see the bristle-like branches on the moss in perfect detail and all of the little bugs and beetles that scurried through them.

She began to walk forward and deeper into the forest. All the colors and sounds pelted my senses at alarming speeds. I knew what it was, where it was, how far away it was, and what direction it was going before I could see it. She began to jog and then run, and the trees passed us at a dizzying speed. She dodged and weaved through them effortlessly like a ghost floating through the breeze. Everything was a blur beside us, but in hyper focus in front of us.

Suddenly, a sweet smell was in the air. I had never smelled this like a musky pine and citrus smell. It was friendly and comforting. Celest came to a halt and looked in the direction of the scent. She then ducked down and flattened herself to the earth.

“Oh shit.” She whispered in my mind.

“Celest, what's going on. Why are we hiding ?”

“ Well…….. It's our mate. He's old enough to scent us and feel the pull of the mate bond, but we're not old enough yet to feel the pull ourselves. We will feel comfortable around and drawn to him, but that's about it. Ugh. I hope he's strong enough to walk away.”

“Really! Well, let's get closer and see if we can at least see who it is.”

“ARE YOU CRAZY? Can't you feel his aura?!? He's in his wolf form. If we get any closer, he won't be able to stop himself and mark us right then! We're not 18 yet. The bond this soon could destroy our body. We're not getting any closer. We must be ready to run if he can't control himself.”

“Well, what will we do at the training yard then? Didn't he send us there? We can't skip training.”

“Yes, he will, but we can blend in with the others and leave as soon as it's over. We will be harder to pick out if we stick to large groups.”

“Okay, he's leaving… and fast too.”

“Good. Let's get home.”

“OH NO MY CLOTHES! I can't walk into the house naked in front of my friends! Cam and Dani are mated, and Dani will attack me without thinking. What are we going to do ?!?”

“We're going to have to show them who we are.”

“Jeeze. This is going to be crazy. Alright, well, let's go in the back door then.”

She nods her head and begins to run to the house. We make it to the back door and paw at it. My parents put in a special paddle for wolf paws to be able to open the door. They have to come in wolf form sometimes when no one is home, and with them not wanting prying eyes to see their naked bodies, this was the best option. We open the door, walk inside, and shut the door with our back leg.

“Tamera? Is that you? Why didn’t you come in through the front door ?” yells Dani from the living room.

I take a deep breath. “Here we go…” I take my first nervous step and begin to round the corner. Dani is the only one looking, and when her eyes fall on me, her eyes widen, her jaw drops, and she begins to shake. She slaps Cam's chest frantically, pointing in my direction.

“What?! For goddess's sake, what woman ?!?” He finally looks over in my direction with a slightly annoyed look, but then his face falls and his jaw drops.

“No fu$% in way…” Cam says, still looking at me. He leans down to his left foot and begins to undo his boot.

“What the actual f$% k are you doing cam?” Dani asks, looking at her mate quizically

“Well, I said I'd eat my left shoe, and I am nothing if not a man of my word, " says Cam matter-of-factly.

“I like this man,” snickers Celest

Dani starts laughing, and I shake my head and turn to run up the stairs to my room. I shift and put on my clothes when Dani enters my room.

“B@#ch, what the hell was that?!? You aren't even 16 yet! How was she even able to get out? And her eyes ……. WOOOOOW.” She plops herself down on my bed and rests back on her hands. Once I have my shirt and pants on, she yells for Cam, and his lumbering form pounds up the stairs, crying the whole way.

“GIIIIRL, YOU HAVE SOME EXPLAINING TO DO !” As he enters my room, I notice a hitch in his stride. I look at him quizzically and then look down at his feet. One boot is gone.

“Oh my goddess, you didn’t.”

“HA! No, but I gotcha for a minute, didn’t I? Also, it's not really, oh my goddess, anymore… It's Tamera. " He laughs, moves to my bed, and sits by Dani. You can hear my bed groan in protest as he sits down.

“Dude, your tree trunk a$$ is going to break my bed one day, I swear.”

Dani snickers, and Cam looks at her and squints his eyes. She sticks her tongue out at him, and he begins to raise his eyebrows at her seductively. Dani raises one eyebrow and gives him her famous “Spock” look.

“I think the f% $ k's not in my bed. Go break your own,” I say, putting my hand on my hip and pointing at him.

He looks at me, raises his hands, and lowers his head slightly. “Of course not, your majesty,” he quirks a joking half smile at me, looking up with only his eyes over his caveman brow.

I growl at him, square my shoulders, and get in a defensive stance. “You ready for this, Mr.? Yeah, I just got this big a$$ goddess wolf, let's see what she can do, homie.”

“Destroy him is what I can do,” Celest answers in my head

I fain a smile as cam begins to stand with a big s**t eating grin looming over me “Oh yeah tiny? Feelin' frogy, huh?”

“OKAY OKAY YOU TWO, BREAK IT UP. Save it for the training grounds, you feral animals. Goddess. You two are always challenging each other. I feel like the mother of this group sometimes.”

Cam and I look at each other and just smile, which causes Dani to Spock both of us to our core.

“Ouch, eh, but she's not wrong. You two are being pups,” says Celest.

“Alright, so what are we doing here? Obviously, we can't tell anyone about your wolf. Speaking of which …. I can't sense her. Cam, can you ?”

“Huh ? ya know, now that you mention it. I can't. That’s weird. I wonder if it's because she's not 16 yet. Maybe ?”

“Mmmmm. Maybe.”

“Well, Celest said that we have to keep it a secret. Especially since my mate scented me in the woods.”

“YOU WHAT !?!” they both yell in unison.

“Yeah. Celest and I were running when I smelt him. I doubt that he saw us. He took off pretty fast, and then we did, too. I sure didn’t see him, so I have no idea who it is. But we can't look suspicious, so we have to go to the training grounds. Celest says that if we stay in large groups, it will be harder to scent out, and then we have to leave right away.”

“Oh, Jesus,” Dani says as she closes her eyes, puts her head in her hands, and shakes her head side to side.

Cam looks at her with his mouth partially open and a dead look on his face. “I mean, yeah, that could work, like one or two times. But if we have to do it more than that, pfff, he's going to find you.”

“No, no,” Dani interrupts. We’ll just have to get scent spray and cover our scents. If we all have it, then we can say it's warrior training stuff, and it won't seem weird.”

“Oh, she's smart,” Celest retorts, nodding her head in my mind.

“Yeah, Celest likes it.”

“Okay, yeah, no…. that might just work, babe. Good idea.”

“Thanks, babe. Okay, then….. let's head out before we're late.”

“Yep, “ I say as I turn to the door and grab my bag before opening it.

Cam takes a quick breath through pursed lips and breathes out through clenched teeth. “Here goes nothing.”

We all walk down the stairs and out the door, getting into Cam's car, and head to the pack house.

“Yeah…… here goes nothing. Is right.” I say in my head.