The Goddess Hidden Daughter

Chapter 5

Later that night, Dorian is asleep in her private bedroom. She and Mikkos haven't shared a bed in years. He tells her that he prefers to sleep alone. The truth is, he and Gandolf haven't truly bonded with her.

She's having a nightmare about centaurs chasing her. When they reach her, they torture her before beheading her. Dorian wakes up feeling her neck. When she removes her hands, she sees they're bloody. She looks around her bedroom and runs to the mirror, looking at the long cut that goes all the way around her neck. Dorian screams, reading this was a warning. Leave my daughter alone, " was written in blood on the mirror.

Three bedrooms away from her, Brandon had been drinking heavily. He wants to know why his sister is so strong. He passed out an hour ago. He sees a fire-breathing monster with a lion’s head, a goat’s body, and a serpent’s tail in front of him. Brandon covers his head. “Go away. Don’t burn me. I haven’t done anything to you. I don’t know you.” Don’t.” He screams and looks at his stomach, which has been burnt to a crisp except for the areas where the words are. Keep plotting against my daughter, and you will die soon.

Mikkos hasn’t had a good night's sleep since the night before the challenge. He has been tossing and turning most of the night. Then all of a sudden, he falls into a deep sleep. He rubs his face from a slap. Then hears “you lying piece of s**t. How dare you treat our daughter as if she weren’t of your blood? If it weren’t for her, I would have let you rusty ass die. You uphold the jerks who want to harm you but treat Andromeada as if she’s an outsider. You’ll pay for this.”

"Aphro." He grabs his chest; it feels as if it's on fire. He wakes up, ripping his pajama top off. “What is that?” Mikkos walks into the bathroom, staring in the mirror at a white dove with a black arrow in the middle of it. The dove is branded in the center of what looks like the planet and has swirly colors of dark frey, light yellow, blue, reddish brown, brown mixed with orange, pale gold, blue mixed with green, and dark blue.

****

Andromeada appears in the hallway, and Cheetara runs to her. Andromeada sits on the floor, hugging the cheetah. “Girl, you’re not going to believe this. I still don’t believe this. You can’t tell Mother. My mate is Alpha Alric Kidman. The jerk that I’ve detested since I was a kid is my mate. I know we’re not supposed to question the Moon Goddess, but this time I must question her. What was she thinking? I would say it’s a joke, but I didn’t like that woman trying to seduce Aleric Kidman. I thought about crushing her skinny neck. ” She screams and falls backward, looking at the ceiling.

Cheetara growls, looks toward the kitchen, and taps Andromeda's arm.

"I know we have uninvited company. Why can't people leave me alone and allow me to grieve in peace?" Andromeada sits up, looking toward the kitchen.

****

In the backyard, four female rogues were passing by when a beautiful house caught Chyna’s eye. “I’ve had my eyes on this place for a long time. No one lives here. Yes, this is our new home.”

“This house is off limits. Haven't you heard the rumors?" Imani catches Chyna’s arm; "It’s a curse. Anyone whe tries to enter the house mysteriously drops dead on the spot and disappears.”

The other two women agree with Imani and want to move on, and beg her to continue on their way.

"Hogwash. You three chicken heads are scared of your own shadows. Those are lies to keep people out." Chyna walks faster toward the house.

“May we help you?” Andromeada and Cheetara walk out of the back door.

“When did she move in?” Imani mumbles, looking at Andromeada walking toward them.

Chyna cut her eyes at Imani, "Curse my ass. I told you that was nonsense. This house will be ours in a few mintues. It seems she and her cat are the only ones here."

"Cheetah, that's not a cat. A cat is much smaller than that." Imani points to Cheetara.

Chyna rolls her eyes at Imani, then she jumps when Andromeada says, "I ask you fools, may I help you?"

“No, we were just leaving. We didn’t mean to disturb you and your Cheetah.” Imani motions for Chyne to leave.

Andromeada looks at Imani, then back at Chyna. "You want my house. That's not going to happen." She looks at the other two women.

The two women were backing toward the woods, but stopped when Cheetara growled.

“Good girl. Okotwvw (kill).” Andromeada points to the two women. Who screams for a second from the spears that came from the ground and enters their bodies, the spears go all the way up and come out the middle of their heads.

Imani’s staring at Cheetara, “I don’t want any trouble.” She starts to shift, then screams.

Cheetara is already on her with her canines in her neck. Imani fell on the ground trying to pull the cheetah off her. Cheetara’s mauling her.

Chyna has already shifted into her brownish wolf. She almost fainted when she saw the huge Catwulf. The average wolf doesn't know if she should run away or stay to fight. While she's contemplating Catwulf's attack, ripping her head off. Catwulf spits the wolf's head to the ground, looking at the beheaded wolf and frowning. She transformed into Andromeada.

"What is with these shifters? Where did they learn to fight? No competitions. We should have just allowed them to kill themselves." Andromeada walks back to the house. "Wasted our time. Now back to my mate. What to do about Alaric?”

****

After the nightmare, Mikkos is in the den drinking whiskey from the bottle. If his chest weren't branded and hurting, he wouldn't be concerned. It had to be a witch who came to me in my dream. Aphro wouldn't hurt me. He gently rubs his chest.

Dorian explains that her head can't stay up alone with her supporting it like that. She dreamed that several centaurs tortured and cut her neck. Her wounds aren't healing. Dorian removes the towel from around her neck to show him that her neck is sliced open.

He walks closer to her to get a better look at her neck when Brandon runs into the room, yelling about his stomach.

Brandon lies on the sofa. "The pain is worse when he sits up. That damn chimera. Until tonight, I didn't know what a chimera was. That b***h ensured that I knew what she was." He looks at his mother ."What's up with your hair?"

"Long story," She's holding her head up with one hand and wrapping the towel around her neck. Dorian looks at Mikkos, "You're the only one who isn't hurt. Why Brandon and me and not you?"

Mikkos says he doesn't know why that's happening to them. Nor does he know the reason he isn't hurt." He thought it would be best if he kept his attack a secret. He wants to meet with Aphro to ask her if she came to him in a dream, or if it was a witch or vampire playing tricks on him.

Brandon wants to know if he’ll heal soon. He has never had a wound that has taken a long time to heal. He’s beginning to believe it's not going to heal.

Hearing they might not heal upsets Dorian's more upset and starts crying, rambling about writing on the mirror. She looks at Mikkos. "This is your fault. Witches are torturing us over that daughter of yours."

"What does Andromeada have to do with that? I'll answer that. Not a damn thing. Don't go around slandering Andrmeada." He storms out of the room, thinking, "I know it does. But I refuse to let them know until I know what the hell is going on."

He heard two screams from the den and ran back in. "What now?" When he enters the room, he sees Dorian, and Brandon is looking at a wall picture that's on fire. " Which one of you did this?"

"Neither of us. A crackling sound erupted, and something came through the window and hit the picture." Dorian looks at Mikkos, who's putting out the fire with a fire extinguisher.

"You fools, you have angered the wrong person. Back off, Andromeada, or suffer the consequences," Mikkos reads the words that are burnt into the picture.

Dorian points at Mikkos, "Keep your daughter away from us. What sort of people does she hang out with?"

"One damn thing that's for sure. They're not rogues. Like your son hangs out with." Mikkos stares at the picture.