The Moon Goddess

Answers

I must have fallen back asleep because some time later I felt Lia shaking me awake.

“Hey Rose, it’s time for dinner.” I opened my eyes and reached out beside me to find the bed empty.

“Where’s Apollo?” I asked, still kind of groggy.

“He went to go find the humans. He wanted to get it done with and out of the way.”

I only nodded at her. I was still so tired even though I’d slept so much in the past 48 hours.

We walked in silence to the dining room, where I took a seat next to Lia. Dominic was sitting on the other side of her and kissed her cheek when she sat down.

“You’re not with Apollo?” I asked Dom. Suddenly, worried about him being alone.

“Trust me, I try to go with him. Every time. But he always insists it’s something he has to do himself.”

“And he can handle it?”

“Physically, yes.”

“And emotionally?” I asked, my nails digging into the arms of my chair. Dominic’s face became solemn.

“Let’s just say, I’m glad he has you.”

Well gee. That wasn’t the most comforting thing he could have said.

I ate dinner quietly, waiting for him to come through the doors at any time, but he didn’t. After dinner, I returned to our room. I waited for a while but eventually I got bored. I started looking around the room when my phone rang. It was an unknown number.

“Hello?” I said, answering it.

“Hello, is this Rosaline?”

“Maybe. Who’s asking?”

“Violet, Apollo’s stepmother.”

“Oh, of course, I’m so sorry for the behavior. I’ve been on edge lately.”

“Oh yes, Apollo told me all about what’s happening to you. That is why I called. When Apollo first mentioned your father, I was hesitant to divulge any information. My history with your father is complicated, you see. But when Apollo told me who he was to you, I knew I couldn’t keep my story to myself.”

“I see. What happened?”

“Before I married the king, I was betrothed to your father. The daughter of a Beta and the Delta. It was a wise political match. Though, there were complications. One of them being your mother. Your father fell in love with her–a human. It was a scandal. I kept his secret for him, but I told him I fully intended to see our engagement through. It was the right choice for the pack. That was all before you came along. One evening, under the full moon. Your father and I were on patrol. The full moon is always a special time of the month for our kind because it is said to be the only time our Goddess can come down to the mortal realm. During the time of the Galvas, before Apollo’s family took over the throne, they were meant to be her favorite. The ones she created to keep the peace, but her design was flawed. They were raised to believe they deserved everything they wanted, they weren’t raised with humanity. The war was awful, many died. Since the end of the Galva reign, no one had seen the Goddess. It was said that she was angry at her children, and at herself. That was why, the night we found you, we were shocked to see you in the arms of the Goddess herself.” My heart skipped a beat as I took in what she was saying.

“What? The Moon Goddess gave me to you?”

“Sort of. There's more. As I said, that night your father and I were on patrol. Staying close to the border. At exactly midnight I saw a bright silver glow coming from a clearing near the edge of the pack grounds. I went to investigate, your fath- Edward,” she corrected herself, “Was right behind me. When we entered the clearing, we saw a woman. I knew immediately it was Selene. I could feel the connection with her. Although, even if I were a human I’d have known I was standing in front of a goddess. Her skin was dark, like the night. But she had patches of lighter, bright white skin. Her hair was the same, full of dark brown strips, and white. Her hair was loosely pulled into a long curly ponytail down her back. She wore a dress that looked as if it was spun from moonlight itself. The gown had a cape that fell delicately on her shoulders. The bodice of her dress carried hundreds of fingernail sized metal plates, making her chest look like the scales of a dragon, or armor. The skirt of the dress had light layers of satin and chiffon, making it fall flat on her body, a leg slit in each side. She had daggers strapped to each thigh, and two swords at her hips. Upon her head was a crown of diamonds and sapphires. She watched us enter and she smiled. Never had I seen a woman, who looked so dangerous, and yet so safe. She closed her eyes and bowed her head before us and we were suddenly back in our human forms, clothed with clean, white, long, linen tunics. Edward and I were speechless as we awkwardly scrambled to our knees and bowed before her. She approached us and kneeled down right in front. We were speechless. Without words, she handed you to Edward. She got up to rise but I called out to her. I asked her why she was giving us her daughter. Because Rosaline, it was clear that is what you were. You had the same shining complex.”

I gasped a little and tried to understand. How could I be a daughter of a goddess? How could I have never known?

“She looked back and smiled. Then she spoke. But not aloud, in my mind. She told us to hide you in the human world, because there would be people who would want to hurt you, and that she would find you when the time was right. Your father told Beaty, and was trusted to care for you while I remained here. He finally got his dream of marrying your mother. Which was a good thing considering she had secretly had two children already.” She sounded sad. “You’re in danger, Rose darling. You must find a way to contact the goddess. If my theory is correct Rose, you are the beginning to a new line of Galva wolves. I believe you will reunite our people and govern everyone as their queen. Not just of the werewolves, but of all supernatural kind.”

Her words shocked me. So much so that I had no response except for silence.

“Rose?” She said through the line after I hadn’t said anything.

“Yes? Sorry. I’m just… processing. I do have a question though.”

“Anything.”

“Apollo said you sounded scared. That you wished you hadn’t been there the day I was found. Why?”

“Like I said darling, you’re in danger. More danger than we thought initially. To remember, puts us all in a dangerous position. You are the daughter of the moon goddess. But not in the same way that we are. You were born from her flesh itself. When I said I thought you may be a Galva, I meant that is the least you could be.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means, I think you could possibly be a deity Rose. Which is why I was so terrified. Not of you, but the powers that wish to use you. The powers that don’t want you to exist at all. There are ancient, powerful beings that used to own the land before the time of humans. Evil retched beasts. The moon goddess created her supernatural children to eliminate this death and allow room for life to grow. We not only protect humans from our own kind, but we are meant to be the sacred protectors of life itself. The powers against you are unlike anything these existing generations have faced. Once you unlock your abilities, it is you who must protect us. I know this is a lot. I am sorry for dumping this on you, but I believe you deserve to know the truth.”

“How-How do you know all this?” I managed to get out.

“The goddess has visited me in my dreams since that day. She told me all of this so I could one day tell you. How she knew we’d meet, or why she chose me, I’ll never know. But you must understand darling, You must not tell anyone that isn’t necessary. If it were up to me, I’d say you should only tell Apollo. But I also know that Dominic and Lia are too special to you all not to tell. But it must end there, do you understand? Until you have accessed your abilities and the threat is gone, who you truly are must remain a secret. You are here to save us. You are too precious to be taken from us.”

Part of me couldn’t understand what she was saying, and another part was agreeing as if this was information I’d heard every single day. I knew what she said was true. How? I wasn't sure. It was just an instinct I suppose. After a moment I was finally able to speak.

“Thank you Violet. You’ve helped me more than you know.”

“Of course your highness. Good luck to you.”

I wanted to correct her, to tell her to just call me Rose, but she hung up and the door to my room opened. It was Apollo. I looked at the clock and saw that it was 11pm. It made me nervous that it took him so long and I immediately went to him to look for injuries. He must have read my mind because the second I got to him he spoke.

“I’m fine. They didn’t hurt me.” He looked at me waiting to say something, but I really didn’t have anything to say. So I just hugged him. He wrapped his arms around me and sighed.

“I’m sorry it took me so long to come back. I needed time to myself. To think.” I tightened my grip slightly, and into his chest I said, “You’re home now.” I sighed. “What do you need from me? Do you want to talk about it or do you want a distraction?”

“A distraction. I will tell you about it, but I need time to process how I feel before I try to put it into words.”

I hesitated before what I said next. “What kind of distraction? The kind where I let you touch me anywhere you’d like?” The thought of this was clearly appealing to him, as it was to me. He let out a low growl and I could feel the length of him stiffen against my leg. “Or, the kind where I tell you about the phone call I just had with Violet.” Both of these options terrified me, I wasn’t sure which I needed more myself right now. Obviously what I said was enough to bring him back down to earth and out of his dirty thoughts. He quickly loosened his grip enough to look at me, his eyes large in question.

“What? She called? When?”

“Just a few minutes ago. We talked for a bit, and she hung up right before you came to the door.”

“Well what did she say?”

I led him to our bed, asked that some food be brought to him, and began my story. I started by telling him the history between my father, and Violet. Then about everything else. He was as surprised as I was. I asked him what Galvas were and he explained the history of his–OUR kingdom.

“What does this mean?”

“I’m not sure. All I know is that the first step is to try unlocking my powers. I need to find a way to contact the moon goddess.”

We sat and thought for a moment.

“When is the next full moon?”

“Next month, three weeks from now. Why?”

“Violet told me that before the Galvas fell, that was the only night the goddess could come to the mortal plane. It only makes sense to try to contact her on a full moon too.”

“How do you think you can go about that?”

“I’m not sure. Do you have a library somewhere with the history of your kingdom?”

“Have I not shown you the library?”

“You haven’t shown me anything except the inside of your room.” I tease and poke his dimple.

“I guess you’re right. A proper tour is in order when we get home.”

Home. Our home. The castle. MY kingdom. Our kingdom? I wasn’t sure what was true anymore.

“Speaking of tours,” Apollo said, cutting into my thoughts. “Have you been properly shown around town?”

“Roslyn?”

“Is there another town in my territory I’m not aware of?” He jokes.

I roll my eyes. “Yes. I’ve walked through the whole town multiple times.”

“But have you really experienced it?”

“I'm not sure what that means.”

“Well it's settled then. I’m taking you all around town. Properly.”

“I still don’t know what that means. We are creating quite the itinerary for ourselves. Research, castle tour, town tour, pack introduction, your ceremony, meeting the moon goddess.”

“You are going to overwhelm yourself.”

“It just feels like there is too much to do and not enough time.” I sigh and lay my head on his forehead.

“That is where you’re wrong, my love.” He says as he wraps his arms around me, brings us down so we are laying side by side, and situates himself behind me. “We have all the time in the world.”

I drifted quickly off to sleep. I thought my sleep would be an escape, but even safe in Apollo’s arms, the nightmares came. First I dreamt of the winged man, sucking the life out of me as I slept. And then of my adoptive mother, pointing and screaming at me and blaming me for the death of her husband. And then of a woman, one I can’t recall seeing. She was beautiful, and red. Red with blood, red hair, red clothes. She looked at me like I was something to eat before screaming and charging me. Before she could reach me I jolted awake. My breaths were heavy as I wiped my sweaty hair out of my face. Apollo was still sleeping and the time was only 7. I decided to take a shower. I sat there, on the shower floor, for I'm not sure how long. I let the water surround and comfort me as I tried to sort through all the thoughts and feelings from the previous day. I was in there long enough for Apollo to knock on the door to check on me. I didn’t respond, I didn’t need to. I wanted him in here. I didn’t want to talk. After I didn’t respond, he slowly cracked the door to the bathroom open, perhaps waiting for my objections. When none came, he entered fully and saw me sitting in the shower, with my knees to my chest. I looked up at him and said nothing. He took this as cue to strip down and come into the shower with me. It didn’t make me nervous or embarrassed that we were naked together. Despite it being the first time we have ever seen eachother in such a way. But this moment was not for physical intimacy, but emotional intimacy. Vulnerability. He sat at the other side of the shower and leaned against the glass. We were a foot apart but his presence was powerful. I felt swallowed by it. In a good way. In a way I needed.

“What happened when you were gone last night?” I asked him. He didn’t look up at me, or look surprised by the question. He kept his eyes firmly on the curve of his knuckle as he spoke.

“I watched you fall asleep, and I thought about how little I deserve you. Which I know is something you would disagree with, but because I was treated so poorly by my father, it is difficult to accept any sort of love.” He paused to look at me and smile. “But I’m working on it.” He returned to staring at his knuckles. “I decided then that I would do anything to deserve you and your kindness. The beginning of that was being a good king. Even if it meant doing hard things. So I got up, and I went after them. I went there with the intention of just speaking to them. I knew they couldn’t live free range anymore, but I thought maybe I didn’t have to kill them. Maybe there was another way after years of an archaic tradition. But these men were beyond reason. Beaty was a gambler, and a bit of a shithead. He got into bad business with men powerful in the Russian mob. He exposed what he was and was so in debt, he almost traded his daughter to pay it off.” He clenched his fist and took a deep breath. “I walked into the warehouse they were in, and heard the cries of too many women to count. Young women by the sounds of it. They seem to know what I was, because they knew that sound wouldn’t be recognizable to the human ear. They probably couldn’t even hear it themselves, but they knew what was happening. Their leader, a greasy fat bald man, just gave me a menacing smile. And he had the audacity to ask me if I was there to deliver what Beaty had promised. It took some more prodding to realize it was Janel he had promised. At that point I was beyond reason. I killed them all. More than I intended to kill. And then I got a list of every known person in their organization and killed them too. I left an anonymous tip to the local human police and helped the captured women find their way to the sheriff's department.” The bags under his eyes had deepened and his aura fell. “There were so many Rosie.” He said, his voice breaking. “So many young woman who had been r***d, and torutured beyond comprehension. I have seen a lot of s**t in my life, and very little is able to surprise or concern me but I could barely be in that room. It was awful. Then my mind wandered, and I couldn't help but imagine you like that.” He hung his head down. I came closer to him, got on my knees in front of him and lifted his head in my hands. I took a moment to look in his eyes. To remind him that I was still here, and then I placed a gentle but territorial kiss on his lips.

“I am right here. I’m not there. What you saw is something no one should have to see because what you saw is something no one should ever go through. There is no rhyme, reason, or meaning behind any of it. It’s brutal, violent, and inhumane. We aren’t made to deal with that kind of s**t, and we aren’t made to see it. So honor what you’re feeling and don’t try to fix or make sense of it. You helped those women, and protected not only this pack, but all of us. And you don’t have to go through this alone anymore. You have me, and I won’t let you blame yourself or keep this in. It’s okay.” I’m not sure about the rest of my speech, but the words ‘It’s okay’ made him come undone. Tears filled his eyes and he began to cry in my arms on the floor of the shower. The water, and my kisses washed his tears away until he had no more to shed. I helped him up and got comfortable clothes from his bag. He dressed and got back into bed. We would have to go to the drum circle tonight, but for now we could be alone, together.