My Lycan Mate

An Hour With Father

### MY LYCAN MATE - : An Hour With Father

The spirit of Daniel Quinn was warm.

That was the first thing I noticed. I expected a ghost to be cold, like the shadows in Fenris's fortress, like Elian's white fire when he first woke up. But when I took my father's translucent hand — my silver claws now tipped with white from mixing blood with Elian — his hand was warm. Like living skin. Like a healer's hands should be.

"Elara," he whispered, his voice exactly like I had imagined when I was six years old, lying awake in Mara's hut in Blue Stone, pretending my parents were still alive and would come through the door. "My little moon."

"Papa," I choked out, and then I was crying — not silver tears, not glowing tears, just normal, human tears, hot and messy, running down my face and sizzling where they hit the gold-lit Altar of Scales.

Elian was on his knees beside me, holding our father's other hand with both of his scarred, white-tipped hands, his amber eyes — so like mine, so like our father's — wide and unblinking, as if he was afraid if he blinked, Papa would disappear.

"I thought you were dead," Elian whispered, his voice hoarse, layered with the faint whispers of the dead that still lived in his white mark. "For twenty-one years, Fenris told me you were dead. That you left me. That Mama Sarah died hating me."

Daniel's spirit knelt, even though he was translucent, and cupped Elian's face. His hand passed slightly through at first, then solidified as our mixed gold blood in the basin pulsed.

"No, my son. No. Sarah loved you. She died giving you life, and her last words were your name. Elian. She named you after the moon. And I... I never left you. Fenris's men took you from my arms when you were five. I fought. I fought until they broke my legs and left me in the snow to die. That's when Azhara found me."

He looked up at the huge white Dragon Queen, Azhara, who was lying curled around the Altar like a cat around her kittens, her huge head resting on her own tail, watching us with one huge, tearful, black-and-silver eye.

"She was wounded, dying from laying Nyx's egg," Daniel said. "A hunter had shot her wing. I healed her with all the Moon Priest blood I had. I almost died. And in return, she promised me she would watch over my children. Both of them. Even the one I hadn't conceived yet."

He looked at me.

"Elara, when I met your mother Lyra, I knew instantly. The Moon Goddess showed me — in a dream, the same way she showed you me — a little girl with silver hair and a silver crescent on her back, standing between a Lycan King and a white-marked brother, holding a dragon feather. I knew you would be Moon Chosen. I knew you would need protection I couldn't give as a human."

Kade, who had been standing behind us, his arms crossed, his black crown glinting, his red eyes soft as he watched me cry for my father, finally stepped forward and knelt too, his huge form dwarfing even Daniel's spirit.

"So you gave your blood to a dragon queen to make her daughter your daughter's protector," Kade said quietly, his voice respectful for once, not growling. "That is... a father's gamble."

Daniel smiled at Kade, and his spirit hand — warm — reached out and touched Kade's black crescent mark over his heart, right where my silver mark now lived.

"And you," Daniel said to Kade. "You were six years old when you held my daughter for the first time, after Lyra gave her to Mara. Do you remember?"

Kade froze. His amber eyes widened.

"You... you remember that?"

"I was there," Daniel's spirit said. "Not in body. I was already with the Goddess by then — Magnus's men killed me a month after Elara was born. But Lyra called me. Moon Priests can call their loved ones for a moment after death, if the love is strong enough. I saw you, little Kade Blackwood, six years old, too small for your crown, holding a screaming baby girl with a silver scar and promising her you would kill anyone who hurt her."

Tears — black tears — slid down Kade's cheeks. He didn't wipe them.

"I promised," he whispered, his voice breaking. "I promised and I... I lost her. For fourteen years, I thought she was dead too. Jace's father told me Mara's baby died of fever."

"Jace's father lied to protect her," Lyra's voice said from behind us. My mother had arrived — Nyx had flown back and brought her, Rook, Sable, and Mara to the Altar, just in time. Lyra ran forward and fell to her knees beside Daniel's spirit, her hands passing through him at first, then solidifying as she cried. "Daniel... my love..."

"Lyra, my moon," Daniel whispered, touching her face, his translucent fingers now solid enough to wipe her tears. "You kept her safe. You kept both our children safe, even when you had to leave them."

We were all crying now — me, Elian, Lyra, even Sable and Mara behind us. Only Kade and Rook stood stoic, but I could feel through our bond that Kade was crying inside, his wolf howling with a strange, happy grief.

But Daniel's spirit was already starting to flicker. The gold blood in the basin was dimming. Our hour was almost up.

"No," I grabbed his hands tighter, my silver-white claws digging in gently. "Papa, don't go yet. You said you would tell us why Moon Priests were hunted. Why we were hidden. Mama said you knew."

Daniel's spirit looked at Azhara, and Azhara nodded her huge head.

"Tell them," Azhara rumbled softly. "They must know before they return to the mountain. The werewolf council... they will fear the children more once they know what they can do together."

Daniel took a deep breath — even spirits need breath — and looked at me and Elian, his two children, one of life, one of death.

"Moon Priests were not just healers," he said. "That is what we told humans and werewolves to keep them from fearing us. We were... we were the original mates of the first Lycans and the first dragons. Long before werewolves existed, there were only three races: dragons, Lycans, and Moon Priests. Moon Priests were the bridge. Life Priests could heal any wound, even a dragon's. Death Priests could speak to the dead and even bring them back for a short time, if the Goddess allowed it."

He looked at Elian. "Like you did in the mountain, my son. You called the dead warriors without meaning to."

Elian nodded, tears still falling.

"But together," Daniel continued, looking at our joined hands — my silver-white, Elian's white-silver, both glowing gold at the tips now — "a Life Priest and a Death Priest who share blood can do something no one else can. They can... unmake death. Not just raise a body. Bring a soul back. Permanently. Not for an hour. Forever."

The Altar went silent. Even the wind stopped.

"That's why Magnus hunted us," Lyra whispered, horrified. "That's why my father killed Moon Priests. He was afraid we would bring back his enemies."

"Worse," Daniel said. "Magnus was afraid you would bring back his brother. The brother he killed to become King. He thought if a Life and Death Priest ever mixed blood, they would bring back his brother to take revenge. So he ordered all Moon Priests killed. All except... me. Because I hid. And Sarah, your mother, Elian, hid you by telling everyone you died."

"And me?" I asked, my voice small. "Why did you hide me?"

"Because you are both," Daniel said, smiling at me, his spirit flickering faster now. "You, Elara, are Life, but you carry death now too, because you mixed with Elian. And Elian, you are Death, but you carry life now. You two together... you are the first Gold Moon Priests in a thousand years. The Moon Goddess herself was once a Gold Moon Priest. She is not a goddess. She was the first of you. And she became a goddess by bringing back her own mate — the first Lycan — from death."

I gasped. The Moon Goddess was a Moon Priest?

"So we... we could bring someone back? Forever?" Elian asked, his white eyes blazing.

"You could," Daniel said, his spirit now almost transparent, his hour almost up. "But the price is not one year. The price to bring someone back forever is... one of you. One Gold Priest must die to give their gold blood to the dead soul. That is the balance. Life for life. Death for death."

He looked at Kade then, and his eyes were pleading.

"Kade Blackwood, King of Lycans, mate of my daughter... promise me you will never let them do that. Promise me you will never let my children sacrifice themselves for me, or for anyone. I am happy with the Goddess. I am happy I got one hour."

Kade knelt fully, his black crown touching the Altar stone, his head bowed to my father — a King bowing to a human healer.

"I promise," Kade growled, his voice thick with black tears. "I promise by my blood, by my mate's blood, by the Gold Moon that now lives in them — I will never let them pay that price. I will kill anyone who asks them to."

Daniel smiled, satisfied, and turned back to us, his spirit now just a wisp of gold light.

"One last thing," he whispered, his voice fading. "In the Shadow Lands, in the cell where Elian was... there is a second cell, behind the first. Fenris never found it. Inside is... inside is a chest. With my journals. All my knowledge about Moon Priests, about dragons, about how to control life and death. Take it. Learn. And..."

He looked at Lyra, at me, at Elian.

"And tell your mother, Elian, that Sarah's last words were not your name. They were 'Tell my son I will wait for him with the Goddess, and I will be proud of whatever he chooses to be.'"

Elian sobbed openly now, his white mark blazing white-gold.

Daniel's spirit leaned forward and kissed my forehead — warm — and kissed Elian's forehead — cold and warm at once — and then he dissolved into gold mist that sank into our mixed blood in the basin, which flared one last time and then turned clear, empty.

Gone.

One hour was up.

I sat in the snow of the Altar of Scales, holding my brother's hand, my mate's hand behind me holding my waist, my mother crying quietly behind me, a Dragon Queen and her daughter watching over us, and I finally understood.

My name is Elara Blackwood. I am twenty years old. I am Moon Chosen, Gold Priest, Lycan Queen, dragon sister, and daughter of a human healer who gave his blood to save a dragon so that dragon would one day save his children.

And now I know why we were hunted. Because together, Elian and I can bring back the dead forever.

But only if one of us dies.

And somewhere, in a hidden second cell in the Shadow Lands, my father's journals are waiting.

---