5
**Lycian POV: **
Jace finally came back from the Stone Moon Pack. He handed me Alpha Requiem reply to my challenge. Of course, he accepts the challenge, so I have a month to prepare to either lose or win. No Alpha, even one to go into a battle prepared to lose, but in battles, there is always a loser and a winner. I fan myself with the paper and a faint scent sends chills down my spine. And when Lucifer started to howl, I think my mate might have been near this paper.
“Why does this paper smell so good?”, I said out loud, forgetting I am not by myself.
“What are you talking about? The paper smells like regular paper to me”, Jace said while sniffing the paper.
“Who was with Alpha Requiem when he wrote this note”, I asked.
“His mother and I think the other woman are his fiancé, why”, he said.
“I think the scent I am smelling is my mate”, I said with full hope.
“Okay, so your mate could be his mother or his fiancé. If you kill him, they will both hate you, mate or not”, he said, starting to laugh.
“Well, I guess I will find out the day of the fight which one is my mate”, I said as I got up to go for a run.
As I ran, I saw another wolf just as big as mine but a little bigger. I know it’s my father. He takes runs when he is feeling a certain way more, or I like him. I catch up to him, he says nothing, just nods and we run side by side. We stopped at the cliff and sat quietly. However, I want to know what is the beef with our packs? Why don't they like each other?
“Dad?”, I whispered, knowing he would hear me.
“Yes, son”, he says, taking a deep breath.
“What’s the reason why our packs can’t stand each other”, I asked. I never asked that question, actually I don’t think anyone has. Even in history class, everyone just accepted the fact that our two packs don’t like each other.
“It is a long history of problems. Unfortunately, most of those problems have nothing to do with us, they are just sins of our forefather that we inherit”, he said, which didn’t even answer my question.
“Dad, I need details. Did someone steal someone’s mate or something?", I asked starting to get annoyed.
“Something like that. Our pack has its own version and they have theirs. The only person who can set the story straight is the Moon Goddess herself”, he says, still looking over the cliff.
“Care to explain, dad, I am going to be fighting to the death in a month. Don’t you think I should know the full story or at least our part of it?”, I asked.
“Fine…fine, I should have told you when you became Alpha any way, let's go to the library in the house”, he said.
We shift and walk into the house. We go into our own rooms to change before meeting at the library. Once at the library, dad led me into the basement. It is scary as hell, in here damn. Dad goes to the stone that has our family crest, he cuts his hand and places it on the stone. The stone moves, there is a hole inside the wall. To say I am shocked that I was not aware of this secret spot is an understatement. Dad takes out a book that looks to be made of wolf fur. Without saying a word, he turned and headed to my office. He sat in my chair and opened the book.
“You are aware of the origin of us. So, I will skip that part”, dad said, a little annoyed.
“Dad, what was that I just saw, and what is that book? Also, why the hell did you not tell me about its existence?”, I asked.
“First off language, second, I didn’t want to burden you with this knowledge just yet. You would have found out when I died, just like me and my father before me and his father before him and so on”, he says as he flips the pages.
“So, once you are dead and gone, I will have no one to ask”, I said, rolling my eyes.
“You know that the Moon Goddess is one of many gods of nature”. He asked.
“Yes”, I say.
So now my dad is giving me a history lesson. He gets to a part I do not know about. The Goddess was promised to a God, but she fell in love with Endymion. Some say he was a human, but their fate was sealed the moment they laid eyes on each other. Greek sources say that he was punished because he had attempted to have a sexual relationship with Zeus’s wife, Hera, and was put into eternal sleep by Zeus. The book father was reading from said that Endymion's only crime was the Moon Goddess loved him and not the man Zeus wanted her to marry. The book states they married in secret and Zeus punished him by tricking him into a cave and putting him to sleep.
“Dad, what does this have to do with our issues?”, I asked, needing him to get to the point.
“If you shut up and pay attention you will know”, Goddess, I need him to get to the point where I am tired.
Heartbroken, thinking her husband had left her, she married that man Zeus wanted her to. He was cruel and unfaithful, and she couldn't bring herself to love him. She did her wifely duties and gave him children, all of whom had powers. Her children brought her joy, but years later, one day while walking in the meadow where she first saw Endymion, she saw a wolf and decided to follow him. The wolf leads her to a cave and inside of it she sees her beloved Endymion sleeping on a bale of hay. She did everything she could to wake him, but he wouldn't wake up. The wolf howled and it gave her an idea that she had transferred her beloved soul into the wolf. Once the transfer was completed, something amazing happened. The wolf shifted itself into human form.
Surprised to be awake and seeing his lovely wife, he embraced her as a husband right there in the cave on the bale of hay. Endymion told her what conspired between him and Zeus. Furious, she confronted Zeus. He denied everything until he saw Endymion shift into human form, surprising Zeus that he was awake. She demanded Zeus grant her a divorce based on the grounds that she was not a widow. He agreed only if the children got to stay with their father. She agreed. She and Endymion lived happily together. She gave him fifty daughters.
However, her ex did everything he could to poison their children against her. She loved them no less than the children that she had with Endymion. And wanted them to know that however the poison worked, jealousy, and hardened hearts caused battles between her children. Some prayed to her, asking her why her children with Endymion could shift into wolves while they only have the wolf abilities. Sadden by their questions, she granted her children the ability to shift as well.
“Dad, please shorten this story. I have a board meeting tomorrow”, he just looks at me and continues to read.
The Goddess's work was in vain. Her children still fought, some married and installed that hate onto their offspring. Some of her children treated their wives and husbands badly. She decided to pair her children with mates she made for them. The daughter of Endymion carried the bloodline of the goddess while her other children who were sons did not. After centuries, even with the gift of fated mates, her children continued to kill each other. She decided enough was enough and she paired a daughter of Endymion with the son of her ex, who was an Alpha.
“Dad, does the book mention the other man’s name?”, I asked, getting aggravated when he was mentioned as the EX.
“Son, you interrupt me one more time and I will kick your ass”, my dad said.
However always the rebels, their fathers made them reject each other and so the fight went on. Generation after generation, there is a profanity that the Goddess will have her way by any means necessary. Those who obey will be rewarded with one of their daughters as a gift.
“Now, son, are you asking your questions?”, my dad asked.
“Yes, who are we descendants from”, I am curious at this point.
“We are descendants from the House of Endymion, the man fated to the Moon Goddess”,
“What was the name of the man she was forced to marry?”, I asked.
“His name is Stone”, dad said, so we are basically descendants of the good guy and the other backs are descendants of the bad guy.
“Yup”, dad said.
“Where did you get the book from?”, I never saw it before, and it seems to be a treasure that has to be well hidden.
“The book is made of diary entries from Lunas that have the bloodline of the Goddess”, he says as he looks at the last entry and gives the book to me.
Entering my room with the book, I can help but feel something is missing. I look at the last entry dad was reading, and I noticed it was my mother's handwriting. She was the last Luna of this pack. I read her entry.
- “Diary,
I and the other women in the pack are under house arrest until the fight is over. My beloved mate is out fighting. I begged him to stay with me. I am with child again and I pray that this child makes it to take its first breath. Last night I had a dream that the Moon Goddess came and visited me. In my dream, she told me that my child would be the end of this war and would help bring peace between the two packs. Of course, I told my mate about the dream the morning he left. And he said he hoped that our pup would be a great warrior and end our enemy. I don’t think that is what the Goddess has in mind based on our conversation. What I didn’t tell him was that she requires a sacrifice and I accepted to be that sacrifice. She told me to write him a letter and he would get it when the time is right. I will also write my child a letter as well.
My mother knew something, something my father didn’t clearly tell me. When I get a chance, I will ask him for the letter she wrote him and the one she said she would write to me. On top of all this shit, I have to attend a board meeting with humans. Goddess help me. *