Moon Born

Chapter 29

"Okay. This is good. Right? We're making progress."

"Yeah. I think," I muttered. "I guess now we just keep trying to find more information. How to defeat the creatures, if that's possible. I guess."

"Okay," the others said in unison.

We split up our time for the rest of the week between the vault in the library and the forgotten ancient rooms in the castle. There were a lot more books than I'd thought there would be.

We all spent hours pouring over the ancient documents and recounts of how life was in the beginning. 

The story of Queen Diana was eerily similar to my own. She was never meant to be queen or mate with King Aelfred. She was an ordinary commoner who ended up finding out she was the daughter of Artemis. Much the same way I did. In the time before mating, while we were still young, the brave Diana fought alongside King Aelfred to defeat the creatures that threatened the very existence of all wolf kind.

They fell madly in love and the King had her crowned queen after the Battle of Winter Lake.

Their wedding ceremony, which I suppose is now our mating ceremony, was the largest and most lavish wedding ever held. Guests traveled from all over the wolf realm to attend. 

Her gown is the same gown that all queens and future queens would wear for their mating ceremony.

As the couple approached the third anniversary on the throne together Queen Diana fell pregnant with their first child. The Future King Edward. There were complications during the delivery and she died, leaving King Aelfred miserable and depressed until his death twenty years later.

It was shortly after this, when Artemis noticed the complete wretchedness of the king that she changed how we lived. She was moved by the love and devotion Diana and Aelfred had for one another. It was the same pure love she had for Orion. She remembered the way her heart shattered at Orion's death. This is why we mate for life. That is why we are able to find our mates starting at adulthood so we can know what it's like to have ourselves whole.

It's also why we die if our mate bond is broken by any means besides death. 

The documents also described the hatred that Hera had for us. The number of times she attempted to destroy us, in the beginning, is really ridiculous. Between the great evil and the natural disasters she sent to our realm, Artemis was forced to put a protective forcefield around our realm. A force field that made our entire kingdom invisible to those on the outside.

If we're within our protection, how could Hera have found us?

She had the ability to shapeshift herself, though not into wolf form, she could into human form. After her first attack, Zeus forbade her from ever shifting into our form. She was supposed to obey the restrictions on not attacking wolves and those of us who shifted into wolves, but it seems she didn't listen.

As the days wore on, I felt a stirring within. My wolf whined as the full moon grew nearer.

I know. I've neglected you.

She wanted to run. She wanted to be free. I hadn't let her out in so long. None of us had. We were so distracted by the pending doom that we didn't let our wolves run.

"Hey," I called out to Edmond.

"Yeah?"

"Let's run."

"What?" He put down his book and looked up at me.

"Let's run. My wolf is whining. We're at the full moon tonight. Let's run before our ceremony."