© 2015 SilverStream22. All Rights Reserved.

~STARK~

Strangely enough, we all had a picnic with the army of Lycans...all under my own and Katya's command. I felt weary being around so many...while most werewolves stuck into packs, it was rare to see more than 10 Lycans together. Yet here there was at least 50, each Royal family bringing forth 10 of the best Lycans that their family created.

I couldn't help but get annoyed when I had to be right next to Katya while she was talking animatedly with the Reapers. There was a blond one with blue eyes, a scar running diagonal across his face, who seemed to be getting too close for comfort to my mate. 

"Felix, what about your Lycans? Will they be able to handle it?"

Blondie With A Scar looked a bit miffed. "Of course. The Jaeger family's Lycans are of immense strength. They'll be good for head on combat."

She furrowed her brows and she tapped the eraser side of her pencil on her bottom lip. "Then what about Kyo taking the skyline? It'll be good to have Lycans in the trees on standby."

The dark haired, mismatched Japanese smiled humbly. "The Sakurai family would be honored to serve a stealth purpose in this mission."

"And I? Could I stay by Ken-" It's no surprise that Kendra, even from inside the kitchen with Evgeny, managed to throw a fork at him.

"FUCK OFF, KRISTOS!"

I smiled wrly as Kristos dodged with ease, turning his puppy dog eyes back at Katya.

She sighed, jotting down his information on a notebook. I bit into a finger sandwich as she continued to write down the positions.

"Okay, Kristos, I'm going to have you get the Vasilakis family be with the Jaegers on the front line. Brute force goes well with magic, which is what the Vasilakis family seems to specialize in."

He grinned. "That's good news to hear. I'd hate to be sidelined as the help."

"Mind including me into your plans?"

The French accent came from a redhead with ghostly transparent skin, appearing across Katya on the other side of the table. "I haven't introduced myself, but I'll take that it's still not to late to do so? My name is Auguste, I am the butler of the Lumescent royal family."

I didn't like him.

He seemed too trusting...too formal. Something about his eyes, despite not having the black pupils and irises with the blue ring, felt like they were belonged to that of a possessed person. Auguste was one who had an ulterior motive...it was the only thing I could come with to explain the off putting sensation that radiated off him.

Or maybe it was the fact that he was a Reaper like all of the other butlers.

"So remind me why your mother, whom I've yet to have my overdue conversation with, hasn't brought any Lycans of her own?" I tossed my arm over the back of Katya's chair.

She tosses her thick inky hair over her shoulder as she turns to face me. "Mother says our family doesn't need to bring any Lycans that she's created because she has you. Apparently you're the prized Lycan of our family."

"Many of the Lycans in your travel group are one of the bests in our families." Kyo commented. "For example, Jazz and Draver and the prizes of the Sakurai family."

"Same with Kendra. She's in a legion of her own, being a mermaid turned Lycan: the very first Nymph of the Vasilakis family." Kristos smiled fondly.

I ran my fingers through Katya's curls. "So there's no one else here that's been made into a Lycan by the Anosovas?"

"Exactly." Katya sighed. "Though it was kind of a let down."

"Speaking of the Anosova family, what is Evgeny going to be doing?" Felix muttered, his baby face contrasting with his manly scar and rough voice. 

Her beautiful lips pursed. "Don't be mad, Stark, but I was actually going to have Evgeny watch out for you."

A snarl tore from my lips. "Are you serious? No. I'm not having a bodyguard, much less a Reaper."

She gave me gentle frown, "Please. You can't blame me, I've already had you stolen from me once, and look how that turned out. I can't risk it happening again. I can't lose you too."

A memory slammed into my brain, one of blond girl, her stomach swollen as she sat down beside me on a hill with a notebook clutched in her hand.

"I'll be fine." I muttered. "Seriously."

Figments came rushing in, filling in the blank spaces. Orion with his hand in her stomach, yanking out the fetus and the umbilical cord in one fell swoop. A body- her brother- deformed and mangled impaled on the coat hanger. Blood soaked on the notebook, a letter peeking out.

"I can't exactly take your word for it." she insisted. "Just let me do this for you. He won't be glued to your side, just watching for afar for any threats."

Mommy and Daddy can't wait for you to be born. You're our little ray of sunshine, always brightening our day with your gentle kicks. We'll take you everywhere, to all the places that you could ever want to go. We'll give you the world, because you are our world.

"Of course there's going to be threats, we're going to war with vampires!" I blew my fuse. "I get it okay, you've lost Mikhail, believe me I get it. I lost a baby and my wife, I'm not new to this. You can't cover all your bases Katya, you're going to lose people no matter what- it doesn't matter how much you prepare or how painstakingly you plan this out. He'll find a way- a flaw. So stop treating this like it's some walk in the park with simple answers and solutions. Just trust me, that I'll be safe and be able to take care of myself."

Everyone at the table fell into silence.

I expected Katya to snap at me, to hit me. But instead she smiled sadly. "You remember, then? You remember what happened to Kathleen?"

I rested my head in my hands as the horrid memory pounded against my skull.

She drew my hand between her own, her thumbs rubbing along the lines of my palm soothingly. "Then you know exactly why I'm doing this. Why I'm assigning Evgeny onto you. I can't let Orion get a hold of you- not again."

"I'm holding you accountable for that." I whispered, the feelings of losing my own child flooding through me.

~Katya~

Now that I thought about it, it's definitely been a while since Stark and I slept in the same bed together.

I wanted to be there for him, while he got all of his memories back. But it was so painful. I was pretty sure that I'd gotten back to square one in terms of getting him to love me without constantly thinking about Kathleen and his baby- what would've been his family.

He had me in his arms, my head tucked under his chin, but I knew he was thinking of Kathleen. His body was trembling- probably reliving what was happening to Kathleen when Orion attacked.

I felt so wrong in his arms at that moment. He was hugging me like I was his lifeline- yet he wasn't really hugging me. In his mind, Stark was embracing Kathleen.

I untangled myself from his grip and jumped out of the window onto the dewy earth. It was almost sunrise. The Moon Goddess would be here soon. I headed to the patio, being the first one awake. I didn't bother changing out of my night clothes. I could take in the Moon Goddess' soul in pajama pants and an old T-shirt.

She appeared at the edge of the patio, his attire changed. She no longer had the white dress with the wolves etched lively onto the hem of her dress. Instead she wore normal clothes- a long skirt with a tank top. The Moon Goddess managed to pull it off and make me look like a rat.

"Just to warn you before hand, so you can understand why I am so hesitant to possess your body like I do with Iris, my immense power can scramble you from the insides if we aren't in sync. Iris relinquishes all control, therefore my presence within her doesn't cause irreversible damage. Not to mention that her body itself is dead; but not decaying because of my life force that I leave with her every time I exit her body."

I clenched and released my fists. "I'm not giving you full control. I'm not going to be some puppet for you to manipulate. We do this together, or not at all."

Annoyance flickered across her face before she fell back to her normal blank slated expression. "You say this despite the damage I could do to your body if we do not cooperate?"

"Fine." I crossed my arms. "How about you give up all control and let me be in the driver's seat. I can use your powers and defeat Erebus and Orion."

She scowled. "It is not that simple. You know not the extent of my powers that go beyond creating Lycans and mates."

"Then teach me."

Her eyebrow arched. "And for that I need to be in control."

I shook my head. "No. It's not that I don't trust you. But Mikhail...being possessed had robbed him of control of his own body. He was driven to despair when he was forced to watch himself kill his mate and her pack. I can't allow something even remotely like that happen to me."

She pondered for a moment. "Very well. Then we shall-"

Kendra rushed outside, her breathing panicked and rapid. "Call everyone out. I know the rest of the prophecy."

~

A couple minutes later and we'd gotten the butlers, the Royal families, Stark, Castor, Lorena, Iris, Alric, Jazz and Draver together at the tables of the patio that glowed under the rising sun.

Kendra recited the prophecy the moment we were all seated, as if it would slip from her tongue if she waited a mere second longer.

"One without absolution

One without redemption

One to be reborn

One to be transformed

Both to bare the sins

Both to shed the skins

Lovers at war

Are lovers no more"

The Moon Goddess, cupped her chin. "You have already predicted Katya's part of the prophecy. She's reborn as as a Royal."

I was still worrying over the last two lines. "Lovers at war are lovers no more?"

Stark gripped my hand tightly. "Maybe that was true when I was taken by Orion, but even then I recognized you as my mate."

"One to be transformed." Kendra sighed. "That has to be Mikhail. He's a vampire now, there's not other way for him to be possessed by Erebus."

I paused, thinking back to when he appeared in my room.

"Wait, no. There's something off. He wasn't being possessed by Erebus. There was someone else. When Mikhail was talking, he kept saying we."

Castor's eyes widened. "So there's more than one being inside him?"

The head of the Jaeger family snorted. "That's preposterous."

The Moon Goddess shook her head. "No, it can happen. My brother and I did it once."

We all snapped to look at her.

"You have a brother?" Iris squeaked.

She glanced up from her deep thoughts. "Yes, Apollo."

"And he can't help with this war." Stark muttered bitterly.

Her eyes clouded. "My brother and the other gods and goddesses have their own wars to fight. You know very well that you aren't the only supernatural species, so why not believe that those other supernatural species have their own patron god or goddess?"

Kendra nodded. "When I was a Mermaid, my creator was Poseidon, ruler of the seas."

Lorena scoffed. "So all the bullshit they fed us in the form of tales about gods and goddesses were real?"

"Technically, you practiced it. You offered many gifts to my temple." she pointed out.

"I never knew you were Artemis! Every werewolf believed you to be just Moon Goddess and now a crapload of years later and you tell us your true name?" Lorena slouched in her seat, reminding me a lot of a delinquent. "Goddess, I've never been this pissed off before."

"So what do you plan to do about Mikhail is he's harbouring two souls?" Felix spoke.

"There's not much we can do besides assume that it's two entities." Draver put the idea down on the table.

"We already know that one of them is Erebus." Jazz confirmed. "We just have to figure out who the other entity is."

"It's the one who kidnapped me." I realized. "He talked about it, about stealing me from the Anosovas and purposefully putting me with Mikhail. About how if I was never taken from Mother then I would've never met Stark." my tone turned bitter. "He made it sound like he was trying to be the good guy, saying that if he didn't possess Mikhail and kill our parents, that he and I wouldn't have become acting Alpha and Luna and I wouldn't have met Stark."

Alric dragged a hand down his face. "Then the only question is: who exactly is the person who kidnapped you?"