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Varien & SirensCeol - Moonlight (feat. Aloma Steele) [Monstercat Release]

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~STARK~

I laid on the floor, watching the sun as it made it's trek across the sky. It felt like hours until I heard the cries.

My heightened ears picked up on the tone before I could fully register whose voice it belonged to.

"Mom!"

Iris.

I stilled for a full second, unbelieving as to what I heard. No. Iris was dead. She was preserved in the glass coffin, kept in Incubation thanks to Kendra. She wasn't alive- she couldn't be. There was no scenario that I've thought of other than Alric's power to bring her back, and even with that, Iris' would be monotone, not full of emotion.

It wasn't until Castor flew by me, heading straight for the patch of woods that Lorena sat with Iris in her coffin that I knew it was no trick. Iris was alive.

I trailed behind him as a human, my speed just barely catching Castor before he lunged at Iris, the both of them rolling together on the earthy floor. His exhilirating howl echoed through the dense almond trees.

Lorena laughed, tears streaming down her rosy cheeks. I took slow and hesitant steps forward until I reached Lorena before I shook my head, "How?"

She looked up at me with a cheeky grin. "You wouldn't believe me even if I told you."

"Try me." I moved my eyes to the girl I saw as my little sister, her rusty red flank shimmering as she ran with Castor as a wolf.

"The Moon Goddess." she answered, sitting down and leaning back on her palms. "She's part of Iris. A vessel. Since Iris had her life force stolen from her, the Moon Goddess...she took pity. Now, Iris gets to live through her eternal life force."

I swallowed, "And when she leaves? What will happen to Iris?"

She faltered. "I'm assuming she'll die again."

I gritted my teeth, but once her wolf eyes found mine, I forced a smile. "For how long? Until she gets possessed again?"

"Stark, I don't know." she sighed. "I'm just really, really glad that my daughter is alive again. That's more than I can ask for."

"I am, too." I whispered as Iris padded over to me, her muzzle brushing against my hand. I crouched down, running my hands across her shiny flank.

Her tongue dragged across my palm as Castor brushed up against her, resting his head above her own.

"Please tell me I'm not hallucinating." Alric exclaimed.

Iris yipped, moving from me and Castor to Alric, tackling him a fierce hug. Draver and Jazz appeared from the left side of the forest, opposite where Alric came out of, with a rabbit in their jaws. The moment they picked up on Iris' scent, the two of them ditched the rabbits, bounding over to Alric. Sandwiching Iris, they rubbed their muzzles along her flank, all of them howling.

"We need to talk." Lorena insisted, pulling me away from the touching scene.

Making our way to the back of Kendra's cottage, right next to Katya's room, she gestured for me to sit.

Sighing when I refused, she paced up and down with her fingers intertwined in her hair before she collapsed on the tree trunk stump. "Erebus is on Orion's side."

The mask dropped on as I flashed through the possibilities of deities taking sides in a war such as trivial as the one Orion was making. "Not likely."

"The Moon Goddess said so. It's why she's joining the fight...Stark, she's going to be using Iris as a vessel at night." Definitely likely.

"How are the chances of us winning?" I asked.

"With Iris back?" she pondered for a moment. "Higher than before. Besides, we have the Moon Goddess and Kendra on our side."

"Yes, and Orion has the Vampire King and the Siren." I shot back. "Not to mention that if Iris is going to be used as a vessel during the night, then they count as one person."

"Not in the final fight." she said shakily.

"What do you mean?"

"The Moon Goddess said that her ultimate vessel has yet to become an ultimate form of herself."

"Who do you think the vessel is, then?"

Lorena paused, "Katya."

I raised an eyebrow. "Katya? You know that the only people that the Moon Goddess can possess is a Lycan or that of royal wolf blood?"

"Which is why I think Katya is going to become a Lycan."

"She can't. She has no fear, no trauma. No experience. She's sheltered and you can tell it from one glance. The Moon Goddess picks werewolves who have suffered to bear her gifts."

"Then maybe she'll suffer!" Lorena threw her hands in the air, "Are you forgetting the prophecy? About her being reborn? Maybe she'll go through something traumatic that'll lead to her being reborn as a Lycan!"

"I won't let that happen." I growled.

She sighed and placed her hand on my arm. "Stark. Listen. I've know you since Castor dropped you and Alric at my doorstep. You try and protect everyone- even at the cost of others' life. But you must know that you can't save everyone. For every life that you save, another is bound to end. You can't keep trying to ward off the impossible."

I shrugged my arm from her, "For Katya, I can. I won't be like you, Lorena. I won't let my mate die knowing that I could've done something about it."

I regretted the words the moment they left my mouth. Kyros was a sensitive subject to Lorena, but my pride just had to go and prod the beast.

She slapped me hard enough to where my vision blurred and my filters flicked between UV and infrared. I clenched my jaw as we both inhaled before walking our separate ways.

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Katya was almost awake, this time for good.

"Did you find out what her curse was?" I asked Kendra as we waited for her to wake up. The others were out with Iris, hunting together in the woods.

Kendra brought out the rabbit stew that she made using the two that Draver and Jazz killed.

"Yes." she replied stiffly.

"And?"

"And if you don't eat quick it'll get cold."

I felt myself getting rapidly annoyed. "Tell me."

"I can't. It's too much." she hissed.

Before I could snap at her to tell me more before I used my second affinity on her, Katya screamed.

I dropped the bowl, taking two brisk steps forward to her hammock, "What happened?"

"There!" she shrieked, clawing at me as she tried to hide.

"What is it?" I scanned the perimeter in infrared, looking for the threat.

Her hand came into view as she pointed to the corner. "There!" she hissed. "Damn spider!"

My tense shoulders relaxed as I pried her off me. "It is a spider. Not a vampire."

"Even worse." she shuddered. "Goddess my sight is so messed up right now. I keep seeing in doubles."

"Probably because you jumped right up after sleeping." Kendra put it, removing her sneakers. It was strange to see a powerful being such as herself wear something as simple as sneakers.

"Please tell me you're going to kill that monstrosity." Katya demanded.

I shook my head as the Nymph rose to her feet, steadily stalking the spider who remained motionless on the wall the size of a dinner plate. Then, with a speed that even my own eyes found hard to keep up with, Kendra slammed her shoe straight down on the spider, blood splurting against the peeling wallpaper.

Katya hunched over slightly. "Oh dear. I think I'm going to hurl."

Kendra tossed her shoe out of the window. "No worries. You haven't eaten anything over the past two months. I'd be surprised if you were able to hurl anything out."

As if on cue, my mate's stomach rumbled loudly. "Is that rabbit?"

Before I could answer her question, Katya grabbed Kendra's bowl and downed it in one go.

She thrust the bowl back into Kendra's hand, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. "More, please."

I took the bowl as Kendra guided Katya to the kitchen. "Let's talk about this over rabbit stew, shall we? You have a lot you need to be caught up on."

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~KATYA~

There's a time in your life, when you actually question where you are, why you're there, and how you got there.

Right now, I found myself sitting underneath an almond tree in a public park far from Kendra's cottage with Stark behind me, his arms wrapped around my waist as we both contemplated further on those questions.

"Well, I believe you are here for a purpose much greater than just being my sheltered and protected mate." he offered.

I shook my head, sliding my hands to his own. "I don't know. Kendra's prophecy...it's unsettling."

"Do not stress yourself over the matter. You've only just awaken from the spell. Dwelling too much on troublesome issues will send you into a spiral of confusion."

"And what am I supposed to do? Two months of my life have been gone in a flash. I haven't a clue as to what's truly happened since you won't tell me and neither will the rest of the others. Iris...I don't even know what happened to Iris! You couldn't wait for me to wake up before you buried her?"

"We didn't bury her." he said after a moment.

I sucked in a breath. "What? You mean to tell me that you just left her body there!"

"Of course not." Stark scowled. "There's a deeper meaning. You know of my religious beliefs towards the Moon Goddess."

I snorted. "Yeah. So much so that you held back from rejecting me at first sight."

A faint smile flickered across his face. "Ah, yes. But you however, you jumped to get rid of me."

"You're a Lycan,"  I defended. "Do you have any idea how intimidating a Lycan is to werewolves? It's like someone placed a sociopath in a public gathering. Hell, the moment our pack knew that you and Alric and the others were arriving, they all locked their doors. We have a personal pack rule not  to lock our doors."

"I do not mean to unsettle you and the others." he apologized, looking, if I dare say it- slightly hurt.

That was a big advancement compared to a time back when he just met me- when if he felt any emotion at all, his face would beome softer in terms of granite to marble.

"Anyways...the truth about Iris. She's alive." he said slowly.

I felt the air leave me like a vaccuum cleaner had stolen my breath. "Can I see her?"

He shook his head, sending my hopes plumetting. "You may find this hard to believe considering that you aren't as religious as me...but the Moon Goddess has possessed Iris' body. Through her eternal life force, Iris is able to see another dawn. At night, Iris' body goes to the Moon Goddess, but during the day, the Moon Goddess leaves Iris' body and let's her have control. It's the only way to keep her alive."

After a pregnant pause, I spoke: "How long until sunrise?"

"Four to five hours, give or take." he didn't bother to check his watch. Time was one of those six senses for Lycans.

"Is it part of the prophecy that Kendra was talkin about?

"Kendra only gets bits and pieces of the prophecy. All we know for sure is that you are going to be reborn."

"How?" I felt my eyes water. "Am I going to die? At what price? At whose hands?"

He held me tighter to him, his chin on my head. "Again, don't worry about it."

"What about my curse? Kendra hasn't told me anything about it."

Stark's hands tightening around mine. "She knows. She just doesn't want to tell. Kaleesi likes to mess with people's emotions when she places curses, so Kendra probably isn't telling us because she thinks it's best if we don't know."

"I know what it is." I announced, "I-I just can't remember. And that's what frustrates me."

"Hey, hey." he pulled back, rolling us both over until I was on my back. "Don't force it, or you'll end up hurting yourself."

"What's it going to matter in the end? I'm going to die anyways." I muttered bitterly as my chest tightened.

His hands were supporting his weight up on the hill that we laid on, the tree's branches filtering moonlight on the both of us. "Would you like me to help you forget?"

I almost smiled. "And let something like what happened last time occur just for you to regret it the next day? No thank you."

Stark laughed low. "I promise, I won't regret it. And neither will you."

I could sense longing beneath his careless tone. He needed this- we both did. All the stress from Orion and the curse, even more so since the prophecy about us was announced. Some time to detox our worries away with simply the prescence of each other was good for us.

I smirked, "You know this is a public park, right?"

His fingers brushed down my arm, grabbing my hand as he pulled my wrist up above my head, intertwining his hand with my own.

If it was possible, his silver eyes grew brighter, "So?" he murmured softly, his voice deeper and husky.

"So we can't," I breathed, pressing my other hand against his chest where I could hear his erratic heartbeat.

"Please?"

I sighed, combing my fingers through his hair. "You're insatiable, you know?"

"Only for you, Katya." he whispered, dipping his head until our lips met.

Stark's lip felt like a soft yet firm pillow, gliding over mine with precision. I cupped the back of his neck, pulling him closer to me until his hips were snug against mine.

"Goddess, Katya, I missed this." clearly breathless, he grinned.

"My word!"

My eyes widened and I shrieked, kicking Stark away as I scrambled to my feet. "Oh! No, it's not what you think- I was just- we were just-"

"It's you!"

I blinked at the old man in a tailcoat with his head full of gray hair slicked back. "Pardon me?"

"Why, I'd never thought I'd see you again since your dissapearance, Missus."

Stark pulled himself up, brushing off the grass from his dark wash jeans. "Missus?"

"Where have you been all these years? We believed you to be dead!" he stepped forward and Stark growled.

"Keep your distance." he threatened.

"He's an old man." I scowled, slapping Stark's chest with the back of his hand before addressing the distressed man. "I'm afraid you have the wrong person."

"Of course not," the old man said, the crow feet at the corner of his eyes stretching with his relieved smile. "I'd recognize you from miles away!"

I crossed my arms in disbelief and arched an eyebrow. "Oh? Then please, enlighten me as to how you know me? Name something about me that you know-"

"You have a birthmark on your Achilles tendon." he smiled. "Your mother has the same one."

The air left my body. "How did you-"

"Like I said, I know you, Missus. Now please, we must hurry back and tell the others. Your mother will be thrilled to know that you're alive and well-"

"My mother is dead." I replied flatly. "I don't know how you know this information about me, but I'd prefer if you left me alone."

The friendly smile dropped from his face and dissapoint took its place. "Do you really not remember me, Missus?"

"I don't know you." annoyed, I turned around, grabbing Stark's arm. "Can we go already?"

He stood his ground, and when I looked up at him he seemed extremely troubled.

Glancing over my shoulder, I noticed the family crest on his breast pocket. I choked as familar images flickered to and from my mind. Dropping to my knees, I clutched my aching chest. Zmey Gorynych.

"That crest..." It was the same one on my back. I had to check just in case. "Obstende abscondita!"

The familiar pain of the ridges rising out of my skin has me rip out the grass from beneath me. Stark met my eyes, then lifting the back of my blouse. I heard his breath hitch before he stood up, turning to the old man, his voice calm.

"Who are you and what does that crest symbolize?"

The old man cleared his throat. "I am the butler of the manor that belongs to the owners that represent this royal family crest: The Anosovas."

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KATYA HAS BEEN REBOOOOORN AS A ROOOYYYAALLLL 🙈
This is the last chapter of Lycan! The image at the beginning of this chapter is the cover for the second book, Luna, that will pick up where this left off. This will be a trilogy.

Luna will be arriving sooner than you think ;) (BTW, my Christmas gift to you is the cover for Luna)

I'll be debating on whether or not I should put a sneak peek for you.

Thank you for the support on this story, it's really made me happy. I've enjoyed my time with the characters and my time with you, my silverlings. This is the first time I actually finished a story (round of applause) I've always struggled to finish because I never knew if it was good or not, but you guys have made my dream come true. Without you, I would've never finished Lycan.