Page 114 of Twinning and Sinning

“Artemis, goddess, ma’am? Uh…” Artemis threw her head back. “You don’t need to be so formal. I’m not like Zeus. Listen, I’m just here because I need to talk to you about Eva.” The mention of Eva had me calling to her in my head. She wasn’t responding. I didn’t even feel her.

“That’s it. You can’t feel her, can you?” Shaking my head, I panicked.

“Hey, hey, it’s alright,” Artemis put both hands on my shoulders. “Listen, she is changing. You are changing.”

“Isn’t that what I’m supposed to do? Change into a Wolf? I thought it was a physical dealing, not a mental one,” I blurted. Artemis hummed, crossing her arms.

“Ah, but see, you are different and with Elven warrior blood, plus a human plus a Wolf. That gets complicated. You’re the first Elven hybrid, so the fates don’t know what to do with you. Your human self is being canceled out, being replaced by a Wolf, yet your Elven nature powers must come into play. You are mated to two half-shifters, Lycan princes as well. That’s a lot of power, Seraphina. They can’t give you too much or not enough. It’s a delicate balance, just like what happened to a half-human siren. She was out for three days. You don’t have that kind of time.”

“I’m not a secret princess like that woman though,” remembering the story. “She had royal Fae and Siren blood. Of course, it would take a long time!”

“Believe it or not,” Artemis giggled, “you are the descendent of an Elven kingdom that died 3,000 years ago. It was small and slowly whittled away as the Cerulean Moon and Golden Light Kingdoms came to power. Elves made a promise to service the land, to protect it instead of having a kingdom who did meaningless things such as parties, political ideologies and such. Your father’s bloodline holds the old royal line. Meaning, you also are royal, a politically dead royal line but royal none-the-less. Your power is great, doubled because of Lycan mates.”

“Uh,” my mouth dropped.

“You have been more speechless today than any other time I have watched you. Maybe your brain is being worked on too!” Artemis laughed at her own joke. I had nothing to say. She was right, and I didn’t even know what to think.

“You, my dear, will go through a significant change in the next six hours.” Her voice became serious. “You will sleep the entire ride back to the pack house, only to wake to a bloody scene. You have choices to make, large ones to help save the ones you love. Only you can make those decisions, not the High King and Queen, nor your mates. This battle is yours. You decide what fate the Kitsune and you will have.”

“No pressure,” I whispered, rubbing my temples. Artemis pulled me closer to her body. One would find it too close, too intimate, but she was a goddess. What was I to say?

“I’m blessing you the gift of the hunt, the gift of tracking of your prey. To seek that which you cannot find. Go now, Seraphina. Take flight, endure to the end, and fight with the fiery passion I know you have.” Her head bowed, and touched my forehead with a blinding light. The surrounding forest grew dark until all I could see was Artemis. Her eyes closed, her warm hand coming to my chest, pushing me backward until I hit the soft ground with my back. My body jumped back up slightly.

My head was unmovable as I tried to shake my body free. A tight grip and unfamiliar smell enveloped me. Mint with brandy swirled around my nose, causing me to instantly cough. I couldn’t feel my mates. I couldn’t feel their presence. My eyes opened in a rush. Looking down at me was a pair of yellow, glowing eyes.

Chapter Sixty-Two

Under the Moon

Kane heard the yell from across the courtyard. “Rogues!” echoed through his ears while his mind linked to his family. They had come earlier than the expected time that the Kitsune would find out about Seraphina being gone from the territory.

While Kane expected for Wolves, Bears and maybe Vampires to invade the forest and then into the clearing, he was greeted with something surprising. Small squirrels, raccoons, rabbits, all with blood eyes running towards them. One Wolf had at least a dozen on his body alone. They were biting, ripping at his fur. He howled while trying to claw the creatures off his body. Some fell from their body only to be trampled by enormous claws into the dirt. The squish from the blood tangled in between the pads of his paws.

The Wolf fell to the ground in a howl, sizzling sounds followed by smoke tendrils dancing into the air caught Kane’s eye. While many pack members shifted, Kane ran to the lone Wolf who was burning. The Wolf shifted quickly back into a human, shaking uncontrollably. The teeth were laced with silver. Instead of having large prey to fight against, they would deal with small rodents.

“Someone get over here, help him to sickbay!” Kane yelled into the courtyard. “He needs blood, have the workers there get him stable, get the morphine.” The two pack members nodded their head, hands visibly shaking. They were from the Red Wolves pack, Wolves inexperience in enormous battles.

More rodents jumped from the trees, swarming the courtyard. The pitter patter of their feet, the clicks and chirps now flooded Kane’s ears. Torin growled inside his body, ready to be unleashed. With one turn of his head to crack his neck, Kane felt the hair explode from his body. His body grew another two feet before he finally stopped. Kane’s fangs elongated, dripping with venom. The silver wouldn’t hurt this Lycan, but it could very well slow him down if he wasn’t careful.

Clara ran out of the pack house, holding her clipboard. Wolves were howling, screaming in pain as the animals continued to flood out of the forest. Instead of transforming into her Wolf, Gaia, she ran in her ballet flats to the battlefield in front of the house.

Jumping over rodents that try to latch onto her unscarred skin, she continued to dart between Wolves that didn’t need her help. Soon she found herself by the side of her mate. “I’m fast enough,” she spoke aloud, hoping Kane would hear over the screams. “I’ll heal what I can just to make them stable. I’ve already taken care of the one.”

Torin flexed his muscles, threw his head back, and let out a roar that shook the ground. Not only did the rodents that still hung in the trees fall to the ground to their death, but the ones on the ground shuddered in fear.

Whatever magic was placed over the rodents could not keep them going. They scurried away from the Lycan beast, hoping they would not be in its ferocious path. They did, however, go to the Wolves furthest away from Kane, only to try to quickly nibble at least a bit or two, inflicting enough silver.

Cyrene waved her hands around themselves, blasting fire into groups of them. Rabbits screamed, their high pitch wail pierced ears, running away completely on fire. Squirrels tried to jump from branches to land on her head, but the force field around her body had them only falling away from her. “Stupid little shits,” she cursed under her breath. Her marks warmed on her body, feeling her mate awakening from his transformation sleep. ‘It’s too early,’ she thought. ‘He can’t wake up, not now.’

Cyrene arched her back, screaming in frustration. Electricity bolted from her body, webs and vines of the blue light attached to any small living creature. Several Wolves breathed a sigh of relief as half the population of rabid animals cease to exist.

“Are you alright?” Clara spoke to Cyrene while she rubbed a Wolf laying on the ground. The she-Wolf shifted back into her human form. “You are going to be alright,” Clara told the woman. “Once we get blood transferred, you will be fine.” Two more Wolves picked her up to take her inside the pack house.

“I’m fine,” Cyrene said sternly. “Soren is waking up and I’m not there.” Melody, who was swatting rodents with a bat rather than shift, finding it much easier to use her small stature to advantage, ears perked up.

“No way,” Melody spoke. “So far everything contradicts itself with these transformations, it’s getting a bit annoying,” Melody’s bat swung at the white rabbit, who then hit the side of the house.

“Not now, Melody,” Clara spoke. “It’s happening. Question is, what is going to happen next?” Cyrene stood in the front courtyard, her fingers twitched and burned. She wanted nothing more than to be with her mate as he woke from his thick slumber. Soren was so worried his mate wouldn’t stay. He gave her not one, but two marks on her shoulders. His power would be the same, but the extra mark gave Cyrene a sense of pride. Her mate wanted her so badly he would mark her body over and over, which turned her on immensely.

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