Page 75 of The Forbidden Wolf

“I always win,” she said.

“You’re literally dead,” I argued. “That’s not a win.”

“It’s not a loss either.” She shrugged her wolf shoulders and ventured a few feet away, sniffing flowers and wagging her tail.

How could she be happy? My heart ached for Evan, all alone in a world that had no place for him, for Jayla, robbed of any apology or explanation, and for Sebastian, who would mourn me like a fated mate though I’d never felt the same. After all she’d done, Kiana got to go to Heaven while I spent eternity in Hell?

“Neither of you are a dead.” A gentle yet slightly exasperated voice seemed to come from all around us. From the flowers and the clouds, the blazing sun and the cool soft dirt.

Kiana stood at attention, ears pricked, tail curled over her hindquarters. I turned in a tight circle, searching for the source but finding nothing but flowers stretching for miles in every direction.

“But you are both very lucky,” the voice continued. “Time is growing short, so I have cheated just a little. Sometimes it is called for.”

“Agreed,” Kiana said, tail wagging again.

“My child, you have cheated more than a little,” the voice scolded. “But short time is still time, and there is much that can be done with it.”

In spite of our, um, differences at the moment, Kiana and I shared a hopeful glance, the kind we used to share when we woke up on Wolfmoon Morning. I crept closer to her side as we scanned the field together, desperate for a glimpse of her.

“Mother?” I asked at last, my voice small and childish. “Is that you?”

Kiana stamped her paws and licked her chops as if a mother were something to be consumed. The yearning in her eyes… I realized with a start there was something about Damian she still didn’t know.

“No,” the voice said. “Your mother awaits you in the Yonder Fields, but the time has not yet come for you to meet her. First, you must fulfill the destiny set out for you by the Mother of All Wolves. The world cannot bear anymore failures.”

A shiver of awe rolled through me, and I instinctively sank to my belly. Kiana remained on her feet, tail sagging with disappointment. I nipped at her back heel. “Bow! You’re in the presence of Leto!”

Kiana did not bow. She looked up and around, her wolf brow knit with consternation that reminded me of Father. “Show yourself, goddess.”

“Forgive her,” I begged. “My sister—”

“Oh, don’t grovel on my behalf,” Kiana drawled. She pointed her muzzle up to the sky as if to howl. “I bow for no one, just so we’re clear.”

“We all bow for something,” Leto said. “But I do not require it of my children. Rise, Elyse, let us all meet on our feet.”

Trembling, I stood, but I did not have my sister’s bravado. My ears remained flat against my head, my tail tucked between my legs. The air grew even thicker, the scent of jasmine and honeysuckle stronger. The sun flared, and the Goddess of Wolves appeared before us, the most beautiful white wolf I’d ever seen with long elegant legs and a refined feminine muzzle. Her eyes radiated golden warmth as she dipped her head to each of us in turn.

“I bore the Moon God two sons,” she said. “They grew in my belly like the Yin and the Yang, so close I believed they were but one. They came out a reflection of each other, bearing a mark upon their shoulders that foretold the powers they would grow into. The powers of the bite.”

I swallowed hard and fought the urge to shrink guiltily back to the earth.

“You mean the power to dilute our bloodline?” Kiana wrinkled her nose with disgust. “No offense, but your sons did us all a great disservice.”

Leto tilted her head, eyes sparkling with mirth. “My child, how do you think you exist? My son Chann claimed a human female as his mate, transformed her into a being like himself, and so it began. Our pack grew rapidly through birth and bite, but my sons could not get along. They were each determined to rule over the other, and so the pack split. Again and again and again until shifters were scattered in fearful, suspicious cloisters all over the world, their connections to each other lost along with the powers of the bite.”

“I don’t see the problem,” Kiana said stubbornly.

“Then you will repeat the mistake,” Leto said. “The packs will remain separate. Weak. Unable to withstand the trouble that comes for you all.”

“The humans who hate us?” I asked.

Leto blinked slowly. “A thousand fractured thrones cannot defeat the forces of darkness, but a single united family can. You are all my children. It is time to act like it.”

Kiana narrowed her eyes. “Or what?”

“Or you will all die out forever.”

Leto began to fade, the clouds and the flowers showing through her translucent fur until all that remained were two golden eyes, burning like miniature suns against the blue sky.

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