Selene POV
"Aunt Helena?" I whispered, taking a step forward.
Her gaze flickered over , then to Kragen, before settling back on . "Co here dear," she beckoned at which I accepted and took her outstretched arms. When she held , she shoved behind her back like I was so piece of leave. "You shouldn’t have co here alone with him, Selene." She said, her voice cold and distant as she stared at Kragen.
"Oh!" I shook my head "Kragen is my friend...he was just escorting and..."
"He’s not your friend!" she screeched still eyeing Kragen with suspicion "He’s the reason why your parents died and he’s going to kill you. He’s evil, Selene, you shouldn’t be standing within an inch of him."
I chuckled, startling Aunt Helena who turned to stare at . Kragen didn’t say anything, he just continued staring at us with his quiet deanour.
"What’s funny about what I said?" Aunt Helena asked, picking offence. "Do you know how hard it has been all these years, running and hiding from him and how I had to risk everything to find you down here to Moon Whisper? I had to go through the forests... I don’t want to tell you all the things I’ve had to face just to co find you, to stay under the radar and you’re laughing?"
I lowered my gaze, quickly feeling ashad of myself. "I’m sorry, Aunt Helena. I didn’t an to, it’s just that..."
"I’ll excuse both of you to talk," Kragen suddenly said interrupting , his gaze on "When you’re done, reach out for and I’ll co back. Don’t stay too long, though," he said and walked away.
A few minutes later, Aunt Helena turned to . "Are you crazy, Selene Thorne? What are you doing with him?"
"I already know about the prophecy, Aunt Helena!" I sighed "But you don’t know Kragen as much as I do. I know it’s difficult to believe this but he doesn’t want any of this. He didn’t sign up for it. He has saved countless tis, not just but my friends too. My kids... Kragen is not evil in his heart, he’s just a victim like every other person."
"That’s because you don’t know what he’s evolving into and you more than any person should not go an inch close to him," Aunt Helena scoffed. "I’ll tell you everything later, I’m so glad, I t you. I heard the security situation in Moon Whisper is serious, and I was worried they might not allow to enter. Where were you going with him?"
I wanted to tell him that I was going to et with his father but I didn’t want to rile her further. So, I changed the topic.
"Now that you’re here, I need answers. Since you know Mom and Dad so well, perhaps, you could help figure this out."
"What are you talking about dear?" she stared at curiously.
"I had a vision two days ago, it was so real that I thought it had happened right in my face. I saw Mom and dad and another older woman who seed like a priestess. I need to know what happened?"
I spent the next few minutes narrating the vision to Aunt Helena, watching her reaction closely.
Helena’s expression didn’t change, but there was a flicker of sothing – recognition, maybe? "The past is dangerous, Selene," she said quietly. "You shouldn’t dig too deep."
"I don’t care," I shot back stepping closer. "I need to know why my parents were in that dream talking to that woman. Who is she? Why was my mother crying? What aren’t you telling ?"
For a mont, Aunt Helena just stared at , as if weighing her word. Then, with a sigh, she turned and beckoned to follow. "Co, there are things you must know. Things that have been hidden away from you for too long but I cannot show them to you now, unless, you’re willing to do anything I say afterwards."
"Afterwards?" I stared at her with surprise on my face. "What do you an?"
"Listen, Your parents knew they were going to die and when they paid the ultimate price in exchange for your life, Selene, they made promise to keep the truth away from you because if you know, then you have to work hard to keep that truth and I an it. What I’m about to show you is no ordinary feat and unless I have your word for it, that you will do anything, absolutely anything I tell you afterwards, then I’ll reveal it to you."
I stared at her for a few seconds, my heating pounding wildly in my chest from both excitent and fear. Fear that this might be a lot more complicated than it seed and excitent about learning sothing I didn’t know before. In the end, my curiosity got the better of .
"Fine! I promise to do anything you want to do," I said.
Without another word, I followed her and we started going deeper into the forest. As we moved, the air was growing colder with each step, just like with and Kurtis and before we t her. The trees thinned, and soon, we erged into a clearing. In the centre stood and old, crumbling stone structure – an altar of so kind, covered in moss and vines.
Aunt Helena approached the altar, her fingers tracing the ancient symbols etched into the stone. "This place," she said softly. "Is where your parents made a deal with the woman you saw. The one you don’t understand."
My heart skipped a beat. "A deal? What kind of deal?"
She turned to face , her eyes dark and haunted. "Your parents searched for children for years, Selene. Your mother more than anyone was desperate to have a child and was willing to do anything for it."
"I don’t understand," I stared at her. "My parents were desperate?"
"Yes!" she nodded. "You see, your father was an Alpha, Golden Moon pack and your mother needed to prove herself as Luna. Tis have changed now but in those days, having a child, and birthing an heir was one of the ways for the people to recognize you as Luna. For 115 moons, your mother sought for a child. She would do anything, drink the herbs, rituals, incantations. She visited all the Moon Priests and Priestesses in our world and beyond and I know this because I was always with her."
I stared at my Aunt, not knowing what to do with the information.
"Your dad... bless his soul. Loved her so much and defended her. He didn’t care about the child issue and would always show her off but since she wanted it so bad, he had no other idea but to do as she wanted. After going to all of the priests and priestesses of the Moon goddess without any result, she turned to the witches."
My breath hitched as Jared’s words flashed into my mind. Was this how I got entangled in their world?
"The witch was a werewolf or had lived with the werewolves for a long ti and was able to take up their form but she very much had power. If you noticed, at the beginning of the path that led to this clearing, the atmosphere beca colder. Well, there used to be a village here and according to the story, most of the people that lived in this village because they were not big enough to be called pack were defects that had run away from ho. Each of them possessed a special power., hence it remained even after their death."
"What happened to this place?"
"The Moon Goddess destroyed it!" Aunt Helena sighed "To keep her secret safe. She turned the Alphas and Lycans against them and they ca one day and killed every one of them, first disarming them with a special potion the moon goddess revealed to a priest."
"How does it relate to my birth?"
"Your mother ca here and she stayed with them for three moons with your dad. They did a lot of cleansing and at the end of the three moons, your mother conceived and got pregnant with you. Of course, she was elated and all and did them so well. Now the problem was the ’Fates’ noticed that there was an unbalance in the world but they couldn’t trace where it was coming from..." Aunt Helena paused and turned to .
"A goddess and the king of death cannot be together. That’s like asking light and darkness to beco one. The Fates were desperate and so was the goddess. So, the Fates approached this village and asked them to fish out what had happened in the world, the unnaturalness of everything. At that ti, your mother was heavily pregnant and suddenly you stopped feeling you. When she ca back to them, she was told by that woman, her na was Mara and she was a high witch, that you had died..."
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