Flora’s P.O.V
One Month Later…
I closed my eyes in concentration, channeling my healing power into the rogue wolf sitting in front of me. Its fur was dark grey with a white patch on its forehead. Clay didn’t know any of their names but he told me he did feel each of their essence separately in his mind.
But after five minutes of channeling my power, I gave up and opened my eyes.
The wolf looked at me through huge red eyes, a whining sound coming from its throat as he lowered his head to the ground.
“I’m sorry,” I told him, feeling bad that all my efforts were being wasted. “I’ll try again tomorrow.”
Nodding its head, the wolf left to join its peers to guard the house while Clay was out hunting with some of the other wolves.
I had gotten accustomed to staying alone with the rogues and even though they were still a bit uncomfortable around me, as if they were afraid they’d end up hurting me, they had surprisingly started to follow orders from me as if I was their Luna. Some of them were even really friendly and loved to hand out with me, like the dark grey one just now.
That’s why; I had begun to experiment on them bit by bit, once they were comfortable enough to be touched and petted…and occasionally, showered.
I had managed to heal Clay back to his human form, so I had thought I could work with other wolves too, using my powers to heal them back to their human form. But so far, I haven’t had any success. One thing that surprised me was that the wolves I was ‘testing’ my powers on, had actually started to change their scent. It was no longer the murky smell that most of the other rogues had, but their scents had started to gain different notes to them, unique to that particular wolf.
I got up from the stairs after patting the wolf on its head and headed to the front of the broken mansion to wait for Clay. It was difficult living in the middle of nowhere with little limited resources to rely on. I wasn’t aware of just how much accustomed I had gotten to all the luxuries in my life until I left everything behind.
No, I wasn’t complaining and this was hardly any excuse that could come between me and Clay, but I missed my friends, my sisters. I missed the calming routines of the Shrine. I missed Ezra’s motherly voice and Malachi’s overbearing presence that always watched over all of us. But no matter how much I missed them, I couldn’t go back as long as Andre was still there.
And even though it’s been a month, there was no sign of the Moon Goddess accepting our relationship.
What went wrong? What more did the Goddess want from us? If we found our way back to each other, despite having all our memories erased, then she’ll let us be together. Wasn’t that the deal? Then what are we missing?
A cold wind blowing through the forest made a shiver run down my spine. I wrapped an arm around my middle, missing Clay’s warm embrace. Whenever he went on hunts to gather food, I got this upsetting feeling in my gut that I might never see him again. I realize now that it’s a fear that I will probably have to live with for a very long time to come, but it’s a feeling I’ll gladly accept if it meant that Clay would be beside me forever.
Not having him next to me in the morning sometimes set me into panic, but Clay would always come back. He would always be back in no time, taking me into his arms and reassuring me that we will get through this. And I knew that as long as Clay was beside me, we will be fine.
As if my longing for him had manifested themselves physically, I got a whiff of his scent in the air, a few seconds before he came running out of the woods. His wolves followed behind him with a large deer that they had hunted and I turned to look at Clay instead to avoid looking at the carnage.
Yes, I was a carnivore, that didn’t mean I liked to witness all the blood and the gore.
“Hey.” I went straight into his arms, taking in his scent until it was all I knew. “I missed you.”
“I was only gone for a little bit.” But he wrapped his arms around me tightly, engulfing me in his larger form and his warmth. “I’m all dirty.”
“No worries.” I smiled up at him. “We can get clean together.”
Clay’s laugh was loud and contagious. It was at times like this that I wanted time to just freeze and stay like this forever. I held on tighter, enjoying the closeness. Even though we had hardly left each other’s side in the month that we had been together, I couldn’t get enough of it.
“I love you.” I told him, suddenly overwhelmed with emotions.
Clay looked down at me surprised. “I love you too.” But his eyes looked at me questioningly. Those gorgeous emerald eyes that now held a ring of red.
“Sometimes I feel like I don’t say it enough.” I shrugged. “I want to say it to you every chance I get. I want you to know just how lucky I feel to be loved by you. I want to sleep in your arms every night, wake up to see your face beside me. I don’t know how I survived this long without you, but I don’t think I can ever be apart from you again.”
Clay bent down and captured my lips in his in a kiss so tender that it made my toes curl. My arms came around his neck as I rose on tippy-toes to kiss him better. How indeed had I survived without him?
When we pulled apart, it was because of lack of air as he wrapped his arm around me tighter, pulling me so close that there wasn’t even room for air between us, before he placed his forehead on mine. “I was supposed to say that.” His voice was a hoarse whisper. “Stop stealing my lines.”
Laughing at his sour tone, I went to kiss him again, but a shot sounded from the forest then, turning everything upside-down.
Birds started flying away from the trees, panicked at the noise and I knew that my happiness had been short lived. Something was coming our way and it was about to change everything once again. And I knew exactly who it was. The man who claimed to be my mate.
Andre Saltzman.
*
****************
“Alpha Malachi!” One of the guards burst into his office without knocking and Malachi was instantly on his feet.
“What’s the matter?” He rounded his table and went to his guard who was panting as he bent over.
“It-it’s General Andre! He just left with a large number of his men.”
“What do you mean?” Malachi stood up from his chair, fear gripping his heart for the first time in centuries.
“I think he’s going to attack the rogues,” the guard spoke, perspiration beading his forehead. “One of the kitchen staff heard his soldiers talk about finding the hideout of the rogues yesterday…they wanted to wait till morning to let you know, but Andre’s soldiers just left, before you could be informed.”
“Damnit!” Malachi spoke through gritted teeth before making a split-second decision. “Get my men ready. We are going after him.”
“Yes, Alpha.”
All Malachi could now hope for, was that he wasn’t too late.