16. Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen

“I told you about the white stag and why we were turned into wolves. What I didn’t say was the goddess of the Dark Night cursed us with immortality. Rather, she thought it was a curse. We’d live long enough to see all our loved ones die. To be the last of our people, our kind.”

Amelia felt a pang in her heart when Rome said he was immortal. She would get old, and he’d watch her die. If they had children, he’d watch them age and die. She started sobbing, not wanting that for her mate. That was a heartache she couldn’t imagine.

“Why are you crying?” His hands were moving as he tried to decide where to touch her. He was looking for wounds on her body, but it was in her soul. She almost wanted to smile as she watched her proud and sure alpha come apart at the seams.

“I’m not physically hurt,” she sniffed before burying her head in his side.

“What’s wrong?” He was gentle as he gathered her up and placed her on his lap.

“I’m going to die. You’ll be alone again, and then you’ll watch any children we have die.” She cried her way through it, gasping for air and wiping her eyes and nose against his chest.

“My soft-hearted mate.” He lifted her head and took a napkin to wipe down his chest. “Do you remember the bites we exchanged?”

She nodded, her hands rubbing at her red eyes.

“That bite sealed our lifelines and combined our energy. You’ll live as long as I do. Right now, that’s forever, unless Dark Night finds a way to reverse her curse.”

Amelia had a vague memory of Luna mentioning an end that wouldn’t end and words that shouldn’t have been said. Was she talking about Rome and his pack?

“I’ll always get to be by your side?”

“Forever or as long as forever lasts.” She kissed him. Living forever with Rome was like a dream come true.

“I’ll take it. What else?”

“Any children we have will be born omegas.”

“So, we’ll have to worry about hunters trying to kill them?”

“Yes, unless Luna has a different plan.”

“I wonder why the hunters didn’t come after me, despite Julie?” Her fingers were tracing the tattoo on his chest. It was of a beautiful howling wolf.

“Okay, recap. You’re immortal, cursed by the goddess Dark Night.” What a name. “Now I’m immortal because I mated with you. Our children will be born omegas, and hunters may try to kill them. Anything else I should know?”

“That’s it for now.” There was a niggle in his head, telling him he was forgetting something. “You should know that we are not alone.” That wasn’t what he was forgetting, but she needed to know.

“What?” He obviously didn’t mean in the room. Could he be talking about the pack?

“Wolf shifters think they are one of a kind. That’s not true. You may not have seen them, but you’ve heard of witches and vampires.”

“Vampires?” She knew witches existed. That’s how her father saved her life, but vampires?

“Just to name a few. There are other kinds of shifters in the world. Lions, coyotes, panthers, and many more. We think we’re alone, but we’re not.”

“Where are they?”

“They have a secret society, one we’re not allowed to infiltrate. I’ve heard rumors that they think associating with wolves will bring about their downfall. If they stay away from me, I’ll stay away from them.”

Amelia nodded, but a secret society of shifters and others bothered her. It didn’t sit well. It felt like there was something she should know. She couldn’t pinpoint the feeling and finally pushed it to the back of her mind. There were too many other things to deal with, like hunters.

“What do we do now?” They couldn’t just sit behind the wards around the property and hope no one found them.

“We hunt for the hunters.”

She grinned and pecked his lips. She liked that. Let’s turn the tables and make the hunter the hunted.

Amelia cuddled with Rome after they finished eating. She needed more rest. It was a struggle to stay awake. Her lids fluttered shut, and she was asleep before she knew it.

The forest called her name, but this time, fear and dread greeted her when she stepped into it. Amelia went from female to wolf in a heartbeat. The white fur still taking her by surprise compared to her father’s gray fur and Rome’s black fur.

Her ears flicked back, listening while she scented the air. There was a predator watching her. She stopped and took in where she was. In reality, she knew that she was asleep in Rome's arms, but this dream wasn't a dream. The forest had been transported to another reality and wherever Amelia was, she was awake and could be hurt. Maybe this is why people said you could die in dreams. Knowing what she knew, she prepared herself for a confrontation.

There wasn’t a sense of where it was coming from, but there was danger in the air. She ran in the same direction as all the other animals fleeing. She hadn’t been a wolf long, but she knew they would run away from danger, not to it. If she could laugh as a wolf, she would. Animals differed from humans, who liked to run towards danger. They needed to know what was happening before they had enough sense to save themselves.

She slowed down and then stopped. There was a call on the wind inviting her to come and join whoever it was that was feeding her fear. They were waiting at the bench. It was the only landmark she had for the forest. That would have to change. Amelia turned and began walking to the bench.

She walked until she came upon a beautiful woman with jet black hair and dusky dark skin. She was gorgeous with eyes, so black Amelia could fall into them. Amelia’s shift from wolf to woman was seamless.

“Goddess of the Black Night.” Amelia bowed to acknowledge who the woman was. She was sitting there in a gray power suit, looking like she just stepped out of a boardroom.

“Omega.” Dark Night looked her over, eyeing the faded jeans she wore that were torn at the knees and the camisole she threw on before walking in the woods.

“Casual, but what does one expect from an omega?”

“You expect them to be dead. Surprise!” Amelia was bitter. She took a seat on the bench and turned to face her nemesis. The goddess wanted her dead for no other reason than she was born an omega.

“It’s nothing personal. When I cursed the warrior and his group, it was to make sure they understood that my creations were off limits. A lesson they have only partially learned through the centuries. Then Luna decided to modify my curse and bless each of them with one of you.” She sneered, looking at Amelia as if she was a dead animal dragged into the house by a feral cat.

Amelia placed her hand on her chest and gasped. “I’m sorry. Don’t I meet your expectations of an omega, or have I superseded them?”

“Cocky, I like that. You may want to stow the snark and listen to what I have to say. You may be harder to kill, but you’re not immortal yet. Didn’t know that, did you? There’s still a… let’s call it a test you must pass. One that your precious Luna cannot reveal to you.” Dark Night smiled at her, looking like a shark about to eat her whole.

“What are you planning?” That sense of dread crawled over Amelia’s spine, feeling like a thousand ants. She contorted to make sure nothing was crawling on her.

Dark Night laughed as she watched her. “I told you it was nothing personal, and it isn’t. Your death is just something that must occur. Every living thing dies.”

“That’s not true anymore, is it? You changed the natural order of things. Bringing an everlasting end to the end.” She didn’t know what she was talking about or if she was saying it right. Ever since Luna spoke about an end with no end, her mind worried over it, picking it apart and rephrasing.

Dark Night hissed. “You’re an insolent piece of trash.”

“Does that refer to the twelve, or does it refer to me and all the other omegas? If there is one, then there must be two and three and four etc. Omega means the end. Are we the end that no longer ends? Everlasting as we meet and mate with the other half of our souls?”

Could Rome be the half of her soul that she was missing? Was his soul cleaved in half when he was cursed? Did Luna retrieve what Dark Night threw away and give it to the twelve females who would be omegas? It didn’t make sense, right? In a way, it did. She looked back over her short life and could see when she would stop and reach for something or someone she couldn’t touch. It felt like there was someone right beyond her fingertips.

“What aren’t you telling me? What is the real reason you want me dead?” It didn’t track that more than a thousand years later, she was still holding a grudge for an animal that sprang to life when she touched it. “Rome told me about the past. The animal he and the others killed lived when you touched it. You may have been upset, but why so much energy a thousand years later? It makes no sense. What don’t you want to happen?”

That was it. It had to be. There was something she set in motion when she cursed Rome, and Luna sealed the deal when she created omegas for her immortal wolves. Why omegas? They could have had regular wolves as mates. The goddess of the Dark Night couldn’t kill every female wolf shifter.

“You should consider how you’re going to survive and not what I’m doing. Your mind is too limited to comprehend what a goddess is about.” Dark Night disappeared like she had never been there.

“She’s a joy to be around.” Amelia turned to see Luna walking toward her.

“I wasn’t expecting her.” Amelia stood and bowed before Luna in reverence and respect. “Please forgive me for not knowing who you were.”

“Don’t bow, child, I don’t need it. I know what’s in your heart.” She sat down, extending a hand for Amelia to sit.

“Dark Night is right. Immortality is yours, but there is always a price. One that you will have to decide to pay.”

Amelia’s stomach clenched as she thought of classic fairy tales where the firstborn was the price of riches and life eternal.

“I won’t give you or her my child.” She said it with fierce determination. When she woke, she’d fill Rome in on it, too. If the choice to live with him forever was the cost of her child, she couldn’t, wouldn’t do it.

“Dark Night is right. You’re cocky and I love it. You’ll know when the time is right.”

“Will I pass the test?”

“I have faith in you, but I planned your creation. Why wouldn’t I have faith?”

Amelia buried her fingers around the edge of the bench. Luna’s words weren’t giving her the assurance she needed. ‘You got this.’ Those were the words she wanted to hear.

“Why is Dark Night still holding a grudge? There is more at play here than anyone is saying.”

“Leave it to a woman to see what the males do not.” Beams of moonlight filtered through the sky to highlight Amelia’s face.

“The world is like an onion. There’s always something under the first layer,” Luna said before leaving.