Selene believed that Aldrich must have already discussed this matter with her.
“My child, I think he should have told you how he managed to coexist peacefully with his wolf. I made them into one entity, rather than two separate souls.”
Maggie felt a bit embarrassed. So much had happened recently, and many things that had already happened or the destinies she had set in motion had been ignored. “I’m sorry. So many things have happened recently. I can’t remember everything very clearly.”
“Don’t worry, my child, I’m not blaming you.” Selene cradled her head and let her get as comfortable as possible against her. “I just think you’ve done well. It must have been challenging for you during this time, adjusting to the rhythm of a new race, facing the impact of a different culture. But you’ve done well. I really want to praise you. You truly deserve to be called a deity’s daughter, but your excellence has nothing to do with me. Your excellence belongs to you alone. It’s your ability to stay true to yourself in the face of adversity that has brought you to where you are today.”
Maggie blushed a bit. She was rarely praised, and most of the time, she felt like an invisible person compared to the accomplished Alisa, who often received compliments. However, she seldom heard anyone directly affirm her self-worth.
“Really? I’m afraid people might think I’m useless.”
“The person who named you probably didn’t think that way, right?”
Maggie was puzzled. “Why? Does my name have any special meaning?”
She thought her name was randomly chosen by the orphanage director from a list of easy-to-remember names that didn’t sound too bad. She had never thought there might be other implications.
“In Greek, Maggie is an abbreviation of the word ‘pearl.’ It also has another meaning, ‘bright child.’ I really like this name; you shine just like your name. I’m proud of it. You’ve come this far through your own strength.”
Maggie lay in her mother’s arms, thinking, “So my name has this meaning.”
“I finally have a mother now.”
Selene gently played with Maggie’s hair. “If I have the chance to meet your Alisa, I’d like to thank her too. Thank her for taking care of you.”
“She’s a very, very good person. I hope Alisa can meet my mother too.”
They talked slowly, saying many things, some important, some trivial, and others not very useful. Mainly, Maggie couldn’t help talking because she knew this was the first and last time. She wanted to stay in her mother’s arms a little longer, to remember her mother’s face and voice for the rest of her life.
“Oh, by the way, Mom, can you tell me why you fell from grace?”
This question left Selene at a loss.
“It’s not that I don’t want to tell you, but the world of the deities has its own rules. While you’re a descendant of the deities, you’re not a deity yourself. We exist in different realms. If I tell you, it would violate the rules of both our worlds.”
Deities should never harbor romantic desires for mortals; that’s the consensus among all divine beings.
But for years, Selene had watched over the wolf clan, guiding them, empathizing with the hardships of humanity. She shared their joys and sorrows, no longer perched high above like the ancient deities. She longed for each couple to be complete and hoped for an end to conflicts among mortals. So she took on the form of a common werewolf and descended to the earthly realm to love those she had come to cherish.
Later, she fell in love with an ordinary werewolf, as ordinary as they come. He wasn’t an alpha of any group or a member of a royal lineage. He was just a regular guard. This unassuming guard was unwavering in his duty, standing guard at the city gates through wind and snow, harsh sun, without ever faltering.
Selene was curious about his unwavering loyalty, playfully teasing him time and time again. The man remained unfazed, letting her provoke him without reaction. She brought him meals, and initially, he paid no attention. She refused to give up, and eventually, he returned an empty food container. She knew her efforts were paying off.
She provided him with clean clothes, wiped away his sweat with a handkerchief, though he was not very talkative. Eventually, he blushed and stammered, telling her not to concern herself with him.
Slowly, this unskilled man couldn’t resist the gentle charm of a beautiful woman.
On that day, the man, not very articulate, held a bouquet of flowers in his hand and asked her, not very smoothly, “Would you be my partner?”
It seemed absurd. An almost nameless character within the werewolf community dared to propose to the entire werewolf deity. The divine beings would’ve been in stitches if they’d heard.
At first, Selene didn’t take the man’s proposal seriously. She lay under a tree, casually looking at the sweaty man beneath the sun. Lazily, she replied, “But I’m not a werewolf. I’m not a traditional werewolf. Are you sure you still want to court me, even if I’m not what you expected?”
The man’s sweat dripped onto the ground, but he was not daunted.
He said, “Whether you’re a werewolf, a human, a witch, or a vampire, as long as you don’t harm the werewolf clan, I will love you. I won’t love you based on what you are or stop loving you because of your refusal. Even if you reject me, I will still give my life for your safety. That’s my love. You can continue being yourself and not change for anyone.”
In that moment, Selene suddenly understood why the deities before her, those who had sacrificed immortality and power to pursue the most contemptible of loves, did what they did.
Love is the heartbeat of a single moment. It’s the hope to continue. It’s sweet dew, a healing remedy for exhaustion. Love can be poison, causing immense pain, but it can also be the antidote to all ills.
Selene’s eyes welled up with tears, and she asked, “Even if one day you discover I’ve deceived you, that I’m not a werewolf, not human, not any species you know, will you still love me?”
“Even if you’ve hidden things from me, even if you’re not a werewolf, not a human, even if you’re the embodiment of mountains and seas, a species I can’t comprehend, my love for you will never waver.”
The man who expressed his love through actions rather than words eventually met his demise in the war. Selene returned to her divine position, but the overwhelming grief made it impossible for her to view the entire werewolf race with her former calm and objectivity. She watched as the people below fought for power, saw them turn against each other, but she no longer felt their pain or sympathized with their wounds.
In that moment, her thoughts turned to, “In a world like this, why hasn’t it been destroyed yet?”
And from the moment this thought crossed her mind, she knew she could no longer occupy her divine position. She had lost the fundamental rationality of being a deity and had become as ugly and foolish as a mortal.
So she made a decision: she would become a fallen deity and reunite with her departed love. The power of the gods would be sealed within her child.
However, she wouldn’t place her child in the werewolf society. She hoped her child wouldn’t have to bear the heavy burdens and would only find safety and happiness. If the werewolves were fortunate enough to reclaim her, it meant that the moon hadn’t forsaken the werewolf race, and neither had the deities.
If the werewolves couldn’t recover the Moon Goddess’s power, then it meant that the werewolf race no longer had a future.