3 hours until the moon is full
AVA
I came around on the wet ground. Apparently Elijah had knocked me out again. My body was in
agony, I still couldn’t talk to Artemis and I had no idea what any of my kings were doing.
“What the Moon Goddess doesn’t want is inconsequential, Avelina,” Elijah smirked. Oh how I wanted
to punch his stupid face.
“The Moon Goddess gives us all our mate bonds, Elijah, she can break them too.”
There was another massive thunder clap, as if Selene herself was helping me illustrate my point.
“Where are we?” I growled.
“We haven’t gone far, my dear.” He stroked one finger down my face, sending shivers, and not the
good kind, down my spine.
His hand moved back to my neck, tilting my head to the side, his fingers lingering around my mating
spot. “Maybe I should just mark you now?” he murmured, stroking my skin.
“You can’t mark her yet, my King,” the doctor from earlier moaned as he spoke.
“It won’t stick, she… she’s not your mate.”
Elijah stomped towards him and brought the back of his hand down across the doctor’s face, and hard.
“She is mine,” he hissed.
“I didn’t say… I didn’t say she isn’t, my, my King,” he whimpered, holding his hands up in
submission. “Just… just it’ll be easier and less dangerous when the moon is full.”
The look on Elijah’s face was murderous. He was distracted… hopefully enough so that it would work
to my advantage.
As soon as he was thoroughly distracted by the doctor, I crept backwards, away from the pair of them,
trying to get my bearings. The sun had completely set, but the moon definitely wasn’t at its peak yet
either. A couple hours to go.
“Artemis,” I hissed in my mind. “Artemis! Are you okay?”
Shit. Nothing. So I wouldn’t be shifting and running from here…
I crept to my feet, looking behind me to make sure I wasn’t immediately going to run into a problem,
and once I was as safe as possible, I turned and sprinted into the trees.
I could still hear the sounds of Elijah arguing with the doctor behind me, so I just kept moving,
hopefully away from them. I needed to make my way back to the clearing, but without Artemis, I had
no idea what direction I should be going in.
I ran through the trees as quickly as I could, heading towards a light in the distance. I had no idea
what it was, where I was or where I was going, but at least this way, I had a direction. I hopefully
wouldn’t get turned around.
I tried to jump over a small stream, but as I did, an arm swung around my waist, stopping me in my
tracks. I screamed, fighting against the arm, assuming it was Elijah.
“Ava!” a voice whisper-yelled. “Ava! It’s me! It’s Oscar, I’m here, baby, I’m here.”
“Oscar?” I sobbed, before flinging my arms around his neck.
OSCAR
Seeing Ava that scared destroyed me. It cut me to my core, knowing that there was someone or
something that was capable of terrifying my strong, beautiful and unstoppable mate this badly.
“Ava, what happened?” I whispered against her hair.
“I lost Artemis,” she cried, her sobs only getting deeper.
“What?”
“I know she’s there but she won’t wake up, I can’t talk to her, I can’t shift,” her sobs cut through me
like a hot knife through butter. “I’m scared, I’m scared and I couldn’t link any of you. I know what I
need to do, but… but without Artemis…” her sobs picked up again, and it took everything in me to
stop Dionysus breaking free, to stop him running to her.
“It’s okay,” I ran my hand over her head. “It’s okay.”
“How did you find me?” she asked, her voice small, low.
“You weren’t at the clearing, nor was Elijah, but a lot of his wolves were. Something wasn’t right, so
we came to look for you.”
“We?”
I nodded, turning to the side so she could see the warriors behind me. “Thank fuck,” she whispered,
burying her head in my chest.
“My Queen, what can we do?” Jeremiah asked.
“I need to get back to the clearing.” Ava stood up straight, wiping her face. “But he can’t find me, I
have to find him. I have to hunt him down to pull this off.” She looked up at me, her eyes shimmering
from unshed tears. “He’ll try to mark me at midnight when the moon is at its height. He… he was
arguing with a doctor, the doctor that gave me the poison. The doctor is telling him that the mark
won’t stick without Artemis.” She wiped her eyes again. “I feel like I can’t do this without Artemis,
but I won’t succeed with Artemis.”
“You have me, Ava. You have me, you have Dionysus. You have Callum and Ares. You have Jeremiah
and all the warriors. I promise, you are not alone. We will get through this, all of us.”
I pulled her in against my chest. Callum’s job tonight was taking care of the physical threats, making
sure none of us were in physical danger that we couldn’t avoid. Noah’s was to protect the pack and
make sure they made it.
Mine was to make sure Ava made it. To make sure her mind survived what she needs to do. I was very
aware that whatever it was wouldn’t be easy for me to watch, but I also knew it needed to happen and
I had to trust that Selene wouldn’t let anything permanently bad happen to Ava since she is, in
essence, the Moon Goddess’ chosen one.
It was going to suck, but I had to go with it, protect her, and keep her moving, no matter how shit.
I cupped her face, staring into her eyes, looking for any sign she wasn’t sure about doing this,
whatever this was. When I only found steely determination, I nodded, kissing her forehead.
“Okay, little one. What do we do?”