ARTEMISIA
I feel like I’m about to pass out from excitement and nervousness as my mother picks at the various layers of my dress.
“Are you ready?” she asks me and I lay my hands on my belly, taking a deep breath.
“Not really.”
My pups seem to be happily calm, and I think back to Giorgio’s and Diana’s coronation ceremony. “Oh, she was right. I’m so nervous.”
“Just take another deep breath, my love,” my mother says, caressing a strand of hair out of my face. “It will all be alright.”
I’m still enraged about the fact that they made Ramona stand in the crowd with her mate instead of letting her stay by my side, but I’m happy about my mother being here.
“I’m so happy for you,” she says in a high-pitched voice, wiping a tear out of her eye. “They are such good men.”
Taking my hands into her, she squeezes them encouragingly. “Let’s go, shall we?”
We walk down the empty pack house, reaching the line of trees to the forest as she halts, and I press a kiss onto her cheek before I enter the forest alone.
I take a deep breath, my mother’s voice getting blocked out by the protection shield Corvina erected around the forest to have us hold our ceremony in peace.
Walking further into the forest, I reach a clearing where Rachel and Corvina are standing, wearing long gowns.
I sulk as I pull at my short, asymmetrical dress that I had to pick because my dream dress was too impractical to walk through the forest.
“Luna Artemisia,” Rachel greets me and I force a smile as nothing should bring my mood down in this special night.
She opens a long jewellery box and smiles as she gestures for me to come closer. “You have been informed about how the ceremony will proceed from here. Each one of your mates has chosen a piece of jewellery for you that you will wear as you proceed by walking into the forest. As soon as you have reached the cabin, your mates will finally be free to reach you. And you can take your time for the marking.”
I gulp as she seems to be okay with talking about her ex marking me, but I guess the high court will have her head if he fucks this up.
Or maybe she has something planned?
I shake myself to free my mind from this paranoid thought as I turn to Corvina who is smiling at me. “They are behind a protection shield now, eager to get to you.”
“I really can’t wait,” I say, feeling a shiver rolling through my body.
Sighing happily, I watch Corvina taking out a beautiful ring, holding it before my eyes. “From Cayden.”
She lays it into my hand, and I slip it on swiftly, my heart beating into my throat.
“From Finnegan,” she says, holding a diamond bracelet before my face.
Again, she lays the bracelet into my hand, and Rachel helps me fasten it around my wrist.
“From Logan,” she states as she repeats the passage with a pearl hair barrette and a gorgeous necklace with a pink diamond as she says, “From Matthew.”
The last piece she pulls out is a pair of black diamond earrings, and I gasp as I take them to wear them.
“This is insane,” I whisper, closing my eyes and Corvina chuckles.
“Just take your time to reach the location where the ceremony will take place, we will accompany you there safely before we leave you alone,” Rachel says and they turn around to pull two of the torches out of the ground, to walk through the trees with me.
‘I just hope they won’t start a fire,’ Cassy murmurs. ‘We would die trapped in here.’
‘Oh, my Goddess,’ I whisper to myself and push forward.
For a bit, I feel like I can sense the eyes of my mates on me, but I convince myself that it is my imagination just as Fynn’s voice rumbles through my mind. “Babe, I know they told you to take your time… But please, run.”
I laugh, shaking my head as I walk over sticks and stones carefully. I see Corvina and Rachel following me, and I’m actually happy that I took my mother’s advice and wore something shorter.
Passing my hand over my belly, I feel my heart bloom with joy as my thoughts wander around and I end up asking myself if my small belly will be an obstacle during the mating.
Fynn’s face flashes in front of my inner eye and I have to chuckle to myself as a shiver rolls down my spine.
‘I’m sure he will love it,’ Cassy purrs, taking my words out of my mouth.
I’m still lost in my thoughts as I suddenly feel a strange buzzing in the air. Halting in my steps, I look back, causing Corvina and Rachel to look at me confused.
Looking around, I scan my surroundings and smell a strange scent in the light breeze.
“Did we go the wrong way? Did you put up other protection shields?” I ask Corvina, who frowns at me.
“No, just around the forest,” she answers unconvinced.
I turn around, squinting my eyes as try to make out what the feeble buzzing in the form of a net might be. Reaching out I’m about to touch it as Covina shrieks, stopping me in the last second. “Don’t touch it!”
Rachel and Corvina come closer and Corvina inspects the shield carefully as she gasps. “This isn’t mine.”
“What do you mean?” I ask her, dread rising in my body.
She just shakes her head, not answering my question as she walks away, dragging me with her. “We have to go back.”
We have just made a few steps as a swoosh pierces the air, and Corvina screams in pain, letting go of me.
I watch her stumble back with an arrow in her arm as I get pulled back just in time by Rachel as another buzzing, transparent net dashes out of the dirty ground, separating us from Corvina. “What the fuck?”
Corvina gets up with a pained groan and looks at me worried as I look over to Rachel who gulps. “Okay, Corvina. Stop it now. What is this?”
“I don’t know,” she says panicky. “That’s not clean magic.”
My heart twists painfully in my chest, and I hug my arms protectively around my belly. “What do you mean? Not clean magic?”
She is just about to answer as her eyes widen, causing me to turn around to Rachel who is staring into the void with a lifeless stare.
My breath hitches in my throat as I step back slowly, watching Rachel’s inanimate body slump to the ground as Lisa turns her head at me.
The blood-stained knife flashes in the moonlight, and Corvina makes a swift movement. I suppose that she just freed my mate as she yells at me. “Mindlink Fynn! Hurry!”
In my panic, I react too slowly, and I have just established the link as Lisa has already reached me.
With a growl, she wraps her hand around my arm, making my heart halt in my chest. “Don’t worry, princess. We won’t kill you. Someone is already waiting for you.”
She chuckles lowly, moving her hand in big circles before my face, hypnotizing me.
My senses slip from my limbs as I hear Corvina calling for me as she shoots coloured balls of flames against the walls that Lisa must have erected.
“Who let you out of your cell?” I ask in a whisper, just as I get swallowed by darkness.