Daughter of the Tides, Servants of the Moon Book 2

Beta Lothaire Des Rues ran as his wolf through the ruins of what was once the Benjmin-Naphtal territory. The land was now claimed by Des Rues. He stopped to sniff at the destroyed buildings overgrown with creeping Myrtle, Irish morning glories, and English Ivy. Turning around, he remembered the battle. His father and middle brother’s plan to steal the Naphtal oracle, Tamaza Ayala had failed. She had died that day with so many others, including his father, youngest brother, uncle, and cousin.

Four alphas fell on one day. The two from Benjmin now walked the Fields of the Moon while the souls of the two from Des Rues, were dragged away to the Moon’s judgment. He remembered a picture of the Moon Goddess as Hecate the Crone that had hung in his father’s office. On either side of her, vicious undead canines with glowing red eyes stared out at the viewer. Those eyes always seemed to follow anyone in the room.

Once when Lothaire asked his father why he kept the disturbing image, Lordon reached over and patted the creature on the left with a smirk.

“Her Hounds are my old friends and my future, someday they will drag me off to face the judgment I deserve, but until then, I will do whatever I must to make our pack greater than it has ever been. You or one of your brothers shall rule this land as monarch, and if not, then one of your sons or nephews. All that I have done and will do until the moment of my death is to strengthen our claim on this land.”

Lothaire just shook his head, remembering that a week later, his father’s carefully made plans had resulted in the loss of nearly three hundred Des Rues warriors and one hundred Benjmin-Naphtal warriors. And all because his foolish middle brother had convinced their father that he needed Tamaza as his oracle and concubine to be strong enough to be king and that his true mate, Valeria who was also an oracle, was unfit to guide the Des Rues. Charles had mated and marked the Chancellor Alpha of Europe’s cousin Anne, while Valeria was acting as Delphi. Valeria had been enraged. She tried to use her influence to get Charles back and was about to be ousted as Delphi. Her disgrace sufficed to convince Lorden that Charles was correct. To successfully build the new monarchy, the Des Rues needed the Naphtal oracles, but the plan had failed miserably, and had brought a curse upon the entire pack.

However, Lothaire believed that the Moon had cursed them long before the Benjmin Luna had. Of the three Des Rues Heirs, only his mate had become pregnant before their father’s death. Chantelliese had died with their son a week later. She wasn’t his true mate, but as a choice mate, she made his world more colorful, more livable, more worthwhile. Yet he kept a secret no one suspected, he had always loved another. If only Tamaza had chosen him over her childhood sweetheart Jude. Lothaire and Tamaza had potential, but Jude was her true, and she would never turn away from what the Moon ordained.

Lothaire’s wolf stopped and lapped water from a small round pool surrounded by jonquils, lilies, and tulips, soon the flowers would be gone and Tamaza’s scent with them. Lothaire knew the scent of these flowers were the only way Jude stayed sane after his mate’s death. The first fall frost clung to everything like crystals, winter was coming late to the lands below the great lakes. The smell of the frost on the leaves was enticing to his wolf as he lay by the pool and waited for the dawn. Looking into the water, he could see the fading stars. He imagined Tamaza’s daughters would be doing the same. He wondered what they saw when they did, and he wondered about the one who had lost most of her power.

The Des Rues Beta remembered watching them, how beautiful and self-assured the one was as she spoke of the death of Luca Dolbeau, as the other sat shrunken and withdrawn in the grief of mate-loss. She spoke in a voice so like their mother, then her eyes had rested on his for a moment. It had been like looking at a ghost, but he had known in that instant that she wasn’t the Delphi. There was no moonlight in her sapphire blues as had always been in Tamaza’s. He wondered if she grieved the loss of her power. His spy had only told him that she had been injured and lost most of her gift on the night they escaped the attack and storm. He knew she was a particularly free spirited, loud spoken, and promiscuous she-wolf who smoked and drank and fought as hard as any male. She was a Servant of the Moon and a Wanderer now. Lothaire knew his spy hated her, but not why.

He had learned that she often impersonated her sister, the Delphi, who was soft-spoken, compassionate acting toward her petitioners, and passionate about her duty to the Moon. The Delphi was as stubborn and willful as her sister and late mother. This Delphi, like her mother, occasionally traveled abroad in disguise on a quest for information.

Delilah Ayala sought knowledge about some mythological sun-worshiping wolf. He would have scoffed at the notion, but she was Tamaza’s daughter. From his spy, he knew the Delphi believed this sun-worshiping alpha was the one who had tried to kill her and had wounded her sister instead. It was a daring attack in the very halls of the Eye of the Goddess Temple. It made him curious, wondering which alpha could wield enough power and influence to dare such a thing. His mind ran through all the Alphas in power at this time. He had met most of them personally and none seemed to hold such sway or prestige over other wolves, compared to the Des Rues.

Lothaire looked at the water rippling in the still morning and wondered, ‘What are your daughters seeking, my first love? Whom are they seeking?’

<0><0><0><0>

During the bitterly cold, long night, Nyall managed to track down four of the five wolves he was supposed to find. Shogunate Wolf and Protector Kaiyou Tsunekura had not told him who the fifth wolf was, only that he had to find ‘her and observe her’. It was like werewolf hide and seek. Only the hiders could use every trick in the book to disguise themselves. Every week Kaiyou made them do exercises like this one, the same way his father had. Different training for each day meant none of the Wanderer trainees got bored. Comhnyall was the only first year trainee at the Moon’s Gate, but his father’s teachings had him spending most of his time with the fifth-year trainees, those about to go out into the world. The only part of his training that was first year training had to do with cultural and religious studies. It meant hours spent reading, watching movies or television, plus etiquette and dance lessons.

He was on his third circle around the island when a scent caught his attention. The wisp of temple incense was mixed with the scent of fresh snow and so faint he almost missed it. He knew immediately whose scent it was. He ground his molars together. He had managed to successfully avoid the Delphi since the solstice, and he hoped she wasn’t his ‘prey’ this morning.

‘Protector Kaiyou, I have found the Delphi’s trail.’ Comhnyall reached out through the Wanderer pack link.

‘Impressive, follow her and don’t let her see you. Keep her from harm,’ Kaiyou responded.

The Delphi’s scent was almost invisible to his nose because it blended in so well with the natural smells of the harsh winter. The lingering trace of incense smoke was easier to discern. A single track in the powdery snow collected behind a rock pointed in the direction her wolf had run. In moments, he realized where the shewolf was heading and that he would not catch her, she was too fast. He leaped over the path border running cross-country to catch up and cut her off. He almost slipped twice climbing the steep path to the high terrain.

He heard her paws coming too fast to stop on the top of the icy cliff. Ice and pebbles showered down on him as she kicked her legs to stop. He could see her brown fur blowing just over the edge of the cliff as she lay on the very edge. For a moment, he imagined she had gone off and fallen the long way down to the surface of the frozen lake. The thick ice was as hard as concrete; a fall from this height would be fatal.

She howled in grief. Her wolf singing the song his wolf had sung too many times since Moire had gone to the Moon. He crept steadily higher as she sang, watching her from just below the ridge’s edge. Her wolf slowly stood and shook her fur, then she crouched and sprung away from the precipice at full speed.

Nyall climbed to the spot where she had stopped. Her claws had left deep furrows in the icy ground and from the looks of the older marks, she did this almost every day. If the top had been more icy, she would have slid off and fallen to her death. He noticed she had almost gone off at least once. Claw marks over the edge showed where she had climbed back up. She had used her beast’s claws to stop her topple over the edge. He shifted to his skin in the bitter cold and ran his fingers over the marks before trading frozen skin for fur. Shaking out his fur, Nyall turned to see Kaiyou was watching him. The giant black beast the size of Alpha Wemyss’ bear-sized wolf could appear and disappear like a shadow. It amazed him that the Shogunate wolf made no sound when it moved.

‘You saw, young Nyall?’

‘Aye, she almost went over. She ran full on at the cliff, an’ from the looks of these marks, she does it often. Is she tryin’ to kill herself?’

‘No, but this is the Delphi’s way of dealing with being mate-lost. To remind herself almost daily that she is always only one misstep from death.’ Kaiyou tipped his large dark head at Nyall. The frigid air created silver tips on his black fur. It made him look ancient and wise. ’She is suffering as much as you, she had Luca barely more than a year, and she knew he would die the whole time…”

As Kaiyou lumbered silently in the direction the Delphi had run with Nyall following, he revealed in a weary, sad tone. “Because she is an oracle, she feels things much more deeply than we do. She could go see Luca anytime she wants; it is within her power to cross the Tides of the Moon, but she does not because it would be an abuse of her gifts. She knows those who visit the land of the dead tend to lose all desire to return to the land of the living, and because of it, some lose themselves in the Tides forever.’

Nyall’s golden wolf trotted after Kaiyou’s black beast through the gray and white landscape to the bluff over the temple village. They watched Delilah running toward the kitchen door at the back of the temple building. She never stopped, and she never looked back as she entered the door her sister held open. Essie raised a hand toward them, then closed the door.

‘She does not slow her pace but gives everything she is to her path and to the Moon,’ Kaiyou said with admiration. ‘You should not hate her for that, or for wanting to keep your path true.’

Nyall growled slightly, ‘I do not hate Delilah, but I cannot be what she wants of me, not without Moire.’

‘It is not what the Delphi wants, but what the Moon has written for your destiny. And perhaps the pain you endure now is meant to make you strong for what you will endure in the future. A strong sword does not come from only one firing of the metal, but from many.’

The dark Shogunate wolf walked away silently, disappearing into the swirls of ice vapor and snow. Comhnyall turned his head back to watch the twins and Ainsley drinking hot chocolate with Mamó. He had tried hard to hate her because he wanted to believed Delilah was keeping Moire from reaching him, but his wolf whined accepting the painful truth. It was Moire who ignored his pleas, and he couldn’t understand why. He longed for Moire with his whole soul. He knew Delilah could feel it and intuitively, he also knew she could ease his suffering, yet she didn’t. She left him to his misery and longing, and for that, he longed to hate her.