Chapter 80: 81: The Second Coming

ARIEL

I reach my arms out toward Xavi’s small, injured body and nod expectantly at my sister.

Natalia holds Xavi to her chest for another moment, but then finally hands him over to me.

“I need some space,” I say, and look over at Alex.

He understands.

He grabs Natalia by the shoulders and pulls her away from me. She tries to fight against his grasp, but he’s stronger than her.

“What is she doing to my baby?” Natalia cries out as I lay Xavi’s limp body down on the floor. “He’s going to die! Call a doctor!”

“Xavi will be fine,” Alex says to her. “I promise.”

Just then, I hear another set of footsteps rushing into the foyer.

“Oh my Goddess!” my mother’s voice cries out when she sees her bloodied grandchild. “What is—”

“Can everyone please just SHUT…UP,” I shout.

The ~last~ thing I need is my mother’s meddling right now, too.

I need them all to be quiet so that I can feel my connection with the Moon Goddess.

The room around me thankfully falls into silence.

I stare at my unconscious nephew.

His short life has already been plagued by so much pain and danger. I feel nothing but pure love and sympathy for him.

~Oh Goddess,~ my heart wails as I place my hands over his open wound.

~Goddess, please help me heal this child.~

~Please.~

As I pray, I feel a familiar surge of energy pulsing through my heart.

It shoots through my veins and out the tips of my fingers.

As the warmth of the energy mixes with the warmth of Xavi’s blood, I feel the gash start to heal.

~It’s working.~

~Thank you, Selene.~

~Thank you.~

Xavi lets out a soft cry.

I remove my hands from his forehead and find that his skin is unbroken.

Every time my healing powers work—no matter how many times they have before—it shocks me.

And as I look around the room, particularly at the face of my sister, I see that she is absolutely floored.

Alex lets go of Natalia, and she rushes to my side, kissing Xavi’s healed forehead.

“How the FUCK did you do that?” she asks.

“It’s a long story,” I say, exhausted and barely able to speak.

“How did this happen, Natalia?” my mother shrieks, kneeling down next to me.

She picks Xavi up off of the floor and takes him in her arms.

“It was an accident,” Natalia says. “Give me my son.”

“Not in your condition,” my mother says. “You barely get out of bed anymore. You don’t feed him. You don’t change him. And now look what you’ve done.”

I watch Natalia’s face fall under my mother’s stern, disapproving gaze.

Then my mother looks over at me and her face morphs into a smile.

“Goddess bless you, Ariel,” she says.

She kisses me on the forehead and walks up the stairs, still holding Xavi in her arms.

Natalia’s shoulders sink as she watches her go. Then she turns back to me.

“That was...I just...thank you.”

“I did it for him. Not for you,” I say, getting up without another word.

When Alex and I are alone again in the hall, he turns to me.

“That was a pretty harsh thing to say to your sister, don’t you think?”

“She betrayed the kingdom, Alex. And she can’t take care of her child anymore. She’s a danger to the pack and to herself.”

“So what do you want to do about it?” Alex asks me.

~The truth...~

“I don’t know,” I say, feeling defeated.

I start walking in the direction of our bedroom again, but unlike before, I’m ~not~ in the mood to fool around.

Healing Xavi completely drained me of all my energy.

As soon as I hit the bed, I fall into a deep sleep.

***

I wake up the next day to the sound of two incoming texts from Vivian.

Vivian

need help deciding on what kind of lights to use.

Vivian

can you meet me in the gardens where the ceremony will be taking place?

Ariel

I’ll be down in a few.

The ~last~ thing I want to do right now is plan the unification ceremony, but I’m eager to check in on Vivian after learning her secret yesterday.

***

“Hey!” I call out to Vivian when I see her standing there, surrounded by light bulbs of all sizes and colors.

“Any first impressions?” she asks me as I approach her.

“That one looks angry,” I say, pointing at a large yellow bulb.

She gives me a half chuckle but averts her eyes, avoiding contact with mine.

“Vivian,” I say, “is everything okay?”

“I just want to hammer out the details—”

“I don’t mean with the ceremony. Are ~you~ okay?”

Finally she looks up at me, and I can tell by her expression that she definitely ~isn’t~.

“I feel terrible,” she says, “for lying. But I’m scared of my own wolf.”

“Here,” I say, holding out my hand to her. “Let’s forget about the lighting for now.”

“Do you want to circle back to tablecloths?”

“Nope. Not today,” I say. “Follow me.”

She steps carefully around the bulbs and takes my hand.

“Where are we going?” she asks as I lead her toward the woods.

“Well, now that I know you’re half werewolf—”

“Shhh!” she says, panic spreading on her face.

“It’s okay. We’re alone. No one can hear us. But I was thinking…,” I pause briefly before continuing:

“You introduced me to your wolf. Even though you didn’t mean to. Now I want to officially introduce you to mine.”

VIVIAN

Ariel’s words excite me.

And terrify me.

“Really?”

“Yes. Just follow my lead.”

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” I ask her.

She nods.

I watch as she reaches around her torso and unzips her dress.

She lets the fabric pool on the ground at her feet as my gaze washes over her incredible body.

“Don’t be scared, okay? I don’t bite.”

As soon as the last word escapes her mouth, I hear an earsplitting noise as all of the bones in her body begin to crack.

It looks like she’s exploding from the inside out.

Fur sprouts on every surface of her body, forming a glistening white coat with gray streaks.

The queen’s robes are sprawled out on the ground and standing over them, on all fours, is a wolf with Ariel’s piercing yellow eyes.

I’ve never seen anything so terrifying before.

Or so beautiful.

The wolf takes a step toward me, and I instinctively step back.

But then I remember Ariel’s words:

“I don’t bite.”

I keep my feet planted on the ground, taking deep breaths to steady myself.

The wolf approaches me and then takes a seat at my feet.

I reach out my hand, and she rests her snout gently in my palm.

I pet the soft, silky fur on the crown of her head.

I swear I can see her golden eyes smiling at me.

Then I remember the other thing Ariel said to me before she shifted:

“Follow my lead.”

I understand what she meant now.

In the past, I’ve only ever shifted out of uncontrollable anger.

But now I want to do it on my own terms.

“Come on, Vivian.”

“Shift.”

My body obliges way quicker than I would have imagined.

In a flash, my wolf rises to the surface. I still have the body and clothes of a human, but my face and hands reconfigure into my half-shifted wolf.

Ariel’s wolf nods at me approvingly.

And then she turns and moves deeper into the forest.

I see her sniff at the ground as she goes.

I’m still standing on two feet, but I start sniffing the air as I walk after her.

I never noticed it before, but my sense of smell in this form is so much more acute than I realized. I inhale deeply and take it all in.

I’m usually so desperate to shift back into my human form that I’ve never really given my wolf the chance to explore.

I notice that my vision is better, too.

The grooves of the tree bark and the tiny insects on the leaves stand out to me now in high definition.

But nothing is more powerful than my hearing.

It’s not just the sounds of nature, though…

I swear I can hear something else.

“Ariel’s voice.”

But her wolf’s mouth is not moving.

Instead, her voice sounds like it’s coming from somewhere deep inside my brain.

~“Can you hear me, Vivian?”~ she asks.

“I can,” I say out loud.

~“Don’t speak the words. Just think them.”~

~“Holy shit,”~ I say inside my mind. ~“How is this happening?”~

~“This is mind-linking,”~ she replies. ~“It’s how we communicate when we’re in our wolf forms.”~

I’ve read about this phenomenon, but I’ve never experienced it firsthand.

~“This is incredible!”~

~“It is,”~ she tells me. ~“You should be proud to be a wolf.”~

~“For the first time, I am.”~

I see Ariel’s wolf crouch down on her hind legs and look up at the sky.

“Awoooooo,” she lets out a loud, powerful howl that sends me into a fit of laughter.

~“Come on,”~ I hear her speak into my mind. ~“Howl with me.”~

~“I’ll sound ridiculous.”~

~“Who cares how you’ll sound? It’s about how you’ll feel.”~

“Awooooo,” she howls again.

“Awo-ooo-oooo,” I call back, my voice breaking as I do it.

~“Yes,”~ she says. ~“Again! Louder!”~

“AWOOOOOOOO!”

Ariel’s right.

I feel amazing.

I feel free.

Finally.

ARIEL

As Vivian and I walk the trail back to the palace, both of us in our human forms again, she honestly seems like an entirely different person.

“Thank you, Ariel,” she says. “You have no idea how amazing that felt.”

“Anytime,” I say.

It was so much fun to see her embrace her wolf.

It also gave me a chance to let loose in a way that I haven’t for a long time.

But as we get closer to the palace, I hear a loud commotion that rips that carefree feeling out of my chest.

We round a corner toward the sound, and I see its source.

There’s an enormous crowd of people surrounding the palace doors. Pack members and journalists are clamoring to get inside, and warriors are trying to push them back.

“What’s going on?” I ask Vivian. “Was there supposed to be another press conference?”

“Not that I know of,” Vivian says.

We approach the crowd, and a journalist spots me.

“There she is,” he cries out, pointing his camera at me. “There’s our queen!”

~Oh Goddess…~

~What have I done now?~

A throng of people come running toward me.

For an instant, I think that they’re about to attack me.

And then something truly strange happens.

When they reach me, they stop short in front of me.

And then they start reaching for my hands, bowing at my feet, and kissing the hem of my dress.

~What the…?~

“Heal me,” one of them says. “Please, I’m sick.”

“Heal me first,” another person shouts.

I’m frozen in shock, unable to respond, trying to find some clarity in the chaos.

A reporter shoves a microphone in my face and I recognize her. She’s the same woman who interviewed me and my mother.

“Why did you lie about your healing powers and hide them from the public?” she asks me. “It just seems awfully selfish, doesn’t it?”

Suddenly, everything clicks.

My cheeks flush…

My palms sweat…

My vision blurs…

~No!~

~No, no, NO!~

~The worst has happened.~

~My secret is out.~