Chapter 17 Six Feet Under the Stars

Eric’s POV

I stopped at the edge of a cliff feeling better than I have since yesterday morning. I haven’t stopped running when I felt fear consume me. Serenity was the first in my mind.

I came back to the motel that we were in but the owner said grandma and the guards left hours ago, and I had been running to catch up with them since then. I took the path through the forest in fear that someone would see me during daylight. I didn’t want to waste time, and I didn’t want Serenity to arrive home without me there.

I want to be the first one she sees, to be the one to welcome her home, our home.

You need to rest Eric, I hear Josephine say.

I shook my head, as I look over the vast land that I’ve been running around since I could first shift.

We’re almost home.

But you need rest Eric, she says again. I don’t think Serenity would like to see you weak and tired.

I sighed, I am tired, but not enough to stop the need to see and feel Serenity beside me.

At least an hour, she says again. Don’t make me do a command.

My human self chuckled, she sounded just like Serenity that time.

So I sat down and let the light of the moon calm me.

Maybe we can wait for them. I thought.

We could. Josephine says and my wolf agreed with a low growl. I lied there in anticipation of seeing Serenity again. Seeing her would relieve me of worry and pain. I imagined of how she’ll run into my arms, feeling the same relief. I would tell her how I missed her, how glad I am to see her, how much I loved her.

Is this how it is? To be mated. Damn, I haven’t even fully mated her and the longing for her scent is driving me insane.

Jospehine?

Yes?

Can I ask you something?

Of course.

What is it like?

What is what like Eric?

To be mated, I said, is this need and longing really normal? I don’t want to be the first shifter in the loony bin.

I hear her laugh a sound that almost could equal to Serenity’s.

To tell you the truth, I’m not sure. She said. I was killed before I met my mate back then.

Oh… I frowned, my wolf growled. I’m sorry.

It’s ok… she calms my wolf, I found him this time didn’t I? And if you’re feeling all that I’m feeling right now, like you don’t ever want to part with her, then I don’t want to question it.

What about the other times you mated?

I can’t remember. She said, we only remember the last life we had, not all of them. I don’t even remember much about the last princess. She just gave me memories that she chose to remember.

Do you mind if you tell me how it was like the last time you lived? I asked.

Well, things were more simple back then, or at least that’s what we felt, she starts. Everything is almost just perfect. It was peaceful in its own way, I guess…

I closed my eyes as she run through her past. She showed me a moment that she was playing with a bunch of boys in a big garden, and a man picking her up twirling her around making her laugh hard.

Josephine was the third child of Maximus and Olivia Hannigan, the only girl among six children. They were all very close, but she was particularly close to her oldest brother, William.

I felt her heart flutter at the mention of his name. He had brown hair and green eyes.

He was her big friendly giant, about three years older than we were. She continued, he taught her to hunt and to fight. He said that not because she was a girl it means she shouldn’t learn how to protect herself, divine or not.

She stifled a laugh as I watched her memory of the previous princess sneaking around her home, under the light of the moon, with two boys at her side.

Every night they would creep into the training room with their other brother, Timothy. They would teach her different styles of fighting and how to use swords and daggers, they did it for about five years until the king caught them and she was banned from the room, she was thirteen then.

Soon enough, William shifted and never left her side, saying since we’re not allowed to fight, then he’ll never leave our side. You can just imagine the two princes and the princess causing havoc in town or somewhere in the castle.

I grinned, remembering Siam and Liam and how they guard Serenity like their life depended on it.

He kept his word, even after he found his mate. They were married after a year, and had a child, Jonathan.

I see her playing with a little boy who had his brother’s eyes.

When William had to take over their father, he used Jonathan to still keep her guarded. Timothy always accompanied her, but William added more guards saying that it was for Jonathan. She sighed, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised why his mate loathed her, or by this time, us.

Loathed you? I asked.

You see, William was strong minded. He loved his mate, yes, but he never really forgotten his responsibilities over us. Like Serenity’s father, he doubted our mates’ ability to protect us. Saying, once we do get mated, we were to live in the castle with him.

I frowned.

Unfortunately it wasn’t the case as we weren’t even able to meet our mates. She paused, my arrival in her life was the beginning of a hard life, we were eighteen, but unmated. Back then it was hard to have the alphas together since the hunters had been braver in their attacks. In fact, by that time, they have already killed my father and uncle.

William had all of us pack and moving to the Dark Falls Fort, it was built for that very reason, to keep us in and the hunter’s out. Along the way we passed by different packs in hopes of finding our mate, but luck and fate seem to have forgotten about us and we reached the Fort with us still unmated.

But William and Timothy said that I should not worry anymore for we have arrived at the Fort, we were safe again. Though we lost a few casualties during attacks on the trip to the Fort, but that was all in the past now, that was our mistake. Not thinking of the possibilities of the future.

That night we were in our room, talking with mother moon when she came in my room.

She?

Our sister-in-law, the queen.

An image of a beautiful woman came into view, she had red hair and light blue eyes, with freckles across her nose.

She told us to stay away from her family, from our brother and our nephew. I stared at her with disbelief. She said that I will be the cause of their death. Josephine paused, I guess I can’t blame her with that argument.

So I sat there in the dark, thinking of her words, and that’s how they found me.

In her memory, she looked up at the door and saw three men enter. They all looked at her as if they struck gold. I fought them as much as I could, but having shifted and not mated, I was still weak. The pricess and I weren’t a match to them together.

They dug a hole in the cellar beneath the kitchen, the scent of earth on them help mask their scent. We left the same way they entered. It was Rhaoul who welcomed us at the end of the hole. He instantly took us, demanding for information about our kind, but we didn’t give any.

Of course, he didn’t like that. He staredt to hit Josephine, I wanted to come out, but Josephine stopped me. When Rhaoul realized that we were not going to give him anything he had his men take care of us.

I felt her shiver, in her memory I saw men hovering over her, having there way at her. She screamed and struggled but that just sparked more interest from them.

I closed my eyes tightly shaking the images and the sound away. I guess I should be thankful that it’s just visions this time, he wouldn’t know what he’ll do if they went back to the past like the first time they met Josephine.

My wolf start to growl and snarl, and the visions stopped.

Sorry. She said. Rhaoul dragged Josephine’s body to the woods, we were just unconscious, far from dead. But I guess it was all part of his plan, he stabbed us multiple times, but not enough to kill us. He laughed asking why she would not shift.

Right then I knew Josephine had decided. In her mind she recalls that woman’s words. She would not let me out, until he carved out her heart and drank his blood. What happened next surprised even me. It had never been heard of.

I frowned, worried of Serenity more now than ever.

Don’t worry so much Eric, Josephine says, Serenity is stronger than you think, than what everyone thinks.

That’s exactly what I’m worried about. I tell her, she might be too strong that she would no longer need me.

That isn’t possible, Josephine says, to be whole, we need half of us, that is who you are to Serenity.

And so do you, I pointed out. You are half of that half Josephine.

I hear her laugh, that is true. She sighed, so I’m guessing break is over?

You guess right. My wolf stood up and stretched. The moon was high enough to say that it was already late into the night..

Two nights of running, you might think that we’ve at least cross paths with them by now. Josephine says.

We probably have. I say, but like I said, I’d rather I welcome them home than run with them there.

Wouldn’t you want to see Serenity sooner?

A little more patience to make a sweet gesture is worth it, don’t you think?

I felt her amusement, if you say so young alpha.

Hm… I thought.

What is it? She asked.

I just realized, you’re not Josephine. I said. You told me her story, and not yours.

That’s because her story is mine as well. She said. But yes, I am not Josephine.

Well, what do I call you then?

It was Serenity who named me Josephine, let’s keep that.

Why?

She sighed, none of the previous chosen daughters ever named me. So I guess Josephine will always be my name now.

I smiled, then Josephine it is. I looked around and across the land again, somehow wishing to see a set of headlights from the horizon.

Suddenly I hear a branch breaking behind me. I turned around and saw three men hover over me.

“Well, well, well… look what we have here…” one says.

My wolf growled at them, bearing his canines.

“An alpha wolf from the size of it.” The other says.

“Could he be the alpha the royal family is looking for?”

Looking for me?

Eric, run! Jospehine commanded, and my wolf followed and ran pass them, but then I felt a piercing pain from my hind legs and we dropped on the ground. I turned and saw a dagger pierced through me.

My wolf whined and groaned in pain.

Josephine can you-

I can, but if I heal him, then they’ll know I’m with him. she says, and they can’t know about me.

The three move toward us, one knelt by my hind legs, he grabbed the dagger gave it a twist causing a blinding pain through us, even through Jospehine until he pulled it out making me gasp.

“Feisty, maybe we can offer a trade.” He says. “Let’s bring him to camp boys.”

My wolf starts to struggle and bit one man on the arm. Then the other hits us with a whip making my

wolf whine again.

“Do that again and I’ll kill you.” the first man says, “And I make sure that your little mate follows you.”

My wolf growled at him.

Calm down. I said, we can’t have him follow Serenity.

They tied my wolf’s legs and the third brusquely man dragged me through the forest and to a camp where more of them were.

“What do you have there?” one of the hunters asked.

“The key to get the princess.”

They all looked at me with satisfaction.

Serenity…

With that my wolf howled and then everything went black.