20

DAMIAN’S VIEW

All I saw was devastation. So many of my friends and peers either dead or injured. Due to the severe burns they had suffered, their self-healing processes did not start. We became fewer and fewer. These people in red had weapons to use against us that we were not prepared for. Occasionally werewolves still fought against several red figures.

Tried to stand up to them. Amelia was on the ground and was protected by Niklas as best she could. Connor and Lerhome were also already on the ground. Not dead, but with the pain Krecanos could induce, they probably wished they were. The rest of my friends fought bravely, led by Jack. I bent over Benjamin, who had just been hit by a whip. The bloody wound would not close due to the poison. He couldn't go on anymore.

That's how it was for most people here. The red figure, which Benjamin had also hit, cracked its whip impressively once more. I threw myself on her, biting her side hard. Something grabbed me from behind. I spun around but couldn't dodge. Several people had a firm grip on me. They forced my mouth wider and tried to stuff Krecanos deep down my throat. If they did, I would most likely die of internal burns. But it did not get to that. I was suddenly let go and was just able to catch myself. I was about to attack again straight away when I realized that my attackers weren't paying attention anymore.

Her eyes were on something else. Namely the moon who - despite the fact that the sun was shining - forced himself up into the sky and pushed himself in front of the sun. But it didn't get pitch black as expected. No, instead the world shone with a bright glow. The light of the moon gathered on the steps of the pack house.

Where Alina also stood. Now all sounds of battle were gone. Everyone stared at Alina, who was slowly walking towards us. Her light hair shimmered in a shiny silver and even her eyes seemed to glow from within. Her palms were stretched out as she walked on. One of our opponents broke out of his shock and attacked her.

With a wave of his hand - he didn't even get close to her - he was flung aside. Her entire body shone in the moonlight. Another flick of her hand and my attackers landed hard on the floor. And so it went on and on. The red figures straightened up again, but were now further away from us. They didn't seem daring to attack again.

Not when Alina was there. Finally she stopped in the middle of the clearing and tilted her head back. To the moon. I slowly straightened up and transformed back into my human form. Alina now looked at me for the first time. She waited what I would do next.

ALINA’S VIEW

To be filled with so much power was breathtaking. It felt like a rush. A drug I couldn't get enough of. How easy it was to separate the strangers from the werewolves. It only took one thought. However, I didn't want to kill her either. Even if they had brought so much suffering to this village. I didn't dare look at Jack or anyone else. I didn't want to see them staring at me.

I had lied to them all and now all I could do was hope that they could forgive me. Might even understand me. I noticed a familiar figure out of the corner of my eye. Damian. He came towards me with long strides. Fixed my hair, my eyes, my hands. What was he thinking? Everyone on this battlefield was watching me. Whether injured or not. I felt their eyes. The appraising and surprised. That confused. Damian had reached me. I opened my mouth to say anything but Damian cut me off by kissing me.

He placed his hands on my glowing cheeks and sealed his lips to mine. I returned the kiss, with the same urgency, the same intensity. I buried my fingers in his hair. Kissing Damian wasn't gentle or careful. It was passionate and intense. He had no words for what just happened here. So he conveyed to me what he thought. What he could not express in words. With his mouth moving against mine, his hands gently tilting my head to a different angle.

Then he broke away from me. Damian swallowed hard and then took his hands from my cheeks. Instead, he let her rest in my arms. "What are you?" he whispered. "Who are you?" "Can't you guess that?" I asked. " Ethan and finally Jack bowed their heads so that only I was left. I had never bowed to anyone. Never thought it right or necessary. Most of the time, I'd always been the more powerful. But seeing Alina like this now.

Knowing that she was the moon goddess. I could do it before her. I could do it before her. bow me So I bowed my head too. But two fingers on my chin quickly lifted it back up. Puzzled, I looked at Alina, who had been watching me closely. She stroked my cheek with her index finger. She leaned forward and placed her forehead on mine. "Soulmates," she whispered. "We are equal." Then she smiled. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. She was happy. As if she could finally share a great burden with someone. I didn't think about the secrets and lies she had and probably still had before me. It didn't matter now. We could deal with that later. But now we were here. Enveloped in light, surrounded by werewolves. My soul mate, still smiling happily at me. Then I kissed her again.

~~~

DAMIAN’S VIEW

"I just don't believe it!" Egbert had been raging around the room for ten minutes while the rest of us sat exhausted on the sofas and chairs. Connor lay unconscious in a guest room. His injuries had healed somewhat, but he needed further rest to be fit again soon. Lerhome watched what was happening next to me with alert eyes.

One leg was raised and he was also holding his side cramped. Karl bandaged his own arm. Saphira had gone to the children and took care of them with her son. Egbert hadn't suffered much damage and now spent the time reproaching us - especially me - for knowing about Alina's true identity. Which of course wasn't the case. However, we were all too tired and annoyed to bother with him. Alina went to Amelia and helped Mikael tend to her wounds.

After that she stayed with her. I knew she wanted to be there when the wolf woke up. Niklas was also in the room with us, but his thoughts weren't really here. Perhaps with Amelia, whom he had so valiantly defended to the end. Even after we had carried all the injured people to their homes and cared for them, the boy had looked at her from time to time. He had tried not to make it too obvious. But I noticed it nonetheless. Eventually I felt the same way. Again and again my gaze strayed to Alina, who, after the light had dimmed and the moon had retreated, had fallen powerlessly into my arms.

However, she affirmed that she was fine and that I should kindly take care of my pack. Which of course I did. Together with the still mobile werewolves I had carried the most seriously injured wolves to the pack house where Mikael had tended to them with the help of his mate. The red figures who failed to escape were taken to rooms below the pack house. We would take care of them later. Jack put his hand on my shoulder and pulled me out of my thoughts. He handed me a glass of water, which I gratefully accepted. Then he sank to the floor and leaned his head against a wall. Egbert stood in front of me.

"You knew! And you hid it from me." "As I have said several times: I did not know. It was just as surprising to me that as for you." "You took it pretty well for that, though," the Alpha of the Wester Pack scoffed, no doubt meaning my kiss. I shrugged. "I made the best of the situation. What does it even matter if I knew or not?"

"If you knew, you should have told me," he growled. I rolled my eyes and sat back. I knew as well as I did nobody in this room believed that I didn't know. Even Ethan was unsure. Only Jack seemed to believe me. I doubted myself too. Could I have known? Was there something I missed and could I have deduced? Alina and I both knew we had to talk about it. So far there just hasn't been time for it. Or maybe we just avoided this conversation.

"Why did she wait until the end to save us all in the first place? Maybe she wanted to see us suffer some more. We all saw how quickly she could disable these creatures. Why did she wait so long to do this? Her see it the way I do!" Angry, Egbert addressed the words to all of us. You almost sounded like an accusation.

"Alina must have had her reasons," Jack murmured. He didn't sound very convincing. Karl put his hand on his alpha's shoulder to calm him down. "We don't know what motivated them to make their decisions. And we shouldn't judge them without hearing Alina's point of view." Egbert snorted derisively but dropped into a chair. "The moon goddess," whispered Drokor.

"I still can't believe it." "Who could have thought that she lives among us." Lerhome agreed with Ethan with a nod. "Maybe she just fooled us all to fool us. What if she's not the moon goddess at all? I mean, Alina didn't really act like that the whole time," Benjamin said quietly, harvested for but this thought several times a derogatory snort. "How could this girl have fooled us? Pushed the moon in front of the sun for a moment and then threw a bunch of people through the air without touching... Yes, that really does sound like a cheater to me," said Drokor.

"At all, we are werewolves and we certainly recognize our goddess," Egbert boasted. "Yes, but only after she has revealed herself in her form. Before that you called her a whore." Egbert waved Benjamin's comment aside. "He did, at least until he had to bow his head to her when she told him to stay," Jack said. I agreed. We all remembered that moment. Now it made sense why he had acted the way he did. Somehow everything made more sense now. "We can't talk until she's there anyway. There's no use getting excited now. Alina is the only one who can enlighten us." Karl thoughtfully scratched his chin and looked out the window, where Saphira was just hurrying to a smaller wooden house. " however, any movement would be accompanied by pain.

They would also be over in a few days, but until then their healing processes would still fight off their internal damage. I acted too late. I knew that. I could have used my powers right at the beginning, then none of this would have happened. But how could I have known that the red figures possessed such good weapons against the werewolves? It was an excuse, I knew that too, but I had to face a number of accusations later, including from Egbert and presumably from Damian as well. Until then, I was able to console myself somehow, so that at least I didn't feel quite as guilty.

There was so much to talk about, to clarify. But all that could wait for now, because at that moment Amelia carefully opened her eyes. " I need you to explain a few things to me, Alina. And I'm hoping for a lot of interesting things because I'm feeling really miserable."