Thank the goddess.
“Wait… Did you say you’re an acolyte?” he asked. “You’re pursuing the werewolf priesthood?” Jason’s face tightened and he realized too late that he was making a face like he’d smelled something bad. Her eyebrows drew together and her gaze dropped to the forest floor.
“Yes,” she said curtly. “If you’ll follow me, the others are this way.” She pointed a hand toward a trail leading into the trees. He followed her, walking side by side on the narrow path in silence. Had he offended her?
“I’m sorry for the reaction,” Jason finally said. “To you being an acolyte. That was rude of me. I haven’t been myself today. This is all… harder than I expected.” Goddess, he wanted to pull the bow at her waist and slip that robe off her shoulders. He furtively watched the silk tug against her nipple as she walked.
“It’s normal to feel some anxiety about your sister getting married. You may have feelings of pressure to marry yourself or fear that you will never find a mate.”
No, Jason thought,neither of thosethings.
“Think of it like this, you’re not losing a sister, you’re gaining a brother,” she continued. “The scrolls say that a wedding of any within the pack is a reminder of our unity as a species. We are stronger when we work as one.”
Her words hit him like a bucket of ice water. “The scrolls?” He laughed cynically.
“You’re not a fan of our holy texts?”
“No offense, but I find it hard to believe that a goddess loved wolves so much that she turned twelve of them into men, only to curse them to return to their true form for three nights a month during the full moon. Oh, and while she was at it, further cursed them with individual vices that rule their lives almost as much as the turning into an animal once a month thing does.” He laughed acerbically. “If there is truly a goddess, she’s a bitch.”
Selene balked, her jaw dropping. “The goddess did not curse us,” she said. “It was a blessing. She allowed us to retain an echo of our animal selves while inheriting a higher consciousness. Unlike our animal ancestors, werewolves have free will—we can choose. Our Primary ancestors were as close to wolves as humans have ever been and powerful enough to birth our entire race.”
Jason snorted. Why were all the beautiful ones crazy? “Or a Homo sapien got it on with a wolf and we evolved. Seems more likely.”
“Why would that be more likely?”
Because I don’t feel like a person with higher consciousness or free will, he thought.I feel like an exhausted werewolf orphan who has to live a lie just to survive.“I just don’t believe the scrolls are anything more than stories. They’re fiction.”
Long tapered fingers landed on Jason’s forearm and he paused to look at her. “It is clear to me you are struggling with a deeply spiritual issue at this moment,” she said. “I will pray for you, Jason Flynn, and light a candle for you in our sanctuary. If you wish to heal this thing within yourself, please come see us. That’s what thePreotkaand her acolytes are for. We help when you can’t figure things out on your own.”
Jason tried to disguise his scowl. It was well known that thePreotkaand her acolytes lived a celibate lifestyle in an effort to enhance their spiritual connection with the next world. Even now, Selene’s expression held not a flicker of cynicism or doubt. She looked at him like he was the only person on this earth and the purpose of her entire existence was to genuinely help him.Fuck. How could he ever accept her help, knowing that if he shared his vice, shared about the things he’d done and wanted to do… he’d be ruining her innocence, tainting the very soul who so generously wanted to help him.
He grazed his bottom lip along his upper teeth. “I don’t think what’s broken inside me can be fixed.”
“PreotkaArtemis says that brokenness is the first step toward transformation. A caterpillar completely takes itself apart in order to become a butterfly.”
“Gotta break a few eggs to make an omelet, eh?”
“She doesn’t mean—”
He held up a hand. “Save your breath. My egg was fried on the sidewalk a long time ago. The only transformation happening here”—he placed a hand on his gut and winked—“is happening to the burger I had for lunch.”
She pressed two fingers to her lips, covering a hint of a smile. They’d arrived at the clearing where Laina, Kyle, and Silas were waiting for him.
“Well, just think about it,” Selene said. “It would be my pleasure to work with you. My door is always open.”
As he watched Selene drift away, Jason wished he could take advantage of her open door, and not in the religious way. The thought confirmed he was a filthy predator. He sighed. Every moment with Selene would be like looking at his dark soul under a magnifying glass. She was pure, unadulterated virtue. A person like that could make anyone feel unworthy.
Selene watchedJason cross to his siblings with mild fascination. It wasn’t every day a person got this close to the royal family. Oh, she’d been in Jason’s presence before at pack events and during the shift, although they’d never been formally introduced. It wasn’t odd for a royal to overlook a simple acolyte. But she’d never fully appreciated the rumors until now. He was strikingly handsome up close; her stomach had done an odd little twist when he’d looked at her. And he was charming. Witty. Someone she imagined one could talk to all day without growing weary. Although she detected a darkness in his soul she wasn’t expecting, a darkness she found more disturbing by the minute.
“What were you talking to Prince Jason about?” Artemis asked, her soft and straightforward smile giving her a younger appearance than her wrinkled skin and gray curls would suggest. She clasped her hands beneath the bell sleeves of her heavy purple robe.
“I sense something is troubling Jason,Preotka. He has a deep unease about him this day. I suggested it was common for a brother to feel anxious over a sibling’s marriage, but his words seemed to indicate the problem goes deeper.” She shook her head.
“And his aura?” Artemis was testing her. Aura reading wasPreotkamagic, something Selene was learning but hadn’t fully mastered, like everything else in her chosen vocation.
“Muddy, with a green center. Much darker than it should be.” She tangled her fingers beneath the sleeves of her robe, nervous about the accuracy of her reading.
“I fear you are correct, sister. Are you aware of Jason’s vice?”
