“I mean…we do.” I pointed out. But we all settled against the wall across from his chair. “Well, we are here. Talk.” Theo glowered at us, but his mouth remained shut. That annoyed me. “Listen. We came here because you told the guard you wanted to talk. So here we are.” I tilted my head. “You pulled us out ofbed. You wanted us here.” I waved my hand, gesturing for him to speak, and still nothing. I groaned. “Talk, or don’t talk. I don’t care. We will get the truth one way or the other.”
Theo’s face tightened. “What do you mean?”
I tsked as I pushed off the wall. I started a slow walk around his chair until I was directly behind him. “Come now, Alpha Theo.” I leaned over his shoulder. “We all know what an Alpha will do to protect their pack.” I stood straight as his breathing picked up. I continued my slow walk back towards the table. “And we all saw what you and your friends did to that poor woman.” Theo jolted.
“You wouldn’t dare.” His voice was barely above a whisper.
“Of course I would.” I grabbed the scalpel I had brought. “I mean, if a man can do it…why can’t I?” I turned with a flourish, waving the scalpel in the air. “Tada!” I smiled as the silver scalpel caught the light.
“No!” he screamed.
But I smiled as I walked back slowly. “Don’t worry. I’ll have to go slower. I’m not a doctor, and I don’t want to just kill you…you understand, right?”
Theo thrashed against the bindings, but he was tied too tightly to the chair to move much. “You can’t do this.” He screamed in the small room.
I just rubbed my ear with my free hand as I walked over. “Sure, I can.” I grabbed the small rolling table from the wall and loaded the tools I wanted. “I will say that you aren’t the first person I have tortured. And sure, I could let Rowan or my father do this…but I mean, it’s the twenty-first century. Equality and everything.” I smiled as I pushed the rolling table close enough for Theo to see.
His eyes never moved from the tools I had next to him. “Please.” The word was a pleading whisper, betraying the fear and sheer cowardice of the wolf in the chair.
“Come now, Alpha.” I dropped to my knees and unlaced the boots he had on. “I expected more.” I looked at Rowan for two reasons. I needed to see how he was dealing with this side of me. But his face was a calm mask. Worry gnawed at me but I pressed on. “How old is Theo here?”
Rowan turned his hard eyes to mine. “At least four hundred.”
I nodded once before turning back to the man trembling under me. “I know it’s been at least a hundred years or more since you have been in charge of a pack. And I know technology and tools have changed a lot in these years, but don’t you worry, I will take the time to introduce you properly to everything.” My voice was so matter of fact my father chuckled.
“Remind me to never get on your bad side.” He crossed his arms as he stared at Theo.
“Yeah.” My mom blew out a breath. “You are kind of terrifying.”
I laughed as I pulled his boots off one at a time. “I am an Alpha.” I shrugged. “But more than that.” I pulled off Theo’s socks. “I am a wolf, and a Lycan. I am someone they hunted down. Killed without mercy. I get to be the last person who gets to stand up for that poor girl on that table.” I felt my forehead burn, and I felt my voice and eyes change.Nix?I called out. But my wolves were silent. I opened my mouth, and a voice I recognized slipped past my lips. “I am the chosen. I am everyone and no one. I am the vessel of the Goddess born unto this world to save all of us.” I looked up, and my white eyes caught my attention in the reflection of the metal leg of the table.
“Please, Goddess.” Theo whispered a silent prayer, and I felt anger that wasn’t mine rage in me.
“Now you pray to me?” I felt my body stand, and somehow a wind picked up in the room, blowing the hair from my face. “You had years to turn back. To come back to my path. And at every turn, you chose wrong. I am not the God of humans that forgivesbetrayal. My child did not die for your sins. When you turn from my path, you lose my favor.” The Goddess loomed over Theo. His eyes were wide, and his breathing was just panting at this point. “How dare you invoke me when you did everything you could to show me exactly who you are. You are a pathetic, power-hungry male.”
“You’re not the Goddess.” Theo shook his head, refusing to believe what he was seeing.
“Why? Because I am angry? Because you believe that as a Goddess I am automatically supposed to forgive you?” Her laugh was dark. “You forget who I am.” The room grew darker as the Goddess sucked the light from the room. “I am the Goddess of the moon, of life and death, of wild creatures.” I heard a few whispers from behind me. “Do natural wolves forgive when you hurt them? No, they kill without mercy and without apology.” She turned to see my family. “You have raised an excellent daughter. One I selected for this very task. I am saying this only because I can feel her worry. Do not condemn her for what she does. I will not condemn her for her actions.” My mom and dad bowed. “She will do whatever she can to save your world. And she is terrified it will cost her everything, and it might. But good people have died for less and Amy understands that.”
Theo thrashed. “You can’t allow her to dissect me!” He screamed, spittle flying, but the Goddess just turned.
“Why not?” She tilted her head and stared down at the man. “Why can’t I?” Theo swallowed. “Do you think I didn’t hear that little girl’s pleas? That I didn’t hear all of their pleas. Because you and I both know she wasn’t the first, nor the last.” The Goddess leaned over his chair, and I felt a burning betrayal. “Do you think I still can’t hear their please? Their prayers to me? That I don’t hear how much they beg every night? Because I do. And I will be fine if I hear your voice join theirs. Because at least I know thata sliver of their suffering was endured by one of the men that caused it.”
Theo stared at her face for a long moment. Then he bared his teeth and tried to lunge at our faces. “You aren’t the Goddess. You are using magic to make me think you are Selene.” He growled low.
The Goddess lifted her hand while a smirk touched her lips. “Why? Because I am not some benevolent god that forgives whatever sins you partake in? I can not be the Goddess because after you turned away from me, I am not forgiving?” She laughed. “I can prove it if you like.”
“Moon Goddess…” My mother breathed out, and the Goddess turned to look at her. “I was always taught you can’t interfere.”
She chuckled again, using my throat. “I can’t but this is a loophole. I am not actually interfering. Amy is doing everything. I just so happen to be here, observing.”
A shadow stepped from the wall and everyone gasped. The woman’s face was hidden, but I still saw the shifting shadow that was her face. “Who the fuck is that?” Theo screamed, panicking at the figure.
“Sister.” I felt the Goddess tense. “Why did you come?” Her voice was cautious.
The Three-faced Goddess stepped closer. “I felt your anger, so I came.” The shrouded woman tilted her head. “What are you doing, sister?”
Selene blew out a breath. “Observing.” The Three-faced Goddess snorted.
