To tackle thy battle of the twelfth hour.
These tasks you must complete,
Or else, all will be obsolete.”
Her voice floats away on the breeze as the wind settles and the sun pokes out behind the clouds. Anwen collapses as the tension rushes out of her body, and I easily catch her as she comes to.
Blinking rapidly to clear her eyes, she glances up at me and grabs my face in her palms. “Dear child, I am sorry this has befallen you,” she sobs, while I’m lost trying to figure out the meaning of her prophecy. Who’re the young souls? Are those my men? What did she mean by true evil’s hate? That’s the only thing which seemed to scream it was about me.
“Do you know what it means? Can you give me any guidance?” I plead with her, completely lost.
She slowly shakes her head and releases my cheeks in exchange for my hands once again. “The only thing I can tell you is that you need to get your mates back, or else your defenses will shatter.” Squinting her eyes, they turn opaque once again as her gaze takes in my form for a moment before clearing again and going wide with shock. “It looks as if your defenses have already been weakened by the look of you. But all is not lost, child. Youmustget them back.”
I nod my head, “Yes. Yes, they have. I’m po—” my throat closes once again as I’m silenced from trying to get help. Anwen’s eyes soften as she takes in my defeated form.
“I understand more than you know, my child, but I cannot interfere. There is hope,” she encourages.
My eyes drift closed of their own accord as I silently try to calm my racing heart. Even though I’m friends with the Fates, there is still a lot I don’t know. One thing for sure, though, is that their prophecies are never wrong. I’m not sure what else I need to do, but the most obvious task is finding my men and getting them back!
I feel Anwen release my hands and as I take a deep breath.
“I have faith in you, Lilith. Your task will not be an easy one, and the road will be long. Still, I know you will prevail,” she whispers as her hands run over my closed eyes and down my face to cradle it lightly before pulling away. Opening my eyes to say thank you, I find nothing but the sparse glade in front of me. Disappointment falls over me as I look around, wondering where to go or how to continue. I hear a soft internal chime that signals an incoming message and a note appears out of blue smoke on the rock I’m resting on. Before I reach for it, Anwens’s voice comes to me on a breeze. “Your heart has always been a compass.”
Absently rubbing the ache in my chest, I wonder if she means figuratively or literally. Does she mean my heartache can lead me back to my mates? It’s a possibility, I guess. How would that even work, though? Another ping comes in with another note, pulling me out of my ramblings. Opening both, I read:
I got Adam 2 talk.
-M
U gonna answer? Fine. Last known Loc… Washington State.
-Murmur the badass
Yes! I finally have a starting location, though I’m a little nervous about what truly happened when I was gone. But I’m ready to go find my mates!
CHAPTER11
Bye, Bye, Bye
Jessup
Flipping over onto my side, I let out a sigh and try to relax my muscles for the fifth time tonight. It’s hopeless though. I’ve been tossing and turning since I first laid down an hour ago. I roll onto my other side and let out another sigh. “What’s wrong, Jessie?” Lily mumbles, half asleep as she turns towards me, her brown hair splayed across the pillow.
“Nothing, Lily, just go back to sleep. I’m gonna go for a run,” I grunt out as I get out of bed. I just can’t lay here any longer. Throwing on my sweatpants, I slip out of the bedroom, leaving behind my pregnant girlfriend. Flinching from the slight pinch in my chest, I rub the area thinking of the reason for it. Ever since Lilith denounced me, the pain has been there. Anytime I think of her, or my girlfriend, the pain radiates throughout my chest as a reminder that I’m fucking up.But is it really my fault? She’s the one that left me!
Ever since the fateful night where she left us and tore my heart from my chest, it’s left a pit that just aches and throbs daily—more so when I think of her or someone else besides her. My mate bond is a constant reminder, but what else am I supposed to do when she threw me away like garbage?
I must admit, things didn’t go well after my Timberwolf took over. Normally, when I shift we share the same mind space, but I completely lost control and blacked out. I awoke two weeks later with the guys surrounding my body, covered in blood and mud.
Once they heard I had gone feral from a few Shifters that tried to approach me, they came to my rescue. They managed to corral me and bring me to Earth with them. They decided it would be safer and it was another way to preserve our broken pride within the gossip circle. Who needed to be around peers knowing you’ve been rejected by your mate? Thankfully, Matthew contacted a trusted friend and they created powerful wards to help contain me to the wooded area of the property they bought, and I was able to tear through my rage without killing anyone.
Slipping silently through the house, I walk out to the back porch and find my sneakers on the low bench. Slipping them on, I catch movement in the woods behind our property and my wolf perks up. Sniffing the air, I take in the faint scent of what could only be described as…mate!Lilith?My keen eyesight focuses on the edge of the woods and I listen carefully for any sounds. The nocturnal animals are still moving around and the ambiance of the woods hasn’t changed, so why am I on high alert? I start stretching as I continue to watch the edge of the woods.
There’s no way it could be Lilith. After I shifted back into my human form, we all sat down and talked about our heartbreak over the woman we loved. We all agreed that her leaving us was so unlike her, but how she touched on our insecurities was only a dig that she would do to those in the past. Even with the vicious way of ending things, we still had hope. So, we decided that we would live together so when Lilith pulled her head out of her ass, she didn’t have to track us all down. It stayed like that for a few years until we had enough and we decided to travel the world and go to all the places we knew she wanted to visit. After that turned up with a big fat nothing, we took a portal to Hell to see if there were any hints as to her whereabouts. I know it seems silly, but after our period of mourning and waiting for her, we just wanted that closure before moving on. A decade was nothing to us immortals, so I think we were patient enough.
We searched everywhere for her but it was like she went and disappeared without a trace. L.A.M.B. was nowhere to be seen either. They were probably making their rounds on Earth too, so we couldn’t question them about Lilith’s whereabouts. It never occurred to us that she might not have wanted to be found. Deep down, I was hoping she would just take one look at us and demand to have us back. So after that fiasco, we decided to slowly work our way up to moving on.
The first thing we did was build four separate houses on the land we had bought when my Timberwolf took over, we just bought out the woods that surrounded the area. Then we started going on a few dates here and there over the years until just recently. I say we, but it’s really everyone except Carl. He was adamant that it couldn’t have been Lilith that broke our hearts. To this day, he’s stuck by the memory of her like a faithful little dog. I love the guy, I really do, but for a genius, he really is naive. Lilith didn’t care about ripping out our hearts and sucking the life from them. She got off on that shit.
