The Moon Goddess' Chosen

406 Birth of the Rogue King

Rana gasped out of his unconscious state, his mind a muddled mess he could barely unravel. The beta alpha couldn’t remember much after he’d been ordered to...

*Thrum thrum...* went the throbbing headache that dulled all his other senses with a ferocious vengeance. His memories were once more... blended into a dizzying mess. The beta alpha clutched his head in pain, dismissing the slippery sensation of his hands sliding against his skin. Somehow, the sensation was... expected.

When he tried to remember the little human brother he had growing up, he would get confused when that little brother’s face suddenly glitched and was replaced with that of a young Hamedale before glitching back.

Rana shook off the confusion, trying some other way to find his bearings. This time, the smell of blood hit his nose like a drug. His eyes finally shot open and he forced himself to sit up.

Suddenly, he noticed his hands were coated in the same warm crimson liquid. His clothes were stained in it as well. Strength beyond what he knew to be his limits surged through him.

Staring at his bloodied hands, the beta alpha noticed he was smaller than before but far deadlier. A pigeon’s wings fluttered as it took flight from its nest, the sound of its cooing tore at the man’s ears, bringing with it, the sounds of the entire forest’s wildlife... like a loud battle cry for survival.

He battled the overwhelming senses for a moment, instinctively going through the training he’d had as a young wolf. The prince had personally taken it upon himself to teach all there was about control and these lessons were engraved into the alpha’s memory.

When the loud cries of the wild had finally died and only the smell of blood remained, fear began to claw at him again.

Rana followed the trail of blood to a bloodied corpse by the river. Dread settled in, and the alpha unconsciously took a step back.

.....

‘No, confirm the kill,’ a voice ordered him, freezing him to the spot. His legs felt weak against the commanding voice despite his newfound strength.

Just like it had been before he had gone unconscious, he was compelled to move forward. Lying by the Great River’s shore was the mauled corpse of Cirrus Lycaon.

Disgusted by what he saw, Rana rushed into the water and started washing his face.

A wave of nausea washed over him quickly followed by his wrenching gut forcing everything in his stomach out. The sight made him sick to the stomach even though the river rushed it away.

Rana washed his face more times than he cared to count. He wished the water could wash away the cruel reality that had come to pass, but nothing vanished. If anything, now he remembered it all... All of what he had done before passing out.

As he was frantically trying to get rid of the blood on his hands, face and hair, he froze suddenly when he noticed something in the water. The beta alpha stood frozen there for a long time, holding in his breath at the sight of his face in the water.

The rushing water didn’t show his face clearly, but he didn’t need that much of a clear picture to see what had him frozen in place.

Instead of the crimson orbs that always stared at him when he looked at his reflection, sapphire blue eyes stared back at him in the water. The increased senses... the increased strength and change in physique... It all made sense to him now... or did it.

His mind rang with memories of a life that wasn’t his along with urges and ambitions he had no clue about... at first.

With time, the memories would make a decent enough order for him to understand where his ambitions came from even though they weren’t his at all.

Humans were the one thing he wanted to wipe off the face of the earth while at the same time, his original personality was repulsed by the thought of genocide.

An ethereal voice echoed through his head, “You won’t do any of the things he wants you to do.” The feminine voice ordered him.

A will other than his own gripped him, forcing words in response, “You cannot control me, goddess. I am not part of the lineage of Sirius or Lycaon. The power I have now is out of your control.”

The ethereal being was shocked by the sudden response... and so was Katie... the images before her receded and were replaced with darkness. Katie felt like she was floating in a space with no gravity.

Unlike the beta alpha who had gone unconscious and woken up unconscious, the Luna had watched it all. Katie and Ashley had watched in horror as the starry crimson-eyed wolf had torn apart his master with no restraint.

The scenes were gruesome and yet the two had been glued to the scene, watching Cirrus’s orders being carried out. The prince hadn’t even resisted as his body was being mauled. The memories made the Luna sick to her stomach.

Finally shaking the thoughts, she tried to get her bearings in the endless black void that her consciousness now floated in aimlessly, neither drifting nor remaining still. It was a perturbing existence that she wished would come to an end.

She could not tell up from down, there was no ceiling or floor, just darkness that stretched out for miles in all directions. In the dark, a soft glow began to emerge before her.

Willing herself towards it, she found that she could move simply by wanting to move. In no time, the light grew until she could tell what it was.

The moon was looming over her or was it below her, the Luna could not tell. Her speed slowed down and soon enough she made it to the surface.

Her body was nearly weightless on the extensive body she stood on. She looked about in all directions, astonished by the grey land she had landed on. It seemed no life flourished on the giant body.

‘I wonder how it’s glowing,’ she wondered, squatting to pick some of the grey dust that lay on the moon’s surface. It never even occurred to her how she was breathing in the first place.

“You’ve seen it all now,” a beautiful voice started her. The girl turned abruptly and nearly tripped in an attempt to put some distance between her and the goddess that had just appeared out of nothingness.

“Yes, I have and I have also seen that this is partly your fault,” the girl argued.

“You dare...”

“Oh, don’t start with me. Cirrus could have been with Jane. You, out of all people, saw what happened when you met Seth. He changed your opinion of humans and showed you what love is like. Why then would you deny Cirrus a chance at redemption?” Katie argued.

“I didn’t... Jane wouldn’t let me reunite them. We cannot interfere with humans directly. We cannot influence their fate or change the way it was written. It’s complicated, and honestly not my idea.

Even then though, I didn’t give up. I chose another mate for him, but the prince made his choice. Cirrus made his choice and thwarted any other attempts I made at redeeming him.

He wouldn’t let go of his anger and in the end, it is what led him to do what he did to Rana,” the goddess explained.

“Why did you show me all of that if you’re not going to admit it was your mistake all along?” Katie argued.

“Did I create werewolves? Yes, I did. Did I order them to stop the genocide? Yes, I did. Did I tell them to enslave females and force them to give birth to armies? No, Katie.

It was never my intention to enslave the creatures I created and force them to give birth to more that would bring the end of humanity. I never once asked Cirrus to do all that,” the goddess fumed, “If that had been the case, then I would be able to reverse it directly.”

Katie sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose, “You have a mountain of issues.”

‘The two of you are like mirror images to me...’ Ashley snorted.

Katie and Celeste paused at the sudden intervention. It took a moment to sink in, but when it did, the two of them were laughing uncontrollably on the desolate moon’s surface.

The goddess’s melodic laugh rang through the moon’s surface, soothing the fatigue the Luna didn’t know she had. When Celeste stopped laughing, she finally replied, “Yes, Katie, that I do.”