Chapter 16: Marked by the Moon Goddess

**Elliot’s Point of view**


I feel torn during Miss Gibson's class. As usual, Blues and Reds are separated and the Silvers are mixing it up with everyone else. And today I'm especially pissed off because Derek is sitting right next to Alice.
During the whole hour, Leo has been growling and imagining himself lacerating his face and I almost let him do it several times.
I see Derek leaning over to her to say something and I close my eyes to contain Leo. I imagine getting up and sending him across the room, screaming that Alice is mine, pressing her body against mine, and sinking my fangs into her beautiful neck to mark her so that everyone knows she belongs to me. Then I imagine myself taking her to the nearest empty room to kiss her, caress her, and ...
"Dude relax! Everyone is looking at you!" Owen whispers to me.
"Don't mess up the furniture!" Simon laughs.
I open my eyes and realize that my claws are out and I've lacerated the tabletop.
"It's not my fault!" I barely say beyond a whisper. There are only werewolves in the room so it's not a big deal if they see my claws but I don't forget that they can hear us if we talk too loud.
"You have to take it easy. If this gets out it will be chaos." Owen resumes. "We can't let anything show." 
"And you play your part very well." Simon says cynically. "I still can't believe you never told us you were gay. We're your friends, damn it!" 
"I'm not gay."
"That's not what the Moon Goddess seems to say." Owen starts to growl and I slap his arm to tell him to stop. 
"She's wrong." He says through his teeth.
"She's never wrong." I say softly. "I already had faith when I realized she destined a Blue for me and I'm even more convinced now."
They both flinch. "Wait. Don't tell me you're claiming her?" Simon asks with a stunned look on his face.
"Yes I am and you also claimed your mates I remind you."
"That was a mistake." Says Simon. "You know how it will end. The few Reds who had a Blue mate rejected him or her and they were right and we need to do the same. They're a threat to us."
"No, we don't. The Moon Goddess bound us all together for a reason."
"Maybe, but I don't care to know why. She never usually gets this involved. Why us? Why now?" Simon asks.
Owen gets angry. "You two are getting on my nerves! We didn't have the answers yesterday and we're no further ahead today. If you ask me, there's no cosmic plan, just two idiots looking for excuses not to reject their mate. The truth is that since you knew them before, you got attached to them. Let's be honest: if you had just run into each other in the hallway yesterday without having seen each other before, you would have rejected them immediately."
He has a point. If I hadn't known Saphira before Alice, I would have rejected her already. 
"Precisely. All three of us have met our mates before. We all have an emotional connection to them, even you Owen." I say. "You've told us a lot about him. We know you like him."
"That was before I knew he was a Blue and he was my mate! It's decided. After class, I'm going to reject him."
Miss Gibson clears her throat. "Elliot, Owen and Simon. Maybe you'd like to share with the class what you are talking about?"
"Excuse us, Miss Gibson." We say. 
"So, I was saying that the King is not chosen randomly. According to the legend, packs were at war with each other for power, territory and resources. There was a lot of death and we needed to be united so the humans wouldn't find out about us. We needed an Alpha who could guide all the packs. An Alpha of Alphas. A King.
Given this need, the Moon Goddess chose an Alpha who had been trying to bring peace from the beginning. Alpha Michael was not very powerful. His pack was not very large and consisted of about fifty wolves. Although he was not powerful, he was respected by the other Alphas for his nobility of spirit. The Moon Goddess marked him as King by placing a crown-shaped spot on his wolf's forehead. Since then, the Prince with a wolf with a crown is named King since he was designated by the Goddess."
"Excuse me miss Gibson but I don't agree." Intervenes a Silver. "The first King may have been chosen but not the following ones. It is always the first Prince who has the crown. It's not a surprise and now it's probably genetics talking, not the Moon Goddess choosing at each generation."
"You may be right. Or not." She says with a smile. "All we know is that sometimes she steps in when our world is in danger and marks those she chooses.
There is the example of the crown for the King but the color of the fur is also important. Concerning the Royal family, the males are golden and the females silver. Sometimes, the King's mate is also marked by the crown and this is not a good sign for us. When the Queen is marked like this, it is a sign of a great threat to the werewolf world and that the King must be stronger than ever."
"What does that have to do with the Queen being marked like that?" A Blue asks.
"In a mate-pair, the more similar their wolves are, such as complementary colors, the stronger their bond is. Again, this is a sign."
"Or maybe it's genetics again." Resumes the Silver from earlier. "Let's take Alpha Alice as an example." All eyes turn to her, and I strongly dislike it. "Alpha females are always bright white and male Alphas are as black as night. If her mate is an Alpha, their color will be complementary. That doesn't mean, however, that the Moon Goddess has marked her and her mate. It's purely genetic."
I don't appreciate his tone and neither do the Blues as they begin to growl dully.
"Calm down. It's a good example but I guess we won't know until she finds her mate, which we all wish you, Alice." Says Miss Gibson looking at Alice, nodding her head. 
She responds the same way, lips pinched and I can tell she is not happy with the Silver's intervention as she glares at him before turning to me.
It's the first time of the day that we look at each other and time seems to stop when I dive into her blue eyes. It lasts, it lasts for a long time, I see slowly the lust embracing her look, I start to be hot. Her smell is intoxicating, Leo becomes hard to control and her eyes turn green as mine turn blue.
I start to get up to join her but Owen and Simon hold me back and I see Sam and Melanie holding Alice too.
I breathe heavily, desire coursing through my veins. I'm going crazy.
I'm vaguely aware of Owen and Simon talking to me softly and fast, but all I hear is electricity ringing in my ears.
I feel my phone vibrate and read with surprise the message that appears.
LAPIS-LAZULI: We need to talk. I think I have some answers. Meet me at the library after closing time. 
Leo is like a madman and jumps into my head. *"Mate wants to see us, mate wants to see us!"*
I smile. Ah, Alice. Like it or not, you are mine.