99
Lucy
The air went still. It seemed that I had shocked her as the storm cut out and we were dropped back into the clearing. The light in her necklace dimmed as she stared at me. She looked down then met my gaze again.
“It is what your mother wanted for you,” she said.
I flinched at that. Something in the back of my mind screamed.
“It is what you were born to do, Lucy. That may seem hard now, but if you accept it, you will be much happier.”
I thought about the day Matt and Tony had bought me. How I had told myself that I could accept whatever they were going to do to me. How I accepted everything, they’d done to me: the sex, the changes to my hair, the fear that I had tried to ignore, the role that I had tried to make myself be able to do, and the anger in me turned cold.
I narrowed my eyes at her.
“Happy?” I asked. “Did I look happy in that vision?”
“How could you not be happy carrying the child of one of your mates?” She asked. “How could you not be happy in their care?”
“Care?” I asked. “Piercing my ears without asking--”
“To give you gifts—“
“Keeping me from David.”
Her eyes turned cold. “He would interfere with your bond to your alphas. There is already so much interference.”
Her eyes softened. “Go back to them. Accept their care and love.”
“They don’t care about my happiness.”
“You have to first make them happy and accept your place.”
“They don’t care about anything but what they want,” I said. “And I’m done living like that.”
Even now.
Those words haunted me. Even knowing that no one could force me to go back, this fear was haunting me. Their influence on my life was still so large. Would I ever be free of them?
Stacy’s face flashed through my mind. Then, Tina, Duke, and everyone else I had met and who had helped me get away from Tony and Matt.
Then, I saw David’s face and took a deep breath.
“I’m going to be happy,” I said. “And it won’t be with them.”
I turned away from her.
“Don’t do this, Lucy,” she said. Her voice grew loud as the wind picked up. “You’ll only regret it!”
I sat up, gasping for air. My blood ran cold as terror made my heart pound. I looked down and around at the textbooks and all my scattered notes. My heart was pounding. Taking a deep breath, I tried to shake off the dream.
Was that really a dream? A vision? My stomach turned. Whatever that was, I didn’t want it to come true. I licked my lips.
My phone chimed and I grabbed it, opening the screen and answering Duke’s call.
“Hey,” Duke said. “You okay?”
“I’m okay, mostly.” I wiped my face. “Just… a really strange dream.”
“… are you sure it wasn’t a vision?”
“I-I hope not.” I frowned. “We… never got to talk about the magic thing.”
He chuckled. “Yeah. I’m sure we’ll get to it, but I’m calling about something more fun. This weekend, we’re planning to go to the beach. Are you in?”
I frowned. “I’ve never been to the beach.”
He snorted. “Let me rephrase that. We’re going to the beach. You are coming with, and we’re going to bring in David’s 19th birthday with style.”
My jaw dropped. I looked at the calendar. “Oh, my god. It is his birthday! I don’t know what to get him!”
I didn’t even have any money. Could I pull money off my bus card? I winced. It didn’t feel right to try to buy him a present with money he’d given me.
“You in a swimsuit is a good start.” He chuckled. “We’ll figure out the rest.”
I huffed. “That’s not funny.”
“It’s a start. We’ll figure it out and he didn’t mention anything about gifts… To be honest, he’s stupidly wealthy. What are we supposed to get him?”
I frowned. “I… guess that’s true. But… What about where we’re staying? Maybe we can help with that?”
“It’s his property.”
I huffed. “I guess… there’s nothing?”
“We’ll think of something. Don’t worry about it. He says we’ll leave Friday afternoon from the campus.”
“Okay…”I took a deep breath. “Yvonne said that I should try out the beach.”
“Great. I’ll pass the message along. All you need to do is pack some breezy clothes for wandering around a beach side town.”
“What does that mean?”
“Shorts. Tank tops.” He chuckled. “You’ll be in bikinis more often than not if Sarah has anything to say about it.”
I winced. “I don’t know if I want Sarah choosing my swimsuit.”
He laughed. “Amy’s coming, it’ll be okay. She’ll tone her down. Hopefully.”
I laughed. “I hope.”
Duke laughed. “So, you’re in right? I don’t know how long of a drive it’ll be, but it’ll be after your classes.”
I sighed. “Okay.”
“How are you feeling about the course?” He asked. “I think the next step is going to be the department head. There has to be someone up the chain who will get this fixed.”
I took a deep breath and nodded. “I know. I just need some time to think and… figure out how to deal with this.”
He hummed. “I know it’s a lot, but you should know that there’s no way any of us would let them come take you away.”
I swallowed. Then, I paused. “H-How do you know that they would take me away?”
Duke said nothing for a moment. “You’re… Well, Lucy… How do I…”
He sighed heavily. “I think this is a conversation we should have face to face. Are you free tomorrow before classes?”
I hesitated. “Yeah… I’m available.”
“Can we meet at the Coven Campus? It’s safer.”
“Safer?”
“You’re not the only one that’s afraid of being taken back.”
I swallowed and thought back to the dream. “Duke… do you know anything about the Moon Goddess.”
He sighed. “I’ve heard enough about her and… dreamed enough of her to hate the idea of her.”
My stomach lurched. “You… had a dream about her too?”
“Let’s talk about this tomorrow,” Duke said. “I’ll meet you on campus at the coffee shop? We’ll probably both need it.”
“Okay. Tomorrow.”
I hung up and looked around at all my textbooks. There was no way I was going to get to sleep or be able to focus on any of this right now. I pulled out the tablet that Riley had given me for my Supernatural Council education and tried to search for information on the Moon Goddess.
The first record I found seemed to be a general entry about who and what the “Moon Goddess” as she was called among werewolves, was. According to the records, the Moon Goddess was believed to be a witch of extraordinary abilities. Her affinity for magic granted her the ability to shape-shift into a wolf. Some speculated that she was also the creator of the werewolf virus. She became known as the Moon Goddess to werewolves due to being able to control them when they shifted under the full moon.
They said that every time a new Moon Goddess was born, she represented endless danger, assassination, peace and hope.
I frowned at that line. What could that mean? I pulled out another notebook and started to take notes.
My stomach turned. What did control mean? Like she commanded them? I couldn’t find anything on that, but there were a few other sources that said a bunch of other things about what the werewolves were like when she was alive.
The three packs were all one pack at for a while.
“The Crystal Necklace…” I frowned and clicked on the link. It took me to a painting. The woman in the painting was wearing the same necklace as the woman in my dream had been, but she looked nothing like the woman in my dream.
There was a note at the bottom.
“The Crystal Necklace, also known as the Heart of the Moon, was lost during the war that wiped out the White Moon Pack nearly twenty years ago.”
I sat back and zoomed in on the necklace. Then, I thought of Luke and the way he’d tweaked my anchor. The stone in the middle of my anchor looked a lot like the stone in the middle of this crystal necklace…
It also looked like the stone that Jason had used to make me shift.
I didn’t know how long I was up, but when I felt like I had done enough searching about the Moon Goddess, the necklace, and the White Moon Pack, sunlight was coming through my window and my phone chimed.
It was a message from Duke.
Duke: I couldn’t sleep. Meet at campus in an hour?
I jumped up and shoved my notes and things for class in my bag.
Lucy: I’ll be there.
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