by E. M. Moore
“Shane! Mekhi! Riah!” I screamed over and over not finding them anywhere until my voice started to go hoarse. Panic was officially setting in and I could feel the adrenaline flood my system.
I ran back over to the altar and laid my hand down on top of it, but nothing happened. I tried it again and again, before finally just hitting it with my hands.Where the fuck were they? I continued to scream for them as I walked around the room looking for any other possible hidden nooks or crannies.
“Anika!” I heard faintly as I passed by the tunnel that I had just come from. I stopped everything, and even held my breath to make sure it wasn’t just a figment of my imagination.
“Anika!” they called to me once more. The relief I felt was instant, but something about the way they yelled for me set me on edge.
I took off running as fast as I could. There was no stopping the full blown panic I had found myself in. I didn’t know if it was just the mate bond or what. But my heart and brain were in complete and utter disarray. I ran back down never looking for anything that could harm me in the process.
I finally made it back down to where the tunnels had forked. Screaming once more for them, I waited to see if I could hear them call back out for me again.
“Anika!” I heard more clearly from the tunnel I hadn’t taken. Oh thank god! I couldn't lose them. Even Riah.
It took everything I had in me not to take off running down it to find them. I laid my hands on my knees and bent over trying to not only catch my breath, but calm myself down. This place was too dangerous to not pay attention to.
Getting myself under control, I headed down the other tunnel. Once more unsure of what I would find at the end of it.
Chapter Twenty-Three
After regaining my composure, I made my way back down the tunnel I’d decided against. I shouted once, “I found you. I’m coming!”, hoping I wasn’t lying. Their voices sounded as if they were coming from this way, but I actually had no idea. I hoped I wasn’t wrong.
The tunnel went on forever. It was dank and almost all black. If I wasn’t feeling the walls with my hands, I wouldn’t have anything to go by. Finally, a gleam of gold lit in the distance. I heard the murmurs of male voices. My heart soared. It was my mates.
I quickened the pace and soon practically fell out of the mouth of the cave and into the most glorious room I’d ever seen. I gasped, dragging in a breath.
Shane was right there in an instant. “I’m so sorry, Anika. I tried to follow you.”
I pulled him in for a hug. His body was strung up tight, but I ran my hands up and down his back until he relaxed, all the while taking in the scene in front of me.
Riah and Mekhi crowded around next. As soon as Shane let me go, Mekhi was right there. He pulled me in hungrily, sealing his lips to mine. I closed my eyes, completely caught up in the moment. My skin burned as he knew just the right places to nip and tease.
Before long, Riah cleared his throat. Mekhi didn’t bother with the warning. He finished kissing me on his own terms, slower and slower, until he kissed the corner of my mouth. I wavered on my feet until Shane’s hand came around my middle.
“There,” Mekhi said. “That was a proper goodbye.”
Um, he wasn’t kidding. I was glad he didn’t do that to me on the beams though. It was likely I would’ve lost my balance and fell into the lava. Though, my skin was scorched as if I’d done just that.
Riah moved forward, his gaze looking me up and down. He frowned at the blood spots on my knees. I shrugged. “Trap door, then a slide down into the place where I found this.”
I pulled the moonstone from my pocket. The light in the room we were in changed. It grew brighter and brighter as if the room knew the moonstone was in here.
I looked past my guys, not helping the smile that came to my face. A stream of water surrounded a gold casket. Not like a casket you see nowadays, but one that was made entirely out of gold and gleamed as if it had its own sun. Two statues mounted on either side were in the shape of panther heads, their eyes black jewels that flickered in the light.
Around the base of the gold coffin grew the brightest green grass I’d ever seen. Flowers sprang up from the blades in the prettiest meadow I’d ever seen. To see it in an underground cavern was a wonder. This place must’ve been filled with the magic of the gods. I didn’t even have to look at the black panther that lay atop the golden coffin to realize that.
Noticing where I’d finally laid my eyes, Shane nodded. “That’s her, Artemis, Goddess of Wild Animals.”
“She’s beautiful,” I murmured.
“That she is,” Shane said.
“Beautifully terrifying,” Mekhi said, partly agreeing.
I chanced a glance at Riah. His face was in awe as he looked over at the animal. His whole body shook, his knees practically knocking together as if it took everything in him to stay on two legs.
“He can’t help it,” Shane said. I looked up at him. He was staring at Riah. “It’s her pull over him. Everything in him is telling him to bow to her.”
“I can fight it,” he gritted out. “It’s just harder when I look at her.”
I went over to take his his hand. His palm was clammy. He looked down at me, eyes blinking. He stopped trembling immediately. His eyes smiled. “Thank you.”
“She’s still powerful,” Shane said in amazement. “So powerful even though she’s slumbered for hundreds of years.”
“Let’s not forget that she’s tried to kill my kind,” I said, hating that I felt the same way he did. Looking at her sleeping panther form almost hurt.
“And others,” Mekhi quickly added. “When the shifters she’d made didn’t want to kill your kind, she slaughtered us too. It’s amazing any of us are left.”
“We can thank the elders for that,” Shane said.
I took a deep breath. I knew what I had to do, though approaching the sleeping panther form was not at the top of my to-do list. “What do you think will happen when I do it?”
“Hopefully nothing,” Shane said. “If we place the moonstone on her head, it’s supposed to keep her sleeping for another few centuries. More peace to the shifter realm. Your people will come out of hiding…”
I clenched my jaw. Yes, that was why I was doing this. More than anything, I wanted to meet my people. Sure, helping to save the other animals from Mother Panther was a nice bonus, but I wanted to finally see others like me.
Flanked by my guys, I moved forward. Riah’s knees gave out, but he righted himself right away. I squeezed his hand. “You don’t have to come all the way up,” I told him. “Just stay back here.”
The fact that he was even trying to put Mother Panther to sleep with the rest of us was quite an accomplishment. He was going against his very nature.
“I can do it,” he said, growling the words out.
I didn’t take offense to it. I understood that he wanted to do this for me as much as for himself. Maybe hearing the owl’s stories about how awful Mother Panther was had changed his mind. Maybe he’d realized he was on the wrong side of the fight. Tracking and killing shifters was never okay.
I squeezed his hand, hoping I could help be a foundation he needed as he made these difficult steps toward Artemis, the sleeping Panther.
The pressure in the room built. Goosebumps spread over my body the closer we got. It was as if I could feel the magic wafting off her, blasting me. Soon, my steps became labored, too, as if I was walking through quicksand.
“Even while she sleeps, she’s trying to stop us.”
“You think she knows we’re here?” I asked Shane.
“I wouldn’t be surprised. Artemis is an all-powerful one. I am sure while she slept that her powers have risen, just waiting until she wakes.”
Wonderful.
My heart clenched as I moved closer. Voices in my head told me to turn around, but I fought through it. I pictured the place Shane lived in my head. It was the most peaceful place I’d ever seen. Not magically induced like the serenit
y in this cavern, it was truly a respite. After I found my people, I wanted to move there. I wanted that life in Shane’s house. Maybe we could add onto it, making the bedroom bigger to accommodate all four of us.
Riah squeezed my hand. I opened my eyes to realize I’d made it all the way to the gold coffin. Riah was a step behind, his face straining. A quick peek to my right told me that Mekhi and Shane were also having a difficult time.
It didn’t matter. I could do this.
I stepped up on a gold ledge, bringing me eye to eye with the black panther. Her rib cage raised and lowered with even breaths. I looked over the silky hair, practically dazzling in the magical light. She was a beautiful creature.
Her legs twitched and her eyes fluttered as I approached her head. She was a beauty, and I hoped I never had to be this close again. I raised the purple moonstone, my arm fighting me the entire time. It moved by inches until I was finally close enough to touch.
I took a deep breath and bam, pressed the moonstone to the panther’s head. She jerked, and I nearly fell backward, but Mekhi was right there, his hands on my hips holding me steady.
In my head, I pictured Artemis sleeping for another millennia. I wanted her shifters and Actaeon’s Morphlings to live in peace.
A shockwave went through the room. I flew through the air, Mekhi’s hands no longer there to steady me. I fell backward and landed in a heap next to the tiny stream.
I stayed there for a long while, trying to tell myself to breathe. When I finally did, I gulped in air as if I was drowning. The ceiling seemed to fall over top of us, but when I looked around, I realized that wasn’t what was happening. The stream had risen, turning into a rushing river. The river’s current carried me away.
I searched frantically for my mates and found them. They, too, were flat on their backs, staring up at the ceiling as if paralyzed. We rushed from the room into a tiny cave. If I could move my hand, I could’ve felt the top of the ceiling. My nose was mere inches from the dark rock.
All of a sudden, a light appeared, making the water around us sparkle like crystals. Then, the bottom dropped out. I fell through the air, the water soaking me. My arms flailed to the sides. Below us was a large, sparkling lake.
I hit it feet first, plunging into the cold water until it took my breath away. I kicked and kicked, carrying myself up to try to break the surface. When I finally reached it, I dragged in a breath. Staring upward, I saw the rush of water we’d come out in dry up, and the wall in the mountain close up.
We were back outside. In Roanoke, at the base of the mountain.
And we’d just put Mother Panther to sleep.
An excited cry split the air. I looked over to find Mekhi, looking like a drowned rat, swim toward me. “We did it!”
A smile split my lips apart. I felt my insides break, as if everything I’d been trying to hold together throughout this journey just gave away. We’d actually done it. We’d made sure the Panther wasn’t going to bother us again.
Well, at least for another few hundred years.
Shane pulled himself to the shore, running toward the area I was headed toward. He was beaming. A sense of calmness stole over me. He pulled me up and right into his arms. “I knew you could do it,” he whispered.
I squeezed him back then spun around, looking for Riah. He was down the rocky shore a ways, his head bent over his knees. His long hair was soaked, plastered to his head.
I pulled away from Shane. “Riah?”
He held up his hand. “I’m fine. Just give me a minute.”
By that time, Mekhi was running up the beach toward us. He didn’t just hug me like Shane had. Nope. Once again, he pulled me into his arms and kissed me hard, as if he wanted to possess me.
I felt the same way. In fact, everything I’d been trying to deny rushing through me was breaking to the surface. I had mates now. I had a chance at a real life. As Mekhi kissed me, I reached behind and pulled Shane toward us. His hands came around my body until I was sandwiched between them.
I felt Riah approach before he touched me physically. His hands came to my shoulders and he kneaded me there.
We were together. All of us. And we would be for a long time.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“So what are we going to do now?” I asked breaking the silence in the van on the way back to the owls. I couldn’t keep a smile off my face. We’d won. A part of me couldn’t believe it.
“Now we go and live our life. What are your plans Anika?” Shane grabbed my hand in his, squeezing it before letting go.
“I wanna go back to Shane’s. Make the bedroom bigger and get to know my mates better. Maybe throw in a happily ever after as well.” I giggled out at them. I may have been laughing, but that really did sound like an amazing plan.
“Sounds perfect to me,” Mekhi replied, leaning up to kiss my cheek from the back seat, “What about you, Riah?”
“I go where Anika goes, but I can’t lie, that does sound like a good plan to me.” His words shocked me a bit, but going in the temple had changed not only him but the way I thought about him too.
I couldn’t help the little feeling that I had that kept telling me it wasn’t going to last. I had to push that aside though. We had done something amazing, and I wasn’t going to let my self doubt get in the way of that.
Most of the ride passed in a comfortable silence. All of us lost in our own thoughts about how we were going to get our lives set up.
The moon had just risen by the time we made it back to the dirt road that led back to Shane’s compound. We started down it when we heard something that left me cold. A howl.
My heart pounded. “Will they keep looking for me even though we won?” I asked while my breathing picked up. I couldn’t help but be terrified. I’d been running from them my whole adult life.
“They should have stopped,” Riah growled, looking into the woods as we went. He rolled down the window and all three men stilled. Even Shane who was driving.
Before I knew it, I was slung back into my seat as Shane hit the gas and we sped up.
“What’s wrong?” I looked around frantically hoping one of them would tell me what was going on. Judging by their expressions, I knew something had gone terribly wrong.
“I smell wolves, another animal, and lots of blood,” Riah whispered before spearing me with a glance that told me all I needed to know. The wolves had broken the owl barrier.
“We are almost to the compound. When we get there, stay with one of us. Please.” Shane squeezed my hand. As if I would be leaving my mates. I may be a bit special sometimes, but I definitely wasn’t stupid. My daggers would only get me so far.
“I will. Promise.” You could see the tension lower at just those words. If I had had a choice, I wouldn’t have gone off on my own in the temple. I was going to be stuck to one of them like glue.
“Get your daggers ready.” Mekhi pulled out a wicked silver sword and two small katana’s that he passed up to the middle console.
The van came to a stop, and my heart stuttered along with it. As soon as I opened the door, the metallic stench of blood slapped me in the face. The men flanked me, Riah and Shane at my sides with Mekhi pulling up the rear.
I tried my best not to make noise as I crept closer and closer to the compound. The smell of blood got thicker the closer we got. My stomach clenched at the metallic smell, but I just had to try to keep it together.
We were about five minutes away when we saw our first body.
I couldn’t hold down my breakfast any longer after that. The person was in pieces. So badly mauled it was impossible to tell whether it was a man or a woman. Now wonder why the smell of blood was so potent.
Continuing on our path, we saw multiple people scattered across the grass. Each time I saw another, my anger grew. By the time we made it to the huts I was furious, and my heart was broken.
It looked as though no one had been spared. They’d killed them all.
Shane took off and headed into the huts search
ing for people.
A rustle in the woods sounded to our right just as a giant panther jumped out. Landing in front of us, it hissed, its muzzle pulling back to reveal gleaming sharp white teeth. In the center of its forehead was a white crescent symbol. My world crashed around me. The crescent moonstone hadn’t stopped the panthers.
Another hiss from behind us clued me into the fact that there were now two of them circling us. I had no idea if silver would hurt them like it did wolves, but I knew the blades would cut, and if it bleeds, it can die.
“Shane!” I yelled as they poised for an attack. Not to bring him over, but to give him a heads up that we were not alone.
Riah immediately transformed into a wolf, distracting one of them. They started circling one another, snarling and nipping when the other got too close.
Mekhi swung his sword at the paws that clawed at him. I looked for an opening so I could help. Then, another hiss rang through the darkness. Fuck, I’d let one sneak up on me.
Turning, I lashed out with both daggers. The left one missed completely, but the right sheared the panther’s side. Hissing again, it slapped at me with its paw. It took all the strength I had to block it with the bladed edge of the daggers and throw it to the side. It hit the grass and rolled, but immediately jumped back to its feet, bearing its teeth at me again. Its yellow eyes gleamed at me through the waning light, sending a shiver down my spine.
The only panther I’d seen before was Artemis, but these ones trying to take us out weren’t her. They looked like her, complete with the moonstone shaped mark on their forehead, but these looked younger.
The one eyed me again, preparing to spring. It haunched, then ran forward, jumping in the air and aiming right at my neck. I dropped to the ground and rolled away. My heart was in my throat, as I’d just barely avoided the creature’s sharp teeth. I spun and scrambled to all fours. The panther was already making another attack.
